This transcript was made by speech-recognition software, so names and some words may be misheard. The recording is the original: watch on Facebook.
Hello. Hey, we still have a couple joining. Hi. Hey, good to see you. We heard you, but we haven't seen you. So welcome. Okay, we are good to go then. Would anyone like to give us a little starter? Put a few pointers together? Oopsie. Sorry. That was the reminder. There is a recording. And yeah, so the basic presumption is that everyone is clear and certain. Absolutely, 100% sure that you are. So there's no one who knows anything more. I mean, there are people who know a lot of things about a lot of things. But the truth of your own being is equally known to everyone.
It's equally known to every newborn baby. And every creature of a wild. So starting from here, from that basic certainty, basic knowledge, the truth, the I am that or that I am, the knowing that I am. And bypassing perhaps or skipping or perhaps looking at and discarding slowly all the beliefs that misconstrued the reality as the as the as the interaction between the separate parts, as if there is a separate person interacting with the separate world, as if they are not just one appearance in the consciousness, just one unified dream. So any takers? We haven't heard you, Andrew, for a while. I wonder if you would be enjoying it?
Maybe. Oh, I don't know what I can talk about. Maybe I'll talk about my head. I'll talk about my head because I have a tattoo on the back of my head and it says, Ani Jang Thuk Chang Anathap. And it was made famous more so in Thailand here by a monk. His name was, well the Westerners called him Buddha Datta, but the Thais call him Paphut The Thart. And I remember I read a book about, I remember I read his books. And you know, it was a very interesting book. It was a very interesting book. It was a very interesting book. It was a very interesting book.
It was one of those books that half the page was in Thai, half the page was English. So I thought it was a good way to learn some, reading some Thai and have a look at the teaching because, you know, everyone who's sort of, who's serious about Buddhism in Thailand refers to him. And I was very surprised at just how closely his teaching mirrored what Bob says. It was almost identical to what Bob's saying. See, Buddha Datta was the guy who was said to have stripped away all the bullshit from, out of Buddhism. You know, stripped it back to its most primal, clearest form. That's what he was very famous for.
And, you know, like I said, I was very, very surprised at how closely it mirrored Bob's teaching. Because if we... And if he was asked to define what he's teaching, he'd say, Anijan Tukang Hatha. And I have that touted on the back of my head because it's so profound. Because Anijan or Anijan means impermanence. Like everything in this world is impermanent. Nothing stays the same. And the Buddhists tend to say like everything goes through like four stages, like birth. Anything that's born will be born, grow, thrive for a while, then go decay, then die. And you cannot escape that. That's one of the laws, so-called laws of Buddhism, that nobody can escape those four stages.
And so everything is impermanent. Nothing stays the same. Everything's changing all the time. Everything is moving from one stage to the next at all times. You can't avoid it. Everything's seemingly moving. And keep in mind, you're talking about the appearance of the world here and not the perceiver. The perceiver, of course, is unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected. It perceives all. It's happening. But I'm talking about why we suffer because and it's we're bound to suffer because we don't accept the first principle of impermanence. We want things to stay the same. We want some sort of congruency. We want some sort of continuity. We don't like to accept that people are going to die.
People are going to get old. People are going to get sick. And we're going to maybe one day have money, one day lose money. And so we don't accept that. So we tend to suffer for that inability to accept all the change and just to see what it is for the transiency. And instead of seeing that you are the very omnipresence that observes all the transiencies. See, we don't. We don't see that. We buy into the transiency. That's why we suffer is because we buy into the transient world and we don't see that we are the omnipresent witnessing of all that. And the last one is anatta means no self.
So there is nobody or nothing there that can alter or modify the first two principles. You cannot stop. You cannot stop the suffering. Because you don't accept, because you are unwilling to accept the impermanency or the changing nature of the world. So there's no self that can do anything about that anyway. So those three principles, although it sounds like you're talking about three things, they all sort of link into each other and they all add up. They all sort of reinforce each other. They all add up. They all sort of reinforce each other. And so what then must happen is if you understand the impermanence of the world, you suffer because you don't accept the impermanence of the world, that there's no self to change anything or do anything about it anyway.
You have to see that, well, what are you? You're the observer of all those three principles or that one principle, whatever you want to call it. You are the observer of all those three principles. You are the observer of all those three principles. There's nothing there that you can say is nothing. You can never define yourself. You can never objectify what you are. You can never say, I am this or I am that. And the primary thought, I am. So you have to be very careful when you use the primary thought, I am, what you add on to after that. I am. And you have to be very careful what you add on to that because you can easily add on to I'm a loser or I'm a loser.
I am a bad person or I am not doing well in life. So you've got to stick to that primary thought, I am. But see, the thing about the I am, the thought I am, is you don't need the thought I am to know you are. You are present and aware and you don't need the thought I am. The thought I am is the only way the mind can sort of, give you some sort of definition to sort of try and describe yourself. You say, well, like when you meet somebody for the first time, you hold out your hand to shake their hand. You say, oh, hi, I am Andrew.
What am I saying? What you're really saying is I am being Andrew. You know, this point in time, I am being Andrew. I am appearing as Andrew. That's me. That's what they call this body-mind organisms. It's called Andrew. But as we know, the name is never the thing. You know, the name or the label is never the thing because that omnipresence that you are can never be named, can never be defined, can never be objectified. You can only exist. You can only exist. You can only ever say what you're not. So, by a process, like I said last time I spoke, you know, you can, the only really way, the only process I find to find what you are is to find out what you are not.
And then what you are is kind of what's left over. And what's left over is nothing or no thing that can be defined. But there's a knowingness there. There's a knowingness that's devoid of a knower and the known. It's just a knowingness because can you ever know yourself? To define yourself, you have to split into a subject and object and create another me that defines the me. You've got to create a me that will therefore explain what you're not. What you are not. What you are or what you are not. So, the mind is forever creating duality. That's why Bob was so insistent on the answer is not in the mind.
