hi hello um so I wanted to check something out with you so if all I am is experiencing
and experiencing is made of awareness or knowing and um so when I look at a thought
I can see that it's it comes it's on the screen of knowing if you like so it even though it can
appear as an object it's not really an object it's part of awareness same with hearing touching
um smelly but then seeing this is where I get a little bit hung up seeing an object that appears
outside from my senses appears outside myself when I'm seeing I'm I realize that
that my seeing is made of experience it's the experiences is made of awareness
but unlike I can really feel that a thought
is is made of awareness but when it comes to an object outside myself if you like
what how can I experience that as awareness as well in that do you see what I'm saying yes yes
what you're asking I think is is the uh what your home drawing attention to is the fact
that a thought only appears in your finite mind the thought that you're having now is it just
appearing in your mind yes so not only is it it's obviously appearing in Awareness because all there
is to your mind is awareness but it's it's not only is it appearing in Awareness it's appearing
only in your finite mind yes however with um with a sound for instance or a sight with your with
your eyes open it's true that all you know of the the visual world is the experience of seeing yes
nevertheless there is more to the scene world than just the contents of your finite mind because each
of us are also seeing that world that that's the Dilemma you've got that the world whereas
your thoughts appear only in your own finite mind the world doesn't just appear in your finite mind
yeah and also if I'm looking at an object outside myself my my perception I can see my perception
is made of awareness but I'm seeing quote unquote an object which I can I can go up and quantify so
it's just that that's where I lose that sense of awareness how can that how is that made of I mean
one the only way I've answered it for myself is that it must be made of awareness because
when I'm in the eye it's completely infinite and unlimited and ever-present which means
that's the essence of everything so therefore that must be the essence of of everything ie.
whatever I'm looking at okay all right so and um I need Mary and Jane here okay so um
so Mary falls asleep in London she dreams dreams that she's Jane walking on the streets of
Paris Jane also has this problem she thinks well my thoughts appear in my own minds they don't
appear anywhere else so they're obviously made out of not only are they made out of awareness they're
also made out of my own mind which is a little mini field of awareness but what about the the
streets of Paris that I see there's obviously more to the streets of Paris than my than my
own finite mind because my friend Claire who I'm having coffee with in a cafe also sees the same
world and I close my eyes the streets of Paris disappear for me but they don't disappear for
her yeah so there must be more to the streets of Paris than just the experience of my own
personal seeing yes therefore this is this is how Jane before she discovers non-duality reasons
therefore Jane says okay everything inside is made out of mind yes but because the world
obviously there's a there's a reality to the world that is outside of my own mind because
Claire confirms it when I close my eyes therefore the world must exist outside mind
outside my mind okay what is the name of this stuff we give that that appears
outside mind matter so Jane thinks of for this reason that the world is made out of matter
then Mary wakes up yes and from Mary's point of view what is the world made of
in this case so from each of our localized points of view we have this same problem that that you
have inside yes it's obvious my thoughts and feelings are made out of the stuff that my mind
is made out of which is obviously Consciousness but outside it's the world obviously has a reality
that's outside my mind we call that matter yeah but how does it look from infinite consciousness's
point of view from the point of view of infinite Consciousness it has dreamed it is dreaming the
universe within itself in other words the universe is the activity of its own mind
think of infinite conscience like a vast mind and I don't mean to imply by that that a vast
human mind and not suggesting that all there is to infinite Consciousness is thinking and perceiving
where are you Jake um it's a vast it it's it's a vast mind with a capital A right
not a vast human mind mind with a capital a vast Consciousness that is dreaming imagining
the universe within itself in other words the the universe is its activity just as the streets
of Paris are the activity of Mary's mind so the universe is the activity of Consciousness is mind
but when viewed from each of our localized perspectives
it seems to be made out of stuff outside of ourselves called matter but when
infinite Consciousness so to speak wakes up to itself it realizes it runs this no
in order to manifest the Universe I divided myself in two I infinite consciousness
I overlook I fell asleep to myself I divided myself into not just one subject of experience
as we do when we have a dream at night I divided myself into numerous separate subjects
of experience I localized myself as numerous separate subjects of experience that is each of us
and the unlocalized portion of myself is what appears to these subjects as the world
so all of this is what the activity the unlocalized activity of Consciousness looks
like from each of our localized perspectives just as the unlocalized activity of Mary's
mind looks like the streets of Paris from Jane's point of view okay so that that's something I'm
I'm understanding with my mind right now and it makes a lot of sense but I'm not experiencing that
so for me the beauty of this path the direct path is that we we go into this
laboratory of our minds our awareness and we we we validate these experiments and through having
the experience so for instance I'm aware now having had the direct experience that
that thoughts are appearing on the screen of awareness inside my finite mind but but I'm
yeah but but just expand your screen of awareness the screen of awareness doesn't just exist in your
head or your mind think of the screen of the of the awareness as the vast three-dimensional screen
okay which is appearing as the entire universe and that your mind is just a a little localization a
little localization of that vast screen or let's call it a space because it has three dimensions so
the the the space of awareness is not just taking place in your mind your mind is just a little
subset yes corner of the vast space of awareness and it is the the the the the universe is like
um is like a a hologram that appears in the vast space of awareness made of the vast
base of awareness that only appears to be made out of something outside
Consciousness from our limited points of view that's very helpful that's very helpful because
what you're saying is that awareness that screen because I like that analogy it's very helpful so
that screen even though it's localized in this finite mind it's also go back to Mary and Jane
Jane is a localization of Mary's mind so Jane thinks my mind exists just in my body but what
is Jane's mind Mary yes Jane doesn't really have her own mind Jane is not yes a separate
