Hello, everyone.
So welcome.

So if we could,
turn our gaze inward,
and simply be.

Welcome your experience
just as it is, the breath.

Whatever thoughts appear to you.

Whatever bodily sensations appear to you.

The past,
whatever that is,
is not needed right now.

Not trying to get anything
or go anywhere
or achieve any state.

Simply resting as being.

Because in resting as being
there is freedom.
Freedom from mental activity,
freedom from this
constant attempt to define oneself,
to protect oneself,
to justify.

So we can invite this tendency,
this habitual muscle to relax.
Because all is well in presence.
Presence is not something that we do.
It is what it is.
It is what we are.

This formless,
aware presence.
It is not an activity of the mind.
It is not a personal achievement.

Because after all,
there is no person.
in fact, just an old belief structure
that maintains itself via our collusion.

But in resting
as being
as presence,
there is a formless not knowingness,
a borderlessness,
a vastness.

This undefined presence
is our experience of peace.
And as peace,
as being,
as presence,
there is no reference to a personal entity.

And so we are open
and we are available for this peace,
which is causeless.

Our entire being is available.
The entire universe is available.

This peace which transcends the mind.
Like a leaf,
falls off the branch of a tree \
and gently dances down to the ground,
our habitual mental tendencies
come to rest.

And in this restfulness
there is no separation,
there are no borders.
No me and you.
No past, no future.

The peace of being,
such fulfillment.

The world appears to you as perceptions.
Whatever appears to you
appears to you in complete intimacy,
meaning, as one.

There is zero distance between you,
which is this awareness,
the perceiving element,
and that which is perceived.
Zero distance.

Like in your night dreams,
the pink flying elephant
that appears in your night dreams,
is at zero distance
from you and the dreamer.
Because you are
the creator and the perceiver
as one.

All your night dreams,
all the aspects of your night dream,
their reality is you.

They’re made out of you, the dreamer.
The rivers, the mountains, the people,
the events that appear in your night dream,
they’re all made out of you, the dreamer.
Who creates them and perceives them
across time and space.

Sometimes in your night dreams,
there is a journey that takes 20 or 30 years.
But you, the dreamer of this journey,
you don’t exist in time.
Similarly, in the waking state,
everything you perceive
you perceive in complete intimacy.

There is no distance between you,
this awareness,
and the hearing of these words.
No distance.

There is no distance
between the thoughts that you perceive
and you, awareness.

For various, practical reasons,
we label our worldly experience in many ways.
We divide space in North and South,
East and West for practical reasons.

These divisions are mental divisions, useful.

Many labels.

But that which creates the labels is I, I consciousness.
I create those labels.
But the reality is one, which is Consciousness.

Certain bodies are referred to
as female and other bodies as male,
certain bodies as children,
other bodies as adult.
Practically useful distinctions,
mental distinctions, which serve a purpose.

When it comes to sentience,
we label certain forms to be sentient
and other forms to be non sentient.

We labor a rock to be non sentient
and a rabbit to be sentient.

I’m not sure, but we may label a cell to be non sentient.
The human organism to be sentient, not sure about that.

Human organism is just a bundle of cells and other activities.
These are useful labels.
Some people label a plant as to have some sentience,
a certain degree of sentience,
like certain plants can sense
where their source of nutrition is
and move in that direction.
They turn towards the sunlight.

The rock does not turn
towards the sunlight.
So we say, oh well, plant is more sentient than a rock.
That’s fine. It’s okay.
These are just ways of expressing.

But what is important is to understand
that only consciousness is conscious.
It is not the human organism which is conscious.
It is not the sentient, human form, which is conscious.
It is you, that is conscious.

When you believe yourself to be the body-mind,
you are conflating sentience with consciousness.

Once you debunk the belief
that you are a man or a woman,
a son or a daughter,
you are debunking the
conflation of sentience with consciousness.

I refers to itself.
Ramana Maharishi used to speak about the I–I.

I refers to itself.
It does not refer to a male or female,
a 30 year old, or a 20 year old,
or a 50 year old organism,
biocomputer.

I refers to itself.
Consciousness refers to Itself.
Knows itself as itself,
is itself.

Non-phenomenal,
not an object of some sort.

You are not an object.
You are not a form, some sort.
That’s a misunderstanding,
with a mistaken identification,
which is quite unhappy.

I refers to Being,
Awareness,
consciousness.

You awaken to yourself
with this understanding.

The initial understanding
I refers to this invisible,
formless, aware presence.

And this awareness,
this consciousness has no form,
has no shape, has no location,
has no gender, has no age.

And yet it takes on
the form of infinite dreams
it creates and perceives infinite worlds
and thoughts and perceptions
and mentations, sensations
without compromising its freedom,
without identification.

Form is not conscious,
whether the form is simple or complex,
whether it is intricate matter
or simple basic matter.

Only I know I.
You are aware that you are aware,
and you are aware that you are.

That is your sadhana,
that is your contemplation.
I am, and I know that I am.

But I do not know what I am.
And this amness,
this knowingness,
this sat-chit,
is not limited by the mind,
is not limited by the World.

So if you have any questions,
anything that you would like to explore,
please make sure to unmute yourself.

Photo by Lukas Tennie on Unsplash