Transcript
[0:00] - Through thinking you cannot be aware
[0:02] of those spaces between words,
[0:07] because thinking is object consciousness,
[0:11] the space between words is takes
you to space consciousness.
[0:18] So the entire secret of our gathering here
[0:21] of all spirituality is just one thing.
[0:27] (bell chiming)
[0:32] All the things that happen,
your financial situation,
[0:34] your health situation, your
relationship situation,
[0:38] your work situation,
your living situation,
[0:41] yes, these things matter
relatively speaking,
[0:44] but there's one thing
[0:46] that is more important
that matters absolutely.
[0:50] And that is your state of consciousness.
[0:54] And whether or not you have awakened
[1:01] to what we could call
[1:05] it sounds a little abstract, but it's not.
[1:08] We could call the transcendent
dimension of consciousness
[1:12] in you, the transcendent
dimension of consciousness.
[1:18] Now, I'm not going to immediately
[1:24] define what that means,
[1:28] because actually it cannot be defined.
[1:36] It can be pointed to this
is what these words are for,
[1:43] but these words are not
a substitute for it.
[1:50] The words point famous phrase in Buddhism,
[1:56] it's the finger pointing to the moon,
[2:02] but the finger is not the moon.
[2:06] So there's nothing that I say to tonight
[2:12] that you need to believe
on a conceptual level.
[2:17] I'm not asking you to
believe anything whatsoever.
[2:27] There is what I sometimes
call the two levels
[2:31] of consciousness, the conceptual,
[2:34] I sometimes call that
object consciousness.
[2:40] These are all the things that happen
[2:42] in your perceptual field
and in your mental field.
[2:47] Thinking emotions, sense, perceptions,
[2:52] things arise, things pass away,
[2:55] things come and go.
[2:56] Sense, perceptions, ideas,
[2:58] thoughts, opinions, feelings,
[3:01] emotions, all long to
object consciousness.
[3:06] One object after another happens,
[3:09] you perceive things.
[3:10] Ah, oh, there, oh.
[3:12] And then thought objects
arise continuously
[3:16] a stream of thoughts.
[3:17] Oh, no, no.
[3:19] No for most people, the stream of thoughts
[3:23] has such a gravitational pull
[3:26] that they get completely dragged along
[3:29] by this continuously proliferating stream
[3:34] of mental activity.
[3:36] I sometimes call it the voice in the head.
[3:38] It never stops speaking.
[3:41] It continuously comments on where you are,
[3:44] what you're doing, or takes
you somewhere completely
[3:46] different in the, so-called past
[3:49] or the, so-called future one thing
[3:53] after another, one, thing after another.
[3:57] To paraphrase Churchill.
[4:00] Churchill was talking about history.
[4:03] History is a lost one thing after another.
[4:07] And that's true.
[4:09] But for many people,
their conditioned mind,
[4:13] the experience of their
conditioned mind is just one
[4:16] thing after another because
it never leaves you alone.
[4:19] It goes.
[4:21] So most humans who are not
awakened or even awakening,
[4:26] are completely trapped in
their object consciousness.
[4:29] They are confined by it.
[4:33] And not only that, they are
completely identified with
[4:38] all the arising thoughts
[4:40] and emotions that continuously
go through their mind.
[4:45] And there's no separation
between the thoughts
[4:51] and the emotions that
accompany the thoughts.
[4:54] And you don't, you are not even there
[4:58] when you're totally identified
with a voice in the head.
[5:03] You are spiritually speaking asleep.
[5:08] Or another word for it is unconscious.
[5:12] So an unconscious person
in ordinary usage,
[5:16] unconscious means of course
you've completely lost.
[5:19] You don't know what's going on.
[5:21] And this is unconscious
unconventional usage.
[5:24] Unconscious means in spiritual usage,
[5:29] unconscious means completely
[5:33] and continuously identified
with a stream of thinking
[5:39] and the emotions that go
with a stream of thinking.
[5:42] What does it mean to be identified?
[5:45] It means you derive your
sense of who you are
[5:50] from the stream thinking
every thought is imbued
[5:53] with a sense of self.
[5:56] So you're identified,
[6:00] it has you in its grasp.
[6:03] And therefore, if you say,
[6:05] people conventionally say,
[6:06] I think, I think, what do you think?
