This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on YouTube.
quality to code. Yes, so this is really about reminding you about that which is already here, already clear, just overlooked or forgotten. Because in the heat of things and in the incredible intricacy of that dreaming machine called mind, making future look real, making past look real, making everything feel so tangible as if it wasn't just a thought.Sometimes those reminders might resonate, that there is this ever fresh presence, the presence of consciousness, that unified field of pure potentiality, that field that is familiar. It is what you are, it is who you are. It isn't far away, it's always here. Oh, welcome, Tony. So that reminder that you are, that you are, not what you are.
This is the domain of the mind. The mind will tell you what you are. You are human, you are bad, you are good, you are tall, short, Australian, American. That's concepts. You weren't born with those concepts. Those third-hand, second-hand information that were imposed as the beliefs, we are reminding you that prior to beliefs is the direct experience, is the immediacy, the knowing, the remembering of just being. Just pure existence, just that openness, openness, the field of openness, when nothing is conceptualized, nothing is labeled. Everything is just here, unaltered, unmodified.Uncorrected, just here. And Mary Ann, just join us. Welcome. And if there is anyone on Facebook who is watching us, you could always go to sailorwopadamson.com slash meetings, click the link and you will be in the room with us.
So Bob would often say it in his brilliant, short, elegant one-liners. We can't teach you anything. Can't tell you anything. We are not to create followers. But to show you that what you are is already present, already. This is the key word. If you are looking for some elevated state, the looking, the act of desiring, longing, seeking is a movement of attention. You are the stillness prior to that movement. You are witnessing of that desire, of that movement, of that seeking. You are already here.Pure presence, presence of consciousness, needing nothing and lacking nothing. And if you think or look at this unified field, that field of energy, that one essence, pure potentiality, the Shiva, the emptiness, the father sky in shamanic traditions, that knows nothing, feels nothing, experiences nothing, is still, is not even there, is so still that there is no referencing for it to even be aware of its own potentiality or its own existence.
And in that field, in Hindu scriptures, the Shakti moves, the energy moves, and the world appears. And that world, the form coming from emptiness, is the dance of that very field. That very field vibrating into patterns, shapes, and forms, vibrating into sounds. Into visual fields, vibrating into every single particle or wave of expression, and see the brilliance of that field vibrating into that incredible body-mind machine called human. The big receiver transformer of energy, of pure potentiality, into seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. Suddenly, that unified, one, filled, open, limitless, free, not even there, stillness, can see, can hear, can experience its own magnificence, can dream. You look at that cat here on the monitor when you see Tanya.
Can you click and say something? Because I don't think Facebook people can see it.You think they can't see past? Now they can. As you speak, they can. Oh, I see. I see. I see. Okay. Say hello. If you look at nature and if you look at that unified field of oneness, which we all intuitively know is all there is, the pure field of consciousness vibrating into a vessel of a cat. Or eagle or a tree, knowing nothing but the present moment as it unfolds, God giving itself an eyes to see and feel and experience through the cat or eagle or tree. Experience presence, experience being, seeing the reflections, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling.
With human machine, there is a little upgrade because it gives itself a capacity to imagine. Cat cannot imagine past, cannot remember past. Well, remember, imagine, we all know that that's kind of morphs and merges. It's been proven along the line how memory is recreated rather than stored in a form of a file. In a good mood, you remember a good aspect. In a bad mood, you remember the bad one. So which one is true? Same with the future. Future is another form of imagination. You get up in a good mood and your future is positive.It's inspiring, it's exciting, you're looking forward to an adventure, a vacation.
But you get up gloomy and, oh, shit, you know, I have no life. This is no life. This is all wrong. And tomorrow is going to be the same. It's always going to be like a hamster wheel. This capacity to imagine that cat doesn't have, life is giving itself in the human form, creating a multiverse with every thought. You can think of the moon. Is it in that room? Nope. But we all agree that there is a moon far away out there. In the mind, but in the direct experience, where is it? Where is the moon now? Isn't just a thought. Just a thought. So that brilliant human capacity to imagine the world of that which is not happening, imagining past, imagining future, imagining all the dreadful bad scenarios, creating strategies to dodge them.
What an incredible capacity, what a dream. And then, because it is so enticing, so hypnotizing, well, you look around. Majority of people actually takes it for granted that what the mind is telling them is the truth.They discard the direct experience. And go with the story. The story of me, the story of mine, the story of luck, the story of missing and longing and not having. And seeking, being a spiritual seeker, trying to find the oneness, which in direct experience cannot be denied. It is right here, right now. If you put the mind aside, could you possibly separate anything without the mind, without labels?Again, you can look at this cat sitting next to Tanya and Tony and see if that cat could label anything having no symbolic language.
Learning language, as it was said in the Bible, eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Suddenly started labeling things as good and evil in relation to what? To me and there we have the central actor the me and what is the me if there is anything outside then i'm inside i'm separate i'm not the world i'm not the field of consciousness anymore i'm not that primary openness in which the whole world arises. But really? Put the mind aside and check again. Instead of believing collective hypnotism, what you were told, you are separate, you are limited, you are a person, you are miserable, you're not good enough, you have to buy things, gather, accumulate, amass, you have to make the name for yourself, you have to get more money, partner, breed children and grandchildren and then get sick and old and die.
Hello. How about coming back to the direct experience?experience, the present experience of being right here, right now. And trusting that, trusting, looking around and being the whole seeing, can you separate without the thought, without the mind, you from the whole field of seeing? Look around for the beautiful field of seeing. It's hanging out, showing up in the wilderness. And in that field of seeing, the pair of eyes arises as well. And the rest of it. But can it be separated? Is the seeing still available if there is no pair of eyes that translates the pure infinite potentiality into the field of seeing? Obviously not. You can't separate it.
