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Awakening

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is the next natural stage
of human development.

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So awakening is simply to recognize
the nature of our essential being.

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Is not some weird,
mystical religious experience

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that's only available to the few.

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It's available to everyone.

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What we essentially are
is already fully awake, fully aware.

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And it's totally unlimited.

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Your true nature is closer

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than the you that you think you are.

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Consciousness
is the ultimate reality of the universe.

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The next step in science is to say
that consciousness is fundamental.

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What is awakening anyway?

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Somebody explain that to me.

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What is awakening?

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Whether you call it the true self,
the imminent self or "no self",

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or Buddha
nature, Tao or Christ Consciousness,

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it really doesn't matter.

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In this film,
we're going to refer to it as awareness.

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Awareness

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is not the property of any religion.

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Awakening or realizing awareness

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is like waking from a dream.

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The dream of your character

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in the play of life.

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Through our characters,

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we experience the world

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in all of its beauty and its ugliness.

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We can call this experience of life
and death duality.

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Around and around
we go, fixated on the characters,

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thoughts and sensations.

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Good and bad.

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War and peace.

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Light and darkness.

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Birth and death.

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Until we wake up and find out

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we are not the character.

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In this film,
we are extending an invitation

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for you to directly experience
your true nature.

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To find out directly, not intellectually...

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Who are you?

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We will repeat this

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invitation in different ways.

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When inquiring into who you are,

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let everything be exactly as it is.

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Don't
move the mind to make something happen

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or to find some answer
on the level of mind.

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And yet, don't try to push away the mind.

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Simply intend to directly experience
who you are.

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Letting the mind be a 
"don't know mind"

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Awakening is the answer to all of 
the world's problems on every level.

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All of the world's
problems stem from a delusion.

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The fundamental delusion of the mind.

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And that delusion is that
I am this limited character.

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When we're living from a 
small, separate self,

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there's always some kind
of perpetual dissatisfaction.

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So this can be big dissatisfaction
like trauma,

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or it can be just this 
background feeling...

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"something's not right.

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Something's wrong. I'm missing something."

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Even when I have some pleasure,
even when I achieve something in world,

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even when I have a good relationship,

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if I just have a pause or a moment,

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there's this dissatisfied feeling like

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I'm isolated or cut off from something.

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So this feeling, which it seems like

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most people have, can motivate us

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to awaken from that small, separate self

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whose nature is a kind of separation
anxiety.

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This limited character has a tendency
to grasp for what it wants.

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It's just a collection
of conditioned patterns

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of of craving what it wants or
trying to push away what it doesn't want.

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It's this endless process of
you can say a pleasure

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principle, you know,
going after pleasure, avoiding pain.

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And if we believe we are this

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character, this conditioned pattern,

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then we suffer
and we create suffering in the world.

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The world becomes a reflection
of that egoic consciousness.

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The benefit of awakening

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is that you suffer less

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and the people around you suffer less.

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There's no doubt in my mind that 
my initial connection with

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my understanding of God
was an awakening

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for me in my life, the biggest awakening
that I've ever experienced.

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It was very much as if I had been asleep
really for 50 years.

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Walking around like a robot, just doing
the things that I was taught to do

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from the time I was a young man,
you know, I had a formula down,

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get the girl, get the car, get a job,
get the house, get a spouse.

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A formula that I thought was 
how I was supposed to work

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until I got to be around 53 years old.

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And I realized that while I had done
most of those things and had become

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professionally successful to a degree,
then I realized that

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no matter who woke up somewhere
around the age of 53, realizing

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none of this matters,

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none of this means anything.

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I was shocked to find
how this literally meant,

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how pointless it all was.

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When you stop following the script

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that has been laid out for your character.

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The one inherited from parents, society

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and biological conditioning,

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then new dimensions open up
within the game.

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The path opens up,

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but it is not a path
to reach some destination.

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It is a pathless path,

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a stripping away of illusion to arrive

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exactly where you are in the now.

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My name is Rupert Spira.

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I speak about the essential

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non-dual understanding that underlies

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all the great religious
and spiritual traditions.

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And I write and lead guided meditations

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and have conversations
whose purpose is to lead

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to an experiential recognition

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of this understanding.

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Understand that

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the peace and the happiness

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for which we all long

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above all else, can never,

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by definition
be found in objective experience.

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It can never be provided
by objects, substances,

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activities and relationships.

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I would suggest

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understanding that

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clearly and not spending 
the rest of one's life

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seeking fulfillment
where it cannot be found.

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Anyone who is watching this movie is doing
so precisely because they have

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either understood or at least intuited

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that the peace and happiness
for which they long cannot be found

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in objective experience and have begun

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this investigation into their true nature.

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That is the most important investigation

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one can make,
and it is the investigation upon

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which the depends our happiness.

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The biggest question of my life,
of course,

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which I believe is the question
most people look at sooner or later, is

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"What is the point, actually?"

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"What is the point of life?"

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That, much to my surprise,
I was told that the point of life

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had nothing to do
with anything that I was doing.

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It wasn't about my job.

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It wasn't about my career.

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It wasn't about hardly anything
in my physical life.

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Those were aspects of my life
were not the point of life.

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The point of my life,
as I have come to understand

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it was for me to experience,

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express, demonstrate and fulfill

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my true identity, who I really am.

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I think that the biggest question

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that most people face is a question
that hardly

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anyone ever asks themselves
or ever answers.

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The biggest question of life,

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in my understanding, is "who am I?"

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Who am I?

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Am I simply a physical entity

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like a bird in the sky or fish in the sea?

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You know, perhaps more sophisticated,
but just a physical entity.

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I'm born, I live, I die.

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That's the beginning and the end of it.

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Or is it possible, just possible

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that I'm more than that?

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Is it possible that I'm a spiritual entity

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simply having a physical experience?

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Every experience in your life

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has brought you to this one
universal question.

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Who are you?

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Don't look for an answer with the mind.

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Let everything be exactly as it is.

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Who is aware of the mind?

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Feel everything that comes up.

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Who is aware of those feelings?

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Have a complete experience
of everything that comes up

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as a result of your inquiry.

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I'm Donald Hoffman and I'm a professor

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emeritus of cognitive sciences
at the University of California at Irvine.

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My work has been teaching students,
although now I'm emeritus for

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I don't teach. And now I do research.

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I do research right now
on consciousness, mathematical models

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of consciousness,
and how physics and spacetime might arise

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from a theory of consciousness
that's completely mathematically precise.

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My own journey has been

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both from the spiritual side
and from the science side.

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So my my father was a minister,
fundamentalist Christian minister.

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So I got that on Sundays

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and I got science at school
and they conflicted, right?

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The stories I was getting were,
contradictory.

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And so as a teenager, I realized
I needed to figure things out for myself.

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And I decided the question I

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wanted to answer was,
are we machines?

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Are people just machines or not?

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I mean, from the physical point of view,
are we just be machines

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From a spiritual point of view,
we wouldn't be machines.

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It wasn't precise enough
to say what we would be.

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And so so I decided to ask the question

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scientifically, are we just machines?

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And the best way I thought to do that
would be to study artificial intelligence.

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And so so I went to MIT

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and was in the artificial intelligence
lab studying artificial intelligence

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and also in what's now the brain
and cognitive science department, studying

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the human side of things.
Because I wanted to do both.

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I wanted to see what can machines do
and what is special, if anything,

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about humans and human neuroscience.
To answer that,

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that very question
ar the spiritual traditions right?

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Or are we more than just machines

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or is the physical, scientific
point of view right?

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And we are just machines,

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and consciousness is just an artifact

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of brain activity.

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The scientific materialist paradigm that
has been predominant in the last century

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denies the existence of
anything beyond the physical,

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anything that cannot be

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verified by the scientific method.

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Science is an impasse.

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It cannot move beyond the paradox
that is fundamental to quantum physics,

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which brought it face to face
with the observer,

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with consciousness itself.

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Likewise, religions are,
for the most part, functioning

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only on the level of belief.

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They've lost their original purpose,
which was to lead to direct experience,

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to the truth of who and what we are.

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The split between science and spirituality

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has rendered both impoverished.

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Religions and spiritual systems
desperately need rigorous methods,

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which can be shown to create conditions
for awakening to happen.

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And science desperately needs an openness

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to the possibility
of something beyond the physical.

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It is not about giving up religion
or science,

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but about going deeper,
being willing to change ourselves

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so that we become a better tool
for investigation.

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We are the ones doing the experiment,

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and the experiment itself.

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Religion has been the language
and the container

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of these traditions
of meditation, spirituality

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that have been written down and passed

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on through the generations.

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Certainly there is some language
that is very literal,

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which divides religions and divides

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cultures when things are taken literally.

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But if you feel the spirit of religion,

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you can follow the

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thread back to authentic awakening.

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Anyone has the potential,
whether they have belief or no belief,

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because awakening is inherent

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within our human consciousness,
just by our human birth.

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So whatever you call it,
and whenever language is used,

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there's certain principles
that seem to be the same

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throughout these different religions

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and spiritualities
and meditation traditions.

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When I was younger, this understanding

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was mainly available
in the Eastern spiritual traditions.

