1 00:00:09,134 --> 00:00:11,479 Awakening 2 00:00:11,479 --> 00:00:15,265 is the next natural stage of human development. 3 00:00:15,497 --> 00:00:20,471 So awakening is simply to recognize the nature of our essential being. 4 00:00:20,564 --> 00:00:26,530 Is not some weird, mystical religious experience 5 00:00:26,530 --> 00:00:28,282 that's only available to the few. 6 00:00:28,282 --> 00:00:30,650 It's available to everyone. 7 00:00:30,165 --> 00:00:35,911 What we essentially are is already fully awake, fully aware. 8 00:00:35,911 --> 00:00:38,289 And it's totally unlimited. 9 00:00:38,289 --> 00:00:41,247 Your true nature is closer 10 00:00:41,416 --> 00:00:44,538 than the you that you think you are. 11 00:00:45,214 --> 00:00:48,840 Consciousness is the ultimate reality of the universe. 12 00:00:48,895 --> 00:00:53,544 The next step in science is to say that consciousness is fundamental. 13 00:00:53,792 --> 00:00:55,658 What is awakening anyway? 14 00:00:55,658 --> 00:01:00,954 Somebody explain that to me. 15 00:01:23,742 --> 00:01:26,211 What is awakening? 16 00:01:26,628 --> 00:01:32,196 Whether you call it the true self, the imminent self or "no self", 17 00:01:32,405 --> 00:01:37,225 or Buddha nature, Tao or Christ Consciousness, 18 00:01:37,406 --> 00:01:40,422 it really doesn't matter. 19 00:01:40,422 --> 00:01:45,098 In this film, we're going to refer to it as awareness. 20 00:01:45,230 --> 00:01:46,622 Awareness 21 00:01:46,622 --> 00:01:49,750 is not the property of any religion. 22 00:01:49,750 --> 00:01:53,163 Awakening or realizing awareness 23 00:01:53,175 --> 00:01:55,599 is like waking from a dream. 24 00:01:56,190 --> 00:01:58,440 The dream of your character 25 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:00,907 in the play of life. 26 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:03,423 Through our characters, 27 00:02:03,423 --> 00:02:05,834 we experience the world 28 00:02:05,834 --> 00:02:10,130 in all of its beauty and its ugliness. 29 00:02:10,444 --> 00:02:14,467 We can call this experience of life and death duality. 30 00:02:15,197 --> 00:02:19,885 Around and around we go, fixated on the characters, 31 00:02:19,885 --> 00:02:22,498 thoughts and sensations. 32 00:02:22,618 --> 00:02:24,123 Good and bad. 33 00:02:24,123 --> 00:02:25,553 War and peace. 34 00:02:25,553 --> 00:02:27,397 Light and darkness. 35 00:02:27,397 --> 00:02:29,546 Birth and death. 36 00:02:30,016 --> 00:02:31,818 Until we wake up and find out 37 00:02:31,818 --> 00:02:34,904 we are not the character. 38 00:02:59,787 --> 00:03:03,647 The Invitation 39 00:03:03,730 --> 00:03:06,428 In this film, we are extending an invitation 40 00:03:06,458 --> 00:03:10,068 for you to directly experience your true nature. 41 00:03:10,568 --> 00:03:14,652 To find out directly, not intellectually... 42 00:03:15,122 --> 00:03:16,791 Who are you? 43 00:03:17,530 --> 00:03:19,373 We will repeat this 44 00:03:19,373 --> 00:03:21,814 invitation in different ways. 45 00:03:22,535 --> 00:03:25,502 When inquiring into who you are, 46 00:03:25,983 --> 00:03:29,632 let everything be exactly as it is. 47 00:03:30,251 --> 00:03:34,319 Don't move the mind to make something happen 48 00:03:34,740 --> 00:03:38,211 or to find some answer on the level of mind. 49 00:03:38,681 --> 00:03:41,939 And yet, don't try to push away the mind. 50 00:03:42,616 --> 00:03:46,315 Simply intend to directly experience who you are. 51 00:03:47,399 --> 00:03:52,785 Letting the mind be a "don't know mind" 52 00:04:02,085 --> 00:04:08,806 Awakening is the answer to all of the world's problems on every level. 53 00:04:08,806 --> 00:04:13,569 All of the world's problems stem from a delusion. 54 00:04:13,696 --> 00:04:17,645 The fundamental delusion of the mind. 55 00:04:18,045 --> 00:04:21,965 And that delusion is that I am this limited character. 56 00:04:22,770 --> 00:04:25,702 When we're living from a small, separate self, 57 00:04:25,841 --> 00:04:29,917 there's always some kind of perpetual dissatisfaction. 58 00:04:30,122 --> 00:04:34,118 So this can be big dissatisfaction like trauma, 59 00:04:34,190 --> 00:04:38,081 or it can be just this background feeling... 60 00:04:38,085 --> 00:04:39,745 "something's not right. 61 00:04:39,745 --> 00:04:42,420 Something's wrong. I'm missing something." 62 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:47,875 Even when I have some pleasure, even when I achieve something in world, 63 00:04:47,875 --> 00:04:51,070 even when I have a good relationship, 64 00:04:51,070 --> 00:04:54,274 if I just have a pause or a moment, 65 00:04:54,929 --> 00:04:58,058 there's this dissatisfied feeling like 66 00:04:58,589 --> 00:05:02,233 I'm isolated or cut off from something. 67 00:05:02,251 --> 00:05:05,680 So this feeling, which it seems like 68 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:09,434 most people have, can motivate us 69 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,479 to awaken from that small, separate self 70 00:05:13,479 --> 00:05:18,521 whose nature is a kind of separation anxiety. 71 00:05:18,681 --> 00:05:24,532 This limited character has a tendency to grasp for what it wants. 72 00:05:24,532 --> 00:05:28,058 It's just a collection of conditioned patterns 73 00:05:28,232 --> 00:05:33,265 of of craving what it wants or trying to push away what it doesn't want. 74 00:05:33,490 --> 00:05:37,628 It's this endless process of you can say a pleasure 75 00:05:37,628 --> 00:05:42,221 principle, you know, going after pleasure, avoiding pain. 76 00:05:42,450 --> 00:05:44,635 And if we believe we are this 77 00:05:44,927 --> 00:05:48,976 character, this conditioned pattern, 78 00:05:49,296 --> 00:05:52,935 then we suffer and we create suffering in the world. 79 00:05:53,275 --> 00:05:59,258 The world becomes a reflection of that egoic consciousness. 80 00:05:59,690 --> 00:06:02,215 The benefit of awakening 81 00:06:02,372 --> 00:06:05,232 is that you suffer less 82 00:06:05,232 --> 00:06:07,978 and the people around you suffer less. 83 00:06:08,076 --> 00:06:13,067 There's no doubt in my mind that my initial connection with 84 00:06:13,129 --> 00:06:18,527 my understanding of God was an awakening 85 00:06:18,527 --> 00:06:22,625 for me in my life, the biggest awakening that I've ever experienced. 86 00:06:22,735 --> 00:06:27,599 It was very much as if I had been asleep really for 50 years. 87 00:06:27,988 --> 00:06:32,690 Walking around like a robot, just doing the things that I was taught to do 88 00:06:32,980 --> 00:06:36,396 from the time I was a young man, you know, I had a formula down, 89 00:06:36,396 --> 00:06:42,157 get the girl, get the car, get a job, get the house, get a spouse. 90 00:06:42,157 --> 00:06:46,624 A formula that I thought was how Iife was supposed to work 91 00:06:46,685 --> 00:06:48,582 until I got to be around 53 years old. 92 00:06:48,582 --> 00:06:53,166 And I realized that while I had done most of those things and had become 93 00:06:53,496 --> 00:06:59,200 professionally successful to a degree, then I realized that none of 94 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:03,543 that matters. I who woke up somewhere around the age of 53, realizing 95 00:07:03,956 --> 00:07:06,620 none of this matters, 96 00:07:06,620 --> 00:07:08,668 none of this means anything. 97 00:07:08,668 --> 00:07:12,144 I was shocked to find how this literally meant, 98 00:07:12,306 --> 00:07:16,246 how pointless it all was. 99 00:07:18,963 --> 00:07:28,863 Who are you? 100 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,279 When you stop following the script 101 00:07:32,279 --> 00:07:34,493 that has been laid out for your character. 102 00:07:35,225 --> 00:07:37,860 The one inherited from parents, society 103 00:07:37,917 --> 00:07:40,543 and biological conditioning, 104 00:07:40,903 --> 00:07:44,560 then new dimensions open up within the game. 105 00:07:45,377 --> 00:07:47,467 The path opens up, 106 00:07:47,957 --> 00:07:51,499 but it is not a path to reach some destination. 107 00:07:52,185 --> 00:07:54,917 It is a pathless path, 108 00:07:54,917 --> 00:07:57,727 a stripping away of illusion to arrive 109 00:07:57,727 --> 00:08:02,851 exactly where you are in the now. 110 00:08:10,198 --> 00:08:12,658 My name is Rupert Spira. 111 00:08:12,658 --> 00:08:15,161 I speak about the essential 112 00:08:15,620 --> 00:08:18,664 non-dual understanding that underlies 113 00:08:18,706 --> 00:08:22,835 all the great religious and spiritual traditions. 114 00:08:23,365 --> 00:08:28,277 And I write and lead guided meditations 115 00:08:28,277 --> 00:08:33,179 and have conversations whose purpose is to lead 116 00:08:33,513 --> 00:08:38,151 to an experiential recognition 117 00:08:38,267 --> 00:08:41,605 of this understanding. 118 00:08:42,396 --> 00:08:44,306 Understand that 119 00:08:44,306 --> 00:08:46,984 the peace and the happiness 120 00:08:46,984 --> 00:08:49,471 for which we all long 121 00:08:49,471 --> 00:08:52,856 above all else, can never, 122 00:08:52,856 --> 00:08:57,286 by definition be found in objective experience. 123 00:08:57,854 --> 00:09:00,718 It can never be provided by objects, substances, 124 00:09:00,718 --> 00:09:04,161 activities and relationships. 125 00:09:04,377 --> 00:09:06,235 I would suggest 126 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:09,234 understanding that 127 00:09:09,234 --> 00:09:12,116 clearly and not spending the rest of one's life 128 00:09:12,116 --> 00:09:16,660 seeking fulfillment where it cannot be found. 