This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
One and we have Brendan, Eamon, Cleve, Anthony, Tony, Rose, Dean. Oopsie. That's not good. Are you not the best? Welcome everyone. As usually, anyone would like to take a challenge and give us a little introduction, give us a spiel, put together what's true for you, what's experienced. No takers? But use this. Not today. Not yet. Okay. Yeah, so it really is, you know, when you look into your own direct experience, the truth that is impossible to deny is the fact that you exist. You are. You are. Even to look whether that's true or whether to deny it, you have to exist first. So this is really it.
I was asked recently how come I can ramble about an hour about that stuff by aperson who totally resonated but she says if she's asked to to talk about it there's nothing coming up i say well the nothing is an equally beautiful expression of of that certainty of existence the no words the silence It is equally beautiful. And no one has a saying. There are people who express through music or through the labor or they express love to their pet animals. And there are no people. This is all just the same one life. One life experiencing and expressing through and us everything. And the description some people will have the thing for a description and it will be really really easy to just get grounded in that experience of existence and see what comes up to describe it it's a shared experience there's someone likeAnd in that experience, because it's shared and because it has no qualities whatsoever, it can't be said to be more somewhere than the other.
Like you can't be more existing than, you know, the talking stick is existing. The qualities of existence are none. There are no qualities. So in that fact of existence, there is no separation. The existence of space, the existence of people, the existence of thoughts, the existence of anything is the same existence. Just showing up in different patterns and shapes and forms. And there are other troubles with the idea of separation because it's a popular spiritual slogan. Oh, there is no separation. We are all one. What a nonsense. What does it mean even to say we are one? You know, if there is we, as obviously showing up, there is more than one.
So how do I understand the no separation slogan or concept in a way that it is actually clear? Why would that concept or slogan even be used as a pointer? Because it is. Good enough pointer if you know where to look. And the easy way to see it is to seeHow separate are the objects of seeing from the capacity for seeing? Bob would often actually end, he would often end the whole spiel by bringing the attention back to the fact of seeing. He would say seeing is always the same. You wake up in the morning and the content is different. Than now, than yesterday, but the capacity for seeing or that space of your gaze is always the same.
And that gaze, that seeing does not differentiate anything. And he would again show it by, okay, look around the room very quickly, label what you've seen. And you'd label five, six, seven things maybe. And the rest would be registered but not labeled so the seeing capacity indiscriminately allow everything that appears in the sphere of seeing that's its nature and the same with being the same with knowing this capacity is universal and it doesn't have preferences is space-like. Space allows everything. Nothing can be separated or postulated out from the space. And this is how, is the easiest way to understand where is that, where is that pointer pointing?
The separation. How things are separated. The baby is born and is looking out and is not even seeing things. It's more or less a homogeneous blob for a couple of years.weeks there is no differentiation later on of course the sounds are differentiated but there is no concepts of that it's just a sphere of hearing with different different appearance on it but there is no labeling this sound i like this i don't this is tall this is high this is low that one comes with the language So the whole sense of separation comes with the language. If we look at the animals roaming around the room, obviously they don't consider the wall being inseparable from them.
They don't bump into them. They know where the door are so they can see objects in space. But there is no concept. Of that whole movement to be separate is the experience is really about the consciousness still and the world moving so when the cat is sitting on the lap and is purring and there is a hand moving but the cat is still when the cat is moving through the room there is a room moving the cat is still and there is no conceptualization there is no language as far as we know to imagine that there is someone there inside the cat who controls or chooses where he's gonna go or what he's gonna do natural attraction natural aversion moves the cat towards the food when it's hungry and the same thinghappens the same way of living happens to the grass to the trees birds fish everything and humans too though humans learned language and this is where bob would bring up the metaphor of eating the fruit of knowledge of the tree fruit of a tree of knowledge of good and evil which is the the the knowledge of differentiation labeling this i like this i don't like this is chair this is a cat and this is a whatever So now the separation, separating objects by sticking labels on the objects, came into existence.
So there is nothing wrong with the language. Language is absolutely phenomenal. It's a beautiful, beautiful capacity that this human pattern has. Who doesn't like a beautiful way that it joins us together through shared stories, like shared pointers of non-duality or religions or nationalities or anything that is like a myth that joins people in a larger group and made that life essence play the game of whatever, husband and wife or child and a parent, all the relationships, beautiful. Though if we... For whatever reason if too much of the fanatical belief goes into a story and the story isnot considered what it is a story but the reality then it kicks in with the psychological suffering now if my story is i'm a person i'm not good enough i'm too fat or too old or too stupid and this is not recognized as just a piece of narrative appearing in consciousness inseparable from that consciousness It feels like that's the reality, that's true, and that's relevant, that's me.
And the world outside of that label stuck on the consciousness here is completely separate. And on top of that, there is something wrong with me. And if that's believed, that's experienced. And that experience is psychological suffering. Because no matter, starting from the point that I'm not good enough, I'm a person, I'm a human being, no matter where I'm going to go, 20, 30 years of the therapy, courses, psychedelics, no matter what I'm going to do with my life, The wrong assumption will persist on the bottom and will be just calling out through the so-called confirmation bias to show the smallest thing going out. You see?
You see? That's exactly right. I can make myself believe, I can hypnotize myself, and I've seen that amongst people. Yes, I know there is no self, I believe that. Hello. Oh yes, I am God, or I am space.like hmm check with your psychiatrist the delusion of grandeur this is not about believing a new set of concepts this is about questioning what's true right now and is that true that I am a person Well, not in my experience. In the experience, being a person is a concept, is an idea, is mental projection, is an image, not the truth. What's the truth of the experience? Well, there is seeing happening, there is content of the seeing happening, there is hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, there is sensations, projections, perceptions, all of that is happening within that field of presence that the closest you can come to it is to call it I am or existence, pure existence, pure being.
