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and send it out and yeah so would anyone like to start us off today anyone anyone look at questions i still have people coming in and so i'll be just doing all those things at once um okay so in a word of an introduction the awareness of existence already already present already undoubtedly here um largely overlooked ignored in exchanged in exchange for whoops for the greatest entertainment of the mind for the movies dramas fantasies dreams daydreams nightmares horrors all of that who's guilty who's not no anywhere no one to be found no one who is getting it wrong and giving too much attention to the mind no one who is not getting it no one who is lost and this is where non-duality differ differs from most of others philosophical psychological religious and even scientific schools of thoughts the basic presumption that everything relates to me and the me is the agency a little controller with free will and responsibilities duties yields esteem that predicament is being questioned is being looked at and to look at it to look at it that already betrays that the idea of separate self isn't it is an idea we're looking at that idea we're looking at the functioning of the bodymind we're looking at the functioning of the universe without all that prejudice without all that conditioning without the belief system which naturally assumes that there is a separation there is me here and not me out there we're looking at the direct experience and win direct experience it can'tconcrete the súbelin experience and mean it can'tconcrete theree being it can't intervene I mean in direct experience that only sleepy the you experience there is presence there is awareness there is existence can't be denied within that existence within that conscious awareness that presence there arises ideas thoughts images feelings sensations projections they arise within that field of knowing within that existence amongst them arises the idea i'm the body i'm the mind i'm a person i'm limited i'm not good enough what makes it true what makes that idea seem true what makes any idea seem true well it's only the act of belief and again who is guilty who is giving it credibility who is subscribing to it or making it believe you that's how the mind restores its own agency back again i'm doing it wrong no there's no one there it is another idea that there is someone there who is getting it not getting it doing it right not doing it wrong someone who is identifying as a body it's just another idea arising in the same field in the same existence same consciousness in the direct experience the whole the whole experience the experiencing arises within that field that's just what's appearing and what's appearing amongst it is the identity is the idea i'm the person i'm not good enough is the idea that i'm separate nobody was born with that idea that idea came up with the language that's where the metaphor of losing the paradise is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is not the is is not is is is wrong i really wouldn't believe i would really believe in it iosa we we were in we for is born with that or is even capable of conceiving of that that's why no other creature really can stand the competition with this particular body mind vehicle which completely dominated although there are some there are some beautiful concepts floating around in the consciousness about bacteria being a smarter smarter but those are also just ideas so within the field of knowing becomes idea the arise idea how or who takes that idea or gives that idea credibility or gives feeds that idea with attention or with belief so suddenly it feels true it appears true it is experience us true and we can see when we look at the way attention is operating it at the way any form of energy is functioning in the universe we can see that it is spontaneously self organizing universe that everything that has any energetic component and and everything has energetic component otherwise it doesn't exist matter is energy so anything that appears anything that is showing up is a form of energy movement and it is a form of energy movement and it is a form of energy whether it is moving as a mental projection or whether it is moving as a whether it is moving as a mental projection or whether it is moving as a big truck or the train train of thought or a train full of people space train or whatever it is it's an appearance in consciousness in that field without that field of knowing there's nowhere for anything to appear and there is not thing that is known so that field that presence awareness or that universal awareness or that universal consciousness or I am a sense of existence, Sat Chit Ananda, is all there is.
And within that, within that field, there is some disturbance, there is some vibration, and it vibrates into sounds, and it's interpreted as words, as ideas, as concepts, as identities, as the costumes, masks of personalities, behaviours. Without that field, without the consciousness, without being present, they couldn't have existed. And still, they are so incredibly seductive in their infinite complexity that they actually steal the show, and the energy of attention, the energy of belief, the self-organising universe swirling the energy, gives them credibility and overlooks its own magnificence, luminous existence. Existence that doesn't have... temperature, colour, sound, sight, shape, form, age, distance. Nothing can be said, it can't be experienced, it can't be denied.
But it isn't something that has the beginning and an end. It isn't something that could be encapsulated or grasped in any form, or even in a formless concept, it can't even be grasped as that. And yet, without that, nothing is. When the body is in coma, it can't see, it can't feel. I'll just close the door, there's a little bit of noise in the house. Yes, so bringing the attention back to the miracle of existence, through the love of being, the joy of being, the incredible luminosity and radiance of being itself, without which nothing is. And looking now at the appearance from the perspective, of appreciation of that miracle of existence.
And now seeing the appearance for what it is, what appears for example, oh, the body is aching, oh, there is a cat scratch here, ouch. Or there is a headache, or there is a toothache, or there is a decay, or there is an ageing, wrinkling, or getting fat, or whatever is happening, it's just the appearance. If not for the presence of aliveness, it couldn't be there. And it's only now. And now. So what else appears? The sense or the feeling, I'm not good enough, I'm depressed, I'm sad, I'm angry, I was disrespected, other people don't love me. Or how am I going to live through tomorrow?
What if I lose the job? Or what if I lose my possessions? Or what if my partner is going to leave me, or betray me, or cheat on me, or all those ideas. And the ideas of the past, I had it worse than anyone else. Nobody had such a bad childhood like I did. Those ideas are the movies cast on the screen of awareness. And seen from that presence, every entertainment, every movie, has its magnificence, its uniqueness, its beauty, and it can be appreciated for what it is, provided it is recognised. But again, who is there to recognise? If there is no one there? If there is no one identifying, no one giving attention, no one trapped in the mind, no one free from the mind?
If there is just self-organising universe, what if? Sun doesn't have identity, shines of its own. There is no water raining. There is no weather throwing thunderstorms. There is just movement. There is just movement of energy. What if there is no planet deciding to move around the sun? It's just a movement. What if your blood moving through the whole system, getting oxygenated in the lungs and then being pumped, what if that is no one's doing either? What if the appearance of the thought is no one's doing? It's just the appearance. What if the appearance of identity is also no one's doing? Appearance of being poor, miserable me trying to get out of myself or liberate myself from what?
