[Music] the first thing I want to say I'm afraid he going to be a a little disappointment to you we are going to hear and speak a great many words this week about the nature of Consciousness not a single one of them is going to be absolutely true if we want to speak the truth about the nature of Consciousness experience or reality we would have to remain silent and that is why it is said that the highest teaching is silence however very few of us are sufficiently mature enough to Intuit it the reality of Consciousness from silence and therefore the spiritual tra Traditions have elaborated various paths various skillful means to tailor to various levels of our understanding so it is in that spirit that I speak of the nature of Consciousness and the first thing I would like to do is to give a definition of consciousness of course Consciousness cannot really be defined but this would be a good provisional definition of Consciousness Consciousness is that in which all experience appears it is that with which all experience is known and it is that out of which all experience is made I'll just repeat that Consciousness is that in which all experience appears it is that with which all experience is known and it is that out of which all experience is made what do I mean by experience in this context anything objective thoughts memories ideas Concepts feelings sensations of the body sights sounds tastes textures smells Etc all of these appear in something that something is what we call Consciousness or awareness the common name for it is I or myself the religious name for it is God's infinite being but all these refer to that in which experience appears with which it is known and ultimately out of which it is made now even from a conventional point of view our thoughts and feelings appear within our self what is not so obvious is that the experience of the body which we exper experience mostly As sensation also appears in our self that is in Consciousness and what is even less clear is that our perceptions for instance sounds and sights also appear in the same Consciousness or the same field in which our thoughts feelings and Sensations appear in so I just want to pause there and make sure that you are really connecting with what I am suggesting and not just um intellectually agreeing or disagreeing so take a thought or allow a thought or a series of thoughts to appear and just ask yourself the question or notice that those thoughts appear in some some kind of field they appear in something let us say they appear in a space Consciousness is not in fact a space it is space like but it in fact has no Dimensions but let us provisionally to begin with give Consciousness a space like or field like quality and see that whatever thoughts are appearing are appearing in this space likee aware field and now maybe we should close our eyes just for a few minutes to to do this establish again that your thoughts appear in a aware space-like field and now listen to whatever sounds are present suddenly everything goes strangely silent listen to the sounds of people talking or whatever sounds are present and now with your attention go back and forth between the thought and the sound ask yourself the question does my attention ever leave the field of awareness notice that the sound appears in exactly the same field as the thought appears in conventional thinking would have us believe that the thought appears inside what I am and that the sound appears outside what I am but if we look for the line that divides the two in our actual experience it is never found the line is on the map but never in the territory the line is in belief but never in experience now instead of just allowing your attention to go between the thought and the sound allow your attention to go wherever it once you can keep your eyes closed if you want to or feel free to open them just allow your attention to range freely over the entire realm of your experience and have a single question in mind does my attention ever leave Consciousness does my attention ever leave the field of awareness in fact you could play Devil's Advocate with yourself try to leave the field of awareness try to come in contact with or attend to something that appears just outside Consciousness and don't just refer to your current experience imagine and remember all possible experiences you could imagine for instance that you had just landed on the moon a completely new set of perceptions appear to you do those perceptions appear in Consciousness or outside consciousness imagine you are a brain surgeon you are just dissecting your first doing your first brain operation that brain is a series in your experience it is a series of perceptions and Sensations do any of those perceptions or Sensations appear outside consciousness imagine you are deeply depressed does that experience appear outside Consciousness does your attention have to venture to a place outside Consciousness in order to come in contact with or know the feeling see simply and clearly that nobody has ever nor could anyone ever come in contact with anything outside experience sorry outside awareness or Consciousness strangely our entire world culture is founded on a single belief and the belief is this there is a substance that exists outside Consciousness they call it matter matter is the fundamental reality of all existence and Consciousness is somehow derived from this substance matter whether we realize it or not almost all our thoughts feelings activities and relationships are founded upon this primary assumption strangely since the invention of the idea of matter a few thousand years ago we have been looking for it scientists are still looking for it they haven't found it many scientists believe that it's just a matter of a few more years and a few more billion dollars and we will