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It was available in the Western

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traditions,
but it was so disguised and codified

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in those traditions
as to be almost inaccessible.

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So many people of my generation
went physically

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or at least intellectually,
to the East to find this understanding

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00:17:45,597 --> 00:17:49,639
and Eastern culture by comparison with

257
00:17:49,898 --> 00:17:53,001
Western culture is exotic.

258
00:17:53,322 --> 00:17:58,452
And so this understanding
acquired a flavor of the exotic

259
00:17:58,619 --> 00:18:02,951
from the cultures
in which it was expressed.

260
00:18:03,561 --> 00:18:06,197
And many people, myself included

261
00:18:07,002 --> 00:18:09,481
thought as a result of this

262
00:18:09,481 --> 00:18:13,110
that there was something exotic
about the non dual

263
00:18:13,110 --> 00:18:17,846
understanding; that it required
some extra ordinary way of life,

264
00:18:17,846 --> 00:18:21,171
that you had to give up family life

265
00:18:21,229 --> 00:18:25,415
or grow your hair
or get a special name or subscribe

266
00:18:25,415 --> 00:18:31,678
to some kind of teacher or or tradition
or engage in strange practices.

267
00:18:31,678 --> 00:18:35,286
All these kind of things
which had nothing to do

268
00:18:35,286 --> 00:18:38,918
with the core understanding.
They were to do with the culture

269
00:18:38,918 --> 00:18:43,326
in which the understanding
was expressed at a particular time.

270
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,796
So now the understanding
has been completely divested

271
00:18:47,914 --> 00:18:54,455
of the traditional cultural packaging
in which many of us first heard about it.

272
00:18:54,572 --> 00:18:59,768
And now just the essential
understanding is available

273
00:18:59,768 --> 00:19:03,388
in a way that enables us to carry
on leading our lives

274
00:19:03,426 --> 00:19:07,812
exactly as they are. Family life, work
life...

275
00:19:07,903 --> 00:19:13,384
it's not necessary to make
any external changes in one's life.

276
00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,155
The challenge we have on this planet

277
00:19:16,155 --> 00:19:19,197
is that we think there's more than one

278
00:19:19,366 --> 00:19:20,791
essence.

279
00:19:21,501 --> 00:19:22,536
So we live in a

280
00:19:22,995 --> 00:19:26,123
world of what I would call duality.

281
00:19:26,683 --> 00:19:29,104
There's male and female, black and white,

282
00:19:29,634 --> 00:19:34,006
big and small, fast and slow, up
and down, here and there, before

283
00:19:34,006 --> 00:19:37,477
and after,
but in fact, there's only one thing.

284
00:19:38,997 --> 00:19:41,629
All things are one thing.

285
00:19:42,389 --> 00:19:45,173
There is only one thing.

286
00:19:45,643 --> 00:19:48,352
So it turns out that when 
we look deeply at everything

287
00:19:48,352 --> 00:19:53,146
we see that here and there, big and small, 
fast and slow, up and down, left and right,

288
00:19:53,146 --> 00:19:58,342
male and female, are all the same thing,
simply expressing

289
00:19:58,482 --> 00:20:02,782
different characteristics
but in no way separate from each other.

290
00:20:03,421 --> 00:20:05,980
I believe that all of us

291
00:20:05,980 --> 00:20:07,915
are individuations

292
00:20:07,915 --> 00:20:09,374
of God.

293
00:20:10,620 --> 00:20:12,461
I believe that God exists in, as, and

294
00:20:12,461 --> 00:20:18,650
through every human being
and for that matter, every sentient

295
00:20:18,650 --> 00:20:21,094
being in the cosmos.

296
00:20:21,094 --> 00:20:25,173
So I see then that
I am in relationship to God

297
00:20:26,380 --> 00:20:28,393
as a wave is to the ocean.

298
00:20:28,953 --> 00:20:31,293
A wave is no different
from the ocean; it's

299
00:20:31,293 --> 00:20:36,097
simply an arising of the ocean
in individual form.

300
00:20:36,631 --> 00:20:39,309
And when that individuation is complete,

301
00:20:39,519 --> 00:20:43,025
the wave recedes back into the ocean
whence it came.

302
00:20:43,025 --> 00:20:46,160
To arise again on another day.

303
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:51,705
So I believe that
we are all individuations of divinity,

304
00:20:52,005 --> 00:20:54,809
and when we see everything as divine,

305
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,087
we change our relationship with everything.

306
00:20:58,765 --> 00:21:00,948
And everything becomes

307
00:21:00,948 --> 00:21:03,274
different in our experience.

308
00:21:04,255 --> 00:21:09,535
That's how the world changes.

309
00:21:17,275 --> 00:21:21,328
Consciousness
is the ultimate reality of the universe,

310
00:21:21,888 --> 00:21:27,196
so we might well ask if consciousness
is the ultimate reality of the universe

311
00:21:27,196 --> 00:21:31,231
and everything, and everyone
is obviously that, then how come

312
00:21:33,643 --> 00:21:38,189
the world appears to us as a multiplicity
and diversity

313
00:21:38,213 --> 00:21:43,568
of discrete and independently 
existing people

314
00:21:43,568 --> 00:21:47,582
and animals and things
all made out of stuff called matter.

315
00:21:47,582 --> 00:21:52,330
How can we reconcile this statement
that consciousness

316
00:21:52,330 --> 00:21:54,757
is the ultimate reality of the universe
when it appears

317
00:21:54,858 --> 00:21:58,640
as a multiplicity and diversity of objects
made out of matter?

318
00:21:58,676 --> 00:22:02,362
So the the evidence that I'm using
to suggest that consciousness

319
00:22:02,362 --> 00:22:06,908
is fundamental has many aspects to it.

320
00:22:07,788 --> 00:22:10,101
One is that physics itself

321
00:22:10,101 --> 00:22:13,021
says that space time isn't fundamental

322
00:22:13,021 --> 00:22:16,465
and evolutionary theory
also agrees that spacetime

323
00:22:16,465 --> 00:22:19,048
and physical objects
are not fundamental reality.

324
00:22:19,192 --> 00:22:23,800
Now, both of those theories tell us only
that, that spacetime is not fundamental.

325
00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:26,757
They don't tell us
what is beyond spacetime.

326
00:22:27,345 --> 00:22:31,853
And so my argument
is that what the physicists are finding

327
00:22:31,903 --> 00:22:34,929
beyond spacetime, they're finding
mathematical structures,

328
00:22:35,134 --> 00:22:37,572
but what those are about

329
00:22:37,650 --> 00:22:41,421
is not really clear. What is this
realm beyond space time about?

330
00:22:41,671 --> 00:22:46,148
And so I'm proposing that the realm
beyond space time is about consciousness.

331
00:22:46,481 --> 00:22:49,492
And I would suggest that
infinite consciousness has the ability

332
00:22:49,492 --> 00:22:54,655
to localize itself as numerous separate
subjects of experience,

333
00:22:55,039 --> 00:22:58,627
that is, all sentient beings, all people
or animals.

334
00:22:58,919 --> 00:23:03,423
Each of us are localizations
of infinite consciousness,

335
00:23:03,423 --> 00:23:08,124
in infinite consciousness
made only of infinite consciousness

336
00:23:08,339 --> 00:23:11,055
from whose perspective it views

337
00:23:11,055 --> 00:23:14,960
its own activity as the outside world.

338
00:23:15,451 --> 00:23:18,845
So what appears to us as
a world made out of matter

339
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:24,060
from our localized perspectives,
is from the point of view of reality,

340
00:23:24,178 --> 00:23:28,703
simply the activity of the one
infinite consciousness.

341
00:23:28,821 --> 00:23:33,614
In other words, in the ultimate analysis,
there are no discrete

342
00:23:33,614 --> 00:23:37,668
or independently existing things
or people.

343
00:23:38,007 --> 00:23:41,059
There is one infinite, indivisible, whole.

344
00:23:41,211 --> 00:23:45,604
The unity of being that is only refracted

345
00:23:46,305 --> 00:23:49,824
into an apparent multiplicity
and diversity of objects and things.

346
00:23:49,983 --> 00:23:54,116
When The One looks at its own activity

347
00:23:54,331 --> 00:23:56,524
through the perceiving faculties

348
00:23:56,651 --> 00:23:58,728
of the finite mind.

349
00:23:59,931 --> 00:24:01,560
If we are awake,

350
00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:05,343
we realize that there's one awareness

351
00:24:05,665 --> 00:24:09,802
that is disguised as all of these
different beings on the planet,

352
00:24:10,078 --> 00:24:13,869
one awareness
shining through everyone's eyes.

353
00:24:13,992 --> 00:24:18,577
Then we literally see ourselves in others.

354
00:24:18,691 --> 00:24:22,169
And that tendency to operate as an ego,

355
00:24:22,169 --> 00:24:26,796
the tendency to take for oneself

356
00:24:26,961 --> 00:24:30,677
falls away
because we directly realize the truth.

357
00:24:31,261 --> 00:24:35,431
The truth is
that we're all one consciousness.

