So welcome
welcome, everyone.
Very lovely to be
and to be together
without knowing what we are
without any personal stories
about ourself,
without the past;
meeting freshly!
This mysterious
experience of being,
being aware.
In this moment,
there is no time.
And it is in this timeless moment
that we meet each other as one.
There is a simplicity,
and a certain innocence,
and one could say,
a purity
to meeting each other
as oneself.
Knowing without knowing.
A knowingness which
does not rely on the mind,
which does not rely on the past,
which does not rely on memory.
Because that which is real
is not in time.
It is not a mind narrative,
not a recollection.
So for the duration of this meeting,
we invite ourself
to be this formless space of awareness.
Because the light of awareness is shining.
It is shining this moment:
I know I am,
and
I know I am aware.
Everything else is a coloring
of this knowingness,
a coloring of this awareness.
Various thoughts appear in awareness.
It is awareness taking on
the form of a particular thought,
or a bodily sensation may appear.
It is awareness
taking on the form
of a sensation
from itself to itself.
The dance of Shiva.
The ripples on the surface of the pond.
The reality of
all forms,
all thoughts and
memories and
perceptions and
sensations
is this formless I awareness.
The formless aspect,
the nonphenomenal aspect.
Awakening to this
formless reality
is nothing else but
this formless reality unveiling itself.
There is no personal doer
or a personal knower
or a personal knowingness.
Because a person is
an appearance on the screen
of consciousness.
The person appears
as images
and thoughts,
memories,
bodily sensations,
beliefs…
appears and disappears.
Whatever appears
disappears.
It is a time event, a mind event.
The reality of
an event
is not within the event,
which is the formless awareness,
the formless consciousness.
Like in your night dreams,
you overlook that you are dreaming.
So you believe yourself
in the night dream,
to be a character
in the dream,
a personal character.
Overlooking that you are
the dreamer of this character
and the dreamer
of all events in your dream.
The dreamer of
the mountains,
the hills,
the rivers, and
the oceans.
But you are, in fact,
the creator and perceiver
simultaneously.
You awaken from your night dream
and in a flash,
you realize that you are that
which is real and not
the character that
you imagined yourself to be
in your dream.
Similarly here in the waking state,
we are not the character
which we dream ourselves to be,
which we imagine or believe
ourselves to be.
And it is in this waking dream
that we are awakening
from the belief and the feeling
to be a limited personal self,
that you are not
form which you perceive,
that you are not the beliefs.
You are not defined by the beliefs
that you hold about your true nature.
You are the perceiver
of those beliefs,
you are the beholder
of these beliefs.
But these beliefs are
so transparent,
so elusive.
Except that we
hold on to them,
hold on to our identity,
to our beliefs about our self,
our stories and narratives
about family,
our tribe,
our culture,
our personhood.
But as we can hold on
to this identity,
to these beliefs,
we can also let them go.
In this moment,
not to be somebody,
not to be a character,
a historical form,
not to be an object
in time and space.
Because you are the beholder
of time and space,
not its subject.
So you can turn your attention
inwardly,
to the source.
So you can go through
the veils of identification,
as if behind the veils,
in a way;
to the formless realm of awareness,
which is
borderless,
edgeless,
free from any identity.
And in that freedom,
you are nothing and everything.
Nobody and everybody.
Beyond
the impression of birth and death.
Beyond
the me patterns,
the sense of limitation.
Free from any grasping.
So the light of awareness
can shine,
unveiled
by any beliefs
in personhood;
free from limitations.
Consciousness
recognizing itself
directly
without any need to shine
onto any form
without creation.
And the freedom to create,
because freedom is absolute.
What a wonder
to be aware,
to perceive form,
to perceive a thought,
to perceive the world,
what is that?
What is it?
The mind thinks it knows,
but it doesn’t know.
It is just
an object,
a form,
a vibration in the field.
Knowingness belongs to the field,
and not to the vibration,
which we refer to as mind.
What is the essence
of anything you perceive?
What is its reality?
How can you answer that question?
Can you answer it with the mind?
The mind of language,
the mind which is conditioned,
the mind which belongs to the herd…
can that question be answered
via the past?
Can it be answered in time?
Because we are not interested
in a narrative,
in a dissertation about reality,
because the mind
is the mind of the dissertations.
Do we need to go
outside of ourselves
in order to
answer these questions.
No need to go to
our teachers,
our parents,
our culture with all their beliefs.
We’ve already inherited
the beliefs of our culture.
Long ago.
Has it led us to causeless peace
and happiness?
Or has it led us
to more and more pursuits,
resistance, and seeking,
the sense of lack and fear.
It is said that
we are that which we seek.
We are
the peace,
the love, and
the freedom that we seek.
What is what is the meaning of these words?
Experientially,
where is…,
what is the hidden secret?
We are interested.
And this interest is very beautiful.
It’s our interest,
my interest.
So, if you have any questions,
you’re welcome to raise your hand.