This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
Yeah, we're starting right now. Haman? Brendan? Yosef? And traditionally, anyone want to swap the seats and do the spiel, do the introduction? Cliff, would you take a challenge? Not today? Not today, Rose, will you? Anyone? Dino? Why not? Same? Brandon? No? Okay. So, G, Jalen? No, I'm joking, Jane. I'm being busy. Okay, so very simple. It can be quite simple and soothing in a way of exploring the consciousness, which is directly experienced by everyone. No one can deny that they are conscious right now. They are present, they are aware, they are unconscious. So that... Consciousness is right here, right now. And whatever is appearing is appearing in that presence of consciousness.
That's the experience, isn't it?You know, you're conscious of that room. It appears in the consciousness. You're conscious of having the body-mind vehicle there. So it appears in the consciousness. The sounds that are far away, they also appear in consciousness. We might have a concept that science can tell you that no, they appear in the brain because of something or images. They also don't leave the eyes or the brain. They project it. But in the direct experience without much thinking, there is a presence of consciousness and there is an appearance of whatever is appearing. The seeing, the hearing, the tasting, the touching, the smelling. It's all happening in that consciousness.
And now what also appears in consciousness is the narrative, is the thinking mind which translates everything to, oh no, it doesn't appear in consciousness, it appears to me. And that me is a tiny little, maybe a little dwarf or some little entity, maybe invisible, maybe this size or this size, maybe in the head, maybe in the heart. People have different concepts of what that is. It may be called ego or it may be called soul or small self or medium self or something. All sorts of ridiculous ideas are showing up in the thinking, which are also in consciousness. In consciousness, there arises this room. And in consciousness, there arises the idea that there is a little...self there somewhere that is seeing that room so when that thought arises suddenly everything gets related to that to that idea so basically there is a hallucination of a little someone that is receiving the information and experiencing the experiences and thinking thoughts and hearing sounds and seeing things seeing things literally So when we try and look, try to locate that alleged someone who is experiencing the experiences, we kind of focus within and try to locate where is, for example, seeing happening from.
Where is the, who is seeing? Is there any little eye, little self that is actually actively doing the seeing? For example, looking from left to the right or looking at anything. Is there anybody doing it? Is there any entity doing it? Can we actually sense that entity? Can we sense there is someone perhaps behind the eyes or someone in the body? Is there a sensation? Or is the seeing just appearing out of nowhere, just right here? And there's nothing behind that screen of seeing. There is no... Think to be sensed behindthe eyes what's the experience because we don't really have any ready answers to believe to change one belief into another like there is a little self there is no little self whatever it doesn't do the justice it has to be really experienced so is there anyone experiencing The seeing or the seeing is just what arises in consciousness.
Same with thinking. Is there anyone manufacturing a thought? Do you know what you're going to be manufacturing in two minutes? Do you know what thought you're going to be thinking? And then how would you even think the thought if there is anyone there to do it? And then you will see that the same way as the room arises in the consciousness, and when you woke up in the morning, this room wasn't there. Nobody was sleeping here as far as I know. Some other room perhaps was arising in consciousness. And. In the same way the thoughts are arising in consciousness. In the same way the sounds.
Hello.The sounds are arising in consciousness. And then again, you know, you're not manufacturing the sounds of the passing traffic. You may imagine that you are manufacturing the sound of the dialogue inside your head or monologue inside the head or the commentary or judgment. But even if that was the case, how would you even do that? You may actually see that the same way as you discover the appearance of the thought, the appearance of a sound, the appearance of the room, the same way you discover the narrative relating it to the alleged entity, to the alleged self. It is the same mechanism behind it. That's the way the whole dreaming is happening.
There is a presence of consciousness which you can't deny, which is, even if you try to imagine not to experience the existence of consciousness or existence as it is, just being. You would still have to be to even imagine it. So it is prior to anything and everything. It is experienced directly, the presence of awareness, the being, the consciousness. And within that, there is a dreaming happening. In the morning when you woke up, there was a different dream, there was a different room, perhaps different people around, maybe no people, maybe pet. Right now, there is again a different surroundings happening, different sounds.happening in that in that dreaming consciousness when you were sleeping before you wake up there might have been yet another world another dream experienced arising in consciousness when you think about what you're going to be doing tomorrow you may even close your eyes and imagine who you're going to meet or where you're going to go what you're going to do and that is another dream arising in the consciousness All those different dreams are arising, but the consciousness is the same.
The consciousness feels like me, like this is I, this is who I am. But it doesn't feel like I am little or I am located in the head or in the heart or anywhere. It just feels like pure existence. What is added upon that pure existence are arising mental images. I am in the body. This is where I am. I am the consciousness located in the body. And now, because I can't experience my head, I can experience the sensation, maybe this one is a little tight, maybe I can experience that. But I can't experience the head, this is just a sensation. So the mind is bringing the image of the head.
So the experience of the body is basically mental projection. Sensation is experienced in a consciousness, tightness of the headband or whatever. So this one is experienced. Even the incentive to putit back on it's arising in a consciousness just like everything else is arising in a consciousness and the incentive is an experience it arises of its own and it perpetuates itself even this if there is a charge behind it if there is an energy that perpetuates it It's like you see the energy in action when you have to run away from danger, when you are really passionate about something. There is an idea arising and there is a passion in it.
The energy is in the idea. And there may be another idea that doesn't really cause the same activity. And you can't choose one over another unless there is an idea. Which brings about an illusion of choice and that's energized that's how the whole beautiful dream of being a person having a free will having a capacity to decide to choose to be responsible for themselves in the same way that beautiful dream arises in a consciousness Yeah, Dean has checked on it. Thank you. What are you doing? I'm busy. Yeah, we have sometimes some issue with the sound. Sometimes all those devices don't quite work well. So initially we always look for complaints.
Yes, yeah. It's nice to have a double check. Thank you. Yeah, so that's actually to see how...how the whole incredible experience of aliveness of that very very colorful dream comes into existence reached in all that sensations and projections and images and tastes and sounds and and and everything is just it's just delightful because from from the perspective of that openness open curious attention open aliveness you view every scene as wow as a miracle of existence every fresh and new every now has never ever been like this again before and it's never ever going to be like this again so having that open curious awareness ready to receive whatever the dream is going to provide whatever the projection is going to be even if that's an uncomfortable taste on your tongue or the pain or the itch or even if that's a very very dramatic story going on of what happened not right now It's always about what happened, not right now.