Seeing and the instrument through which it happened. Are inherently one, you know, you take the eyes away, it's no seeing, you take the seeing away, eyes makes no sense, they are not eyes anymore, they are not seeing. And the same applies to the objects. If there is nothing to see, is there a seeing? Is there a scene? You can see how elegantly the whole open field of vision, capacity for seeing, through the language, through the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,How that unified one seeing has been divided into subject-object. They are here, seen there. Separate. Infinitely set apart. That's what the mind tells you and that's what we were conditioned since a very, very early age.
As we ate that fruit and as we started conditioning, learning language, more and more labels, words, references, and we are imitating our parents, our school, our society, politicians, rock stars, whoever inspired us. They all related to themselves as separate. So what the chance in the world that poor little new vehicle for experiencing had then adopt that attitude of separation? And there is perfection in that too. Because how could you ever transcend or wake up from the dream you never fall asleep if you didn't? Fool yourself. It's that divine game, the lila. Dancing. Hide and seek. I'm everything, I'm nothing. Oh, no, I'm a separate object in the everything and the nothing.
Again, if you put the mind aside, because this is the beauty of non-duality. This is not just another...belief system, another religion that will tell you that they out there got it and you don't or they are extraterrestrials, chakras, karmas, the beautiful, beautiful pointers, the lovely, lovely artistic expressions of that infinite potentiality. All of that is a magnificent piece of art. But the truth is known directly. The truth is that which never changes. The beliefs, the stories, the dreams, the predominant held beliefs, the collective reality, science, religion.All those things are appearances, they come and go, they flee, they change, they flicker around, they transmit themselves as viruses into the mind.
Yes, this is true. Yes, this is right. And they move on. And what's real? What is never changing? What's always here, always present. Whenever you look, you always hear. What you are, you can't know. Because to know what you are, you need objectifying mind, you need the language, you need the labels. And that would be a lie, of course, because you're not the label, you're not your body, you're not your mind, you're not the vehicle that is constantly changing. You are prior to it. You see the body changing. How could you be this body if you see it changing? You are the seeing, the being, the knowing.
You see how the being doesn't change.The vitality, the vital energy. Yes, one day you may have three coffees and it could be all jittery, yes. Another day you may be really, really sluggish and tired, yes. But the being underneath this experience of being jittery or being tired, The witnessing, the presence, the cognizing of it, the knowing of it, the sentience, the pure life essence that is prior to any and every experience, anything that can be experienced is appearing on that, on that capacity. That capacity that is limitless. See how in that capacity the whole dream arises, the whole universe shows up in that. And this physical universe, not much different than the universe you might have dreamt last night, or multiverse, few of them, not that much different.
From the universe you may fantasize about. Thinking about your loved ones or about your enemies. The thought that brings up all the fully sensory experience in the body. One thought. Incredible dreaming machine. Looking from the perspective of that life essence, thatfield, that unified, pure potentiality, that oneness, that is even not oneness, potentiality is not even one, it's potentially, potentially everything, but not even really one, but for the lack of a better words. If you see that essence giving itself, birds, giving itself that luxury of seeing a reflection of its own infinite nature through the eyes.And you are not the eyes for God. You are that life looking through.
And then, yes, but why don't I look through every eyes? Well, maybe you do. But why don't I know it? Well, that who knows is not you. It's the mind. It's a processor. Every processor has location. But that which is using the processor is always here. Every time you look, where are you? Who are you? You are here. What are you?Don't let the mind tell you that. Have a look for yourself. Just put the mind aside. Come to the place of heart, of quietness. Some of the Zen schools have that little shortcut trick. Maybe someone will call it a bypass. Who cares what you call it?
The mind answering the question, who am I? I don't know. Very humbling for the mind to say, I don't know. Some people have anxiety attack and they will never admit, oh, I don't know. It's such a beautiful place to say, I don't know. I have no idea.Bob, who was pointing for nearly 50 years. Taking his last breaths. If you ask him, who are you? No idea. You can put the big words, awareness, life, God, infinite reality, but really, does any word do a justice to that incredible mystery of just existence, looking out and seeing the whole world appearing in that looking, in that seeing? And in a moment of insight, aha, that is what I am.
Wow. And then someone shows up in a physical form and again, oh, I'm that now. And that, and that, and that, and that. None of it is who you are. Those are just fleeting reflections. What you are or who you are is completely beyond grasp. Those fleeting reflections throughout the daydreams, nightdreams, fantasies are just a minute little glimpses of your own infinite nature if you see the appearance as just a reflection.And what you are, you are the presence here. You're always here. What is showing up is coming and going. Every experience, experience of boredom, coming and going. Experience of elation, excitement, coming and going. Even experience of a cosmic union of oneness.
Beginning and end. What is prior to all experiences?Never not here. Always now. The mind will put all sorts of concepts on it. That's its nature. If you see mind for what it is, you'll love it. It's amazing. It's literally amazing. The little function. The little biocomputer, having all sorts of brilliant survival strategies, making it easy to protect that incredible dreaming machine in the dreaming world so that it is safe and it keeps dreaming. And when the little child is born, you know, that so-called mind, that artificial, one could say, intelligence, but it's nothing artificial. Everything is natural. Every intelligence, every form of intelligence, every pattern comes from nature.