What if the urge to get as much pleasure as possible and as little pain as possible is also part of that self-organising movement of energy? And there is no one behind it. Who then is to realise or awaken? Who then is to recognise the mind for what it is? But I feel there is a me here. Well, okay. How does it feel? Warm? Cold? Maybe contracted, expanded? Yeah, whatever words are being given, that feeling is an appearance. Labelling it me. And saying, yes, I feel there is a me. How does that make me that feeling? What I am, the presence, the sense of existence, versus feeling of a me?
Which one are you? Are you the presence? Witnessing, arising, sustaining and destruction of the feeling of a me? Whatever the feeling, whatever the component of it is. So looking at the whole manifestation, the whole dream from the perspective of already relaxed attention, alert presence that doesn't do anything, that is effortlessly here just like space. Space doesn't put any effort into its own existence and it can't even say, I exist. Because space is the absence. There is nothing there. There is no form. And yet, as a field, as spaciousness, is neither a thing, not the nothing, nor the nothing. The consciousness, the alertness, the presence, the awareness of existence, the undeniable fact that I am, is not nothing.
And yet it isn't anything. Resting, basking, needing to do nothing, get nothing, achieve nothing, become anything. It's just allowing that field, not even allowing, it doesn't require any permission from anyone. But in the absence of a better word, just melting into that non-existence, which is completely here, completely alert, non-existence of thing, and yet undeniable existence or presence. And witnessing the presence, the presence of that non-existence. And the presence of that non-existence. We are constantly arising and falling away. Arising of desires and falling away. Arising of urges and falling away. Arising of mental projections and falling away. Movement of thoughts, movements of ambitions, desires, goals. What a show!
And getting to see, getting to know your own vehicle, your own, again, the field but somewhat this appearance seems more here than something on the edge of the peripheral vision and is known more intimately here than something on the edges of the of the experience so seeing whatever arises and seeing this like one could call it a microphone the speaker that speaks seeing this speaker or this visual experience this camera binocular responding to the arising wow that ups the game even more because i don't know what i'm gonna say or think in the next minute i don't know what my response is gonna be to a question i don't know if there will be any questions oh maybe i'll just uh maybe i'll just get a question okay so uh here we have some questions uh last couple of days ago yvonne was answering the questions so if anyone feels like wanting to jump in and answer any of those questions just lift your hand or a mute unmute i think there was question number six are traditional religions a hindrance to who traditional religions are also self-organizing universe appearing as traditional religions and in the individual dream character story are they helpful or the hindrance who cares individual character and its story individual movie particular episode of particular tv show on netflix has secondary validity and in that particular episode it can be hindrance or it can be a blessing who cares uh cornell is going to answer that question so if you have any questions would you like to jump in i had in the story i grew up in a traditional religion and i rejected it very um enthusiastically uh only a few years later to go and follow another traditional religion from another country which seemed very exotic and very exciting and the carrot they were dangling in front of us uh seemed like something worthwhile attaining um more recently uh that sort of rejection i guess continued and the books were given away um the pictures taken down the obsession with going to india kind of evaporated uh and then there was kind of a curiosity like um i'm gonna go and read the ashtavakra gita and the avatud gita and um and the zogchen buddhism and all that stuff i never really got into buddhism because it seemed like very uh very um restrictive and rules and i get it what um in terms of is traditional religion a hindrance uh by talking about um the history of the tradition so um cardinal and the the picture of nuncara now this seems to be like it's kind of like a lot of those old texts are now where once i didn't have any comprehension of it and it was of no value to to me it now seems illuminated from within and it's all saying the same thing and so it all seems to be full of um really nice little pointers um Andrew the other day quoted something from the Bible and I hadn't heard it before.
And I put that in the machine and said, where's this quote from? And it's something to do with God and the Israelites in the Old Testament saying, I'm going to send a plague on the Egyptians. So if you want to avoid the plague, put a dab of blood on the post of your house. And of course, it's a story from the Bible when I was a kid. And it seemed like a fairy tale. Andrew quoted it and saying, and no evil shall come near your dwelling place. A thousand can fall on the left and a thousand will fall on the right. But nothing will come to your dwelling place.
It seems OK in the context of that particular story, this old religious story. It's part of some old fruitcake legend. But if you see it as the metaphor, like if you're dwelling. Place is like the natural state, the empty cognizing, the. The. The awareness, the no thing, if that is the natural state, then. Nothing can nothing happens to that. You get bitten by a dog and it hurts, but like there's an awareness of the hurt and all that. And it's not just a story. It's a story of the whole story. Like so the point being that religion seems to be written down texts and. It seems to be grappling with that idea and trying to turn it into some sort of comprehensible form.
Now, whether that's that's to have power over other people or to offer. Offer a way of salvation. But. But. I don't know, the experience lately is that. Oh, OK, it's all saying the same thing. It's always it's a metaphor for like nothing and the non-existence of the separate person. It's like it's kind of it's there and it's obvious. But now it is. I'm sorry. I don't know if it's a hindrance. Yeah, it's just what it is. If it appears in the in the episode. Yeah. Of a TV show called Life of Cornelius. That's what's happening. If it doesn't, that's what's happening. Yeah. And it and they say, oh, you can use it as a boon or whatever blessing or a curse.
Who can use it? Is is there anybody there? And the life story will unfold and the life story can be told in 10,000 ways. Will it be told? Well, let's. Let me see. Maybe I see there are some comments here on the screen. So I'm going to just get to it. Capital says question. I try to find the me and I honestly cannot locate it in any thought or physical sensation. Yet underneath that absence, there is a very strong, ever present knowing of simply existing. Beautiful. Because this I exist. The mind is constantly running in a background. It makes me believe in a separate me.