129 00:09:16,810 --> 00:09:22,478 Anyone who is watching this movie is doing so precisely because they have 130 00:09:22,478 --> 00:09:27,049 either understood or at least intuited 131 00:09:27,049 --> 00:09:31,375 that the peace and happiness for which they long cannot be found 132 00:09:31,515 --> 00:09:35,116 in objective experience and have begun 133 00:09:35,226 --> 00:09:38,588 this investigation into their true nature. 134 00:09:38,977 --> 00:09:42,312 That is the most important investigation 135 00:09:42,749 --> 00:09:46,708 one can make, and it is the investigation upon 136 00:09:46,708 --> 00:09:51,733 which the depends our happiness. 137 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:54,883 The biggest question of my life, of course, 138 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,882 which I believe is the question most people look at sooner or later, is 139 00:10:00,382 --> 00:10:02,995 "What is the point, actually?" 140 00:10:02,995 --> 00:10:05,579 "What is the point of life?" 141 00:10:05,731 --> 00:10:09,984 That, much to my surprise, I was told that the point of life 142 00:10:09,984 --> 00:10:14,907 had nothing to do with anything that I was doing. 143 00:10:15,448 --> 00:10:17,914 It wasn't about my job. 144 00:10:17,914 --> 00:10:20,439 It wasn't about my career. 145 00:10:20,439 --> 00:10:24,558 It wasn't about hardly anything in my physical life. 146 00:10:25,119 --> 00:10:28,419 Those were aspects of my life were not the point of life. 147 00:10:29,378 --> 00:10:32,640 The point of my life, as I have come to understand 148 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,717 it was for me to experience, 149 00:10:35,717 --> 00:10:39,023 express, demonstrate and fulfill 150 00:10:39,525 --> 00:10:42,836 my true identity, who I really am. 151 00:10:43,689 --> 00:10:45,811 I think that the biggest question 152 00:10:45,811 --> 00:10:49,353 that most people face is a question that hardly 153 00:10:49,353 --> 00:10:53,037 anyone ever asks themselves or ever answers. 154 00:10:53,810 --> 00:10:56,543 The biggest question of life, 155 00:10:56,543 --> 00:10:59,616 in my understanding, is "who am I?" 156 00:11:00,159 --> 00:11:03,120 Who am I? 157 00:11:04,997 --> 00:11:08,165 Am I simply a physical entity 158 00:11:08,265 --> 00:11:11,222 like a bird in the sky or fish in the sea? 159 00:11:11,313 --> 00:11:15,936 You know, perhaps more sophisticated, but just a physical entity. 160 00:11:16,276 --> 00:11:18,855 I'm born, I live, I die. 161 00:11:18,862 --> 00:11:21,715 That's the beginning and the end of it. 162 00:11:21,715 --> 00:11:24,821 Or is it possible, just possible 163 00:11:25,059 --> 00:11:27,228 that I'm more than that? 164 00:11:27,269 --> 00:11:30,388 Is it possible that I'm a spiritual entity 165 00:11:30,978 --> 00:11:33,780 simply having a physical experience? 166 00:11:39,209 --> 00:11:41,975 Every experience in your life 167 00:11:41,975 --> 00:11:45,650 has brought you to this one universal question. 168 00:11:46,249 --> 00:11:48,416 Who are you? 169 00:11:50,418 --> 00:11:55,614 Don't look for an answer with the mind. 170 00:11:56,930 --> 00:12:01,845 Let everything be exactly as it is. 171 00:12:04,793 --> 00:12:08,655 Who is aware of the mind? 172 00:12:11,496 --> 00:12:15,725 Feel everything that comes up. 173 00:12:17,317 --> 00:12:21,431 Who is aware of those feelings? 174 00:12:23,036 --> 00:12:26,900 Have a complete experience of everything that comes up 175 00:12:26,900 --> 00:12:31,146 as a result of your inquiry. 176 00:12:42,450 --> 00:12:44,699 I'm Donald Hoffman and I'm a professor 177 00:12:44,701 --> 00:12:48,418 emeritus of cognitive sciences at the University of California at Irvine. 178 00:12:48,618 --> 00:12:51,642 My work has been teaching students, although now I'm emeritus for 179 00:12:51,648 --> 00:12:54,199 I don't teach. And now I do research. 180 00:12:54,199 --> 00:12:58,613 I do research right now on consciousness, mathematical models 181 00:12:58,613 --> 00:13:02,655 of consciousness, and how physics and spacetime might arise 182 00:13:02,655 --> 00:13:07,978 from a theory of consciousness that's completely mathematically precise. 183 00:13:08,570 --> 00:13:11,094 My own journey has been 184 00:13:11,129 --> 00:13:14,469 both from the spiritual side and from the science side. 185 00:13:14,469 --> 00:13:19,792 So my my father was a minister, fundamentalist Christian minister. 186 00:13:19,921 --> 00:13:22,727 So I got that on Sundays 187 00:13:22,812 --> 00:13:26,436 and I got science at school and they conflicted, right? 188 00:13:26,486 --> 00:13:30,260 The stories I was getting were, contradictory. 189 00:13:30,260 --> 00:13:35,112 And so as a teenager, I realized I needed to figure things out for myself. 190 00:13:35,112 --> 00:13:37,843 And I decided the question I 191 00:13:37,843 --> 00:13:41,445 wanted to answer was, are we machines? 192 00:13:41,445 --> 00:13:43,624 Are people just machines or not? 193 00:13:43,624 --> 00:13:48,473 I mean, from the physical point of view, are we just be machines 194 00:13:48,494 --> 00:13:52,610 From a spiritual point of view, we wouldn't be machines. 195 00:13:52,155 --> 00:13:54,773 It wasn't precise enough to say what we would be. 196 00:13:54,773 --> 00:13:58,357 And so so I decided to ask the question 197 00:13:58,420 --> 00:14:00,929 scientifically, are we just machines? 198 00:14:00,929 --> 00:14:04,743 And the best way I thought to do that would be to study artificial intelligence. 199 00:14:04,743 --> 00:14:07,542 And so so I went to MIT 200 00:14:07,542 --> 00:14:12,041 and was in the artificial intelligence lab studying artificial intelligence 201 00:14:12,139 --> 00:14:15,605 and also in what's now the brain and cognitive science department, studying 202 00:14:15,605 --> 00:14:17,814 the human side of things. Because I wanted to do both. 203 00:14:17,814 --> 00:14:20,929 I wanted to see what can machines do and what is special, if anything, 204 00:14:20,929 --> 00:14:25,800 about humans and human neuroscience. To answer that, 205 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,827 that very question ar the spiritual traditions right? 206 00:14:28,827 --> 00:14:31,190 Or are we more than just machines 207 00:14:31,190 --> 00:14:34,714 or is the physical, scientific point of view right? 208 00:14:34,714 --> 00:14:36,491 And we are just machines, 209 00:14:36,491 --> 00:14:38,335 and consciousness is just an artifact 210 00:14:38,335 --> 00:14:41,136 of brain activity. 211 00:14:43,456 --> 00:14:49,009 The scientific materialist paradigm that has been predominant in the last century 212 00:14:49,499 --> 00:14:53,021 denies the existence of anything beyond the physical, 213 00:14:53,875 --> 00:14:55,378 anything that cannot be 214 00:14:55,378 --> 00:14:57,519 verified by the scientific method. 215 00:14:58,797 --> 00:15:00,954 Science is an impasse. 216 00:15:01,384 --> 00:15:06,005 It cannot move beyond the paradox that is fundamental to quantum physics, 217 00:15:06,259 --> 00:15:09,042 which brought it face to face with the observer, 218 00:15:09,764 --> 00:15:12,589 with consciousness itself. 219 00:15:12,859 --> 00:15:15,581 Likewise, religions are, for the most part, functioning 220 00:15:15,581 --> 00:15:18,892 only on the level of belief. 221 00:15:19,332 --> 00:15:24,457 They've lost their original purpose, which was to lead to direct experience, 222 00:15:24,457 --> 00:15:27,487 to the truth of who and what we are. 223 00:15:28,190 --> 00:15:31,278 The split between science and spirituality 224 00:15:31,470 --> 00:15:33,968 has rendered both impoverished. 225 00:15:34,801 --> 00:15:39,451 Religions and spiritual systems desperately need rigorous methods, 226 00:15:39,586 --> 00:15:43,308 which can be shown to create conditions for awakening to happen. 227 00:15:43,939 --> 00:15:46,788 And science desperately needs an openness 228 00:15:46,788 --> 00:15:49,907 to the possibility of something beyond the physical. 229 00:15:50,537 --> 00:15:53,758 It is not about giving up religion or science, 230 00:15:53,890 --> 00:15:58,569 but about going deeper, being willing to change ourselves 231 00:15:58,925 --> 00:16:02,253 so that we become a better tool for investigation. 232 00:16:03,188 --> 00:16:05,937 We are the ones doing the experiment, 233 00:16:06,066 --> 00:16:09,462 and the experiment itself. 234 00:16:10,862 --> 00:16:15,181 Religion has been the language and the container 235 00:16:15,475 --> 00:16:20,554 of these traditions of meditation, spirituality 236 00:16:20,837 --> 00:16:24,108 that have been written down and passed 237 00:16:24,108 --> 00:16:27,630 on through the generations. 238 00:16:27,786 --> 00:16:32,861 Certainly there is some language that is very literal, 239 00:16:32,861 --> 00:16:35,587 which divides religions and divides 240 00:16:35,714 --> 00:16:38,711 cultures when things are taken literally. 241 00:16:39,004 --> 00:16:43,663 But if you feel the spirit of religion, 242 00:16:44,044 --> 00:16:45,860 you can follow the 243 00:16:45,860 --> 00:16:49,875 thread back to authentic awakening. 244 00:16:50,165 --> 00:16:55,380 Anyone has the potential, whether they have belief or no belief, 245 00:16:55,187 --> 00:16:57,975 because awakening is inherent 246 00:16:57,975 --> 00:17:02,662 within our human consciousness, just by our human birth. 247 00:17:02,894 --> 00:17:06,237 So whatever you call it, and whenever language is used, 248 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,203 there's certain principles that seem to be the same 249 00:17:10,465 --> 00:17:13,765 throughout these different religions 250 00:17:13,765 --> 00:17:16,705 and spiritualities and meditation traditions. 251 00:17:17,036 --> 00:17:19,872 When I was younger, this understanding 252 00:17:19,872 --> 00:17:25,033 was mainly available in the Eastern spiritual traditions. 