See how the dream within the dream is constructed. What happened to my mother? Where is she now? What is happening to her right now?No, no, let's not go there. Let's go to the past. Let's build up beautiful contexts. Let's make a story of suffering, a story of a hero's journey, story of transformation. How exquisite. How beautiful. But when you see it for what it is, you can fully appreciate the incredible creative capacity of that life essence or that consciousness with its dreaming capacity, its expression that comes through all the channels, through seeing, hearing, tasting, touching. And dreaming, which is thinking, imagining, dreaming at night, dreaming during the day, daydreaming, imagining, thinking, bringing the context, remembering the stories, regurgitating the memories, all that beautiful capacities to be experienced.
Now, if they are experienced by me, then of course, straight away, they're not beautiful. Those I like, those I don't like. Those are evil, those are good, according to me. These people love me, so I approve of them. These don't, so I don't approve of them. And then comes the self-obsession that comes to me, the me that is rigid, the me that only wants and desires and pushes for and controls and manipulates and suffers. And that me, where is it? What is it? That is the dream.in which the thought got that life essence perpetuating through it and the illusion of a self with the illusion of free will illusion of separation and illusion of control is being dreamt in the same consciousness So it is just another dream.
If you can see that the dream of being separate, isolated, poor, miserable little me that is unhappy, that is suffering, that is not approved, that hasn't been loved, that had this trauma, that abuse, is just another dream. And see that you are the consciousness in which that poor little miserable me is just another dream. What a dream is that? And you can see every life story why we love the dramatic, beautiful, rich movies. To see the dramas other people went through, to see the richness of heartbreaks and heartaches, the poetry, the tragedy, the comedy, all of it. There is that incredible intensity of that reflection, of that creative power.
And we can empathize and we can experience, we can touch upon everyone's life. And we love it because it makes our own amongst them equally beautiful and less personal. When you go to the cinema, you want to forget.forget that you are poor miserable little me and be completely swayed and taken for the ride when you listen to an exquisite music you again want to forget that you are this little and you have this many problems you know just float away from that ordeal of separation and isolation. So seeing dreams of other people, life stories of other people, dramas of other people, transformations, hopes, their growth,is somehow validating and lightening this life story of this alleged character, this little me.
But if you could see that story in the same way you see the movie on Netflix, How light would that be? How uninvolving in a way, impersonal, how beautiful. You can see the beauty in other people. You can support your friends. But when it comes to yourself, oh, you bitch, I hate you. I hate myself. I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be thinking that. I have too low of a standards. All that horrible narrative of that inner judgment that comes up and never ever rise to its own standards. All that ordeal, that self-torture. Everyone may have a horrible, nasty conceptual image about yourself, but never as bad as your own.
Everyone can beat you and punish you in a way verbally or or any other way but but the fantastic ideas that we have to this I don't even know how to, actually, I don't even remember how it feels anymore. This is the offering. You may hear that voice of self-rejection.and self-humiliation and self-shaming and just laugh. What a ridiculous idea. What a ridiculous idea that there is someone there who is not good enough as it is. Not only if there was someone there, it would be absolutely perfect as everything is a pure reflection of that absolute of godliness. So by its very nature, it's an extension of that godliness.
So it is perfect. But the news is even better. There isn't anyone there to be perfect or imperfect, good or bad. It is only the life, only the essence, only the godliness. There is no one that can be found. You can only imagine it. You can believe it. You can imagine there are angels and devils and you will experience them. You can imagine that they are reptilians and play, play, Cassiopeians, whatever. And you will experience them. You can imagine, I mean, again, it's not you imagining, it's a collective story that is fueled by that life essence. Hi, Tony. Good to see you. So that energy, because there is, when we say you, the conundrum of non-duality comes up with the language.
Suddenly, everything that...is pointed using words is self-contradictory because words are designed to isolate and point objects in consciousness to isolate to separate when i point at this i'm separating it from the background of it so when i say i the i is something that is separated and sometimes this i get contextualized as the body mind machine the consciousness wearing the costume or driving that particular car and then that consciousness that one life appearing through that particular body will have that particular sound of the voice will have that particular preference for focusing on this color or that object or or valuing this way of dealing or with world or having relationships with people or works or finance or whatever this is already this car this costume is already preconditioned by the past dream so in in the dreaming so the consciousness is expressing consciousness as the pure pure potentiality the unified field of pure potentiality.
It dreams itself that vehicle and it transforms that potential energy into the seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and thinking. So suddenly now the pure potentiality is this. Wow, seeing. Wow, it can see now. It can hear, it can taste.It can touch, it can tell the story. It can even make itself believe to have a little self or ego or soul or whatever you call it and relate everything. Now the story is narrated from the vantage point, from the reference point that can't be found, but it can be imagined. And when it's imagined and when it is believed, it feels real. So everyone that I speak with, and I have quite a few throughout the week, individual meetings also of people who can't be here, and they say, but it still feels that the me, the me is there, there is a sense of me there.
Okay, so... What do you mean the sense of me? There is a sense of existence, right? There is a sense of presence, that there is a consciousness present, there is an aliveness. You know that you are not dead, you are not unconscious. Yes. So does that have any boundaries in itself? Oh, it feels like it is in the body. No, it doesn't. Like it is in the body is not a feeling. This is not a feeling. This is a mental image. This is a thought. So if you take that thought away, does it have any feeling? Does it have a feeling of warmth maybe or cold or tingling or itching or any feeling?
Oh yeah, there is a vibration. Okay, so the vibration.is appearing in consciousness, does it come with the mental image? Oh yeah, it feels like it's in my legs. Okay, so it doesn't feel like it is in the legs. It just appears with the mental image. Mental image is not a feeling. It is a mental image. Well, we can redefine the sense of feeling. But the truth is, the consciousness does not feel like it is in the body. If you don't have mental image of the body. So being able to just for the sake of investigation, push aside any mental image and see is the feeling of existence, is the awareness of existence, the presence of consciousness actually anywhere.
Is it located anywhere? If you don't have mental image of heart or head or body or anything, or it's just here. It's just here. But you can't say how close, how far, how big, how small, because all of those require mental processing. So everyone. Whether you imagine, oh, there is still a sense of self that needs to dissolve, needs to be dismantled or needs to be annihilated or pushed under the carpet or humiliated maybe. People even believe that ego is real and it has to be killed or it has to die in absolute ordeal. Wow, what ego. There is nothing that needs to die.this beautiful old metaphor about the belief that many people had as children in Santa Claus.