How can I look through this fundamental conviction when it doesn't even show up as a tangible thought or feeling? That's beautiful. See, the idea of me of separate me or a person is a thought. However, the absolute undeniable conviction of your own existence is not a thought. Even when you don't have any thoughts. even if you pause the thought for a minute that conviction of existence is there it doesn't have shape or form it is just knowing like you don't need to have a thought about what's the temperature in the room to for the knowing to be present that is neither too hot not too cold or maybe it is too hot or too cold that knowing doesn't require thinking so that the certainty of existence never goes away this is always here and then the mind comes and translates it into a thought i am i am separate i have to get out of separation i have to experience a cosmic orgasm by joining with 10 000 things in the appearance because someone told me at some point that this is possible that story is also just an appearance in that sense of existence waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting looking for some other state for getting out of the me or questioning the me to somehow return to the sense of existence that has never been obscured it's always been there just somewhat translated or hijacked by that idea that this existence belongs to some little fairy there inside or little dwarf little controller there inside that can't be a thing that can't be a thing that can't be a thing that can't be a thing that can't be a thing to a device found that can't be proved existence is there granted even a little baby when he and opens the eyes there's no idea of me but there is consciousness there's presence there is this luminous light of being you can tell a live baby from the dead one so that's the difference like the baby not in comma here responding being alive that's That's the sense of existence.
Before the thought I, I am separate comes, it takes a while for that little biocomputer to get programmed, to start separating, to collect labels and to start relating to that label, started labeling myself, I'm this and I am not that. So sense of existence will always be there. Doesn't have to go anywhere. Just associating that sense of existence with sense of separation. That's unnecessary. That can be questioned. That can be seen through. Existence will still stay. The sense of existence now is just this, all of it. Instead of no, this is me here and not me out there. Of course, for the purpose of this video, I'm going to talk about the sense of existence.
Of course, for the purpose of navigating this vehicle within the dream that it is appearing in. Yes, the vehicle will say I. When I'm in the car, I will say I'm the car. When I'm in the helmet, sailor's helmet, I will accommodate for the added height or when I gain weight. Still, that's navigational purposes. But the direct experience is I am the consciousness inseparable from whatever. I'm just going to read it quickly. Who wants to look through? Yeah, exactly. And what for? Maybe it is already clear. Maybe it is seen. But thank you for asking, because this is what we do here. We actually looking through and answers not replying to question.
Just wanted to say we are an appearance that has the ability to imagine a me. We can see it. Just as just that it doesn't change the form imagining, but see it as imagination. Yeah, absolutely. And Yvonne says no one can touch you in the in the dwelling place. The sky like awareness, the original state. Yeah, the consciousness can't be touched. The body can be. Yeah, by all means, anything and everything can happen to the body. But the body is just arising. And Andrew, would you like to unmute? Yes, I remember I found my. Grandmother's Bible and it was like a King James Version, very thick old book.
She she was a very devout Catholic and she she she. Harry Deb her Bible and read she read her Bible all the time, and so I put the Bible in front of me. And I said I said to myself intuitively, I said to myself, look. If there is any wisdom in this book, if there is anything important, this book can tell me. Tell me, please, and so then I just randomly opened the book. And I. I came across this. I came across this page where it said. Paul, if anybody thinks he is something. When he is nothing. He deceives himself. And I thought to myself, wow, that's.
Very, very good, and I just looked it up on AI to find out. Where it was because I had no idea where it was and it comes from the book of. Galatians, which I don't. I have no idea what the book of Galatians is, but I must have opened it at that page. And AI also gives a closely. Related idea appears in Romans 12, three, where Paul says. Not to think of oneself. More highly than he ought to think. Not to think of one. Self. More highly than he ought to think. Not to think of one. Self. More highly than he ought to think. So, so, so there is some sort of.
But that, that, that was not what I really wanted to say. What I really wanted to say was. You think like last time I, I, I spoke, I talk about the three books and the misery and the shit that cause you've got the. The Talmud and you've got the. You've got the Koran and you've got the Bible. Now, I often think of. They're not that old. When you think of how long man's been around, they're not that old. Like the, the, the Koran, I think is like from the 700 AD. Whatever the Bible is 2000 years old. And. And it's Talmud. I don't know how old that is.
But I often think. What state was man in. Before all those books came along. What, what, what, what, what, what, what reference before any book before you, when you think of native peoples, like the Australian Aborigine and the American Indian. They had no books. They used to call white people, the people of the book. Because the, the white people would always be, you know, carrying their Bibles around with them. And so they would call them the people of the book. And. I often think, well, what are these? What reference would. They have had. So they would have had no reference at all. They, the only reference they would have had was their culture, their history.
And it would have related to nature. And see, we tend to look. If we've got a problem or we've got some sort of, we need some solution to something. We tend to go to a book. Oh, what does it say here? Or now we go to AI. Whereas in those days. I think, see, they would have had to resolve their problems in the moment. With the knowledge that the only knowledge they would have had would, would have been the knowledge, their cultural, their tribe or whatever had given them like the Australian Aborigine and, and, and this is where it gets back to what I said last time I spoke, I said, the natural intelligence.
Is. No. Isn't. There's no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. The, the acquired intellect is no match for the natural intelligence. And Bob always used to say that Bob always used to say that we've have lost our natural intelligence. We have lost our natural abilities. And it's been taken over by the intellect and reason. Whereas in, you know, like if you talk, talk to a native person, that they're all about intuitive. And that's why in. why especially in Asia, especially in the Thai language, the Thai language, they tend to talk about, they don't talk about the intellect. They talk about the heart. All the language is based on the heart, like, oh, Jai Dham or Jai Di.
That means good heart, black heart, good heart, cold heart. Everything relates to the heart. Whereas they don't sort of have any sort of words that describe the intellect because it's a very old language. And that's why I remember watching a TV show. This would have been 30 years ago. They had a group of Aborigines and they had an SAS soldier and I forget who the other third people were. But. But they had to go across the top of Australia and they had to survive. They were given virtually nothing. They had to go from point A to point B and they had to survive. They had to hunt.