person either to have or not to have a mind she's just an apparent she's a little bundle
of thinking and perceiving called Jane which is a localization of Mary's mind but Mary's mind
pervades Jane's mind it's all there is to Jane's mind but Mary's mind extends
Way Beyond Jane's mind Mary's mind is extended across the entire universe that Jamie perceives
the whole thing is Mary's mind yes yes so just instead of thinking that the substance of your
mind awareness is is is is contained within the body no just just feel that that the substance
of you the essence of you the essence of your mind is extended infinitely which
actually is your experience if you if you as we often do we make this investigation what
is what do we know about the experience of being aware we never find a limit there
there's no evidence no experiential evidence that awareness is limited yes
I like that that connects it all up because that is experiential that is experiential yes
if that makes sense sometimes it's easier to think of it in terms of
being rather than awareness to begin with okay that it's it's it's it's a bigger step
to think that the universe may be an appearance of awareness of Consciousness but to think that
it is an appearance of being the being is its Essence yes is easier it's a not such a
big step yeah like you said yesterday there is-ness of things that's it yeah so we go inside
and we the essence of ourself is is being I am but the essence of of things is their is-ness
so it's it's easier to think that there is a a single being that pervades not only that that
we experience on the inside as I am and that we experience on the outside as it is
you are and then it's a small step from there to realize that being is not inert being it
is aware being yes so then the objection which one of you will no doubt raise is well okay if
everything so I'm just preempting this because it's the obvious question to ask her the obvious
question to ask is well how then if everything in the world is really the activity of conscious
does this mean that everything is conscious point of view no it doesn't that would be a
materialist appropriating the Consciousness only model and adding it to their fundamentally
materialist perspective the belief that things are conscious that not only human beings and animals
are conscious but everything is conscious no that's starting with things we're saying
something even more radical than that there are no things are just what the activity of
Consciousness looks like from our local localized perspective so then the question arises well
does that mean that that um everything we come across is is is conscious everything has a point
of view trees rocks lampposts cars uh how could there be an inanimate apparently unconscious
objects in Consciousness made of Consciousness and and the just look at your own experience
look at what takes place in your own mind it is obvious to you in your own mind that for instance
thoughts appear in your mind thoughts thoughts are obviously made out of the stuff that your
mind is made out of namely Consciousness so all there is to a thought is consciousness now our
thoughts conscious no no our thoughts listening to this conversation no thoughts are not conscious
they are made of Consciousness but they are not conscious emotions are made of consciousness
kind of feeling of guilt listen to a conversation or perceive a world or not no a thought a feeling
cannot It's Made Of Consciousness but is not conscious well why not in that case a tree yeah
why why could a tree or a Lamppost not be made of Consciousness but not itself be conscious it's
exactly the same and again we have firsthand direct experience of that phenomenon in our
own minds thoughts are made of Consciousness but they are not conscious why not lampposts
but also trees don't have the five faculties of perception that we have as well
yes yes because that's what gives us the the ability of self-awareness
well awareness gives us self-awareness but gives us the perception of the world yes yes
getting a little ahead of myself though but yeah that's very very helpful thank you the
last the in fact I've said enough I think I I'll just digest that now
you know it's
it's we've all been brought up
with the materialist Paradigm has been so profoundly indoctrinated into all of us
that we do not realize that it is an interpretation of our experience
we think it is just a definition of our experience no it's not it's an interpretation it's just one
way of looking at our experience but we consider also this this new possibility the Consciousness
only model that that the the universe is what the activity how the activity of Consciousness
appears from our localized point of view in other words Consciousness is the reality of
the universe if you if you take this possibility explore it raise all the objections have all your
objections satisfactorily met and and this um as our objections are are met this opens us
more and more deeply to the possibility that it is true that Consciousness is the Ultimate
Reality of the world we begin to live with this possibility we begin to see that the materialist
Paradigm is simply an interpretation and slowly this new possibility it it becomes our new lived
reality it's it begins to change slowly the more we the more we consider this the more we
Ponder this new possibility and and the more our rational objections to it are satisfactorily met
the open the more open we are to this possibility the more this I would say this truth
begins to emerge we begin to not only think that it may be true but that to feel that it
is true our interpretation of the world begins to change we begin to feel that the world is is
that everything is alive that everything is made out of God's infinite being everything
is made out of what we essentially are it becomes our an intellectual possibility
first of all it's an intellectual impossibility it's just a crazy idea then it becomes an
intellectual possibility then as we go deeper into it it becomes more and more our felt experience
until we realize that the materialist Paradigm is simply an old interpretation that we were just so
accustomed to that we didn't doubt it just like the belief that the Earth was flat was just so
obviously true until we began to question it we began to look at the evidence we began all our
objections to that the possibility that the Earth was round were met and slowly slowly slowly the
possibility that the Earth was round began to be a living reality for us until it became our new Norm
until then the old idea of God how could I ever have thought the Earth was flat had we realized
that that I was convinced that this was true not we personally but the absent in humanity
we were convinced that it was true why because it was the evidence the apparent evidence of the
senses but when we look beyond the evidence of the senses that what seemed to be so obviously
true it it gradually [Music] disappears until it's just a new Norm that the Earth is round
that the sun doesn't travel around the earth that that the matter is not the Ultimate
Reality that Consciousness or Spirit or love or whatever we call it is is is a shared reality
and then of course we begin more and more to live the implications of that understanding
That was supposed to put an end to your question though not generating more questions