It is a vibration of the same one field of infinite possibilities. This infinitely intelligent, Bob used to call it intelligence energy. The energy that has incredible intelligence in organizing itself in stars, galaxies, planets, nervous systems, bloodstreams.Thoughts. Storytelling capacity. Wow. Wow. What an intelligence. And the mind. So-called mind. Surviving. If the child doesn't get the loving attention, well, it may become naughty. Any attention is better than no attention. Without attention, there is no experience. Is there a past if you don't attend to it by remembering it? Where is it? Attention is it.Everything is attention. Attending. So survival strategies of being naughty, of being pleasant, of being people pleaser, of looking for approval, being liked, wanting to belong, or being a bully, or being a drama queen, or being a giver, or performer.
All of those incredible strategies to survive, to get attention, to allow that dream machine to be seen for what it is, to be acknowledged, to be loved, because that unified field of pure potentiality Some call it God, you may as well call it love. It's the loving to be. Being, awareness of being and loving to be. Love of being, delight of being. The natural state is naturally. Wow. It's a delight in being.And it doesn't promise that you never get angry or you never get sick or you will never have negative emotions or the dream will all go smooth and you will get money and name and fame.
No, the freedom is far, far, far simpler and more direct. Nothing needs to change. It is to be recognized immediately. We have seen the accounts of people who found freedom in a prison cell, in concentration camps, freedom of being at service, freedom of being comfortable with having no idea, not needing to have everything solved, worked out of
fixed, freedom of trusting that life force which is beating your heart. Which is giving you the next thought. Which is leaving you, which is experiencing itself as you in this form right now, exactly as it wants to. Recognizing the perfection, even in discomfort, especially in discomfort. Especially if the human drama come to the place of loss, losing the loved one or having a health challenge or scare.
Wow. And finding that place of, hmm, wow, what a dream. And it is going to end. As it does every night. When you just give in that controlling, that illusion of control, that illusion of choosing, of willing, of struggling against the stream of life and losing always, every time, unless you are a positive thinker and you convince yourself that, oh yeah, that's exactly what I wanted. And perpetuating the illusion of control, the illusion of self.playing that hide-and-seek game. And having fun, that's perfect too. That's why, again, non-duality in its beauty and elegance does not need followers. We don't need a huge sangha of people who will be fixed.
We will fix them because they are broken. No one's broken. If you don't see the perfection in the way life plays and shows itself to itself, well, obviously, try again, look again, look now. But put that interpretation aside. See that there is nothing wrong without the thinking. It's only the mind that can tell you that this is wrong, this is not right. In the moment, and this moment you may be hanging on the cross, but if there is no thought that tells you that you shouldn't be doing, that's wrong, or they are doing it to you, without that thought, This moment is just current breath, seeing, hearing, presence.Just now, consciousness appearing to itself as that.
This ever fresh moment, never to be repeated, never to be the same again. Invitation to recognize that there really isn't anything wrong. Unless the mind comes and convinces you. But hey, what is the mind and who is to be convinced?Because this is a joke. The mind is a stream of energy forming up that vibration called thought. The attention forming itself into the thought that is being attended, mental image. And that mental image is so hungry of all the attention that it makes that cloud seemingly cover the sun.And now I'm not the infinite reality anymore. Now I'm a poor, miserable human being living in a hamster wheel, having a drama after drama, being overworked, overwhelmed and insomniac.
Oh my God, shoot me now. But the way out is just... What's wrong with right now? If that mind is just gently put aside and you land back in this ever-present here, you're right. Can you see the crowd there in the background?Oh, that's a pity. Zoom is cutting it off. So nature is absolutely wild. So the freedom is underneath all the storm, the stillness. Is underneath the crashing waves of the mind. There is always that. He seriously wants attention, that crow.Yes, so we have, I think we have nine people with us here. I don't know how many of us is on Facebook. So until maybe the crowd will finish the conversation, maybe I'd like to invite any one of you to jump in and share your insights.
Because, you know, like, let's face it, you all are absolutely certain of your own existence. No one is doubting that, oh, maybe I am, maybe I exist. I'm not quite sure. Come on. Everyone know, even to doubt it, you have to be present for it. So this is really it. This is the most underlooked, undervalued truth that is immediately available. The miracle of existence, the luminous radiance of this present moment of sentience, aliveness right here, right now, always here. And the mind giving, bringing up all the stories, projecting all the movies on top of that.But underneath the stories is the seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling immediately available here.
The moment attention goes to the hearing, you're present. Or it goes to the body, feels... The sensations, body is imagined, it necessarily has to be there, just like in the dream. For the energy to be transformed into the seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. But sensing it without even a mental image of the body, the sensing, the current sensation is always present. It's not happening in the past. It's not happening in the future. So it's not happening. In thinking is known directly. It's like this is everything that the cat knows. Feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting. Or the crows or bellbirds around here. From that place, if you stay there, you grant yourself there.
See what reminders you could offer to yourself in others.Because you speak as that one life. Without the concept of being separate. Anyone? Tanya, would you hop in? Kat, we have just a couple of comments from people watching on Facebook. Oh, yeah, bring them on. Yeah, just a couple of short ones. Natalie says it's all right here and beautiful sharing, Kat. And Tom says exquisite. Oh, thank you. And yes, it is all right here, isn't it? All the past. Where is it? It's a fleeting thought right here, right now. Can you find it anywhere else?Then right here, right now as a thought, the trauma, the conditioning.
The whole survival strategy is forming up the personality. What are they? beautiful, enchanting, hypnotizing story that looks so real, so convincing, so incredibly convincing, that you should just bow down and say, wow, this is amazing. But how real is it? Can you grasp it? Can you touch it? Can you find it anywhere? Does it have any substance, any solidity? All the most horrific dramas, abuses that happen to you or anyone in the world, or the most elating, wonderful experiences of respite and joy and love, where are they? Now, if you don't think,That cat also had an experience of pain and pleasure. But his heart is always in the now, not in the past, not in the future, not in comparing, not in judging, not in that which can't be experienced in any other way than through imagination.