They had to get their own food. The Aborigines were just having a ball. You know, they were finding water holes and food and hunting for food. They were having an absolute ball. They didn't even have shoes on. And the soldier, he was getting blisters on his feet from walking in the water. And he was running out of food and he couldn't find water. And it was just hysterically funny. These so-called stupid, we wouldn't call them dumb or anything, but these Aborigines were just running rings around these people when they were put in the net, when humans were put in, say, a natural state where you have to survive.
So we don't realise how dependent we are or how dependent we have become on, well, what would you say? It's not a bad thing. I'm not saying it's a bad thing because the intellect has given us all these wonderful things we've got. But what I always say is that the more sophisticated the intellect becomes at being able to produce all these wonderful things we have, the more sophisticated it becomes at making problems, at causing problems. And inventing problems that aren't really there. You know, like if you look at what's going on in the world today, you know, like women think they're men and men think they're women and everyone's confused about it.
And it's just unbelievable what's going on, you know. And you think, well, where's all this coming from? It's all just coming out of the intellect, you know. Like, I mean, it's like people. It's like people, if they haven't got a problem, they have to invent one. That's all I've got to say. Yeah, great point. No thought, no problem. What confusion, what thought, what problem, what drama and trauma can you have if you don't adopt a viewpoint, an idea? But we have another question here. And thank you for the question. Thank you for the question, Kapil. And again, another question. There is a persistent doubt in my mind that this presence or consciousness is just a byproduct of the physical body and that it will disappear when the body dies.
How can I see in my own direct experience that this presence isn't dependent on the physical body? And Yvonne says, who wants to see that? And see what? And what for also? And I actually just made a joke of a comment that narrative will disappear. Indeed. Isn't that wonderful? That consciousness being byproduct of the body. See, again, this is I think we touched upon it lately. The idea of consciousness being byproduct of the brain or being byproduct of the body, being the electrical activity that is generated. By the movement of energy. And that is translated by the bio computer as the thinking process. As the narrative, as the mind.
Well, even if that consciousness or that mind is a byproduct of the body, and when the body dies, the mind will die with it. Well, isn't that a great news? Who is going to miss that? Who is going to miss the narrative? If there is no one there to even listen to it. Well, isn't that a great news? Who is going to miss that? Who is going to miss the narrative? If there is no one there to even listen to it? But the way we are pointing to that baseline natural state or energy is not consciousness is just one of the words. But if you use the word awareness, or you use the word space or sky or intelligence or pure energy or life force, then you will know that even when the thought is not there, even with the brain or electrical activity or narrative is paused for a moment.
The life force is still there. But when the body dies and the life force is not in the body, well, it's still there. It's still there. Its direction is reversed. And now, instead of providing those functions of converting oxygen, oxidizing the blood and creating that narrative, that mind, it decomposes. It starts breaking down. It starts rotting. One could say. But the life force is always present. The idea of me, the person, this hallucinated self. No, that is highly likely not there when the computer is off, when the plug is pulled out. Although this is even that is not happening right now. You know, different religions will tell you what is going to happen with the soul or where is it going to go when it's not now.
Or what is going to happen when it's not now. Different worlds, different paradigms and all belief based, all thought based. But what we actually look into here is not necessarily a narrative that needs conviction. It's just a direct sense of existence. Not even the capacity to hear the narrative, but the sense of existence. And now, if that sense when the body is in coma is not there. Who's missing it? Who's having a problem with that? Or who's fearing it? So even when the body is dead, even when the plug is out and the computer or the television doesn't display any dreams anymore. The dreaming machine is disposed of and there's no dreaming happening anymore.
Does the space that vibrates into that incredible vehicle to get the glimpse of itself, does the space goes anywhere? Can that be destroyed? And as Yvonne said initially, why even and who and for what purpose? Even to look into the dream. Look into a situation that is so completely mind based, so completely hypothetical. It's not happening right here. It's not happening right now. It's just some completely remote imagined situation. It's fascinating, of course, but it's completely speculation based. We are trying to pull the attention away from that dreaming machine speculating mind. And that should be fine. And we can move into the direct experience of being.
And that direct experience of being is only immediate. It does not relate to that which is not right now. Does not relate to the past lives, future lives, the body alive, body half alive, dead. No, just this, just this now and the groundedness and the conviction in that this just now. When that is prominently in front as a pillar of the dream, which connected the brain. prominently in front as a base of all the experience, then the interest in speculations and imagination of the mind goes down. Now there is no, that fascination of how do I do it? How do I fix it? How do I achieve it?
What is going to happen later? It's just not as loaded. It's not as charged emotionally. And this is a freedom, freedom from the mind, freedom from that constantly inquisitive, obsessive mind, always wanting a recipe or answer to each question. I think we have some new comments. Would you like to read? Furthermore, even what you just described, even in the question, there is a persistent doubt in the mind that there is no way to solve it. I mean, I mean, you know, like there's persistent doubts. There's there's occasional doubts. There's the odd doubt. There's that. And they're all like mind movement, which is exactly what you're describing now.
So the actual question gives away like the mechanics of what's going on. Yeah, it's quite, quite fascinating in itself as itself. Mm hmm. Answers in sleep. Are you experiencing? No body. And then Yvonne says in the Gospel of Thomas 29, Jesus says, if the flesh came into existence because of the spirit, it is a marvel. But if the spirit came into existence because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. I wonder at this, how this great wealth made its home in this poverty. Wow. What a lovely quote. And then couple has continued. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, aloha. Yeah, That's true. That's great. That's perfect. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I know that you're so fulfilled. This is so beautiful. can I you Yeah, That's also really I think that can feel and feel soup The mind wants safety. The mind is preoccupied with making sure that this vehicle is going to survive next minute, next decade, next century, whatever it can get. That is the function of that particular biocomputer. It will always be preoccupied and it will find a way to believe in safety.