Did he have to die? Did Santa Claus have to die when you were informed that the gifts are coming from your parents? Nobody had to die. There was no drop of bloodshed. Did anyone or anything has to be, has to die, that has had to be a tragedy when people realized that the planet Earth is rolling around the sun rather than sitting on the back of the turtle and turtle all the way down. No turtles were hurt in the process. It is just that tiny little shift in perception where the realization of the wrong belief, the energy just leaves it. And it is like a balloon that the air is being released.
Nothing dies, nothing disappears. The idea that there is some sort of an entity somewhere that everything relates to in the narrative doesn't make it real. It doesn't have to die. It just has to be seen as another sort of an appearance in a dream. Like Bob has this beautiful, beautiful, helpful metaphor.Investigate and you look. Is there anyone looking? Look behind the eyes. Anyone there? No, no one there. It's just seeing happening all the way. So there's no one there seeing. And yet. It still feels like there is a person because for all your life, day in and day out, everybody was relating to you as a separate person and you were relating to yourself as a separate person.
So the habit of relating is so predominant and is so practical that it basically just appears as if there is someone there. But all that is there is the consciousness being present, experiencing itself, looking out at the world. or looking in there is no in and out you try and look in there's nothing there so just looking that is just saying there is no one that does it it's just looking no one that looks and yet the looking is happening The knowing is happening. The speaking is happening. There's no one speaking right now. I have no idea what's going to be coming out of this mouth in one minute.
There's no one speaking. And when you're speaking, it's the same. It's the same. Did it happen ever to you that you were planning the interaction with someone and then you find yourself in the moment that something else comes up? Probably all the time if not just look again or if there is perhaps another habit you know like actors they rehearse their role then you want to reasonably expect that what's been prepared is going to come out rather than some spontaneous response undesired Anyway, whatever is happening in the dream is happening fresh and new moment to moment. And there's no undoing it. You can see how every response is completely inseparable from the environment in which that response happens.
If I wasn't sitting here in this room right now with you, I probably wouldn't be speaking those words. Not that I'm doing them, they're just happening. But if I was in the upstairs with the cats, that probably wouldn't have happened. If the temperature was different or if there was an explosion in the middle of the room, that probably would have changed also. I have no idea.and I couldn't care less. Because life already has that resolved, it already has that, it already leaves that, it already does it of its own. It brings the cats when they feel incentive to come. It does everything. It creates every environment.
It creates every heartbeat in your chest. It grows your hair. It grows your body. It sends the hunger signal or the full bladder signal. It already, that consciousness looks after itself, always doing the best it can to survive and to continually experience itself and express. So even if the behavior that comes up through this body is, for example, we had a little chat about the addictive behaviors and addictions and how crazy it makes people. Bob used to drink for 16 years and then he was sober for another. 65 nearly years. But he knew it intimately, how self-destructive those behaviors can be happening through this body, believing in the idea of separate self that is missing something, longing and suffering so badly that it needs the anesthetic, that it needs to sedate itself.
Through those beliefs, with this particular conditioning, the life essence expressing through the vehicle as the vehicle is still doing its best, hopeless out.alcoholic getting drunk is still doing their best they have no other options at the moment this is the best choice of actions for that consciousness at this moment and it's nobody's business really is consciousness is business And the consciousness is no thing. It isn't a thing. It isn't a God. It isn't a big daddy in the sky that is sometimes portrayed as the Holy Spirit moving through everyone. Why not? It's a good metaphor as any. Or intelligence energy, the energy that intelligently moves and leaves the body.
It's another as good metaphor as ever. Buddhist metaphor, cognizing emptiness. Emptiness is empty and yet is knowing, is cognizing. It's a beautiful metaphor as any other. Or the Hindu metaphor is rather a description than a metaphor. It's a description of five factors, three of them being reality and two of them being illusion. The reality which is Sat-Chit-Ananda, being, awareness of being, and preference for being, a stillness, a contentment, loving to be. So that three factors are reality. They don't contain any forms, names, any separation. This belongs to the illusion, the dream or the maya. The body, the name and the form, the shape, they all belong to maya.reality is the presence of consciousness the presence of consciousness which is always the same always still silent witnessing like when you dream at night you your body is flat on bed your eyes are closed this physical body and there is another body maybe flying or fighting or screaming or chatting with someone having philosophical discussions looking at the environment with the eyes open what is that other body And what is the same in the dream at night?
Environment is different. Activities are different. The capacity for being, for presence, for seeing, that one doesn't change. Whatever is being seen in a dream and in this dream right now, it's a different content. But the capacity for seeing, that doesn't change. The consciousness, the presence of consciousness, it doesn't change. It's always here. It's always present. And that presence, that presence of consciousness, the same whether you dream, imagine tomorrow, or whether you memorize yesterday, which is just another dream arising. Or whether you are utterly present with five senses wide open and unfixated awareness, just noticing the shape and the size of a room, noticing background.noises of the traffic and birds and and all of it just being completely utterly present with this moment right now or if there is a lot of dreaming going on it doesn't matter The consciousness underlying the pure presence in the now or the dreaming, the night dreaming, the day dreaming, that consciousness is never touched.
It is like space. It's not touched by the shape or the size of the body. It's not touched by the ideas that I'm not good enough or that I should change or I should get enlightened or I should understand something. It's not touched. It's not preoccupied with any of that. Those ideas that there is an I and that I in some future time will become a better I or enlightened I, that dream is just another dream appearing in that presence. And that presence is already here. There is nowhere to be, there is no way to get out of here. There is no way to move away from that natural state, from that conscious awareness, that which sometimes is called enlightenment.
Sometimes called awakening awakening us off awakening from the illusion of the of the of the imaginary self running the showIf you realize that the self is an appearance, who realized that? Not the self. Appearance can't realize anything. How could appearance realize anything? It's an appearance. Can the mirage see you? Or can the reflection in the mirror actually see outside the mirror? It's a reflection. It can't do anything. It's flat. It's dead. And mirage is just a smoke it can't see. So the mirage of self can't understand a thing. The attempt for that imaginary self to understand or grasp the content of philosophy or become enlightened, what a joke.
It's a smoke and mirror. It's a mirage. It doesn't exist. It can't be found. It happens within that space-like, sky-like conscious awareness, that mirage, and the dream that mirage will become something, will become saint. People also often ask me, okay, so if there is an awakening from the illusion of self, there shouldn't be any negative emotions ever happening in the system. Why not? If there was no negative emotions happening in the system, there would be no positive emotions happening in the system either. Who is there to even separate them?See, the idea of self says this is good emotion, this is bad emotion. I should experience love and I shouldn't experience anger.