[6:10] As if thinking for most people
where a voluntary activity,
[6:15] whereas for most, not you,
[6:18] but those who are not awakening yet,
[6:21] which is the majority of the population
[6:23] still on the planet for most,
[6:26] that is they are completely identified
[6:29] with a stream of thinking.
[6:32] They are spiritually speaking unconscious.
[6:38] And that is a terrible thing
[6:40] because then everything that you perceive
[6:47] reality itself as you perceive it,
[6:50] goes through the filter
[6:52] of your mental emotional
conditioning from the past.
[6:58] So you never see anything as it is
[7:01] perceive anything clearly.
[7:03] And most importantly,
there is never a sense
[7:08] of inner true, inner peace,
[7:14] spaciousness, joy, sense
[7:18] of aliveness, sense of
connectedness with something
[7:23] that is deeper than
your historical person.
[7:26] You are always at the mercy
of what goes on out there
[7:31] and the reactive patterns of your mind.
[7:34] So you're completely unaware
of the possibility of
[7:39] realizing the other
dimension of consciousness,
[7:41] which is not object consciousness,
[7:44] but space consciousness.
[7:48] I call it sometimes space consciousness.
[7:54] Now, what is space consciousness?
[8:00] You cannot define it because
it's beyond concepts.
[8:05] You can know what space
consciousness is in this very moment
[8:13] by becoming aware of
the gaps between words.
[8:20] When I speak, I'm just
slowing down a little bit.
[8:26] So instead of being totally interested
[8:32] in the words, you are also interested,
[8:36] although that's probably
not the right word,
[8:40] you are also giving attention to
[8:43] the empty space between the words,
[8:48] because they're needed.
[8:51] Without the spaces,
there could be no sounds.
[8:54] The sound needs the space to exist.
[8:58] Oh, that's interesting.
[9:00] To be aware of the gaps between words
[9:09] or
[9:12] in this room,
[9:15] in this hall.
[9:17] To be aware not only of
the objects in this room,
[9:25] the objects that make up this room,
[9:30] what's in it, the bodies, the objects
[9:35] that which confines and defines the room,
[9:39] the ceiling, the walls of law.
[9:40] This is the room.
[9:42] You're not only aware of that,
[9:45] that would be in this analogy,
[9:48] object consciousness.
[9:49] You're also aware of
the space in this room.
[9:55] Now, the space isn't
something that you say,
[9:57] oh, it's there or it's there.
[10:01] But it is the most important part about
[10:03] of this room is the space.
[10:05] And it's a wonderful space,
[10:08] but you cannot define it.
[10:10] It has no actual...
[10:12] You can't even say that space exists
[10:16] because exists means to manifest,
[10:19] to stand out, exist,
[10:21] ex means out from Latin.
[10:23] Exist means to be manifested,
[10:27] but space doesn't manifest.
[10:29] It enables everything to
manifest in the physical realm.
[10:33] Without space, these
things could not be here.
[10:36] So in space is prior to existence,
[10:41] space is prior to manifestation.
[10:44] And that's very interesting.
[10:46] So there is something in you,
[10:50] which I sometimes call
space consciousness,
[10:54] that is prior to who you are as a person,
[10:58] your personality.
[11:01] And you can know it, not conceptually,
[11:05] but immediately and
experientially by becoming aware
[11:13] either of the spaciousness outside of you
[11:21] or becoming aware of
spaces between sounds,
[11:26] spaces between words.
[11:28] Now, how do you do that?
[11:32] How do you become aware
[11:35] of a space
[11:38] between two words?
[11:45] There is no how,
[11:46] because it's too simple
for how quite simply
[11:51] there's an attention in you,
[11:56] a field of alert attention.
[11:59] And this field of alert attention is aware
[12:04] of the space between words.
[12:09] You notice that silent space.
[12:15] What does it mean to
notice that silent space?
[12:20] It means in this brief moment of noticing
[12:25] or noticing the space in this room,
[12:29] in this brief moment,
[12:32] you are not thinking, you're just aware.
[12:37] Through thinking you cannot be aware
[12:41] of those spaces between words,
[12:44] because thinking is object consciousness.
[12:48] The space between words is takes
you to space consciousness.
[12:53] So the entire secret of our gathering here
[12:55] of all spirituality is
[12:59] just one thing.
[13:02] Now, amazingly,
[13:05] I'm going to talk about
this one thing for hours
[13:09] (audience laughing)
[13:15] using different pointers.