And people have different strategies. People, you know, different machines have different strategies. It's to finding safety. For some, it may be gathering a lot of money. Bob always joke. And have you seen a millionaire who doesn't have, who has enough? You know, the more money, the more preoccupation with the money, the more need to invest the money to make more money, though it is still looking for security, looking for safety. Other machines develop the preoccupation with safety by having beautiful relationship. A lot of people on my side having my back. You know, if I'm a general, I'll have a big army. If I am a family person, I will have a lot of cousins and and that will provide that illusion of safety.
Other people have yet another strategies. Oh, I will accumulate so much wisdom and so much knowledge that I will never need anyone else. I will have every resource within myself. That's another strategy for that machine for that mind to create. The. Illusion of safety, just like illusion of control, illusion of safety, illusion of security. That's its function. It just does what it has been designed to do. Because an answer that gives you safety now will not give you safety tomorrow or the next day or the next week or the next month. It can't like it. What's it giving? It's the mind, the mind speaking to the mind, calming the mind like it's not.
There's no there's no resolution. It's just a kind of a kind of endless narrative of of the seeking safety or whatever it is. But the fascinating thing, isn't it? Like, I think it's just fascinating to watch the natural occurrence of it happen. You know, watch it trying to seek for this grasp of this lean towards this. And and, you know, eventually these things are fruitless. Yeah. And imagine if you have the perfect formula. You forget it. Oh, my God. You get the prescription and political situation changes. The randomness of that of that whole dream, the ten thousand things interdependently arising and creating the storms and winters and summers completely like the poor, poor narrative survival machine trying to work it out and working overtime.
And. And clog clog strips. And there is never an answer there. Yeah. So before we go to Cornelius and says pre sense body senses to navigate and the mind translate that translates that as other senses are limited. Awareness is not beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. He put fantastic summary. See the safety ultimately. And I see you, Cornelius. I'll just finish that sense that sentence. Ultimately, the only safety there is is the complete relaxation into this present moment because the now is the eternity. It is the only time there is the moment you start imagining a future in which all dreadful things can happen and accommodate and calculate for what actions will prevent of those ten thousand things to go wrong.
You're leaving the nightmare that that is the mind leaving its nightmare. But when there is no mind, there is no insecurity in this moment. Right now, there's nothing wrong unless the mind comes and invents something wrong. There is no insecurity if there is no mind or no thought. Even if the body is trembling and the blood pressure is. Three. hundred without the idea that oh I'm having a panic attack oh I'm afraid I'm gonna die without those ideas that come from the mind that's just what's happening the body trembling that's it that's the that's the present moment arising of a tremble the only lasting real sense of absence of insecurity is when there is no mind because the mind itself the thinking itself invents fear if you look at the nature you look at the animals we are anthropomorphize fear in animals but really what it is it is the instinctual run for survival no fear call for action if there is a fox chasing a duck call for action roof that's it the idea that all that fear made her Iran is just a thought but we humans imagine what is not happening and creating this incredibly uncomfortable responses in the body and we suffer and we say this is anxiety this is fear and it doesn't call for any action because the response is to imagination and we look into imagination you to remedy the imaginary fear impossible situation and what the hell while again no mind no insecurity no need for safety because there is nothing wrong and Yvonne Cornelis would you like to meet exactly security I um I um something came over me and I realized that, oh, I don't need to meditate anymore.
I don't need to chant in Sanskrit or even get up early. Great. But that stuff had become like over decades, that stuff had become like a structure. And it was like I'm going up a mountain path to get to the top of the mountain. And I'm like three quarters of the way up. And suddenly there's no mountains or I am the mountain. And everything. And so a path where there's movement towards something else when there isn't anything else because it's logically impossible. It eventually became that's the security. The apparent things that apparently fall away, they weren't there anyway. So that idea of the mind looking for security.
And the only thing that gives the mind security is some sort of structure. Like that all the imaginary bits are all, they're all organized, categorized, labeled. And I've got all the bits going on. So well, sorry, man, there's no bits. Like it's just all like the bits that are here now won't be here in a minute, but then it'll be now and to be different next time. So there's no bits. So security, security is more about letting go than it is about hanging on. Because only the mind hanging on. I guess it's the mind that lets go. We were talking the other day about the nervous system catching up, that the nervous system fundamentally programmed for survival and pleasure.
There's nothing more resilient or pleasurable or pleasant. than the natural state where the organism just kind of hovers and like your example of the cat the cat's just hovering just hovering there until it needs to eat something or there's a fly and yeah whatever fly or uh if the dogs are out then the cat's kind of like the cat's keeping out of the way of the dogs uh it's not imagining nightmare not what i don't imagine that the cat is imagining nightmare scenarios where it's being torn to pieces by the dogs there's something in the cat that says stay out of the way of the dogs it's like well i don't go and sleep on the road i mean i could like now that i'm enlightened i'm going to just sleep on the road um and if i get run over by a truck it's kind of like well too bad uh there's something in the organism that says nah sleeping on the road won't work um so yeah security the everything is secure it can't be anything else um maybe the body's not secure but then again that's just an idea as well that the idea of future threats is an idea and there's no threat here now that i can perceive directly so here we go security to you security and of course the beauty of honesty of honestly admitting and recognizing the desire for safety the desire for security what an obvious way the love of being is yelling out i want to be i love to be i don't want danger i want always to have everything lined up for my best thriving and pleasure how sweet isn't it gorgeous isn't it gorgeous not only to admit yes i want safety i want to be okay i want everybody to love me i want yes i want i want i want that is the translation of a love of being through the mind which relate everything to that machine but really behind that is the very very same primal primordial love or life or or essence or energy that loves to be and we have someone else joining us and can you yeah and says be secure in existence if there is an imagining of something outside of that you feel unsafe if everything is one nothing can hurt you you need two to tango you need two to tango yeah that's that's a beautiful pointer yeah if everything is one there is no two yeah and andrew would you like to unmute yes i i i i like i really like that saying um i think i don't know where it comes from but it comes from somewhere in hinduism i think where the the wind can't dry you you the water can't drown you the sword can't cut you the fire can't burn you and the earth can't cover you and that that is directly pointing to the fact that you are no thing you are not an object you can never be objectified so none of those things can hurt you none of those things can do anything to you in the same way that you can't do anything to you in the same way that you can't do anything to you in the same way that you can't do anything to you in the same way as the appearance on the tv screen or the appearance on the movie screen cannot affect the screen you watch ice road truckers and the tv doesn't start freezing and getting ice barnacles on it you watch a a movie about bushfires the tv doesn't catch fire in the same way you you watch a movie about bushfires the tv doesn't catch fire in the same way you you nothing can hurt touch or cut you burn you drown you or whatever and bob used to add another one to it he used to add and the mind cannot conceptualize you that was the one he would add on so he would add on you know the wind can't dry you the fire can't burn you etc and the mind cannot conceptualize you the mind can never ever tell you what you are it can only ever tell you what you are not and by a process of eliminating and finding out what you are not what you then are becomes self-evident but that self-evidence is is nothing that can be conceived or perceived there is a knowingness there a beingness there a sense of presence there, but that is the closest you can to ever putting a label on it.