253 00:17:25,033 --> 00:17:27,046 It was available in the Western 254 00:17:27,046 --> 00:17:31,855 traditions, but it was so disguised and codified 255 00:17:31,968 --> 00:17:35,505 in those traditions as to be almost inaccessible. 256 00:17:35,679 --> 00:17:39,764 So many people of my generation went physically 257 00:17:39,892 --> 00:17:45,467 or at least intellectually, to the East to find this understanding 258 00:17:45,597 --> 00:17:49,639 and Eastern culture by comparison with 259 00:17:49,898 --> 00:17:53,001 Western culture is exotic. 260 00:17:53,322 --> 00:17:58,452 And so this understanding acquired a flavor of the exotic 261 00:17:58,619 --> 00:18:02,951 from the cultures in which it was expressed. 262 00:18:03,561 --> 00:18:06,197 And many people, myself included 263 00:18:07,002 --> 00:18:09,481 thought as a result of this 264 00:18:09,481 --> 00:18:13,110 that there was something exotic about the non dual 265 00:18:13,110 --> 00:18:17,846 understanding; that it required some extra ordinary way of life, 266 00:18:17,846 --> 00:18:21,171 that you had to give up family life 267 00:18:21,229 --> 00:18:25,415 or grow your hair or get a special name or subscribe 268 00:18:25,415 --> 00:18:31,678 to some kind of teacher or or tradition or engage in strange practices. 269 00:18:31,678 --> 00:18:35,286 All these kind of things which had nothing to do 270 00:18:35,286 --> 00:18:38,918 with the core understanding. They were to do with the culture 271 00:18:38,918 --> 00:18:43,326 in which the understanding was expressed at a particular time. 272 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,796 So now the understanding has been completely divested 273 00:18:47,914 --> 00:18:54,455 of the traditional cultural packaging in which many of us first heard about it. 274 00:18:54,572 --> 00:18:59,768 And now just the essential understanding is available 275 00:18:59,768 --> 00:19:03,388 in a way that enables us to carry on leading our lives 276 00:19:03,426 --> 00:19:07,812 exactly as they are. Family life, work life... 277 00:19:07,903 --> 00:19:13,384 it's not necessary to make any external changes in one's life. 278 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,155 The challenge we have on this planet 279 00:19:16,155 --> 00:19:19,197 is that we think there's more than one 280 00:19:19,366 --> 00:19:20,791 essence. 281 00:19:21,501 --> 00:19:22,536 So we live in a 282 00:19:22,995 --> 00:19:26,123 world of what I would call duality. 283 00:19:26,683 --> 00:19:29,104 There's male and female, black and white, 284 00:19:29,634 --> 00:19:34,006 big and small, fast and slow, up and down, here and there, before 285 00:19:34,006 --> 00:19:37,477 and after, but in fact, there's only one thing. 286 00:19:38,997 --> 00:19:41,629 All things are one thing. 287 00:19:42,389 --> 00:19:45,173 There is only one thing. 288 00:19:45,643 --> 00:19:48,352 So it turns out that when we look deeply at everything 289 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, 290 00:19:53,146 --> 00:19:58,342 male and female, are all the same thing, simply expressing 291 00:19:58,482 --> 00:20:02,782 different characteristics but in no way separate from each other. 292 00:20:03,421 --> 00:20:05,980 I believe that all of us 293 00:20:05,980 --> 00:20:07,915 are individuations 294 00:20:07,915 --> 00:20:09,374 of God. 295 00:20:10,620 --> 00:20:12,461 I believe that God exists in, as, and 296 00:20:12,461 --> 00:20:18,650 through every human being and for that matter, every sentient 297 00:20:18,650 --> 00:20:21,094 being in the cosmos. 298 00:20:21,094 --> 00:20:25,173 So I see then that I am in relationship to God 299 00:20:26,380 --> 00:20:28,393 as a wave is to the ocean. 300 00:20:28,953 --> 00:20:31,293 A wave is no different from the ocean; it's 301 00:20:31,293 --> 00:20:36,097 simply an arising of the ocean in individual form. 302 00:20:36,631 --> 00:20:39,309 And when that individuation is complete, 303 00:20:39,519 --> 00:20:43,025 the wave recedes back into the ocean whence it came. 304 00:20:43,025 --> 00:20:46,160 To arise again on another day. 305 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:51,705 So I believe that we are all individuations of divinity, 306 00:20:52,005 --> 00:20:54,809 and when we see everything as divine, 307 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,087 we change our relationship with everything. 308 00:20:58,765 --> 00:21:00,948 And everything becomes 309 00:21:00,948 --> 00:21:03,274 different in our experience. 310 00:21:04,255 --> 00:21:09,535 That's how the world changes. 311 00:21:17,275 --> 00:21:21,328 Consciousness is the ultimate reality of the universe, 312 00:21:21,888 --> 00:21:27,196 so we might well ask if consciousness is the ultimate reality of the universe 313 00:21:27,196 --> 00:21:31,231 and everything, and everyone is obviously that, then how come 314 00:21:33,643 --> 00:21:38,189 the world appears to us as a multiplicity and diversity 315 00:21:38,213 --> 00:21:43,568 of discrete and independently existing people 316 00:21:43,568 --> 00:21:47,582 and animals and things all made out of stuff called matter. 317 00:21:47,582 --> 00:21:52,330 How can we reconcile this statement that consciousness 318 00:21:52,330 --> 00:21:54,757 is the ultimate reality of the universe when it appears 319 00:21:54,858 --> 00:21:58,640 as a multiplicity and diversity of objects made out of matter? 320 00:21:58,676 --> 00:22:02,362 So the the evidence that I'm using to suggest that consciousness 321 00:22:02,362 --> 00:22:06,908 is fundamental has many aspects to it. 322 00:22:07,788 --> 00:22:10,101 One is that physics itself 323 00:22:10,101 --> 00:22:13,021 says that space time isn't fundamental 324 00:22:13,021 --> 00:22:16,465 and evolutionary theory also agrees that spacetime 325 00:22:16,465 --> 00:22:19,048 and physical objects are not fundamental reality. 326 00:22:19,192 --> 00:22:23,800 Now, both of those theories tell us only that, that spacetime is not fundamental. 327 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:26,757 They don't tell us what is beyond spacetime. 328 00:22:27,345 --> 00:22:31,853 And so my argument is that what the physicists are finding 329 00:22:31,903 --> 00:22:34,929 beyond spacetime, they're finding mathematical structures, 330 00:22:35,134 --> 00:22:37,572 but what those are about 331 00:22:37,650 --> 00:22:41,421 is not really clear. What is this realm beyond space time about? 332 00:22:41,671 --> 00:22:46,148 And so I'm proposing that the realm beyond space time is about consciousness. 333 00:22:46,481 --> 00:22:49,492 And I would suggest that infinite consciousness has the ability 334 00:22:49,492 --> 00:22:54,655 to localize itself as numerous separate subjects of experience, 335 00:22:55,039 --> 00:22:58,627 that is, all sentient beings, all people or animals. 336 00:22:58,919 --> 00:23:03,423 Each of us are localizations of infinite consciousness, 337 00:23:03,423 --> 00:23:08,124 in infinite consciousness made only of infinite consciousness 338 00:23:08,339 --> 00:23:11,055 from whose perspective it views 339 00:23:11,055 --> 00:23:14,960 its own activity as the outside world. 340 00:23:15,451 --> 00:23:18,845 So what appears to us as a world made out of matter 341 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:24,060 from our localized perspectives, is from the point of view of reality, 342 00:23:24,178 --> 00:23:28,703 simply the activity of the one infinite consciousness. 343 00:23:28,821 --> 00:23:33,614 In other words, in the ultimate analysis, there are no discrete 344 00:23:33,614 --> 00:23:37,668 or independently existing things or people. 345 00:23:38,007 --> 00:23:41,059 There is one infinite, indivisible, whole. 346 00:23:41,211 --> 00:23:45,604 The unity of being that is only refracted 347 00:23:46,305 --> 00:23:49,824 into an apparent multiplicity and diversity of objects and things, 348 00:23:49,983 --> 00:23:54,116 when The One looks at its own activity 349 00:23:54,331 --> 00:23:56,524 through the perceiving faculties 350 00:23:56,651 --> 00:23:58,728 of the finite mind. 351 00:23:59,931 --> 00:24:01,560 If we are awake, 352 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:05,343 we realize that there's one awareness 353 00:24:05,665 --> 00:24:09,802 that is disguised as all of these different beings on the planet, 354 00:24:10,078 --> 00:24:13,869 one awareness shining through everyone's eyes. 355 00:24:13,992 --> 00:24:18,577 Then we literally see ourselves in others. 356 00:24:18,691 --> 00:24:22,169 And that tendency to operate as an ego, 357 00:24:22,169 --> 00:24:26,796 the tendency to take for oneself 358 00:24:26,961 --> 00:24:30,677 falls away because we directly realize the truth. 359 00:24:31,261 --> 00:24:35,431 The truth is that we're all one consciousness. 360 00:24:35,765 --> 00:24:39,008 The experience of my spiritual self 361 00:24:39,989 --> 00:24:42,186 was only possible in the realm 362 00:24:42,186 --> 00:24:44,869 of the physical for a very good reason, 363 00:24:45,419 --> 00:24:49,530 because only in the realm of the physical was the opposite available. 364 00:24:50,388 --> 00:24:53,035 In other words, just use a simple example, 365 00:24:53,316 --> 00:24:56,279 if I wanted to experience myself, if I could speak 366 00:24:56,279 --> 00:24:58,889 metaphorically, as the light, 367 00:24:59,522 --> 00:25:03,345 I couldn't experience being the light if I was amidst the light, 368 00:25:03,548 --> 00:25:06,011 nothing else around me but the light, 369 00:25:06,130 --> 00:25:10,256 which is a perfect definition of the realm of the spiritual. 370 00:25:10,576 --> 00:25:14,312 So I would come to a realm which I call the realm of the physical, 371 00:25:14,459 --> 00:25:17,128 where there is something other than the light. 