I don't know why I get such a kick out of that I just constantly cracked myself up. And that's all it really matters. Nice to see everybody Happy New Year, so to speak is just a little over a week from that. This is our Thursday q&a that we started, I guess, close to three years ago when COVID started with no aspirations to keep it going. But it's, we can't seem to kill it. So we get together, people ask questions, we have q&a. So I always start with the questions that were submitted in writing. But then if you're on and you want to raise a question, you have a follow up you can do it by selecting the reactions bar down here. Or you can type something in in the column and I'll do my best to address it. In terms of upcoming events, the big thing is tomorrow I do my first event as part of a series I'm going to start with my dear friend Bob Thurman at member on the nocturnal meditations, and I'm actually quite excited about doing this with him. Because if you haven't experienced Bob Thurman, He's really He's like a national treasure in my opinion. And when he goes gets on a roll you never know what's gonna happen. And he's just amazing. I mean, the guy is just an absolute treasure trove of information. So I'll be doing the mornings he'll be doing the first hour and a half or so in the afternoon. And then I finish after he checks checks out after that I do the last hour, hour hour and a half, either presenting more material or refining the questions and so there's a link to that that Alyssa put up. We're quite excited about this program, similar to the Bardos that I did with him over a two year period. This is a complete standalone program, but it's also an inaugural event. For a track the natural meditations. So come join us for that. But I think that's kind of it here. Alyssa here's your pause. Alright, y'all, I'm always supposed to do this big pause. And so, let's start let's jump into the questions and comments. Some of these are actually offerings, and then talk about whatever you guys want to talk about. So here's a sweet little comment from Joe. This is a sharing I have a large table top prayer wheel with all Mani Padme home monitors inside I do too, right here, but my batteries run out this is my this is my little I have to put a new battery in it. Basically this is my battery operated automatic prayer wheel. And so when the batteries are there, thank you. This reminds me to recharge it this sweet little thing that I can't remember somebody gave it to me. It's constantly spinning. Yeah, and sending out blessings and merit. And so I have one of those too. I just need to put the battery back in. Whenever I talk to a customer service person on the phone at the end of the call, I thank them for their help and tell them that I'm going to spin the prayer wheel for them and it will send them lots of positive energy of course I just say it as prayers aside and never mentioned the prayers are Buddhist. Their response is very positive even though they probably have no idea what a prayer Willie is lol that's great. Joe fantastic. Good for you. I love it. Hey, doesn't hurt you. Know, prayer wheels, prayer flags, I mean, whatever. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Okay. Here's one from Tim. It's difficult for me to meditate in the seated position for more than 20 minutes. Okay. I started to get a lot of tension and pain in my lower back. You're not the only one. Lying down to meditating helps relieve us. Excellent. Do you recommend lying down on your belly on my belly or my back for optimal results? Definitely on your back. You don't want to lie down on your belly. Now that doesn't mean you can't meditate lying down on your belly. I mean, the whole point really chambers to be able to meditate under any position really. But classically in the Sati Putana sutra, the classic treatise on meditation, they have for so called sanction postures stay sitting, standing lying down and walking and lying down. It's fantastic. When BL and Wallace my friend does his big long, three month shamatha meditation things. He does most of these. My understanding I've never attended them but people who have told me he invites His people to lie down and do their shamatha so that's great. That's great. If you could summarize the most important teachings from my life, my life's work. Well attend if you think I'm dying or something. I can summarize the most important teachings from my life's work into one quintessential teaching. What would it be? Oh, I like this. I used to ask this question actually to a bunch of different people. Like you know, I used to say I used to put it this way if you if you only be realized that this moment. In fact, I think you did this a couple of times with some of my interview guests. If you realize you only had a minute left to live, what would be the irreducible essence of your instruction? I like that because I tend to remember it. So here you go, Tam. Write it down. Ready? Open, and relax. That's it. Done deal. Open. Relax. That's all you have to do. You don't need the path. You don't need the teachings. You don't need anything else. You just need to open, relax. Don't deal okay. But I always say this tongue in cheek. Whenever I make this kind of irreducible instruction. Usually somebody raises their hand and says yes, yes, yes. But I call it the big butt. So if it's yes, and they say but then I say okay, we've got this thing called the path. You don't need the path. It's like TS Eliot, you know, to return from where are you started in CSM for the first time? It's a path to Nowhere or to now here, you don't need the spiritual path. You really don't trust me on this. So tam just for you. open, relaxed heartstopper done deal. That's it. You don't need to attend these programs anymore. You don't have to spend any more money on books or teachings. Open relax. You put every spiritual teacher out of business. And by the way, I don't consider myself that what when people when people write right up or they talk to me about is like being a spiritual teacher. It kind of gives me the creeps actually, a spiritual teacher Yikes. Though, at best, I'm what's called a Pollyanna nature. I'm a spiritual friend. Just a nerd who's just maybe read a couple more things or been meditating a little bit longer. I am not a spiritual teacher. Because I think I've been talking I've been sharing with you people right? At least I mentioned it the other day. The two biggest things that I wrote a brief article, it'll be published in one of the magazines coming up. I don't know which one yet. The two biggest problems with the spiritual path, right? Remember this number one, the use of the word spiritual, horrible, horrible spiritual not merely in contradistinction to material but in opposition to it. That leads to a ton of spiritual bypassing issues. So the two biggest things with a spiritual path two biggest problems one is the use of the word spiritual. Two is the use of the word path. Outside of that the spiritual path is perfect. But spiritual path needs major rebranding because it's spiritual. That means okay, that means I have to go somewhere. That's where the path comes in a path to where? No, no, it's a path to here. Now nowhere so a spiritual path. is like this. It's bad business. It's bad branding. So anyway, open and relax. Tim That's all you got to do. Okay, from vlog How can I practice the Bardo? I guess you mean Bardo teachings. It helped my parents to transition when the time comes. Really great question, I'm glad. Well, let's start with with what you can do for yourself. Working with the Bardo teachings, the gap teachings, the teachings on death and dying from the Tibetan perspective is a monumental way to understand the nature of the journey to understand the nature of your mind and heart. And to get a really, really profound doctrinal and an experiential understanding and the realization of what actually happens according to the Tibetan view, which makes so much sense to me what happens when you die. So here's the amazing thing with this lab is when you do that, if you do that with some rigor, and you really work with these teachings, you will discover a couple of really interesting things. First of all, your aspiration is really beautiful. It's really laudable, to practice the teachings for the benefit of others. That's that's maybe that Tim, that might be the third thing bodhichitta right. So Okay, three things right, open, relax. That means open your heart, do what you're doing for the benefit of others. So that's the third thing.