So it doesn't contain, and even if it does contain of an idea of being a person, well, that's just a part of the content, idea of being a person. I could have an idea of being whatever, a bird.And believing the idea or not believing the idea makes a huge difference. Freedom versus suffering. If I believe I am limited, poor, miserable human being, I'll experience myself as limited, poor, miserable human being. But wait a minute. Who believes that? If we say there is no one there who can make choices or think thoughts, who is there to believe it? And then we can look again how that whole belief system or whole conditioning came into existence.
And that will explain that it doesn't need any agency for the belief to exist. It doesn't have to be anyone there for the body to act out and believe as if it was a separate individual and the mind act as if it wasn't good enough.You can see the conditioning, the hypnotism. Bob would often say about the stage hypnosis, when being hypnotized to believe that you are a good little boy or you are a bad little girl, and then collecting more of the evidence of being something or the other. Is rehearsed 24-7, 365 days a year. So no wonder it is never questioned. So is the situation for majority of the people.
And those people influence people. Your parents, your school, your society, your politician, except you. So they all repeat the same collective story of individuality. The whole culture, the whole Western culture is conditioned to bring up the uniqueness of every individuality. And nothing wrong about that either. If you can see the uniqueness and realize that still every single pattern, as unique as it appears, and there is no pattern that is not unique, even the fingerprints or the drops of water, they're all unique, are an expression. Of the same consciousness. It is, they all happen within that presence, within that awareness of being.Bob would say, can you postulate anything outside of space?
Or can you get something out of nothing? Space is nothing. So everything that appears in space is an appearance, is the no thing appearing as that unique pattern of fingerprint or a thought or a planet or a city. Religion all unique patterns and it feels because we are still somewhat viewing that incredible dream from the perspective of a dream character it feels like no this is real and it is solid because the dream character is real and solid But how about when you dream at night? How real and how solid the interactions, people, relationships appear when you are dreaming? The solidity of the dream if you happen to remember it if not dink can recommend some good herbs like the remembering dreams mug wardens other stuff very healthy very totally legal so you can then remember how actually how incredibly real people, mountains, buildings, interactions, emotions.in the dream appear to be and then when you wake up where did they go what happened to them the solidity of the body flying in the dream the solidity of the fight if you have where did it go was it ever real So this dream, this waking dream is no different.
Though when the dream character, when you wake up from the dream of being a dream character to this character, the other one may not have any resemblance or may not leave any traces. The only thing that is common between the dream character that you were and the dream character that you are is the presence, the sense of presence. There is the same presence in the dream when you climb the mountain or you fly or you run away. And the same presence right here in this dream when you sit still. So, but waking up from this dream for a moment is not on the menu and not recommended because we don't want anyone to drop the body and wake up as the pure consciousness, the space that you are.
Waking up to the dream is on the menu. When you realize that this is the dream also, but you stay in a positionof a dream character experiencing the whole dream experiencing yourself as the life essence showing up as a pattern of thought a pattern of feeling pattern of conditioning of memory And at the same time, through that dream character, you know you are alive. You're still going to be speaking with the same silly accent or you're going to be speaking with the same emphasis, use the same choice of words. There really is no difference. The recognition or the realization. That there never been an agency, an imagined person that was thinking thoughts and making choices or decisions.
It doesn't change anything in choices and decisions. It's not like 10 years ago I was making decisions or 20 years ago I was making decisions and now I don't. Back then, decisions were happening in the same way any other thought is happening. The thought may happen in a few minutes, which I have no idea what it will be. I'll be discovering as much by hearing it as you hearing it. Same with the decisions. The decisions were made and they were discovered in the mind as the thought. Sometimes what was discoveredwas indecisiveness the life essence patterning and making a form of shaping as indecisiveness oh should i choose this partner or this school or this meal that's what shows up in consciousness and that is another pattern discovered in that incredible dream like everything else everything if it is just another transformation of consciousness dancing with itself showing itself in that different form how is it me how is it personal and what does it matter what business of mine is to fix it alter it modify it or correct it And if the urge to fix it and alter and modify and correct or heal it shows up in consciousness, again, what the business of mine is that?
That's just another completely impersonal pattern through which and as which the consciousness experiences and expresses itself. So there is always a way to step back and see the whole landscape. Right at this moment, there is existence. Within that existence, there may be an idea, oh, I'm a woman talking. Or then maybe, oh, what an idea. And then there may be a feeling. And there may be a judgment of feeling. And it may be a desire to maybemodify the feeling or change the feeling that is the landscape all of it is just the way life essence experiences it experiences and expresses and appears as everything that's the title on one of one of bob's books and it's a brilliant title because it actually includes every expression Thought is expression.
Mental image is expression. Object, physical object is an expression. The idea, the grand ideas of values like countries and planets and universes and dreams, what are they? They're just another way that one essence experiences and expresses and appears as everything. And all of that, can you separate that from that cognizing emptiness, that field of knowing, capacity for knowing? Just like can you separate anything that you see from the capacity for seeing? If the capacity for seeing isn't there, all the content isn't there either. But because of the nature of the mind, and I'm driving the point that I started, Bob usually ends the session with the capacity of seeing.
So you can, how does he say it? Can you see right now? Can everybody see right now? Yes, I can see.Okay, so the seeing is happening. Seeing is happening effortlessly. But the mind comes and labels the seeing as this is I and C and that. So suddenly one singular capacity is split into three. Me, the seeing and the object, subject, object and the process. But can you actually separate? Any of it. Any of it. Can there be an object if there is no one seeing it? It can't be experienced. It can't be believed, but there's still, it can't be experienced. Can there be a seeing if there is no one that sees?
So it really is one. So the mind divides it. And this is how the whole conundrum of the separation came into the picture through the mind. In the beginning was the word, says the Bible. And the word was God. So the world suddenly split and separated me from you, this planet, this room, that country, that belief, that experience. And how wonderful. Thank to that, the dream gets really, really juicy, colorful, intense, and beautiful. The roller coaster, ups and downs, and sadness and joy, and tragedy and drama and this and that.Wow. Again, with the little fine print, unless you believe it. Because if you do, welcome to hell.