[13:20] Also, perhaps, as you might have noticed,
[13:23] I haven't prepared anything.
[13:24] So I say perhaps
[13:27] because I don't know exactly
what I'm going to speak about,
[13:31] but I assume I will also be speaking about
[13:35] the obstacles to this realization.
[13:38] This is very helpful to
address the obstacles
[13:42] that may and probably will arise in you
[13:47] to the realization of that
transcendent dimension
[13:52] of consciousness, which is
the most important thing.
[13:55] This realization, the most
important thing that you can,
[14:00] that can happen in your life,
[14:02] it's not even happen is the wrong word.
[14:05] The most important thing in
your life is to connect with
[14:08] that depth dimension.
[14:12] Because without that,
[14:14] even if you don't fully
awaken whatever that is,
[14:17] but to have an inner
connectedness with something
[14:21] that transcends the personality
[14:25] or the historical person,
the historical person
[14:29] that you are, has its place, it's fine.
[14:33] I mean, you have to live
with yourself on that level.
[14:38] And it's problematic.
[14:39] Every person is problematic,
[14:42] every person's life is problematic.
[14:46] Although you might not know
this if you read people's
[14:48] Facebook posts because
they're all doing great
[14:56] and they're all looking so happy
[14:59] and they're all eating
their wonderful meals.
[15:01] And you have to...
[15:16] And they joke, they look all so beautiful
[15:18] because the pictures are so overexposed,
[15:21] like the photo on the front
cover of the magazine.
[15:25] (audience laughing)
[15:26] The photo are so overexposed
[15:28] that everybody looks so
ethereal and beautiful.
[15:31] All it is left as you see the eyes
[15:33] and just a little bit of
blurry outline of the face.
[15:36] But that's all.
[15:38] You don't know whether
they're 20 years old
[15:40] or 60, you wouldn't know.
[15:42] (audience laughing)
[15:44] So that's...
[15:47] But life people have a mental construct
[15:52] of what their life is.
[15:55] One is that project into the world
[15:58] through modern technology.
[16:01] And then you have another mental construct
[16:03] that you live with in your life
[16:05] that you call me and my life,
[16:09] me and my life.
[16:11] That's the person talking,
[16:13] that's the personality talking.
[16:16] So, and when you start questioning people
[16:20] or you listen to people
[16:23] or listen to your own,
[16:25] the voice in your own head
talking about me and my life,
[16:30] Hmm, it's not the greatest story.
[16:38] It's a problematic story.
[16:41] It's not easy being me.
[16:44] In fact, I don't think
[16:48] anybody's having a more
difficult time than me,
[16:53] and I need to think about that a bit more.
[16:55] How can I solve this?
[16:58] This dilemma of me, this conundrum,
[17:02] this I am, I am.
[17:06] It's amazing that many
people consider themselves
[17:10] without verbalizing it in that way.
[17:14] They consider themselves to be problem,
[17:17] a problem to be solved.
[17:20] There's something, and
this is very interesting.
[17:24] There's something in the human psyche
[17:28] if you are not awakening at all yet.
[17:32] So in the normal state of consciousness
[17:34] or unconsciousness,
there's something there.
[17:39] There's always either in the background
[17:44] or in the foreground, if
it's in the background,
[17:47] there's a sense of unease,
[17:51] a sense of something is missing.
[17:56] Something is lacking,
[17:58] and what it is that's missing,
[18:00] perhaps the mind will figure out,
[18:03] okay, what I need to be fulfilled is this,
[18:06] that, that, that.
[18:08] Or they might not even know.
[18:10] Because whenever you achieve
something that you think will
[18:13] liberate you from this permanent
sense of insufficiency,
[18:19] then whenever you think you found it,
[18:22] it doesn't take long.
[18:23] And then you say, oh, no,
[18:25] because there's something
else goes wrong there too.
[18:30] There's a new relationship,
[18:32] there's a new work situation,
[18:34] there's a new living situation.
[18:36] So there's often you deceive yourself.
[18:39] You say, no, I found the
answer to the dilemma of me.
[18:43] I'm liberated now
[18:45] because I have found the partner
that I've been looking for.
[18:49] The one I have found the one.
[18:53] And this delusion lasts
for a little while.
[18:58] We don't know how long it could last
[19:00] for a year, probably less.