The answer is never in the mind. It can't be in the mind. But on the one hand, the mind is the only tool you have. And so, the mind has to see its own unreality, so to speak. So, the mind is the only tool you have. You're kind of bound by the limitations of that. It's like I would say you stir a stick. You stir a fire with the stick and the stick catches fire. Then the stick disappears into the fire. And all those metaphorical statements. They're just basically pointing to the mind. And the fact of this, you can never define yourself. You can never say what you are.
You can only ever say what you're not. And what you are, you don't have to find it because you are that already. You are complete and whole already. So, what we tend to do is we create this illusionary entity that's seemingly in its illusionary, illusory form. It's a bondage. And that illusory entity in its illusory bondage then thinks it can do something to somehow or other get rid of that bondage and then it will be free. Which is just, it's kind of like, it's like fucking ridiculous when you think about it. Because if you come from the fact that you're already complete and you're already whole and you don't really need to find...
You don't need to find that when you are already that. It's like the old saying. It's like looking for a black cat in a darkened room and the black cat's not even there. You'll never find it. You'll never find it because it's... You'll never find something that has... That is no thing. That can't be objectified. So, we... This entity creates this illusionary entity that then gives itself... It says, oh, I'm in bondage. I've got to break free of the ego. I've got to squash. I've got to crush. I've got to kill the ego. And then when I do that, I'll be free. I'll be free of my suffering.
But see, you're not... Then you're creating a whole paradigm of events. And things you've got to do. Or you've got to meditate. Or you've got to do this. Or you've got to stand on your head. And you've got to push your body in the weird positions. You've got to ring gongs. Or you've got to ring bells. Or you've got to do chanting. Or you've got to do... I mean, the list of things they call sadhana are endless. I mean, you know, which one of them works? Which one of them doesn't work? And... Do any of them work? You know what I mean? And that's the question.
I sincerely ask people... One of the questions I sincerely ask people is if they believe in a religion. They believe in a religion. I say, do you actually believe what you believe because you've investigated it? And you've looked into it? And it makes sense to you? And you understand it? And so therefore you follow it? Or is it just something you were told when you were young? And you were told to follow it? And you know, if you didn't, it wouldn't work. You know, if you didn't, it wouldn't go to heaven and all that shit. You know what I mean? Or is that the reason you follow it?
And a lot of people, they get very uneasy when you start to question their beliefs. They start to get very uneasy. And if you look at all the problems in the world, especially now, what's going on now in the world, you can define it to three books. You've got the Muslims. Their book's right. Their book is the word of God, the Koran. You know, that's the word of God. That's the truth. And anything else is bullshit. Then you've got the Jews who say, no, no, no, no, no, the Talmud or whatever, the Torah, the Talmud, whatever the fucking books they've got. Oh, no, our books are right.
You know what I mean? Our books are the word of God. Your books are bullshit. And then you've got the Bible. You know, the Bible's correct. It's the word of God. And the thing is, it's not the word of God at all. It's the fucking Bible. It's the fucking delusions of man's mind that's created all that shit in those books. You know, there are sprinklings of truth in those books, but it's mixed in with so much bullshit that the truth gets lost. And so instead of becoming, it starts to become my truth, my God, my book. And everyone's coming from that point of separation. Where my book, my God, my belief system opposes your belief system, opposes your book.
And that's all it is in a nutshell. It's like people's belief systems arguing and fighting against each other. And they all come from some sort of moral superiority. You know, I've got the moral superiority. My book's the truth. My book's right. Your book's wrong. It's just all just absolute horseshit. And you kind of look at that and you say, there's no friggin' hope for mankind. There's no hope. There's no, I can't see a way mankind's going to get out of this. While these, unless some catastrophe comes along and wipes everyone out, wipes all these people out, you know, who have all these separate belief systems.
I can't see, I cannot see, I cannot see, I cannot see how it can be resolved. I just can't because people have hung onto those belief systems so they've become so concretized that they will not listen to any sort of truth. If you were to talk to them about what we talk about here, non-duality. And you're nothing and all that. No, they would just say, no, you're talking bullshit. You know, my, my God. See, it's a very, very dualistic paradigm they follow. You know, me and my God. And my God is in charge. And my God tells me what to do. And my God defines everything in my life.
And then they just put all their belief systems on what they think that God does. They think that God wants from them. It's like man's belief systems. So I really don't know how that is ever going to resolve itself. I mean, that's why I always say to people, just don't worry about that shit. Just worry about yourself. Worry about your own salvation. Because the only way the world can change is if you change yourself. And see the world for what it is. Is. This is. This world is not a heaven. This world is not a heaven. This world is. After all them in some ways.
I suppose it's a place where we come to learn. And to try and avoid these pitfalls of falling into these. What would you call them? These theologies of. I call them like theologies of hate because, you know. They don't accept other religions. Like even here in Thailand. Where I live there's a. You know, I'd say it's 80% Buddhism. But, you know, there's 20% of the people around here are Muslims. And there's a lot of Muslims around where I am now. In the past. But, you know, they don't really get along. They don't mix that, you know, well. They sort of mix sort of socially. You know, like to buy stuff and that.
But they don't mix together in any way. And they don't marry. Some do. But very often. Very often they'll only marry into their own religion. So it's a very hard thing to overcome. But that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about what we are as opposed to what we're not. And if I am. If I see that I am complete and whole now. I've got to see that I've always been complete and whole. I just got sidetracked. I've been sidetracked for a while. Buying into the idea that there was a separate entity called Andrew. And that separate entity called Andrew had free will.
He had some sort of autonomy. Well, that dropped away with me a long time ago. The idea of free will and autonomy. That, for me, that wasn't a hard thing to get rid of. And the free will you think you have is just an illusion. Because who... Or what would have the free will? How can there be omnipresence or omnipotence or omniscience? Where does that leave room for you as a separate entity? You know? So we're going to say that existence is omnipresence, omnipotence, or omniscience. But within that I exist as an entity with my free will. And my... My autonomy to do what I want.