This is the illusory, this is the mirage, that this is good, this is bad. This should happen, this shouldn't happen. This belongs to that whole Fata Morgana mirage, the appearance, apparition, a ghost. This whole belief system is linked to non-existent self. For the space-like awareness, there is no bad emotion, there is no good emotion. It doesn't say that the rain is bad and the sunshine is good. It doesn't say that anger is bad and peace is good. It doesn't, anger is as necessary for survival of that vehicle that enables the consciousness to see, hear, taste, touch and smell, as is any other emotion. It shows up as it shows up.
What is of course necessary living in the society is the regulation. Emotional maturity regulation it is necessary for that particular dream to function smoothly and it is part of the dream realizing that the dream understanding that this is a dream doesn't mean try to control it alter modify it fix it no it brings appreciation brings appreciationto the fact that in the gatherings or in the social conditioning, there is an expectation of loving kindness, there is an expectation of empathy and support, and there is a condemnation of psychopathy. It's just part of the dream. But it doesn't mean that the psychopathy or narcissism is something that is...
Not here or something that shouldn't be happening. Just like it doesn't mean that the winter shouldn't be happening because everybody likes summer or that the tsunami wave or volcano or earthquakes shouldn't be happening because everyone wants the peace and stability. That's not how this dream operates. Within the dream and within every dream, for anything to be experienced, they have to be polar opposite. There is no darkness if there is no light. There is no white if there is no black. There is no goodness if there is no badness. There is no ethics and morality if there is no moral decay. They have to be polar opposites for any experience to even exist.
In every dream, for the dream to exist, it has to be polarized. It has to be colorful. And space doesn't mind. Like the screen on which you watch the movie.doesn't mind that there is a villain and there is a hero and that there is a lightness and there is a darkness. In fact, if you have like in a cinema, if you have only light, there is no movie, it's just screen. You have to switch the light off and filter that movie through that little film in white patches and dark patches to even have the projection. So that whole polarity is absolutely necessary for any experience to be there.
And space doesn't judge any of it. The screen doesn't judge any of it. The judging comes from the dream character, which belongs in the dream. The dream character which can never wake up. Which is an apparition. It can't wake up because it isn't real, it isn't alive, it isn't asleep. It is the apparition, it's a ghost, it's a mental projection. And it only exists in the language, if you look at it. This is a language model. For prior to language, when you look at a little baby or when you look at animals, they don't have a symbolic language. They don't separate, isolate and label things in a symbolic way by creating the duality of the 10,000 things.
So little baby is born and it is just seeing happening. There is no concept that this is an I doing it. It's just seeing.hearing is no concept there is me doing it there is just a field in which the hearing is happening through the equipment if you take the amplifier there will be a different hearing take the binoculars the content of seeing you know it's an equipment this is a transformer And then there is a narrative interpreting the whole conundrum as something that is projected by me, happening to me. It can be controlled and it should be controlled by me. And what is that me?
Can't find it. But the whole society, your teachers, your priests, your politicians, prime ministers, everybody assumes that there is a me. They put you to jail if you do something good or something bad, or they put you on a pedestal. Not for long, usually. But that's what happens. There is an assumption that there is a free will and there is a sense of control and that there is a sense of responsibility. And you're going to be judged in this life and after death for everything that you've done out of your free will. And we can't find one. There is just life operating in its best interest to experience and express itself.
One essence, vibrating, patterning, shaping, forming as an animal, as a bird in the sky.as the whale in the ocean, the tree, the thought, the feeling, the mental image, the dream of last night, the dream of my future vacation. All of that is that one life projecting itself, experiencing and expressing itself. There is no one, there is no person. And yet, because it is intelligence itself, in every moment in every way it just bubbles at creative power sometimes they call the god a creator omnipresent present everywhere creator god the creator omnipotent showing up as every little blink of movement of power and omniscient knowing everything always knowing and loving to be love for existence where there is any space for that apparition of self that is trying to wake up This is just a narrative and it is actually I like that analogy.
We're going over time. It's time for questions, but just the analogy of the language model, which everyone by now probably had experience with various ways of using AI in your phone or the computer, Siri or Gemini or chat GPT or whatever. And you have the conversation with that little language model.And it will tell you how else can I assist you? What else can I do for you? How else can I or would you like me to find you an evidence of that? What I, what me is it talking about? What is this? Who is there? Engaging in the conversation, answering questions, offering further guidance. Who is there?
Well, it's the same life essence that is speaking through this and singing through the bird and meowing through the cat and barking through the dog and raping children through a pedophile. The same life essence experiencing and expressing itself through very, very different modalities. Is the same life essence experiencing itself through a sad feeling or angry feeling. There is nothing else. Omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience. There is nothing else. There is like in, I think, it's a Jewish and Muslim religion. There is only God. There is none other. You can call it Allah or you can call it Jehovah. There is none other. It's only that. The creating force.
Omnipresent. Not located in a cloud. But right here. And again, that creative power can't be separated from your awareness of existence. Your presence is thesame presence. You can't deny your presence. That's the only presence. Separating into your mind, God's presence, devil's presence is just a language model. It's only the language, the thoughts, the labels that separate the direct experience of existence, of presence of consciousness. That you can't deny right now. So let's explore it. Let's delight in it. Thanks, Kat. There's a few. You don't have to move the camera. Yeah, you go. You go. I'll do the camera. So everyone got it now? I think Kat, like, you know, you explained, you described, you pointed, you gave the expression through Kat, like, on what this meeting's about.
And people are sitting here or watching and, you know, if you're sitting or feeling like you're watching or sensing or learning something or getting something or understanding something, you missed it. I've already missed it because you might be coming from a perspective or a view or a belief or a pattern that's been hanging around for a while that says, I'm a body, I'm sitting here and I'm getting this or I'm getting a glimpse of this. And it's already...I mean, you know, you wrapped it up by... Saying that it is the one essence. So this meeting is non-duality. It's often called satsang, like sat means the truth or reality or that, which doesn't change.
And sang is a gathering. You know, of that, of talking, describing, explaining. It's the one essence. It's the one essence, as you just said, Kat, like that's doing all of it. So it's the one essence appearing as appearances. And there could be an appearance that there's a person sitting here getting something, understanding something, but that's an appearance. And there could be an appearance that I'm a person who was born and I'm a person who's getting this information or getting a glimpse of this information. Or have a view of myself and the world and all of every iota of it is an appearance. And there's no truth.