You can never ever put a label on nothing. And that's why I always say to people, like, I always used to talk to Bob and I always just say, that's why teachings fail. And he would agree with me. I would always say to him, I'd say, that's why every teaching, every sect of religion, ultimately, they all have to, they fail because they can never, ever, ever, no thing is nothing. It's no thing. It can never be conceptualized. It can never be made into a theory. It can never be made. The best you can do, the very best you can do is point to it. But the point in to it is not it.
And so once you see that, it reconciles itself by seeing what you are as opposed to what you're not, and that's all you can do. Yeah. Thank you, Andrew. Yeah, absolutely. Beautiful. And it's a beautiful reminder. Actually, I think it was you said it was from Bhada Vajita. And it says that describing it, that the sword can't cut it. The water can't drown it. But you actually took it to the next level by bringing it to you. This is not it. It isn't an it. It is your own sense of existence, your own sense of presence, awareness, existence. So this can't destroy you. Nothing can destroy you.
Because like Ant was saying earlier, you need to to tango to be vulnerable. There have to be something outside of you. That would threaten that vulnerability and destroy it. And in your own direct experience, everything arises within that field of knowing within the consciousness. Can you actually separate anything that arises from that field of knowing? Can you separate yourself? Can you separate anything? And if you are that field, then yes, of course, the things are coming and going in your life. Including the body. As we started, the hair may be falling. Look at this. The wrinkles may be coming up. The weight may come in and out.
Everything is changing in the appearance. But in the knowing that field of existence, that presence, the field of consciousness, the space, does that ever change? Does that ever get threatened by the change of the appearances? I remember when Bob was. We took him for a visit to his hometown a few years ago, maybe a couple of years before he passed away. And he hasn't been there for probably good. I don't know, maybe 60 years or more. And we couldn't even find the place where his farmhouse was when his farm and the little cottage was because there was a suburb there growing very, very fast. Not yet populated.
But already hundreds of little houses. And on the other side of the paddock was preparations and plants. Then we went to the train station. Even the train, the tracks were changed. The station was renewed. The Adamson Street and the Adamson Road, as for good old days, were still in the village. But everything along the road changed. The trees have died or grown. Everything changed. And he would just look around and he says that one thing doesn't change. It never does. The space. Space is always here because it doesn't have any characteristics. It can't change. It can't change shape, color, size, nothing. Shape, color, size appears in it.
Weather appears in it. People, places appear in it. Everything appears in that consciousness. Consciousness doesn't change. And it's not touched. Like Andrew was saying, you know, like the cowboys and Indians shooting each other on the screen. But the screen doesn't have holes in it. The fire burning on the screen. The screen doesn't burn. And I see Andrew, you have the hand up. I don't know if you had something to add. I just wanted to add, see, all these paradigms are taking place within you. You are the creator of everything. For example, if you talk about fear. Now, if you talk about fear, first of all, you have to create something to be fearful of.
And then you have to create somebody or an entity that's fearful of that thing that you've created. So you've created a dualistic paradigm that both are within you. And so. Once you see that they cancel each other out, you can't see that the fear cannot exist without the fearful one. Right. So if there's nobody to be fearful, how can there be any fear? If there's nobody or nothing there to be fearful, what is there to be fearful of? So what you do is you create an entity. Then you create that entity that has some sort of fear. So it's a dualistic paradigm. And as Bob always used to say, what is more simple than one?
So anything that appears within your mind that's two is not real. It's like it says that in the Yoga for Shishka. And the Yoga for Shishka is thousands of years old. And it says anything that has a beginning and an end is not real. It's not ultimately real. It's transient. Because the only thing that can create a starting and a finishing point is in the mind. And the same way is the Hindus talk about what is it? She is Brahma, the creator, Shiva, the destroyer. Or what is it? It's creation. Creation. Destruction. There's three. I can't remember the middle one. It's creation. One is creating.
One is sustaining. Creating, sustaining, destroying. Now, what is the only thing that can create, sustain and destroy? The only thing that can do that is the mind. In the same way, the only thing that can create a conceptual starting point and a conceptual finishing point is thinking. And see, Bob always used to say, whatever is starting is now and whatever is finishing is now. The duration in between is now. The meaning that's really from the present awareness is thinking. Thinking you either move back into the past, which is now, which is taking place now, or you create some imaginary future, which is also now. So you never, ever move away from now.
And see, that's why people say, oh, you've got to read the book, The Power of Now. And I thought, well, it's not a bad book or anything. I can't really remember what it said. But I remember I got the impression was he was talking like the now is something you need to look for. There's something. The now is something you need to search for when you are never not the now. You have never moved away from the now. And all you have to do is to see that. So it's very, very simple. I don't know if it requires a book, but then again, he probably made a few bucks out of it.