But one of the best things we can do is is working on our stuff, with the aspiration to be of benefit to others. And so you will discover flad that when you do this, one of the things you'll notice is that while the storylines of your parents, obviously different from yours, the storylines of every sentient being on this planet are different from yours. The essence of the mind and the heart are the same. There is it's the same. We all share the same essential mind and heart. And so by understanding your mind and heart, well guess what happens you will understand the foundational essential mind and heart of your parents or anybody else. And then what happens here is actually quite magical. Because then what happens is with this understanding of the confidence born from it, I can I speak from direct experience because I did the same thing with my parents and others when you are around them in the process of death and dying or even previously. It's kind of magical you will almost automatically know what to do that you don't have to come into an environment with a preset set of criteria and doctrines even though there are some tips of like sacred listening and things that can really help. But if you really understand the nature of your mind and heart, then you will understand the nature of the mind and heart of everybody and then you will know exactly what to do. You will understand what the other person is going through and therefore you will act from that kind of commonality of the human condition. So with a few with that said is an overarching view. Some practical tips would be to come in I suggested briefly through the barter teachings. As an exquisite, exquisitely sensitive listener. Don't come in with a bowling ball set of criteria. Oh, I've got to do this. I gotta you know make sure they have a good depth know if you really kind of open your heart silence. They will tell you in a certain way the environment will tell you what to do. If you're simply a good listener, the environment will dictate what needs to take place, and therefore and I noticed this really with everybody. Sometimes it's quite overt. Sometimes it's quite subtle, but if you're really open and relaxed, somewhat connected back to Tim's question, the environment will always show you teach you what to do. It's really quite magical. It's really quite beautiful in that regard. So those are the two things that come to mind specifically Vlad, if you want to learn more about this you know, hey, my book is all about me. My book preparing to die has a ton. This what to do for yourself and for others from a spiritual and practical point of view. before, during, and after death. It's as comprehensive as I can get. And so I approach your question from those aspects with exhaustion in this big book I wrote maybe some seven eight years ago. So if you want to learn more about the details a little bit more about sacred listening a little bit more about the techniques about about, you know, specific practical things you can do creating proper holding environments, more esoteric things like Sir offerings, all kinds of really, I think quite remarkable things then that might be a source that could be of some interest to you. Okay. All right. So here I am. I'm like a stockbroker. I got all these computers around me. So I'm reading off my other computer. Okay, so here's, here's one from Katie. Katie always has such really lovely questions, as to many people, but these are great. Okay, so I'll read the second one first in the interview with Tenzin walga. Yeah, so I interviewed Tenzin on your webpage a couple of weeks ago. So that's on the edge of mind. Podcast. He said if you don't have a subtle body, then you're stuck in this physical world. Did he mean literally that it is possible not to have a subtle body? No, it's not everybody has a subtle body. Or did He mean that if one does not develop on the subtle body through the inner yoga is one will not be able to use it? Yeah, it's more like that. That if you don't really cultivate your understanding your relationship your experience on the subtle body that you have this more interiority by the way? Katie this ties into your your first question about the symbol Gaia. Symbol Gokai. I'll get to that overtly in just a second. But so Lola chi is definitely connected to subtle body so both these questions are related to each other. So if you don't have a relationship to the subtle body, which most of us don't, and that's just one of three bodies, right? Least in the Buddhist tradition, we have what's called the trachea, three bodies, the outer physical body and Romana chi is just a gross physical body. Within that you have the symbol Gaius little body. Within that, you have the Dharmakaya the extremely subtle body. And so if you it's not so much if you don't have a subtle body, if you don't relate to that solid body, then what happens? You're exclusively identified with the outer physical nirmanakaya, the physical body, the physical world, because you think that's all there is. That's actually what ego is. It's exclusive identification with physicality or form. And so if you don't have a relationship to that, then what you're frozen, you're stuck in samsara. You're stuck in materialism. You're stuck in exteriority. You have no interoceptive interests or faculties are not interested in or work. You're just you're just you know, the archetype would be people obsessed with money, materialism, fame, power, because you think the physical material is all there is right? And so this is why I talked about this, this identity theft that occurs constantly in broad daylight. Every time we identify with exteriority with gross, subtle body, you're stuck in physical form, you're gonna suffer. Why? Because that's not who you really are. There's only 1/3 of who you are. And your degree of relationship or identification with that physical exterior is directly proportional, proportional, forcing it to how much you're going to suffer when you age get sick and die. Because when you get old and second day, if you only identify with a part that does get old second die which is your outer body, brace yourself, Brigitte, you're in for a really rough ride. But if you realize that's not who I am, that's just like my suntan fading. That's just old, club costumes, clothes being worn out. And then all the sex and death has no impact on you because that's not who you really are. Okay, so your first question, this is a really this is a great question. Could you please explain from my own experience, my understanding and experience what is the symbol kya? Yeah, this is really nice. So, So briefly, some Bolkiah sa NBH OG aka ya Sobald. Okay, it's interesting, you know, sounds great. So like so much like baby language, right? It's all about God Gaia. This is part of what's called the trachea doctrine that I mentioned earlier, to Kiat three bodies. That is is a really big topic comes from the service of art and tradition and Buddhism. That originally specifically came to us you probably know specifically he talked about the three bodies of the historical Buddha, the outer gross body nirmanakaya purified subtle inner body simple Gokai a pure formless body within that Dharmakaya and so those three bodies eventually, really, they were extrapolated because they had so much explanatory power. They were extrapolated to talk about the three dimensions of reality gross, subtle and very subtle. And even from there, like, like a fractal. They were, there was so much power to describing anything in the phenomenal world using this kind of tripartite system. So there's so much to say here, but in the briefest way, and then I'm going to actually share a reading from my dear friend Francesca, who I think is nails this is that the, the, the first body so to speak provisionally the Dharmakaya body of truth, body of reality. You can think of it this way that's you'll see how this ties in and that's complete formlessness emptiness sociated with space on the other hand, is the nirmanakaya. If you're looking at a spectrum that's fully reified, solidified form, matter, physicality or what we perceive as physicality. So on one level, those are pretty easy formlessness form, some Bolkiah to me is the most interesting one because it's this vast intermediate bandwidth of everything from fully manifest form, to fully de reified formlessness. And that's why the simple guy is not so easy initially to understand because there's just so much going on here in shamballa language is called beautifully the inner court and the intercourse is the most populated of all the courts and so oh my gosh, so much to say here. So I'm saying this because I want to talk about my personal experience of it. It'll make more sense. The Samba kya. It is earliest inception in the Bardo teachings, right? This is the we're all the Deities appear. So the experience of the Dharmakaya or Samba here is experiencing deity principle, in your experience, and in life, which is where everything appears as