And this is not to discard imagination. Oh boy, enjoy the imagination is so to be enjoyed.but knowing for what it is, so it doesn't hurt. I used to believe the idea that I was this poor, miserable human being. Ugly, stupid, not good enough, unlovable, limited, longing, longing, crushed by that incredible longing for something else, not this, something other, not this. This moment is shit, it's not good enough. I was told that there is this supreme state of ananda, endless ecstasy, orgasmic enlightenment that lasts forever. And I wanted it so bad I was ready to die for it. What is that I that wants what is not?
What is that magic trick of that whole construct of the mind, that mental images given life essence of attention to it and appearing so real, so real. I literally believed I was this person, mini me, somewhere limited. Separate from the universe which arises in me. I can't talk myself into it ever again for over a decade, but it was so convincing.It was no way that I could stand being that limited thing. I had to, I was condemned to suffering and seeking the way out. But that I that was condemned was just a mental construct. The mental construct hijacking presence. To make it feel sentient. Well, incredible trick, a mental concept, hijacking the aliveness so it feels so sentient that my pain is, oh my gosh, this is me, I am that pain, I am that desire, this is who I am.
I'm not the consciousness in which they arise. I am just this and I can't stand it. Wow.And even simple logic can snap you out of it, you know, like two minutes before that pain arose. Were you not there? Two minutes after it shifted or got better or worse. Are you not there? Are you not always there to see all the dramas and traumas and stories? Are you not there since seeing the body growing and aging? Always there, witnessing presence, cognizing emptiness. Of course, you need the eyes to see.You don't, really. But you have. When you go to sleep at night, these physical eyes are closed.
And you dream yourself another set of eyes, another body. Those eyes are open. That simple. The omnipotence, the infinite power, the life itself, omnipotence, omnipresence. Dreaming to see the reflection of its infinite nature. The only thing to do, get out of the way, let it. But the one who is to get out of the way is not your true self. You are always here. What gets out of the way is the software that is interpreting it, translating it and telling it that it is limited, that it is not it, not now, not yet, maybe in the future. If you meditate more or chant or serve.
Not now. But is there any other time than now?What is future? Isn't just another thought? See how enchanting that incredible dream is. Making you feel that the future really exists. And you are a person moving through time. Time is something prior to you and you appearing in it. The world is something prior to you and you are a small little element of this world.You are the world. Without the consciousness that you are, there is no world. What world does the corpse experience? Or someone in coma? You are the world glimpsing at itself. Yeah, another invitation. Anyone? Highlights? Tony, yay. Okay, hang on. Just thinking the, you know, you've got the two sides, so the cat doesn't have a story, but the cat is definitely sensation-seeking, or like you were saying before, trauma-reacting.
In the sensory system so i think they're both quite weighty things in their own right so i think yeah human duck can does have a greater capacity for like a you know trauma release to an ultimate more peaceful existence so the cat's being screwed over um it's less likely that those systemic reactions aren't going to keep taking place so it's it's kind of like yeah two two buckets of misery there really and humans may have a double dose but then they also have the potential to have a sort of uh you know hardly any so yeah it's just a thing yeah yeah beautiful and a cat has no concept so when a cat finds itself in theenvironment that is extremely uncomfortable yeah yeah yeah absolutely so even though there may be pain there may be discomfort there is no suffering because suffering comes from the idea that this pain shouldn't be there's some suffering there's you know resistance resistance suffering yeah Yeah, yeah.
And of course, you know, the wildlife, my gosh, they're striving for every next meal. We take it all for granted. They are in constant game of just preserving the body.So there is suffering and stores suffering. It's again, it's not necessarily a psychological suffering because there is no there is no commentary about it. But yes, there is this algorithm, this vital algorithm of loving to be preserving life, meaning following pleasure, avoiding pain. Pleasure associated with hunting, whatever the cat is hunting and running away for whatever is a danger or hiding from the cold. All that natural... Yes. And the way the CAD has designed the strategy, the place I'm staying, I was staying for the last couple of nights, I'm again assisting in a really big endeavor, trauma release, breath work and stuff.
I'm just taking my time off and I'll be rejoining. The place where I'm staying, actually, out of the blue, the cat has shown up in the middle of the night. Cat that has never been seen before. Didn't look very wild, a young female cat, meowed itself to get the door open, invited itself at home. And then invited itself to my room, hopped under the blanket and slept with me. Never seen it.But the strategy of that animal to actually have that little, that beautiful little oxytocin release meow. And that's how he hunts or she hunts. Yeah, little predator. Preying on that vulnerable human nervous system, which is wired to respond to the oxytocin release coming from the meow.
And they got me every time. With the greatest of pleasure, because oxytocin release is quite rewarding. So all sorts of different strategies in nature are all in service of loving to be. And human strategies, you know, one of the super traumatized people that we were working with yesterday was a lady who was so trapped in her mind because there was so much abuse, so much trauma, so much stress. There was also severe decades long drug addiction and the fear that they are out there to get us, you know, the big pharma, these guys, they all on hunger. Fuming.And you have to see that this anger wouldn't be there if she didn't care so deeply.
If there wasn't this huge reservoir of love, loving care, saying no to any source of injustice, But instead of having that love translated through the projector that is always designed to find faults, because that is certain, the survival, that increases the chances, the negative thinkers, the mind which says, oh, this is dangerous, oh, that can go wrong. Make sure that the body survives, procreate, and our great, great, great grandfathers and grandmothers in the story of humans imagined right now are those survivors of the negative thinking. So when she actually saw after a while that, wow. The capacity of love, like thousand volts of love, loving care.