372 00:25:17,453 --> 00:25:20,102 Because if I want to experience myself as the light, 373 00:25:20,102 --> 00:25:23,659 not just know myself as that, but experience it, 374 00:25:23,890 --> 00:25:25,950 I could only do that where there was 375 00:25:25,950 --> 00:25:29,311 the opposite of the light, in this case, the darkness. 376 00:25:29,528 --> 00:25:30,904 So I brought 377 00:25:30,904 --> 00:25:36,721 this opportunity to the physical realm where the light and the dark exist 378 00:25:36,721 --> 00:25:40,658 simultaneously, and then in that outward 379 00:25:40,658 --> 00:25:45,383 expression of myself as the light, I could be who I really am. 380 00:25:46,085 --> 00:25:48,511 And this understanding suggests 381 00:25:48,511 --> 00:25:53,936 that behind our differences we are all the same being, 382 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:59,954 not a similar being, but we are all literally one... the same being. 383 00:25:59,954 --> 00:26:05,386 And love is the felt experience 384 00:26:05,883 --> 00:26:09,420 of this oneness or shared being. 385 00:26:09,413 --> 00:26:15,241 It's a theorem of our theory that there is ultimately one consciousness. 386 00:26:15,699 --> 00:26:19,850 So we have this dynamics of many, many conscious agents. 387 00:26:19,850 --> 00:26:22,953 But the theory tells us that ultimately all those conscious agents 388 00:26:22,953 --> 00:26:26,814 are really just projections of a single one consciousness. 389 00:26:26,814 --> 00:26:30,181 The current paradigm in science 390 00:26:30,583 --> 00:26:33,260 has, and it has been for for centuries, 391 00:26:33,369 --> 00:26:37,580 is that space and time are the fundamental nature of reality. 392 00:26:37,580 --> 00:26:40,831 They're irreducible and they are the foundation of everything. 393 00:26:40,995 --> 00:26:44,443 And prior to Einstein, space and time were viewed as separate. 394 00:26:44,495 --> 00:26:48,347 Now, space and time together, a unified into spacetime are viewed 395 00:26:48,347 --> 00:26:50,204 as the fundamental nature of reality. 396 00:26:50,204 --> 00:26:52,698 And science has then assumed that 397 00:26:53,562 --> 00:26:57,510 spacetime and objects in spacetime are the foundational reality. 398 00:26:58,196 --> 00:27:01,243 And so, for example, when we talk about consciousness, 399 00:27:01,870 --> 00:27:06,682 consciousness itself then must be somehow a product of objects in space and time. 400 00:27:06,914 --> 00:27:11,457 In that physicalist framework space and time and physical objects 401 00:27:11,713 --> 00:27:15,828 without any consciousness are the fundamental reality. 402 00:27:15,828 --> 00:27:20,584 And consciousness comes later on in the evolution of the universe, right? 403 00:27:20,646 --> 00:27:23,214 So that the big bang, there was no consciousness, 404 00:27:23,214 --> 00:27:25,289 there was just spacetime and energy. 405 00:27:25,458 --> 00:27:27,818 The energy coalesced into massive particles 406 00:27:28,087 --> 00:27:31,072 and eventually life emerged after who knows how many millions 407 00:27:31,072 --> 00:27:33,239 or hundreds of millions or billions of years. 408 00:27:33,239 --> 00:27:36,584 Then after that consciousness came, even later. 409 00:27:37,857 --> 00:27:41,705 From that point of view, when you die, the physical complexity that gave 410 00:27:41,705 --> 00:27:45,169 rise to consciousness dissolves and so your consciousness dissolves. 411 00:27:45,169 --> 00:27:49,408 And so the physicalist framework really does eliminate consciousness 412 00:27:49,762 --> 00:27:52,577 as a fundamental thing, altogether and says that 413 00:27:52,577 --> 00:27:55,251 when your body dies, your consciousness goes with it. 414 00:27:56,946 --> 00:27:58,694 From this other point of view... 415 00:27:58,694 --> 00:28:02,358 what I've done with my colleagues, we have we used evolutionary theory 416 00:28:02,358 --> 00:28:05,228 to point out that it's an implication 417 00:28:05,228 --> 00:28:08,627 of evolutionary theory, that space and time is not fundamental, 418 00:28:08,627 --> 00:28:11,891 so the physicalist interpretation of evolution is wrong. 419 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,424 The idea that that space and time and particles 420 00:28:15,424 --> 00:28:21,437 somehow have evolved due to human organisms 421 00:28:21,504 --> 00:28:25,299 is is the wrong framework, because spacetime itself is not fundamental. 422 00:28:25,397 --> 00:28:28,457 We're positing a dynamics beyond spacetime that's much richer. 423 00:28:28,457 --> 00:28:30,313 The dynamics of consciousness. 424 00:28:30,313 --> 00:28:32,933 What we do not do is throw away our old theories. 425 00:28:32,933 --> 00:28:35,237 When physicists say spacetime is doomed, 426 00:28:35,237 --> 00:28:38,133 that doesn't mean we no longer pay attention to Einstein. 427 00:28:38,133 --> 00:28:40,593 Absolutely not. We pay attention to Einstein. 428 00:28:40,802 --> 00:28:45,508 Any new theory beyond spacetime that the physicists come up with better project 429 00:28:45,508 --> 00:28:49,632 into space time and give us back Einstein and it better give us back quantum theory 430 00:28:49,632 --> 00:28:50,643 or you're wrong. 431 00:28:50,643 --> 00:28:52,706 All of our old theories 432 00:28:52,706 --> 00:28:56,979 are wonderful, wonderful friends and we're going to keep them 433 00:28:57,068 --> 00:29:00,160 as special cases of a deeper theory. 434 00:29:00,373 --> 00:29:03,749 So in our theory of consciousness, we have to do the same thing. 435 00:29:03,749 --> 00:29:05,786 We can't just propose anything we want. 436 00:29:05,786 --> 00:29:08,210 We have to have a theory of consciousness that projects 437 00:29:08,210 --> 00:29:10,090 and gives us back space time, 438 00:29:10,090 --> 00:29:13,507 and gives us back quantum theory, and gives us back special and general 439 00:29:13,507 --> 00:29:16,747 relativity, and gives us back evolution by natural selection. 440 00:29:16,917 --> 00:29:20,132 If we cannot do that in precise mathematical detail, then there's 441 00:29:20,264 --> 00:29:24,073 no reason for scientists to take our theory of consciousness seriously. 442 00:29:24,907 --> 00:29:29,020 It's as if infinite consciousness puts on a virtual reality headset. Infinite 443 00:29:29,070 --> 00:29:32,932 consciousness puts on a a VR headset made of thinking and perceiving. 444 00:29:33,105 --> 00:29:37,633 And in doing so, the moment it puts on the VR headset, 445 00:29:37,903 --> 00:29:41,932 it localizes itself within its own activity. 446 00:29:42,249 --> 00:29:46,743 And through that headset it looks out through the perceiving 447 00:29:46,743 --> 00:29:51,539 faculties of a finite mind; seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling. 448 00:29:51,740 --> 00:29:56,328 And it fragments the unity of its own being 449 00:29:56,503 --> 00:30:00,289 and makes it appear as 10,000 things. 450 00:30:01,103 --> 00:30:03,109 What I'm suggesting is that 451 00:30:03,609 --> 00:30:08,856 there is very much more to to the universe than the finite mind. 452 00:30:08,856 --> 00:30:14,550 I'm not suggesting that the universe only appears in each of our finite minds. 453 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:19,833 The universe exists outside of our finite mind, but inside consciousness. 454 00:30:20,007 --> 00:30:23,420 But it is the limitations of our finite mind 455 00:30:23,687 --> 00:30:27,459 that give the universe its appearance. 456 00:30:28,417 --> 00:30:32,645 So when we look out at the universe, we're seeing the reality 457 00:30:32,645 --> 00:30:37,510 that exists prior to its being perceived. 458 00:30:37,136 --> 00:30:41,551 But we are seeing it through the lens of our perceiving faculties, 459 00:30:41,881 --> 00:30:45,593 which gives it its appearance. 460 00:30:46,363 --> 00:30:51,273 So the idea of awakening in many spiritual traditions has been the idea 461 00:30:51,273 --> 00:30:54,535 that what we have taken as reality 462 00:30:54,644 --> 00:30:58,595 objects in space and time, our physical bodies and so forth 463 00:30:58,898 --> 00:31:03,369 is not the final reality, that there is a much deeper reality, 464 00:31:03,399 --> 00:31:07,955 a reality of consciousness that transcends space and time and physical objects, 465 00:31:08,075 --> 00:31:10,830 and that we're not divorced from that reality. 466 00:31:10,830 --> 00:31:14,615 That reality is, in some sense, the essence of what we are. 467 00:31:14,698 --> 00:31:17,953 And so awakening is awakening from the illusion 468 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 469 00:31:21,671 --> 00:31:25,696 in fact the author of everything I see inside of space and time. 470 00:31:25,696 --> 00:31:29,678 I create it on the fly as I look and perceive. 471 00:31:30,243 --> 00:31:36,533 How do I awaken? 472 00:31:37,088 --> 00:31:42,161 One becomes awakened by recognizing that 473 00:31:42,932 --> 00:31:45,945 what we essentially are is already 474 00:31:45,945 --> 00:31:49,032 fully awake, fully aware, 475 00:31:49,622 --> 00:31:53,158 complete, whole, fulfilled at peace. 476 00:31:53,328 --> 00:31:56,010 It's like asking how does the 477 00:31:56,043 --> 00:31:59,900 sun become illuminated? 478 00:31:59,926 --> 00:32:01,961 Its nature is light. 479 00:32:01,961 --> 00:32:04,039 It is already fully illuminated. 480 00:32:04,039 --> 00:32:08,747 The nature of our essential being is already peace and happiness. 481 00:32:08,824 --> 00:32:12,456 It's not clear to us all, because our essential being is so 482 00:32:12,456 --> 00:32:16,465 thoroughly mixed with the content of experience that its innate 483 00:32:16,601 --> 00:32:20,658 Peace and happiness is dimmed by experience. 484 00:32:20,903 --> 00:32:25,528 And for that reason we think that our essential being needs to be enlightened. 