There's no, just because it's a pattern or believed in, there is no separate entity as such that this is happening to. So all of it is appearing in that. And what is that? That's... That is this. That is what is. And what is, is now, is immediate, is absolutely spontaneous. You can recall your life story. And if you do, it's always this. It's always this.has to be recalled or remembered in this. If you want to think about what you're going to have for dinner later, it's always now. It can't be anything other than now. And everything is appearing in this immediateness. And it's the same immediateness that you remember your first memory from.
And so if it's always the same, that same nowness, that same existence, that same presence of that same awareness. And the whole show is appearing in it as an appearance in that same presence. So everything that you're learning or acquiring or gathering or amassing is really, is really part of the appearance appearing to appear in that manner and it's it's what you are or what you're seeking or what is is absolutely um you already are that that is it this is the omniscience this is the omnipotence um expression and this is this idiot's expression for the moment. But I think there's a good question or so that's worthy of talking rather than my voice.
There we go.Thanks. Yeah, so we have some morning messages and greeting messages. And Mona says, it is our, oh, is it our attachment that causes the same thoughts reappearing in consciousness, causing us being different personalities, patterns, personas? How can we lighten the reappearance of patterns? So the idea of attachment is just another idea. And yes, it's a good description. It could be the descriptions. But how can we lighten the reappearance of the pattern by not taking them personally? See, if the pattern, let's say I used to have that persistent pattern in childhood of biting my nails and I absolutely hated it. I was shamed by it.
I was humiliated by it. Today, it doesn't even, it's just, yeah. But if that pattern or other pattern would show up and it would be seen as something that isn't personal, that isn't mind, it is something that this body does. This body has other patterns that are maybe not very pretty. They are all beautiful. I love you. And they are met with laughter because they are not personal. This is what this body does. And even if the judgment, oh, that's disgusting. Even if that arises, that's not personal either.The body is, let's say the body makes a big loud burp and then the judgment comes, wow.
And none of it is what I have done because I am not this body. I, the consciousness, witnessed this body doing this particular thing. So any pattern is there, the pattern of judging or the pattern of overeating, the pattern of drinking, the pattern of burping, whatever is the pattern. If it is just what is happening in the consciousness, if it is just what the body does, what does it matter? How heavy is that if it's not personal? How heavy is that if your dog did it? It makes no difference. That makes it all the light without even needing to lighten it up. It's just a recognition that it is a joke.
And then we have Julia. Oh, you go. No, no. Well, in reality, like in actuality, there's absolutely nothing personal at all. Nothing personal even exists. It's one essence again, appearing as a feeling or a sense or whatever. Where is it appearing in? To whom is it appearing for? It's just appearing as personal. But it's an appearance in that seeing where it can't be for anyone. anything so they can't nothing personal can exist in reality as such and yet there's an appearance that it may well this is my body but it's an appearance in the whole the whole show and the whole show is this Yeah, and that makes it light and fun.
And Julia says, everything is life experiencing spontaneously. Knowing this, things lose their seriousness. As you said, there is a lightness to life. Nothing is personal or happening, not happening to a me. Beautiful, Julia. And Joe says, good morning. And Miranda says, brilliant. And Cleve. Just a question that often arises for me when I'm, you know, here or any time in the now, so to speak. It's everything is that appearance. Yet there is a reference point that appears only when you're thinking about it in a way, like when you realise that there's something here that's experiencing. And then you go, it's so interesting because that reference point is like a point.
It's like... I'm seeing Dean. And yet, if you ask Dean, he's seeing me. It seems like he's seeing something different to me. And then we were joking before the session started about what can anyoneremember what they had for dinner on Thursday night. And then everyone's going, oh, yeah, oh, gradually, oh, yeah, I remember, I remember. And yet all these seeming reference points have access to memory, which is seemingly individual memory. So you can say it is all appearing. To whom is it appearing? And then there immediately comes up that dichotomy that in the mind there is this amazingly amazing story of my memory versus your memory versus anybody else's memory or the collective memory.
There seems to be when there's a focus on it, there's all sorts of separate appearance in it that's quite fascinating and something that you can't really get your mind around. Or I can't get my mind around it. Yeah, that was brilliant. Brilliant. Catch spiel. There's so many beautiful pointers in there. But she asked, what is that me? What does that mean? Me is a word. Me is just a word. It's a sound. It's a symbol. It's not the thing. It is the word that separates. The word separates belief in the meaning behind the word. When you say me and you and it, it all comes with a whole bunch of,implied meaning.
So before the word, as Bob always reminded us, there was no sense of separation because it's the word that separates. Immediately, if I'm a me, then you must be a you. And as Kat was saying, there is no doubt about it. There's being.But it's not that it's me, this little me, that's being. There's just this. It's the word that is the brilliant illusion that separates. As you talk about memory, it's quite fascinating. And I think everyone can look at this and experience that the memory is this whimsical thing. So this whole pattern of existence of believing on the me is based on this memory, right?
And recalled memory and programming and whatever you want to call it. But this memory itself is absolutely whimsical. So if I ask Sim to remember her wedding day, and if I pinch her while I'm asking her that question, she will give me a different recollection. If I ask her a specific aspect of it, she will give me a recollection. If I give her a warm cup of coffee to hold in her hand while I ask her exactly the same question, she'll recall something else. We ask her out in the rain when we're walking, she'll recall something else. And so every time, like in looking at, you know, watching the mind and see how it functions, you watch the mind and see how it functions in terms of memory.
And my goodness, your memory is...It's a liar. It's full of deceit, full of bullshit. Every time, you know, if I'm having a great day and I'm recalled and someone asks me to tell me about their childhood, all I can say is, oh, the brilliance of my childhood. Oh, I have the happiest life. But if I'm having a bad day and I'm having my childhood was hell, all I remember is the shit. So which one is it? Is it this one? Is it every single aspect? When it's looked at, becomes so unreal, so invalid, so bullshit that the whole idea, the structure of this thing called me really can't sustain itself.
Not that it's ever sustained itself anyway, but the appearance of that dies off, like it hasn't cut, there's no more energy, there's no more attention giving it credibility any longer because there is no credibility. It's incredible, if there's such a word. It's unreliable. It's invalid. It's, it's, it's, And it's constantly changing. So any idea that any memory, any idea of structure of built up of being an entity is absolute bullshit. And then to whom is all of this appearing to? To the reference point. You know, which reference point? The one here or the one here or the one there?There is no reference point. And so all of a sudden it's like, wow, there's just an appearance of all these different thoughts, sensations and feelings and they're just appearing now in what?