eventually find this stuff called matter but it is and philosophers have been thinking about it for over 2,000 years the nature of this stuff called matter the fact that nobody has ever once for a moment glimpsed this stuff seems not to have much impact on the debate it is like spending centuries discussing the eating habits of the Loch Ness monster the fact that nobody ever saw the Loch Ness Monster is just a detail that seems to have been overlooked one day we will find it but in the meantime let's continue to discuss its eating habits and its mating habits and that is how absurd the debate about matter is this um second most important unanswered question that Peter mentioned last night what is the the um the hard problem of Consciousness the question as to how to how can Consciousness be derived from matter is a it's a pseudo question it's a non-existent question did anybody else notice the contradiction in those two questions the first question what is the nature of the universe the second question how is consciousness derived from matter is is is the contradiction in those two questions not staring Us in the face in the first question the first most important un unanswered question what is the nature of the universe we acknowledge that we don't know what the nature of the universe is in the second question how is consciousness derived from matter we've made a huge leap of faith we've presumed the stuff called matter having already acknowledged in the previous question that we have no idea what the universe is made of and then we ask the question how is consciousness derived from [Applause] it I mean do you have to be an astrophysicist to notice the contradiction there even the first question in the first question there is a subtle presumption which turns out in the end to be a a belief in fact it is a religion it is the religion of materialism in the first question is what is the universe made of nobody has ever found the universe has anybody here ever had an experience of the universe as it is conceived to be so what are we exploring when we try to explore the nature of the universe we're trying to explore something which we don't experience all we know of a universe is a series of fleeting perceptions and perceptions appear in consciousness therefore until we know the nature of the Consciousness in which our perceptions appear it is not possible to know anything that is true about the perceptions themselves that is why I believe that one day the science of physics the highest science will be no longer be considered the science of physics it will be the science of Consciousness the new science of Consciousness because until we know the nature of Consciousness it is not possible to know the nature of anything that appears within it until we know the nature of the knowing with which we know our experience it is not possible to know anything true about the known so we might ask why is consciousness a more legitimate field of study than the universe is there anybody here who is not aware of the moment okay that's the answer when I I asked you has anybody here ever experienced the universe as it is conceived by thought not a single person put their hand up in other words we never experience the universe that we are studying but when I ask the question is anybody here not aware nobody put their hand up in every in other words everyone is aware awareness is our experience and therefore awareness is a legitimate field of study why simply because it is experienced everybody here is knowing or aware of their experience what is the nature of that knowing that is the interesting question until we know the nature of the knowing with which our experience is known or until we know the nature of the Consciousness in which our experience appears we cannot know any anything that is true about the mind the body or the world so how are we going to find out about the nature of Consciousness or awareness we first have to find out what it is that knows the experience of awareness only that could tell us anything about its nature if I were to ask each of you now the question are you aware everyone I hope would pause for a moment refer to their experience and answer yes what happens in that pause ask yourself the question again am I aware and just remain for a while in that pause before thought answers yes that pause is a gap between two thoughts the first thought am I aware the second thought yes during the first thought am I aware we are not yet quite sure that we are aware and by the time the second thought appears we are absolutely certain that I am aware in other words the certainty of being aware takes place in between those two thoughts in other words it doesn't take place in the mind when we hear the question am I aware awareness directs itself towards the question at the end of the question there is a pause in which awareness has nowhere to direct itself and as a result it collapses for a moment it sinks back for a moment into its self into its source and then it rises again in the form of the answer yes in other words in this port awareness tastes itself momentarily in the pause between the question am I aware and the answer yes we become aware that we are aware not only am I aware but I am aware that I am aware in other words in that pause Consciousness knows itself it recognizes is its own being it is consciousness itself that knows that it is conscious it is awareness itself that recognizes its own being in other words only awareness can know anything about awareness the finite mind that is thought and perception can tell us nothing about awareness it is an expression of awareness it is made of awareness but it cannot know anything about awareness because the finite mind can know only know something objective it's very easy to test that out in your experience try now to