485 00:32:25,528 --> 00:32:28,327 No, our essential being doesn't need to be enlightened 486 00:32:28,327 --> 00:32:32,136 any more than the sun needs to be lit up in the early morning. 487 00:32:32,533 --> 00:32:35,993 The sun's always shining with the same brightness. 488 00:32:35,993 --> 00:32:39,995 Our essential being is always shining with the same peace and joy. 489 00:32:40,139 --> 00:32:43,682 But that peace and joy are dimmed by the agitation 490 00:32:43,682 --> 00:32:46,957 and lack that characterizes our thoughts and feelings. 491 00:32:47,548 --> 00:32:51,511 There's no person that awakens. 492 00:32:51,817 --> 00:32:55,313 So the I that awakened 493 00:32:55,598 --> 00:32:57,642 I awakened from this Dan 494 00:32:57,642 --> 00:33:01,381 structure at a meditation center. 495 00:33:01,489 --> 00:33:03,314 It was a Zen center. 496 00:33:03,314 --> 00:33:06,374 We were doing a Zen sesshin 497 00:33:06,374 --> 00:33:10,730 which is a long period of intensive practice. 498 00:33:10,238 --> 00:33:15,748 So Zen is amazing for creating this container 499 00:33:15,913 --> 00:33:18,786 where there are these conditions of no escape. 500 00:33:19,183 --> 00:33:24,603 So the Dan character that had learned meditation, 501 00:33:24,603 --> 00:33:27,853 the Dan character had been doing all this meditation, 502 00:33:28,027 --> 00:33:30,431 this doer of meditation, 503 00:33:30,675 --> 00:33:33,830 realized that it couldn't awaken. 504 00:33:34,109 --> 00:33:37,211 It's like all the meditation tricks, 505 00:33:37,211 --> 00:33:42,534 all the practices that had been learned were of no use. 506 00:33:42,786 --> 00:33:46,085 It got to the point where that character 507 00:33:46,203 --> 00:33:49,179 who was trying to awaken, failed 508 00:33:49,497 --> 00:33:52,084 to awaken and had to fail. 509 00:33:52,287 --> 00:33:57,217 That the character that I had been living, the character that I've been playing 510 00:33:57,424 --> 00:34:01,840 all my life, had to let go or die and 511 00:34:02,927 --> 00:34:04,681 what was left? 512 00:34:04,681 --> 00:34:07,951 What was left when there was no doer 513 00:34:07,951 --> 00:34:10,874 when there was no meditator 514 00:34:10,874 --> 00:34:15,142 meditating or doing something called, meditation, 515 00:34:15,261 --> 00:34:19,623 what was left was my true nature 516 00:34:19,623 --> 00:34:21,442 or me... just me. 517 00:34:21,442 --> 00:34:25,980 When we awaken from this small, separate sense of self, it's 518 00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:29,165 not that we're killing the ego 519 00:34:29,266 --> 00:34:32,293 or we're fighting it. 520 00:34:32,513 --> 00:34:36,720 It's actually we're allowing it to semi retire 521 00:34:36,885 --> 00:34:39,885 from its job of ego identity 522 00:34:40,012 --> 00:34:42,861 and then relax to be part 523 00:34:42,861 --> 00:34:46,381 of our team, part of our consciousness. 524 00:34:47,097 --> 00:34:50,447 And this gives us a sense of freedom immediately 525 00:34:50,447 --> 00:34:54,233 that we're not looking at the world through a small lens, 526 00:34:54,233 --> 00:34:58,983 that we're we're open hearted and open minded in a way that's 527 00:35:00,711 --> 00:35:06,403 expansive and yet at the same time, more intimately connected. 528 00:35:06,728 --> 00:35:10,430 Enlightenment is not about becoming awakened. 529 00:35:10,430 --> 00:35:12,632 Nobody becomes awakened or enlightened. 530 00:35:12,632 --> 00:35:17,102 It's a recognition of the light, the light of pure knowing 531 00:35:17,281 --> 00:35:19,365 whose nature is peace and happiness 532 00:35:19,365 --> 00:35:21,927 that we always and already are. 533 00:35:26,624 --> 00:35:31,114 My name is Lisa Natoli, and I'm known as a spiritual teacher. 534 00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:34,928 I teach about healing and awakening and transformation. 535 00:35:34,928 --> 00:35:39,042 Awakening is the recognition of your true nature, 536 00:35:39,413 --> 00:35:44,982 and it's the realization of what you really are, which is consciousness. 537 00:35:45,207 --> 00:35:49,915 And consciousness is just one word for many words that people use 538 00:35:50,148 --> 00:35:55,927 for awareness, life, love, God, 539 00:35:56,529 --> 00:35:58,114 light. 540 00:35:59,133 --> 00:36:04,519 So waking up to the recognition that I'm not this body 541 00:36:04,863 --> 00:36:09,166 that I am, that which never dies and that which is never born, 542 00:36:13,107 --> 00:36:16,256 and that was a very difficult idea for me. 543 00:36:16,256 --> 00:36:19,549 I've been on a spiritual path since 1992. 544 00:36:19,677 --> 00:36:22,295 I started with A Course in Miracles. 545 00:36:22,295 --> 00:36:24,918 I always studied it religiously. 546 00:36:24,918 --> 00:36:28,603 I mean, I was someone who was so committed to knowing the 547 00:36:28,603 --> 00:36:35,118 Self, knowing God, waking up. ... I couldn't get it, 548 00:36:35,524 --> 00:36:37,509 because I was under the belief 549 00:36:37,509 --> 00:36:40,701 that awakening was something mystical, 550 00:36:40,996 --> 00:36:45,257 that something would happen, that something would occur, 551 00:36:45,703 --> 00:36:48,616 and it would be like Jesus 552 00:36:48,616 --> 00:36:51,950 or Buddha or all of these enlightened masters 553 00:36:52,460 --> 00:36:54,670 and it wasn't happening for me. 554 00:36:54,670 --> 00:36:56,339 I couldn't understand why. 555 00:36:56,505 --> 00:37:00,309 Why am I so committed 556 00:37:01,029 --> 00:37:06,696 and I'm having deep moments of peace and happiness and joy... and still struggling. 557 00:37:06,959 --> 00:37:09,988 I started to realize the simplicity 558 00:37:10,061 --> 00:37:13,213 of our true nature, which is awareness. 559 00:37:13,932 --> 00:37:18,932 So for someone who's listening to me right now, 560 00:37:19,495 --> 00:37:24,720 the awareness that's hearing this voice, that's what we are. 561 00:37:25,484 --> 00:37:29,375 And it doesn't have a location, it doesn't have a gender, 562 00:37:29,583 --> 00:37:32,608 it doesn't have a color, it doesn't have a body, 563 00:37:33,042 --> 00:37:36,141 and it's totally unlimited. 564 00:37:36,587 --> 00:37:40,490 So awakening is where we wake up 565 00:37:40,841 --> 00:37:43,585 to our true nature. 566 00:37:43,605 --> 00:37:47,598 We wake up to the realization that I am the awareness 567 00:37:47,974 --> 00:37:52,586 of this experience right now as I'm here. 568 00:37:53,020 --> 00:37:54,965 And it's so ordinary 569 00:37:54,965 --> 00:37:56,790 we miss it. 570 00:37:56,357 --> 00:37:59,251 We think it can't be that simple. 571 00:37:59,661 --> 00:38:01,657 The recognition of our true nature, 572 00:38:01,917 --> 00:38:04,029 it doesn't lead to happiness. 573 00:38:04,144 --> 00:38:07,576 It is happiness... the nature of being 574 00:38:07,876 --> 00:38:10,121 is happiness itself. 575 00:38:10,731 --> 00:38:15,032 So the recognition of our true nature is the experience of happiness. 576 00:38:21,121 --> 00:38:23,769 Who is aware in this moment? 577 00:38:24,635 --> 00:38:26,301 The mind will 578 00:38:26,301 --> 00:38:29,244 look for something, or try to complicate it. 579 00:38:30,255 --> 00:38:32,449 You already are 580 00:38:32,449 --> 00:38:37,331 that which the mind is looking for. 581 00:38:37,331 --> 00:38:39,528 The mind will always miss it. 582 00:38:40,340 --> 00:38:43,046 So don't look to the mind for an answer. 583 00:38:43,815 --> 00:38:46,001 Don't push away your thoughts 584 00:38:46,001 --> 00:38:49,535 and don't get caught in the thoughts. 585 00:38:49,535 --> 00:38:54,665 Simply let go of the interest or attachment to thoughts, ideas 586 00:38:55,124 --> 00:38:57,084 and beliefs. 587 00:38:58,283 --> 00:39:01,315 Intend to directly experience 588 00:39:01,315 --> 00:39:04,125 who you are. 589 00:39:05,075 --> 00:39:09,793 Don't try to negate the mind or to achieve some state. 590 00:39:10,889 --> 00:39:13,874 All doing, all manipulation, 591 00:39:13,874 --> 00:39:17,812 all movement is more controlling by the mind. 592 00:39:18,645 --> 00:39:24,463 Allow the mind to be as it is. 593 00:39:28,493 --> 00:39:32,569 Sometimes people can awaken just in day to day life. 594 00:39:32,569 --> 00:39:35,549 They don't necessarily need practice. 595 00:39:35,677 --> 00:39:40,222 So sometimes things will happen in life where there's an interrupt 596 00:39:40,222 --> 00:39:45,345 in the pattern of you. And there can be a spontaneous awakening. 597 00:39:45,575 --> 00:39:50,054 But if someone's life is just going on in a kind of robotic pattern 598 00:39:50,054 --> 00:39:52,971 or repetitive pattern, then 599 00:39:53,140 --> 00:39:56,756 some sort of intervention is necessary. 600 00:39:56,756 --> 00:40:03,613 if one is called to awakening and that interrupt in the pattern of you 601 00:40:03,661 --> 00:40:07,428 is sometimes called sadhana or spiritual practice. 602 00:40:07,571 --> 00:40:10,812 And these practices are always 603 00:40:10,991 --> 00:40:12,801 conditioned. 604 00:40:12,801 --> 00:40:15,954 Thet are something that we learn with the conditioned mind. 605 00:40:16,041 --> 00:40:20,191 So they can make it more likely for awakening to happen, 606 00:40:20,302 --> 00:40:24,080 sort of by loosening the bonds within the self structure. 607 00:40:24,159 --> 00:40:29,110 Sometimes they say that awakening happens by accident, 608 00:40:29,269 --> 00:40:32,172 but the practice makes you more accident prone. 609 00:40:32,964 --> 00:40:36,546 The techniques, the practices can be very useful 610 00:40:36,838 --> 00:40:39,321 to make you more accident prone. 