358
00:24:35,765 --> 00:24:39,008
The experience of my spiritual self

359
00:24:39,989 --> 00:24:42,186
was only possible in the realm

360
00:24:42,186 --> 00:24:44,869
of the physical for a very good reason,

361
00:24:45,419 --> 00:24:49,530
because only in the realm of the physical
was the opposite available.

362
00:24:50,388 --> 00:24:53,035
In other words, just use a simple example,

363
00:24:53,316 --> 00:24:56,279
if I wanted to experience myself,
if I could speak

364
00:24:56,279 --> 00:24:58,889
metaphorically, as the light,

365
00:24:59,522 --> 00:25:03,345
I couldn't experience being the light
if I was amidst the light,

366
00:25:03,548 --> 00:25:06,011
nothing else around me but the light,

367
00:25:06,130 --> 00:25:10,256
which is a perfect definition
of the realm of the spiritual.

368
00:25:10,576 --> 00:25:14,312
So I would come to a realm
which I call the realm of the physical,

369
00:25:14,459 --> 00:25:17,128
where there is something
other than the light.

370
00:25:17,453 --> 00:25:20,102
Because if I want to experience myself
as the light,

371
00:25:20,102 --> 00:25:23,659
not just know myself as that,
but experience it,

372
00:25:23,890 --> 00:25:25,950
I could only do that where there was

373
00:25:25,950 --> 00:25:29,311
the opposite of the light,
in this case, the darkness.

374
00:25:29,528 --> 00:25:30,904
So I brought

375
00:25:30,904 --> 00:25:36,721
this opportunity to the physical realm
where the light and the dark exist

376
00:25:36,721 --> 00:25:40,658
simultaneously, and then in that outward

377
00:25:40,658 --> 00:25:45,383
expression of myself as the light,
I could be who I really am.

378
00:25:46,085 --> 00:25:48,511
And this understanding suggests

379
00:25:48,511 --> 00:25:53,936
that behind our differences
we are all the same being,

380
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:59,954
not a similar being, but we are all
literally one... the same being.

381
00:25:59,954 --> 00:26:05,386
And love is the felt experience

382
00:26:05,883 --> 00:26:09,420
of this oneness or shared being.

383
00:26:09,413 --> 00:26:15,241
It's a theorem of our theory that
there is ultimately one consciousness.

384
00:26:15,699 --> 00:26:19,850
So we have this dynamics of many,
many conscious agents.

385
00:26:19,850 --> 00:26:22,953
But the theory tells us
that ultimately all those conscious agents

386
00:26:22,953 --> 00:26:26,814
are really just projections
of a single one consciousness.

387
00:26:26,814 --> 00:26:30,181
The current paradigm in science

388
00:26:30,583 --> 00:26:33,260
has, and it has been for for centuries,

389
00:26:33,369 --> 00:26:37,580
is that space and time
are the fundamental nature of reality.

390
00:26:37,580 --> 00:26:40,831
They're irreducible
and they are the foundation of everything.

391
00:26:40,995 --> 00:26:44,443
And prior to Einstein, space
and time were viewed as separate.

392
00:26:44,495 --> 00:26:48,347
Now, space and time together,
a unified into spacetime are viewed

393
00:26:48,347 --> 00:26:50,204
as the fundamental nature of reality.

394
00:26:50,204 --> 00:26:52,698
And science has then assumed that

395
00:26:53,562 --> 00:26:57,510
spacetime and objects in spacetime
are the foundational reality.

396
00:26:58,196 --> 00:27:01,243
And so, for example,
when we talk about consciousness,

397
00:27:01,870 --> 00:27:06,682
consciousness itself then must be somehow
a product of objects in space and time.

398
00:27:06,914 --> 00:27:11,457
In that physicalist framework
space and time and physical objects

399
00:27:11,713 --> 00:27:15,828
without any consciousness
are the fundamental reality.

400
00:27:15,828 --> 00:27:20,584
And consciousness comes later on
in the evolution of the universe, right?

401
00:27:20,646 --> 00:27:23,214
So that the big bang, there was 
no consciousness,

402
00:27:23,214 --> 00:27:25,289
there was just spacetime and energy.

403
00:27:25,458 --> 00:27:27,818
The energy coalesced
into massive particles

404
00:27:28,087 --> 00:27:31,072
and eventually life emerged after
who knows how many millions

405
00:27:31,072 --> 00:27:33,239
or hundreds of millions 
or billions of years.

406
00:27:33,239 --> 00:27:36,584
Then after that consciousness came,
even later.

407
00:27:37,857 --> 00:27:41,705
From that point of view, when you die, 
the physical complexity that gave

408
00:27:41,705 --> 00:27:45,169
rise to consciousness dissolves
and so your consciousness dissolves.

409
00:27:45,169 --> 00:27:49,408
And so the physicalist framework
really does eliminate consciousness

410
00:27:49,762 --> 00:27:52,577
as a fundamental thing,
altogether and says that

411
00:27:52,577 --> 00:27:55,251
when your body dies,
your consciousness goes with it.

412
00:27:56,946 --> 00:27:58,694
From this other point of view...

413
00:27:58,694 --> 00:28:02,358
what I've done with my colleagues,
we have we used evolutionary theory

414
00:28:02,358 --> 00:28:05,228
to point out that it's an implication

415
00:28:05,228 --> 00:28:08,627
of evolutionary theory, that space 
and time is not fundamental,

416
00:28:08,627 --> 00:28:11,891
so the physicalist interpretation
of evolution is wrong.

417
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,424
The idea that that space
and time and particles

418
00:28:15,424 --> 00:28:21,437
somehow have evolved 
due to human organisms

419
00:28:21,504 --> 00:28:25,299
is is the wrong framework, because 
spacetime itself is not fundamental.

420
00:28:25,397 --> 00:28:28,457
We're positing a dynamics beyond 
spacetime that's much richer.

421
00:28:28,457 --> 00:28:30,313
The dynamics of consciousness.

422
00:28:30,313 --> 00:28:32,933
What we do not do is throw away
our old theories.

423
00:28:32,933 --> 00:28:35,237
When physicists say spacetime is doomed,

424
00:28:35,237 --> 00:28:38,133
that doesn't mean we no longer 
pay attention to Einstein.

425
00:28:38,133 --> 00:28:40,593
Absolutely not.
We pay attention to Einstein.

426
00:28:40,802 --> 00:28:45,508
Any new theory beyond spacetime that
the physicists come up with better project

427
00:28:45,508 --> 00:28:49,632
into space time and give us back Einstein
and it better give us back quantum theory

428
00:28:49,632 --> 00:28:50,643
or you're wrong.

429
00:28:50,643 --> 00:28:52,706
All of our old theories

430
00:28:52,706 --> 00:28:56,979
are wonderful, wonderful friends
and we're going to keep them

431
00:28:57,068 --> 00:29:00,160
as special cases of a deeper theory.

432
00:29:00,373 --> 00:29:03,749
So in our theory of consciousness,
we have to do the same thing.

433
00:29:03,749 --> 00:29:05,786
We can't just propose anything we want.

434
00:29:05,786 --> 00:29:08,210
We have to have a theory 
of consciousness that projects

435
00:29:08,210 --> 00:29:10,090
and gives us back space time,

436
00:29:10,090 --> 00:29:13,507
and gives us back quantum theory,
and gives us back special and general

437
00:29:13,507 --> 00:29:16,747
relativity, and gives us back
evolution by natural selection.

438
00:29:16,917 --> 00:29:20,132
If we cannot do that in precise
mathematical detail, then there's

439
00:29:20,264 --> 00:29:24,073
no reason for scientists to take our
theory of consciousness seriously.

440
00:29:24,907 --> 00:29:29,020
It's as if infinite consciousness puts
on a virtual reality headset. Infinite

441
00:29:29,070 --> 00:29:32,932
consciousness puts on a a VR headset
made of thinking and perceiving.

442
00:29:33,105 --> 00:29:37,633
And in doing so,
the moment it puts on the VR headset,

443
00:29:37,903 --> 00:29:41,932
it localizes itself
within its own activity.

444
00:29:42,249 --> 00:29:46,743
And through that headset
it looks out through the perceiving

445
00:29:46,743 --> 00:29:51,539
faculties of a finite mind; seeing,
hearing, touching, tasting and smelling.

446
00:29:51,740 --> 00:29:56,328
And it fragments
the unity of its own being

447
00:29:56,503 --> 00:30:00,289
and makes it appear as 10,000 things.

448
00:30:01,103 --> 00:30:03,109
What I'm suggesting is that

449
00:30:03,609 --> 00:30:08,856
there is very much more to to the universe
than the finite mind.

450
00:30:08,856 --> 00:30:14,550
I'm not suggesting that the universe
only appears in each of our finite minds.

451
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:19,833
The universe exists outside of our finite
mind, but inside consciousness.

452
00:30:20,007 --> 00:30:23,420
But it is the limitations
of our finite mind

453
00:30:23,687 --> 00:30:27,459
that give the universe its appearance.

454
00:30:28,417 --> 00:30:32,645
So when we look out at the universe,
we're seeing the reality

455
00:30:32,645 --> 00:30:37,510
that exists prior to its being perceived.