In this, in aliveness, in consciousness, in the beingness that is actually really devoid of all that movement. Because it's always there and it's like the base in which all the circus or the show appears in or on or as. It is fascinating. There is a fascination for it because, you know, there's nothing real about the past. It depends on... A point of view and you know everyone's got a different memory of what happened but it appears it appears to have reality when you're thinking about it and you know things like i i think if someone said can you remember the street where you grew up in And you'd only have a few things that you can recall out of it.
But suddenly you go there and you can recall all sorts of things about that street. You can remember where you hid something as a kid and go to that spot. But you wouldn't be able to recall it if you were asked about it without... Being or seemingly being in that location. So there's all sorts of things in memory. Every moment is fresh and new, but if you've got a sore ankle, that seems to haveappear every day or something like that is that in memory is that whole appearance in memory you know how does it arise and where's it come from i don't find all that How did it arise and where did it come from?
Do you ever experience anything but now? Do you ever experience anything but now? It's all now. It's spontaneous. It's spontaneous. It seems to appear spontaneously for a person. Yeah, that's the illusion, isn't it? Yeah. And we all seem to have different illusions. Yeah. Or different launch leads or different... Preferences. Yeah. You can even see, you can even see the way you can customize your Siri in your phone or your chat GPT or your Gemini or your whatever. you're using and you will have infinite number of another source of sources of intelligence which actually shows the nature of mind itself the nature of mind which is not to dig in the memory and find appropriate file and bring it out and read it as if it was encoded somewhere but completely improvise, whatever the answer is required.
And Dean was an artist in hypnosis.There was nothing that he couldn't elicit just by having a wise dance with the suggestive power to bring up that creativity of the mind, to bring up the correct motivation in people through that inspiring thought, through that thought that he didn't think, that would just spontaneously arise in consciousness. You can ask. That consciousness, I mean the consciousness in someone else about their past lives. There is no memory, the brain didn't exist, there is no coding or files that could even possibly exist if that even worked this way. There was not even a cell. And they will improvise incredible, incredible stories about past lives, parallel lives, alternative lives, having lives on selves on many, many different planets and many different universes and dimensions.
And wow, what an incredible creative power. You can ask your cloud AI to write you a story. Within seconds, you're going to have a beautiful story about yourself or anyone else you want to. It's a brilliant creative force. That's why they call God the creator. And it is working all the time. You go to sleep. If you were to remember some of the worlds, the universes, the parallel universes, planets, memories that you would revisit at night. Oh, amazing. Wow. Wow. This is an incredible machinery that is with.witnessed that is you know happening within you within the consciousness all the dreams are happening within the consciousness the memories which are another dreams and i love the way you know dine actually brought up that transient factor in the dreams in the memories how you reconstruct or recreate the memory depending on the on the setting on the circumstance completely unreliable as facts just deflating life force expressing us whatever is appropriate or convenient in particular setting to complete that moment of the dance of the now but i think i have also uh julia says our names are sounds too simply referring to the body but we are not the body and julia also says amazing so true dean and a heart with that Yeah.
Yeah. Even in dreams, there's no, there seems to be no person there. There seems to be stuff going on and other people in the dream, but you can't think of yourself necessarily having a body in a dream. You're there or there's presence there and you're responding, but it seems like it's very...impersonal in a way, but there's people there doing things, emotions happening. But there's also memory and dreams too. Like you think, oh, I've been in this place before in the dream, you know, even though you don't know it in the waking dream, it's there in that dream world sometimes. I feel like I'm in the same house or in a different aspect of the same house in the dream.
I find memory itself is quite fascinating. And then try and distinguish between a memory of a so-called sleeping dream and an awaking dream. Distinguish the difference. It's impossible. There's no difference. No, no. Because you can slip from one into the other quite easily. Yeah, yeah. Most women were Cleopatra in their past lives, by the way. Is that true? Most women were Cleopatra in their past lives. Prefer never cheating. You're after that. But the thing about the dream, like the imagining that occurs in the waking, is there's no different than dreaming. It's totally in the daydream. Creating, creating a world. Potential. Who's creating?Oh, something else that came up when you were doing your spiel, it was in relation to...
Holding on to a belief or energy of belief in that when I am enlightened or realized, I will be perfect, saint, I will never be angry again, I'll never experience discomfort, blah, blah, blah, blah. That is, of course, closely tied to the core belief that I am the doer. That there has ever been a doer. If there's never been a doer here, a little mini me making stuff happen, you need to realise or become enlightened. What would change if that entity, individual entity, has never been so? It's never had, it's always been a mirage. It's never had any power. I love what you said when you said, can the mirage look back?
That was just brilliant. Of course. So the core of all of that is do the investigation. Take a look. Or not. Who cares? Who cares? The dream.The dream is on now and the invitation is to appreciate it for what it is. Otherwise, the dream is constantly changing and historically as the part of a dream, it is going to end. It's going to end as you go to sleep at night. The dream is going to end. You disappear. The sense of self disappears. As if, as if. Just the same as in the moment of dying. The sense of saying you're dying every night as you go to sleep.
How terrifying, isn't it? And there is no consciousness, there is no awareness of existence noted or registered by the mind. The awareness of existence is always there. The energy can't die. It can't be destroyed. It's always there. But there is no recording. Like mind is a little recorder. A recorder is paused or is stopped. So recording doesn't happen. Translating doesn't happen. Relating into a dream stuff doesn't happen anymore. Well, unless you're dreaming. But when you're not dreaming, it doesn't happen. So what? Who is there to be terrified about that? So the dream is going to end right now. It's the call for the appreciation of a dream for what it is as it is and for loving the dream.
When the dream ends, there is no one to be worried about it. Go on, Ross. Well, just thinking about...being in a sort of a murky, muddy pond, and then listening to Kat and Dean and Cliff talking and asking questions, and the mud in the pond starts to settle to the bottom. And then everything just seems very plain, very simple. No problem. It's all one. There's nothing to divide or...whatever, and it suddenly just starts to clarify. Things become simple and clear. So where do you go from here? It's all perfect. Yeah, and no one to go. For natural perfection. And what is the essence of this?
The essence is emptiness. Completely empty. And what is the nature of this? Well, the nature is light.That's our nature. That's the nature of everything. That's the Newtonian universe of energy and matter. And it's light and it's self shining and it's self-cognizing. But it's light. It's indivisible. It's not... Has no boundaries.It's always there. It's not fractured or broken in any way. It's always, it's just always there. It's the appearance that makes up the appearance. Because there's nothing there except emptiness. But it appears to be just empty phenomena. Any questions? Any doubts? Any sharing? Anyone?Yeah, I was thinking about everything happened now. No, really, I was thinking about how I try.