611 00:40:39,321 --> 00:40:43,316 But then at a certain point have to be let go. 612 00:40:43,524 --> 00:40:48,490 Because if the mind is continuously doing some practice 613 00:40:48,490 --> 00:40:51,386 or some thing, then the mind has 614 00:40:51,386 --> 00:40:55,041 the reins, mind is in the driver's seat. 615 00:40:55,207 --> 00:40:59,146 So the practices are useful, very useful 616 00:40:59,146 --> 00:41:03,855 as steppingstones for making the self structure, 617 00:41:03,855 --> 00:41:08,441 you can say less dense or enlightening up the self structure 618 00:41:08,582 --> 00:41:11,863 so that it becomes more permeable 619 00:41:11,913 --> 00:41:14,279 to our true nature. 620 00:41:16,419 --> 00:41:20,935 The paradox with practice is that when you finally awaken, 621 00:41:21,041 --> 00:41:23,982 you realize that all of the practices 622 00:41:24,510 --> 00:41:26,797 were being done by the false self, 623 00:41:27,216 --> 00:41:30,769 the character in the VR game, and that YOU, 624 00:41:30,769 --> 00:41:34,515 the true self, was never bound. 625 00:41:35,905 --> 00:41:39,481 All you have to do is give up the preferences of the ego, 626 00:41:40,340 --> 00:41:43,704 to give up the fixation on things. 627 00:41:44,366 --> 00:41:49,644 Anything within the field of changing phenomena is not the true self, 628 00:41:50,352 --> 00:41:54,349 the you that you think you are, the you that you've always been 629 00:41:54,349 --> 00:41:57,178 identified with will never awaken 630 00:41:57,477 --> 00:42:00,195 you awaken from that character. 631 00:42:00,632 --> 00:42:04,844 You awaken from the delusion that you were this conditioned character. 632 00:42:04,956 --> 00:42:08,597 So when people come to these retreats, they think this 633 00:42:08,597 --> 00:42:13,106 "I" this little "me" is going to awaken, some great thing is going to happen. 634 00:42:13,178 --> 00:42:16,283 But at a certain point, that little me will never do it. 635 00:42:16,283 --> 00:42:18,743 It has to give up, it has to fail. 636 00:42:18,805 --> 00:42:20,849 And it's only in that failure 637 00:42:20,901 --> 00:42:27,208 we realize who we are, that we've always been aware, we've always been present. 638 00:42:27,340 --> 00:42:30,991 We just got hooked into this character and we believed 639 00:42:30,991 --> 00:42:33,181 we were that. 640 00:42:43,501 --> 00:42:49,714 I started my spiritual search in the classical Advaita Vedanta 641 00:42:50,425 --> 00:42:52,947 tradition, which was a devotional path 642 00:42:53,236 --> 00:42:56,938 that involved mantra meditation, 643 00:42:56,938 --> 00:43:00,780 which I practiced very diligently for 20 years. 644 00:43:00,878 --> 00:43:04,123 And mantra meditation involves 645 00:43:04,789 --> 00:43:07,969 focusing your attention on a sound 646 00:43:09,084 --> 00:43:11,338 and then gradually the sound fades. 647 00:43:11,818 --> 00:43:16,310 However, it was really when I came in touch 648 00:43:16,509 --> 00:43:18,909 with the direct path that 649 00:43:19,177 --> 00:43:25,662 my spiritual search really reached its culmination. 650 00:43:25,957 --> 00:43:29,356 Because in this direct approach, 651 00:43:29,356 --> 00:43:34,303 we don't give our attention to any object, however subtle, 652 00:43:34,352 --> 00:43:38,057 for instance, a mantra, a sound, the breath, 653 00:43:38,346 --> 00:43:42,120 we allow our attention to sink inwards 654 00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:44,696 or backwards into its source. 655 00:43:45,894 --> 00:43:47,976 Let's use an analogy. 656 00:43:48,786 --> 00:43:52,368 Imagine that you are watching your life on a television screen. 657 00:43:52,606 --> 00:43:55,775 You are identified with the character on the screen. 658 00:43:56,728 --> 00:43:58,303 Day after day, 659 00:43:58,303 --> 00:44:02,522 year after year you are involved with the story of the character 660 00:44:02,724 --> 00:44:06,214 when suddenly you wake up out of the story 661 00:44:06,469 --> 00:44:09,744 to notice the screen on which the character appears 662 00:44:10,053 --> 00:44:14,045 and you realize you are not the character you've been watching. 663 00:44:14,789 --> 00:44:17,565 Objects can come and go on the screen. 664 00:44:18,046 --> 00:44:20,248 Characters come and go, 665 00:44:20,248 --> 00:44:22,765 but the screen remains unchanged. 666 00:44:23,345 --> 00:44:25,525 The character can get wet, 667 00:44:25,525 --> 00:44:30,672 but the screen does not get wet. The character can be disturbed, 668 00:44:30,672 --> 00:44:33,045 but the screen is not disturbed. 669 00:44:33,695 --> 00:44:36,932 Without the screen, the characters would not exist, 670 00:44:37,851 --> 00:44:40,184 yet screen goes unnoticed. 671 00:44:40,273 --> 00:44:43,414 The characters go about their scripted lives. 672 00:44:44,654 --> 00:44:47,020 Awareness is like the screen. 673 00:44:47,437 --> 00:44:50,176 It is like the space in which all thoughts, 674 00:44:50,300 --> 00:44:54,329 motions, all states of consciousness come and go. 675 00:44:55,542 --> 00:44:57,673 Thoughts, sensations 676 00:44:57,673 --> 00:45:03,017 and the entire outside world appear on the screen, constantly changing. 677 00:45:03,268 --> 00:45:06,075 But the screen does not change. 678 00:45:07,505 --> 00:45:13,918 It's the mind that changes states through the human experience. 679 00:45:14,043 --> 00:45:18,563 But there's something, that what you are, that remains. 680 00:45:18,697 --> 00:45:21,576 Something that is ever present, 681 00:45:21,638 --> 00:45:25,092 that is aware of those changing states 682 00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,878 and that is consciousness or our true nature. 683 00:45:29,212 --> 00:45:32,914 As long as there is attachment to a character on the screen, 684 00:45:33,178 --> 00:45:37,319 a sense that I am that character, then there will be suffering; 685 00:45:37,430 --> 00:45:40,695 maya the illusion of the self. 686 00:45:41,983 --> 00:45:44,320 Nothing you can do as the dream 687 00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:49,048 character will help to free you. Whether you follow the script 688 00:45:49,048 --> 00:45:52,275 in the drama of your life or rebel against the script, 689 00:45:52,340 --> 00:45:55,546 if you act from the point of view of the character, 690 00:45:55,617 --> 00:45:57,937 then you're caught in the illusion. 691 00:45:58,855 --> 00:46:00,378 To awaken, 692 00:46:00,378 --> 00:46:04,835 stop identifying with what appears on the screen. 693 00:46:05,955 --> 00:46:08,806 Recognize that it is all impermanent. 694 00:46:09,115 --> 00:46:13,976 Stop reacting to thoughts and treating the program as real. 695 00:46:14,317 --> 00:46:17,733 If I withdraw attention from the screen, turning awareness 696 00:46:17,733 --> 00:46:22,130 towards itself, an unfathomable thing happens. 697 00:46:22,924 --> 00:46:26,635 Awareness itself wakes up. 698 00:46:27,785 --> 00:46:30,037 This is not a happening. 699 00:46:30,697 --> 00:46:33,496 Happening is what happens on the screen. 700 00:46:34,461 --> 00:46:37,320 Awakening is just recognizing the screen 701 00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,812 that was always already there. 702 00:46:41,396 --> 00:46:43,785 Do not believe your next thought 703 00:46:44,934 --> 00:46:49,615 instead, turn awareness towards awareness itself. 704 00:47:00,982 --> 00:47:03,646 I have always been myself. 705 00:47:03,646 --> 00:47:07,410 My sense of my self runs throughout my life. 706 00:47:07,410 --> 00:47:10,915 It remains consistently present throughout my life. 707 00:47:11,688 --> 00:47:13,548 What is present in me now, 708 00:47:13,548 --> 00:47:16,819 that was present yesterday, last year, ten years ago, 709 00:47:16,819 --> 00:47:20,017 and when I was a two year old child? 710 00:47:21,227 --> 00:47:23,997 What is this essential "I" or self 711 00:47:24,934 --> 00:47:27,802 to whom all my experience happens? 712 00:47:28,715 --> 00:47:31,115 The recognition 713 00:47:31,115 --> 00:47:35,473 of the nature of that one is the great secret to life. 714 00:47:35,473 --> 00:47:37,857 It is the direct path to peace 715 00:47:37,857 --> 00:47:42,655 and happiness. It is not something that a person initiates. 716 00:47:43,941 --> 00:47:47,288 It's something that a person recognizes. 717 00:47:48,419 --> 00:47:50,239 To re-cognize. 718 00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:52,744 That is to know, again. 719 00:47:53,653 --> 00:47:55,829 What we've known from the beginning 720 00:47:55,829 --> 00:48:00,570 but is simply forgotten, or denied or failed to believe. 721 00:48:00,669 --> 00:48:03,925 So we cannot initiate closeness to God. 722 00:48:03,964 --> 00:48:09,809 We can simply recognize, to recognize that it's always been there 723 00:48:10,095 --> 00:48:12,687 and will always be there. 724 00:48:12,687 --> 00:48:17,403 It was only this direct pointing to awakening, 725 00:48:17,403 --> 00:48:22,126 this opening to what's already here that allowed me to find 726 00:48:22,858 --> 00:48:24,295 a new way of 727 00:48:24,295 --> 00:48:27,231 being- a new stage of development. 728 00:48:27,372 --> 00:48:33,821 Many people think it's a very impossible or out of reach goal 729 00:48:33,821 --> 00:48:38,620 to know the self, and my own 730 00:48:38,815 --> 00:48:42,887 sort of purpose as a teacher, just because of my own awakening, 731 00:48:42,887 --> 00:48:48,256 has really been wanting to make it very practical, very down to Earth. 732 00:48:48,256 --> 00:48:52,276 I love to teach people, it's available to everyone. 733 00:48:52,441 --> 00:48:56,595 If we believe and feel 734 00:48:56,728 --> 00:49:00,483 that we are a temporary, finite, separate self, 735 00:49:00,604 --> 00:49:03,673 we are, whether we know it or not, 736 00:49:04,110 --> 00:49:06,669 searching for peace and happiness. 