Transcription
You know, of all the different types of videos I make, there's one subject that seems to get the most paradoxical reaction in that many people get a an instant shift in perception and then many people get confused by it or hung up in analysis of it. And from a practical standpoint to them it seems absurd that what I'm saying is true. So, I like to address these because I think it is helpful to use these as jumping off points for your own contemplation, your own inquiry, your own willingness to look directly at what's actually being experienced and more importantly what isn't being experienced. And that can result in a shift in perception.
So, this is a comment or question uh in regard to a video I made called no time and no continuity. If you're interested in videos about time and eternity, timelessness and eternity check out my playlist. I think I have one called eternity or time or both. Anyway. So, this is from uh Curtis. Curtis says, "How can you talk without a past?" I'm doing it right now. The words are coming. Don't know where they're coming from. They have no origin. They have no destination. They're really just sounds. That's what's happening. How can the yellow of a flower be yellow without a past? How can the sensation that you feel in the body be a sensation without a past? Right? It's it's like self-obvious for many things. But for some reason when we add the the flavor of I to it when we add the sense that there's someone experiencing it all of a sudden it's confusing, right? No, there has to be a past, right? See how that works?
So, um this video I specifically, the one called no time and no con- continuity is actually pointing to why this is. It it points a little beyond what some of my time videos point to in the sense that it talks about the backward extrapolated uh self moving through time or the self that's feels continuous. >> [snorts] >> That's the problem. It's it's not the thing about time that's the issue, although the mind seems to think it is as long as there's a self that's being overlooked, a self sense that's being overlooked. Um the funny thing about the self sense is if you overlook it, it feels real. To the degree that we don't look at it, it feels most real and solid. To the degree that we assume it's true with all of this language we use all day long talking to other people about our problems and our solutions and our discoveries and our whatever the hell we're talking about all the time to people, we're re- we're reinforcing this sense of self that we never really look closely at. And strangely it feels very real in some way. The the thing about it that's so paradoxical and pretty amazing from the standpoint of awakening, from the standpoint of non-duality, from the standpoint of Advaita Vedanta, from the standpoint of Buddhism, if you really look you find that it's not there in the way you think it is at all, right? And and not only that, that that realization comes with a perceptual shift that's very fundamental. Uh and it it goes deep and it and it will go deeper. And as it goes deeper, it starts to take other perceptual illusions with it like self in time, self in space self and other. >> [snorts] >>
So specific to this question how can I speak without past? It's so obvious because it's always here, right here, right now. This is all there is. There's only right now. There is only right now. Now, thoughts do appear right now. And those thoughts can tell all kinds of stories, right? For instance, imagine a penguin sitting behind you right now. Use a thought to imagine a penguin sitting behind you. Now turn around and look for the penguin. It's not there. Right? Now use a thought to imagine that there's a million dollars stacked on in a stack of money on the you know, desk or table next to you. >> [snorts] >> And then look for it. Is it there? So, thoughts are very unreliable. There's nothing about a thought that says that's actually true. And if it is true, there's nothing about the thought that says it's not right now. Right? A thought is right now. A thought is always happening right now. Do you see that? So this is why I say you can't actually access the past because it's not there. Access it. Touch the past. Right now. Oh, wait. You can't because there's only right now. Touch the future. You can't because there's only right now.