It gets personal. It gets private. It gets unbearable. And I've been there for the first four decades of my life. And it wasn't that much fun. Of course, there were moments of pleasure. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't last that long. But life really, awakening to the dream, life really starts when you look at things.from the point of experiencing rather than believing the narrative about it. When you see that in this moment, this room is happening in the field of seeing, the sounds are happening in the fields of hearing, and with all of your presence, all of your heart, you are here. Here with this sensation of butt sitting on the on the sofa without even a narration that yeah see this is a butt and this is a sofa there too without any belief in any story about what is happening There is such a juicy experiencing of existence happening without needing to translate it.
Yes, yes, yes, but you know, today is fine. There's nothing wrong right now. Yeah, if I don't think about it, but tomorrow I'll have to go to work and deal with my horrible boss. Well, where is it now? What is it now? This is a story. And this is trading the unborn buddha mind for a thought and again this story comes from love of being from that survival mechanism that has been developed throughout the whole life for that body mind to be able to be because it loves to be so that life essence which is it not just it but is experiencing and expressing through it and usit and see if not for the body couldn't see hear taste touch smell even in the dream there is a body with a capacity
of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, a dream body, different one, because the physical body is asleep and it doesn't move and the eyes are closed, so there's no using of this body when you dream at night or when you fantasize.
Through the eyes of your imagination, there are other worlds to be experienced. So the vehicle stays alive by default because of the love of being, being, knowing, loving to be. So staying alive might mean different strategies for survival, might mean going to a heroin addiction, because that's the only way the pain can be anesthetized to the point that the body stays alive. That's pretty extreme example, but there are milder strategies, for example, people pleasing, or for example, stealing, or manipulating. Anything that this body-mind machine needs to do to stay alive so that life essence can experience and appear and express through it as it. And enjoy the dream.
So doubting your actions is basically the same mechanism of delusion of entity, taking credit, in this case negative credit, guilt, shame, and remorse for something that it hasn't done because there is no one there doing anything. If the body is conditioned,and it's a cat's body or dog's body or mosquito's body or human body is conditioned with the computer of course that's one thing you can't separate body from the mind try so if this body is conditioned for love of being The strategies that it develops throughout life are the best possible strategies in given environment. And if you doubt it, go to the point, any point in your life, and find yourself with the information that you had and feelings that you had, attachments that you had, and see if there really was an option.
If there really was a choice to act in any other way than you did act and then you will know that you are not the doer then you will know that there is no sense of shame or guilt or remorse even possible if you didn't do it if the body interacting with the environment conditioned by the environment responded to that environment as if they were one inseparable there's no person who's ever done anything wrong all right Yep. Amen. Yes, and this is where the freedom comes from.The freedom of living a life of explorer, discoverer, adventurer, where you look around and you feel, oh, but there is a shame coming up.
I just yelled at that poor bread roll seller in the shop. Wow, what a beautiful feeling. Of course, it's a social conditioning. How cool. Let it be there. So the sense of shame is another way that self-organizing universe through social conditioning self-regulates. Wonderful. So why would I feel bad that this brilliant feedback mechanism works as it should? Amazing so now when there is an experience of sadness or joy or shame wow what a great incredible vibration it moves through the body it shrinks the lungs it changes the breathing it creates mental images wow what an incredible show And then it comes with the narrative, it comes with label, it comes with all the past memories.
Like Bob, he, not everybody knows, but when he was discharged from the Navy, he had a diagnosis of anxiety neurosis. Fear, anxiety, that was his main emotion. He might have appeared for the last 50 years of his life as overly confident.confident and fearless because he was always confronting his fears. That was just the tendency of the body. That was just the conditioning of the body. But he would often answer a question for people who would come with anxiety neurosis. A lot of anxious people were attracted to Bob and would come and ask, what about that? What about panic attacks? What about anxieties? What can I do with that?
And then he would say again, notice the vibration, take the label off the feeling and see what is really going on in the present moment, not in the story.In the story, there might be an anxiety, there might be a performance anxiety, there might be a fear of future. Interpretations of that vibration again will depend on the environment. If the environment is conducive, that same vibration may be interpreted as an excitement. You're about to see a loved one for the first time in this week. That's the same emotion. Take the label of be a discoverer, be an explorer, be curious about it, be mind blown by it.
Living the life as if everything is fresh and new. And isn't it? Every moment is fresh and new. It's never ever been like this before and will never ever be like that again. Fresh and new. Every response to the moment is fresh and new. You don't know how you're going to respond to every new moment. Instead of just being interested in the environment, include the body-mind to it. It is an environment too. Include the costume. What this body-mind is going to do in this situation? Let me see. What the body-mind is going to, how is the body-mind going to interact with the cat right now?
Well, let me see. And with that, let me see, with that open childlike curiosity,You're welcome to heaven. Kingdom of heaven, they say. Unless you are like little children, open and curious, you can't enter the kingdom. But it is always here. He says meow. Yeah. So always here, always on the menu, always partaking pure and basic recognition that unless you think, unless there is a belief going into the sense of identity, belief, habitual attention movement, There is nothing wrong. And this moment is really fresh. It's really colorful. It's really intense and beautiful. There's nothing wrong. And even if the stories about my traumas or my relationship difficulties or my plans and my boss and whatever appear within that ever fresh present moment, even if that thoughts, that clouds of what is not happening is going to cover completely the sky of this moment.
But you see them for what they are. Wow, what a beautiful ride. It's still a beautiful ride. The whole past accessible. The whole fantasy is accessible. The traumas absolutely validated. Everything in the dream, within the appearance. Wow, beautiful. In thisFear of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling and imagining. Because thinking is imagining. And there is nothing wrong because they are appearances. They're not me, they're not mine, they're not personal. I think that's enough for the introduction. It's been half an hour. Another really powerful spiel. Space allows everything, he said. Space just allows everything. You don't allow everything. You as the individual. You can't stop anything, make anything happen.