think of something that has no objective qualities it's not possible the very best we can do is manufacture a blank object that mimics the presence of awareness although thought is made only of Consciousness it cannot know the stuff it is made of just like the character in the movie is made of the screen but cannot know the screen Consciousness itself is a is an aware field we are adding by saying it's a field we adding a a spacelike quality to Consciousness Consciousness is not in fact a field it has no Dimensions at all we could say it is more like a presence but as we've just discovered it's not possible to think let alone speak of something that has no Dimensions so in order to speak of the nature of Consciousness we give it this space likee quality and we describe it as the space of awareness in which all experience appears or the screen of awareness on which all experience appears Consciousness is a space like presence in which thoughts Sensations and perceptions appear but is not itself made of thought sensation or perception sorry thought sensation or perception it has no objective qualities it is thus sometimes said to be empty it's not really empty but it is empty from the point of view of objects it is all empty of all objective content or quality it has no finite qualities and is thus said to be infinite not finite being infinite empty not finite there is nothing in it which can divide it if there were for instance two consciousnesses there would be have there would have to be something about each of those two consciousnesses that divided or distinguished them from one another and those distinguishing qualities would be finite limits but nobody has ever experienced a finite limit to Consciousness when I say nobody I don't mean to suggest that it is a person that experiences Consciousness it is consciousness that experiences Consciousness it is awareness that is aware of being awareness if we ask thought about the nature of awareness thought tell us that every single body has its own package of awareness but if we ask the one who knows that is if we ask awareness itself what do you know about yourself what is your experience of yourself awareness will reply if it could speak I have no knowledge of any border or distinction or form in myself I am a single open empty indivisible in intimate field that means that the The Knowing or the Consciousness with which each of us is knowing our experience is the same Consciousness if means that Consciousness can never be divided into parts or objects or selves it means that if each of us were to take the thought eye and Trace that eye to its origin to its source and if we were to trace it far enough back to the essential nature of each of our minds we would all arrive of the same Consciousness not a similar Consciousness there cannot be two empty spaces The Knowing with which each of us knows our experience is the same knowing each of our finite Minds is precipitated out of the same infinite field of Consciousness each of our finite Minds is a modulation of the same infinite space-like field of Consciousness some of our finite Minds if you think of the each finite mind like a field some of our finite Minds overlap part of our finite Minds overlap we call that the outside world part of the fields of our finite Minds don't overlap we call those our thoughts and feelings the religion of materialism uses the fact that we all experience the same world as proof that there is a world made out of matter outside consciousness the reason we all experience the same world is not because there is a world made out of matter appearing outside Consciousness it is because each of our finite minds are precipitated within and from the same field of infinite Consciousness it is because our minds share Consciousness that we feel we share the world we do share the same world the world we share is made of Consciousness not matter so the really interesting question which I believe will sooner or later replace the top two questions what is the nature of the universe and how is consciousness derived from matter the really interesting question is how is the appearance of matter derived from Consciousness in other words we will start with Consciousness why because Consciousness is our primary experience that's the obvious place to start how is it possible for Consciousness or awareness which is seamless indivisible it has no objective qualities and therefore cannot be divided into parts and selves how can it appear as a multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves that is the really interesting question all that is being experienced at the moment is consciousness can anyone in this room at this moment find anything other than the knowing of their experience look around point to something that is distinct or other than the knowing of your experience it's not there all that is known is knowing and it is knowing that knows knowing all that is being experienced at the moment is consciousness Consciousness modulating itself in the form of the finite mind that that is consciousness modulating itself in the form of thought and perception in the form of thought it appears to itself as time in the form of perception it appears to itself as space in other words time and space are Consciousness modulated through thought and perception how does something which is infinite take on the appearance of something that is finite a multiplicity and diversity of finite objects how does Consciousness appear to itself has a multiplicity and diversity of selves and objects I'd like to in an attempt to answer this question I'd like to give you an an analogy imagine Mary falling asleep here in TI how do you say Tiano s right titino yeah imagine Mary falls asleep in titino Mary's mind is a single indivisible ho like each of our minds and Mary dreams that