[[Rupert Spira]] https://youtu.be/YXe2QXdhrk4 00:00 [Music] 00:14 so is there anything you'd like to 00:17 discuss so I forgot the word you used 00:22 yesterday but like a filter of reality 00:24 versus reality did I don't know if I'm 00:27 capturing it right like there's reality 00:30 and then there's our like perceived your 00:32 reality or yes I suggested suggested 00:36 that our mind filtered reality according 00:42 to its own limitations just as if you're 00:46 walking in the snow and you put on a 00:48 pair of orange tinted glasses you filter 00:51 the color of the snow through your so 00:57 sometimes it feels like you don't know 01:00 if it's filtered reality or not so like 01:02 in life there feels like there's a like 01:05 in like a societal hierarchy you you can 01:09 be absolutely sure that everything you 01:12 know or experience is filtered through 01:14 your mind 01:16 but what do you like what do you do with 01:18 that next so for example like this is 01:22 not a psychological question in terms of 01:25 like I need I want to resolve this for 01:28 me individually and personally and I 01:31 need to have therapy or something this 01:33 is a question about like life and social 01:36 structures and so like this this 01:39 institutional like racism and structural 01:42 racism is something that is apparently a 01:46 filtered perception just like everything 01:48 else is but then what next 01:51 like what do you do with that like if 01:54 I'm angry and I want to fight then like 01:56 just do it like or it's like you have to 01:59 be cautious it's a filtered perception 02:02 if you are angry or depressed or lonely 02:08 or any other feeling that you have you 02:12 check first on whose behalf you're 02:16 feeling is arising is it on behalf of a 02:23 temporary finite self and if it is then 02:28 check the nature of this temporary 02:34 finite self before you start feeling and 02:38 subsequently acting and relating on its 02:41 behalf check the truth of the temporary 02:45 finite self that is the origin of your 02:48 feeling is a temporary finite like well 02:51 if it is a arising on behalf of a 02:53 temporary finite self rather than 02:56 expressing your anger investigate that 02:59 self well if you discover that the 03:05 cellphone whose behalf you're feeling 03:07 arises is not there or is not the 03:11 temporary finite self that you thought 03:13 it was what is going to happen to its 03:15 feelings 03:22 you investigate the self on whose behalf 03:26 your feelings 03:27 aright the separate self the temporary 03:29 finite self on whose behalf you're 03:32 feelings rise but I feel like that's 03:34 dismissing like that filtered perception 03:38 of the hierarchy like what about that 03:40 like injustice that's existing if I just 03:43 sit there and explore that temporary 03:46 self like if if you're feeling of sorry 03:50 to interrupt you but if you're feeling 03:52 the feeling of injustice doesn't 03:55 necessarily arise on behalf of the 03:58 temporary finite self it arises on 04:00 behalf of the lamp and intelligence in 04:02 which case follow the feeling of 04:04 injustice don't investigate there's no 04:07 need to investigate the separate self it 04:09 is not the feeling of injustice is not 04:11 necessarily arising on behalf of a 04:14 separate self it may be you have to 04:15 check that first but if it's not it if 04:17 it is an expression of love and 04:19 intelligence then pursue the feeling of 04:22 injustice and act accordingly 04:54 one of the ways would be that you don't 05:02 feel personally hurt or upset you don't 05:08 feel that you have been diminished in 05:11 any way by what you are responding to in 05:15 other words your response is not the 05:17 response over a hurt disrespected 05:25 unloved person so that that would be one 05:27 way at an emotional level to know 05:31 whether or not your feelings were coming 05:33 from a sense of separation or whether 05:35 they were arising on behalf of love and 05:37 intelligence but if you can't to be non 05:46 separate and that's clear and there's 05:49 it's been investigated and it's clear 05:51 and still like feelings are going to 05:53 come up in response to what's happening 05:56 in life if you've investigated yourself 06:00 and you're sure that your feelings and 06:01 your subsequent activities are not 06:04 arising on behalf of the sense of 06:06 separation then feel completely free to 06:08 express your feelings in action okay 06:19 because then you're still feeling but 06:22 you know it's not coming out of that 06:25 there are feelings that arise on behalf 06:27 of the sense of being a temporary finite 06:29 self and there are feelings that arise 06:32 on behalf of love and intelligence okay 06:35 thank you 06:38 pursue the latter investigate the former 06:53 thank you this actually kind of follows 06:57 up on that and my question is this is 06:58 that when one is able to contact an act 07:03 from their source then I'm curious if 07:08 you have any thoughts on the effect of 07:10 that on I mean I've heard I've heard 07:14 Saints say that you know if it weren't 07:17 for people in contact with that source 07:19 the world would be a much bigger mess 07:22 than it is in other words there's action 07:25 on the level of action and there's 07:27 contacting reality and somehow the 07:30 influence of that kind of fertilizes and 07:34 bubbles up throughout all activity and I 07:36 wonder if you have any thought on that 07:38 if you understand what I'm asking well 07:45 let me respond and if I'm not responding 07:48 sure to your question that we know yes I 