[19:09] You can see when you look to anything for,
[19:14] let's use this almost
spiritual term, salvation.
[19:18] Because you're really looking
to something out there
[19:22] for salvation.
[19:23] Salvation through a deeply
satisfying relationship,
[19:28] permanently satisfying
salvation through some kind
[19:32] of acquisition of something
adding to your life,
[19:36] salvation through moving
to a totally different
[19:39] country of place,
[19:40] salvation through recognition
from other people.
[19:44] Once people recognize me
as when I become famous,
[19:49] oh, then I'll be fully myself,
[19:52] then I will have found salvation.
[19:54] But all these people, when
they find those things,
[19:59] it doesn't take long.
[20:00] Let take relationships.
[20:03] You go out, you go dating,
[20:05] I don't know if they
still do it these days,
[20:07] dating, maybe dating is old fashioned
[20:10] because everything happens on the phone.
[20:13] (audience laughing)
[20:16] Tinder swiping.
[20:18] (audience laughing)
[20:22] And then you have a date
when you go to a restaurant,
[20:26] you can immediately see
with a couple sitting,
[20:30] whether a couple has been together already
[20:33] for quite a while,
[20:34] or whether they're only
meeting for the first,
[20:37] second or third time were dating,
[20:40] the others are not dating.
[20:41] They're already living together.
[20:42] Totally different energy field
[20:44] because the ones who are dating,
[20:46] they still are under the delusion
that they found salvation
[20:51] through the other person.
[20:52] (audience laughing)
[20:55] And when you observe people,
[20:58] you can see it the way
they look at each other.
[21:01] They're both in a state of hypnosis
[21:04] because they go.
(audience laughing)
[21:14] So wonderful and you don't even know
[21:19] that you're playing a role unconsciously
[21:21] and the other person's playing their role,
[21:23] and these two roles interact
[21:25] and you think, well, this is the reality.
[21:29] And then you see another couple,
[21:31] they obviously have been
together for a while,
[21:34] and they kind of, they sit there
[21:37] and most likely these
days they on their phones.
[21:43] So they're already living together.
[21:47] And so when the dating
goes to the next stage,
[21:49] you start moving in together.
[21:52] Then these days, it often
happens before the wedding,
[21:57] if the even is a wedding.
[21:58] But, so you move in together
[22:01] and you quickly notice that this person
[22:03] is not the same person that you dated
[22:07] Soon after a few days or
weeks, sometimes months,
[22:12] but that's maximum.
[22:15] You find who is this person?
[22:18] There are suddenly
aspects of the personality
[22:23] that you find deeply irritating
[22:28] if not disturbing.
[22:32] And then you question yourself,
[22:34] say, "I must have made a mistake."
[22:36] (audience laughing)
[22:40] But it could also be that your partner
[22:42] feels the same thing about you.
[22:46] What happened?
[22:49] So you're experiencing the
a conditioned personality.
[22:53] You're no longer experiencing
[22:57] a part that somebody's playing.
[23:00] You experience the
conditioning of the person
[23:03] and every person is,
[23:05] if you live with them for a little while,
[23:08] everybody, you will display behavior
[23:13] that is not that pleasant.
[23:16] They also have a pain body.
[23:18] If you've read my books and talks,
[23:20] you know what a pain body is,
[23:22] and we may talk about it later.
[23:25] It's an accumulation
of past emotional pain
[23:28] that lives in you, but it's dormant.
[23:31] And then after a while, it becomes active
[23:34] because it needs to feed
on some kind of drama.
[23:37] And when you start living with somebody
[23:41] and for the first time you experience
[23:43] this person's pain body,
[23:45] when suddenly there's a
shift in the entire energy
[23:49] field of that person,
[23:50] it's no longer the same person at all.
[23:53] It's a dreadful thing.
[23:55] And you don't know what it is you say.
[23:58] Well, and that's how...
[24:05] Somebody wrote an article
a while ago in the paper
[24:08] that says, "Why are you
married to the wrong person?"
[24:15] So in that sense, it is not pessimistic,
[24:18] but it's sounds pessimistic.
[24:20] You always marry the wrong person.
[24:25] (all laughing)
[24:32] Unless you awakened to a
deeper dimension in yourself
[24:39] that transcends the
conditioned personality,
[24:42] then you have something genuine,
[24:46] something that is not part
of the conditioned entity
[24:51] that we call the person
or the personality.