456
00:30:37,136 --> 00:30:41,551
But we are seeing it through the lens
of our perceiving faculties,

457
00:30:41,881 --> 00:30:45,593
which gives it its appearance.

458
00:30:46,363 --> 00:30:51,273
So the idea of awakening in many spiritual
traditions has been the idea

459
00:30:51,273 --> 00:30:54,535
that what we have taken is reality

460
00:30:54,644 --> 00:30:58,595
objects in space
and time, our physical bodies and so forth

461
00:30:58,898 --> 00:31:03,369
is not the final reality,
that there is a much deeper reality,

462
00:31:03,399 --> 00:31:07,955
a reality of consciousness that transcends
space and time and physical objects,

463
00:31:08,075 --> 00:31:10,830
and that we're not divorced
from that reality.

464
00:31:10,830 --> 00:31:14,615
That reality is, in some sense,
the essence of what we are.

465
00:31:14,698 --> 00:31:17,953
And so awakening is awakening
from the illusion

466
00:31:17,953 --> 00:31:21,671
that I'm just a little body in space
and time to the fact that I am

467
00:31:21,671 --> 00:31:25,696
in fact the author of everything
I see inside of space and time.

468
00:31:25,696 --> 00:31:29,678
I create it on the fly
as I look and perceive.

469
00:31:37,088 --> 00:31:42,161
One becomes awakened by recognizing that

470
00:31:42,932 --> 00:31:45,945
what we essentially are is already

471
00:31:45,945 --> 00:31:49,032
fully awake, fully aware,

472
00:31:49,622 --> 00:31:53,158
complete, whole, fulfilled at peace.

473
00:31:53,328 --> 00:31:56,010
It's like asking how does the

474
00:31:56,043 --> 00:31:59,900
sun become illuminated?

475
00:31:59,926 --> 00:32:01,961
Its nature is light.

476
00:32:01,961 --> 00:32:04,039
It is already fully illuminated.

477
00:32:04,039 --> 00:32:08,747
The nature of our essential
being is already peace and happiness.

478
00:32:08,824 --> 00:32:12,456
It's not clear to us all,
because our essential being is so

479
00:32:12,456 --> 00:32:16,465
thoroughly mixed with the content
of experience that its innate

480
00:32:16,601 --> 00:32:20,658
Peace and happiness is 
dimmed by experience.

481
00:32:20,903 --> 00:32:25,528
And for that reason we think that our
essential being needs to be enlightened.

482
00:32:25,528 --> 00:32:28,327
No, our essential being
doesn't need to be enlightened

483
00:32:28,327 --> 00:32:32,136
any more than the sun
needs to be lit up in the early morning.

484
00:32:32,533 --> 00:32:35,993
The sun's always shining 
with the same brightness.

485
00:32:35,993 --> 00:32:39,995
Our essential being is always shining
with the same peace and joy.

486
00:32:40,139 --> 00:32:43,682
But that peace and joy are dimmed
by the agitation

487
00:32:43,682 --> 00:32:46,957
and lack that characterizes
our thoughts and feelings.

488
00:32:47,548 --> 00:32:51,511
There's no person that awakens.

489
00:32:51,817 --> 00:32:55,313
So the I that awakened

490
00:32:55,598 --> 00:32:57,642
I awakened from this Dan

491
00:32:57,642 --> 00:33:01,381
structure at a meditation center.

492
00:33:01,489 --> 00:33:03,314
It was a Zen center.

493
00:33:03,314 --> 00:33:06,374
We were doing a Zen sesshin

494
00:33:06,374 --> 00:33:10,730
which is a long period
of intensive practice.

495
00:33:10,238 --> 00:33:15,748
So Zen is amazing
for creating this container

496
00:33:15,913 --> 00:33:18,786
where there are
these conditions of no escape.

497
00:33:19,183 --> 00:33:24,603
So the Dan character
that had learned meditation,

498
00:33:24,603 --> 00:33:27,853
the Dan character had been doing
all this meditation,

499
00:33:28,027 --> 00:33:30,431
this doer of meditation,

500
00:33:30,675 --> 00:33:33,830
realized that it couldn't awaken.

501
00:33:34,109 --> 00:33:37,211
It's like all the meditation tricks,

502
00:33:37,211 --> 00:33:42,534
all the practices that had been learned
were of no use.

503
00:33:42,786 --> 00:33:46,085
It got to the point where that character

504
00:33:46,203 --> 00:33:49,179
who was trying to awaken, failed

505
00:33:49,497 --> 00:33:52,084
to awaken and had to fail.

506
00:33:52,287 --> 00:33:57,217
That the character that I had been living,
the character that I've been playing

507
00:33:57,424 --> 00:34:01,840
all my life, had to let go or die and

508
00:34:02,927 --> 00:34:04,681
what was left?

509
00:34:04,681 --> 00:34:07,951
What was left 
when there was no doer

510
00:34:07,951 --> 00:34:10,874
when there was no meditator

511
00:34:10,874 --> 00:34:15,142
meditating or doing something 
called, meditation,

512
00:34:15,261 --> 00:34:19,623
what was left was my true nature

513
00:34:19,623 --> 00:34:21,442
or me... just me.

514
00:34:21,442 --> 00:34:25,980
When we awaken from this small, separate
sense of self, it's

515
00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:29,165
not that we're killing the ego

516
00:34:29,266 --> 00:34:32,293
or we're fighting it.

517
00:34:32,513 --> 00:34:36,720
It's actually we're allowing it
to semi retire

518
00:34:36,885 --> 00:34:39,885
from its job of ego identity

519
00:34:40,012 --> 00:34:42,861
and then relax to be part

520
00:34:42,861 --> 00:34:46,381
of our team, part of our consciousness.

521
00:34:47,097 --> 00:34:50,447
And this gives us a sense 
of freedom immediately

522
00:34:50,447 --> 00:34:54,233
that we're not looking at the world
through a small lens,

523
00:34:54,233 --> 00:34:58,983
that we're we're open
hearted and open minded in a way that's

524
00:35:00,711 --> 00:35:06,403
expansive and yet at the same time,
more intimately connected.

525
00:35:06,728 --> 00:35:10,430
Enlightenment is not about 
becoming awakened.

526
00:35:10,430 --> 00:35:12,632
Nobody becomes awakened 
or enlightened.

527
00:35:12,632 --> 00:35:17,102
It's a recognition of the light,
the light of pure knowing

528
00:35:17,281 --> 00:35:19,365
whose nature is peace and happiness

529
00:35:19,365 --> 00:35:21,927
that we always and already are.

530
00:35:26,624 --> 00:35:31,114
My name is Lisa Natoli,
and I'm known as a spiritual teacher.

531
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:34,928
I teach about healing and awakening
and transformation.

532
00:35:34,928 --> 00:35:39,042
Awakening
is the recognition of your true nature,

533
00:35:39,413 --> 00:35:44,982
and it's the realization of what
you really are, which is consciousness.

534
00:35:45,207 --> 00:35:49,915
And consciousness is just one word
for many words that people use

535
00:35:50,148 --> 00:35:55,927
for awareness, life, love, God,

536
00:35:56,529 --> 00:35:58,114
light.

537
00:35:59,133 --> 00:36:04,519
So waking up to the recognition
that I'm not this body

538
00:36:04,863 --> 00:36:09,166
that I am, that which never dies
and that which is never born,

539
00:36:13,107 --> 00:36:16,256
and that was a very difficult idea for me.

540
00:36:16,256 --> 00:36:19,549
I've been on a spiritual path since 1992.

541
00:36:19,677 --> 00:36:22,295
I started with A Course in Miracles.

542
00:36:22,295 --> 00:36:24,918
I always studied it religiously.

543
00:36:24,918 --> 00:36:28,603
I mean, I was someone who was 
so committed to knowing the

544
00:36:28,603 --> 00:36:35,118
Self, knowing God, waking up.
... I couldn't get it,

545
00:36:35,524 --> 00:36:37,509
because I was under the belief

546
00:36:37,509 --> 00:36:40,701
that awakening was something mystical,

547
00:36:40,996 --> 00:36:45,257
that something would happen,
that something would occur,

548
00:36:45,703 --> 00:36:48,616
and it would be like Jesus

549
00:36:48,616 --> 00:36:51,950
or Buddha
or all of these enlightened masters

550
00:36:52,460 --> 00:36:54,670
and it wasn't happening for me.

551
00:36:54,670 --> 00:36:56,339
I couldn't understand why.

552
00:36:56,505 --> 00:37:00,309
Why am I so committed

553
00:37:01,029 --> 00:37:06,696
and I'm having deep moments of peace and
happiness and joy... and still struggling.

554
00:37:06,959 --> 00:37:09,988
I started to realize the simplicity

555
00:37:10,061 --> 00:37:13,213
of our true nature, which is awareness.

556
00:37:13,932 --> 00:37:18,932
So for someone who's listening to me
right now,

557
00:37:19,495 --> 00:37:24,720
the awareness that's hearing this voice,
that's what we are.

558
00:37:25,484 --> 00:37:29,375
And it doesn't have a location,
it doesn't have a gender,

559
00:37:29,583 --> 00:37:32,608
it doesn't have a color,
it doesn't have a body,

560
00:37:33,042 --> 00:37:36,141
and it's totally unlimited.