No, it's just... It's just... That just makes no sense at all when you look at it. It makes no sense at all. So your part... A part is never equal to the whole. So how can a part ever define the whole? If you see yourself as a separate entity with free will or whatever, how can you ever... However... How can you ever understand... How can you ever understand omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience? Is it... Is it if you're coming from a sense of separation? No, you can't do that. It's impossible. But if you see it from the other way around, that you... I am the omnipresence. I am the omniscience.
I am the omnipotence. And then... Then you can see that the idea of... Of... Of a separate entity with free will and illusion... Free will and autonomy is just an illusion. It's just the way the organism functions for its seeming imaginary autonomy in the world. So it has to... Has to make its way and survive in the world. It's got to have some sort of sense of autonomy to survive. For the individual body to survive. It needs to have a seeming self there that sort of takes care of itself and does its exercises and eats the right food and things like that. But... That is just the...
The functioning of the totality. The totality is taking care of you. In other words, you're being lived. You're not living a life. Life is living you. And... You... You... You say... You use the term... I... Am... And... That's the only thing you can really say. You cannot say I am not. You can't say I am not because that would make no sense. You say... You say I am... What you mean by that is I am being. I am being. I am present. I am aware. I am here now. Just about the only thing you have to stand on. I was talking to a guy the other day about this and I said the only evidence you have.
Apart from, you know... The only thing you know for sure. Apart from, you know... You know I own a motorbike... You know... I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your reality. I said to him... I said the only thing you're absolutely sure of is right here right now. Is you are. The past doesn't exist. go back to live in the past. You can drag the past into the present and have a present memory of the past, but it's never the same as what it was when you were living through that past experience. The future is nothing more than a fantasy or a projection. Quite often it's the past rehashed in the present and projected into the future.
I've been a poor person in the past, therefore in the future I want to be a rich person. That's the type of thing where you're creating a paradigm and yet that paradigm creates this illusion that there's time and that you're moving through time from a past to a seeming future. That's not the reality at all. When you have a look and see the reality is that time is moving through you. Time is moving through you. You are omnipresent. You are omnipresent. You are omnipresent right here, right now, and time is seemingly moving through you. You live with this idea of a past, a present and a future where all three of them are illusionary.
The past doesn't exist anymore. The future never existed. The present, when you try and capture the present, immediately becomes the past. It dies as soon as you try and capture it with the mind, as soon as you try and capture the present with the mind, and it will die. It dies automatically. All there is is the present awareness or the present witnessing, whatever you want to call it, going on moment by moment. That's what you are and that's what you've always been. When you see it, it's not like, oh, I saw that and I'll go back to living my normal life now. I'll go back to being Andrew.
No, you can't. It's impossible. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say unfortunately, but once you've seen what you are and the truth of your own nature, there's no going back. You can't see the world for what you can't take the world seriously anymore. You can't see the world for what you can't take the world seriously. You can't. How can you take the world seriously anymore? Because it's transient. Like when you're in deep sleep, right? There's no you and there's no world. But when you wake up, when you come back, the world comes back with you. So it comes back as a pair. You and the world come back together.
And so you have to ask yourself when you go forward to do deep sleep again, the world disappears again. So you ask yourself the question, can something that comes and goes, it can be there one minute and disappear the next minute. Can that be the reality? Can that be real? How can that be real if it comes and goes? If it can disappear at any given moment, it can just be you get hit on the head with a hammer or a brick or something and you get knocked out cold. The world's gone. You're unconscious. There's no world anymore. You're not conscious. You're not conscious. You're not conscious.
You're no more. And so it's the same with the body. You have the senses in the body. Now, I always ask people the question, are the senses in the body or do the senses belong to the life force, to the awareness, whatever you want to call it? And if you have a look closely, you have to see that your senses belongs to the life force. Because if I were to suddenly drop dead now. I wouldn't be able to talk. My eyes wouldn't be able to see. My ears wouldn't be able to hear. So where did those senses go? The senses left the body with the life force.
So the question is, are the senses in the body to start with? Or do the senses work through the life force and they just animate the organs in the body? They animate the eyes. The ears. The taste. The touch. The smell. Because you think about your food is digesting. Your liver is filtering blood. Your kidneys are filtering urine. Your heart is pumping blood. But if you fall down and die and that life force goes, all of those things stop. All of those things stop. So what is sovereign? What is sovereign? The body? The body is not sovereign. The body can't be sovereign. The body is just a piece of meat that's animated by that, as Bob would call it, the intelligence energy.
It's energy that's intelligent. It knows what to do. It knows what to do. It knows how to make things function. So that's what you are. You never were not that and you will never not be that. So you just have to be what you cannot not be. You cannot not be it. You cannot not be that awareness. You cannot not be it. But you can buy into a false paradigm. And all I say is see, I think Miss Agandata said it or Bob said it, see the false. As the false. That's all you have to do. And then the truth becomes, what would you say?
The truth becomes visible. You know what I mean? Like you see the false for the false. That's all you have to do. That's what Miss Agandata I think said. He said, just see the false as the false. That's all you have to do. Then what you are, the present awareness will be there because it's never not been there. So that's why he also said, what you'll find, at the end of your spiritual search was there at the beginning. How profound is that? What you're looking for, right? You've been searching for all your life or, you know, for as long as you've been on the spiritual source has always been there.
And at the end of that spiritual search, you'll find that, that's what you were looking for was already there. It hadn't been gone anywhere because it can't go anywhere because it's omnipresent. So I think I'll end on that note. And you can't, you cannot, you cannot not be that. Everybody is that. Even if you don't think you're that. That's the funny thing as well. Even if you don't think you're that, you're still that. I'll finish on that note. Sorry. What have I done? Cut myself off? No, no. We still, we still see you and hear you. That was a really good punchline. Well, I don't know.
Well, well, see, as long as you speak spontaneously, you don't know. I don't know whether I'm talking shit or not. I mean, like a five minutes after I've said something, I forget what I've said anyway. And I think, well, I always think, geez, it's not make sense. People think I was a dickhead or, you know, was I making any sense? Because it's just an autopilot. You know what I mean? Whatever comes out, comes out. For good or bad. Now that was brilliant. It was absolutely perfect. You know, that spontaneity, you know, it's like Jesus on the, on the, uh, ceremony on demand. What are you going to be talking about?