she is Jane walking the streets of New York so Mary's mind has fallen asleep to its own infinite indivisible nature and it has imagined instead that it is assumed The Limited form of Jane's mind Jane is walking the streets of New New York seeing people cars buildings which from Jane's point of view all seem to be outside her mind when Jane closes her eyes the streets of New York disappear and therefore she legitimately concludes that whatever it is that is seeing the streets of New York lives just behind her eyes this and other similar experiences convince Jane that the knowing with which she knows her experience lives just behind her eyes or in her chest in other words in her body and all her thoughts and feelings her subsequent activities and relationships are consistent with this belief one day Jane goes to a cafe and sitting on the table next to her is a very handsome man called David David and Jane notice each other they start having conversation together and Jane feels this mysterious attraction to him of course David and Jane the cafe the streets of New York are all appearances in Mary's mind Mary's mind itself has not been divided into a multiplicity and diversity of objects and selves it is still the same seamless indivisible whole that it always is and yet it has taken on the appearance of Jane and David Mary could have dreamt that she was David on the streets of New York in which case she would have seemed to see her experience Through The Eyes of David's mind so when Jane feels this Jane feels this mysterious attraction towards David and they begin dating Jane has a a a strange feeling that if she were somehow to get closer to David the pain that she feels the wound that she feels in her heart that she has been trying to escape from all her life would be somehow alleviated she feels that somehow to merge with David would give her relief from the pain from which she had been running all her life well eventually she and David do get together and indeed when they merge in friendship and sexual intimacy she does indeed feel temporary relief from the pain of her longing so what is really happening what is when Jane feels this longing in her why is she feel does she feel this longing why does she feel from where does the intuition in her come that it is possible to be relieved of her suffering and what happens to her suffering when she and David merge in this moment of merging there is the a temporary loss of all the limitations with which Jane defines herself in other words in this merging there is a temporary collapse of Jane's finite mind and in that moment she tastes the essence of her mind which is Mary's peaceful mind asleep in Tiano now of course when Jane and David part this temporary cessation of suffering comes to an end and she feels everything that defines her again so the suffering bubbles up again and she remembers ah last time I United with David the suffering went away therefore uniting with David in this case a person but it could have been an object or a substance last time I United with this person the suffering went away therefore uniting with a person an object a substance an activity must be the way to get rid of my suffering so she goes again and again and again and again to the object to the substance to the ACT activity to the relationship in order to find relief from her suffering and indeed each time she unites with the object activity substance or relationship she does find temporary relief and this builds up in her the conviction that the way to be free of her suffering is to continually acquire objects activities substances and relationships and she ends up being addicted like most people are to some kind of object the subtlest object is of course thought this is the the main addiction it's free and not bad for our health so it's an addiction that doesn't normally get labeled as addiction but nevertheless it is an object towards which we give our attention for mainly in order to distract ourselves from this wound of Separation which all apparently separate sell carry around within themselves this wound of Separation this longing for freedom for peace for happiness and love is in fact an echo in US of the nature of Mary's mind Mary's mind is at peace free asleep in titio and the memory of this Freedom lives in us all this longing for freedom for peace for happiness that each of us feel is in fact the echo in each of our finite Minds as the true an echo of the true freedom of infinite Consciousness there is no other Freedom other than the freedom of infinite Consciousness infinite Consciousness is freedom peace happiness itself and the desire that each of us feels for that freedom for that peace that happiness and that love is the pull that infinite Consciousness exerts on the finite mind the finite mind feels that pull in the form of suffering I long for happiness the separate self feels that it is doing the longing it is not it is infinite Consciousness that is exerting a force on the finite mind drawing it back into itself it is in fact the pull from infinite Consciousness on the finite mind that is what the finite mind calls the desire for happiness but in order to experience the streets of New York Mary has had to fall asleep to her own nature Mary has fallen asleep in titio and it's only as a result of falling asleep that she is able to realize one of the infinite possibilities that exist within her she could have dreamt that she was CLA on the streets of Tokyo she could have dreamt that she was Annabelle on the Streets of London all these possibilities an infinite number of possibilities exist in Mary's mind she chose one of those possibilities to be Jane on the streets of New York but in order to appear as Jane on the streets of New York Mary had to fall asleep to the infinite nature of her own mind and to take on or to