in yesterday's meditation you introduced a concept with a very fancy name could you say the name cuz I don't remember it AATA Vada and vivat V I very rarely use Sanskrit terms as you know but I wanted to I wanted to relate what I'm saying to some of you I know who have studied the classical advit tradition but yeah AATA Vada and vivat Vada aada is a very um a concept that we very rarely hear about it's the the contention that nothing exists or even seems to exist whereas you understand when I say nothing exists nothing really stands out from the background of being with its own independent existence nothing exists or even seems to exist whereas vat in reality nothing exists but the world does seem to exist and that is the level on which that most teachings or the the highest teachings usually take place so when you say that the first thing you said well that's what yesterday's meditation and to an extent this morning's meditation but particularly yesterday's meditation was I was trying to I was trying trying to somehow make sense of this of what seems to be a complete contradiction with our experience how can one say that from the highest point of view not only that nothing exists that that that makes sense nothing nothing stands out from God's infinite being with its own independent existence I think most if not all of us understand that that that is not a denial of appearances okay this is all an appearance but what is it an appearance of infinite Consciousness or God's infinite being I think we're we're okay with that but then to suggest that nothing even appears well no that I mean what are we experiencing now H how can one say that from the highest point of view nothing even appears to exist when that obviously contradicts our current experience so do we say that gadap writer of the manduk youan r mahashi the Buddha they were all wrong no so how can we make sense of this statement so that's why I tried to suggest that from the from the In from from the infinite's point of view and if the infinite is all there really is then its point of view must be the only real point of view from its point of view the infinite cannot cannot separate itself from itself and and know itself or indeed anything as an object it cannot stand apart from itself and know anything it cannot know in subject object relationship because soon as we divide into a subject object relationship both the subject and the object must be limited the subject is limited and the object that it knows is limited but the infinite can't cease being the infinite and become something finite so from its point of view that not only can there not be anything other than itself but it cannot experience even the appearance of anything other than itself because to experience appear an appearance one must do so from a finite point of view so in its pure experience of itself there is no manifestation or even the appearance of any manifestation whereas from our finite limited localized points of view there is most definitely the appearance of a world even if we then question the reality of that appearance as we do here now there are no teachings to my knowledge that speak at the ajata level they were just those teachings were just remains they're not they couldn't be teachings there's no there's nothing to teach that that that would just be silence so the highest teachings that we know of the the top of the mountain teachings are actually one step down from AATA the highest teach teachings the teachings that for instance that that we share here admit that there is the appearance of a world why because that is our undeniable experience so we start with the way experience seems to be I seem to be a separate self localized in and limited to the body and there does seem to be a world outside of myself made out of something other than myself so that's that's where we start it's in terms of teaching it's the highest teach teaching although there is this understanding that is off the top of the mountain which is never spoken of because it's it's um it's Out Of Reach in a way so what I don't understand rert isn't the ajata level what you help us experience every single time you take us back to that place during an exercise that that's true yes cuz whenever you ask us like go to the experience of being and we report back what we experience we do not experience 10 thousand things that's right that that's the level we go to yes so that that's the um that's the blind spot but isn't that just the core of the teaching why is it some sort of obscure fancy schmancy name when it's just the well all all Sanskrit names are fancy comp for English speaking people it it's um it it it's because because it's not only referring to the experience that we have the experience of the blind spot in which there is no manifestation it it's it's also a philosophy that says that that doesn't even admit the appearance of a world so you're right as as an experience it's the very ordinary experience of the awareness of being but it's the philosophy that accompanies it that that is um seems to conflict with our everyday experience but but you're right the the actual experience of the the absence of manifestation or even the the appearance of that manifestation is what I was speaking of this morning the blind spot just the pure awareness of being luminous Darkness absolutely yes not only does nothing exist nothing actually ever happened is that fair to say yes okay yes the two goes go together if nothing exists there's no question of anything happening yeah so nothing ever happens nothing ever happens for the one infinite reality things seem to happen for the finite mind and you get a taste of this when you fall asleep at night you you glance at your clock your alarmed clock by your bed just before you fall asleep and it's 11:00 and you fall asleep and you you have a dream and you you go back to India you spend five weeks watching Cricket England retain the ashes and bring them home and you commiserate with your family and then you come back to to England you go to work in the bank the next morning and then and then you meet this lovely young man in the bank and you fall in love and you go out for dinner I won't elaborate the story but then you wake up and you look at your clock and it's 1 minute past 11: what what really happened did anything really happen at a more relative level so you you you you get a taste I remember I had elderly friend years ago he he died many years ago but he he he was dying and I asked him what what what's it like looking back on your life now as you as you prepar to die he just said I look back on my life it's like a dream it's just like a dream he he was having a foraste of this my being remains untouched nothing ever happened to being nothing touched it it touched everything but nothing touched it it's still pristine luminous free empty aware it's never been tarnished by experience never been heard it's never aged never changed he was having a as his as his experience fell away being began to shine more and more brightly in his experience and and its its changelessness just impressed itself upon him everything else