You don't give permission. It's just happening. But we give instructions because that's how we communicate, you know. Be awake. How can you not be awake, though? But being... Just the grace that flows from the words, the expression is, you know, enough. You just don't have to, there's no requirement to analyse, even understand. It just happens all of its own accord. You can't rush anything. You can't delay anything. Just really nothing to be done.Chill. Chill. What the heck? Enjoy the ride. We have a few messages here. Greetings from the USA. And Julia also says, so saying we are all one is basically another concept. It's kind of a silly concept, but it's okay.
I mean, it's a pointer. If you know where it points, You know, every word is a concept. There is no pointer which is not conceptualized. I mean, unless there is silence, that's the pointer, non-conceptualized. All one is like, there's no, it's sort of a shorthand way of saying, there's no separation. It's all happening in consciousness, all of it. Nothing is outside of it, independent of it. It's just all happening. It's the same kind of, all is one sounds kind of. It says we. We are all, we are all one. We as appearances are all one. There is no separation. It sounds kind of mythical and, you know, we are all one, you know, like some kind of, yeah.
But it just means. Take a look. Nothing happens outside of consciousness. Nothing, ever. That's all it is. Yeah, and can you separate any dream character or any dream object from the dream you slept last night?Completely one. But yes, I was just laughing at we and one. It's kind of singular and plural. And Julia also says, so if someone struggles with anxiety or worry, there is no me that needs to stop worrying or improve. It's more realizing that there is no one there to improve and it's just life unfolding. Yeah, that's beautifully put. Yeah, it doesn't mean that there won't be a movement towards regulating, towards soothing that nervous system.
There may be also just a movement to take the label off and explore it. And if there is any need for any, like, whatever aspect of that life essence appearing as a voice of a child or a fear or something, could be just as beautifully embraced as a part of the totality. So there is no, like Tanya says, you know, it seems like there are instructions. Do this, watch, investigate, relax. There's no one to instruct anyone. There is just flow of pointers that nobody does and for nobody. It is just what's happening. And sometimes, as everyone knows, even the cat and dog can be inspired by hearing their name and they'll run.
So the life experiencing...as a song, expressing as a poem or as a word of inspiration, that's just what's happening. There is no need for explanation and beautiful what Tanya said, this is the main thing and Bob would hammer it forever. No answer in the mind, no need for the answer in the mind. Answering the mind is an obstacle. Not only is unnecessary, it's always wrong. Anything that you put in words, word is not the thing. Any pointer, if you stick on to the sounds and the words, you're looking at the finger, not at the moon.So really, everything that can ever be said in words is said by using ideas and concepts.
But they point to somewhere. And they simply are because, you know, Bob would in the middle of a spiel ask people, are you unaware? Are you unconscious? Now he's asking questions. Have a look. And obviously you can't deny the fact of your own existence. And you can, but you have to exist to even deny it. So this is a pointer. This is the pointer that does not require that many concepts. And it doesn't suggest that there is anything that needs to be understood. It is verified directly in this moment, yes. And that yes is the same yes that Buddha would answer, or Jesus, or Nisargadatta, or Bob.
The same yes. In that awareness of existence, there is no separation. Your awareness of existence is equal to awareness of existence of this cat, or the tree, or whatever, the God. It's the same. The problem starts. When the mind comes with the story that this is not good enough, I need the ecstasy, pleasure. And again, I had a few phone calls this week and some of them were about, yes, but I expected that I will never experience anxiety.I will never experience anger. I'll never experience any form of emotional dysregulation when I see that there is no I. Well, in fact, when you realize there is no I, it's not I that experiences the anger or dysregulation or the fear.
Is just the appearance of a vibration in the space in the consciousness there is no experience sir as such but at the same time why would that vibration be suddenly banned from existing Because of what? Because of the fiction that has never been real? That's unrealistic and illogical. Because of a label, a word called anxiety, which comes with all sorts of expectations and meaning. Rescue, a pest of a human. Oh, yeah. He pushed you. Expressed his preference. I have preference for non-violent thoughts. But just as there is no I, there is no anxiety. Anxiety is a sound. Anxiety brings up a whole bunch of concepts about future suffering and current suffering and blah, blah, blah, past suffering.
But it's just...It's just a sound, but it's a concept that many carry around, seemingly. But I expected if I'm resting in awareness and awake all the time, then why do I experience this anxiety? Well, do you? Do you? Take a look. What's actually happening? If it's when it's... Another instruction, good idea to actually take a look at the body, what's going on, rather than being stuck up here in this loop of anxiety, anxiety, okay, let's go, let's take a look what's happening in the body, paying attention, because where attention is directed is, of course, you know, what is the experiencing, is where the attention is directed.
And there'll be a recognition that this thing that you call anxiety, is not one thing. It's an experience that changes all the time. It's not always there. It can't possibly be. If it was, you wouldn't know anything about it. If you were constantly anxious, how would you know that you're anxious? No, that's a reference point. A reference point.Yeah, and experience, as probably everybody realized by now, is only possible from the background of its opposite. Little children, unless they really seek a handicap, they don't understand the concept of health. Because they've never lost it. It's for granted. It's taken for granted. As they grow up, suddenly the pains and aches come along, suddenly the flu, one, second, third, and then, ah, okay, that's what they talk about.
Health versus absence of it. Pain versus absence of it. Anxiety versus absence of it. Anything that is experienced is experienced in that dualistic appearance. That's how the dream gets so colorful, because it is so diverse. And we have, Bradley says here, at what point is the right and correct part of the wheel making contact with the ground? I love his pointing. Brilliant. Yeah. Yeah, so the whole idea of rightness and correctness and generally what's right, what's wrong, what's correct, what's incorrect, what's good, what's bad, what's pleasant, what's painful, what's preferred, what's not preferred. What are they? They again just labels. The body is naturally drawn.
And the cat will be natural.drawn to something that smells pleasing and naturally moved away from something that smells not pleasing. And there is no concept that this is good or this is bad or this is right or this is wrong. The concept comes only in the narrative. And if it is recognized as what it is, just a narrative, just labeling whatever is the natural movement. Natural attraction and natural repulsion. What's wrong with the concept? Nothing. But it is not believed, it's not binding. If it's right, I don't have to defend it. If it's wrong, I don't have to object it. And if the objections or defending happens, well, that's just another arising appearance in the whole landscape of consciousness.