So good luck to him. Yeah, that's the language he should. You know, the pointing can have such a contradictory language. And the way. Of course. Of course, we, I think, all resonate fairly well with Bob's language. So, yes, when people would ask him, how do I get into the now? They say to be in the now. And Bob would say, show me how you get out of it. You can't even imagining past and future. You're doing it now. And the beauty. Okay, you go, Colonel. Just in terms of evaporating fear, because if there's not, it takes two entities, one to be afraid and one to be the fearful thing.
The same function operates with desire, which has been a thing for me. Like, they seem to like, I can still do the same things. But the urgency. The urgency is drained out of them. It's like enjoyable things to do without an end game, without a product at the end of it. It's not the importantness. Mostly it's just to fill in the apparent time that seems to pass. But just that idea of like fear is dissolved because there's not an entity afraid of a thing that's fearful. There's nothing to be desired because nothing can be added to this. And I can only speak dualistically about it, but there's nothing to be had or achieved or changed even.
And that seems really very reassuring to someone. And I think that's the key. And Yvonne said earlier, and the mind can't conceptualize it. Yeah. Yeah. And said feelings can cause a heart attack and conceptualizing can cause suicide. But that's the power of belief, not the feeling of the mind or the mind. Yeah. And you see again that primordial energy that Bob used to call intelligence energy. And different religions call it in different ways. They call it God, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience. Nisargadatta used to and Bob liked that too. Call it love or light. So that energy experienced directly shows up as this. This is the energy.
This is love showing up as this. And within that is mind that is included. And mind translates the love. Love of being. Into one. Think more. Adding. Accumulating. Amassing. Wanting more. Wanting more safety. Fearing. Mind is the energy of fear. Mind is the energy of luck. Mind is the translation of love of being into not this. Better than this. Out there. Later. Not now. Not here. This is that urge directly. The love of being is. Look at this miracle of existence. Wow. The seeing. The hearing. The luminous radiance. The awareness. The content. The presence. It could have been absolutely nothing. And then there is this richness.
Directly. Known directly. Without even speaking it with words. It can be just absolutely embodied. And it is. And then comes the translation. Then comes the narrative. If the energy is. Evenly distributed. And the seeing gets some space. Wow. And the hearing. Tasting. Touching. Smelling. And imagination also takes some place within that richness of experiencing. Then, of course, you know, living a dream. But if the imagination takes hijacks 90% or 100% of available attention. And that 100% or that almost 100% is going to be utilized by the mind, which its sole function is to provide safety. To deny this moment as it is to overlook this moment as it is, because there is nothing to do.
This is already here. It's too late. How am I going to fix? What am I going to fix? What am I going to find? Mind is not interested. The narrative software is not interested in what is. It constantly. Wants to improve it. Add it. Alter. Modify. Correct. Fix. So if the attention is hijacked. From that living essence. From that magnificence of existence into the imagination, into the thinking, into the mind. Then, well, of course, the consequences are dreadful. The now is completely ignored. The radiance of presence. The miracle is completely overlooked. And suddenly the past. The. The future. They feel real. They appear real. They dreadful.
They scary. What a show. It's just like when you watch really, really good film, really good movie, and you just so completely taken by it. They use weep when the hero gets wounded. Or you have you cringe when there is a suspense moment and it feels so you completely forget that you're watching in a safe, comfortable. Sofa watching the entertainment, even if just for a moment. So this is the persistent state for majority of body, mind, machine as much as we can tell, leaving completely oblivious to the fact of overlooking the miraculousness of this presence and abiding in the imagination, constantly engaging with the thinking about what is not happening.
Presently about what can go wrong in the future. What other people think about me generally obsessing about me? What is wrong with me? How am I going to get myself better? How am I going to get myself safer? How am I going to make it in the world? All the past regrets. What have I done wrong? The shame, the guilt, the remorse, all about me and all painful. Well, now the miracle of existence, the presence. It's right here. You could subtly enjoy every single breath. Feel it fully. Feel the sensations. See the sights. Smell the smells. Enjoy the peripheral vision. Just like the way the awareness opens up completely and allows and includes everything that is is much the same as the visual field.
Sometimes you may be really, the attention may be really required to fix something, fix something very precisely. And then there is a laser focus going into that fixing or into whatever it is, writing book or working the laser focus even in the in a case of the of the animals, you know, when the cockaburra is hunting it very, very precisely with precise focus. Get the particular bug that it has sensed throughout. the senses and then when that laser focus is not required the attention opens up the laser vision opens up and the periphery is included and that relaxed awareness that awareness in which everything just floats through and you can't even conceptualize yourself monitoring watching or witnessing it because it's just that flow this is not in control you are not in control but by resonating by getting inspired and getting reminded about the natural state when the laser focused attention isn't required when you drive the car or or whatever the activity is there in those moments just relaxing back and resting in that uncontrived singularity it's always here just like the just like the peripheral vision andrew you on i just wanted to say like um when i was talking before about the beginning creating a beginning and an end and the only place that can take place is in the mind i can't remember whether it was bob or whoever said it it's like putting book ends on the infinite on the eternal it's like you're trying to you're trying to zone it off type of thing like you're trying to fence it you're trying to fit you're trying to put a fence around the infinite the eternal and you can't you can't you it's just it's just an impossible thing the only place that can happen is in thinking thinking creates all those beginnings and ends and and and creation uh preservation and destruction the the only place those things can happen in the in the is in the mind and i thought i i remember that saying putting it's like trying to put book ends on the infinite yeah absolutely the only division the only uh duality is is in the mind i have i have a actually glanced we started with the with the question are traditional religions a hindrance just after that question i have another one that the buddhist teachings mention emptiness and advaita mention consciousness aren't they the same thing and the other one says can dualists be enlightened and you can see how everything revolves around language everything revolves about the definition of terms and there is absolutely nothing wrong call it emptiness call it form call it space call it consciousness awareness god space play sky or shiva or allah or whatever the name the moment the label is applied then there is a presumption then there is a mental image and mental image is never it or the i am the sense of existence but i wonder we have few more people here and would anyone else like to contribute you guys contribute no now anyone from yeah we have 20 people with us anyone guys maybe something here someone add something cornelius you on all right look you're talking about the mind and we talk about the mind as though it's it's a something the or the problem is the mind and it's all happening in the mind the mind the mind the mind as though oh yeah there's like there's awareness and then there's this thing called the mind and so it's just another example of language can't exist without some sort of duality because the mind isn't nothing but it's not something um there's nothing other than the mind that it's it's all the mind our ideas about non-duality are nothing but mind the idea of becoming enlightened or of being a person or a snail or a box of nails is just all mind the world is mind um tanya said it a few weeks ago it was beautiful she said attention is the world that whatever you what whatever you whatever whatever attention falls upon that's the world if the if the um the energy of belief kicks in uh and the the attention is maintained then hence um there's fears and all and all desires um uh so mind there's a there's a zog chin thing that says um your mind and all the thoughts that's buddha too so uh the omnipresent is like omnipresent it's all it's everything it doesn't exclude anything so um so that just about cancels canelius out so um that was my that was his little contribution to speak about myself in the third person just for the sake of trying to be non-dualistic ah brilliant beautiful of course you know the moment the language is introduced now suddenly the division comes there is a consciousness and there is a mind or there is a love of being and there is a translation of love of being into something else.