07:52 I would agree in fact I would go further 07:56 and say that **the greatest service one 08:00 can render Humanity is to recognize 08:03 one's true nature** because all of our 08:08 minds are precipitated within the same 08:11 consciousness just as under the 08:14 materialist paradigm all our bodies 08:17 appear in the same space and for the 08:20 same reason that under the prevailing 08:22 materialist paradigm all our bodies are 08:25 in contact with each other because they 08:27 appear in the same space likewise under 08:30 the consciousness-only model each of our 08:34 minds is precipitated within the same 08:36 awareness and therefore are in contact 08:39 with each other 08:40 in fact the mind is not an isolated 08:45 entity 08:48 so so yes the the there is a subliminal 08:55 effect on all minds when one miner 09:00 recognizes its its essence and then do 09:06 you feel that that subliminal effect 09:10 inevitably on some level to some degree 09:13 has an effect of precipitating action 09:17 that's more in harmony with that level 09:19 in at some level and to some degree yes 09:23 whether it is sufficient to bring about 09:28 a marked change in society is another 09:31 matter but but yes at least to some 09:34 degree 09:41 yes it 09:49 just hear him turquoise thank you it's 09:54 so great to see you in person Rupert if 09:57 I may my question is somewhat 10:01 philosophical a couple parts but very 10:06 briefly so there's the inward path which 10:11 is a sort of Awakening and then in the 10:13 outward path of it could be seen as the 10:18 evolution of the separate self and so my 10:23 my question is then is this a continued 10:29 evolution of lifetimes is the infinite 10:33 consciousness continuous manifests and 10:39 we manifest okay let me just slightly 10:44 reformulate your your first statement 10:47 about the inward and outward facing 10:49 paths and many of you may not be 10:52 familiar with these terms the inward 10:54 facing path is that term that I 10:57 sometimes use for the initial stage of 11:03 our investigation when we turn away from 11:05 the content of our experience and 11:08 investigate ourself essential self not 11:13 our thoughts feelings sensations 11:15 perceptions activities or relationships 11:17 but our self so this involves not 11:21 necessarily a turning away from 11:22 experience but at least a softening of 11:26 the focus of our attention from its 11:28 objective content and the return of the 11:31 attention to its source this is the 11:33 essence of meditation or prayer and I 11:36 refer to it as the inward facing path 11:39 because it is in words in the sensitive 11:41 it is in the not in the direction of 11:48 experience objective experience so the 11:52 outward facing path would then be that 11:54 path that we engage in having recognized 11:59 the essential nature of us 12:01 we turn around so to speak and face 12:05 again the objects of experience which we 12:08 previously turned away from with the 12:13 purpose of realigning the way we think 12:18 and feel and subsequently act perceive 12:22 and relate in the world but the little 12:26 adjustment that I wanted to make was 12:28 that this would not be the evolution of 12:32 a separate self the separate self 12:34 through the inward facing path has been 12:37 discovered to be an illusion there is no 12:40 separate self so having discovered that 12:43 we then turn around again and our 12:46 thoughts feelings activities and 12:50 relationships are then reor castrated in 12:54 line with our new understanding but what 12:57 we essentially are is not a temporary 12:59 finite self but is rather this infinite 13:02 and shared consciousness now the second 13:06 part of your question does this go on 13:08 for lifetimes yes we have to be open to 13:12 the possibility that under this model 13:16 the the the body the mind does not 13:20 appear in the body that the body is 13:27 let's just say this that that in this 13:32 from this perspective the that the mind 13:35 would not come to an end when the body 13:38 dies so the mind could continue to 13:40 evolve after the death of the body in 13:44 this perspective I don't want to go into 13:46 too much detail about that but yes in in 13:48 principle there's no reason why the 13:50 evolution of the of a finite mind should 13:53 be limited to a single lifetime so there 13:59 is some some sense of yes but so let's 14:05 let's not worry about other lives let's 14:07 just talk about this like yes I I i 14:11 sometimes suggest that if if the 14:15 spiritual process if we can call it a 14:18 spiritual process what was a book 14:22 consisting of twelve chapters the 14:26 recognition of our true nature takes 14:28 place at the end of chapter one it is 14:32 not as is sometimes supposed the the end 14:36 of the process it is the end of the 14:39 belief that we are a temporary finite 14:42 self but once that belief comes to an 14:45 end that belief then has to be taken 14:48 deeply into the way we not only think 14:52 but the way we feel the body and 14:54 perceive the world and so the subsequent 14:57 eleven chapters of the book are devoted 15:01 to realigning the way we think feel act 15:05 perceive and relate with our new 15:07 enlightened understanding in fact it's a 15:10 book that never really ends so so one 15:15 more part actually the so but with each 15:19 incarnation or there's a reincarnation 15:23 you go through the stage of the ego 15:28 or the separate self you become so 15:32 there's a veil or something drops it 15:35 something mm-hmm then I'm thinking this 15:38 from some spiritual teachings