And Dino, I lost something. No, someone else might have something good to say. Anyone else has something good to say? You're so polite. Yeah. Come on. I'm a little sharing. Oh, wonderful. Only very small, though. One thing that Bob told me that I found very helpful was, I think it was one of the first sessions I had with Bob. I was breathing from the upper chest. And he's like, just notice your breathing, like where you're breathing from. I was like, what do you mean?He's like, you're breathing, like, up here. And I was doing it all the time. Like, and I must have been doing it for years.
So then he's like, just breathe, like, right in your belly. And I was like, okay. So I started doing that and I started feeling a lot better. He picked it up pretty quick too. And I was pretty surprised because no one actually told me that. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It was really helpful. Yeah. And I was surprised how quick he picked it up too. So I'm assuming he had the same. Anxiety, neurosis. Issue. Yeah. So I was very, very grateful. Beautiful. I was always being breathed like a little rabbit. Yeah, I was always. Always funny in the spotlight. Yeah. No, no, it looks like I have a...
Hey, do you want to say something? No.Thank you. Thank you. I didn't think of anything to say, but one I really like is the thinker is a thought, that there's someone here thinking it all, and it's an easy one to fall in, you know, I've got to do this and I do that. Who's thinking all that? Oh, right. There's no one there thinking it. It's just thinking. Or there's no one there that owns the feelings, the anxious feelings or whatever, sad feelings. They're just feelings. And any thoughts that come up, oh, I shouldn't feel this way or whatever. They're just thoughts too and there's no actual person thinking it.
That sense of continuity is there but it's not me that's the continuity or me that's causing the continuity or whatever. Just go, well, you know, what's wrong with right now without a thought? And realise there is nothing you can say about anything without a thought. And the moment you do, there's no thinker that's thinking that thought either.Oh, it's going to dream good. Well, it's because the thought, I think, can't think. Exactly. Well, every... I was just looking at his book and, you know, this is, to me, like that point, the thought I think, I think everything's in this book. So the beginning of time, the Big Bang, everything is in this book, right?
There's parallel universes, multiverses, galaxies. There's time. There's people. There's aliens. But there's also anxiety. There's also rose petals. There's also elephants and continents and cultures and ideas and beliefs. Every single thing is in this book. This is the whole book of creation. Everything that ever was, everything that ever could be, everything that ever will be is here. There's a big thing. It was a sea. And that's the point. Like, it's all, so everything exists. So in this book is the seer, the appearance of seeing, the appearance of the...The object of saying, every object,
Every sense, every individual, every feeling of an individual, every sensation, every anxiety, every depression, every, every, anything conceivable and perceivable pretty much is in here.
And the moment it's like, it's like consciousness or the universe or. Or life itself, as soon as it's open, it's movement. And then there's time and there's sound and there's all these things exist. And everything seems so real. There's a person who was born, the person who's going to die, there's other people, and all the shit show that goes with it. And all the good and the bad and the beautiful. And the ugly and everything. And it's like, it's all in the book. It's all in the book. It's all contained here. Like, there's nothing outside the book. The book is everything. This is God. This is Krishna.
This is Buddha. This is Jesus. This is... Everything that you could ever, and there's nothing can be postulated outside of this. This is the lot. So it's everything and it's just like the best book ever, isn't it? Because it's actually empty. It's totally empty, but it's totally... Of a lot. So everything is an appearance, and including time, including continuity, including, and even the sea.There's no seer as such. There is just seeing of the whole universe and everything. And then it's done. And that's it. The book's closed, the book's open. No one's doing any of it. And yet everything is appearing in it. Yeah, it feels like such a grand show and everything, nothing can be discluded from it.
Everything is immediate. Everything is absolutely spontaneous. And within that, it's like everything, I keep saying the word everything because there is You could say the absolute. You could say everything is that. And the word everything can be that. So this is that, that is that. Everything, everything. So even space is saying it appears in space. It's like, whoa, space is that as well. There's nothing outside of that. And I guess it's absolute bound, there's no boundary, no boundary whatsoever, no perimeters, no circumferences, no ups and downs and directions, no linearity, no continuity. And yet it contains all of the appearance of all of that. And most importantly, it contains the idea of a you and a me and a person who'sand going to struggle and going to die.
And I think... Every thought is in here too. Every single thought. There's nothing outside. So every expression that is possibly, and it has to be conceivable or perceivable. It can't be, if it's not perceivable or perceivable, what is it? That which can't be perceived is the whole book. Pretty amazing show. That's my little bit for today. But the book kept looking at me, and the beauty is actually called Mandela, because it is like a Mandela. It's like a pattern. Like once it's open, everything, the kaleidoscope of every fractal, every... Every molecule, every atom, everything comes into life. Everything spins into existence itself. And in that existence is the sense of a me and a you and a problem and a good and a bad and an anxious person and the suffering and the death and the birth.
And yet it's a fractal. Energy you could describe, pixelating itself, vibrating itself into these seemingly solid forms. And yet it's always, it's always emptiness. It's the whole thing is empty and beautifully, incrediblyfull of the whole vibrancy of the whole show. And the end. I mean, it's done. No, that was absolutely delightful. Yeah, book of consciousness. I think that's what we're going to title today's talk. Maybe book of emptiness. And Julia says, everything that Dean is saying confirms that absolutely nothing is personal. So liberating. Yeah, yeah, everything's in appearance. All appears in the book, all appears in consciousness. Of its own accord. Absolutely. Of its own accord.
It is, and that's a difficulty and a limitation of the language to even say its own accord. It's just, the closest we get to saying it's just happening. It's just happening. And the mind wants to say flow. Not even that. It's just... Limitless potential and it's all all occurring in I'm going to say your because and it makes it personal but it's in that consciousness in that consciousness experienceable yeah and if there were you it's for you It's the experience. You are that. You can't, there's no separating from it. Even that feeling of being me.me, a point in consciousness, all that, is not separate from everything that's happening.