If she can fearlessly embrace it, rather than send it to the mind to transform it into that low,Fear is the same as the love of being, love for safety. Shame is the same. It's love for that sense of self-completeness, the self-acceptance, the self-soothing, being received. Everything is love. Directly, non-directly, is just one energy. Brought to the language, to the algorithm that is designed to protect, of course, highly likely it will be translated into something dangerous, fearful, anxious, uneasy, incomplete, wrong.Because that's what's necessary for survival. But, you know, seeing the mind as a tool, making it a servant and not the master. That's its role. Seeing the mind for what it is.
It is a mind. It is a tool. It is a set of algorithms assisting survival. So when the body says, rumbling the stomach, the mind says, oh shit, I'm starving. No, you're not. But there is an action thought to go and maybe drink a glass of water or have a meal.And when the bladder is full, the mind will again throw a little story. Oh my God, again, I don't know where I'm going to go. The toilet's not around. It's a very, very simple assistance. It's the communication. It doesn't even have to be translated to words. The cat can live happily without the mind telling it what it is.
Cat doesn't know it is a cat. Cut is that window through which the universe look at itself without any contamination of concepts, any translation to the idea that I am separate from what I'm seeing. No. The cat is looking out and is one with the environment, responding to it all the time. One with it. He's one with Tanya patting him. Tony, do you have something more or anyone else? No, I was just looking at this. Oh, Charlie. Hey, good to see you, Charlie. Do you have something to say? No, I just made a smart comment that you were speaking about yourself. We kept mentioning cat, that's all.
I'm just being silly. God, be silly, please. We love you being silly. Modus operandi is normal.See, the universe is showing up as silliness, as playfulness, as bulliness, as everything. But when you see that this is just another reflection of its infinite potentiality, can't help but just... Love it all or none of it. It's all a dream. There's one piece of music in Gustav Holst's The Planets. And he wrote a piece on Jupiter. And that music particularly expresses what you just said. Yeah. It's so beautiful. Yeah. It's the whole range, like Mars, Mercury, but Jupiter, jolly. Send us a link, Charlie. Send us a link when you can.
I'll listen. I can make you a CD, really. Can you play a CD? Okay, I just, I had the thought of sharing it in our comment to the upload, so anyone else can hear. But if it's not, then no, let's be inclusive. We need that update by 20 years. Okay, no, no. If it's something private, we'll do it after the meeting. Yeah, but thank you. But it is actually a wonderful reminder, you know, the silence, what a reminder. And music, what a reminder. What a way of expressing itself, you know, and it's life. It's not the artist. It's life through and past the artist expressing itself always.
The life is expressing itself through you as you already and always. It's only the mind that tells you, no, no, I'm the doer. I choose my thoughts.atmospheric notions instead of idea-based conceptual notions popping up. That's what music gives, atmospheric notions. Oh, it's beautiful. I mean, it sort of keeps me sane. You guys who are on Zoom with us, you may just unmute yourself and chip in, or you may want to raise your hand so we see who wants to say something. And just contribute, drop anything, one word or one question. And you can, you know, we can take that exploration any direction that kind of...
That you are inspired to take it. You know, we may explore particular aspect of it, or we may, you know, it's our shared dream. Yesterday, there's a place that puts out, makes little blocks of these amazing photos this guy's taken and some phrases, and then two-thirds of it goes to a charity in Africa or something. But yeah, one of the phrases I got yesterday was, not all who wanders is lost. And it just, that is great because you might appear to be wandering around, but you know, you're never lost because, you know, you're just right here and everything that ever led up to whatever is happening right here in this vicinity is, is only, it was only ever going to be like it is.
As it is.Yeah. Pure perfection. Absolutely. The universe experiencing itself and showing itself to itself as this right now. And if the mind says, no, this is no good, there's something better yet, then this mind objecting to it is part of it too. It's part of the perfection too. If you believe you are a spiritual seeker, poor, miserable, little, limited me that wants to be one with everything, that is part of it too. That too is appearing in consciousness right now. If that universal omnipresence, omnipotence, life, God, love, whatever you want to call it, wants to experience a separation, who are you to object to it?
Just say, welcome. Feel as separate as you ever want. Just make it worse. And see how you are awareness of that sensation arising. You are the knowing of it arising. You are the knowing of any limitation that you can ever put on yourself. Just like you are the seeing of the whole universe, the whole universe arises in that seeing and you also together with it. That is the direct experience. Only the mind comes and says, no.No, the world is and I am born into it and growing and I'm the body and I am limited. Beautiful story, very convincing. That's the point. That's the point of a dreaming.
When you dream at night, And the whole world appears out of nowhere. The consciousness steers and then you may be out in nature or in the buildings. You may be arguing or eating or flying or whatever is happening in the dream. The whole world appearing out of nowhere in the consciousness.Are you really a dream character in that world? Are you the consciousness dreaming? When the dream ends. Yeah, you could say it in a miniature sense, Kat, because the experience is this. There are times I've been totally aware that I'm dreaming. And more recent times, I'm not aware I'm dreaming. So that is a metaphor for what you're talking about.
Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. But it is also, it can be recognized directly right in this moment. The dreaming, the dreaming is always on. So long as the body is present, the seeing is happening, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling is happening. That's the dreaming. That's the conversion of the pure potentiality into the appearance, into the Maya, into that magnificent dream. It's always on. The content is changing. You know, the primary sort of a dream, like this immediacy of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, and the dream, the multiverse inside, you know, what exists in the imagination, the past, the future, the trauma, the collective stories, the nations, the sea.It is all of that, the multiverse dream within the dream.
