Author: Janitor

Thank you Ralph!

I suppose we’re all here today because we’re interested in the fundamental nature of being. And as we know, there’s a lot of information about that, especially with the Internet. There’s never been more information about this matter that’s urgently important to all of us, the fundamental nature of our being. And a lot of this information is information that overcomplicates the nature of our being. And in that way, the nature of our being is marginalized through overcomplication.

It it seems difficult to access or even difficult to understand what it is or impenetrable. And when it’s overcomplicated, it’s usually suggested that all kinds of effort is needed, needed, that there are certain causes leading to the effect of the fundamental nature of being. And a lot of the other information oversimplifies the fundamental nature of our being and in that way minimizes it. Suggesting that just mental freedom alone is the fundamental nature of our ing. And when it is minimized, it’s pointed to more as a personal accomplishment that we have within us the capacity to freedom.

And that if we somehow come upon that within ourselves either spontaneously or through following some simple suggestions, some gimmicks that we can apply, then we can become familiar with this complete mental freedom. However, what we’re talking about here in the great freedom teaching is neither of those, so it neither overcomplicates and marginalizes or oversimplifies and thus minimizes the fundamental nature of our being. What we’re talking about here in The Great Freedom Teaching is that it is all encompassing awareness alone that is the fundamental nature of being, all encompassing timeless awareness alone that is the fundamental nature of being, and that when we become familiar with that through simply resting at that as that awareness for short moments repeated many times until it becomes spontaneous, that we recognize the fundamental nature of our being, which is wisdom, timeless wisdom, the clear light of timeless wisdom that is is potently beneficial to ourselves and to all beings. This distinction is urgently important, especially at this point in human history. Who we are is not a matter of just simple mental freedom, and it’s also not something that can be arrived at through causes leading to an effect.

What is entirely uncaused has no causes within it. There have never been causes within it. It has never been made into existence. It has never been made into anything. So the only way to get familiar with it is to simply allow it to be, allow the natural ease of it to be through just simply relaxing as that awareness that is the source of everything for short moments repeated many times until it becomes automatic.

Now most of us, we become accustomed just because this is what we have learned from other people to collapsing awareness into points of view. A simple way to look at this is that within the all encompassing peer view of awareness are included and contained all points of view, and all points of view are points of that awareness. So they’re just part of that awareness. Like, the color blue is inseparable from the sky, so two points of view, which are the dynamic energy of awareness, are inseparable from that awareness. And when we simply rest awareness, it becomes obvious in resting as that awareness and just allowing the ease of awareness to be that it is awareness alone that is the ground of being, the only ground of being.

And that in relaxing as that ground of being, we see that everything that appears is a spontaneous appearance of that ground of being, simple, straightforward awareness, the awareness by which we know we are. We wouldn’t even be aware of our own being at all without awareness. It’s only through awareness that we know this. So you see it’s awareness alone that is our direct connection to the ground of being. Awareness alone is our direct connection to the ground of being.

The ground of being is inseparable from awareness. The pristine ground of being is entirely inseparable from our own awareness. So there’s no other way that we can come upon the timelessness of its vividly wakeful expression. There’s no other way. If we try to employ other ways to reach it, then it’s like polishing wood, hoping to obtain a diamond.

So, you know, none of us would do that. We wouldn’t say, oh, yeah. I think I’ll polish this wood for a while, and I’m gonna find a diamond in there. I’ll take a big redwood tree. These are trees that are thousands of years old that that grow in Northern California, and I’m gonna polish that redwood tree, and I just know there’s a diamond in there somewhere.

But you see, when we attempt to follow causes leading to the uncaused, we get lost in unnecessary effort. And really, if we examine any of these cause and effect programs that are supposed to lead to the fundamental nature of our being, if we really examine them with just elementary discernment by asking the question, does this lead to that, and and how many people has this really led to that, then we can see that very seldom is it the case. Very seldom is it the case. So in this way, we can say, well, you know, what is it that I really want for myself? What is it that I really want?