561
00:37:36,587 --> 00:37:40,490
So awakening is where we wake up

562
00:37:40,841 --> 00:37:43,585
to our true nature.

563
00:37:43,605 --> 00:37:47,598
We wake up to the realization
that I am the awareness

564
00:37:47,974 --> 00:37:52,586
of this experience right now
as I'm here.

565
00:37:53,020 --> 00:37:54,965
And it's so ordinary

566
00:37:54,965 --> 00:37:56,790
we miss it.

567
00:37:56,357 --> 00:37:59,251
We think it can't be that simple.

568
00:37:59,661 --> 00:38:01,657
The recognition of our true nature,

569
00:38:01,917 --> 00:38:04,029
it doesn't lead to happiness.

570
00:38:04,144 --> 00:38:07,576
It is happiness... the nature of being

571
00:38:07,876 --> 00:38:10,121
is happiness itself.

572
00:38:10,731 --> 00:38:15,032
So the recognition of our true
nature is the experience of happiness.

573
00:38:21,121 --> 00:38:23,769
Who is aware in this moment?

574
00:38:24,635 --> 00:38:26,301
The mind will

575
00:38:26,301 --> 00:38:29,244
look for something,
or try to complicate it.

576
00:38:30,255 --> 00:38:32,449
You already are

577
00:38:32,449 --> 00:38:37,331
that which the mind is looking for.

578
00:38:37,331 --> 00:38:39,528
The mind will always miss it.

579
00:38:40,340 --> 00:38:43,046
So don't look to the mind for an answer.

580
00:38:43,815 --> 00:38:46,001
Don't push away your thoughts

581
00:38:46,001 --> 00:38:49,535
and don't get caught in the thoughts.

582
00:38:49,535 --> 00:38:54,665
Simply let go of the interest
or attachment to thoughts, ideas

583
00:38:55,124 --> 00:38:57,084
and beliefs.

584
00:38:58,283 --> 00:39:01,315
Intend to directly experience

585
00:39:01,315 --> 00:39:04,125
who you are.

586
00:39:05,075 --> 00:39:09,793
Don't try to negate the mind
or to achieve some state.

587
00:39:10,889 --> 00:39:13,874
All doing, all manipulation,

588
00:39:13,874 --> 00:39:17,812
all movement is more controlling
by the mind.

589
00:39:18,645 --> 00:39:24,463
Allow the mind to be as it is.

590
00:39:28,493 --> 00:39:32,569
Sometimes people can awaken
just in day to day life.

591
00:39:32,569 --> 00:39:35,549
They don't necessarily need practice.

592
00:39:35,677 --> 00:39:40,222
So sometimes things will happen in life
where there's an interrupt

593
00:39:40,222 --> 00:39:45,345
in the pattern of you.
And there can be a spontaneous awakening.

594
00:39:45,575 --> 00:39:50,054
But if someone's life is just going on
in a kind of robotic pattern

595
00:39:50,054 --> 00:39:52,971
or repetitive pattern, then

596
00:39:53,140 --> 00:39:56,756
some sort of intervention is necessary.

597
00:39:56,756 --> 00:40:03,613
if one is called to awakening
and that interrupt in the pattern of you

598
00:40:03,661 --> 00:40:07,428
is sometimes called sadhana
or spiritual practice.

599
00:40:07,571 --> 00:40:10,812
And these practices are always

600
00:40:10,991 --> 00:40:12,801
conditioned.

601
00:40:12,801 --> 00:40:15,954
Thet are something that we learn
with the conditioned mind.

602
00:40:16,041 --> 00:40:20,191
So they can make it more likely
for awakening to happen,

603
00:40:20,302 --> 00:40:24,080
sort of by loosening the bonds
within the self structure.

604
00:40:24,159 --> 00:40:29,110
Sometimes they say
that awakening happens by accident,

605
00:40:29,269 --> 00:40:32,172
but the practice makes you more accident
prone.

606
00:40:32,964 --> 00:40:36,546
The techniques,
the practices can be very useful

607
00:40:36,838 --> 00:40:39,321
to make you more accident prone.

608
00:40:39,321 --> 00:40:43,316
But then at a certain point
have to be let go.

609
00:40:43,524 --> 00:40:48,490
Because if the mind
is continuously doing some practice

610
00:40:48,490 --> 00:40:51,386
or some thing, then the mind has

611
00:40:51,386 --> 00:40:55,041
the reins, mind is in the driver's seat.

612
00:40:55,207 --> 00:40:59,146
So the practices are useful, very useful

613
00:40:59,146 --> 00:41:03,855
as steppingstones
for making the self structure,

614
00:41:03,855 --> 00:41:08,441
you can say less dense
or enlightening up the self structure

615
00:41:08,582 --> 00:41:11,863
so that it becomes more permeable

616
00:41:11,913 --> 00:41:14,279
to our true nature.

617
00:41:16,419 --> 00:41:20,935
The paradox with practice
is that when you finally awaken,

618
00:41:21,041 --> 00:41:23,982
you realize that all of the practices

619
00:41:24,510 --> 00:41:26,797
were being done by the false self,

620
00:41:27,216 --> 00:41:30,769
the character in the VR game,
and that YOU,

621
00:41:30,769 --> 00:41:34,515
the true self, was never bound.

622
00:41:35,905 --> 00:41:39,481
All you have to do
is give up the preferences of the ego,

623
00:41:40,340 --> 00:41:43,704
to give up the fixation on things.

624
00:41:44,366 --> 00:41:49,644
Anything within the field of changing
phenomena is not the true self,

625
00:41:50,352 --> 00:41:54,349
the you that you think you are, the you
that you've always been

626
00:41:54,349 --> 00:41:57,178
identified with will never awaken

627
00:41:57,477 --> 00:42:00,195
you awaken from that character.

628
00:42:00,632 --> 00:42:04,844
You awaken from the delusion
that you were this conditioned character.

629
00:42:04,956 --> 00:42:08,597
So when people come to these
retreats, they think this

630
00:42:08,597 --> 00:42:13,106
"I" this little "me" is going to awaken,
some great thing is going to happen.

631
00:42:13,178 --> 00:42:16,283
But at a certain point,
that little me will never do it.

632
00:42:16,283 --> 00:42:18,743
It has to give up, it has to fail.

633
00:42:18,805 --> 00:42:20,849
And it's only in that failure

634
00:42:20,901 --> 00:42:27,208
we realize who we are, that we've always
been aware, we've always been present.

635
00:42:27,340 --> 00:42:30,991
We just got hooked into this character
and we believed

636
00:42:30,991 --> 00:42:33,181
we were that.

637
00:42:43,501 --> 00:42:49,714
I started my spiritual search
in the classical Advaita Vedanta

638
00:42:50,425 --> 00:42:52,947
tradition, which was a devotional path

639
00:42:53,236 --> 00:42:56,938
that involved mantra meditation,

640
00:42:56,938 --> 00:43:00,780
which I practiced
very diligently for 20 years.

641
00:43:00,878 --> 00:43:04,123
And mantra meditation involves

642
00:43:04,789 --> 00:43:07,969
focusing your attention on a sound

643
00:43:09,084 --> 00:43:11,338
and then gradually the sound fades.

644
00:43:11,818 --> 00:43:16,310
However, it was really when 
I came in touch

645
00:43:16,509 --> 00:43:18,909
with the direct path that

646
00:43:19,177 --> 00:43:25,662
my spiritual search
really reached its culmination.

647
00:43:25,957 --> 00:43:29,356
Because in this direct approach,

648
00:43:29,356 --> 00:43:34,303
we don't give our attention to any object,
however subtle,

649
00:43:34,352 --> 00:43:38,057
for instance, a mantra, a sound, 
the breath,

650
00:43:38,346 --> 00:43:42,120
we allow our attention to sink inwards

651
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:44,696
or backwards into its source.

652
00:43:45,894 --> 00:43:47,976
Let's use an analogy.

653
00:43:48,786 --> 00:43:52,368
Imagine that you are watching your life
on a television screen.

654
00:43:52,606 --> 00:43:55,775
You are identified with the character
on the screen.

655
00:43:56,728 --> 00:43:58,303
Day after day,

656
00:43:58,303 --> 00:44:02,522
year after year you are involved
with the story of the character

657
00:44:02,724 --> 00:44:06,214
when suddenly you wake up out of the story

658
00:44:06,469 --> 00:44:09,744
to notice the screen
on which the character appears

659
00:44:10,053 --> 00:44:14,045
and you realize you are not the character
you've been watching.

660
00:44:14,789 --> 00:44:17,565
Objects can come and go on the screen.

661
00:44:18,046 --> 00:44:20,248
Characters come and go,

662
00:44:20,248 --> 00:44:22,765
but the screen remains unchanged.

663
00:44:23,345 --> 00:44:25,525
The character can get wet,

664
00:44:25,525 --> 00:44:30,672
but the screen does not get wet.
The character can be disturbed,

665
00:44:30,672 --> 00:44:33,045
but the screen is not disturbed.