Well, how do I know? I'll just show up, open my mouth and the father, the omnipotence will speak through me. And that's the spontaneity. Well, that's, that's the way it happens. I mean, you know, like, I mean, I, I, before I speak, I, I, I never have any idea what I got, what I'm going to talk about. And when I'm finished, it's kind of like, I can't really remember what I've said. And I think, well, whatever I've said has to stand on its own because it just came out spontaneously. So whatever, whatever comes out, comes out, you know what I mean? For good, for good or bad.
It's just the way it is. You know what I mean? That's just the way it is. There's no meat. There's no me here editing anything that's going on or contriving anything. I think, that's what to me, when you see somebody who's contriving what they're talking, it's very obvious to me now when somebody, you see a so-called spiritual teacher or somebody who talks about it later, and they're contriving things as they go. To me, it's very obvious. And then you get somebody who's speaking spontaneously. That's very obvious to me now as well. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you can sense the quality. You can sense the passion, you know, when you actually land in your direct experience and you express what comes up spontaneously without preparation, without notes, without having an agenda or trying to teach or there's no, there's, there's nothing there is just a spontaneity.
That's, that's, you get, you see a lot of these teachers and, you know, look, they, they all seem to follow the same trait. They have that shit-eating grin. On their face, it's like it's painted on, you know, just, I'm just so happy, you know, I'm just, I'm so blissful here, you know, and you just think, nah, you're a fraud mate. You're a, you're phony. You're putting it on, you know, I mean, that's the way I, that's the way I see it. I see it like they're not, they're not natural at all. You know, they've got the fake grin. They've got the fake, it's just, I don't, I mean, that's why I can't watch most of these spiritual teachers because, you know, they're not natural at all.
They're not natural. They're not spontaneous at all. Yeah, I don't even know who's there anymore. It's a spiritual search dropped so long ago. I don't even know who is speaking, what is speaking, and well, it's neither good nor bad. It's just how it is. That's the way it is. Yeah, it'll take a little even. You've got no choice. I've got no choice in what I say, and you've got no choice in what you hear. That's, yes. That's all I can say. Yes, as you beautifully said, you know, everyone is being lived, you know, the life expressing through you as the speaking, the life expressing through others as the hearing, and we have a comment here on Facebook.
Emmanuel says, and this is quote unquote, Lord, open my mouth and my lips will declare your praise. And that's it. The Lord, you know, like you started with all the books, you know, the Muslims believe they got the word of God and everybody believes something or the other. And this is my truth. And this is absolute truth. Well, what's truth that which never changes and you beautifully put also, you know, this people, they can never find reconciliation because they are just concepts fight fighting concepts, but forget about them. This here, if this is clear, the projection, the content of the dream, is secondary. It doesn't matter who's fighting with who because you can see it as the appearance as a magnificent dream.
And it is. It's just about being present to the unfolding without the judgment. I had a conversation today with a lady who was very concerned about observing that she is performing. She says, I can see, I find myself around and around people and I am trying. To coerce them or manipulate them to like me and I hate it. I said, can you actually see at least that, you know, there is this unconscious strategy playing out and there is a thought of judgment also playing out just another thought and you see both of them. So it's not that the real you is judging the fake you.
There's no you there is just the consciousness and within that there is a strategy. There is a judgment over the strategy. And as you Andrew said also, you know, whether you know it or not, whether you believe it, whether you think you experience it or not, you are that life essence. And I love the way you actually put out that pointer that Bob uses, you know, you pull the plug and the body is a corpse and the eyes are there, but they can't see the ears are there, but they can't hear. And you reform yourself. So you formulated it in a way that is really, really punchy and really direct to the point.
Are the senses with the body or are they with that life essence? That was so good. So good and so helpful because verification is clear. You can see the corpse and what use of the sense is there? No use whatsoever. So yes, the instrument is being utilized. You know, when you want to move very quickly, very fast, you utilize the airplane. The airplane is being utilized at no point. You become an airplane. So for the seeing that the organs, the cameras, the binoculars, the telescopes are utilized, but the capacity for seeing belongs to the life force. It's like the whole life force that infinite field of potentiality.
That energy, that essence of aliveness. It gets transformed into the capacity for seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, thinking, talking, walking. All of those capacities are with life, not with the body. Body is utilized and yet it can't be separated because those capacities and this energy is appearing as the body as well and is appearing within the body. As well. And it's appearing within the body. So it's that field of knowing. But I wonder if anyone here would like to bring up some beautiful aspects of what Andrew just reminded all of us, you know, some little highlights, maybe something stuck with you, some sentence or some aspect.
Anyone? It's such a lovely, lovely opportunity that we can hear the same message spoken with the same certainty from anyone. Oh, Isabel, you're on. I like it from Andrew when he mentioned how can a small part see the whole? As you can see the whole, see the small part, the small parts, everything. And that's that was really for him. That too. Yeah. Or you say, I don't find the road. But yeah, that's, that's, that's the truth because, yeah, you know, and, and I was this morning listening to Bob and became also very beautiful sharing. I know it was for him for a long time ago.
Was that for, you know, first you see you are the witnessing, you're not a body, you're not touch, not your thoughts. And yeah, this was for a year, for a long, long time. And then brings Bob's, it brings it back to the world, to the experience. So the, yeah, this whole spontaneously happening. That is also the knowing and it's because I could tell that then I go make a, I'm looking for seeing, seeing the happening. I was a long time struggling. Yes, the seeing is happening. And then looking through like Bob mentioned, seeing this emptiness cognizing, but it doesn't mean that it is really empty.