basically fundamentally a body of light. So this is deeply connected. Katie to pure it perfectly pure illusory form. It's the same thing that I talked about in dreams of light. So the Soboba kya runs from the very first instantiation of any level of form, sound and light, literally in the physical world. What we know is form light has a certain form, but it's mostly formulas sound by voice as a certain form, but it's mostly formless. So it runs from that first instantiation of form, which takes place in phase one, I should say, I'm sorry, heart one and phase two voluminous part odometer all the way to the full reification of that light, into physicality. So again, there's so much to say here, this is one of the biggest doctrines in both Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, but I wanted to share a really beautiful quote from my dear friend Francesca Fremantle on this where she really riffs on it and if you want to really explored this, Katie, I recommend her book, luminous emptiness, exploring, understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead. She has a really beautiful chapter called the threefold pattern of the path where she talks about this really, really in a beautiful way and she starts with this wonderful statement from William Blake write some Bulga kya is energy in its eternal delight. And so basically, when you're talking about simple gokada, you're talking about the domain of communication, which is why the sun Boga chakra symbol GokaiOh chakra is what throat chakra, this is also what connected to the dreams because the dreams when purified, there are some kya right? So here's what she says that is just really beautiful. The experience of the Sun Boga Kaya and I read this when I read this decades ago, not decades, I guess these books been out 15 years I said, Hi Fi This is really great. The experience of the Sun Bulga kya is to perceive the world directly and nakedly welcoming whatever appears without without preconceptions. It's fantastic. What a great thing. Very practical first thought best thought to see the world actually without thought. This is what it means to see the world purely before the imputation of concept, before hopes and fears, aspirations and everything else. Just see the world purely. sense perceptions become clearer, sharper, more colorful, the nature of the five Buddhas and so I can't explain all these terms but the nature of the five Buddha's spontaneously reveals itself and flashes of insight in one sees intuitively how the whole of existence is pervaded by the qualities of the energies of the five families. So what she's talking about here is that there's so much here. One, the pure light of the Dharmakaya I think metaphorically here in the Bardo teachings, this is really powerful with a pure light of the Dharmakaya connected to the ions, often in Jewish mysticism, very, very, very similar. When that pure white light is reflected, refracted through the prism of fundamentally present of ignorance that that white light refraction to five primordial colors, we know this even neurologically, right perceptually each one of those five particular primary colors, that becomes the seed color, then for what the five would have been the families of which they call the families because everything in manifest reality is an expression and iteration or belongs to one of these families. So this is exactly what she's talking about here. And so again, it's this energetic, communicative communicative display. That in a very real way connects form an empty next connects the nirmanakaya with the Dharmakaya. So back to her this is this is great. The world is then recognized as sacred, magical and full of wonder. It becomes a boundless source of life and goodness, this is really beautiful. So when you're walking in nature, this is the way I really connect to it. And something's completely stopped your mind the majesty of a sunset of a mountain of a river, often nature will do this. And you're you're perceiving the world without concept. The world just seems brighter, more alive, vibrant, clear, sacred. That's the one kya it contains all the vitality and passion for the emotions free from the confusion that brings misery and pain. There's a sense of fearlessness and play and continual discovery, an invitation to take part in the dance of life. So there's more to say on that, but I thought that's pretty good. Francesca has really got a solid beat on that. So if you want to come on and Baptists around a little bit more, more than welcome to do that, but it's a really wonderful question. Because sometimes these things like the deity right. What does it mean to experience the deity Well, this is deeply connected our emotions when they're purified, right. So this is another way to experience some Olga kya. When our emotions are related to purely without reference to self without reference to energy, absorbed without reference to other that emotion is experienced as pure energy. It's just raw pure energy, and that's what it actually means to meet the deity. And so you want to experience a simple Gaia. Experience your anger purely without reference to self another. You will find it becomes clear, vibrant, sacred, and manifest then is the budget family, right? The wisdom of Akshobhya. So your anger manifests is like Sobia. That's the experience of the Soboba Chi in anger. Same thing happens with passion, experience that purely that transforms into the warmth of compassion, that's Amitabha. Same thing with envy. Jealousy, when that experience purely assembled mkhaya That's a maga city. When you experience pride, purely That's right, that's Ababa. And so all the emotions when they're related to in this pure non referential way, that's principally the way to experience it without reference to self. That right there becomes the symbol GokaiOh or I should say is recognized as the symbol GokaiOh. So therefore, what is intimate is that before you stain it, with referentiality, with contraction onto self, everything that arises is fundamentally pure in this regard. And so yeah, there's lots more to say on this. But maybe that's enough. For people who aren't Buddhists is like, what the heck is this guy talking about? But that's a really great question. And hopefully that's of some interest. Okay, let me see if I missed anything here. Oh, yeah. One bar from Tim. A very sincerely trying to work deeper and deeper with Dream Yoga as a path. Very cool. As I'm doing that, I'm becoming more and more aware of that autonomous force that seems to oppose or block us in our endeavors. Ah, Tim, I'm gonna call you on your crap here, my friend. There's several times over questions in the past and I love your questions. Where Where again, because I'm trying to help you a little bit. You and many of us seems have this reifying tendency. I've noticed this in some of your questions. We all do it. That there seems to be as you put it, there's an autonomous Swartz that somehow seems this agency somehow seems external, dark force or whatever it is, somehow it's challenge you No, no, no, no, it's not that there is no autonomous dark demonic force out there like Satan or the Devil. It just doesn't really work that way. In dreams, I noticed that occasionally taking the form of adversarial character as well as it yet know that force is basically ignorance, my Ripa, that that's what it that's what actually creates, or as I say, imputes the reified nature of the so called force it's just not it's just ignorance, not knowing there's no external agentic demonic satanic force out there working against you. No, no. In dreams I noticed that occasionally taking the form of adversarial characters. Yes, sometimes it can become anthropomorphized that way or obstacles and blocks and limitations. of various kinds, but again, it's not solid man. One of the best ways to deal with this thing right off the bat, Tim, and this relates to the earlier question you asked me about irreducibility open and relaxed Well, when you open and relax, you're going to de reify this. You're going to pull the rug out from under this force, this force only has as much power or force as you impute upon it. And this is what happens all the time. We do it all the time. This is why it's such a great question. We're always giving our power away by reifying externality and in so doing basically, we were controlled in direct proportion to how we give away our force our own power, freezing it in seemingly external agencies. It doesn't. It's not the nature of reality. If you open you're going to de reify this force, you're going to see it for what it is a particular level of confusion. That's all it is just a particular level of confusion. That right there softens it makes it much more workable. Because otherwise you're setting up an adversarial relationship with an illusion with a projection that's not going to help you in you want to de reify not reify obviously, I do not know do I do not knowingly consciously create this force? That's true, you don't the use of the forces of the dark side that the forces of habitual patterns of ignorance and not knowing we all have it.