[24:55] Without that the state of insufficiency,
[25:00] of lack of not enough,
of something missing.
[25:03] But you don't know what,
[25:04] or you think you know what,
[25:05] but that's not it.
[25:07] You can never get rid of it.
[25:10] So if you remain trapped
[25:14] in the conditioned energy
field of the personality,
[25:21] then you are condemned to
perpetual dissatisfaction,
[25:29] to put it mildly
[25:31] or to use an even more
generic term, unhappiness.
[25:36] That's a translation of a generic term
[25:39] that the Buddha used when he used the term
[25:42] (speaking foreign language),
[25:43] which can be translated.
[25:44] It's usually translated as suffering,
[25:46] but in more generic terms,
[25:49] it means unhappiness, misery, unease.
[25:55] Let's stay with unhappiness
in whatever form.
[25:59] So you're condemned to that.
[26:01] Every situation turns into,
[26:02] eventually the something turns up
[26:05] to mild the situation in some way,
[26:08] whether it's a person
or place or an activity
[26:12] or something that you add to
your life that you obtain.
[26:18] There's always something.
[26:19] And that's in the nature of things.
[26:21] But it only happens.
[26:23] And that's the positive part
[26:25] of the Buddha's teaching
is never really spoken of
[26:28] because he doesn't want you
to believe in something.
[26:33] So whatever happens,
[26:38] there's always something that goes wrong,
[26:41] so to speak.
[26:42] But that's not a pessimistic statement.
[26:45] That only applies if you
are dependent for your sense
[26:53] of wellbeing, your sense of who you are.
[26:58] If you are dependent on
all those external factors
[27:03] for your sense of who you truly are,
[27:06] your sense of identity,
[27:08] your sense of wellbeing,
[27:10] because nothing can satisfy you for long.
[27:14] And if you leave it at that,
[27:18] it sounds a little
pessimistic or nihilistic.
[27:22] Okay, so what's the point
in anything says the person
[27:26] who superficially studies
Buddhism or other teachings.
[27:30] So if nothing can set what's
the point in anything?
[27:32] I might as well get drunk
[27:33] and then experience the briefly that,
[27:37] and then in the next hangover
and then get drunk again,
[27:40] and then eventually I'll kill myself.
[27:45] But that is only the first part.
[27:48] He says, "If you seek yourself
[27:53] in all those things that you
think will bring you salvation,
[27:57] if you seek yourself in
those things of the world
[28:01] that the world offers,
then you will be unhappy."
[28:07] But now the unspoken part is,
[28:11] but if you find yourself
in the formless realm
[28:20] of transcendent consciousness,
[28:23] then the world is actually no longer
[28:28] such a bad place
[28:30] because you don't look to the world,
[28:33] which means other people, achievements,
[28:37] situations, and places and acquisitions.
[28:43] You don't look to the world
[28:46] for completion of your sense of identity.
[28:52] You don't seek yourself anymore
in the things of this world,
[28:58] then the things of the world are no longer
[29:01] as frustrating as they were before.
[29:07] And you can allow things to be,
[29:09] you can participate in the
play of form in manifesting,
[29:16] you can even enjoy relationships
[29:18] because you're no longer
looking for completion
[29:22] of your sense of self
through those things.
[29:26] It's why are you no longer
looking for completion
[29:29] of your sense of self
through those things?
[29:32] Because you have found yourself
[29:38] not in the realm of object consciousness,
[29:43] not in the realm of thought
or sensory perception.
[29:49] You have found a deeper
dimension within yourself,
[29:55] which we call temporarily
space consciousness.
[29:59] I also sometimes call it the deep I.
[30:04] By that I don't mean this,
[30:06] It's a pronoun first I.
[30:08] I am the deep I as
opposed to the surface I.
[30:16] Now, the two of you exist.
[30:18] Well, the deep I doesn't really exist.
[30:21] It's a prior to existence
that you have both in you,
[30:25] but most humans are only
aware of the surface I.
[30:29] And that's a terrible deprivation.
[30:33] That really is a nonfulfillment
[30:38] permanent sense of nonfulfillment
[30:40] with brief interludes
of deluded fulfillment.
[30:46] Like you can have a big
sensory gratification through
[30:52] you have a wonderful meal.
[30:54] And then if you feel, okay,
[30:55] I'm really fulfilled now.