It means the space like awareness has that knowing inside of it itself. And, and yeah, that was really a liberation, so to speak to, to go also not only witnessing, but then also go back to the appearance. What's happening in your seeing and your hearing. And then you see, yes, it was all happening and myself, so to speak, and I'll say what I am, but, uh, yeah, to see that that recognition is pointless, that recognition everything, even when you're not speaking outside the birds. Yes. And that's, yeah, really a relief to see first they say something beautiful in Zen, first mountain and rivers are not real.
And then, yeah, something like, that, and then rivers are not real because need to go back to the seeing. What's here now, right here. Yeah. That's the beauty from the mystery also because then it's called very, very quiet because it's always happening in itself. But I keep it quiet. Maybe you can more pointed and never to give us a little journey. And, uh, yeah, beautiful. And Hank has the hand up. Would you like to unmute Hank? Yes. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking about the Andrew said, and, uh, you know, and also Isabelle. I mean, the, the idea of things just happened, you know, like what I feel that is, um, yeah.
When I got stuck, like in my, in my thoughts, you know, so I'm, I'm worrying about something then just have to become aware that, that, that I am and that, you know, that many things are happening around me and sounds. And they touch, et cetera, you know, and the images are, you know, that there's the world is just continuous. Continuously is there. So when, when I'm stuck in my, uh, my, uh, my worries, then I, I, I find that helpful to, uh, yeah, to connect with something that's bigger than, than myself. That's, uh, that's what I wanted to share. That, uh, is my, um, it's my personal experience.
Uh, so there's actually nothing to worry about. Things just happen, continue or, or not, you know, or on a relative level, but life, life is continuing. That's really wonderful, uh, experience for that moment in the moment. Um, yeah. So what's wrong with right now and then that's, that sense. And unless I'm not, yeah, then that's what I experienced and that I wanted to, uh, to share. Uh, yeah. It's also this, this, this concern that, yeah, it's, you know, yeah. Sometimes I, I forget and then I just say, oh, I'm struggling to get it back. You know, saying, oh, what the hell? Doesn't matter. You know, if it, if it, if it's necessary, it will not necessarily, but if it comes back, it comes back.
If not, then forget about it. Yeah. It's what I very much, uh, like to share. And I have some health, some health issues, so I cannot talk too much. Um, but thank you. I never talk so much because I'm basically, I'm, I'm shy to talk about these things. Because I had some, it was that whatever I'm saying is not relevant for all this, but that's also bullshit, you know, because yeah, it's just, you know, it's something that's judging, you know, I'm judging something myself, you know, and I feel that I cannot decide that all the people are more interesting things to share than I have.
It's just totally nonsense, you know, but, uh, okay. This, I, I very much appreciate this sharing here. So I want to give it to all the people. Thank you. Thank you, Hank. And, and always good to hear you, especially when you, when you cheer for them, you say nothing is wrong. Life is magnificent. Whatever happens is nothing you can do. That's the attitude. That's the truth. You know, you can resist with all your might, but it's not gonna help. It's not gonna change anything. Even I think it's gonna make things worse. And I see Yvonne says here, and also what is wrong with right now when I am thinking about it, I am not the thinker, but the omniscient omnipresent omnipotent aware of the thinking or not thinking.
Beautiful point, isn't it? Beautiful point. Absolutely. Realizing that thinking happens is just part of the landscape of arising is part of the content of consciousness, whether the thinking is there or the thinking is not there. As Andrew said, you are being lived. Your kidney is working. Your brain is working. If we imagine kidney and brain, because you can only experience them when they hurt. But yeah, there is nothing literally nothing wrong unless the definition pops in and is believed into reality is believed so strongly. Then it appears real. Just like Santa Claus. When you were a child, believe was so stronger. Yes, you defended and believe the game of beliefs.
The whole human experience is one big game of beliefs and we don't choose them. Beliefs are like viruses, you know, whether someone was born Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or Jew, those bugs were already there in the environment and they were conditioning the system. Those particular viruses. So those programs were conditioning the whole system and then the perception and the projection is run on those assumptions. I actually found an interesting. I have so many, you know, you some of you might remember our friend Gilbert was criticizing that we don't really have enough of people with genuine questions. We did lately, but I don't see Kapil here today and I found about six or seven pages.
Yes, with beautiful questions. Some of them from our meetings, some of them from Bob's meetings, some of them from Nisargadatta's books. And today I just found another page with hundred questions on non duality. And you know, it's wonderful not to have questions because it means that the mind have settled and it is at ease and it doesn't create those clouds to obscure. That peacefulness, that silence, that stillness of existence is wonderful. And at the same time, it is a joy, a pure joy to explore questions because it gives it gives such a bus or such a kick that oh sure. Yes. Yes, I know that.
Oh, yeah, I don't have any doubts around that. Oh, yeah. So you can see to which extent there is a certainty underlying. All those beliefs. And if there is anything that hasn't been questioned yet, well, very, very easily. It could be debunked through observation. Yvonne says the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Yes, I have a couple of questions. I think a lot of them we've already addressed. I'm just going to very quickly do the first 10 or 11 and then you can object to it or add to it first. All this talk about consciousness doesn't consciousness come from the brain. Old question. And what does the brain come from?
So whatever we want to call it, the brain didn't make itself. It didn't create itself. It has been created. It grew with a great intelligence from a little prescription in the DNA code. So there was an intelligence. You can call it consciousness. So you can call it just intelligence that created the brain and then the brain performs its function. Just like every other organ perform its function. So now the second question are animals and babies already in this states. Absolutely though. They don't know it because they've never lost it. So they take it for granted. The possibility of realizing the natural state always already being here comes from the necessary dream of separation or obscuration or imagination.