What do I want to discover about the fundamental nature of being? And what is the most likely way I can go about doing that? In other words, where is there something a teaching, teachers, where there are many people realizing the fundamental nature of being? If we want something so important for ourselves, then it seems that we would apply the same kind of discrimination we use in buying consumer goods to something that is more important than anything. And when we buy consumer goods, we if we called a store and said, oh, you know, I want a new Toyota.

I want the best Toyota you have, and I hear this one that’s just coming out of the factories in Japan. And and the person on the other end said, okay. You know, come on down in three weeks. We’ll have a Toyota for you then. And and then we went down in three weeks, and the Toyota wasn’t there.

And so the man would say, well, come back again. You know? Come back in a again in about three months. And when you come back in between now and then, just sit for a while and be very quiet and still. And this is gonna help the Toyota come about.

Then we go back in three months, the Toyota still isn’t there. Well, how many times would we return to that place? You know, we wouldn’t do it. So it’s important to use elementary discrimination and discernment and to also realize that because the ground of being already is, it’s directly accessible right now, right here. It’s not a destination that’s somewhere.

If we think it’s a destination that is somewhere, then we’re saying that the fundamental ground of being exists elsewhere. And as we know, it doesn’t. Everything is a single nondual expense. So the fundamental ground of being is already accomplished. It’s already present but remains an abstraction, fundamental ground of being.

That’s a total abstraction unless we have a way we can directly experience it. And how do we directly and decisively experience it? Through our own awareness, through resting as awareness for short moments repeated many times until it becomes obvious at all times. And we go about this in a totally uncontrived way, so we’re not trying to maintain a long moment of awareness. Short moments means short moments, short moments that are completely uncontrived.

In other words, not trying to extend a short moment into a long moment. In the beginning, to just rest this awareness for a short moment. Many times the phrase many times means that we we rely on short moments over and over again. Many times. And as we do so, the short moment becomes naturally longer in a noncontract way.

So rather than trying to force a long moment, we rely on short moments, and these short moments are self kept and lengthen in and of themselves. Our experience of them lengthens in and of itself. Awareness is self kept. It’s self held. When we acknowledge it, it is self held.

We don’t have to do anything to try to hold on to it like we’re hoarding a big bunch of awareness in our garage or attic. We’re not accumulating anything. We’re simply acknowledging what we already are. So this is very important. And when we rely on awareness for short moments repeated many times rather than describing everything when it appears, when something appears, rather than getting into our endless descriptions of it, rather than collapsing awareness into a point of view, into a point of awareness, we just rest without describing anything.

And in this essence of the timeless rest of awareness, very quickly, we see that it really is this awareness that is the source of everything. This uncaused, unborn awareness is the source of or an origin of all appearances. And if it is the source of all appearances and is uncaused and unborn, what does that mean? It means all appearances are uncaused and unborn. So all appearances, no matter what they are, are uncaused and unborn.

The assumption that what appears is the effect of something or the cause of something is just a point of view. It’s a belief system. When we rest as awareness, we’re automatically beyond causation. We’re resting as that which is uncaused. And then we more and more examine everything from there.

We everything from there. We know everything from the uncaused ground of awareness rather than from trying to put all the appearances together and make sense out of it. When we put appearances together, when we’re trying to put all these points of view together to make sense out of everything, then we spend our entire life as though we’re working on a 1,000,000,000,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. All the points of view, we’re always trying to fit them together so that life has meaning and makes sense. That that would be a fruitless task Well, no one would ever be able to put together a 1,000,000,000,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, not even with the best computers around.

If you take a a 1,000,000,000,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of pure space of the sky and try to put it together, good luck. It’s never separated into anything, so it can never be made into anything either. To know it is just the simplicity of our direct connection with the very ground of our own being, which is to rest as awareness. And with when with determination, we say to ourselves, I am going to rest as awareness. I’ve learned all these other things.