Appearing right here. In the consciousness. This is appearing right now. Where is it when you don't think about it? Where is it when it's not attended to? It is the life essence or the attention shaping itself into the form of that dream, that very dream right now. You are the emptiness turning into forms. And because that emptiness turning into formsis having a glimpse of its own nature. It localizes itself and it feels like, oh yeah, I am the dream character here. And this is out there. How else could ever anything be experienced? It has to be experienced dualistically without the duality. There is no experience.
We have one of our evening calls, one of our participants often remind us a quote from the Course in Miracles. In the infinity, there creep a tiny mad idea of separation, for which the Son of God, which is the extension of that light essence, remembered not to laugh. It creeps one idea, the idea of separation. Without that idea, can separation ever be experienced? And yes, the dream must be dualistic.It has to be up and down. If there is no up and down, what is it? If there is no light and dark, what is there? If there is no winter, summer, good, bad, pleasure, pain, what is there?
The infinity of nothingness, the pure potentiality. So for having the taste, the touch, the smell, the sight, the... The infinite radiance of colors and shapes and forms and vibrations and sounds and sights and stories and movies and dramas and traumas and all that. You see that, you know, that pure white light of infinite potentiality. Heating that crystal of the body and becoming a rainbow of seeing all the colors, hearing all the sound, not all of them, but you know, let's face it, that the potentiality is really infinite. It can equip itself with a little telescopes or binoculars or microscopes. And it can equip itself with the hearing extension device and register the infrasound and ultrasounds like, wow, what an incredible, incredible medium that for the life to really shine.to know itself.
And then the mind comes and says, oh, you are small, you are little, you are miserable, you are poor, you incomplete, you separate. Without you, there is no world. There's nothing at all. The consciousness is prior to the idea of smallness, to the idea of separation. Come on, John, say something. John has said, John put in the chat a link to that piece that Charlie mentioned, Gustav Hult, Jupiter. But Ben has given us a long comment, which I'd like to read out. Okay, so Ben says, Kat, thank you for preserving a very direct and uncompromising pointing. The power of this teaching is that it refuses to let the mind turn awakening into another achievement for a separate self.
What I find most beautiful in this tradition is the simplicity. Before every story, every wound, every ambition, every fear, there is this undeniable presence, the knowing that experiencing is happening. At the same time, I'm curious about the mystery of how this recognition expresses itself in human life. If there is no separate self, There is still a human organism.with history, relationships, pain, love and responsibility. How do we honour the apparent person without reinforcing the illusion of separation? Perhaps the deepest compassion is not found in denying the person, but in seeing that the person too is an expression of the same intelligence energy, not separate from the whole.
Thank you for pointing people back to what cannot be lost. That what we seek is already what we are. That was absolutely beautiful. That was beautiful. And yes, totally. You know, when you see everything as a reflection of that infinite potentiality, that godly life or love, how could you not fall in love in a human mind, in a human person, in personality, in all that intricate, colorful mandala of survival strategies? And unique characteristics. I'm just trying to copy the link at the same time as I'm speaking. Maybe I'll just... No, that was precious. That was beautiful. Thank you. And I was actually hoping that John wanted to chip in something also.
You always have such a good stuff to share, John.Yeah, that was really lovely, such a clear description, whoever just left that comment. Thanks for that. Yeah, I've been really sitting with this the past couple of days, the nature of language, our ability to communicate these things, to have this conversation, to really share from our experience in such a way. It's an incredible tool. And it's really important to remember that what we're doing is simply expressing with the use of symbols. That's all that words are, they're representations. And as such, they have meaning, they mean something. But when we use this language inside of our mind, we forget that it's symbolic, we start to take it very, very real, really, we see it as reality.
But the reality is simply that it's a thought. And if we don't realize this, if we don't realize the nature of this immediate experience of thinking for what it is, then we get completely lost in it and confused and take it. It is reality and we start just this process of fighting ourselves. And, you know, it's also incredible to think thatthis language, this belief process, is in no way linked to reality. I mean, you know, I was thinking back to when I was a kid, I was with my brother and we saw Peter Pan, and we were like absolutely convinced we could fly. And I'm just grateful we didn't like climb a very tall tree because we proved that wasn't true.
And it wasn't because we weren't believing it hard enough that we like hit every branch on the way down from that tree. But my brother more than I, he was kind of the guinea pig. It's just because that's not an option, unfortunately, unless you develop some incredible city I've never come across. But, you know, that's how strong thought is. It is a complete blank slate. You can program in any way you see fit. And those beliefs we see in our lives and people around us and superstitions and, you know, religions and views that... You know, really, again, having this impulse for paradise, for helping themselves and helping others, cause others tremendous suffering.
But it's based upon that inherent desire to live and to do well, even when it manifests that way. In our own lives unless we realize that this is thoughtwe really will confuse that thought with reality. And again, it's not, this isn't anything spiritual or, you know, that requires a belief system, quite the opposite. It's just the simple nature of seeing reality as it is, separate from language. And while the language and the unconscious and imagination has so much depth, we're very lucky that from this perspective of awareness, it's incredibly simple. It's just there is the arising of thought. And who am I? What is happening now?
That isn't a thought, that is not a word. And when you sit in that, you are left with the presence of being and it just starts to unfold and things start taking care of themselves and you're left with the sense of all that joy and meaning and everything you were looking for. Yeah, and it's as simple as being with what you already are.Yeah, and you know, for me that it's this both and where It is already here completely, wholly, and fully. And I also need to remind myself and make sure to check in. Like there's this quote, I don't remember, it's from Zogchen who said it, but we're all perfect, but we could use a little help.