was like a dream in comparison to that previous he thought that his life was substantial and being was insubstantial now there was this exchange being was being magnified in his experience and he felt that this was the one really substantial element of my experience and and my life was just like a dream that that it's in this context that it is said nothing ever happens so the AATA um is it AATA yeah um to that level is is that the um what brings about the freedom in all experience and the or the sense of Freedom the the openness and the yes it's it's what um I think this morning I quoted platina saying because there is nothing in the one it is because there is nothing in the one that all things are from it it is because your TV screen is inherently empty that all possible movies can appear on it imagine if your TV screen was inherently pink oh only pink images there'd still be a variety of images that were were possible but only pink images there wouldn't be an infinite number of movies that were Possible movies that did not contain the color pink would not show up on your screen so so yes it's because the screen is inherently devoid of colors that all colors can appear on it what William Blake said all things possible to be believed are an image of truth why because truth itself is empty therefore all possible beliefs all possible ideas the idea 2 plus 2 equals 4 plus the idea that 2 plus 2 equals 5es equals 5 are possible to arise in Consciousness because Consciousness itself is is empty of all thoughts empty of all content so it is free to answer your question in and the terms of your question yes it is free to take any appearance on account of its emptiness yeah so and it it just seems that that even that even at the philosophical level that idea is is just beautiful that absolutely anything's possible even if it's even if it's not nice um and that's the tricky bit yes yes the reason why um not nice things um appear or or for instance evil that's really your your question that the so-called evil can appear in something which is inherently good inherently that is love itself is because in order to manifest the manifestation has to be can only be perceived from a localized finite point of view the infinite by itself cannot experience manifestation God doesn't know creation directly it can only do so through the localized perspective of each of our minds but in doing so it seems to cease being infinite consciousness seems to become a finite mind or a separate self that's each of us so if we believe that we are a separate self then we think that others are others that others are not our self and that enables us to behave towards them in unloving ways you never behave towards somebody that you consider to be yourself in other words somebody that you love in unloving ways at least not consciously we only be behave unloving towards people that we think are other than ourself in other words people that we don't love so that that is why so the soal So-Cal evening evil is always from the point of view of the individual it's the indivi the individual who believes themsel to be an individual rather than the universal that behaves in ways that Express the belief in being an individual rather than the recogn nition of the universal well that accounts for how evil is possible in a creation whose nature is pure love it's they're not a contradiction I I I discussed I used to I tried to explain this to my father like two dozen times all through my 20s and 30s his one contention with Christianity how is it possible for there to be an all loving God and look what's going on in the world surely this these two ideas are incompatible God is all loving look at what's going on in the world that isn't that a flagrant contradiction but no it's not if you understand this what we've just spoken of yeah I think I'm trying to understand I I didn't realize I had this question so sort of we've gone into it but I think I'm trying to understand the mechanism by which um it's possible I mean even at a personal level to just shine light on your experience and open it up essentially so and that and that seems to apply the at a wider level too but is it simply by um standing is awareness the the Light reaches the darkness in time just through the increasing power of that light or do we have to go and actively take that light around if you see what I mean it's because those are two quite different ways of looking at it does that make sense yes it's a beautiful question in terms of One's Own inner experience all that's necessary is to to go to one's being to to go to the light and to to recognize the the light of being and to allow that light to radiate through one's entire inner experience thoughts and feelings and outshine the darkness that is contained in our thoughts and feelings so that gradually our thoughts and feelings are an expression of the light rather than the darkness but then when we go out into the world then we we take that light with us and do whatever we do in the world shine that light around in the world however each of us does that in our life so internally it's just going to one's being and allowing the light of one's being the light of God's being just to radiate through the entire structure of the body mind then in the world we we we go out with that light in our actions and our relationships we take it into our actions and our relationships if there are these pockets of ignorance that that cause e evil in the world and that that may be the current but is it at least theoretically possible that with this understanding it could it could reach reach all the places which it currently isn't even even theoretically could this understand this this recognition of our own being take take place in in all people and yeah and basically pervade all all of experience eventually could there be a society that was founded on this understanding why not yes it seems a distant possibility now if we look at what's going on at the world on in the world but but why shouldn't it be we we live in a in some ways in a very dark age a world culture that is um founded on the Assumption of Separation that's the the all pervading World Paradigm that that that dominates our culture our institutions our and and so on just in the same way that that there were older civilizations that were dominated by the idea that the Earth was flat or that the sun went round the Earth these were old paradigms that that now seem absurd from our point of view in time hopefully this um presumption of separation upon which our world culture is founded future Generations future societies will look back on it as the Dark Ages they won't be able to believe the ignorance that that we considered this to be normal how will that come about just by exactly what you the beautiful your previous beautiful question about how the light shines and shares itself but by first of all individ ual such as us returning again and again to the light of our being and allowing that being to radiate through the body mind and then each of us taking that light out into the world in whatever work or relationships we engage in and and and sharing it