rise in the form of Jane's finite mind it is only from The Limited point of view of Jane's finite mind that Mary was able to experience the streets of New York in other words to bring manifestation into apparent existence Consciousness needs to fall asleep too its own infinite nature because it is not possible for something that is infinite to know something that is finite there is no room in the infinite for the finite so in order to bring manifestation into apparent existence manifestation means form form means limit in order to experience something limited such as a universe Consciousness must Overlook The Knowing of its own being it must fall asleep to itself and freely assume the form of the finite mind in in other words when Consciousness brings manifestation into existence it comes at a price it overlooks the knowing of its own being it gives birth to the universe from within itself and then it finds itself located as a self in that Universe having done so it has had to forget its innate nature of Peace and Freedom and that is why the self in the world Longs for one thing alone Peace and Freedom the only thing the separate self is really engaged in is the discovery of Peace and Freedom and happiness it first tries to do this by uniting with objects substances States and relationships but at some point it gets to the end of that Adventure it realizes that it can never be fully Satisfied by objective experience and that is when the real journey back home begins when Jane on the streets of New York asks herself what is the nature of my mind and Jane notices that nothing in life really satisfy her she has numerous relationships she tries all the substances they all give her temporary relief but none of them give her the lasting happiness she truly desires at one point she begins to explore the only Direction left the nature of her own mind and that exploration takes her mind on a journey backwards towards its source the subject of experience rather than outwards towards the object and in this return Journey the mind is in most cases progressively divested of its limitations and at some point stands revealed as infinite Consciousness that is the experience of happiness that is the experience of love it cannot be experienced by the person because the person dissolves in that experience the person that seeks happiness and love is like the moth that seeks the flame The Moth Longs for the flame above all else but it is the only thing The Moth cannot experience or rather to experience the flame means to be consumed in it to die into it that is the experience for which the mo moth Longs the only experience for which the Apparently separate self Longs for is the experience of happiness or love the experience of Love is the dissolution of the limitations of the s it is not an experience that the separate self can have it is an experience in which the separate self dies so infinite Consciousness overlooks The Knowing of its own being in order to bring manifestation into apparent existence it freely assumes the form of the finite mind in order to know the finite world that is why we always seem to know the world from the point of view of an inside self even in a dream the world we experience in a dream is seen from the point of view of a self in the body it is infinite Consciousness itself that divides itself into two parts mind on the inside and matter on the outside but matter is only matter from the illus point of view of the finite mind from the self in the body from the point of view of infinite Consciousness there is no such stuff called matter there isn't even any stuff called the finite mind there is only its own infinite intimate indivisible being which never actually ceases to be itself it never comes in contact with or knows anything other than itself which means that all of this current experience I'm not talking abstract philosophy here I mean the very experience that each of us is having here is only infinite Consciousness itself assuming the form of the finite mind and appearing to itself as a world it means that what this experience is made of itself has no Dimensions it means this ordinary experience of four dimensions of time and space thoughts feelings perceptions activities relationships this very experience that each of us is having now has no Dimensions at all don't try to think of that it's not possible to think of something with no Dimensions could it be that what is called the Big Bang is not an event that happened millions of years ago it is the event that is continually happening every time infinite Consciousness assumes the form of the finite mind and appears as itself that appears and appears to itself as the world could it be that the Big Bang is happening over and over and over again always in the same now but that when Consciousness does assume the form of the finite mind and appear to itself as the world no real world made out of matter comes into existence existence comes from two Latin word Latin words x and sister meaning to stand out from nothing stands out from Consciousness nobody has ever found a place outside Consciousness no thing comes into existence objects borrow their apparent existence from God's infinite being the only being there is infinite Consciousness commonly called I that means the very eye that each of us is now feeling as myself the eye that I am that eye is infinite Consciousness it is the reality the substance the stuff out of which all experience is made No Object ever comes out of Consciousness No Object ever exists in its own right the existence the seeming existence of all things belongs to infinite Consciousness just like the apparent existence of characters in a movie in fact belongs to the screen or is the screen there are never any divisions in the screen itself the divisions are always in the appearances