that there 15:40 is no separate self there is just the 15:44 self if we can call it a self though the 15:46 true and only self of pure consciousness 15:49 when I say pure consciousness I'm your 15:52 pure awareness I mean consciousness that 15:55 is not yet mixed with or limited by the 15:59 content of experience thoughts images of 16:02 feelings etc so the separate self is an 16:05 imaginary veiling of the true and only 16:09 self of pure consciousness let me give 16:12 you an analogy to make that possibly 16:15 abstract idea a bit more contract a bit 16:19 more to get to give it some context 16:24 imagine an actor John Smith who plays 16:28 the part of King Lear now there is no 16:31 real person called King Lear all there 16:35 is to King Lear is John Smith to which a 16:42 suit of clothes and a series of thoughts 16:44 and feelings have been added this 16:47 mixture of John Smith Plus thoughts and 16:51 feelings makes for the apparently 16:55 individual person called King Lear but 16:57 there is no real person called King Lear 17:00 likewise each of us is in this analogy 17:03 John Smith the true and only self of 17:06 ever-present unlimited consciousness 17:08 plus or clothed in thoughts images 17:13 feelings sensations and perceptions and 17:15 this mixture of awareness plus 17:18 experience creates an illusory separate 17:22 self so the illusory separate self that 17:26 most people believe and feel themselves 17:27 to be is a mixture of two things one the 17:31 true and only self of pure awareness and 17:35 two a series of thoughts images feelings 17:38 at 17:40 so by the way I don't mean to imply that 17:43 these thoughts images feelings are 17:46 imposed on awareness from the outside 17:49 there is nowhere outside 17:51 awareness from which they could 17:53 originate it is awareness itself through 17:56 its own activity that assumes the form 17:58 of thinking and perceiving and thereby 18:01 limits itself just as King Lear is not 18:06 imposed on John Smith from the outside 18:08 it is the actor John Smith who freely 18:10 assumes the form or the character of 18:13 King Lear in order to have a 18:15 relationship with Cordelia and be the 18:18 King of England but even when John Smith 18:25 is is clothed as it were in king lear's 18:27 thoughts and feelings he never really 18:29 ceases to be John Smith he never really 18:32 becomes King Lear likewise infinite 18:35 consciousness the only consciousness 18:37 there is clothes itself in each of our 18:39 thoughts and perceptions and seems as a 18:42 result become a separate self but never 18:45 really ceases to be itself in other 18:49 words there is no real separate self or 18:53 finite consciousness thank you 19:02 thank you report for your talk yesterday 19:07 and also for your answers first I became 19:14 aware of my program mind and I saw that 19:22 that is controlling me 19:28 then I tried to be the one who sees the 19:33 problem mind not be the programmed mind 19:39 you have an advice that being aware of 19:42 being aware I try I am aware that I'm 19:49 aware but I am most addicted to my 19:53 previous self and that self comes 19:57 controls the body and I lose the 20:01 awareness Ionis is still there but I'm 20:05 not aware that I'm aware how can we stay 20:13 on position that we are aware of being 20:17 aware like not let the mind takes 20:21 control of the body ok so what you're 20:27 saying is that you have recognized that 20:31 what you essentially are is awareness 20:34 but for most of the time you awareness 20:39 are so lost in the content of your 20:42 experience that you forget or overlook 20:45 yourself and occasionally you notice 20:50 this and you disentangle yourself from 20:53 your experience and as it will go back 20:55 to yourself you don't really go back to 20:58 yourself because you never left yourself 21:00 but you understand yes 21:02 you go back to yourself but then through 21:03 force of habit experience has the power 21:08 to pull you away from yourself and so 21:12 you lose yourself in the content of your 21:14 experience again 21:15 so there is this back and forth yes and 21:20 you spend most of your time lost in the 21:23 content know of your experiences okay 50 21:26 okay let's say you spend 50 percent of 21:31 the time it's not too bad you spend 50% 21:36 of the time lost in the content of your 21:38 experience and 50% of your time 21:41 [Music] 21:42 knowingly in touch with yourself and 21:45 most importantly in touch with its 21:48 innate peace and happiness 21:51 so just become accustomed to remaining 21:59 in touch with yourself not in the 22:02 absence of experience but in the midst 22:05 of experience to begin with when we 22:08 first come across this this 22:11 understanding we sometimes have to close 22:14 our eyes and turn away from experience 22:17 in order to familiarize ourselves with 22:20 ourselves but in time it's no longer 22:23 necessary to close our eyes and turn 22:26 away from experience because even in the 22:28 midst of experience we are still ourself 22:30 in other words in time experience loses 22:34 its capacity to take us away from 22:37 ourselves and in time we find that fewer 22:41 and fewer experiences have the capacity 22:44 to take us away from ourself until the 22:48 certain point comes when we simply feel 22:52 established in the peace of our true 22:55 nature in the midst of almost all 22:58 experience I say almost all experience 23:02 because we must leave open the 23:04 possibility that we never know what's 23:06 going to happen there may sometimes 23:08 something may happen that triggers an 23:11 