737 00:49:06,669 --> 00:49:10,059 In other words, it's not possible to be a separate self, 738 00:49:10,079 --> 00:49:14,907 to feel oneself as a separate self and not be in search of happiness. 739 00:49:15,463 --> 00:49:17,693 So what is required 740 00:49:17,693 --> 00:49:21,836 in this case is to reorientate one's search for happiness, 741 00:49:21,836 --> 00:49:25,426 instead of seeking for happiness in the objective content of experience, 742 00:49:25,823 --> 00:49:27,771 to seek happiness in oneself. 743 00:49:28,421 --> 00:49:31,576 So the spiritual practice that is required 744 00:49:32,270 --> 00:49:36,614 is to direct one's attention or more accurately, 745 00:49:36,614 --> 00:49:41,058 to relax one's attention into its source, 746 00:49:42,303 --> 00:49:45,536 pure awareness, rather than directed towards 747 00:49:45,605 --> 00:49:49,208 an object substance activity or relationship, and so on. 748 00:49:49,936 --> 00:49:53,995 So the spiritual practice, if we can call it a practice, 749 00:49:54,255 --> 00:49:57,145 would be this relaxing 750 00:49:57,208 --> 00:50:00,914 of the attention, this subsidence of the attention 751 00:50:01,504 --> 00:50:04,126 into the heart of awareness, 752 00:50:05,056 --> 00:50:07,666 resting in being as being. 753 00:50:08,633 --> 00:50:10,160 Love. 754 00:50:10,621 --> 00:50:12,718 Pure love is my true self. 755 00:50:13,298 --> 00:50:15,095 It's my true nature. 756 00:50:15,725 --> 00:50:18,252 Pure love for everyone and everything, 757 00:50:18,473 --> 00:50:20,892 for every aspect of life. 758 00:50:20,892 --> 00:50:24,745 Even those things with which I disagree. 759 00:50:25,361 --> 00:50:29,545 For one who has recognized the nature of their being, they know their being 760 00:50:29,837 --> 00:50:33,404 as the the source of the peace 761 00:50:33,404 --> 00:50:36,385 and happiness for which they long. 762 00:50:37,316 --> 00:50:41,614 So the world no longer becomes the place 763 00:50:41,614 --> 00:50:45,695 in which they seek happiness, seek fulfillment. 764 00:50:45,695 --> 00:50:49,095 Doesn't mean to say that such a person no longer has desires, 765 00:50:49,337 --> 00:50:53,691 but the desires are not there to fulfill the sense of lack 766 00:50:54,410 --> 00:50:57,971 that is characteristic of the separate self. 767 00:50:58,693 --> 00:51:02,111 As such, a person has found the source of happiness 768 00:51:02,111 --> 00:51:07,433 within themselves and their desires come from that sense of happiness. 769 00:51:07,554 --> 00:51:09,832 They do not go towards it. 770 00:51:09,832 --> 00:51:12,580 For instance, in the realm of relationship, 771 00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:15,433 it makes a big difference to our relationships. 772 00:51:15,433 --> 00:51:17,730 We no longer seek an other 773 00:51:18,556 --> 00:51:22,260 to fulfill the needs of our self. 774 00:51:23,069 --> 00:51:25,321 We seek another to share 775 00:51:25,540 --> 00:51:28,327 the experience of happiness that we already have. 776 00:51:28,327 --> 00:51:32,118 And this relieves our our friends of the impossible burden 777 00:51:32,265 --> 00:51:36,229 of providing happiness for a voracious, 778 00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,855 unsatisfied self. 779 00:51:40,234 --> 00:51:42,484 Nothing occurs in my life 780 00:51:43,214 --> 00:51:47,339 that is has not brought me benefit or will not bring me benefit 781 00:51:47,425 --> 00:51:51,902 in the sense that every moment, every activity, every outcome 782 00:51:52,275 --> 00:51:55,028 moves me forward 783 00:51:55,028 --> 00:51:57,830 in the process of the evolution of my soul. 784 00:51:57,922 --> 00:52:01,118 And that's why I came here to the physical realm, 785 00:52:01,118 --> 00:52:04,873 to evolve. 786 00:52:11,037 --> 00:52:13,963 Remain open. 787 00:52:13,963 --> 00:52:16,522 Feel your inner aliveness, 788 00:52:16,522 --> 00:52:20,011 letting energy circulate freely. 789 00:52:20,671 --> 00:52:24,388 Don't try to make anything happen. 790 00:52:25,638 --> 00:52:28,562 Who is aware of that energy, 791 00:52:29,103 --> 00:52:32,109 that inner aliveness? 792 00:52:36,269 --> 00:52:40,693 Notice the mind's tendency to control and manipulate, 793 00:52:41,208 --> 00:52:43,229 to get involved. 794 00:52:44,349 --> 00:52:47,930 Without the use of your memory or language, 795 00:52:48,699 --> 00:52:51,266 Who are you? 796 00:52:52,189 --> 00:52:54,777 Beyond the mind and senses, 797 00:52:55,005 --> 00:52:57,382 who are you? 798 00:52:57,549 --> 00:53:03,994 Who is aware? 799 00:53:08,959 --> 00:53:16,839 Changing the World 800 00:53:18,124 --> 00:53:21,605 Many people who are hearing these ideas for the first time, 801 00:53:21,605 --> 00:53:25,419 they've never even heard this idea of the self. 802 00:53:25,838 --> 00:53:28,847 In my mind, there's two different camps of people. 803 00:53:28,847 --> 00:53:32,864 There are those who are on a spiritual path and they have heard this idea. 804 00:53:32,864 --> 00:53:36,321 They're trying to reach the self, they're trying to be the self. 805 00:53:36,321 --> 00:53:38,663 They're seeking, they're searching. 806 00:53:38,915 --> 00:53:42,450 And then there's other people who have just been living their life. 807 00:53:42,450 --> 00:53:44,938 They've never heard of these ideas before. 808 00:53:45,017 --> 00:53:47,154 They've never heard of Know Thyself. 809 00:53:47,154 --> 00:53:51,245 Many people think know thyself means know the body, 810 00:53:51,245 --> 00:53:54,043 know yourself, be yourself, be authentic. 811 00:53:54,208 --> 00:53:59,927 What it really means, to know thyself is to know what you are, 812 00:53:59,927 --> 00:54:03,768 to know what you are in truth and to really know your true nature. 813 00:54:03,831 --> 00:54:07,366 The words know thySelf were carved 814 00:54:07,535 --> 00:54:11,789 on the entrance of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, and as such 815 00:54:12,740 --> 00:54:18,248 stand as an invitation that the dawn of Western civilization to humanity, 816 00:54:18,456 --> 00:54:23,023 suggesting that to Know Thyself is really the foundation 817 00:54:23,354 --> 00:54:26,319 of all civilization. Why? 818 00:54:26,734 --> 00:54:31,972 Because our Self stands at the center of all our experience. 819 00:54:32,126 --> 00:54:37,240 Whatever we are experiencing, it is we who are experiencing it. 820 00:54:37,495 --> 00:54:40,444 Whatever we think and feel, our thoughts 821 00:54:40,444 --> 00:54:43,498 and feelings arise on behalf of our Self. 822 00:54:43,721 --> 00:54:48,593 Whatever activities and relationships we are engaged 823 00:54:48,593 --> 00:54:54,380 in, we engage those activities and relationships in service of our Self. 824 00:54:54,541 --> 00:54:59,667 So our Self stands at the center of our experience. 825 00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:05,329 So what could be more important than to know the nature of our Self, 826 00:55:06,052 --> 00:55:09,036 and would it be possible 827 00:55:09,616 --> 00:55:12,189 to know the nature of anything else 828 00:55:12,189 --> 00:55:16,747 if we do not first know the nature of that which knows it? 829 00:55:17,029 --> 00:55:19,680 I think awakening is 830 00:55:20,519 --> 00:55:23,382 about ending the nightmare 831 00:55:23,854 --> 00:55:26,740 and stepping into the dream. 832 00:55:27,490 --> 00:55:29,500 By that I mean 833 00:55:30,122 --> 00:55:33,431 we desert or finally abandon the nightmare of what 834 00:55:33,431 --> 00:55:38,649 we've been told about life, about God, and about ourselves. 835 00:55:38,649 --> 00:55:41,622 And we step into the dream of our grandest notion. 836 00:55:42,479 --> 00:55:46,458 I often ask, What do you think your life would be like 837 00:55:46,791 --> 00:55:50,259 if you found yourself stepping into the highest 838 00:55:50,259 --> 00:55:54,845 grandest, most wonderful thought you ever had about God, and about life 839 00:55:55,060 --> 00:55:57,536 and about yourself. 840 00:55:57,536 --> 00:56:02,804 So this recognition of our true nature is not only the recognition 841 00:56:02,804 --> 00:56:07,724 that brings our desire for happiness in the world to an end. 842 00:56:07,985 --> 00:56:11,278 It is also the recognition that enables us 843 00:56:11,278 --> 00:56:16,493 to live in a way that is consistent with the understanding 844 00:56:16,493 --> 00:56:21,954 that at the deepest level, everything and everyone, are one. 845 00:56:22,962 --> 00:56:25,175 This understanding would bring 846 00:56:25,175 --> 00:56:28,344 kindness, compassion, justice, 847 00:56:28,447 --> 00:56:32,952 tolerance, understanding into our society. 848 00:56:33,828 --> 00:56:35,976 Our society would be revolutionized 849 00:56:35,976 --> 00:56:37,747 by this understanding. 850 00:56:39,488 --> 00:56:42,564 As humanity lets go of ego based approaches, 851 00:56:42,715 --> 00:56:45,792 then science, religion, politics 852 00:56:45,792 --> 00:56:50,198 and economics start to reflect the perennial wisdom. 853 00:56:50,758 --> 00:56:53,838 Whether it is the native traditions who realize 854 00:56:53,838 --> 00:56:56,418 Great Spirit in all things, 855 00:56:56,691 --> 00:57:00,333 or the Egyptian/Kemetic traditions who describe the human 856 00:57:00,333 --> 00:57:04,535 evolutionary journey from the lowly scarab 857 00:57:04,535 --> 00:57:06,981 to the one source, 858 00:57:07,481 --> 00:57:09,273 or when we hear the words 859 00:57:09,273 --> 00:57:12,094 of the mystics of the Christian, Hindu, 860 00:57:12,094 --> 00:57:14,647 Muslim, or Buddhist traditions, 861 00:57:15,181 --> 00:57:19,608 or the teachings of Plato and Plotinus we find that 862 00:57:19,608 --> 00:57:25,786 those who have realized their true nature speak of groupings of conscious agents. 