We could use a little work, that's it. Everyone's perfect, but you could use a little work. And that's it, that's the line we walk.That was beautiful. That was beautiful. I can't overestimate the magic of reminding the absolute simplicity of that. It cannot possibly be simpler. Language is the complicating factor. Language is the duality. The immediacy is always singular. Singular being, singular seeing, singular this-ing. No division. You can't separate yourself. You can't. Language is required for any conceptualization, for any suffering, any story, any objections, any doubts, any dreams, any desires. It's simpler, it's more direct, it's prior, it's primary. Every newborn baby is born into that.Exactly, and this process of getting so identified with this, and then, you know, we need to take that backward step, as they say in Zen, to precede it, or we will end up believing it and following it wherever it goes in an attempt to solve itself.
But we view these thoughts as somehow incomplete. They say I'm suffering or I'm not enough. And instead of seeing them as fully formed and complete thoughts that exist unto themselves, we think they need something more. And therein lies this process of just chasing your tail forever. Only when you realize that there is no problem to solve, that you're able to drop it. Only when you realize that, like the Tao says something along the lines of, you know, when you cease problem solving, there will cease to be problems, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or like Bob would say, you know, what's wrong with right now if you don't think about it?
Million dollars for anyone who can prove that wrong.Where is your past when you don't think about it? Where is your future when you don't think about it? Where is your identity? Any. Any identity. Who are you when you don't think about it? Knowing directly, innately, without being a follower, a believer of something or the other. Without subscribing to what you were told by science, by medicine, by biology, by history, religion, cult, belief system. Simpler than that.And of course, you know, if life is unfolding in a way of following a bhakti path and worshipping some person or the other, wow, yummy. But you can wake up to that dream.
That's the joy, waking up to the dream. But the dream goes on. And you're leaving the dream. Rather than inevitable waking up from the dream. When you go to sleep, you go to coma or you die. Nothing's lost either. Nothing is lost. Energy can't be destroyed.Can you hear me? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Ben has added a bit more. He says, if the seeker is an illusion, who is it that feels the longing for liberation so intensely? Is the longing itself the movement of the absolute recognising itself? And are we the absolute, as Nixagadatta seemed to believe? Beautiful, beautiful question. Yes. What's the seeking? What's the longing?
Tony says the nervous system. Well, nervous system is a mental image. But even without the mental image of a nervous system, that urge, that pull, that urge, you know, like thirst, thirst for the truth or thirst for a drop of water on the desert. What is this? Does it have to be anyone behind it? Or is it just a raw energy appearing as that, grasping, wanting, seeking, craving? Drop of water on a desert or a piece of peace of truth or bliss or ecstasy or respite from pain. That movement of energy appearing in consciousness that you are. And mind telling you that.that, oh no, you are at the other end of this urge.
You know, the next thing mind will tell you, oh, you are beating your heart. You better make sure that the next beat will be there on the right time. No, mind is only an interpreter, interpreter, it's a storyteller. It's a little bit of a liar too. Innocently. All stories are fiction. Yeah, yeah. Innocently. Innocently. It's an expression, you know. It's an art. All stories are just pieces of expression. Santa, separate person. Me, good enough, not good enough, wow. Seeking, wanting. All movement of energy is one essence. One of Bob's book is one essence. Appearing, experiencing and expressing as everything.One energy field, pure potentiality, emptiness, becoming form, but not one form, just the 10,000 things, 10,000 meaning infinite, nothingness.
And moving away from uncomfortable feelings. And moving away from uncomfortable feelings, yes. That's what it comes down to. Exactly it, yes, and following bliss, pleasure. Just that binary movement. Yeah, which may be that former thing. Yeah. Which may be also the moving away from uncomfortable feelings, the bliss. I'm not sure I get more the moving away, you get more the bliss seeking. So I don't know, you probably know more about that. No, it is one and the same movement. It feels like there is two. I'm chasing pleasure and I am avoiding pain. It looks like it's two. But if you really look, it is just the presence or absence of that movement.
One movement. Away towards one movement. And in that one movement, different degree of energy or charge in it.Avoiding pain, chasing pleasure. These two sides of the same coin. Every animal, every bird, every tree, even a sunflower, moving towards the sun, comfort, pleasure, survival, life-giving force. And away from that which is depleting, uncomfortable. The pure primal intelligence. Loving to be. It could be which way the moving is facing. So here the moving is usually facing what it's running from, and you probably the moving tends to face more to what it's running towards. Yeah, you can see two faces of the same coin, huh? Yeah, or yeah.
There's one's more like, and the other's more like. And again, it depends on the situation. Yeah. You know, that lady that I was working with, was it yesterday or the day before, severely, severely traumatized, abused and under incredible strain and just... So much anger. Obviously, the whole conditioning was to just run away to safety. But behind that is love for being, love for justice, love for safety. Behind that, even though it kind of feels like the movement is away, from that which angers, at the same time, it is the movement towards that which is the opposite. It's simultaneous.Simplicity. The amazing simplicity and the comfort of not really, not really needing to have it even figured out.
Yes, you can, it's satisfying, isn't it? To actually see, oh yeah, right. Even that seeming duality is actually one. Light and darkness, well, is it really? It's a seeming duality. But is it really? It's just the presence or absence of light. Presence of light is light. Absence of light is darkness. It's still one. Two faces of the same coin.But to experience light or darkness, they have to appear. interchangeably. They have to have reference point of its opposite. That's how the illusion is made, how it's created. And then you see it and oh, wow, wow, it's that simple. You know, like a flickering film through which light penetrates.