never in the reality it means this very experience that each of us is experience is God's infinite being alone there is nothing else being experienced now other than infinite Consciousness and it is infinite Consciousness itself that is refracting itself into a multiplicity of finite minds and appearing to itself as a multiplicity of finite worlds but from consciousness's point of view it is never experiencing anything other than its own intimate infinite self when the sufis say they mean there is no God but God in other words no thing has an existence of its own no thing is a thing unto itself all things borrow their thingness their isness their reality from God's infinite being God's infinite being shines in each of our minds as the knowledge I am that is why the ultimate spiritual practice is to give the I that I am our attention to allow the mind to sink back into its subjective source and as it does so it is temporarily in most cases occasionally suddenly divested of its finite limitations and stands revealed as infinite Consciousness God's infinite being the only being there is the heart that we all share the heart that we all are I would suggest that the experience of Love is simply the knowledge of our shared being when we love we feel one with the other love is the experience of our shared being and is there any experience that the separate self desires more than the experience of love in other words what the separate self Longs for above all else is simply to be divested of its separateness that is all the separate self ever truly desires and all the separate self and this is not quite true but it's a concession to the separate self all the separate self needs to do to find this love for which it Longs is to ask itself what is the nature of the knowing with which I know my experience all Jane needs to do to be alleviated from her suffering on the streets of New York is to ask herself what is the nature of my mind and if Jane inquires deeply enough into the nature of her own mind she will discover her mind is made of Mary's peaceful infinite mind that's all there is to Jane's mind all there is to each of our minds is the inherently peaceful presence of infinite Consciousness love is a place and and through this place of Love move with brightness of peace all places yes is a world and in this world of yes live skillfully curled all worlds that's e comings love is a place and through this place of Love move with brightness of peace all places yes is a world and in this world of yes live skillfully called all worlds so we have a few minutes left is there anything you like to discuss thank you you said that the only way for us to truly achieve the um that which we are so longing for and Desiring is to experience that infinite Consciousness but that infinite Consciousness can only be experienced with the dissolution of the self not the dissolution of itself the dissolution of its apparent limitations uh Consciousness cannot dissolve what would it dissolve into that's what I meant sorry we can't get further back in our experience than Consciousness okay but um so did you mean like the the solution of the physical self what physical self are you referring to our our experience our presence that we are feeling here the physical self is a a series of Sensations and perceptions yes yes how physical is a sensation Sensations and perceptions are mind yeah there's nothing physical there should point to something physical now in your experience but really what I was meant to ask was that would were you would you say that there's a way to achieve this ultimate goal with within our lives that we have here yes as a con as a concession to the separate self or as an assession to the apparent reality of the separate self that each of us believes and more importantly feels ourself to be I would say yes there is a way the most efficient way and the most direct way is for the separate self to ask itself the question what is the nature of myself s in other words what is it that I call I the separate self starts by noticing that the separate self spends its life saying I am aware of thoughts I am aware of feelings I am aware of Sensations I am aware of perceptions this experience of being aware pervades all experience could you have an experience without being aware A Ware no being aware is the only element of experience that remains present throughout all experience and we call it I it is I that is aware of my thoughts I am aware of my feelings when I was a 5-year-old boy I was aware of the Sea and the Sun and the sand when I was a 10-year-old boy I was aware of my school friends throughout life this I am aware I am aware I am aware has remained present everything else has vanished how long does a thought sensation or perception last not long but the experience of being aware is the only element of experience that has remained consistently present that's what we call I I am aware I am aware of thoughts but I am not my thoughts I am aware of my feelings and Sensations but I am not a feeling or a sensation I am aware of perceptions but I am not a perception I am simply the experience of being aware the non-objective experience of being aware so the most efficient and this is why it's called the direct path or the direct approach the most efficient means that the spiritual teachings have elaborated for the separate self to find what it deeply Longs for which is happiness and peace is for the separate self to direct it attention away from the objects that it is aware of towards that which is aware of them in other words towards I what is the nature of the eye that knows my experience and if we try to do this our attention instead of our attention directing itself towards a thought or a feeling sensation or perception our attention begins to sink backwards into its source instead of