I still haven’t found complete well-being. I’m gonna try this. I’m gonna rest as awareness, and I’m gonna rely on this and this alone for my whole life. No matter how long I live, no matter what comes up, I will rest as awareness. And I will rest as awareness until I don’t need to try to rest as awareness.

And this is another thing we can count on with resting as awareness. In the beginning, it may seem like there’s someone doing something, but so what? You know? If we just rest as awareness that someone who seems to be doing something, it’s just a point of view resolve in the basic space of awareness. And we can count on that when, for short moments, repeated many times, we just allow awareness to be as it is, then more and more, all the points of view, all the appearances that seem to be troublesome, hurtful, or happy and wonderful, they all resolve in the equilibrium, the great equalness of the basic space of everything, which is a sky like expanse.

So just like the sky, the cloudless sky, it has no division. It has no time. We can’t say, oh, this this is the sky of today, and there was a different sky yesterday, and there’ll be a different sky tomorrow. It’s a timeless expanse. The infinite sky like awareness is a sky like expanse.

It has never had any divisions in it anywhere. It’s never been made into anything. It’s only sky. There isn’t anything else going on there. It’s only pristine sky.

And and the more we rest this awareness, the more it becomes clear that all the appearances as well are sky like and pure. They’ve never been made into anything material. Whatever appears, whether it’s material or immaterial, it’s comprised of this aware peer space. It’s comprised of this aware peer space and nothing else, and it’s impossible to think about that. If we try to think about it immediately, we’ll get kinda lost and confused because there’s nothing to think about.

There’s absolutely nothing to think about. Yet when we rest this awareness, we find that, boom, our thinking becomes a lot clearer. Rather than collapsing into points of view and taking all the points of view to be real, we suddenly recognize this wide open lucidity, the wide open clarity of awareness that doesn’t rely on thinking. And then in that, we realize wisdom. We realize the penetrating laser like wisdom that sees everything as it is that sees everything as it is and and that in being beyond causation causation has solutions to problems that could never be arrived at through thinking.

Today, we need that for ourselves, and and we definitely need that as a species as well. We’ve carried our primitive ideas about the use of the mind as far as we can, and now they’re collapsing in on themselves, and we see greater and greater problems within ourselves and within our families and community and and communities and world. We see more and more problems. And so the thinking that created these problems isn’t able to solve the problems that have been created. Only in the immaculate nature of wisdom awareness are we going to be able to solve these problems, whether they’re our own or those of the world.

So you see all the beliefs we have, cause and effect, time and location, that everything somehow is limited by these so called laws. These are just belief systems and assumptions about what’s going on. They aren’t they aren’t necessarily true. And even if you believe in these with all your might, just rest as awareness for a while and see if you continue to believe in them. You you don’t have to try to get rid of them.

And resting as awareness, all belief systems and assumptions have gone beyond no matter what are. All philosophies, all all ways of thinking about or understanding the world and our own lives. The simplicity of who we are isn’t about mental freedom alone. Even though we realize complete mental freedom and and that we’re no longer diving into the space of every thought, emotion, and experience. So we do realize mental freedom.

But but beyond the simplicity of just that mental freedom for ourselves and continuing the rest as awareness, we’ll find a vast space of wisdom that is unparalleled by anything that ever goes on within the mind. And and and then we move from being self centered and self absorbed, in other words, with our thinking and our speaking and our activities all focused on self or most of them focused on self and having a better or more comfortable life for the self. Naturally, our thinking and our speaking and our qualities and activities open up into wisdom qualities, wisdom speech, wisdom mind, wisdom activities. Only through resting as awareness can we access this potency of pure wisdom. And in that potency of pure wisdom, the thoughts and emotions and everything else are related to the benefit of the whole.

They’re always related to the benefit of the whole. As we’re the whole, we’re part of the whole, our needs are automatically taken care of in that. But our thinking and our speaking and the activities of our life are potently and immensely forceful in terms of being a benefit to the whole, and we can count on this about ourselves without fail. It already is. It already is.