Now, I will say that this mind function has a quality to it that seems to create a a sense of time. It seems to create a a span of time. >> [snorts] >> And that that is adaptable and functional in some way, especially when interacting with others such that we can talk to each other in terms of self, other and time. This is all very silly in a way, paradoxical. From the standpoint of the realization itself, it's it's such a joke because you could almost say that all of this what we what we what we call complex conversation and complex thought and complex ideas about time and space, they're they're so not real. They're they're like symbolic. And that sym- symbols [clears throat] the symbols themselves are made out of words or concepts. The words and concepts themselves are made out of consciousness. And right here there's only consciousness. But as long as there's a certain interaction with each thought like if you follow this question and you you look at it from the standpoint of believing that what the thought you're identified with, it's almost like you put the helmet of the thought on, the VR helmet like I talk about in my book. If you believe that what the thought you're identifying with sees the world in the way that it actually is, you will see time. You will see space. When you take the helmet off and you realize, oh that is not the primary experience. The primary experience is consciousness in this in the context of thought and consciousness. Then all of a sudden it's very obvious. There's just this sort of eternalistic experience of consciousness. That's not the final realization, but it's a huge shift. It's a huge change in perception and it's critical. Without that, the rest of the stuff will be conceptual. Non-duality, anatman all of it. Total exertion, dependent origination, it's all going to be conceptual. Might be fun concepts. You might feel like you get a sense that it's real and and true without fully realizing it and that's fine, too. But it's not going to be that clear without without this first shift.
So, um that shift is essentially showing you in the most direct irrefutable way possible that every experience of thought, time, self, other, past, present, future, all those thoughts are consciousness and that consciousness is right here. Where else would it be? Where else could it be? Where else have you ever been? You're right here. You're always right here. You're not going anywhere. You didn't come from somewhere, you're not going anywhere. Right? Um but if you look through the lens [snorts] of thought in real time and let that lens of thought direct you out of time or apparently it's it's turning attention in this way. It's like reading a story in a book, but forgetting you're reading a story. That's kind of what it's like, right? If you're like, "No um there's a catcher and it's in the rye." And I'm like, "No, take your eyes out of the book, right?" That's kind of what this is. As long as you're looking through that lens, I can talk to you, but you're going to interpret it through that lens. The moment you take that lens off and you realize, oh of course I've never seen the past. Of course I've never seen the future. Cuz there's only this right now. It's timeless. This lines up with the special theory of relativity, by the way. It's not like scientifically inaccurate. It's just that the special theory of relativity and the space-time interval doesn't give you a mental model, really. It gives you a mathematical model, which is impossible for the brain to get around. It's impossible for the mind to really get around it in an intuitive way because the mind is made out of an illusion. The thinking mind that identifies a self in time perceiving through the lens of time that there is a a span of thought that whole thing will never be able to interpret the space-time interval in its own context to make sense because it it's like using its own presuppositions to try to see what precedes its presuppositions. It can't do that. It's impossible, right? So, anyway, I just want to point that out because occasionally people think this is woo-woo and not scientific, but it's it's totally scientific, right?
So, um yeah. And I have a video called What was it called? Eternity? Something about eternity. It's one of my top videos where I break this down and I talk about the special theory of relativity from the standpoint of a photon and so forth. But anyway, that's a little bit neither here nor there. The point is this isn't really far-fetched or woo-woo. It's actually really far-fetched to believe that there's this span of time and there's someone moving through it considering you've never had any evidence at all that that's the case, right? There's never been an empirical experience of time. Ever. There's been an an an empirical experience of thought in the same way there's been an empirical experience of reading the book called Catcher in the Rye. But that didn't create the Catcher in the Rye as a as an objective experience. Only a mental one. Does that make sense? So, hopefully that's helpful.
Then the rest of the question or comment says, "I imagine and you see you are imagining." That's That's kind of it, right? You're telling me that you're imagining. I mean, I can tell by the structure of the question. And I'm not picking on you. Everybody who asks these questions is doing it. It's like you're asking questions through that thought lens and you want me to satisfy it through the thought lens, which I can never do. I can just help you take that thought lens out of the out of the view. I can help you take the helmet off. That's all I'm trying to do. Now, a related point to this is the way you take the helmet off is is not understanding any of the I'm saying. These things I'm saying, these these pointers to timelessness and eternity, are not to convince you of anything. They're to help you take the helmet off. If they don't help you take the helmet off, in fact, if it makes you mess with the helmet more, then maybe it's not the pointer for you. It doesn't mean you can't wake up, but it just means you have a stickiness around this kind of thing and so try a one-pointed approach. Try some other type of approach. There's other types, right? Just FYI, but it is an interesting topic, I understand. Um let's see.