And So the question is, what is the real realization that it is not? Because anything that is experienced that can be known in the in the appearance is known on the background of its opposite. You can only know white because you know not white. You only know the body because you know the nobody. So the experience of realization or so-called enlightenment is only possible because the momentary obscuration of the body is only possible. nhà of animals and babies she is definitely in the natural state. H and graduation of water, realization that So which powers do you need to? What is the process of reaction? realize that you are obviously it's completely irrelevant you are whether there is a power to see or whether there is a power to see through the wall or whether there is a power to walk on the water or walk on the asphalt realization so question four there are metal are there any methods that will help us achieve self-realization again the misconception at the start there is no us and there is no self-realization awareness of existence is already present so what could possibly be used to realize what's already here and who is the us that would potentially realize if if that's already so so techniques and practices are not required what's required is to just relax and have a look and try to deny your own existence when you see that it can't be done there we are and are there any methods oh yeah that i just said are there techniques that's the same question and comments in here look i'm gonna have dean joining us uh so are traditional religions a hindrance well again the question is to who or for who oh okay i'm gonna just i'm just gonna oh boo take that take that all the funny effects of the okay so now maybe you want to answer some of the questions buddhist teachings mention emptiness advaita teachings mention consciousness aren't they the same thing they are no thing right are they the same no thing well bob would call it cognizing emptiness so it actually includes the consciousness aspect and the emptiness aspect cognizing emptiness is not his invention is just another label and again pointing to the same no thing not a thing can dualist be enlightened no person dualist non-jewelist muslim jew men woman and consoles who are not but one can yummy for that muslim jew man woman no person can be enlightened because enlightenment is a realization that the person is just an appearance it's an illusion it's a it's a hallucinated self-center that never could never be found and we have uh yvonne says oh yeah we've seen and dean says i found your book bags of pointers some days ago very helpful the contemplation of of what's first consciousness or body is very helpful yeah thank you uh the book is really just just listing different pointers that i learned over the years listening to bob there are a few pointers that are kind of just came up by themselves but uh yeah i i think the different structure that makes it slightly uh different than all the other types of narrative may make it refreshing and memorable andrew would you like to unmute i just wanted to address this issue of um you know uh the person saying oh nobody's asking questions and you know everybody should be asking questions well if you if you see which most of the people here probably do see is that the question the questioner and the question have the same source and even that in the same even the answer has the same source so it's all coming out of that intelligence energy it's all coming out of the omnipresence it's all coming out of the omniscience the question the question and the questioner and if you see that both If the questioner and the question have the same source, well, they cancel each other out.
And then you're left with the only thing you can then say is, well, who needs to know or who wants to know? And the only answer you can come up with there would be a me or an I, or I need to know or me, me, me, me, I need to know. What do you need to know? What do you need to know? If you're already present and aware and omnipresent, omniscient and omniscient, you're already complete and whole. You don't need to know anything. So what you need to do, the only thing you need to do is get the idea of a separate you out of the way, and everything you need to know will be known.
It's like the Bible says that. The Bible says that first you seek the kingdom of heaven, and then everything shall be added on to thee. And there's a lot of wisdom in that statement. So see what you are first, and then ask yourself, well, what do I need to know? And the only answer will be, well, I don't need to know anything. Unless you want to know where the bus station is, or where I can rent a car or something. All right, that's fine. But as far as... sort of knowledge about who or what you are, no. You can never know what you are. You can never know what you are.
There's a knowingness there already, and it can never know itself, because to know itself, it would have to split into two. It would have to create another version of itself to know the whole version of itself. It just can't happen. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You actually just... You have the hand up, Andrew. Andrew, again, or is it... Oh, you're muted by mistake. Okay, but okay. So you actually beautifully answered a question. We have few people with us here on Facebook Live. And Holly says, what is the belief that keeps one separate, unhappy and afraid? How to explore and debunk it? Yeah, so that was actually, I think, Andrew has answered it beautifully.
But we can still elaborate. Holly, what you say, what is the belief that keeps one separate? See, that's the very belief that I'm separate. That's separate. That belief that I'm separate is what keeps us separate. And can you actually experience separation? You can see you can experience a separation between two objects. You know, one hand is here, one hand is here. They're separate. But can you actually separate them from the consciousness? From the consciousness in which they arise? Can you separate your body from that consciousness? Can you separate the whole world from that field of knowing? You can see that everything arises within that field of knowing.
And it's inseparable. The idea that I am not that field of knowing, which I'm clearly experiencing all the time. The idea that I'm not this, but I am this person or I'm the body. That belief keeps us separate. And that belief has to be debunked, has to be looked at and potentially laughed at. Because the way Bob was instructing people to look at it, he would even use the idea of time. You know how the body is changing all the time. The cells of the body are shedding, dying, changing. And I don't know if Andrew put the hand up or was it? Or was it?
Yeah. Okay. There's one way. Look, there's a very simple way to look at it. Is your body has, how many bones are in the body? Forget how many bones are in the body. There's a couple of hundred, couple of thousand, I don't know, bones in the body. You look at your fingers. Now, are your fingers separate? From your hand? Now, is your hand separate from your wrist? Is your wrist separate from your arm? Is your arm separate from your shoulders? Is your head separate from the neck? Is your neck separate from the body? And so on and so on. And the only conclusion you can come to is no, it's just, it's the whole body.
You can break it down into parts. But the body is one intrinsic whole functioning. It's one functioning. Now, what animates all those bones, all those muscles, the lymph, the blood, the nervous system? What is it? What is it that animates the body? Because the body, when it's dead, is just going to lie there. It's just going to, you're going to get rid of it. It's going to rot. It's going to die. So what gives life to the body? That's what you are. That's what you are. You're that unseen life that gives life to the body. That's what you really are. And all those seeming separate things are not separate at all.
So the fingers aren't separate from the life force. The wrist isn't separate from the life force. The head, the neck, the whole body is not separate from that life force. The inner or outer. It's just one. One without a second. That's all there is. One without a second. So all you can say is, I am that. You can't say anything else. I couldn't have the book out by now. Yeah. Thank you. Sometimes people take themselves to be their mind. Sometimes people take themselves to be their personalities. They insist that I am my ego. I sit somewhere in the inner. I sit somewhere in the upper body.
And I have the values. I'm afraid of rejection. Or I am traumatized. Or those ideas constitute the sense of identity. Or even the emotional core constitutes the identity. This is what I am. And this fragility, sensitivity, this sentience is here. And it is not outside. Like space is not afraid of rejection. But I am afraid of rejection. So there is a separation. But again, can you actually separate those feelings from the knowing of those feelings? They arise in the field of consciousness. The feeling of fear. The feeling of... Was it the separate unhappy and afraid? The feeling of being dissatisfied. The feeling of being afraid.