old reaction and we are temporarily lose 23:15 ourselves to that experience but it 23:19 happens less and less frequently and 23:21 when it does happen it lasts for less 23:24 and less time 23:27 I see yeah actually I resonated with 23:32 that because I had that understanding 23:34 like a year and a half ago in the 23:37 beginning it was I could say like 10% I 23:40 was aware 90% not but now it's I see it 23:43 at the time pass I am getting closer 23:45 another way of expressing it would be to 23:49 say that experience becomes increasingly 23:53 transparent to its 23:56 reality it's not necessary to touch 24:02 experience or change it or manipulate it 24:05 it's it's in just the same way that when 24:11 you're watching a movie if you're 24:14 totally involved in the movie you may 24:17 feel that you no longer see the screen 24:19 you may believe you see a landscape but 24:22 in time the landscape loses its capacity 24:25 to veil its reality the screen and 24:28 there's no need to turn the movie off or 24:30 change the content of the movie it's the 24:34 same experience becomes transparent to 24:37 its reality and you feel that and then 24:39 there is no longer any need to negotiate 24:43 experience this is what Krishnamurti was 24:49 referring to when at the end of his life 24:51 somebody asked him do you have a final 24:54 secret teaching for us and he said yes I 25:00 do have one final teaching for you and 25:03 of course everyone was on the edge of 25:05 their chairs waiting for this marvelous 25:07 new teaching and he simply said I don't 25:10 mind what happens 25:13 he was speaking of this understanding 25:16 mics what he was saying was my 25:18 experience has lost its capacity to veil 25:24 my own being and it's innate peace and 25:28 happiness and therefore my peace and 25:30 happiness is no longer invested in 25:32 experience so I don't mind what happens 25:34 my peace is prior to experience not 25:38 dependent upon experience thank you 25:50 I have an understanding and I wondered 25:54 if I could could say to you and see um 25:57 see if it what what's your reaction to 26:00 it is but you will talk about 26:03 consciousness and how consciousness is 26:05 is primary but you know heaven 26:09 understand it's really from the Vedic 26:11 tradition of India of how consciousness 26:13 does this thing of having the universe 26:16 however you want to say it arise in 26:19 consciousness how this is created and 26:22 it's in terms of what the last two 26:23 people were talking the experiencer and 26:25 the experienced and the process of 26:28 experiencing so the understanding is 26:30 that that the first movement in that 26:33 direction is that consciousness being 26:36 consciousness becomes conscious of 26:39 itself so it's still one is still 26:41 consciousness spirits self conscious 26:43 it's conscious of itself and so there's 26:46 a kind of a - and there's that you sorry 26:50 to interrupt you but everything you say 26:52 downstream will contain this original 26:55 mistake so that's why I'm stopping you 26:58 here I the consciousness is like the Sun 27:03 the Sun doesn't doesn't when the Sun 27:11 first appeared the Sun didn't at some 27:16 point in its evolution begin to 27:19 illuminate itself the sun's nature is 27:24 illumination it illuminates itself from 27:28 the very beginning because that's what 27:31 it is it is self it is an illumination 27:34 it is shining it is by nature 27:37 self-illuminating consciousness is like 27:39 that consciousness is knowledge of 27:41 itself is is not a sign of the evolution 27:46 of consciousness consciousness by 27:48 definition is self knowing or self 27:52 luminous or self aware and it's 27:55 knowledge of itself is not a knowledge 27:58 of in duality it's not when 28:01 consciousness 28:02 itself that knowledge does not take 28:04 place in subject object relationship 28:07 it's it is the only experience there is 28:12 the only experience there is in which 28:15 the subject of experience and the object 28:17 of experience are the same in other 28:20 words there is no subject or object of 28:22 experience in consciousness is knowledge 28:24 of itself I understand I guess what I'm 28:29 getting at is how does consciousness 28:32 begin the game begins - it begins - 28:40 begins to vibrate within itself and this 28:45 vibration gives its otherwise formless 28:49 being a form and having a form it begins 28:55 to limit itself in exactly the same way 28:58 that when you have a dream at night your 29:00 mind is a field of infinite potential in 29:04 which all possible Gries dreams lie 29:09 unmanifest but your own mind assumes the 29:13 form of one of those dreams and him by 29:17 doing so immediately limits itself and 29:21 then but who's limiting who is 29:24 consciousness is limiting itself because 29:27 there is nothing in consciousness other 29:29 than consciousness with which 29:30 consciousness could be limited 29:32 consciousness freely assumes the form of 29:35 the finite mind in order to bring what 29:39 lies in potential within it into 29:41 manifestation but how in your view does 29:45 it get lost in that is it does that is 29:48 race consciousness pays for 29:51 manifestation just as when you have a 29:55 dream at night your own mind dream 29:58 imagines the dreamed world within itself 30:01 and simultaneously forgets or overlooks 30:05 that it is dreaming that is the price 30:07 your mind pays for dreaming that you are 30:10 walking on the streets of Paris you have 30:11 forgotten that you are dreaming and 30:14 that's forgetting 30:15 the nature of your own mind enables