I always look at the Sundays meetings. Seldom I'm here personally. I mean, now I was here one and a half year ago. My daughter lives here in Melbourne. So, and now I'm here again from Sweden. And I always try to... Invent this non-dual thinking to my wife and try to translate what I hear in English to Swedish. Talk to her in Swedish about this and she goes, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't talk to me about nothing and I'm nothing, you know, it's only now, it's tomorrow and it's yesterday, so it's not only now.And well, and then she heard a pod from a Swedish girl.
And she said, this is amazing. You have to listen to this. What was that about? Just listen to this. And it was exactly this in Swedish. So the words and the words are different. Yeah. But the same, it's the same. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it's very funny now. I'm with my daughter and her three children. One is one and a half. And he hasn't stopped started speaking he is very loud but there's no no words so he's pointing and he's angry or he's very happy and but this only sounds and then the four years old and a six-year-old. So it's very different. It's very funny too.
I don't know why I said that. It's very funny to be with them.wake up in the morning, we're laying on the floor, on the mattress on the floor, and they're coming in in the morning and speaking or not speaking. It's a lot of noise. And everything is happening now. And now I'm here. Well, welcome. And by the way, we actually have a beautiful, beautiful, really smart and really funny and the cutest and the dearest Swedish girl on our Zoom meetings. If you ever want to click and connect, meet Jenny. She is, oh, what a gorgeous soul. And Zooms are in the evening, which for her in Sweden is in the morning.
Yeah, I thought about it, but I like this Sunday meetings. Yeah, yeah, but it's a different space. Last couple of meetings we were really just having hour and a half of laughing session because there are so many people with a really strong recognition. So it's just the energy builds one on top of the other and it's just hilarity. And yeah, it's a delight. I mean, we don't expect people, hour and a half is a long time, to sit throughout the whole meeting. They can just check in for 20 minutes and then check out, just click in, join and leave. It's no offense. It doesn't disturb anyone.when you leave the Zoom room.
Bob used to kick out people who would come here and in the middle of a room start walking in the middle. He says, okay, don't show up again. But unless, of course, if there is a situation that we know and everybody's briefed, it doesn't disturb anyone. But in the Zoom, it's just too easy. Yes, that's that. But this is sweet, really, what you say, that sometimes, you know, you may be the prophet in your own country, just too close. And also, very often, because this is so, it's like Bob would say, it's a core of all the religions. Sometimes, like,
different language slightly and it and it brings up the feeling of safety and the feeling of openness sometimes you speak those like you know another friend of our different julia that is commenting here uh she loves she absolutely loves challenging catholics by really bringing a very, very strong logic and dismantling their beliefs and concepts.
None of them will ever come here to this room. They will feel it like a devil. But there is a way of pointing to it, which is really confrontational, harsh, and... It might be funny and sweet and it might have the sense of correctness in it, but it isn't really very safe, although she makes people curious, but they don't follow up. And there is a way in which you actually learn the language of a person you speak with. You ask them a few questions and you learn which descriptions are closest to their heart. And you just build up in their own language so that they find their own answers.
You telling people how it is, it usually just causes, no, that's not how it is. But when you ask them, okay, you tell me. And you realize, woo, of course they say the same thing. There is no other thing. And it is beautiful to actually just see how they find their own truth, like she found in a different sort of a podcast.whatever so language is such a fascinating fascinating thing because as Bob used to do he would cross translates you know like the introduction would be a different religions different bits and pieces from the Bible bits and pieces from other scriptures see those are all translatable relatable those all are the grains you know those little seeds of truth that are lying underneath all the bullshit of divisions and structures and and hundred and eight of this and three gunas and five this and all the verbal diarrhea on top.
But the core is always the one, even less than one, that undeniable presence which can't be objectified to even be a one thing. Kids know it instinctively. I mean, well, they are living... Just simply in the now with what appears always before we're complicated with all the story when they give him a mic especially when they don't have the language yet they don't know the words but they know what they want very strong Yeah, Bob would say there is natural attraction in kids. You can observe the natural attraction and natural repulsion. Same with animals. We have sometimes cats walking through the room.You could see how they're drawn to someone and move away from someone else.
Just life moving naturally, just like the way the weather travels. When you have the low atmospheric pressure, it travels towards evening up, going through the hills and mountains and rivers and over the oceans. And just resolves. Go, Candice. No? No? Okay. Any questions? No? Ask any questions. Tony, how about you? We didn't hear you for a while. I'm just half asleep and stuff. Getting patterns to dissipate. Enjoying being half asleep or you want a little bit of a wakey call? Because when you express it will just bubble. You're happy to relax. Patterns being dissipated. Oh, lovely. Triggers and stuff like that being dissipated in the internal.
Yum. That's what's happening. That's gorgeous. And we have another here comment from Julia who says, that's a good point, Kat. Religions and other forms, other quote-unquote forms of spirituality are all pointing to the same thing, but in different words, ideas. Go on, Dina. And these translations that you call about the different traditions or whatever, remember, like, it's one essence. And the translation are just in words. And this thing that's been...discussed is absolutely universal so it can go beyond all traditions it can or it can be seen in other traditions that it's not so accustomed to you know in other cultures it can be seen in tribal regions in through shamanism through different things that are not not the words, the way it's translated is not to do with the main traditions.
It can be, it is this one expression, right? And, you know, it's beyond the words too. Like you could say that everything is energy and that energy is beyond the, well, a word. And sound is vibration and the word is vibration and a lot of times this whole message is essence is is can be an energetic thing you know and if you stay if you stay closely i'll transmit it to you it would cost you a thousand bucks i'm joking but but but there's an energy about it as well and and you know i've met people who have just that things have changed through through a car accident or through something, or through ayahuasca, whatever it is, they've just, all of a sudden, they've just, bang.
It's all just one. It's all just one. It's never been separate from it. There's no teaching. There's no tradition. There's no translation of scriptures.the words or anything like that, life itself is doing the whole show. Life is orchestrating the teaching, the transmissions, the expressions. So the main thing is what I really want to share is that it's universal. No one can be exempt from it. No one can get out of it because no one's really in it because that's all there is. And the way in which it expresses or exposes or seems to be revealed or not revealed is all that one show. Well, what the hell?
Yeah, this whole dream. I just had a flashback of the transformation of the dream, how the dream shifts, how the dream changes. In Coursing Miracles, it is called a miracle. For example, you are sitting in a strong resentment towards someone, or for example, you are experiencing a sense of dying and being completely devoid of energy. And then something shifts. And suddenly the resentment dissipates and becomes laughter. Or suddenly the sense of dying becomes like an outburst of aliveness. It's just a sudden shift. That nobody does, that can't be provoked, orchestrated, that is just if there is an openness, everything constantly changes, nothing stays the same.The bad headache is not going to last forever.