Arising within that field of knowing. that that within that that conscious awareness are you the feeling if you were the feeling you would be gone the moment the feeling is gone but you are still here seeing the fear arising rising high up going to add to the to the point of panic or terror and then going down a little bit and then stopping and you still here prior to the feeling any feeling prior to any personality traits you even hear when the body is sleeping and you are dreaming and you are flying in the dream and you don't see your face you may have different face you may have different body you may be younger or older but you still present to the unfolding you always that presence and and with whatever happens within that presence is always changing I think and we also started from highlighting the impermanence that which constantly flickers and changes versus that which witnesses the change which is prior to change that knowing even when there is an upset you know like I brought the example of a person who was judging herself for performing to get people's approval so awareness of the performance an awareness of a judgment over performance that one is not judgmental it just knows the knowing is neutral it's clear it doesn't suffer if the anger of fear arises within knowing the registration registering of that anger of fear it's not angry and it's not afraid it just is and that isness that natural state that easiness business at ease that one is always present it's always here is never not here even when the fear is is trembling the body is trembling in fear the registering of it the knowing of it is completely untouched is completely neutral and that cognizing emptiness the emptiness with the capacity to register to witness that never changes not even when the bodies is asleep not even when the body is dreaming it's just the content changing not even when the body is in a deep sleep or in coma there's just no content but the potentiality is still there so this is how it is debunked and I see Jyoti has answered now the belief that the thought about separation that's arising in me causes the separation it is just a thought yeah yeah it is that simple who would you be without it what's wrong with right now if you don't think if there is no sort of separation if there is no thought I'm this body if there is no thought I'm a person I'm female what's my experience of being what can I say about it without the thought without labeling it in any way even if there is terror arising or panic arising without labeling it panic fear unhappiness what is happening is just that cognizing emptiness or that witnessing presence and some vibration in it arising sensations in it arising the perceptions arising definitions arising all of that is just showing up in that knowing in that cognitive capacity the capacity is always here prior to the content the content saying but I am something limited I am something small I am something separate imagine if that spoke Russian you wouldn't even know what it says you couldn't you couldn't believe it unless you speak Russian so believing thoughts again even that happens on autopilot no one is guilty of it it is again it is a program it is a program to actually narrate what's happening within that body mind machine it is a program to here that narrative and relate it to an imagine self inside it is a program to take it seriously to take personally it is a program to imagine oneself to be that entity but seeing how that program functions seeing how it comes online it's already a clear thing and it actually debunks or it reveals the magic trick and then it will still appear as if there is someone here speaking or someone here thinking or experiencing sadness or loss or grief or jealousy or whatever it is just the same way as the sea still appears to be blue even though the water isn't blue is translucent this I this sense of self is also translucent but it appears blue sometimes when it's upset but it is just the appearance do you wanna you know what an appearance it is but you know like the yeah what you're saying you know about the thought that the thought has actually no no authority or or power like the thought the thought I think can't actually think you know the thought I see can't see a damn thing the thought I hear cannot hear anything at all it's so the appearance of the thought is in an appearance a little bit like a little packet of energy appearing as a thought it actually has no it doesn't cause or create or or or do anything it just appears as as as that as as a thought and it has no and and you know if you look at any thought is really describing another thought so that you know the thought of a tree I think of a tree is there's no experience of a tree it's it's you know I think the tree is the the tree I feel like.
think of a tree is describing a thought of a tree. So a thought is describing a thought. A tree is tree. That's it. And all of these are just appearances, like you're pointing out. Yeah, it's amazing. So the thought I am separate has actually no power at all. The belief or the thought that I am this body is a thought. And the thought has no power. So I am not this body because I can't be a thought. I can't be a thought. And the thought has no authority in any way, shape or form. But they are there. They're part of the appearances, as every part of it is.
And before you're talking about the body, and Andrew was sharing about that. You know, the components of the body and the cells and the bones and the ligaments and the tendons and the blood, you know, and I remember Bob used to quite often, you know, refer to the body and say, is it separate from everything? And he'd refer to the, you know, the air. Take the air out of the body. And you know, like everything, there's air and the body can't exist without air. The body is constantly. Using air and same with the water and same with the heat. And I remember I couldn't understand it for a while.
Like I understood it conceptually, what he was, what he was pointing to. And it made a lot of sense. And but actually, if you look at it like what, you know, all of these appearances, they're interconnectedness. It's intricately woven, intricately connected. So you can't separate the body. There is no, there's no boundary. Boundary is a thought. This is the boundary. This skin is the boundary. What is that? Another thought. And as you said, and as you can see, and as you can experience and understand and for yourself that can't be the case. So when there's no, there's no boundary, there's no beginning. There's no end.
There's no separation. There's only ideas. There's only thoughts about it. There's only thoughts about all these different things. I am separate. And this thought appeared here. Try and find it. It doesn't actually appear. Where could, where could it be? Or is it right here? Is it one millimeter behind the skull or in the skull or behind the brain in between years? No one, no one's ever found it. Go for it, Andrew. Hi mate. Hi. Sorry. I just, yeah, you, you, you, you actually just answered what I was going to say. I didn't make it clear when I was talking about the wrist and the hand and the arm and that, that all those seemingly separate things are just made in the mind.
It's made in thoughts. The body doesn't see itself as a part. The body, the body is just one whole functioning. But the mind comes in and divides things up into the fingers and the wrists and the elbows and the blood and the lymph. And that, that, that's all, that's, that's one way of seeing how the mind works. The mind works just by constantly dividing. And the other thing I would say is, is the thing is space works the same way. When we talk about space. To, to create space. To create space. You have to create an over here and an over there or a here and a there.