your 30:18 mind to assume the streets of Paris but 30:21 you cannot view the streets of Paris 30:24 directly from your own mind asleep in 30:27 San Jose you have to enter into your own 30:30 dream your own mind has to localize 30:33 itself in its own dream as the dreamed 30:36 character the separate subject of 30:38 experience from whose perspective the 30:40 dreamed world is known in other words 30:42 your own mind divides itself into a 30:45 subject the dreamed character and an 30:48 object the dreamed world this subject 30:51 object relationship seems to be true 30:54 from the perspective of the separate 30:57 subject of experience in the dream but 30:59 when you wake up you realize no 31:02 experience was not divided into a 31:05 subject and an object into mind and 31:08 matter it was all the activity of my own 31:12 infinite indivisible mind so just 31:17 consider the possibility that unlike 31:21 your own mind which localizes itself as 31:23 a single dream character in the dream 31:28 from whose perspective the dreamed world 31:30 is known that the one mind infinite 31:33 consciousness imagines the universe 31:36 within itself the universe in other 31:38 words is the activity or imagination of 31:40 consciousness but it has to overlook 31:44 itself why because the infinite cannot 31:47 know the finite the infinite can only 31:50 know the infinite consciousness can only 31:51 know itself if he wants to know a world 31:54 it has to overlook the knowing of its 31:57 own being it has to consent to localize 32:00 itself in the form of each of our minds 32:03 through from whose perspective 32:07 consciousness views its own activity as 32:10 the outside world in other words that 32:15 just as the price you pay for enjoying 32:19 dreaming that you're in Paris is the 32:22 forgetting or the overlooking of the 32:24 nature of your own mind likewise the 32:26 price consciousness pays 32:28 for realizing or manifesting its 32:30 infinite potential in the form of the 32:32 world is the forgetting or overlooking 32:35 of itself and this forgetting or 32:37 overlooking of itself and its innate 32:40 peace and happiness leaves a trace in 32:44 each of our minds and that trace is 32:47 called suffering suffering is the price 32:54 God pays for manifestation and that is 32:59 why the experience over we are always 33:02 longing for one thing alone happiness 33:06 what is happiness the knowing of our own 33:09 being so the the this this as 33:11 consciousness contracts or localizes 33:15 itself in the form of the finite mind it 33:18 it limits itself and then this limit 33:22 itself that each of us seems to be 33:24 there's one thing alone that everybody 33:27 seeks not just those of us interested in 33:29 non duality but all seven billion of us 33:32 seek one thing alone it's happiness 33:34 which means we seek to be divested of 33:37 the limitations of the separate self and 33:40 returned to our origin or source the 33:47 search for enlightenment is simply a 33:49 rebranding of the common search for 33:52 happiness whether we are searching for 33:54 happiness or enlightenment it is the 33:56 same thing all anybody ever seeks is to 34:00 be divested of the limitations that they 34:02 seem to acquire from experience and as a 34:06 result for their true nature of 34:08 happiness to shine thank you 34:14 they'll come over here in a minute I 34:21 sometimes feel that the practices I'm 34:24 doing to just use the mic that's him to 34:29 experience peace true peace help align 34:35 me a little bit with the true self 34:39 can you speak some more of that you can 34:46 undertake practices that will help to 34:53 align you with the peace of your true 34:57 nature but why not go directly to the 35:01 peace of nature and it's why not go for 35:05 the for the full experience rather than 35:08 just to be aligned with your true nature 35:10 through various practices just just do 35:14 just go directly to your true nature why 35:18 would you choose to go there through an 35:21 indirect it's an imitation I'm trying 35:25 it's an imitation when I'm not quite 35:29 there but the invitation when we feel 35:32 that we're not quite there is always the 35:35 invitation from ourselves to ourselves 35:37 to return to ourselves an invitation the 35:42 invitation in other words the desire for 35:46 peace for happiness is is always the 35:49 invitation from the true and only self 35:53 of pure awareness to the supposedly 35:58 separate self so when we feel when we 36:04 suffer when we long for happiness or 36:06 peace we feel that we as a separate self 36:12 embark on a series of practices in order 36:15 to recover or return to ourselves no 36:18 there is no such separate self either to 36:21 practice or not to practice the the the 36:25 the longing for happiness 36:27 is the pull that is exerted on the 36:32 apparently separate self from the true 36:35 and only self of awareness that pull is 36:42 interpreted by the separate self at my 36:45 desire for happiness I am going to 36:48 practice and approach happiness that is 36:51 just a an erroneous interpretation the 36:55 separate self does nothing because there 36:56 is no separate self the the separate 36:59 self desire for happiness is really the 37:02 pull of grace from the true and only 37:06 self whose nature is happiness itself 37:10 thank you so when you feel that pull 37:14 just go directly to the source of peace 37:18 which is the knowing of your own being 37:21 before it is colored or qualified by 37:24 experience and if you cannot go directly 37:29 to your being in other words if you have 37:33 