Wow. Wow. Wow. And you can't understand it or believe it, take it on the world value, okay? Okay, I agree with that. What a nonsense. I was talking to someone earlier about having a resentment. Because things weren't going their way. And I was like, yeah, what's my way and what's the way you think? Oh, things are going my way or I want things to go my way today. There's no such thing. But then some of you might think, I'm having a great day. Things are going my way. Or I'm having a sit down, things are not going my way. But yeah, just that. Another tough one.
Judgment. The book of judgment. Every way, every single way is in the book. Always. Every way. There's no way that it can be. And there is no way. And there is no my way. Yeah. It's just a whole lot of happening. Some judge to be what you want and some judge to be not what you want, but all imaginary.All judgments and all wanting and all ideas and everything is still contained in the same book. So you can't get out of it, you can't get in. You can't get out of it, you can't get in, you can't never, you know, it's just, try moving, try resolving, try understanding, try calculating, oh, you know, like any kind of movement is within the book.
Who's the grand poobah who's controlling this book? Yeah, that's what I want to know. Who's the controller? Who's orchestrating it? It is itself, as itself, as itself, doing itself, being itself. Exactly. It can't be anything other than itself. Yeah. So when I was a child, my parents brought us to the movies one time, and my sister and I both ate each two boxes. And back then, you got a lot for your money, right? So we each ate two boxes of Junior Mints, chocolate and mint. And when we got home, both of us threw up. And was cured of evereating chocolate and mint for the majority of our lives.
And I believe my sister Vanessa still does not eat chocolate and mint. However, in the field of awareness, I've seen the trauma and released the trauma. And recently experienced chocolate and mint. And yet, you know, even here and there, you know, and I can taste the cold creaminess, the chocolate and the mint, the separation and have a lovely experience. At the same time. If given the opportunity, I would choose vanilla.So it brings in the conversation of the conditionary aspects that one places in one's life to obtain perfection only to disappear. Tennis players playing on a certain court with a certain ball and racket and tension of the racket, guitar players needing the proper electricity and the setup of the guitar and the attack of the note and the piano player, you know.
And we can spend a whole lot of time chasing really ultimatelythe conditionary aspects that allow us to basically disappear. Because that's been my experience. And so, We spend all this time looking at these conditionary aspects only to find a space within ourselves where we disappear and we reflect back on that experience saying, oh, that was one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. But the reality. Is that it's available. All of it is available in a flicker of an instance.by just seeing it. And we get lost, at least the artists can get lost in the conditionary aspects of trying to obtain perfection so they can simply disappear when the reality again is that just seeing it is an instant experience of gratification within the awareness of what's presenting itself in the present moment.I was just going to say, you can just see it, like as you say, there's just seeing it and then you think, well, I'm seeing it and then you think as if you should be able to see it all the time or whatever and suddenly that becomes a trap instead of just...
And that's the illusion. Yeah, that's the illusion. That's the illusion. As if you ever, it's like, I'm trying to get back home, but you never left. There was never anywhere to go. There was no front door. You can't move. Everything is being experienced. It's experiencing. It's the ing-ing. And the one who wants to see it all the time is not your true self anyway. No, that's right. But it's beautiful. That's part of the whole illusion. The wanting. Yeah, the wanting. That's how the story unfolds. There's nothing wrong with it at all. All in the book. At all. It's beautiful. But then people can get a bit confused and think, oh, everything's happening right now or whatever.
But it's really just like, you know, universal experience and then another universal experience and another universal experience. And perhaps it is all existent and only certain amounts are perceived to be experienced. Different one than a different one.then a different one, and then at some point, you know, there's a different way of the thoughts all disappearing and to just, you know, you know, and kind of, you know, after whatever the multitudes of universal experience, universal experience, universal experience, you know, I could probably just put post-its up and it would happen. Post-it, post-it, you know, coming here, someone says something and it all goes away. And it's just...
Yeah, series of universal experience of the entire universe having a particularset up and then another set up and another set up and there's none it's not ever going to pop up here probably the correct way each one of those setups occurred you know perhaps that was all there and only some bits were seen you know who knows you know but it's not like it's all there all the time Certainly the perception is of a different shape in the next moment, a different shape, you know, different shape, different shape showing up. And there's just no...Yeah, there's no... No at all, I don't think, out there. There's no gold standard.
You know what I mean by that? There's no, it's constant change. That is the whole point of it. It's so constant. It's constantly, constantly revolving, kaleidoscope changing. There is no one state to be aimed for as a state of perfection. Does that make sense? In the dream.It's just not, it's just, God, it is what it is. It is what it is. What is this? What will be will be. Let it be. You know, c'est la vie or whatever. This is, you know. That's it. Stop there. No more. I'll come. I shouldn't have said that. Okay, so give it to me. Because in this book, there's actually like absolute order.
There's predictable patterns. There's total anarchy and total chaos. Everything is included. So there is nothing that can be, there's no particular... Specific formula or way anyone can understand it because it's it can be randomized completely random or it can be it can appear and it can it's always changing it's always moving to predictability to complete unpredictability and and that and and then to be like eventually to see this is absolute freedom and it's boundless because there's no place, there's no particular resting position that anyone needs to be in because there isn't anyone and there's nothing and it's in constant change that there can be discomfort, dysregulation, tension or peace.
All of it is included and everything's possible and everything'savailable and everything is at the mercy of Big brother. They want to find that place. There is that place of perfect peace and happiness somewhere. And the peace is that complete letting go of all personal volition to understand that it can be peace and chaos and anarchy and madness and depression and exhilaration and every emotion conceivable and deceivable once again. I think I agree. Even books. Like people write endless books trying to answer that seeking to find Yeah, contentment. Bible, all other books to answer all the big questions in life, give us some sort of security.
But really we have it all here right now. We have all the answers. Everything. We don't need a book. We don't need anything. We don't need it. But we're always... You sparked that. Yeah, that makes sense. The thing is, you're not seeking, but we're always exploring and stuff is always being revealed anyway. You know, it's the constant changing and revealing going on. Yeah.Just different little moments and bits have stood out to me. The talk of hypnosis and how we hypnotize ourselves. The talk of gratification. What did you just say? Giving, like, meaning to big life questions, like writing about it and then giving it to that person.