666
00:44:33,695 --> 00:44:36,932
Without the screen,
the characters would not exist,

667
00:44:37,851 --> 00:44:40,184
yet screen goes unnoticed.

668
00:44:40,273 --> 00:44:43,414
The characters go about their scripted
lives.

669
00:44:44,654 --> 00:44:47,020
Awareness is like the screen.

670
00:44:47,437 --> 00:44:50,176
It is like the space
in which all thoughts,

671
00:44:50,300 --> 00:44:54,329
motions, all states of consciousness
come and go.

672
00:44:55,542 --> 00:44:57,673
Thoughts, sensations

673
00:44:57,673 --> 00:45:03,017
and the entire outside world
appear on the screen, constantly changing.

674
00:45:03,268 --> 00:45:06,075
But the screen does not change.

675
00:45:07,505 --> 00:45:13,918
It's the mind that changes states
through the human experience.

676
00:45:14,043 --> 00:45:18,563
But there's something, that what you are,
that remains.

677
00:45:18,697 --> 00:45:21,576
Something that is ever present,

678
00:45:21,638 --> 00:45:25,092
that is aware of those changing states

679
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,878
and that is consciousness
or our true nature.

680
00:45:29,212 --> 00:45:32,914
As long as there is attachment
to a character on the screen,

681
00:45:33,178 --> 00:45:37,319
a sense that I am that character,
then there will be suffering;

682
00:45:37,430 --> 00:45:40,695
maya the illusion of the self.

683
00:45:41,983 --> 00:45:44,320
Nothing you can do as the dream

684
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:49,048
character will help to free you.
Whether you follow the script

685
00:45:49,048 --> 00:45:52,275
in the drama of your life
or rebel against the script,

686
00:45:52,340 --> 00:45:55,546
if you act from the point of view
of the character,

687
00:45:55,617 --> 00:45:57,937
then you're caught in the illusion.

688
00:45:58,855 --> 00:46:00,378
To awaken,

689
00:46:00,378 --> 00:46:04,835
stop identifying
with what appears on the screen.

690
00:46:05,955 --> 00:46:08,806
Recognize that it is all impermanent.

691
00:46:09,115 --> 00:46:13,976
Stop reacting to thoughts
and treating the program as real.

692
00:46:14,317 --> 00:46:17,733
If I withdraw attention from the screen,
turning awareness

693
00:46:17,733 --> 00:46:22,130
towards itself,
an unfathomable thing happens.

694
00:46:22,924 --> 00:46:26,635
Awareness itself wakes up.

695
00:46:27,785 --> 00:46:30,037
This is not a happening.

696
00:46:30,697 --> 00:46:33,496
Happening is what happens on the screen.

697
00:46:34,461 --> 00:46:37,320
Awakening is just recognizing the screen

698
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,812
that was always already there.

699
00:46:41,396 --> 00:46:43,785
Do not believe your next thought

700
00:46:44,934 --> 00:46:49,615
instead, turn awareness 
towards awareness itself.

701
00:47:00,982 --> 00:47:03,646
I have always been myself.

702
00:47:03,646 --> 00:47:07,410
My sense of my self runs
throughout my life.

703
00:47:07,410 --> 00:47:10,915
It remains
consistently present throughout my life.

704
00:47:11,688 --> 00:47:13,548
What is present in me now,

705
00:47:13,548 --> 00:47:16,819
that was present yesterday,
last year, ten years ago,

706
00:47:16,819 --> 00:47:20,017
and when I was a two year old child?

707
00:47:21,227 --> 00:47:23,997
What is this essential "I" or self

708
00:47:24,934 --> 00:47:27,802
to whom all my experience happens?

709
00:47:28,715 --> 00:47:31,115
The recognition

710
00:47:31,115 --> 00:47:35,473
of the nature of that one
is the great secret to life.

711
00:47:35,473 --> 00:47:37,857
It is the direct path to peace

712
00:47:37,857 --> 00:47:42,655
and happiness. It is not something
that a person initiates.

713
00:47:43,941 --> 00:47:47,288
It's something that a person recognizes.

714
00:47:48,419 --> 00:47:50,239
To re-cognize.

715
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:52,744
That is to know, again.

716
00:47:53,653 --> 00:47:55,829
What we've known from the beginning

717
00:47:55,829 --> 00:48:00,570
but is simply forgotten, or denied
or failed to believe.

718
00:48:00,669 --> 00:48:03,925
So we cannot initiate closeness to God.

719
00:48:03,964 --> 00:48:09,809
We can simply recognize,
to recognize that it's always been there

720
00:48:10,095 --> 00:48:12,687
and will always be there.

721
00:48:12,687 --> 00:48:17,403
It was only this direct pointing
to awakening,

722
00:48:17,403 --> 00:48:22,126
this opening to what's already
here that allowed me to find

723
00:48:22,858 --> 00:48:24,295
a new way of

724
00:48:24,295 --> 00:48:27,231
being- a new stage of development.

725
00:48:27,372 --> 00:48:33,821
Many people think it's
a very impossible or out of reach goal

726
00:48:33,821 --> 00:48:38,620
to know the self, and my own

727
00:48:38,815 --> 00:48:42,887
sort of purpose as a teacher,
just because of my own awakening,

728
00:48:42,887 --> 00:48:48,256
has really been wanting to make it
very practical, very down to Earth.

729
00:48:48,256 --> 00:48:52,276
I love to teach people, it's
available to everyone.

730
00:48:52,441 --> 00:48:56,595
If we believe and feel

731
00:48:56,728 --> 00:49:00,483
that we are a temporary,
finite, separate self,

732
00:49:00,604 --> 00:49:03,673
we are, whether we know it or not,

733
00:49:04,110 --> 00:49:06,669
searching for peace and happiness.

734
00:49:06,669 --> 00:49:10,059
In other words,
it's not possible to be a separate self,

735
00:49:10,079 --> 00:49:14,907
to feel oneself as a separate self
and not be in search of happiness.

736
00:49:15,463 --> 00:49:17,693
So what is required

737
00:49:17,693 --> 00:49:21,836
in this case is to reorientate
one's search for happiness,

738
00:49:21,836 --> 00:49:25,426
instead of seeking for happiness
in the objective content of experience,

739
00:49:25,823 --> 00:49:27,771
to seek happiness in oneself.

740
00:49:28,421 --> 00:49:31,576
So the spiritual practice that is required

741
00:49:32,270 --> 00:49:36,614
is to direct one's attention
or more accurately,

742
00:49:36,614 --> 00:49:41,058
to relax one's attention into its source,

743
00:49:42,303 --> 00:49:45,536
pure awareness, rather than directed
towards

744
00:49:45,605 --> 00:49:49,208
an object substance
activity or relationship, and so on.

745
00:49:49,936 --> 00:49:53,995
So the spiritual practice,
if we can call it a practice,

746
00:49:54,255 --> 00:49:57,145
would be this relaxing

747
00:49:57,208 --> 00:50:00,914
of the attention,
this subsidence of the attention

748
00:50:01,504 --> 00:50:04,126
into the heart of awareness,

749
00:50:05,056 --> 00:50:07,666
resting in being as being.

750
00:50:08,633 --> 00:50:10,160
Love.

751
00:50:10,621 --> 00:50:12,718
Pure love is my true self.

752
00:50:13,298 --> 00:50:15,095
It's my true nature.

753
00:50:15,725 --> 00:50:18,252
Pure love for everyone and everything,

754
00:50:18,473 --> 00:50:20,892
for every aspect of life.

755
00:50:20,892 --> 00:50:24,745
Even those things with which I disagree.

756
00:50:25,361 --> 00:50:29,545
For one who has recognized the nature
of their being, they know their being

757
00:50:29,837 --> 00:50:33,404
as the the source of the peace

758
00:50:33,404 --> 00:50:36,385
and happiness for which they long.

759
00:50:37,316 --> 00:50:41,614
So the world no longer becomes the place

760
00:50:41,614 --> 00:50:45,695
in which they seek
happiness, seek fulfillment.

761
00:50:45,695 --> 00:50:49,095
Doesn't mean to say that such a person
no longer has desires,

762
00:50:49,337 --> 00:50:53,691
but the desires are not there
to fulfill the sense of lack

763
00:50:54,410 --> 00:50:57,971
that is characteristic of the separate
self.

764
00:50:58,693 --> 00:51:02,111
As such,
a person has found the source of happiness

765
00:51:02,111 --> 00:51:07,433
within themselves and their desires
come from that sense of happiness.

766
00:51:07,554 --> 00:51:09,832
They do not go towards it.

767
00:51:09,832 --> 00:51:12,580
For instance,
in the realm of relationship,

768
00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:15,433
it makes a big difference
to our relationships.

769
00:51:15,433 --> 00:51:17,730
We no longer seek an other

770
00:51:18,556 --> 00:51:22,260
to fulfill the needs of our self.

771
00:51:23,069 --> 00:51:25,321
We seek another to share

772
00:51:25,540 --> 00:51:28,327
the experience of happiness
that we already have.

773
00:51:28,327 --> 00:51:32,118
And this relieves our
our friends of the impossible burden

774
00:51:32,265 --> 00:51:36,229
of providing happiness for a voracious,

775
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,855
unsatisfied self.