forwards towards the object this sinking of the attention into its source is named variously in the different spiritual traditions in the Christian tradition it's called the practice of the presence of God in in Raman mahashi called it the sinking of the Mind into the heart not the physical heart the heart of awareness in its source its essential nature and the sagad called it focusing on the I am we can't focus on it because it's only possible to focus the attention on an object it's actually a defocusing a relaxing that's why roomie said flow down and down and down in ever widening rings of being it's a falling backwards of the attention a relaxation of the attention into its source ran mahashi called it self-inquiry but it's not that's a misleading translation it's not an inquiry you cannot inquire into something that has no objective qualities is more like a self abiding or self resting Pensky called it self-remembering again that is misleading because it something with no objective qualities cannot be remembered it is called prayer it is called meditation there are other means but this is the most direct so can that be achieved while still alive can this be achieved while alive why do you presume that awareness is going to die it's because you identify awareness with a collection of Sensations and perceptions called the body and you notice that those Sensations and perceptions are always disappearing and therefore you presume that awareness is going to disappear with it but has awareness or could awareness ever experience its own disappearance no well until you experience The Disappearance of awareness presume that it doesn't disappear it is it is for those that claim that awareness does disappear to prove it the burden of proof is with them not with us but I meant you know alive like practically not I believe in the being practical I'm being practical are you not now that which is aware of your experience that's very practical yes is that true you are aware of your experience I is is that which is aware of your experience is that practical and true of your experience now tell us about that ey tell us what you know about that which is aware of your experience being being really practical I am aware that I am aware okay very good tell us more about that awareness from your current direct experience of it tell us about its qualities uh it's Pleasant it's there's lots of Sensations visual Sensations don't tell us about the sensations tell us about the awareness the only thing I think I could say is that it's present and aware perfect it's present and aware if all you could that that's perfect if all you can say about it and you're speaking from your experience I can see that you're not talking abstract philosophy you're being practical you yourself said all I can say about myself is that I am present and aware can you find any edges to that awareness no does it start and stop in your experience only my conscious identity with it starts no but I'm not asking about that I'm asking about awareness what you call that which is aware and present does it ever stop being aware and present did it ever start being aware and present I suppose not I don't like I suppose I I want you to speak about your experience not your suppositions I mean is it your experience now your experience now is that thoughts Sensations and perceptions are continuously starting and stopping yes every time my voice comes to an end a perception stops every time a thought appears it's a thought starts yeah I'm not interested in those for the I'm not suggesting they're not interesting or aren't but we're not talking about that we're talking about that in which they appear that with which they are known and that out of which they are made does that share their limitations does it start and stop with them from just looking at the moment it would seem not it would seem to me that look at awareness other than in the moment I mean try In This Moment now and look again is it starting and stopping right so then I would be able to just project back to before I was born and that's if your question was has there ever been a point when it's not exist you say before I was a born how do you know awareness was born in if a war in order to know awareness was born you would have to have seen it starting oh that it just appeared perceptions are born and die they appear and disappear yes Sensations appear and disappear so we can say they are born and they die what about awareness what about that in which they appear that with which they are known and that out of which they are made does that one share their limits and their Destiny I the what you're saying okay yeah I yes I see that that you're what you're saying that I understand what you're saying yes what I'm looking for is a straight yes or a straight no because because I'm being very practical here and also a little specific not not vague I don't want a vague while I suppose that awar no is it your experience now that awareness is coming and going is moving and changing does that which know your experience grow old for instance no does it have a gender does it have a nationality is it located in space our only knowledge of space is perception perception is located in it it is not located in perception if we ask awareness the reason you're having difficulty is because you're fluctuating between awareness and the mind you're used to asking your mind about the nature of experience I'm asking awareness the one that knows experience but I'm asking awareness to tell us about itself not about the world what does awareness know about itself and if we ask awareness what is your experience of yourself because you are the only one that knows yourself the Mind knows nothing of awareness science can tell us nothing about Consciousness because science science is thought and