Chasing that contentment through books and stories. Trying to fill that void. And trying to fill that void. Yeah, I've been just sitting with the idea. I'm in a crossroads of careers at the moment. So I'm just sitting in this unknown void. And there's just been like a desire for clarity.But in that desire, like once you achieve a desire, What is there? There's like a peacefulness. And you get caught chasing that desire to have this feeling of emptiness or fulfillment. But that's already here. But we get caught on these desires, these thoughts. But when you drop the desires and thoughts, what you're actually looking for is already here.
Yeah, there's nowhere to go. There's nothing to get. But.But we've hypnotized ourselves to believe that something external is going to fill that void or bring that peace. But in the seeing and realizing the seer, there is already peace. Watching and holding it all.Michael says, so special to be listening in and watching. Love you guys. And Peter says, and we love you too, Michael. Peter says, it's just the ink, ink, ink. Yay. Thank you, Peter. And love it, he says, too. Thank you, message. Yeah, yeah, just stepping back and see that even chasing, even the desire appearing as a really charged, emotionally charged thought is an appearance.
Again, on one of those pages of a book or in that ever-present... Omnipresent cognizing emptiness called consciousness in because you are there is a desire if you were in coma there wouldn't be any so the desire is like a guest coming up hello and it is all space doesn't mind it doesn't push anything away it doesn't It doesn't have a problem, even with this, you know, heroin addict looking for survival in sedating the pain of existence.Pace does not mind, even though in long run it doesn't pay off. If there is no better option in the moment, well, that's what the life does. Life is always that predicament in the description of Hindu, Sat Chit Ananda.
The existence, the knowing or the consciousness and the contentment or love for being, love of being, preference for being. That preference for being means survival. That being always does its best by default. It sometimes says, you know, pain avoidance strategies or whatever, like an addiction or an obsession. It seems like a way of... Surviving yes but then it's a a trap too because the mind keeps wanting to escape from its obsessions and addictions and that's it becomes such aSuch an all-pervading... Occupation for the mind itself, you know, being in what was pain avoidance but then becomes painful itself too. Absolutely, and the suffering is not just for that one body-mind organism through which the life is experiencing itself, it's the whole family.
Is a lot of psychological suffering, physical suffering, a lot of suffering, a lot of pain. And from the perspective of space, if not for pain, there would be no pleasure. If not for sadness, there would be no joy. And space does not believe that night is bad and day is good, that heaven is good and hell is bad. They're all equal. And I remember we having that conversation, I think I had it a couple of times too, when people say, so when, when will those stories stop coming up? And I say, nah, it gets better than that. The freedom is so huge. That you don't mind anything, even the stories of anger, fear, dysregulation.
All welcome. How much better is that than just trying to get only to the pleasant point,part of the dream and avoid the unpleasant if the freedom that space like awareness the cognizing emptiness holds is the freedom in which you can stop your toe too and you will and that is in that is in the book that is also what's happening also impersonal and the resistance to that stop toe Yes, welcome, yummy. And the anger because of the resistance. Wow, it's more juicy. Bring it on. It's all part of it, isn't it? And space doesn't mind any of it. Sometimes I think, like, you watch a...
By the side of a river you might see a leaf trapped in this stream going round and round and round. Maybe the leaf wants to get out of that pattern, but nothing can happen. is like that until suddenly the river itself flushes it out or something and it all frees up again. But, you know, strange things like that. And from the perspective of the life experience and expressed through an addict, Life has a value and a quality and love quality, love of being quality. Absolutely. As much as the life of a celebrated whatever, religious dignitary or rock star. They're all temporary. They're all impermanent. They're all dreams.
In 100 years, neither of them is going to be here. Who cares? It is just the moment now. In the story, and Dina and I, we assisted in some trauma release therapy, and we had that really, really... Traumatized meth addict and a heroin addict and wow that was that was supremely intense but the love of being in the moment of release was as beautiful as as anyone is clear when it shines out is It's absolutely beautiful. And at the same time, of course, you know, there are people suffering of depression when there is objectively nothing wrong.Nothing. And they are, through that light of being, shining through the addict equally, as it shines through the winner, or shines through the person with a big physical challenge or mental illness.
Yeah. You can say that, you know, like point out to someone with depression, what's wrong with right now without a thought? And they'll go, oh, yeah, there is nothing wrong. But still, the pattern is not that easy to, I mean, it can be escaped from any time in the now. But you don't know when that'll be, you know. It's like... And, you know, there's great quality of life available too in that, while that pattern's going on, but who knows? They'll go, when will this finish or when will I be free? There's no answer to that. No, because again, from the perspective of that essence, you know, of that field of energy, like electricity, for example, it has so many globes to shine through.
Through some it will be dim forever. Through some it will die or it will break or it will flicker. So you have so many people with different degree of issues or challenges.depression or anxiety neurosis and that life essence experiencing itself just like that electricity through the globe sometimes it flickers sometimes it looks for help sometimes it finds the chemical imbalance in the system and corrects that sometimes it goes to the psychedelic assisted therapy and things pop sometimes they don't sometimes they go and Jump off the building. And again, does life ever die? And from the individual perspective, the book looks completely different. You have a person, I have in my family a person suffering from addiction, not the heroin, but addiction nonetheless.
And if you look closer, I mean, you know, today almost anyone and everyone is addicted to whatever, screens, shopping, food, snacks, whatever. So if you look at any of those repeated dissatisfying tendencies, which promise the dopamine rush and deliver for a moment and then become habituated and they don't deliver anymore. So the suffering that comes with it. But they're all an escape from pain in the first place, aren't they? Yeah. It is to seem to escape the bondage of self through the obsession or the addiction or whatever the substance or behavior is. The boredom. See, one of our cats can't have food left on the plate.