I do not knowingly consciously create this force of principle on my dreams our waking life, but there is but there it is. Anyway. Seemingly persistent on all levels. It's not an IT. It's not they're like waiting for you, clobbering you right now. It's just a projection of your own confusion into a seemingly reified, external agency. In your understanding what is that adversarial force? Confusion is it designed to keep us from waking up? No, it's not it's designed by ego. It's not designed by some whatever. You know, it's just confusion. I really want to understand this. Hopefully what I said is helpful. Appreciate blah, blah, blah. So Tim, if you're on and want to follow up on this, have you run with it a little bit, but I think it's the most important thing tied to your other question is, just stay open. Don't reify be curious, investigate, penetrate through the illusion it may seem solid, it may seem forceful, it may seem agentic but if you take a really close look at this looking at self starts to melt it because the looking itself as awareness, and nothing can really stand the light of awareness. It'll melt just like the Wicked Witch of the West. So you're basically creating we all do it. A Wicked Witch of the West. You're you're generating it out there. You can melt it. Just look at it very closely. establish a relationship to it, see through it melted. And what guess what happens? It basically liberates energy. it liberates into what we're talking about earlier with cakes question. This just purified energetic, right. So yeah, that's what comes to mind my friend good stuff. I really appreciate it. Okay. So let me see if some questions came in here. And then we'll let me get to E KP Oh, 506 I heard somewhere that Elon Musk. I read somewhere. Tell me if I'm wrong, that Elon Musk actually has he has like numbers for his kids. Is that true? Or that somewhere? His kids actually don't have names they have like serial numbers or something. I don't know if that's true, but I thought I read that somewhere. So anyway. Yeah, far away while I go through the q&a q&a in the
chat, okay. Yeah, this is my work account, and I don't know why it shows up that way. I keep trying to change it. I'm rereading or I pulled back out this awakening the luminous mind by Rinpoche that you just interviewed.
Great. Yeah, he's a sweetheart. Yeah,
and it's, you know, it's a little difficult but some of the words you use today, you know, I struggle with these a little bit, you know, formlessness, spaciousness, clear, light, boundless luminosity, I find that so he walks you through a meditation where first you you picture something, you realize your mind is empty. That goes okay. And then it's, you realize that the pictures in your mind so are being created by your mind's eye mind is vision mind is empty. Then you start to move into trying to experience clear light, and the awareness of clear light, which calls union anyway, I find that whenever I think about spaciousness or boundlessness I'm trying to picture it so I find myself picturing a white light you know, in the crown chakra or picturing like stars in the universe, and I'm trying to envision boundlessness and spaciousness but I'm not what I'm feeling is just my physical body. So I guess I struggle with the concept of, of like clear light and luminosity and I don't want to see it. I want to feel it does that I don't know if that makes sense.
Totally makes sense. And actually, it's a really great question. So that's something so cool. So so these are really pretty deep questions, right? Because when you talk about clear, light mind, it's another way to talk about the nature of mind. It's another way to talk about the enlightened mind. It's another way to talk about emptiness non duality, right? So like, whoa, wonder it's not so easy to wrap your mind around it right? This is a really big deal topic. And so here oh my god get like, again, like Katie's question. There's so much here but here's perhaps the most important thing around this is there's no way you're going to be able to imagine it, visualize it or whatever. Because no matter how big your visualization is, how refined sophisticated, you're trying to shrink wrap infinity and eternity into conceptual tiny packet. That ain't going to work. So the when you're not clear, light mind, you're talking about something that's completely trans conceptual. You live you literally can't know it with the conceptual logic rational mind you just it literally they're mutually exclusive. But what you can do with it, which is exactly what you're doing is walk that kind of plank through the process of hearing, listening and contemplating. But eventually, the only way to know the clear light mind is to walk to the edge of the plank and jump and that's through direct experience with meditation. And that's why there's the pedagogical approach of Listen, contemplate, meditate. It's only through meditation that you will get the clear light mind because it's beyond even contemplation. It's just that those are two ways to walk towards the end of the plank diving board. And but then you have to jump. And then when you recognize it, you will you actually in a certain way, this is it's difficult to even talk about, because there's the actual moment of recognition. You won't be there in the act of recognition. That's the kicker. And that's why that's what makes us so interesting. When you actually try to recognize, I should say, to experience the clear, light mind. ego can't attend to its own funeral. You can't experience the clear, light mind. Experience, the clear light mind can only happen by itself. And so this is actually this is not like stop sophistry. This isn't some like Zen jujitsu, no this is the way it is. Who you know is yourself. You literally cannot experience the clear light mind they're mutually exclusive by definition, because you ego bodily encased is just again, a shrink wrap against this infinitude. It just doesn't work. But what we do is we understand the week okay that makes kind of sense I can get that and then you would you do the practices you engage in the hearing you engage in the contemplating and then you do the meditations. And then one day you will get it about you will get it at the point when you dissolve see like when that little droplet is returned to the infinity of the ocean then you will say oh my god. In retrospect you will not have this when you're in the experience. You will postscript you'll come out of the experience. You'll retrofit Oh my gosh. I think that was a clear light mind. But when you're in it, you're not there. Everything that's going to come afterwards we'll say hey, I think there was a clear light mind. But here's the kicker and a great place to leave it. There's nothing but the clear light mind. At least say this like 10,000 times. There's nothing but the clear light mind. You're looking at it. Everybody everything you're appearing is appearing in front of you everything you see smell, hear taste, touch think that's the clear light mind. There is nothing but the clear light mind. That's it. Hard stop period. So what do you have to do to recognize it right let's go back to tense question. Open, relax, recognize so in a certain way, you'll never experience the clear light mind. The only thing you can do is recognize it. And when you do, you're going to be like, you'll come out of it. You'll go holy crap. How could I have been so full for so long? The second thing in this Can you hit this gonna happen is you're gonna say oh my gosh, Is it really this simple? Yes, it is. And that's one reason we miss it. Because we think that clear light mind has to be this big cosmic spiritual orgasm or this big Hollywood production thing we look for the extraordinary. I playfully say it's like looking for Hollywood when the experience is more like Oklahoma. I love Oklahoma that dissing Oklahoma. It is ordinary the mind that actually recognizes that is literally called ordinary mind. In Tibetan Telugu shape is literally ordinary mind. And so this is important because we think again, this is why I'm dissing the whole spiritual path thing. Yes, yes. On relative terms. Yes, you need the path. You accumulate mechanism. I'm not criticizing that. But eventually the path itself becomes an obstacle. So fundamentally, where is the path to Nowhere spiritual look at the material properly, it becomes a spiritual open your eyes clearly cataracts of confusion. You realize you're in the clear, light mind right here right now because that's all there is. And if you think about the logic here, if that's really true, there's nothing but enlightenment. There's nothing about the non dual state. There's nothing about nirvana. There's nothing about the clear light mind. How do you recognize or attain I only say this rephrase that? How do you attain something that you already have that you already are you can't trying to like? Trumper Rinpoche said, striving becomes the only obstacle you can't. And so this becomes very zen like, right you gotta like you try you try. You try. You try. That's the wrestling match has to work. You have to go through that. But then eventually, the only way to get it is you drop everything and you go, Oh, my God, there it is. And so guess what happens if you don't do it now? It will happen to you for you. When what? When you die? Because this is exactly what's going to happen when you die. You're going to stop doing you're going to open it's a force what I call the grand opening. Is the force grand opening into reality. And you're gonna land relax, drop back into the clear light mind that you've never left. It's just basically all those adventitious obfuscations defilements are going to be gone at the moment to death, right? And that's why when all that dust is relieved, removed, you're gonna say you, there it is. It's been there all along. Well, again, you don't have to wait till you die to do that die before you die. Do the meditations do this stuff. Go into retreat, open, open, open, open, open, di di Di Di and boom. There it is. You're looking at it right now. I am not kidding you. This is this is the frozen clear light mind right now. That's all there is. If you really understand that logic ties in beautifully to Tim's question. The only thing you have to do is what? Open relax. heart stop.