So we don’t have to go somewhere to get it. All the problems that we may be seeking solutions to within us, within our families, within our communities, within the world, the the solutions to these problems, they all are within the potent beneficial powers of timeless wisdom that are inseparable from our own awareness. When we simply rest as that awareness repeatedly, then, eventually, we don’t need to try to rest as awareness. There’s just the obviousness of the full evidence of awareness that is the spontaneous ground of everything that appears. And in that, we know what to do.

We know how to act in a very powerful way. We we we experience equilibrium, equanimity, contentment, ease in all situations no matter what they are. We’re able to be in all situations without impediment, even extremely situations, completely without impediment. Even our own death, we’re able to be present at our own death without impediment, without any need to make anything out of it, with no need to hold to one extreme or another, either the death or the life. When through resting as awareness for short moments repeated many times, we realize that that awareness is on caused and on born.

We know it isn’t affected by anything no matter what appears. But we can only know that definitively and conclusively through our own decisive experience of awareness. Otherwise, it’s just a head trip. You know? It’s just a head trip.

You know what a head trip is? It’s thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking about everything, thinking about awareness, thinking about the fundamental ground to being. We’re gonna think, think, think our way into, but no one’s ever done that. It’s only in allowing the complete complete ease of our natural being to be as it is, that everything, no matter what it is that appears, comes to settle into its own natural rest. And so this is what we can really count on.

We can really count on that. Now, you know, we all when we discover the fundamental nature of our being, we usually have many, many points of view that we thought to be real, that we’ve relied upon, ideas about a personal identity and what that’s comprised of, ideas about cause and effect, about being somehow trapped in time and and location, in other words, the location of a body. And when we have all of these belief systems and assumptions and we rest this awareness, then gradually, move beyond those. We know we we’re no longer tied to conventional frameworks, to conventional points of view. And when we begin to rest this awareness, it’s good to review all of our principal points of view just to take a look at them and say, well, these are the things I believed in.

These are the assumptions that I’ve made about what’s going on. And in this way, then we won’t be blindsided by these points of view when they appear because some of them are very powerful. You know, like, we take ourselves, most of us, to be located within a body, that we’re really located right here. So when we’re first confronted with the reality that the the body alone is not what we are, that the awareness is the forerunner of the experience of the body, then, you know, that’s new to us. That’s new to us.

But when we rest as awareness, we can get used to that. We can get used to the fact that we’re not dependent on the body. As awareness, we’re not dependent on the body. In the great freedom teaching, we have a a very powerful and direct way of becoming very clear about all belief systems and assumptions, that all these points of view for each of us no matter what they’ve been. And then when they appear, we don’t get blindsided by them.

Otherwise, you know, we might collapse back into our points of view. So this is a very powerful way of just taking inventory, you know, of seeing everything as it is, looking into everything as it is. And there’s a a story I like to tell, and it’s written in one of the teachings about a woman who owns a store of 10,000 things. She has 10,000 things in her store, but she has no idea what’s in the store. So whenever people come in, they’ll say, oh, do you have a toaster?

And she’ll do you have an iron? Well, you know, I don’t really know because I don’t have any idea what’s in my store. So they look around, and most of them leave empty hand that she hardly ever ever has any sales because she doesn’t know what’s in her store. And then one day, someone comes in and says, oh, well, you know, you don’t know if you have a toaster and iron. What kind of a store is this?

And she said, oh, well, you know, I really don’t know what’s in here. I have a lot of stuff, but I don’t know. I really don’t know what’s in my store. And so the person says, well, I have a great idea. I’ll help you make a database of everything that’s in the store.

And not only that, you’ll have a database of everything that’s in the store. And when something leaves your store, the database will automatically order a replacement so you can continue to do nothing. Just like you have been. You can continue to do nothing. You can continue to not know because it’ll all be right here in the database.