776
00:51:40,234 --> 00:51:42,484
Nothing occurs in my life

777
00:51:43,214 --> 00:51:47,339
that is has not brought me
benefit or will not bring me benefit

778
00:51:47,425 --> 00:51:51,902
in the sense that every moment,
every activity, every outcome

779
00:51:52,275 --> 00:51:55,028
moves me forward

780
00:51:55,028 --> 00:51:57,830
in the process
of the evolution of my soul.

781
00:51:57,922 --> 00:52:01,118
And that's why I came here
to the physical realm,

782
00:52:01,118 --> 00:52:04,873
to evolve.

783
00:52:11,037 --> 00:52:13,963
Remain open.

784
00:52:13,963 --> 00:52:16,522
Feel your inner aliveness,

785
00:52:16,522 --> 00:52:20,011
letting energy circulate freely.

786
00:52:20,671 --> 00:52:24,388
Don't try to make anything happen.

787
00:52:25,638 --> 00:52:28,562
Who is aware of that energy,

788
00:52:29,103 --> 00:52:32,109
that inner aliveness?

789
00:52:36,269 --> 00:52:40,693
Notice the mind's tendency to control
and manipulate,

790
00:52:41,208 --> 00:52:43,229
to get involved.

791
00:52:44,349 --> 00:52:47,930
Without the use
of your memory or language,

792
00:52:48,699 --> 00:52:51,266
Who are you?

793
00:52:52,189 --> 00:52:54,777
Beyond the mind and senses,

794
00:52:55,005 --> 00:52:57,382
who are you?

795
00:52:57,549 --> 00:53:03,994
Who is aware?

796
00:53:18,124 --> 00:53:21,605
Many people who are hearing these ideas
for the first time,

797
00:53:21,605 --> 00:53:25,419
they've never even heard this idea
of the self.

798
00:53:25,838 --> 00:53:28,847
In my mind,
there's two different camps of people.

799
00:53:28,847 --> 00:53:32,864
There are those who are on a spiritual
path and they have heard this idea.

800
00:53:32,864 --> 00:53:36,321
They're trying to reach the self,
they're trying to be the self.

801
00:53:36,321 --> 00:53:38,663
They're seeking, they're searching.

802
00:53:38,915 --> 00:53:42,450
And then there's other people
who have just been living their life.

803
00:53:42,450 --> 00:53:44,938
They've never heard of these ideas before.

804
00:53:45,017 --> 00:53:47,154
They've never heard of Know Thyself.

805
00:53:47,154 --> 00:53:51,245
Many people think
know thyself means know the body,

806
00:53:51,245 --> 00:53:54,043
know yourself, be yourself,
be authentic.

807
00:53:54,208 --> 00:53:59,927
What it really means, to know
thyself is to know what you are,

808
00:53:59,927 --> 00:54:03,768
to know what you are in truth
and to really know your true nature.

809
00:54:03,831 --> 00:54:07,366
The words know thySelf were carved

810
00:54:07,535 --> 00:54:11,789
on the entrance of the Temple of
Apollo in Delphi, and as such

811
00:54:12,740 --> 00:54:18,248
stand as an invitation that the dawn
of Western civilization to humanity,

812
00:54:18,456 --> 00:54:23,023
suggesting that to Know Thyself
is really the foundation

813
00:54:23,354 --> 00:54:26,319
of all civilization. Why?

814
00:54:26,734 --> 00:54:31,972
Because our Self stands at the center
of all our experience.

815
00:54:32,126 --> 00:54:37,240
Whatever we are experiencing,
it is we who are experiencing it.

816
00:54:37,495 --> 00:54:40,444
Whatever we think and feel, our thoughts

817
00:54:40,444 --> 00:54:43,498
and feelings arise on behalf of our Self.

818
00:54:43,721 --> 00:54:48,593
Whatever activities and relationships
we are engaged

819
00:54:48,593 --> 00:54:54,380
in, we engage those activities
and relationships in service of our Self.

820
00:54:54,541 --> 00:54:59,667
So our Self stands
at the center of our experience.

821
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:05,329
So what could be more important
than to know the nature of our Self,

822
00:55:06,052 --> 00:55:09,036
and would it be possible

823
00:55:09,616 --> 00:55:12,189
to know the nature of anything else

824
00:55:12,189 --> 00:55:16,747
if we do not first know the nature of that
which knows it?

825
00:55:17,029 --> 00:55:19,680
I think awakening is

826
00:55:20,519 --> 00:55:23,382
about ending the nightmare

827
00:55:23,854 --> 00:55:26,740
and stepping into the dream.

828
00:55:27,490 --> 00:55:29,500
By that I mean

829
00:55:30,122 --> 00:55:33,431
we desert or
finally abandon the nightmare of what

830
00:55:33,431 --> 00:55:38,649
we've been told about life, about God,
and about ourselves.

831
00:55:38,649 --> 00:55:41,622
And we step into the dream
of our grandest notion.

832
00:55:42,479 --> 00:55:46,458
I often ask,
What do you think your life would be like

833
00:55:46,791 --> 00:55:50,259
if you found yourself
stepping into the highest

834
00:55:50,259 --> 00:55:54,845
grandest, most wonderful thought
you ever had about God, and about life

835
00:55:55,060 --> 00:55:57,536
and about yourself.

836
00:55:57,536 --> 00:56:02,804
So this recognition of our true nature
is not only the recognition

837
00:56:02,804 --> 00:56:07,724
that brings our desire
for happiness in the world to an end.

838
00:56:07,985 --> 00:56:11,278
It is also the recognition that enables us

839
00:56:11,278 --> 00:56:16,493
to live in a way
that is consistent with the understanding

840
00:56:16,493 --> 00:56:21,954
that at the deepest level,
everything and everyone, are one.

841
00:56:22,962 --> 00:56:25,175
This understanding would bring

842
00:56:25,175 --> 00:56:28,344
kindness, compassion, justice,

843
00:56:28,447 --> 00:56:32,952
tolerance, understanding into our society.

844
00:56:33,828 --> 00:56:35,976
Our society would be revolutionized

845
00:56:35,976 --> 00:56:37,747
by this understanding.

846
00:56:39,488 --> 00:56:42,564
As humanity lets go of ego
based approaches,

847
00:56:42,715 --> 00:56:45,792
then science, religion, politics

848
00:56:45,792 --> 00:56:50,198
and economics
start to reflect the perennial wisdom.

849
00:56:50,758 --> 00:56:53,838
Whether it is the native traditions
who realize

850
00:56:53,838 --> 00:56:56,028
Great Spirit in all things,

851
00:56:56,121 --> 00:57:00,333
or the Egyptian/Kemetic traditions
who describe the human

852
00:57:00,333 --> 00:57:03,711
evolutionary journey from the lowly scarab

853
00:57:04,045 --> 00:57:06,631
to the one source,

854
00:57:06,881 --> 00:57:08,383
or when we hear the words

855
00:57:08,383 --> 00:57:11,261
of the mystics of the Christian, Hindu,

856
00:57:11,594 --> 00:57:13,847
Muslim, or Buddhist traditions,

857
00:57:14,681 --> 00:57:19,060
or the teachings of Plato and Plotinus
we find that

858
00:57:19,060 --> 00:57:24,816
those who have realized their true nature
speak of groupings of conscious agents.

859
00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:28,611
Of course,
they used the language of their culture

860
00:57:28,611 --> 00:57:32,407
and times
to express the one perennial truth.

861
00:57:33,491 --> 00:57:34,659
Science is now

862
00:57:34,659 --> 00:57:38,830
starting to see
not a world of unconscious particles

863
00:57:38,830 --> 00:57:41,916
and fields, but a universe made of

864
00:57:41,916 --> 00:57:44,711
conscious agents.

865
00:57:44,919 --> 00:57:48,631
Something new is emerging
in the world of science.

866
00:57:49,674 --> 00:57:52,302
As Nikola Tesla said,

867
00:57:52,302 --> 00:57:57,140
the day science begins to study
nonphysical phenomena,

868
00:57:57,140 --> 00:57:59,976
it will make more progress in one decade

869
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:04,147
than in all the previous centuries
of its existence.

870
00:58:06,024 --> 00:58:14,908
That day is today.

871
00:58:14,908 --> 00:58:18,161
Every time that we've had
a mathematically precise advance

872
00:58:18,161 --> 00:58:21,623
in science,
it has opened up new technologies

873
00:58:22,123 --> 00:58:25,668
that look like magic compared
to what we had before.

874
00:58:25,919 --> 00:58:29,923
So my feeling is that this theory
of conscious agents beyond spacetime

875
00:58:30,965 --> 00:58:33,426
will give us technologies

876
00:58:33,426 --> 00:58:35,553
that will be truly mind boggling.

877
00:58:36,012 --> 00:58:37,263
For example,

878
00:58:37,722 --> 00:58:41,476
right now,
most of the galaxies that we see,

879
00:58:41,809 --> 00:58:44,145
I think 97% of the galaxies that we see,

880
00:58:44,437 --> 00:58:49,317
we can never go to. They are receding from us
faster than the speed of light.