Yeah, and I think that's such so helpful because I feel like some of the meditation teachings and instructions follow that can become very cerebral and your it is you're trying so hard to follow the steps and you're not supposed to be lazy and what's the word when you're just like you're supposed to be focused and you're supposed to be contemplating and you're supposed to be awake and it does it just gets you get just tangled up in your mind again,
absolutely ties you into knots and so you know there's a place for that they call it the 84,000 dharmas. And why did all those 84,000 dharmas come about? They're not it's an archetypal number. Why do we have 84,000 teachings? Well to match the complexity of the modern complex mind, because in fact a lot of teachers have done this. They come into the West and they do this absolute kind of Nike approach, right? Just do it. It's true. Absolutely. Open, relax, don't do. Well get back to me in 1020 years and let me know how that works. It's too radical. It's too steep. It's certainly it's too easy. And so therefore, especially the Buddhists, you know, oh my gosh, do we have the complexities right? Oh my gosh, do we have the lists? Oh my gosh, do we have herbs like overwhelming? I mean, look at all these damn books I have behind me, right? This is just that scratch and they're not all Buddhists. But there's just an incredible sophisticated array of teachings on one level designed to match the so called sophistication, the complexity of the modern mind, on one level, you don't need any of this crap. And so what we do is we dance between relative and absolute truth. So I don't want to disparage the whole relative thing. I don't want to to overtly disparage the path on one level, we do need it. But on another level when we're talking about these absolute dimensions, that this stuff actually gets in the way see. And so we work with both. It's very hard to rest in the nature of mind all the time because we have habit patterns that aren't conducive to that. And so then when we can't do that, then we do what we're doing here. We talk about it, we read we practice we do whatever. So we work in my understanding experiences you work with relative and absolute relative and absolute. But all the while the absolute is the most foundational it out is out contextualize is everything see. And so to me, this is this is fantastic. It's like wow, I playfully say, just do nothing. But do it really well. That's meditation, just do nothing. Exactly what happens when you die? You're gonna do nothing. Just do it really well. It's not easy because we're not human beings. We're human doings, but the I think you get the point. Okay. Cool. Great question. All right. Let me see if something came in the chat and then I see Kimberly here. Okay, Francesca during the money meditation session, you mentioned you're doing a Bardo program in France. That's in showing Yes, I just confirmed it. Can we have the link to register on the dates? Oh, you're so sweet. It's not up yet. We're I'm pressing them to get it up because people need to prepare but the dates I can give you the dates with 23 the 27th and that's enjoying in France. So we don't have the registration page up yet. Francesco. It will be up next week. But thank you for asking. So stay tuned. Also, you mentioned you're looking for a retreat center here in Europe to do the other programs blah, blah, blah. Checkout mandala in Italy. Oh nice. I'm doing a program there in June with Bob and Michelle. Oh, how wonderful. Good for you. Well, the good news there is since Monday, the my wonderful trainer friend actually secured a retreat center in Spain after all, hidden paradise I think it's called. So we did find a location but that's good to know. I did not know about Manali in Italy. So I'll check that out. Okay, Barry, always the infinite resource. Thank you very interesting article about subtle body. So here's the deal about subtle body, right. So this is so interesting. So Soboba kya you can think about some vulgar kya in connection to subtle body. Select when we talk Dharmakaya sambhogakaya nirmanakaya. Subtle, gross, subtle, very subtle when we talk about both Samba chi and subtle body, because there's such a large multi valence set of terms you can talk about these both phenomenologically and anatomically and by this what I mean is that there is a subtle body anatomically that's the the subtle body that's connected to the channels and the you know, the winds drops and chakras and all that kind of thing. That's part of the subtle body. That's the anatomical Saudi ball, subtle body but then there's the phenomenological subtle body. That's our emotions. That's our thoughts. Right? And so I often was like, I was like, okay, all right. I tried to figure this out for the longest time it's like okay, this subtle body thing is like what what? So Barry, I find it also helpful connection to the simple goodbye because these are such large terms. You can think of them as bodies as chi as is subtle forms. But you can also think them, think of them phenomenally as pure experience. See? Okay.
Okay, for 2020, Elon Musk and singer Grimes announced their newborn son would be named. Yeah. Isn't that it? That's just great. Yeah. Is a serial number. Yeah, transhumanism, right. I can't quite wrap my mind around that whole thing. Wonder what his nickname will be? Oh, Virginia. That's awesome. Yeah, he put a nickname on there. That's awesome. Question during lucid dreamless sleep, do you have any sense of your physical body? No. You don't. That's what constitutes dreamless dreamless means formless so the only thing that happens in in deep dreamless sleep is pure formless awareness itself. There's no sense of physicality whatsoever. So the only thing you have a sense of First of all, there's no you awareness dissolves back into itself. And what is actually if you're experiencing any so called body you're experiencing Dharmakaya very subtle tooth body. Okay, timeout. So no, no sense of the physical body. Okay, Kimberly, fire away.