If somebody asks, you can just go Toaster Aisle 7, Shelf 4. And so you see, when we know what our principal points of view are, then it’s easier for us to rest as awareness. So in these simple ways, it’s very easy to gain greater and greater familiarity on a daily basis with the fundamental nature of our being, to just rest as awareness in the simple way that is the birthright of every human being. We come to a complete understanding of our true nature as the clear light of wisdom. Does anyone have a question they’d like to ask?

You suggest that you should not speak or examine or We’re not seeking or and not describing, then we are resting. Mhmm. Whether we call it that or not. That is what I thought. Yeah.

This is just for clarification, actually. Of course. And this is very important. It’s very important to ask questions that clarify your understanding and decisive experience of awareness. Very important to ask these kinds of questions.

And I would encourage everyone here to make use of your time here by asking these kinds of questions, ones that clarify your own understanding and decisive experience as well as dispel any doubts you may have. So and another teaching is that we do not try to control the mind. But when we are not resting and we are practicing the teaching we just talked about, that is we should not describe or seek anything in perceptions, then in a way we are exercising control over the mind. Do you see How so? Means I have some perception, and then by remembering the teaching that I should not seek anything in this perception or I should not describe this, that is a mental activity to me.

Oh, okay. Well, good. So we are exercising control over the mind I see. While we are not resting. So there is a con a little bit of control of the mind is being used so that as now I’m replying to my own question.

If you allow me. Well, you if you allow me. The way in which the instructions are given is very important, the sequence of the words. Now the sequence of the words is to rest as awareness without seeking and describing. So the the instruction is isn’t don’t seek and describe and then rest as awareness.

Do you see what I’m saying? When we rest as awareness, we rest as the basic space of the perception. We rest as the basic space of the point of view. So what becomes more and more obvious is that there’s only awareness appearing as all the circumstantial points of view no matter what they are, and that awareness is inseparable from whatever appears. Now in the beginning, it may seem like there are triplets.

There’s us, and we’re we’re resting as awareness. So there are the triplets, us resting as awareness. And just resting as awareness, that one who seems to be resting will come to be known only as awareness. So you see, the one who appears to be resting in the beginning, that’s just a point of view too. But there’s really no way to go beyond a personal identity without resting as awareness.

It’s it’s absolutely impossible. You can try try as you may to smash the personal identity out of existence, to purify it, to refine it, to analyze it, to transform it into something else. But as it only is awareness as the fundamental nature ground of its being, by going through all these things of trying to manipulate it in some way, that just keeps it around longer. Because every time we’re working on it, we’re keeping it around longer. We’re saying, yeah.

It does exist, and something needs to be done about it. Do you see what I’m saying? Whereas if we rest as awareness, it just resolves in and of itself. I’m not completely clear at this point. Means, I thought we should not seek or describe anything applies to the situation when I’m not able to rest.

Oh, wow. That leads to or that facilitates entering into the rest, or it makes easier to enter into the rest. If you say that you’re not supposed to seek anything in descriptions or describe anything about them. So the repetition of the rest becomes more frequent by that practice. Uh-huh.

That is the way I took it. Yes. I I can understand the line of reasoning you’re following there. However, the instruction is to rest naturally for short moments repeated many times. So even if the point of view comes up that you’re not supposed to seek or describe, rather than relying on that point of view, just rest.

Rest is awareness when it comes up. Because, otherwise, you’ll be adding something else in. Do you see there’ll be both resting as awareness and not seeking or describing anything? Where Whereas when you rest as awareness, you automatically don’t seek anything in the point of view. In other words, you don’t seek for the point of view to be a resource, a refuge, to give you anything, and you don’t describe the point of view.

The point of view appears, but you don’t get into thinking about it. Rather, you just rest as awareness, the source of the of the point of view. In this, as flawless wisdom, you see all as flawless wisdom until all is flawless wisdom. So you go beyond the thinking and the describing, relying on wisdom alone. I do understand that while resting, there is no seeking or describing.

Yes. Uh-huh. So in that case, I will say I’ll just forget about the teaching that do not seek or do not describe. Yeah. That is no longer really needed.