thought knows nothing of Consciousness although it is made of it only Consciousness can know about Consciousness only awareness can know awareness and if we ask awareness what is your experience of yourself if awareness could speak it can't but if it could speak it would say in my own experience of myself I am eternally present I have no limits and thus I am infinite I cannot be disturbed unless I am peace itself I cannot be grandis or diminished by any appearance of the Mind the body or the world unless I am fulfilled I am happiness itself I know no other and am therefore love itself I know no object and am thus Beauty itself that is what awareness has to say about itself I have no age because I do not appear in time I cannot be touched or moved or harmed the poet Shelly Bish Shelly said life like a dome of many colored glass stains the white r Radiance of Eternity all all of life all of this is is just a coloring he didn't really mean it stains it because nothing leaves a stain or a trace on awareness life is like a a temporary coloring of Eternity of this dimensionless presence of awareness which shines in each of our minds as the knowledge I am and which is felt in our hearts as peace happiness love and which shines in our perceptions as Beauty so if I may just paraphrase then the answer is that yes we can experience this at any time this ultimate ultimate happiness yes by just accessing and yes that awareness yes yes and that awareness is as close to us now as the screen is to the image in other words it's closer than close there isn't even one thing called an image and another thing called a screen your entire experience now is made out of Consciousness it's closer than close there is no you there is no separate you present for consciousness to be close to or far from you are the very Consciousness for which you are in search that the self that seeks Consciousness is like a fish in the ocean in search of water it is swimming in the stuff for which it is in search thank you so Mar didn't really as can you take the take the M behind you here you've told us or what I've learned from your talk this few moments experience takes place in Consciousness can you help me or help us there are moments that there are moments that we are conscious but we are unconscious of our Consciousness it would be more accurate to say that awareness itself assumes the form of thoughts and perceptions with which or as which it seems to Veil itself from itself that is called Maya in the same way that a screen has the ability to assume the form of an image and as that image it seems to Veil it itself however it only veils itself it the the image only veils the screen if we give it permission to do so two kids are watching television their mom comes in and asks one of them what are you seeing what are you watching one of them says match of the day she asks the other one what are you seeing he says a screen they both see the same thing but what appears to them appears to them in accordance with the way they see if one of them believes he is seeing a football match his experience will appear to him in Conformity with that belief in other words experience will appear as a multiplicity and diversity of objects the other one is having EX actly the same experience but sees its reality so matter what we call matter is not an object that is seen it is a way of seeing and it is a way of seeing that is predicated on the belief I awareness share the limits and the destiny of the body the mixture of awareness ESS plus the body makes what we call the separate self or the ego it is from the point of view of the inside self made of mind that there is an outside world made of matter and this is why physicists struggle so much with this stuff called matter they are convinced that there is stuff out there dead inert stuff called matter and they go on and on and on looking for this stuff but that the small print in the belief there is a world out there made of matter is there is a self in here made of mind and that is why physicists struggle with this stuff called matter because they are so invested in their own identities as a separate self made of mind living in the body that is the real issue the real issue is am I a self in a body not is there world out there but if our if we are so invested so identified with oursel as a body as a temporary finite mind living inside the body then it will never be possible for us to know the nature of the world because matter is a way of seeing not something that is seen the finite mind is a way of knowing not something that is known only infinite Consciousness is truly ever known and it is infinite Consciousness that knows itself thank you as the Sufi say there is only God God's infinite being have we got time for one more question yes it's 11 no but I have a I have a very good news related to this I have a very good guys seriously a very good news which is bad news in a way but good news in another like life uh Mark zikovsky which was planning to present tonight at 5:00 is Hill is not is not well as if he just came back from India and he told me listen when I come back from India I never know in which state I arrive and this state apparently hit him from in all it told me literally both directions so he very he not in a good is really not feeling well he cannot be with us in alternative rert accepted to be tonight to replace him at 5:00 does r is that a question or a statement I don't know so in in that so that's the good news is that all your question we have instead of the extra five minutes scrambling me me me me we have an hour to scramble MIM Mei tonight right is okay yeah so so please come back tonight at it is at 5:00 I believe yeah at 5:00 in this place in the Patza and rert will do another another plary presentation okay yeah true great thank [Applause] [Music]