to go via any kind of object take the 37:37 the subtlest object the thought I am 37:42 just take that thought once the thought 37:45 I am and then go in your experience to 37:50 that to which the thought I am refers in 37:55 other words go straight back to your 37:56 being 38:02 okay let's come over here yes at the 38:05 back and then 38:14 hi and thank you so much for your 38:17 teachings in your articulate way of 38:19 describing some very complicated topics 38:22 however I'm still confused and it's the 38:27 theme it seems of today which is how 38:31 maybe personally did you after chapter 38:34 one navigate through to chapter whatever 38:38 infinity in that it feels like at the 38:42 moment a bit schizophrenic pardon that 38:46 word to constantly in every moment be 38:49 asking myself is this coming from 38:51 ego or the big self is it like is this 38:54 feeling coming from the separate the 38:56 idea that I'm separate or is this 38:58 feeling coming from a true place of who 39:02 I really am in every moment of my 39:04 existence and does that get easier over 39:06 time do you have to at some point you 39:08 stop questioning that and and you just 39:11 are at some point you stop questioning 39:13 it you've explored it so thoroughly so 39:16 many times but you no longer need to go 39:19 through the questioning process you just 39:21 go directly if if you find yourself lost 39:25 in experience you just go directly to 39:28 yourself there's no longer an inquiry or 39:30 an investigation but you're quite right 39:33 it is not necessary to continually 39:36 remind oneself moment by moment just as 39:41 you do not walk down the street or or 39:45 engage in your activities continually 39:48 reminding yourself that you are a woman 39:50 you don't at every moment stop and 39:54 investigate whether you're a woman it is 39:56 just you have just grown up feeling I am 40:00 a woman it is just it that that that 40:02 thought and feeling is interwoven into 40:05 your thoughts feelings activities and 40:07 relationships you don't need to keep 40:09 reminding yourself well it's exactly the 40:11 same here we do this investigation to 40:13 begin with it does require an 40:15 investigation what is what is it that is 40:18 essential to me what is essential to me 40:21 cannot be removed from me or my thoughts 40:24 images feeling 40:26 memories activities relationships can be 40:28 removed from me so if I remove or 40:30 imagine removing all of these from me 40:32 what remains I this is just a process 40:36 that we go through and it may take half 40:38 an hour the first time we do it but the 40:41 next time we do it it'll take 25 minutes 40:43 and then 2015 and after a while it is 40:47 only necessary to ask the question what 40:49 am I really and we go straight there 40:52 but having visited oneself or returned 40:58 to oneself on numerous occasions as I 41:01 suggested earlier our self is no longer 41:06 something that we visit from time to 41:09 time we begin to spend longer it's not 41:12 just we don't just go there for the 41:14 evening we go there for the weekend and 41:16 then we don't just go there for the 41:18 weekend we go there for a two-week 41:19 vacation and then we decide we like it 41:23 we move in it becomes our new default 41:28 and because it's our new default we 41:31 don't need to keep reminding us we don't 41:33 need to keep doing the investigation 41:36 because it's obvious to us now nor do we 41:39 even need to keep reminding ourselves 41:41 because it is our default just as we 41:44 previously didn't need to remind 41:46 ourselves I am a man I am a woman all 41:49 the time it was just our default 41:50 position so now we don't need to keep 41:53 reminding ourselves I am this inherently 41:55 peaceful unconditionally fulfilled 41:58 presence of awareness it just is our 42:01 default and it informs the way we think 42:03 and feel and subsequently act perceive 42:07 and relate so there's never a moment 42:10 anymore in which you have to say is this 42:12 desire coming from my erroneous view of 42:16 myself as a separate thing at this point 42:18 you're just confident that every desire 42:20 that comes up you should follow it I 42:22 would never say never 42:24 let's just say rarely because I'm not 42:30 perfect nobody is perfect in order to be 42:33 considered perfect you have to have been 42:35 dead for at least 50 years it's only 42:40 after we've been dead for 50 years of 42:42 the spiritual community walk will 42:43 whitewash you of your personality and 42:45 begin to begin to raise you on the 42:48 spiritual pedestal so it's safer to say 42:53 I'm rarely or not very often but as I 42:58 said if if I am triggered by a situation 43:05 whatever it is it doesn't have the power 43:09 to take me away from myself for very 43:12 long that the habit of returning to 43:15 myself I've been practicing it since I 43:19 was 16 it's so well-worn that when I 43:22 find myself lost in experience I just it 43:26 doesn't last long I just come back to 43:30 myself not through any process of 43:31 investigation because it doesn't need an 43:35 investigation anymore but if it does one 43:38 should should just go through the 43:39 investigation and it doesn't happen very 43:42 often but it happens from time to time 43:49 thank you 43:52 yes yeah okay yeah all right thank you 43:56 so much for your teachings and your and 43:58 your brilliance I can't see you where I 44:00 use oh there you are yes yes um my 44:04 question is given this new paradigm that 44:06 your elucidating this consciousness can 44:08 just hold on oh so we can hit that 