No. It Because the rest will do everything. Exactly. It really does. And and, you know, even though this may seem too easy to some people here, it it is truly amazing.

It’s truly amazing because the the decisive experience of resting as awareness cannot be either refuted or approved. So, you know, it really really cannot be because it becomes so clear that that is the ground of being, that it is the ground of every perception, that it is inseparable from every point of view, every perception. Otherwise, we could wait for a very long time hoping to discover something about ourselves that is called the fundamental ground of being. But in resting as as awareness, instantaneous awareness for just one moment, then then we know what the fundamental ground of being is. And then we can just allow that again and again until it becomes more obvious at all times.

And all other teachings which we have been talking about, they are maybe helpful for some but not really needed. They are not necessary conditions, I’ll say, or necessary teachings to be followed. Necessary teaching is only one teaching, resting in awareness or rest as awareness. Rest and perturbably. That’s the only teaching.

All others may be applicable to some, may not be applicable, or they are not necessary at all. Exactly. They are not necessary at all. They really are not necessary at all. You know, nowadays, people like it easy.

Nowadays, most of us like it easy. We we want maximum comfort, and we wanna we wanna have our lives be easy. You know, we have packaged foods and all of these things so we don’t have to cook, and we have easy ways to get around airplanes and all other kinds of ways. We can easily communicate with each other, and we’re coming up with all of these ways to make our lives even easier than it already is. So so, yes, this is a teaching that is very old, you know, at least 17,000 years old, but yet it it pertains perfectly to this time, the time when everyone wants it easy.

Did you have something else you wanted to say? It reminds of the book series, which is database for dummies, c programming for dummies. It is something like that. Exactly. It’s the fundamental ground of being for smarties.

Because if you’re really and I don’t mean a high IQ. I mean, you’re just open enough to be able to rest his awareness. That’s to be a smarty, the fundamental ground of being for smarties. We’ll have a new series. Okay?

You and I will work on that together. That’s when you’re not helping your wife grocery shopping. Yes. I had a question. It’s little bit related to what we’ve been talking about.

That in India and in many religious tradition, there’s this concept of purification. Yeah. Even where we are sitting, this called means the place where you did austerity. Oh, uh-huh. So it is said that that is always present, what we are talking about, but it gets clouded by past memories, by experiences, by sin, by wrong action.

So in India, people talk about purification through bhakti yoga, karma yoga, feeding the poor, to bring service, to cleanse, to clean. What is your view on this? There are many teachings, no doubt about it, especially in India. You know, there are so many different teachings. India is rich with teachings, and there are many different forms of yoga.

Now the teaching I’m talking about, it originated in India, so it is an Indian teaching. It’s just an Indian teaching that is another one in addition to those you’ve all mentioned. And it it is called Adiyoga Adiyoga. And this is the yoga of utter relaxation. Now here is the line of reasoning in Adiyoga.

The line of reasoning is that everything world. And is going to to that able that world is and flawless. So this space, this Aware Pure space, is entirely stainless and flawless. Thus, there’s never been anything within it that needs to be purified in any way. And that when we rest imperturbably as this aware pure space, that that is the ultimate purification, so to speak.

The ultimate purification is to realize that everything is primordially pure. And as we rest as that primordially pure awareness, it’s realized realized that all spontaneous appearances are appearances of that primordial purity no matter what their labels may be. Does that answer your question? Uh-huh. Austerities, you mentioned the word, place where we’re gathered this morning, and people from all over the world are gathered in this room to hear this message.

Austerity, if we look at any of these words, austerity, purification, yoga, it’s important to always look for the ultimate meaning of every word. And we can find that ultimate meaning of every word in resting as its basic space. When we rest as its basic space, in other words, every word, no matter what it is, awareness is the forerunner of it. We would not know the word without awareness. So awareness is inseparable from the word itself, and that awareness is primordially pure.