Hi, Andrew. How are you? Nice to see you. Get out. So just in regards to the question before about the clear, light mind. So, I would like you to tell me my kind of my cognition is right. So what I do or what I try to do is I kind of tried to reverse the my cognition and think that it's the clear light mind is doing me. So in that, like when I tried to understand that, I kind of, I suppose fall off that edge of that thing that you were talking about, and just able to sit in this kind of just witnessing kind of state I suppose. And just seeing that everything that around me including myself, my actions, whatever I'm doing thinking is all clear light mind would that be that sound? Like, correct? Yes, it
does. But again, you know, the trick with these is what we're trying to use a dualistic medium to talk about something that's non dualistic. That's impossible. And so you know, language, subject object predicate, it's, it's, it's, it's, you're stuck the minute you open your mouth around these sorts of things. So I think I understand and agree with the spirit of what you're saying. The clear light mind does you Yes. I think there's something beautiful to say about that. But I might say something more or maybe to augment that is that the clear light mind radiates you manifest to you shines as you so I think you may you might get the very subtle distinction there, but I think it's what you're saying that kind of flip is a good one. That if you transform or transfer the you know, again, the context to the clear light mind itself, and that you then become the shine the radiance the play literally the leela, the display of that clear light mind. That's it. So I'm not sure if that resonates with you, but that's what comes
to mind. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. And also like, you know, in languaging is clear like mine kind of synonymous with what we would call God. Yeah, that's how I kind of see it. Yeah,
yeah. Again, you know, depends on how you define God but it Godhead is a source of everything. That I think you could say that the trick there is any level of anthropomorphizing any level of projection imputation. But I think if it's held in in his pure esoteric way with a Gnosticism, for instance, I think you could carefully make that that sort of definition but this is where things get a little bit interesting, however, because you know, there's used to be kind of a popular thing in the academy and other places, the so called perennial philosophy, right, they're all all these traditions are pointing to the same thing, right saying the same thing. Ah, maybe I mean, who am I to say, I think it sounds nice, it sounds elegant. It sounds like a big, unitary sort of thing. I think, in theory, that sounds nice. But who knows? Who knows? I mean, who amongst us has actually walked one path to completion, let alone all the others so I think we just have to be a little bit careful. When we say is God the same as clear light mind is Dharmakaya is iron soft or whatever? Who knows? Right? To me it's it has this kind of elegance symmetry that they would It would be nice if it's true, but I don't know. Right? So anyway, I tried to I tried to be humble around those sorts of things. Because otherwise what happens is it's very easy. I always get a little let me put it this way. I always get a little bit nervous when things become too tidy. snort out shoe package. Like I've got the whole thing. I've got this thing, right. Whenever that happens, I always get a little nervous. In fact, well, let me see if I can find this. I accepted this quote because I'm going to use it this weekend. Let me see if I can read this to you. This is so beautiful. This is important. 116 I think this is so key. Let me read this to you because this is awesome. Technology from this beautiful book, Understanding our mind. This is a wonderful rendering from his perspective of the yoga Chara tradition, which those of you who know me, this is such a profound teaching. And his this, I think is his single best book. It's his deepest book as far as I can tell. So he writes this, this is this great. Oh, here we go. Where was the page? Yeah, here it is.
according to Buddhist thought, when we know something, when we learn something, it can become an obstacle to our progress. It's literally called Shinya Varna. There's two principal forms of affliction in Buddhism, the infliction of conflicting emotions and the affliction of knowledge, knowledge itself becomes a problem. This is really interesting. If we cling to what we have learned is the absolute truth we are caught by that knowledge. acquiring knowledge is like climbing a ladder. In order step to step up to a higher rung we have to let go the wrong we are standing on. If we believe that the step we're standing on is the highest and we can climb no higher the technique of learning in this tradition is always to release to let go of what we have just learned, or what we have already obtained. Never believe that what you know is the absolute truth. If you are caught by the knowledge you presently possess, that is the end of your progress. Let me say that again. I have the auto sign on every one of my emails with this. If you are caught by the knowledge you presently possess, that's the end of your progress. On the path of practice, knowledge is an obstacle that must be overcome. We must be ready to abandon our knowledge at any moment. In order to get to a higher level of understanding right? The Buddha taught that we cannot be attached to anything we have to abandon even our insights, our understanding and our knowledge. I think this is bloody important. And this is one reason why I have no hesitation to study non dual Shiva Tantra to learn from the Taoist tradition to learn from the scientists and the physicists and the philosophers. I don't care. I get really a little bit edgy and nervous when I somehow feel like I've got it I've got I've got this figured out right I've got mine figured out I've got reality figured out. I get a little unsettled and so I think what took not Han says he was really beautiful and really important because the minute you you think you're done it's called the myth of knowledge in Daniel Borstein in his book, The Explorer has talked about it. He talks about it is paraphrasing it's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you do know that just ain't so. What a great line. It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you do know that just ain't so. So anyway, I think you get the idea. This is where the whole passage of the gift of great postmodernism stuff comes into play. But this type of humility, I think is really important. Because otherwise Oh my teacher or my tradition, my whatever. We've got all the answers yet. I don't think so. Anyway, that's my little rant on that. Okay. Hey, candy. Fire away.
Am I unmuted? Yes. Hi. Hi. So um, well, I've been listening to Campo Sandra Rinpoche do The Tibetan Book of the Dead over the past several weekends. Yeah. Wow. From the the garden Institute, and there was I've been listening to you for what, two and a half years and you're really first of all, thank you so much for all of your teachings, you should
move on. So many,
I mean, you have changed my world. And so then, um, you know, it's pretty frightening listening to that stuff.
What's up here? What do you look at the dead? Yeah, totally. It shouldn't be. Yeah.
And so I'm walking down the street with my dogs. They've been listening to, and I started to hear your voice saying, but I'm not gonna it's not the knee that I think I am. That's going to experience those things. Right. All right. Well, then, how, what is it? And how, how do you know and do you know?
Oh, yeah, these are such great questions like which one do you want me to?
Um, what is it?
What is it that experiences and what No, what is it that knows is that yeah, okay. So, again, somewhat in line with the other questions. These are really beautiful, absolute level non dual questions, which are really difficult. And so I can give you the words for it. I can tell you what it is. That may not have much impact fundamentally. It's the luminous empty nature of the mind knowing itself. I mean, that I mean, I can I can give you the words. What fundamentally takes place is well, there's so much to say here is that what fundamentally knows is not candy, right? There's there's a dimension of your being the Dharmakaya dimension deeper within you, that will simply fundamentally come to recognize itself. That's and so that's why you the outer form, and again, we start with where we are, we start with Andrew, we start with candy, we start with Meijer, we start with wherever we are, and we work and we work and we work and we try and we struggle we have to go through those those machinations that manual labor, but eventually what what fundamentally happens and this is the really good news is you just released relax all that. And at that moment of relaxation and release, of course, archetypically represented in the ultimate moment of death. Then basically what happens is awareness comes to know itself. It's literally a random radiation, a clear light mind whatever term you want to attend to it. That inner dimension of your being like water pouring back into water or in the Tibetan Book of the Dead language. Is mother and child you luminosity also known as Dharmakaya, POA, the mother and child reunion, while they're in the mother luminosity is is the nature of the mind that you're going to experience at the moment of death. The child luminosity is the degree of recognition realization that you're cultivating now in life and so what happens is this a really good news is it doesn't take a great deal for a child to recognize his mother. There's this fundamental, deeply inextricable connectivity between mother and child. And so all the work that you're doing with the Bardo stuff, all the stuff that you're wrestling with struggling with you don't have to have a colossal massive insight through this for the child to grow up, so to speak, metaphorically very rapidly at the moment of death. Completely recognize his mother embrace Mother Child reunion, that's enlightenment in one life, but if you're not there, you know ego candidate and hustle funeral you're not going to be there. You're gone. Got a good day, but the who you really are, that that doesn't enter the world of space, it cannot die. That just basically recognizes itself. But you don't have to wait till you don't have to wait till you die to have this. This is what deep meditation is about. This is what happens spontaneously. Every night and deep dreamless sleep. We go through this journey every effing night. We just don't recognize it. See? So fundamentally, that's what happens self awareness or self liberating, self aware, you know, it's just water dissolves into water and who you really are fundamentally just recognizes itself. Okay, something like that. I wish it was easier to put into words but it's not right. You know?