44:10 uh-huh what is the new creation story I 44:13 heard a little bit when you were talking 44:16 about the gentleman the new creation 44:17 story based on this consciousness only 44:20 model number one number two was there a 44:23 universe before human humans were able 44:27 to channel this infinite awareness and 44:30 the third part is when I atoms were 44:33 being formed based on the old I can't 44:35 cope with too many questions so I get to 44:41 respond to your last question because I 44:44 can't remember the first but we can come 44:46 back to it was there a universe before 44:50 human minds perceived it I'm afraid the 44:54 situation is much worse than that 44:57 there isn't a universe as it is normally 45:04 conceived even when humans do seem to be 45:07 perceiving it great so what we consider 45:16 what we call the universe is what the 45:20 activity of infinite consciousness not 45:23 the object the activity or the 45:27 imagination of infinite consciousness 45:29 looks like when perceived from our 45:32 localized perspectives so what is it 45:39 that is perceiving it is consciousness 45:42 that is perceiving in other words the 45:44 realia essence of that which perceives 45:48 and the essence of that which is 45:52 perceived is the same they are the same 45:56 indivisible infinite whole or reality 46:00 now what is it that seems to fragment 46:03 this hold or reality into an apparent 46:07 multiplicity and diversity of objects 46:10 known from the perspective of a separate 46:12 self it is thought and perception the 46:18 finite mind it is consciousness that so 46:21 to speak puts on a virtual reality 46:24 headset made of thought and perception 46:27 and it refracts itself into a 46:31 multiplicity and diversity of objects 46:33 that we call the universe 46:34 but in the absence of that VR headset 46:38 made of thought and perception the that 46:42 there is no longer a separate subject of 46:44 experience nor a multiplicity and 46:46 diversity of objects there is just 46:48 infinite consciousness so what we call 46:52 the universe is what infinite what the 46:54 activity of infinite consciousness looks 46:57 like when this perceived through the 47:02 virtual reality headset of thought and 47:04 perception so 47:07 what was there before humans came on the 47:11 scene or was there anything there 47:13 there was no before before humans came 47:16 on the scene because it is thought that 47:18 makes eternity appear as time there is 47:27 no time 47:29 it is only thought so what we call the 47:32 absence of time will be sometimes called 47:35 now is eternity it's not in time it has 47:39 no dimensions but refracted through the 47:42 prism of thought eternity appears as 47:45 time so then you don't mind even when 47:50 there seems to be time there is in fact 47:52 not really any time but in the absence 47:57 of thought that is in the absence of the 47:59 appearance of time there is no time and 48:01 therefore no before that's beautiful so 48:06 then therefore you don't buy the whole 48:08 scientific view of the 13.7 billion 48:11 years of cosmic evolution that's know 48:14 from this perspective that was another 48:16 story it's another story and its own 48:20 it's a perfectly valid story it's a 48:23 creation myth that and it is a creation 48:26 myth that is consistent with the belief 48:29 that what we perceive through the 48:32 sentence through through thought and 48:35 perception is real and in its own right 48:38 so it is it is only from the perspective 48:45 of common sense from the perspective of 48:49 the belief that our thoughts and our 48:52 personal perceptions give us an accurate 48:54 model of reality this creation myth the 48:59 Big Bang is true only from that 49:01 perspective because it is true according 49:04 to the limitations of that perspective 49:08 what I think is a more accurate 49:15 but not completely accurate model 49:17 because there are no completely accurate 49:19 models but what I think is a more 49:21 accurate model and one that is 49:24 consistent with our experience is this 49:28 first of all we have to understand that 49:30 time is never experienced just very 49:33 quickly because I want to make sure this 49:35 is experiential and not abstract and 49:37 philosophical just all of you try just 49:41 for a moment to step out of them now and 49:44 visit the place we call the past see if 49:47 you can do that just step a few seconds 49:49 out of them now and go to the place we 49:52 call the past or indeed the future did 50:00 any of you any of you manage to leave 50:02 for now and visit the past or have any 50:04 of you ever visited the past I don't 50:08 mean to say that you don't have an image 50:10 or memory of the past but that takes 50:12 place now I mean to actually go to the 50:14 place visit the place that we call the 50:18 past so nobody not just those of it 50:22 those of us that are interested in these 50:24 matters no it's none of them none of the 50:26 seven billion of us have ever or could 50:29 ever visit the place we call the past or 50:31 the future in other words the past in 50:32 the future are never experienced so we 50:38 have to rethink what we call the present 50:42 the present is not a moment we sometimes 50:45 hear in New Age circles about staying in 50:48 the present moment there is no present 50:50 moment the the president is not a moment 50:52 the present will be called now does not 50:55 last in time there is no time present 50:57 for the now to last in now is eternity 51:06 so with this in mind reconsider the the 51:14 theory of the Big Bang that supposedly 