[30:58] Well, okay, the body is
full and for a moment,
[31:03] or you can drink, you can
take in some substances
[31:06] and you have brief moments of,
[31:08] ah, a substance, whatever can free you
[31:15] of yourself briefly too.
[31:19] But I don't recommend it.
[31:21] But I can see why people
[31:23] and millions of all over
the world are longing
[31:27] and many cannot live
without some substance.
[31:33] There's an enormous pull,
an enormous longing.
[31:38] What is it that they experience
[31:40] when they take this substance?
[31:43] Whether it's alcohol or other things.
[31:47] They experience briefly
[31:51] never lasts a sense of self-transcendence.
[31:56] So the substance can briefly
free you of yourself.
[32:00] This mind made thing that you live with,
[32:02] this problematic sense of I,
[32:04] this problematic me and my life.
[32:08] Oh dear, how am I going
to solve this problem?
[32:12] Well, you can't, so alcohol can briefly
[32:17] free you because you take a few drinks,
[32:19] and you feel lighter for a while.
[32:22] Oh, because it slows down your mind.
[32:26] It you can't think that much anymore.
[32:30] And because you can't
think that much anymore.
[32:32] Life become somewhat less problematic
[32:36] because if you don't
remember your problems,
[32:39] they're gone.
[32:40] All you're left with
is immediate situations
[32:43] that you either deal with
or you don't deal with.
[32:46] But the place where your
problems live is in your mind.
[32:51] And they only exist if
you think about them.
[32:55] Of course, they refer to situations.
[32:58] That is true.
[32:59] But every situation
can only be experienced
[33:03] or faced or solved or simply
accepted in the present moment.
[33:10] Nothing ever arises in your life.
[33:12] That's not in the present moment.
[33:14] So the rest and the present
moment you can deal with,
[33:18] it's just here now.
[33:19] Either you take action or you don't,
[33:21] but this is the present moment.
[33:24] But then you have a whole
superstructure of the problematic,
[33:28] my problematic life
that lives in your mind.
[33:33] And that's an incredible
burden to live with.
[33:38] And everybody lives with this burden.
[33:41] If they have not awakened
to the deeper dimension
[33:46] of the deep I,
[33:48] they are trapped in their surface I.
[33:51] It's a terrible prison.
[33:53] I can sometimes watch people
[33:55] how they are trapped in their personality
[34:00] and everything they say,
[34:02] and the way they perceive
things is totally two colored
[34:07] by the conditioning of their mind.
[34:10] And they're identified with every thought
[34:13] that comes into their head.
[34:15] If you just question something,
[34:18] an opinion, they express an opinion
[34:20] and you say, no, I don't
think that's right.
[34:23] And they immediately get
defensive or aggressive
[34:27] or an angry or oh,
[34:31] and sometimes people get violent
[34:34] when you doubt their opinions,
[34:36] say, "No, you're wrong, wrong."
[34:39] People sometimes kill each other
[34:41] because they can't agree on a subject.
[34:46] Why?
[34:47] Because you derive your sense
of identity from thought.
[34:53] An opinion is a thought
[34:56] or a group of thoughts in your mind
[35:01] that you identify with.
[35:03] When you identify with it,
[35:04] it becomes part of the ego.
[35:06] So we are talking here, of course,
[35:08] I haven't used the word sofa.
[35:11] We are talking about egoic consciousness.
[35:14] When you identified
with thought completely,
[35:19] you are in egoic consciousness.
[35:21] The ego is operating in you
[35:25] and it pretends to be you.
[35:27] And so you are spiritually
speaking asleep.
[35:30] You are a totally conditioned entity.
[35:34] And so every opinion that you have,
[35:37] anybody should question it,
[35:39] that this person is questioning
your very sense of identity.
[35:43] And that's how you react.
[35:45] You feel threatened in
your sense of identity.
[35:49] It's an observed delusion,
[35:51] but millions live like that.
[35:54] So the identification
[35:56] with mental positions
is a very important part
[35:59] of the egoic consciousness.
[36:02] Now, does this mean as you
awaken to the deeper levels,
[36:07] the the transcendent dimension,
[36:09] does that mean you no
longer have any opinions?
[36:12] No, it doesn't.
[36:13] You continue to have opinions
[36:15] and of course thoughts also,
[36:17] but you do not derive
your sense of who you are
[36:22] from those thoughts or opinions.