And resting as that awareness, we instantaneously recognize the purity of whatever it is that it that appears. There is no other purification, so to speak, that’s necessary. All purity is already given in timeless awareness. So to be concerned about things that have been happening in the past, when we think about those things, what’s really happening is that the all encompassing peer view of awareness that is naturally and spontaneously present right here has an appearance within it of a regret, something from the past, whatever it is. When we just rest this awareness rather than examining that regret and thinking about all the things associated with it, then that regret, whatever it is, is terrified.

And we move beyond trying to assess from cause and effect that action that we’re regretting, we move beyond that cause and effect relationship into timeless wisdom. In that, we see that the regret is timelessly pure. It’s timelessly pure. It’s a wisdom appearance. It’s an appearance of wisdom to wisdom.

Only in this way can we go beyond everything that we thought to be true, seeing ourselves as a sinner, seeing ourselves as flawed. Only in flawlessness and stainlessness reality can we see that everything is totally pure in and of itself, and that is the source of wisdom. Wisdom does not come about by examining appearances. If wisdom came about by examining appearances, we would have a very wise world. Everyone would be so wise that we’d be able to control everything just thinking about it.

You see what I’m saying? So there’s something beyond all this examination and all this attributing everything to cause and effect, and that is wisdom. But we can only know that wisdom by resting as awareness for short moments repeated many times. We can’t access it any other way. We can’t tap into it any other way.

Many of us learn that we are sinners, that we’re marked in some way, that we’re stained, we’re flawed, and that when we have a a thought that’s a negative thought, that that’s sin. When we have an an emotion that’s a negative emotion that that’s sin. When we do something that’s negative that that’s sin. So over and over again, we tell ourselves we’re flawed, we’re stained, we’re sinners. It’s impossible for us to ever realize the fundamental nature of being because now we’re however old we are, and look at us.

We’re just nearly black because we’ve sinned so much. Well, you see, it’s very difficult to ever realize the fundamental nature of being by dividing everything up in the good and bad because neither of these have ever been. Not the extreme of good and not the extreme extreme of good and not the extreme of bad. Neither of these have ever been in the single nondual expanse of equalness. And, you know, we can’t think our way into that.

We can only rest as awareness, and it becomes more and more obvious. When the hurt comes up of all the things we believe we’ve done that are so negative, we rest as awareness. When all the positive things we’ve done come up, we rest as awareness. We don’t attach to either extreme. We get totally lost in confusion and turmoil and waste our entire lives when we think that we have to have only positive thoughts and positive emotions in order to achieve well-being.

We waste our entire lives. All of us have tried to do that, everyone in this room. And has it ever led to well-being? Never. No.

We we might have a semblance of well-being, a tiny bit of well-being, but a lot of what we think about is what we’re doing wrong. What we’re thinking that’s negative, our emotions that are negative, and our actions that are negative. But who we are truly as wisdom beings is completely beyond assessing everything as good and bad. Labels are all empty. They’re forever empty.

They’re forever empty of anything but stainless space. So to continue to try to examine them and make them into something and say, oh, yes. This is solid and stable is to persist in the perpetuation of suffering. Now, you know, like I said, I what I’m saying isn’t anything new. It isn’t anything new.

For many thousands of years, precise and on airing instruction has been handed down from wisdom awareness itself about resting without seeking anything. Mhmm. Could one say then that the highest austerity is to rest in being? Absolutely. It is.

It is the highest possible austerity. So we’re in the right place then. You’re in the the right place. You know? And if if you’re here, just know that there’s something here that’s speaking to you because everyone already knows this is true.

You know, if you’ve been doing intensive austerities, undertaking intensive austerities for ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years like some of the people in this room, then it may get a while it may take a while to get used to all that all you have to do is rest him perturbably. But just because you’re listening to it means you know this already. Just because you’ve done ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years of of austere at austere practices doesn’t mean you need to persist in that. The time has come to rest imperturbably. Like you said, that is the greatest austerity.