51:17 existed 13.8 billion years ago consider 51:23 that the the now is not moving along a 51:26 line of time there isn't 51:28 time for but now to move along now is a 51:32 in relation to the line of time it is a 51:34 vertical axis it is ever-present now so 51:38 all that is contained all that any any 51:42 memory that is contained in the mind is 51:47 present now it is not present it is 51:52 present in the depths of the psyche now 51:56 this was not something that took place 51:59 thirteen billion years ago the only time 52:02 when anything takes place is the now 52:04 this now the only now there is and 52:07 therefore consider the possibility that 52:09 the creation of the universe or that the 52:11 event that is referred to as the Big 52:14 Bang is something that takes place now 52:17 why don't we experience it because due 52:22 to the the limitations of our finite 52:25 mind all the finite mind can be aware of 52:29 is this waking state experience and 52:33 because of them the glare of the waking 52:36 state the depths of the psyche are 52:40 obscured we all know this from a 52:44 personal experience there are layers of 52:45 feeling in us that we are not aware of 52:49 most of the time because of the 52:51 exclusive focus of our attention on the 52:55 thoughts and perceptions but as soon as 52:57 we turn away from those thoughts and 52:59 perceptions the deeper layers of our own 53:02 psyche becomes comes up into the light 53:07 of awareness well consider that if you 53:09 were to go further down so to speak to 53:12 dig deeper into the depths of the psyche 53:14 through the personal unconscious through 53:17 the collective unconscious you would be 53:19 going not back in time but into the very 53:22 recesses the very origin of the psyche 53:27 so I would suggest at the moment that is 53:31 called the this creation myth about the 53:33 Big Bang is 53:36 a creation myth that explains what I've 53:42 just explained but references it in 53:46 terms of the time and space that seem to 53:50 be real from the perspective of the 53:52 finite mind thank you beautiful so I 53:58 think we've got time for one more 54:00 question in the front hold on just a 54:02 minute we started late we've got time 54:08 for one more question just wait for the 54:10 mic please I wanted to ask about love my 54:17 use the word experience of love is 54:20 boundless and I'm wanting to understand 54:25 if it is somehow infused in pure 54:29 consciousness if it is an experience and 54:33 if it can be a pathway toward its you 54:37 know being in pure consciousness I love 54:42 is not a feeling in consciousness it is 54:44 the very nature of consciousness when 54:48 when we when we love when we love we 54:52 feel that the distinction between the 54:54 self between ourself and the other to a 54:59 greater or lesser extent collapses in 55:02 other words love is not a relationship 55:04 it is the collapse of relationship it is 55:07 the absence of relationship it's why 55:11 relationship always exists between two 55:14 entities love is the experience of the 55:18 dissolution of these two entities that's 55:20 why Rumi said true lovers never really 55:22 meet so love is the revelation of the 55:28 nature of our shared being our being is 55:33 shared in our essence we are we are all 55:35 the same infinite indivisible 55:38 consciousness but that that knowledge is 55:41 veiled from us much of the time due to 55:44 the filter of thought and perception 55:46 that's why we feel that we are separate 55:48 feeling that we are separate as I said 55:51 earlier we long for one thing alone to 55:54 be divested of the sense of separateness 55:56 that's why many people long in the in 56:00 the phenomenal realm above all else for 56:03 an intimate relationship because in 56:06 intimate relationship we feel that 56:08 everything that's separate we feel that 56:10 we aren't divested of the sense of 56:12 separation what we are really longing 56:14 for in intimate relationship is not 56:16 another person or indeed a relationship 56:18 we are longing to be divested of 56:20 everything that makes us feel that we 56:23 are separate so love is the revelation 56:26 of our shared being it is that it is the 56:29 nature of our being so just just to make 56:36 one more comment you said can love be a 56:38 a path yes when the individual feels the 56:43 longing for love that is its reality 56:46 that the the the the essence of that 56:49 being the reality of that been pulling 56:51 that being backed it's saying come back 56:55 to me I am what you are looking for so 56:58 can love be a path yes absolutely all 57:01 that is important as that is that we 57:05 never make the object of we never allow 57:09 our love to have an object that what we 57:14 long for lives at the source of our 57:18 longing and can never become an object 57:20 of our love if we allow what we long for 57:23 to become an object of our longing we 57:26 will never experience true love 57:28 yes so it's fine to pursue the path of 57:33 love but never allow that love to settle 57:36 on an object or a person celebrate that 57:41 love with an object or a person I'm not 57:45 suggesting that one shouldn't seek or 57:47 have relationships but don't have 57:49 relationships in order to find that love 57:52 follow the love follow it all the way 57:55 back not to its 57:59 not to it towards the object trace it 58:03 back towards its source that is what we 58:07 truly longed for what we longed for this 58:09 are the source of our longing it can 58:12 never become an object of our longing 58:19 [Applause] 58:22 [Music]