[36:25] Why do you no longer derive your sense
[36:28] of who you are from those thoughts?
[36:30] Because you have found something
[36:33] much more real,
[36:36] much more fundamental than any thought
[36:40] that tells you who you are.
[36:43] A thought is by the analogy I often use
[36:48] is a ripple on the surface of the ocean.
[36:52] You as a personality,
[36:54] and the personality consists
[36:56] of the conditioning of your mind.
[37:00] You are like a ripple on
the surface of the ocean,
[37:03] and you exist as this ripple.
[37:08] Some ripples are bigger than others,
[37:10] but it doesn't make that much difference.
[37:13] Some ripples are even waves.
[37:16] They might have a private jet.
[37:18] So there's a wave.
[37:20] I'm a wave.
[37:21] I'm not a ripple on the
surface of the ocean.
[37:27] And so the ripple considers
this looks at other ripples
[37:31] and feels uneasy, and it's never complete.
[37:35] And deep down it knows that
it existence is short-lived.
[37:39] So it, it hopes to become
a little bigger ripple
[37:43] by looking to the future,
[37:45] because if I get this better
that I'll be a bigger ripple.
[37:48] But it also knows deep
down that the future
[37:51] that it looks to for fulfillment
[37:53] will eventually kill it too.
[37:56] So the future is a two-edged sword.
[37:58] It promises fulfillment but
it really will kill you.
[38:02] That's time.
[38:04] Well, we are all suffering
as a physical entity.
[38:07] We are all suffering, of course,
[38:08] from that disease.
[38:12] The prognosis is not good
[38:14] because we all have
this virus called time.
[38:19] And if it's already consuming our bodies
[38:22] and we don't have to wait long,
[38:24] and finally it kills you,
[38:26] they haven't found a
remedy yet against time.
[38:30] So the ripple lives an uneasy existence
[38:35] on the surface of the ocean
[38:38] looking for some kind of completion
[38:39] and fearing other ripples or
wanting to use other ripples.
[38:44] Come, let's join with the two together.
[38:47] We can become a bigger ripple,
[38:49] but it probably won't work.
[38:52] And then let's say the
ripple in a moment of
[38:56] complete dissatisfaction with life,
[38:57] when it says nothing makes sense anymore,
[39:00] it finally comes to a stop
[39:02] in its incessant search for fulfillment.
[39:05] And it comes to a stop
in its incessant doing,
[39:10] in looking to the next moment
for some kind of fulfillment.
[39:14] And the ripple for moment stops.
[39:20] But it doesn't stop because it has taken,
[39:23] I don't know if this analogy still works,
[39:25] if I continue with the ripple,
[39:26] (audience laughing)
but I talked about
[39:31] transcending a sense of self
through taking in a substance.
[39:36] It frees you from a moment,
[39:38] from this sense of insufficiency.
[39:41] The ripple feels a little bit better
[39:44] and just taking something
[39:45] and doesn't think about
his problems anymore.
[39:49] Ah, it doesn't always work
[39:53] because sometimes it can
awaken the pain body.
[39:56] Certain substances like alcohol
can awaken your pain body,
[40:01] in which case, because it lowers
your level of consciousness
[40:06] to an even lower level
than your normal level.
[40:09] I'm not talking to you personally.
[40:12] It lowers your level when you drink,
[40:15] lowers your level of constitute
[40:16] even lower than the normal level,
[40:18] and then just gives the
pain board an opportunity
[40:20] to completely take you over.
[40:23] But with other people, they
become temporarily quite happy
[40:27] when they drink or take other substances.
[40:31] You can smoke, it slows down your mind.
[40:37] Goes, oh, and it feels so good.
[40:41] Your problem, the whole
superstructure of problems
[40:46] begins to subside because you're not
[40:48] thinking about the problems,
[40:50] therefore they disappear.
[40:53] Ah, so you have glimpses
of self-transcendence,
[40:58] and that's why people feel drawn to it.
[41:00] 'Cause without knowing it,
[41:01] people are longing to
become free of themselves.
[41:08] We don't know it, but there is a longing.
[41:11] And this is built into the
evolution of the human being.
[41:15] This longing for self transcendence
[41:18] is built into the evolution
of human consciousness.
[41:24] Every human experiences it,
[41:26] but they look for a
solution to this longing
[41:32] in the wrong ways,
[41:33] in completely wrong places.