It may get worse, but it's not going to be the same forever. It's the fluctuating of the dream and realizing that the truth, the true nature or the essence is beyond that which changes. Is that presence, that witnessing, that capacity of knowing, which doesn't change, which knows the change, but in itself it doesn't change. It is the same like Cliff was saying, in the middle of a dream, there is a witnessing of whatever the happening of the dream. There may be less of the autobiographical memories in the dream, or maybe more. It depends on whatever the projector, it doesn't matter what it depends on. It depends on everything and anything.
It depends on the amount of things that need to be processed. So those things, whether the dream at night appears within the consciousness, or whether the plan, or the Thursday dinner, or the memory, whatever appears in consciousness, that capacity for knowing that content. Is unaffected by the content. That capacity for seeing the content is unaffected by the content, whether I'm looking at the pink balloon or the yellow balloon. We have quite a different... Yes. It seems in a way that... I don't know what we're talking about. As Ross says, it's nothing, and it is just nothing.But it's nothing in which everything appears. And it seems to be what attention is focused on gives it reality.
Like there's no table out there in the kitchen unless you're thinking about it. But when you go to it and put a cup of hot coffee on it, it has... It has a reality, it has a concreteness, but only while the attention is there. And so it is with the reference point and the memory, the more the attention goes into it, the more detail seems to arise in it. When it comes to all these things like consciousness, awareness, all of that, like I see all of that in Nisat Chittananda, I'd probably see at least two thirds of that as illusion. So I'd say the only assumption that actually arises here for real is that it's not nothing.
That there is stuff or you could just say, you know, there's no being, only doing. Like there's only change, there's only activity, there's only stuffness, there's no voyage. Like Bob, when you say there's no voyage, that's it. That's the only assumption that actually truly comes up here. There's no nothing. Everything else is an illusion or doesn't come up as an assumption. You know, everything else is an assumption. Yeah, even the energy, even the energy.Energy is also that. Yeah, I like that. I like always when Tony takes away even all the labels, you know, even the descriptions, all are just appearance. They're all illusion. Every description, every attempt to grasp it or point to it, they're all just popping up stuff.
That is happening in that which is not voice stuff yeah absolutely yeah beautiful okay that's probably yeah bob would say you know what's it came up with yeah yes what did you say suchness suchness yeah that's another word such with some kind of definition or whatever yeah bob would say that people call it different names i call it intelligence energy but that's not it either yeah because it is not assumption energy it's all yes it's all just descriptions it's all just assumptions just but even yeah even that is an illusion even that interpreting or seeing or taking it to be an illusion is the content of a dream too.
That's just the lightest reference to no void. That's all that's meant by that, no void. No void. Even that who says no void, that's illusion too. No nothing though, no nothing. No nothing. Even that is a dream. Yes, that's the only assumption that comes up here, no nothing. Yeah. Yeah, it seems valid as an assumption. It's still in the dream. It's still in the dream. Yeah, beautiful. And Julia says, brilliant.discussion i always look forward to tuning into these meetings and thank you for being with us julia and commenting that really makes the it's a beautiful contribution and makes them more alive and thank you everyone who is with us online we do really appreciate your presence because it does make it a little bit more lively and needless to say we very much appreciate your presence here because without you that wouldn't have happened.
And we still have a couple of minutes. When you were talking before, the old story of the fisherman in the boat drifting on the lake comes to mind. He falls asleep, he's having a lovely snooze, and then all of a sudden, bang, he's rudely awoken from his dream. He's having a lovely, lovely sleep, and he jumps up and he thinks, I'll give that, you know, idiot a piece of my mind. And he looks, oh, the boat is empty. And immediately, oh, it feels a little bit stupid. I got all worked up over nothing. There was no one in the boat. And then you can expand that.
And then there was another boat that bumped into the back of his boat. And the point of the fishermen in that boat,looked at his boat and found that empty. And all these boats bumping into each other on this lake, all of them empty. Just the boats moving on the water, responding to the stimulus of this and that, and everything connected, nothing separate. And the fisherman is an empty boat too. Yes. Every single vessel. There's no one there. There's no driver. There's no... Unless, of course, you imagine and you experience it, but the one who imagines and experiences it is a dream itself. There's no one even imagining.
There is no projector. There is no big daddy in the sky that does anything on purpose. There is no purpose. Experiencing an expression and the beauty and the love and all that joy is for... No purpose there is no one who needs to have a meaning who needs to ascribe a story because the potentiality to create multitude of stories in itself is enough of a purpose of a meaning to not create any grandiose one above it And if that is created, it's just part of the dream too. And we have Tanya says, thank you everyone and much love from love to the love that you are.
And thank you beautiful Tanya. And Dina, you wanted to say last words? No, no. Okay, well.I was at a cemetery the other day and, you know, these cemeteries these days, they've got beautiful sections and new sections. But what was really nice was the old section, the really old section. And the tombstones, there's nothing left. They're really old. They're broken. They're cracked. All there is is just grass. And you can see them actually just disappearing into the earth. And you look, and if you're very lucky and you go and have a look, you might see an inscription of maybe a year or a couple of little words left on them because they're going back 200 years now.
And there's not much left. And you can see, once upon a time, there was a story. There was a life. There was a this. There was a that. There was a whole universe. And where is it? Like it's not, and in another 200 years, there'll be nothing. There actually won't be a trace of the original, whatever it was, even the tombstone, even the rock is going back into the earth in which it came from. And that, you know, but that's just an experience or a story. Look at your own life, look at everything, your whole pattern of conditioning, your whole story, and right now, like, it's bang, like the whole thing can just, it's gone.
All there is is this immediacy, and oh, I think about this, bang, then it's alive, but it's not. It's actually just, like you're saying, Cliff, the attention.the attention. And if attention is just on the presence of awareness, of now, of the immediacy of life itself, the brilliance of being, of absolutely just existing, then that's all there is. That's all there ever was, all there ever could be. Amen. I love when politicians say that. You're going to say it. Tell us the politicians. How they're going to be remembered after they die. Oh, I'll just repeat what I said. It makes me laugh when I hear politicians thinking about their legacy, what they're going to leave behind when they die.
They do this in the public or they do that behind closed doors? They do it in public, yeah. Some of you. Thanks, everyone. You hear them say things like this.