She'll just keep coming back to it. The other one, he will eat whatever he needs to eat.to feel the stomach and walk away. It's just whatever the reason, it's sometimes maybe just the unbearable ache of existence. Like I think Freud said it or something. That was a quote. I don't know if I'll be quoting it right. The therapy. Is aiming at transforming unbearable pain of existence into a bearable struggle. I think the Siddhartha says it too. At one stage he says, dying is easy, living is the heart. That unbearable pain of existence reminded me of the title of the book, Unbearable Lightness of Being. Oh, wow.
Yeah, yeah. And hearing people, you're talking about looking for that fulfillment and the cats. I remember coming home one day and seeing this brown Labrador. I left a box of Weet-Bix on the floor. And this Labrador had no access to water and slowly just tried to eat. We got home and there was like 100 Weet-Bix in this big box. And you could see him wanting more, but knowing he couldn't. And then he was still just trying to eat all the Weet-Bix. And I was like, oh, my God. And I opened up the store and he just run to get some water.I was just like, no matter how much, there's that wanting.
So it was amazing just seeing it in this dog that I guess we've manipulated to not know when it's full. Yeah. Yeah, just see for the pain or boredom, I just see it as discomfort, and it's that discomfort we go to escape from. And I find that when the discomfort's sat with, and for here it's usually fear, fear gets followed, and then a bunch of stuff is revealed, and then it dissipates in various ways, and then sometimes... When there's a look back, it's a scan, there's just like nothing there and part of the life gets better. But also when I looked at boredom and looked more closely, it was an ick feeling that was just associated with like the smallest...
Distinction going on and when there were no little distinction there and thoughts went, no thoughts came up at all that made a little distinction, the ick feeling went away and there's the year back in the moment but yeah boredom was ick and discomfort and I don't think I've really had severe emotional pains really in my life. My mind's been more about survival and discomfort and everything, you know. I still get a lot of that.How blessed. Yeah, I know, very lucky. And also the other one, I didn't get raging emotions, so that also makes it easier to do the observation and stuff. So there's a lot of blessings, definitely.
Like I've seen people come here and, oh, there's that. Oh, my gosh, that must be so in the way, you know. Yeah, but I just find there's a lovely process going on and it might crap out for a week and then there'll be discomfort in that or it might be, well, there's been a lot of letting go happening this week. Wow, that's cool. And life clears up and then there's more space and time for more letting go and it doesn't matter whether there's a letting go process happening or an in the moment process, you know, being Amstate, really no, it's just so clear it's all just going to come as it comes.
Absolutely no preference for any one or the other. There'll still be lots of reactions and shit, you know, going down. Yeah, so I've lost any thread of comment, meaningful comment. Wonderful, freedom from preference. Wow, wow. And reactions, you know, fascinating what the reactions are going to be. How amazing. And Peter says here, never open Pandora box, an old Greek myth. And Julia says, I'm very grateful for these meetings. The message always resonates on a deep level. Thank you, Julia. Yeah, it's a great joy to bring back.to share that effortlessness of existence. Is Julia going to be home in January? That's not this Julia. It's a different American.
Julia from America, actually. But yeah, she might be. I don't know. She's been here last week. I was going to point out something, but it just escaped. So anyone? Anthony, would you want to mind?I feel often, going back to, I guess, what I was saying before, we often get trapped looking for satisfaction and fulfillment of things. Often we have ideas the way things should be, the way things could be. And we spend all our lives with these concepts and ideas. But how often do we give any time of day to the idea that we're already free? And if we sat with this idea, I am free.
And live from that space, what things might look like and how things might change. Just something to explore. That's why we used to start with the fact that you're already that, you know, because you're already free to begin with. This meeting is a reminder of that one essence. Again, patterning, shaping, forming is every expression, every feeling, every junior mint, every decision, every decision maker, everything is in here. But, you know, obviously from a... Individualized perspective like if you're if it seems like you're one grain millis millis less than a milli something or other so minute looking out at all of itWell, there's trouble looming. And because, you know, there's seemingly an individual.
But it's the whole book is making every single bit of it happen, too. So every emotion, every feeling is not, there's nothing separate. So that thought of I need to see these things differently is conspired by the whole universe. You know, so wow, like isn't that incredible when that becomes like so obvious that so there's nothing personal any longer. Every thought, every feeling, every sensation, everything perceivable, conceivable back to the damn book is, is, it's everything is doing it. So there's total innocence in that. There's total boundlessness. There's total resolution to everything is the perfection. Everything has to be resolved because it just is. And there's nothing other than that.
And so, but I think like even just really seeing that, you know, that junior me, those... The whole universe likes that to happen. So the thing was that I didn't mention is when confronted with it, What came up was the trauma. But it came up and it was, and they had a physical experience along with the, with the, uh,The story. It was an experience of just allowing it. Allowing the physicality of what it is. That revealed the beauty of it. And that just within a flicker of an instant, I was able to experience the chocolate and the mint of what it is, rather than pulling from a very strong story.
So it's just a... I think I need to try that with the banana chips and the flu combination or the tequila worms and the beer combination because I can't really have those anymore. So apparently American Constitution says that everyone has a right to pursue happiness. You don't even need those rights guaranteed. Part of the survival instinct which is loving to be is actually pursuing happiness. The ant will go for the honey. The bee will go for the flower. The child will go for a mint. And then also there is self-upgrading and self-organizing and constantly learning survival system.there that again on autopilot will pursue pleasure in a way that will assert as safe as possible everything spontaneously naturally appearing and in some cases pursuing pleasure when that will end up in addiction and in some cases this addiction will be absolutely necessary amplification of suffering for the spiritual search to even start.
And in some cases, that spiritual search will be part of the story with a happy ending. And in others, it will be a story with a different ending. And either way, they are all just the stories in the book. It could occur no other way. No other way. No other way. Just happening as it's happening. Stuff that's seemingly not happening and stuff that is happening. There is no... The idea of right and wrong and how it should be is just that, an idea. An idea that is occurring in the whole thing. That's right. And I lived happily ever after. The end. And born. And I think that's the time.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, everyone.