And then you have to seemingly have a duration or emptiness in between. But where are those arbitrary, where is the arbitrary here created? It's created by the mind. Where is the, where is the arbitrary there created? There is created in the mind as well. So here and there and over here and over there. When you take the, the, the mind away from it, there isn't any space. There is just one whole field. And the mind comes in and divides it up into, oh, well that guy's over there and that guy's over there. And Bob always used to say, you know, Bob had a way of just making things so simple.
He used to always say, well, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. And he would say, well, what's beginning now is ending now. And then people would say, what do you mean by that, Paul? What do you mean? What is beginning now is ending now? Well, it's always now. So when you, when you think you've done something, you think you start and you do something, it's now, right? I'm going to do something now. And then while you're doing it, it's still now.
And when you stop doing it, it's still now. Nothing's ever happened. Nothing's ever happened except in the mind. In thinking, a hell of a lot's happened. A hell of a lot's happened. Oh, I did this. I did that. I did that. I did this. I did that. But when you look at the reality of it, and that's why they would always say nothing's ever happened. And people say, what do you mean by nothing's ever happened? I don't get it. What about all the wars? Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Sure. There's been a lot of appearances of everything. But we're talking about the reality now. And the reality, has anything ever actually happened?
And the answer is no. In awareness, in that non-dual awareness, what you really are, nothing has actually ever happened. And so that is the ultimate secret. The ultimate seeing, so to speak, to see that nothing has ever happened. And nothing will ever happen. And then at the same time, everything's happening. According to the mind, everything's happened. There's a lot of shit going on, right? But as we say, when you go into deep sleep at night, and the world disappears, the mind disappears, and you disappear, what's left? No thing. That's what the only thing you can say is it's no thing. No thing. Because there's no objects there anymore.
Nothing can be objectified in the no-thing state. And that's what you really are. And the reason it's so hard to find is because it's so subtle. It's so subtle. It's like trying to notice the white page on a book when all the writings there or pictures are there. You don't notice the white page on the book. And the writing couldn't be there unless that blank page was there. And in the same way, nothing could ever happen in awareness unless the awareness wasn't there for everything to appear within. So everything appears in awareness as awareness. So there's not two things happening. There's only one thing happening.
It's like... The awareness shuffling into form and then retracting back into the formless. Going from form to formless, back to formless, to form, back to formless. So as Bob always uses, hey, emptiness is form and form is emptiness. Keep it simple, stupid. And see, that's what I always laugh about Bob because he was so simple that... He's so simple and so subtle. People would often miss the wisdom of what he was saying because he was just so simple and so astute and so clear. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you brought the spirit in a perfect way. Nothing ever happened. I love that one. The conundrum that it causes, the upset that it causes.
And it is so simple. No thing. And I think we have a couple more comments. Can you read them? Yeah. Dean or... The strong vibration saying in the solar plexus, I am a personality, cannot actually feel. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And Yvonne says, close your eyes and try to find the boundary of your body. That is a really great point too. Because this is ultimately what it boils down to. Are you going to subscribe to any belief, any set of beliefs, any third hand information, anything that has been programmed to you or learned by imitation, which is also a form of programming? Or you're going to just put down all that computation and see what's known directly in the direct experience.
And in the direct experience. Can you actually find separation of anything that arises from that which knows of what is arising? Can you find any boundaries? Like Yvonne says, boundaries to the body. If you close your eyes, can you find, even if we leave the idea of the body, find the boundary to who you are or what you are. Find the location. Of what you are or who you are. Find it directly. Know it directly. First hand. What can you say? Where are you located? Where is the center of what you call you? Can you find it? And if you find it, can you tell me how do you know that it is there?
Where did you look from? So you can see that any idea of boundaries, any ideas of shape or form or imitation or limitation is exactly that. An idea. It's an idea. Like Dean started showing, you know, the idea of being the body or boundary or limit of the body. It's an idea. Without that thought, without the idea. What can you say about your own shape, size? Without an idea. Can you say anything more than can you say? Without words, you can't say anything. Can you say anything more than you can say? Can you even experience anything more than the fact that I am here now?
That's what's happening here now. Can you say that I end here and the world starts there? That's an idea. Can you say if you believe in aura, that's okay, I have another 25 centimeters. Oh no, no. I'm so spiritual. I have 35 centimeters aura. I have a lot of energy. I have a lot of energy. So I'm still here. See. They're all concepts. All ideas. You don't have a halo. Look at the picture. It's a halo, right? Yes. Really distinguishing between the direct knowing and beliefs and ideas, and putting your heart into the truth of your own existence. That's a real thing. That's the real thing.
into the direct knowing rather than exchanging the unborn buddha mind for thought the natural state the already present natural luminous radiance of existence or enlightenment for the thought the thought that not this not now not yet maybe in the future what future maybe when i become more evolved would i in the direct experience you already here you're already alive you're already awake and now the thought comes but yes if what not not that's not good enough just see the thought yes but i still i'm still separate i'm suffering that's a thought yes but other people have more money or they smarter younger a thought but i can lose my job tomorrow a thought all of them are what arises in the dream what shows up on the screen or on that blank page with pictures and and and print like andrew was was pointing to and without that page without you being present and aware and awake already present registering there could be no dream there could be no threat no fear no no joy no sadness nothing so celebrating that now radiance of being existence like hank was saying you know wow life is here the aliveness the eternity of nothingness if anyone is dreaming about the sleeping and never waking up well leave it for when it is now and right now as you are present and aware and awake and present to the unfolding changeless witnessing the constantly changing flickering content what's wrong with that what's missing what's lacking i think that's that you have no more comments you have the last word no no um no well as as you're exploring and looking and relaxing and looking into all this and marveling at life or not marbling at life or trying to get somewhere like where is it where is it all being seen from who who's actually is there anything that's allowing you to see yourself and to see doing the seeing.
The seeing in which all this flickering show of life, all this magical show is occurring. It's not happening to anyone. It's just seeing. It's just wow. Just this. And always now. And that's that. That's that. Thank you everyone for hanging out and contributing and exploring and lots of love. And yes, thank you Andrew and everyone who contributed and who was here just contributing the presence.