There's nothing else. It's just, whew, just this. But what a joy to do the impossible thing and use dualistic language and so-called mind which can't be found. Either everything is mind or there is no mind, which both means the same. Zero equals eternity. Emptiness equals form. Form is emptiness. There is only one. You need the two to tango, but to have the two to tango, you have to imagine the two. And that's the paradox of so-called duality, non-duality. For any experiencing to even be possible, there has to be a reflection. But because there is no separation, because there is only one, the only way that one can imagine and the reflection of itself is through imagination.
So yes, everything is mind because mind is the imagination. And suddenly the oneness with the capacity to imagine the cognizing emptiness sees the 10,000 things which cannot be separate from the seeing itself. So it's still oneness and yet appearing as the multitude. What a joke. And I think we have a comment there on the screen. Diane says, I love what you're saying, Cornelius. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And capital says, thank you all. And yes, I'm aware of that thankfulness as well. Love these meetings. Yeah. It's really fun to joy, to joy, to joy, to joy, joy, to share joy.
Yes, Cornelius. You on? Yeah. And the world is a palace of mirrors and the mad dog goes into the palace of mirrors and sees angry mad dogs everywhere. But the wise person. person goes into the palace of mirrors and sees him herself reflected all around that's a good one yeah lovely it takes one to tanya says yvonne yeah so uh anyone anything i can read another question can jewelists be enlightened this is really a funny one what is dualist what is or who is dualist and is there anyone can the person whether the person is male or female or enlightened or unenlightened or dualist or monoliths or triplist can the person ever get enlightened what is the enlightenment if not the absence of an idea of being a person so who really gets enlightened monoliths or dualist or triplist what is it who is it realization there is no one home that the blood is moving by itself i'm not moving it the heart is beating by itself i'm not beating it the lungs the thoughts are arising the decisions are being made the choices are being made the urges arise in the body the the desire is being made the desires arise the aversions the fears everything all shabang shows up in consciousness and place that incredibly colorful drama by itself there is no one raining the rain no one leading the sun aliveness shines of its own of itself and then as the phenomena is arising in consciousness and the response to the phenomena is arising in a consciousness the one knowing the 聽 b re in center of the reason that is called the enlightenment absence of mind mad idea that i am this body mind separate from the world only this furniture I'm talking to you from behind the scenes off of your maarια in the living room then can you Then you just pause the thought for a moment.
Then you will be enlightened because the idea when the thought is paused will be absent. Just like every animal, bird and insect has no mad idea of being separate and separate from a body, separate from the world. If you pause the thought, you don't have that idea either. That's the enlightenment, so-called enlightenment. It's right here. And then the idea arises and it's just an idea. Anne says, can you not label a so-called other? They would reject the label and if they don't, no one is doing it. I'm equally dualist and non-dualist, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nisargadatta would say, I am nothing. This is wisdom.
I am everything. This is love. And between both, the life flows. I am dualist. I am non-dualist. I am everything. I am nothing. It's the same thing. Who needs a label? Even if there is an urge to define or identify as something or the other, what is it? It's just an urge arising in consciousness. And for the purposes of navigation. If the policeman knocks the door and asks me my name, I'll probably recite the name, which is not who I am. For whatever other reason, if I'm doing a census and I have to state the gender or religion or nationality, those things are also being utilized.
And yet there's no need to identify. There is no possibility to literally figure out or know or identify. I'm not a person. I'm not a person. I'm who I am. It's my resolve and my attitude. And if this is what you want to live out, that's the thing I'm talking about. At the moment, you're living out the real thing. And she can move you to the graces of rein dog meat. But you're here. You're here because you're alive forever. That's personal. And since a life. You still exist. You are the existence itself. Within that existence, there is a vehicle arising. There is a body which is constantly changing.
The body can be modified. The spare parts can be changed. There could be a hearing device attached or there could be a limb chopped away. Or teeth can be exchanged or the hair can be cut off. Or the body can be put into a different vehicle and the binoculars can be added to the eyes. The vehicle can change. The mask, the costume, I can put funny dress on it or paint the face. And yet, the consciousness, the awareness within which the body changing its costumes arises, that one isn't touched. Do we have any comment? No, that's time. Ah, cool. Okay. Time. Time really flies at these meetings.
Bye, Ant. Bye, everyone. Yeah, it really does. Bye, Cornelius. Yes, thank you, everyone. See you, Andrew. See you, everyone. Yeah, thank you. Bye.