881
00:58:50,026 --> 00:58:52,403
So they're not moving through space
faster than the speed of light.

882
00:58:52,403 --> 00:58:55,657
Space itself is expanding so quickly
that they're

883
00:58:56,282 --> 00:58:58,785
moving away from us
is greater than the speed of light.

884
00:58:58,785 --> 00:59:00,954
So we could never travel through space

885
00:59:00,954 --> 00:59:03,915
to go to 97% of the galaxies
that we can see.

886
00:59:04,249 --> 00:59:07,085
So there's all this real estate out there
that's waving at us and saying, hi,

887
00:59:07,085 --> 00:59:09,462
we're out here
and you can never come to us.

888
00:59:09,462 --> 00:59:11,589
That's if you go through spacetime.

889
00:59:11,589 --> 00:59:14,717
But what if you realize that spacetime
is just your headset?

890
00:59:15,301 --> 00:59:17,595
It's just the format of a game

891
00:59:18,513 --> 00:59:20,890
and you're not stuck inside the headset.

892
00:59:20,890 --> 00:59:26,104
You can play with the software
that's running the game.

893
00:59:26,104 --> 00:59:30,191
So it's like someone who's like in Grand
Theft Auto, you're a

894
00:59:30,191 --> 00:59:31,484
Wizard of Grand Theft Auto,

895
00:59:32,652 --> 00:59:33,403
so you know how to use the

896
00:59:33,403 --> 00:59:36,281
car and drive the roads
and you can beat everybody in the game.

897
00:59:37,282 --> 00:59:40,577
But suppose you actually know the software
that runs Grand Theft Auto.

898
00:59:40,577 --> 00:59:42,704
So you step outside of the Grand Theft
Auto headset

899
00:59:43,121 --> 00:59:44,414
and you can play with the software.

900
00:59:44,414 --> 00:59:48,084
Well, you can take the gasoline
out of the tank of the wizard.

901
00:59:48,084 --> 00:59:49,877
You can give them a flat tire.

902
00:59:49,877 --> 00:59:51,546
You can change the geometry of the roads.

903
00:59:51,546 --> 00:59:53,172
You can do whatever you want to.

904
00:59:53,172 --> 00:59:56,259
So once we understand
our space time headset,

905
00:59:56,718 --> 00:59:59,679
we won't have to travel
to the Andromeda Galaxy

906
01:00:00,555 --> 01:00:03,308
through space time,
which would take us 2.4 million years.

907
01:00:03,683 --> 01:00:10,481
We can just go around space time.

908
01:00:10,481 --> 01:00:14,152
I see the world around me as stepping into

909
01:00:15,194 --> 01:00:15,820
a quieter

910
01:00:15,820 --> 01:00:19,699
expression and experience
of what it means to be human

911
01:00:20,116 --> 01:00:22,619
and what it means
to be an aspect of divinity.

912
01:00:23,578 --> 01:00:27,290
But I don't think that we have
an endless amount of time.

913
01:00:27,290 --> 01:00:30,001
I get a sense that time is

914
01:00:30,001 --> 01:00:33,338
running out, that it's now or never time.

915
01:00:33,796 --> 01:00:35,965
I think we're on the right path.

916
01:00:35,965 --> 01:00:41,262
I have a sense of optimism
that because of the kinds of opportunities

917
01:00:41,262 --> 01:00:43,389
that we see today in the world
to communicate

918
01:00:44,515 --> 01:00:46,934
powerful and important ideas

919
01:00:46,934 --> 01:00:49,729
ways that we didn't have even
a few years ago

920
01:00:50,897 --> 01:00:54,734
are creating the possibility
that we can get to that place of critical

921
01:00:54,734 --> 01:00:57,820
mass, that we can reach critical mass

922
01:00:58,738 --> 01:01:01,240
before our time runs out.

923
01:01:01,240 --> 01:01:05,286
But we would be mistaken if we think
we have an endless amount of time

924
01:01:06,788 --> 01:01:08,623
on this planet.

925
01:01:08,665 --> 01:01:10,958
When each individual

926
01:01:10,958 --> 01:01:14,337
disidentifies
from their conditioned character,

927
01:01:14,921 --> 01:01:18,341
then they're no longer
acting as an egoic entity.

928
01:01:18,883 --> 01:01:22,845
And that brings
about a transformation on the planet.

929
01:01:23,346 --> 01:01:24,722
This brings a new Earth.

930
01:01:24,722 --> 01:01:28,017
Life as we know it right now
on this planet,

931
01:01:28,976 --> 01:01:31,813
I think we need to make some changes
and make them quickly,

932
01:01:32,563 --> 01:01:35,066
dramatically and radically

933
01:01:35,066 --> 01:01:37,694
if we want to see the tomorrow
for which we've all dreamt.

934
01:01:38,194 --> 01:01:42,573
So, could this understanding
become mainstream in our lifetime?

935
01:01:42,573 --> 01:01:43,866
Why not?

936
01:01:43,866 --> 01:01:48,371
Yes. The challenge we have right now is
nothing is working,

937
01:01:49,163 --> 01:01:54,252
and the time has come for us
to stand up and say that's true.

938
01:01:54,252 --> 01:01:56,337
Surely we can do better than this.

939
01:01:57,088 --> 01:01:58,339
Surely,

940
01:01:59,841 --> 01:02:02,260
we can expand our understanding
of who we are

941
01:02:02,719 --> 01:02:07,306
and our expression of our true nature.

942
01:02:07,306 --> 01:02:08,433
We need to pay attention

943
01:02:09,434 --> 01:02:10,810
to our environment,

944
01:02:10,810 --> 01:02:13,312
to our politics, to our economics,

945
01:02:14,313 --> 01:02:17,525
and to our spiritual process
on this planet.

946
01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:22,405
Because the problem in the world
today is not a political problem.

947
01:02:23,322 --> 01:02:25,867
It's not an economic problem.

948
01:02:25,867 --> 01:02:28,995
It's not a social problem.

949
01:02:28,995 --> 01:02:33,166
It's a spiritual problem.

950
01:02:33,166 --> 01:02:35,168
It has to do with how committed we are

951
01:02:35,168 --> 01:02:41,215
with stepping into the highest
spiritual truths.

952
01:02:41,215 --> 01:02:44,886
This is not New Age philosophy.

953
01:02:44,886 --> 01:02:47,096
These ideas have been around

954
01:02:47,096 --> 01:02:54,145
for thousands of years.

955
01:02:54,145 --> 01:02:57,398
The perennial wisdom has been expressed
through

956
01:02:57,398 --> 01:03:01,861
countless traditions and cultures
and like awareness

957
01:03:01,861 --> 01:03:05,656
itself, has always been hidden
in plain view.

958
01:03:07,116 --> 01:03:08,743
In Christianity,

959
01:03:08,743 --> 01:03:12,038
the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas contains

960
01:03:12,038 --> 01:03:14,874
direct pointers to our true nature.

961
01:03:15,958 --> 01:03:20,838
The disciples asked Jesus,
When will the kingdom come?

962
01:03:20,838 --> 01:03:24,383
Jesus said,
It will not come by waiting for it.

963
01:03:25,051 --> 01:03:30,223
It will not be a matter of saying,
Here it is, or there it is.

964
01:03:30,223 --> 01:03:33,559
Rather,
the kingdom of the father is spread out

965
01:03:33,559 --> 01:03:36,646
upon the earth and people do not see it.

966
01:03:38,397 --> 01:03:39,649
The Kingdom

967
01:03:39,649 --> 01:03:44,529
is not here or there. Awareness is not here
or there.

968
01:03:45,238 --> 01:03:48,950
It is not fixed in time and space.

969
01:03:48,950 --> 01:03:51,494
If you are waiting for something to happen

970
01:03:52,036 --> 01:03:56,666
for some outward event or some state,
some ascension,

971
01:03:57,083 --> 01:03:59,794
some healing or some energy, then

972
01:03:59,794 --> 01:04:02,839
your conditioned mind is still seeking.

973
01:04:03,256 --> 01:04:06,300
It is still mediating your experience

974
01:04:06,300 --> 01:04:07,969
of the now.

975
01:04:09,387 --> 01:04:11,973
in Buddhism they say samsara,

976
01:04:12,265 --> 01:04:15,309
the world of suffering and nirvana,

977
01:04:15,768 --> 01:04:20,231
the world of liberation
are not two separate worlds.

978
01:04:21,065 --> 01:04:24,026
They are one and the same.

979
01:04:24,026 --> 01:04:26,654
We don't manipulate or change things

980
01:04:26,863 --> 01:04:29,740
to arrive at some mystical reality.

981
01:04:30,700 --> 01:04:35,413
When we awaken,
the perfection of the world is revealed

982
01:04:35,872 --> 01:04:43,087
directly, as it is.

983
01:04:43,087 --> 01:04:48,551
Is it possible to simply be here
and now in this moment,

984
01:04:48,551 --> 01:04:53,556
unmediated by that seeking mind?

985
01:04:53,556 --> 01:04:58,394
Is it possible to be okay
with this moment as it is?

986
01:05:01,439 --> 01:05:02,899
To simply be.