So, I imagine each syllable is a new present moment. Yeah, you you have to imagine that because it's not. Right? A syllable is just syllable syllable syllable sound sound sound feeling feeling feeling breathing breathing color sound feeling breathing sensation. That's all that's here. Yeah. Then it says, "So, you talking is utilizing the past to express yourself." Do you see all of the assumptions built into the question? Right? You talking, you're talking about me talking, right? It's like that kind of a thing. It's like a you and a me already in the in the That illusion of you and me is already set up in the question. That's what I'm trying to say. And it's utilizing a past. Again, you're assuming something you're assuming something to prove the point that it exists. You're assuming past to try to make an argument that it exists. That doesn't That's a circular argument, right? Um and to express myself. There's no one being expressed here. That's really the key to this. There's no one being expressed. There's no stakes. There's no dog in this fight. There's no back. There's no front, inside or outside. There's no interest in expressing anything. It might seem like that, but it's just words coming, sounds, symbols. Sounds. Sounds. Just notice the sounds. That's why I point to the senses a lot. When you finally get that, the sound is right here. The sound is only right here. The sound is here. Is it in the past? Is this in the past? Is this in the past? Never. Never never never. But as soon as thoughts appear and those thoughts start to produce a kind of lens lensing effect, it's as if what's clearly obviously and only right here and could only ever be is slightly obscured by something that kind of looks like it, but it's not. But it allows you to lead attention into spaces that don't exist like past and future. >> [snorts] >>
Now, I understand the words I'm using also assume certain past and future um paradigms in a way. I mean, I try to strip it down so I eliminate as much of that as possible through language, but there's only so much I can do with language. But the experience, and this is really really key. It's not the language, it's the experience. It's the realization that's key with all of this. This is where people get hung up cuz they get bogged down in language. I'm pointing you to something that is before language, before your understanding what I'm saying. What is before your understanding what I'm saying? Right? What is before any understanding? What is before you understood a damn thing? Do you think a baby experiences a past and a future or believes in one? Or a snail? Or a flower? Or the sky? Right? It's like that. So, the key is breakthrough, not understanding. I think that's really what I'm getting to getting at with all this. The key is breakthrough, not understanding. So, if if the understanding is tripping you up in this space, try a different kind of breakthrough. Try something that really pushes your identity structure that really challenges you, that pushes you to the fear barrier. Remembering that fear is that portal emotion for the magician archetype. Archetype just being a a sort of attunement. And the magician archetype is the archetype of transformation. And when you hit that fear barrier, which not everybody does, but pretty much everybody does. Almost everybody does. The as far as I can tell. Um in some form or another, it will feel like massive reorganization and will feel like fear. And that's okay. That's what we're after here, right? We're not after We're not after clean and comfortable understanding. We're after massive reorganization and chaos. Not chaos, but a kind of Yeah, it is kind of a chaotic reorientation. A disorientation and reorientation, but that reorientation is not through thought. Before this, almost all orientation it seems like it's through thought. But there's this massive disorientation of the thought space of what feels like reality to you. And then on the other side of that, that's when there's some reorientation that's not of the world you [snorts] thought existed. Not of the self you thought you were. That's the whole key. Yeah? So, it's a it's a crossing. It's a it's a massive turning. Removing the VR goggles. Cool? All right. Maybe that's helpful. Maybe it's not. But it But again, if it doesn't click for you, it's a doesn't matter. That's not a problem. Don't make it a Don't make it an issue, right? Look for what does work for you. What If if this is too sticky for the mind, look for what it is that shuts the mind off, shuts the mind down. And it's going to be something that involves a somatic experience, something visceral like fear. And it may require again like a one-pointed approach. So, I have tons of approaches. You can check out my Basics of Awakening and Awakening Approaches playlist. Yeah.