863 00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:29,181 Of course, they used the language of their culture 864 00:57:29,181 --> 00:57:33,217 and times to express the one perennial truth. 865 00:57:34,149 --> 00:57:39,640 Science is now starting to see not a world of unconscious particles 866 00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:42,416 and fields, but a universe made of 867 00:57:42,416 --> 00:57:44,711 conscious agents. 868 00:57:44,919 --> 00:57:49,341 Something new is emerging in the world of science. 869 00:57:49,674 --> 00:57:52,594 As Nikola Tesla said, 870 00:57:52,594 --> 00:57:57,140 the day science begins to study nonphysical phenomena, 871 00:57:57,140 --> 00:58:01,026 it will make more progress in one decade 872 00:58:01,310 --> 00:58:04,997 than in all the previous centuries of its existence. 873 00:58:06,024 --> 00:58:10,518 That day is today. 874 00:58:15,668 --> 00:58:18,823 Every time that we've had a mathematically precise advance 875 00:58:18,823 --> 00:58:22,533 in science, it has opened up new technologies 876 00:58:22,783 --> 00:58:26,528 that look like magic compared to what we had before. 877 00:58:26,649 --> 00:58:30,983 So my feeling is that this theory of conscious agents beyond spacetime 878 00:58:31,665 --> 00:58:34,006 will give us technologies 879 00:58:34,006 --> 00:58:36,343 that will be truly mind boggling. 880 00:58:36,782 --> 00:58:42,476 For example, right now, most of the galaxies that we see, 881 00:58:42,609 --> 00:58:45,105 I think 97% of the galaxies that we see, 882 00:58:45,257 --> 00:58:50,247 we can never go to. They are receding from us faster than the speed of light. 883 00:58:50,247 --> 00:58:53,515 So they're not moving through space faster than the speed of light. 884 00:58:53,515 --> 00:58:56,952 Space itself is expanding, so quickly that their speed 885 00:58:56,952 --> 00:58:59,675 moving away from us is greater than the speed of light. 886 00:58:59,675 --> 00:59:01,804 So we could never travel through space 887 00:59:01,804 --> 00:59:04,389 to go to 97% of the galaxies that we can see. 888 00:59:04,389 --> 00:59:08,015 So there's all this real estate out there that's waving at us and saying, hi, 889 00:59:08,015 --> 00:59:10,182 we're out here and you can never come to us. 890 00:59:10,182 --> 00:59:12,399 That's if you go through spacetime. 891 00:59:12,399 --> 00:59:15,301 But what if you realize that spacetime is just your headset? 892 00:59:15,801 --> 00:59:18,326 It's just the format of a game 893 00:59:18,983 --> 00:59:21,620 and you're not stuck inside the headset. 894 00:59:21,620 --> 00:59:25,604 You can play with the software that's running the game. 895 00:59:26,654 --> 00:59:30,993 So it's like someone who's like in Grand Theft Auto, you're a 896 00:59:30,993 --> 00:59:32,454 Wizard of Grand Theft Auto, 897 00:59:32,652 --> 00:59:34,443 so you know how to use the car 898 00:59:34,443 --> 00:59:37,866 and drive the roads and you can beat everybody in the game. 899 00:59:37,866 --> 00:59:41,497 But suppose you actually know the software that runs Grand Theft Auto. 900 00:59:41,497 --> 00:59:43,874 So you step outside of the Grand Theft Auto headset 901 00:59:44,131 --> 00:59:45,894 and you can play with the software. 902 00:59:45,894 --> 00:59:48,864 Well, you can take the gasoline out of the tank of the wizard. 903 00:59:48,864 --> 00:59:50,678 You can give them a flat tire. 904 00:59:50,678 --> 00:59:52,666 You can change the geometry of the roads. 905 00:59:52,666 --> 00:59:54,502 You can do whatever you want to. 906 00:59:54,502 --> 00:59:57,359 So once we understand our space time headset, 907 00:59:57,534 --> 01:00:00,985 we won't have to travel to the Andromeda Galaxy 908 01:00:00,985 --> 01:00:04,278 through space time, which would take us 2.4 million years. 909 01:00:04,473 --> 01:00:08,861 We can just go around space time. 910 01:00:11,191 --> 01:00:14,782 I see the world around me as stepping into 911 01:00:15,820 --> 01:00:20,469 a quieter expression and experience of what it means to be human 912 01:00:20,826 --> 01:00:23,729 and what it means to be an aspect of divinity. 913 01:00:24,338 --> 01:00:27,510 But I don't think that we have an endless amount of time. 914 01:00:28,100 --> 01:00:30,001 I get a sense that time is 915 01:00:30,001 --> 01:00:34,188 running out, that it's now or never time. 916 01:00:34,296 --> 01:00:36,885 I think we're on the right path. 917 01:00:36,885 --> 01:00:41,872 I have a sense of optimism that because of the kinds of opportunities 918 01:00:41,872 --> 01:00:44,515 that we see today in the world to communicate 919 01:00:44,515 --> 01:00:46,934 powerful and important ideas 920 01:00:46,934 --> 01:00:50,639 ways that we didn't have even a few years ago 921 01:00:51,047 --> 01:00:55,166 are creating the possibility that we can get to that place of critical 922 01:00:55,166 --> 01:00:58,390 mass, that we can reach critical mass 923 01:00:59,048 --> 01:01:01,240 before our time runs out. 924 01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:06,476 But we would be mistaken if we think we have an endless amount of time 925 01:01:07,528 --> 01:01:09,145 on this planet. 926 01:01:09,385 --> 01:01:11,898 When each individual 927 01:01:11,898 --> 01:01:15,347 disidentifies from their conditioned character, 928 01:01:15,561 --> 01:01:19,221 then they're no longer acting as an egoic entity. 929 01:01:19,673 --> 01:01:23,595 And that brings about a transformation on the planet. 930 01:01:23,856 --> 01:01:26,162 This brings a new Earth. 931 01:01:26,312 --> 01:01:29,047 Life as we know it right now on this planet, 932 01:01:29,636 --> 01:01:32,873 I think we need to make some changes and make them quickly, 933 01:01:33,013 --> 01:01:35,066 dramatically and radically 934 01:01:35,676 --> 01:01:38,714 if we want to see the tomorrow for which we've all dreamt. 935 01:01:38,804 --> 01:01:43,353 So, could this understanding become mainstream in our lifetime? 936 01:01:43,353 --> 01:01:45,469 Why not? Yes. 937 01:01:46,389 --> 01:01:49,384 The challenge we have right now is nothing is working, 938 01:01:49,454 --> 01:01:54,042 and the time has come for us to stand up and say that's true. 939 01:01:54,832 --> 01:01:57,327 Surely we can do better than this. 940 01:01:57,798 --> 01:01:59,489 Surely, 941 01:01:59,841 --> 01:02:03,250 We can expand our understanding of who we are 942 01:02:03,369 --> 01:02:07,306 and our expression of our true nature. 943 01:02:07,836 --> 01:02:09,434 We need to pay attention 944 01:02:09,914 --> 01:02:11,400 to our environment, 945 01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:14,132 to our politics, to our economics, 946 01:02:14,643 --> 01:02:18,385 and to our spiritual process on this planet. 947 01:02:19,800 --> 01:02:23,605 Because the problem in the world today is not a political problem. 948 01:02:23,922 --> 01:02:26,187 It's not an economic problem. 949 01:02:26,697 --> 01:02:28,995 It's not a social problem. 950 01:02:29,595 --> 01:02:33,116 It's a spiritual problem. 951 01:02:33,884 --> 01:02:36,568 It has to do with how committed we are 952 01:02:36,568 --> 01:02:41,215 with stepping into the highest spiritual truths. 953 01:02:42,081 --> 01:02:45,046 This is not New Age philosophy. 954 01:02:45,556 --> 01:02:47,979 These ideas have been around 955 01:02:47,979 --> 01:02:50,975 for thousands of years. 956 01:02:54,785 --> 01:02:58,168 The perennial wisdom has been expressed through 957 01:02:58,168 --> 01:03:02,481 countless traditions and cultures and like awareness 958 01:03:02,481 --> 01:03:06,366 itself, has always been hidden in plain view. 959 01:03:07,786 --> 01:03:09,646 In Christianity, 960 01:03:09,646 --> 01:03:12,497 the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas contains 961 01:03:12,497 --> 01:03:15,524 direct pointers to our true nature. 962 01:03:16,498 --> 01:03:21,326 The disciples asked Jesus, When will the kingdom come? 963 01:03:21,326 --> 01:03:25,373 Jesus said, It will not come by waiting for it. 964 01:03:25,911 --> 01:03:30,223 It will not be a matter of saying, Here it is, or there it is. 965 01:03:30,223 --> 01:03:34,232 Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out 966 01:03:34,232 --> 01:03:37,646 upon the earth and people do not see it. 967 01:03:38,875 --> 01:03:45,579 The Kingdom is not here or there. Awareness is not here or there. 968 01:03:45,988 --> 01:03:49,800 It is not fixed in time and space. 969 01:03:49,800 --> 01:03:52,544 If you are waiting for something to happen 970 01:03:52,716 --> 01:03:57,596 for some outward event or some state, some ascension, 971 01:03:57,733 --> 01:04:00,254 some healing or some energy, then 972 01:04:00,254 --> 01:04:03,589 your conditioned mind is still seeking. 973 01:04:03,776 --> 01:04:07,050 It is still mediating your experience 974 01:04:07,050 --> 01:04:08,499 of the now. 975 01:04:10,187 --> 01:04:12,265 in Buddhism they say samsara, 976 01:04:12,265 --> 01:04:15,847 the world of suffering and nirvana, 977 01:04:15,847 --> 01:04:21,065 the world of liberation are not two separate worlds. 978 01:04:21,655 --> 01:04:24,146 They are one and the same. 979 01:04:24,756 --> 01:04:27,414 We don't manipulate or change things 980 01:04:27,463 --> 01:04:30,510 to arrive at some mystical reality. 981 01:04:31,190 --> 01:04:36,227 When we awaken, the perfection of the world is revealed 982 01:04:36,227 --> 01:04:40,867 directly, as it is. 983 01:04:43,843 --> 01:04:49,425 Is it possible to simply be here and now in this moment, 984 01:04:49,425 --> 01:04:54,226 unmediated by that seeking mind? 985 01:04:54,376 --> 01:05:01,064 Is it possible to be okay with this moment as it is? 986 01:05:01,439 --> 01:05:10,537 To simply be.