It’s absolutely the greatest austerity. There’s none greater. So, you know, we can talk about this in terms that are understandable in any culture. Like here in India, there are certain things, purification, austerities, a country rich with the culture of self realization, the only country in the world that has committed itself for thousands of years to self realization being more important anything else. So there are many terms that are understood here, yoga, austerities, purification, but all of these can be talked about in an ultimate way so that all people in India can understand.

Create this bridge of communication. It’s very important. Create the bridge of communication within yourself, then share it with others. Benny? What does it mean in purpose, Abimile?

Without being able to be knocked off course. Have you have you ever been to a a carnival where you throw a ball at a clown and try knock the clown into the water? Was the clown. Oh, you were the clown? Then you know what that’s like.

Well, imperturbable means that the ball never hits and the clown doesn’t fall into the water. Imperturbable means without moving, to rest without moving, without being perturbed by any appearance, without being distracted by any appearance. So imperturbable means not being distracted by any appearance. Not being distracted means not describing anything about the appearance or not seeking anything in the appearance. Arun?

I would like just a little explanation on maybe it’s just my own confusion. Resting and resting as awareness. Uh-huh. Is there some difference No. In these?

No. No. So None. Timeless awareness is a reality of imperturbable rest. Yeah.

Sometimes I find it hard to rest as awareness because I’m looking for what awareness is to rest as, and just resting is much easier. Fine. Okay. Is resting as awareness just clearing your mind of all thoughts? Trying to?

No. No? It Just Just allowing the awareness by which you’re aware of the thoughts Mhmm. To be obvious. That’s all.

And then all anything that appears in the mind just does whatever it does. Are you observing your thoughts? No. No. Just resting as awareness, the forerunner of all thoughts, what what is predominant in all thoughts, getting familiar with that.

See, all that’s happened is that it may be that you’ve spent your life paying attention to all the thoughts, so that’s what you’ve learned to do. And it it what’s obvious are the thoughts, not the awareness that’s the forerunner of the thoughts. So by acknowledging awareness as the forerunner of the thoughts, you gain familiarity with awareness in the same way that you’ve gained familiarity with paying so much attention to all the thoughts. Yeah. Every every thought has these two aspects.

It’s thought like label and it’s empty basic space of awareness. When only the thought like label aspect of a thought has been paid attention to, in other words, the word that identifies it, then the other aspect isn’t known at all. When we rest as awareness, we we become familiar with the two aspects in every appearance, their label and then sky like empty awareness. This is sort of a flip side. Why don’t we rest as awareness?

Why do we engage? What is the activity, the point of view that gets us engaged in creating the armor that prevents us from seeing or being in the freedom space, resting in awareness? It’s very simple. When an appearance comes up and then awareness holds to that appearance rather than just resting and letting it be as it is. Awareness holds to that appearance and then discriminates about it, says that it is either good or bad.

It’s something to either accept or reject. We then throw ourselves into description. So it’s very simple. A story. Like a story.

Right. Uh-huh. So the step from witnessing a emotion, a thought, a feeling, whatever, to resting naturally is going from the duality of the witnesser or the witness to the witness to fusion of the both. You’re seeing clear awareness and you’re seeing the perception or the point of view at the same time. And they’re inseparable.

And they’re inseparable, but you see both aspects. Yes. Exactly. Both aspects are known. Is there any identification with the awareness or the point of view or both or no identification at all?

No identification with either. So there’s neither holding to the awareness nor holding to the point of view. And in that is the inseparability of awareness and all points of view. That was an excellent question and very well stated. Problem to make that step generally.

You see? Oh, uh-huh. That’s good. Because I come from this obs observing, witnessing tradition, you know, been doing this for many, many years, but usually getting stuck there. Oh, uh-huh.

You see? With the perceiver and perceive. Right. Right. Right.

Right. Just that’s great that you have the discipline of that. That’s excellent that you have the discipline of that, and now you’re ready to move beyond it. Now it’s just all pervasive awareness with no perceiver perceived. Just rest as awareness repeatedly, and this will become more and more obvious to you that there’s never been a perceiver and a perceived.