I can, I can feel what you're saying. I mean, I you know, like I can't necessarily intellectualize it, but I feel it as you're saying it, which is why I resonate with you so much. I have one more quick question. So luckily, so I lost my dog last week. One of them
was already losing a pet is such a big hit. I'm so sorry. What's, what's his her name, his or her name? It
was Trinity. And I have I have Neo behind me right here in time. So they were my matrix dogs. So I mean, talk about the experience of the letting go and you're in the room with them. And so any suggestions on what I can do for her now because she hangs out? I mean, I feel
Oh, totally. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So let's help try to do a little bit. So yeah, so here's what happens. You know what, let me just talk a little bit more so called abstractly and matter a little bit more concretely. So. When Trinity dropped her his or her, her, her when Trinity dropped her dogs suit. Her dog costume she she returned to the ultimate dressing room, which is where we're all going to go the candy costume was going to go away. The Andrew costume was going to strip down the Trinity costume was going to be taken away. And I don't care what type of sentient being it is. We are all going to return to the fundamental same bed of mind and so Trinity doesn't nearly suffer as much as we do. Try to do that for an animal like that, that doesn't have this painful suffering shall process. Death is just no big deal for them because they don't have that kind of cognitive reflexing going on. So the only people that really suffer are us and why do we suffer because we're grasping. And again, I'm not saying oh, I'm not please understand. I'm not saying don't grieve. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that that fundamentally what my teacher Khenpo Rinpoche talked about so much easier said than done is love without attachment. Westerners that's like almost a contradiction in terms like What do you mean love without attachment? Well, you can still have a completely open broken heart. And you can do so without a stickiness. And so in terms of we're trying to do is turn these dissolve back into the nature of mind a clear line mind just like all of us, because she has the same nature of mind that we do. And then depending on what's happening with her karma, she's being recycled and we'll find some other costume or forum to come in with. Maybe next time you guys are going to switch switch places you never know. You never know Right? So how you can help her well, you can keep her in your mind and heart every time you think of her you can recite a mantra, like Omani Padme home. At the end of every day you can dedicate your merit to her. There is a lot you can do and again ah sorry for the promotion but in my book Hey, what a surprise. It's all about me. There's a section in there about what to do with a loss of a pet and how to actually help them you get everything you do for a cent for a human being you can do for a pet and so there's a ton you can do dedicate merit, sir offering I mean just so many different things, but the most important thing really can't be simplest thing is whenever you think of her, just open your heart, think of her with love. And just just release just release and then eventually what you'll find your she is probably in fact coming into your mind space. And you can kind of welcome her there. Hold her there, even talk to her and you say, hey, whoa, Trinity, guess what? You've transitioned, you're in this kind of intermediate space. How cool. You know, now you're about to start a new journey. I'll be joining you someday. Don't worry about it. We'll meet again, and then just create this atmosphere, this holding environment of love and light and release and that's really by far the most important thing you're going to do because that type of non conceptual heartfelt communication is what's really going to transmit because again remember there's the world is not made of matter. There's no time there's no space. We have tremendous capacities to help these these sentient beings, animal or otherwise. But that's one of the simplest, most effective ways every time you think of her recite a mantra perhaps, or just open, open open. And it's really honestly it's that simple. Okay, yeah. Wonderful. Okay, Barbara, one more and then we'll see if there's any after that, but fire away the air.
Oh, yes. No, I got it. I wasn't going to say much. But you're again, like before I take one of your seminars, I my dreams get fantastic and so I prepare and meditate asking for teachings. And you just came up with something that shocked me. One of the things that happened after manleigh At the end it was that it was so magical. That all of a sudden I realized that I had to let it all go I had to let go of under HolidayCheck I had to go and let go of the experiences, the compliments all the magic all the forest in that there was this overwhelming sweet sadness that came over me that has carry on till now. So I was not even taking this next course because I think you do have to step back. There's a big difference. Between letting go of that and running away because you're afraid of the experience or being afraid to step into something that you don't have control. Is that an accurate assessment of the process?
Yes, I think so. And again, you don't the quality of letting go here. It's not like there has to be some kind of force for release of this. Because that type of experience can very beautifully perfume your life perfume your mind because it's actually there's actually some contact with reality taking place here. You know, I love this this notion that when you contact the nature of mind reality, it registers is beauty in relationship to objects and love and relationship to beings. And so if you're having a perfume kind of continuity of the experience of love and beauty. I mean, just I wouldn't say I'm letting go doesn't have what to say here. Just simply abide in that. But the trick with the letting go part here is exactly. I think what you're working with is you don't want to get sticky to that you don't want to like grab on to and say oh, if I'm not experiencing that I'm out there. No, you know, fundamentally, you know, this might be that you have that experience. It's a wonderful Yom you appreciate it for what it is. And then if it happens to continue, so be it spa. You will notice what keeps it alive. When you get sticky. How will you notice that commentary? You're sending a discursive storyline that's how you left. And so that experience that what Trump overtake talked about is the ideal emotion by the way, sad joy, sad joy. That that is when you're actually in contact with reality. You don't have to let that go. But do notice however, and I'm sure you're doing this that that if you're starting to run a commentary on it. That's the sticky mind coming back if that's what you let go
of. Yeah, I had not commented until now because I didn't think I should have and then you trigger your comments trigger my, my the retrieving of the experience.
But you know the maybe the take home message here is self liberate even the antidote. You know, you said let me go make please dear, Let go of me. Okay, liberate the other don't let go of everything that's you know, they talk about it as the emptiness of emptiness. Don't Don't attach to anything. I mean, nothing, don't attach to emptiness don't attach to anything. That constant openness, flexibility, again, open and relax. Doesn't matter what it is. Because otherwise what happens and this gets really, I've worked on this a lot. If you start to get sticky around spiritual experiences, those are really dangerous traps. You have some beautiful experiencing, you know, your mind just almost can't help but attached to it. That can be somewhat problematic. And so sometimes when you're having these really great, lofty experiences, you have to you have to just again, recognize what's happening and release even that because otherwise those experiential experiences will backfire. The opportunities backfire and then they turn into obstacles right anything can be turned into an obstacle anything when you reify it stick to it attached to it anything so that's why they say Zen when you if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. Thank you know don't kill me.
Okay all right. Hello, hey, buddy. Hi, Andrew.
like to talk a little bit if we may about the human brain. Okay, yeah. So, in the West, we used to think that the human brain produced consciousness. And we now know it's the other way around. Pretty much. Yep. Yeah. So apart from processing your senses, what does the human brain do and especially when you start dying, and no more? There's no more electrical. No more electrical impulses, right? Yeah, what exactly is happening with this brain?