And then you have this beautiful movie. With beautiful characters and storyline and worlds in it and fights and loves and reconciliation and it moves you to tears or it gives you the scary suspension. It's just a light moving through the film. When the dark spot, there is no light passing. When it's the light spot, there is the light passing through. And everything in between, the magic trick, the one, one energy field, suddenly going through that transformer.and showing up as this. As these channels, channels of experiencing, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, imagining, or thinking. And can you not again honor and appreciate the vessel which makes it seemingly possible?
The Maya, the colorful dress, the colorful, every character, every piece, every blade of grass, every flower, the flowers behind me here. Absolutely unique, unrepeatable, magical, showing up that quality of that infinite perfection.shining as big peyote cactus growing in front of me, or San Pedro, whatever it is, or the clouds in the sky, or a person with their dreams, their fears, their hopes, their longing to be seen, or longing to be held or loved. Amazing. What an incredible dream. And the stories that that person brings in. I'm limited. I'm unworthy. I'm not good enough. I need to heal. I'm broken.Wow. Definitely honoring the whole magnificent display.
Humbly remembering that this appearing all because of presence. If there is no presence, if there is no aliveness, no sentience, no consciousness, there is no world. There are no people, no flowers, no skies. Humbly remind yourself about your own infinite nature. Don't try to be smaller than that. You are the consciousness and the world appears in you. And it's not the grandiosity. That's the direct experience. For the mind, mind is just an algorithm. No grandiosity for the mind. You're not more special than any other algorithm, than any other biocomputer. And yes, you are unique, absolutely unique. Every set of strategies, every personality, every character, unrepeatedly, like a snowflake, unique.
And beautiful in its uniqueness. Not better, not worse, no different. It's just another reflection of the same one. Energy field.And again, the mind always dwelling in comparison, always wanting what is not. As a rule, a man is full. When it's hot, it wants it cool. When it's cool, it wants it hot. Always wanting what is not. Never wanting what is God. While relaxing into that humble heart, opening your eyes and seeing without conceptualization, opening your ears and hearing without comparing it with the past melodies that were better or worse, experiencing the current breath, being completely present with the way The universe reflects itself for itself, through itself, as itself, right now.
Because it will never be the same again.And then witnessing the mind arising and grabbing the attention. But hey, what about my chores? What about my duties? What about my responsibilities? I can't just sit here and blaze out. Things have to get done. Getting things done is part of it too. You can see how things are getting done without you doing them. You can be that humbled presence, non-dual, non-doer. And seeing how the urge arises in the body and the kids are looked after. Or the little cat jumps under the blanket and... Ah, okay. Things happen by themselves. It's the same life essence, the same omnipotence that is giving you the next thought.
Okay, dishes need to be washed. And you can see how the dishes are being washed, still being present to that happening. And then the mind is going to run the story about my boss hates me, I'm going to get fired. And you can see how even that is included. The story is running in consciousness. You are the presence.And then attention, the seductive nature of the mind will hijack all of that presence and transport the sense of identity into, yes, yes, but the boss really hates me. I'm really going to get fired. Wow, what a yummy, yummy spectacle. How much would you pay to get that level of convincing entertainment?The full 3D immersion experience.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just the invitation is to wake up to that dream, realize it for what it is, enjoy the ride. Because however serious it is appearing, however important and however urgent and however overwhelming it is appearing, it's just an appearance. That consciousness in which it is appearing is never overwhelmed, is never touched. The screen is never touched by the drama.And you are that screen. And... You know that deep, deep, deep inside. Everyone knows that. Everyone was born that screen, that pure empty consciousness. It's not something that you have to believe. Oh yeah, I want to believe that I want to be like this. I see if I can hypnotize myself and convince myself to believe this.
No, this is never going to work. Fake it till you make it? No. It's only mind that is faking, it's believing, it's disbelieving. Knowing is immediate. Recognition of that knowing is immediate, prior to thinking, prior to mind. It's never not here.Try and pause it. Try and stop it. Good luck with that. Bob would say, how am I going to, like people would ask him, because there are different languages of pointing. You know, some people use the pointers, the language, the vocabulary that resonates with them or that express something in the moment. It's perfectly valid, you know, like, oh, stay in the now, be present in the moment of now.
Okay, it kind of probably means. Keep the attention on that which is happening. But it sounds like you could ever leave the now, which you can't. So Bob says, people come here and ask me, how do I stay in the now? I tell them, try and leave it. Good luck with that. See if you can anywhere, at any point, be anywhere else than now. And here. And you realize, oh shit, there's always now.But all those pointers, it doesn't mean that this language is better or this one is worse or they are misguided or they don't get it, God forbid. There's no one to get anything.
It's just that same one life expressing through different words. Expressing that is beyond words anyway. Expressing that which words cannot adequately represent anyway, no matter how elevated, elaborated or... There is no symbol to point to that which is prior to language. It's like making noise to point to silence.vibrations that are pointing to stillness. The absence of pointing is pointing in itself. But the joy of bringing that impossible task, of offering that frequency of remembering, hey, this is all happening in the consciousness that you are. Just recognize that that is what is going on, always. And mind will tell you something else. Enjoy the story. But remember, it's just a story.
It's not the truth. The truth is immediate, is direct, is not believed, is lived.Yeah, so we didn't have that much of a contribution, but thank you guys, those who had a beautiful written comments and John and Charlie and Tony and Tanya and everyone for hanging us and exploring. Thank you, Kat. That was beautiful. Thank you. Lots of love, everyone. Bye for now. Bye-bye.