I talked about because these are such huge questions, right. I know that really, really good ones. Okay, so here's, here's the one way to look at this right. So what does the human brain do? What does the brain do? Well, it fundamentally acts as a reducing valve. And this is where my the work of my dear friend Bernardo Castro comes really into play. You know, he talks about metabolism is so brilliant. He talks about biology metabolism, which includes the brain as the external appearance of the dissociative process, and by this what he means in this is actually really, really interesting is that if you were to actually experience and this is a work of Karl Friston and others, if you were to actually experience reality in a completely unfiltered way. He basically says I love a language and you said you were fundamentally dissolve into an entropic soup. What a beautiful image, right? You know, it's just that the human apparatus is incapable of perceiving unfiltered mind at large. I would do this very interesting, I agnostic conjecture, I think this is actually what might happen with rainbow body with people who really open to that extent at the moment of doubt. They literally dissolve into light. So what the brain does is it filters and read the book if you want more about this read the book by tours and our Toronto is called the user illusion, cutting consciousness down to size. He puts all the numbers on this, which is really bloody interesting. How it is that we filter moment to moment, you know, like we perceive less than one 10 trillion of what's taking place. Think about that. One 10 trillion, and that one 10 trillion that comes through is that infinitesimal sliver that basically supports what we already hope and expect to see in reality. So basically, the mind acts as this amazing reducing valve, which is why interestingly enough, and experiences of opening near death experiences like Eben Alexander pilots, blacking out with G force, blackouts with psychedelics, these sorts of things are not brought about by increase in brain activity, but with a reduction or even cessation of brain activity. I mean, it should be the other way around. If the if the materialist and brain scientists were right with the view, that mind is an epiphenomena of matter and brains should be the other way around. We have opening experiences when the brain goes offline. So the brain fundamentally acts as a very sophisticated reducing valve. That reducing valve was opened at the moment of death. And so the interesting question is, how are you going to relate to that openness, right? You have a binding are big enough to again, attain that. So I'll pause for just a second because you have more specific questions about brain itself, but I want to make sure at least I'm throwing something against the wall that might stick for you anywhere else you want me to run with this?
Well, if if we're using only so little of the of the potentiality of the brain, then you start wondering what's what's the idea what are we going are We are human beings going to evolve more and more and more and more and more?
Oh, yes. But they're not they're not necessarily going to evolve with increased cognitive brain capacities at least. I mean, this is this is all speculative. But it's very interesting, isn't it? When you look at how it is that even Hollywood producers and fiction writers typify more advanced alien human beings, right? Or entities, isn't it always they have these massive heads. And then these tiny little spindly bodies, right? I mean, like, really? So this is all pure conjecture. Like, what what could really happen here? I think we're here to share. Dan has something interesting to say here about the evolution of consciousness. The fundamental paraphrasing him, evolution hasn't ended. It hasn't stopped. It's just moved indoors. And so again, who knows it's way too early. To say because this what we're experiencing is the human phenomena is just a hiccup in the cosmos of evolutionary time. But it doesn't necessarily mean at least I don't think so that the Darwinian processes of biological evolution are kind of contextualize everything else, right? I mean, I think evolution can take place irrespective of this kind of apparatus, but this is pure speculation. I really am just guessing here. So I like you. I'm super interested in this sort of thing. I speak more as a dilettante than any authority on this topic. But I think there's really interesting traction here fundamentally, really, the most important thing is mind is not reducible to brain. Mine is shrunk by brain. And so if we understand that, then yes, we pay homage to the correlations not causations of this kind of intercourse. But realizing that mind consciousness, whatever you want to call it is so much bigger than this reducing valve in this shrink read phenomena. The read if you haven't read Bernardo stuff on this. He's got some really interesting things to say. And then I also recommend the book, the user illusion, there's some really cool things on that but
Okay, last remark, it will be frightening to think that everything we are talking about spirituality everything is just a trick of the mind of this.
i There's no way I can get I can tell you
is right. There they told me this is not true. But
that's just hubris. I mean, that's just materialistic, physical, allistic, reductionist arrogance. There's just no way. I mean, no way. So cool. Thank you. My friend. This is some help. Thank you. So one last question, comment from Lloyd and then we'll end for today and one of Umberto vos books. He recounts one of his mentors told him he shouldn't 20% of his focus on himself. 20% on the community and 20 60% on cosmos. Okay. Does that statement have any meaning to you? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I, I'm curious about the math here, but I get the spirit. Here's the deal here. This is the way I relate to this. Is that and this is where developmental theory really comes into play. Excuse me, the one constitutes development. One way to look at it is increased degrees of openness, the central decentralizing right. And so basically one way and they've done really interesting studies about this one way to talk about evolution. Period, is you go from egocentric to ethnocentric to Cosmo centric, and that's basically what what he's saying here. The percentages, I guess, but fundamentally, this is you know, another another way perhaps, Kenyatta Mahayana Vaiana. Roger Jana, each vehicle everything's about opening, opening, opening, increasing rings, concentric circles getting bigger and bigger, bigger. connected to my favorite definition, a definition of meditation, habituation to openness. also connected to Tim's question my answer, you know, irreducible restriction, open, open open, but fundamentally Yeah, that's nice. Start with yourself as the head IANA 20%. I don't know about the math work with yourself. Yes, you have to start there that dissolves. Then you open to relate more to your community. That's the more ethno centric aspect, but even that's limited. And then eventually it becomes Cosmo centric, you will the doors on everything. It always remembering here that this particular opening is a vows a narrative of transcended, but include. So even though you become fundamentally Cosmos centric, which is one way to say non centric or a centricity. You always have recourse to behave in an ethical centric way. In the transcendent would include narrative, you can come back work with your community, maintaining your cosmological perspective, you can come back, do your individual thing, the the ego, self ego, it's fundamentally not a problem, right? Ego is just a form of developments, just the rest of development. So I like this, but I would simply add from a development perspective, yes, fundamentally, you want to have 100% in the cosmos, you could also say using the trachea thank Dharmakaya but then you come back intentionally volitionally into these more concentric domains as a way to what relate to people who are still stuck at that level. Right. So I like that. That's sweet. Something like that. That's what comes to mind. Okay. So hey, thanks, everybody. Nice to be with you. Come join us with Mandalay at Menlo with Bob this weekend if you've never experienced the weekend. With Bob Thurman, you know, this guy is amazing. I really love working with him. So I'm quite excited about that. But what we do here until we meet again, is this little dedication of merit thing if it means anything to you, if we've done anything of value. Again, you got to let it go baby. Release it any merit we've accumulated, we send to all beings and we can send something very specifically into the heart, mind of Trinity and candy, our dear friends, they could use our help. Let's beam some oceans of merit into both of them and give Trinity a little bump into her next incarnation gig right. And if you want to take your unmute yourself and put your camera on, we do this little geeky group hug thing where we say Until next time, all the best everybody great to see everybody. Thank you
