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The Advaita Show #007
We’re back baby…
October 7, 2005Charlie has a riddle
October 10, 2005The Advaita Show #007 (MP3 – 11MB – 31min)
Hey, we’re back!
In this week’s show…
Thanks again to Dale and Charlie for the voicemail and questions and keep them coming!
Don’t forget, you can leave me a voicemail by calling my Skype line: my Skype ID is cameronreilly
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9 Comments
Hi guys.Some Buddhist traditions say you can not control what thoughts run through your mind but you don’t have to ACTon them. They then teach the 5 precepts not killing;stealing;lying etc for the BODY and SPEECH, these GROSS ACTIONS they say you can choose to control unlike the action of seeing, hearing,thinking,growing the body etc.SO the same Buddhist tradition which teaches that there is NO-SELF also teaches a moral code for the body and speech. does this make sense from the Bob/Cameron perspective ? Yours enjoying the show in Bournville UK. Steve Palmer
Thanx Cameron , Bob, Charlie Dale, Barb.. Steve, John? Frank? Fred? Here is my guick translation or just impresiion by your advaita show for our Czech readers again – http://mozaika.bloguje.cz/209117_item.php asi i have no choice, whatever i do, i do it right without me that can it do. Bye……………
Hi Cameron and Bob,
I am really enjoying the show. Listen to it as I enjoy my morning walk through the Chiang Mai University here in Thailand. Thanks. I just have some general comments, mostly to do with non-duality and addiction. I first got interested in spiritual matters about 25 years ago when I became involved with a teacher who called himself Da Free John (he has changed his name a few times since then). The practice that I was involved in swung between being celibate and eating raw food and meditating and being involved in wild drinking parties and having multiple sex partners. During this time my own drugging and drinking was getting worse and worse – or better and better, depending on how you look at it. Still, I maintained a connection and an interest in spiritual life – mostly through the practice of guru devotion, although I was never much of a devotee. For 15 years I was in and out of AA and NA. I only got the briefest respite from my drugging and drinking in 1998. I had broken my ties with my guru and had meet a teacher called Vartman (in the Ramana, Papaji, Ganaji lineage) and one day he simply looked into my eyes and said “stop”. In that moment I felt the vast peace that I am – always already before I do or think anything at all. The relief that I felt seemed to take away the compulsion to drink. The internal condition, the knot of contraction and suffering disolved in the recognition of its non-existence. However, this appeared to go away and I had a lot more drinking and suffering to (seemingly) do. From that time till about 2003 I continued to drink and drug, but I also continued to enquire: who? I first read I Am That in 1981 and have probably read it 10-15 times since then. I have also found Talks by Ramana Maharishi helpful as well. However, in recent years there seems to be a plethora of books on non-duality, many of them very clear and written from a point of view very different to, say, ten years ago; people are talking and writing as ‘finders’ rather than ‘seekers’. I must say too that I have found John Wheeler’s site a great help and reminder. Anyway, I got to Thailand in 2003 in pretty bad shape, hit Bangkok drinking and using – got to Chiang Mai and was hitting the booze and yabba – one morning I woke up, close to ending it all, I picked up a local tourist mag and saw that there was an AA meeting up the road. I almost didn’t go, but I did and I have been clean and sober for a 2 1/2 years. What changed? Well, the phrase that best sums it up for me is: “it is not a program of moral regeneration through effort – but a spiritual rebirth through giving up.” Now I would say at the heart of my AA program is the third step – best summed up for me in Papaji’s words: keep quiet and make no effort (how more profoundly could you give your life and will to that which lives you? I mean, if I have taken a third step what use have “I” got with thinking and efforting? thinking and efforting go on – the body ain’t dead! – it just that the “I” can be seen in any moment of enquiry as OBVIOUSLY AND COMPLETELY IMAGINARY- “I” ABSOLUTELY CAN’T think or effort because “I” DOESN’T EXIST – so simple!) . The wonderful thing though is that self-recognition has stabilized (that’s the best word that I come with) – it is just so damn obvious that there is no one here – just this – open awareness, or whatever the hell you want to call it – without the slightest trace of volitional person-ness to it – sometimes, of course, it is forgotton and the personal dream is dreamt – so what?!! who cares? I mean, really WHO cares if a personal dream is dreamt? – a common “problem” on the advaita scene – “the I got it, I lost it” syndrome – in fact, in your last show someone was lamenting their “fall” into “ego” – I mean really “who” is it that cares – NO PROBLEM CAN SURVIVE THE ENQUIRY “WHO?”! Not even the “I lost it” problem of advaita circles. I understand now why different sages, teachers, and scriptures say that you only need to see this once! Once This is seen I don’t think things can ever be the same again. And it’s a gift. So, I have been lucky to have friends in the AA program who understand AA from a non-dual point of view – in fact, I have noticed this becoming more and more pronounced in the movement across the globe. Relieved of “me-ness’ – which is all I really wanted out of my drinking and drugging – I notice (again and again) that which was seemingly causing me so much pain, anxiety, and suffering is UTTERLY IMAGINARY. What relief! And how humorous to find out that my life works so much better without me in it! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Bob, for your sutra: “what is wrong with this moment unless you think about it?” – NOTHING can survive it – certainly not a problem and certainly not a ME who chooses (although choice seems to spontaneously arise – I think, that perhaps this is where the free-will/determinist dialectic finds its compatiablist resolution – there’s still choice – there just ain’t no chooser! There is free-will! There just isn’t any FREE-WILL-ER!!! there is also a film called “FREE WILLY”). So my attention is held by this moment where no me or problem survives – my attention held fast not by discipline or any effort but by the sheer ATTRACTIVENESS! of resting in its effortless, chooser-less, the-man-of-no-action-leaves-nothing-left-undone-ness (I like that bit, “I” have never been so effective or efficient in “my” functional life!), boundless, aware, problem free state – when you walk into a room of uglies and there is one gorgeous babe there, I telling you, you don’t need to discipline yourself, or make an effort, to look at the gorgeous babe!!! Sat-Chit-ANANDA, my word! (this is getting way too long so I’ll finish soon – I promise). So, I thank whatever the hell it is that lives this body for – not throwing me into some super-never-ending orgasmatronic state of unending bliss – which is what I always imagined it would be like if “I” was “enlightened” – I could imagine nothing better than that! and nothing is! to say it simply: nuthin’s wrong anymore! except, perhaps, for one gnawing, sometimes almost overwhelming ache-gratitude – although its a kinda of pleasurable pain – if you know what I mean.
Sorry – I raved on. Love the show. Thanks for everything. Thanks Bob – you have helped me immensely through many years (saw you once in Byron Bay – walking on the street – heard that you shared at an AA meeting – unfortunately, I was in a drinking phase – but though the internet I have been able to make much use of your pointers – thank you! Much love – matt
No ME or YOU
Well i think we all have some problem and something we would like to get rid off or solve, unless there is noone to think about it..
We live in world, with people that has some view or influence on us, that has some wishes, we must fulfill some duties and it is scary to some to finish it or solve it all.
We are unable to do that.
So is it time to give up trying? From trying rises fighting, with ourselves and others too. From trying rises service, duality – i am the one who does something for you, because you asked me.. and it is not harmonious at all. Then we can feel tired, because we are not able to fulfill all our or others wishes.
What is real frienship? What is love and harmony? Can we be someone friends somewhere where there is something not equal, like the “i” and “you” or “me” struggling? From here comes angriness, duty, unabliness to solve the problem. What is our problem?
What really is our problem?
Someone acts and someone give up acting. So this nooneness or nothingness that feels no problem is our closest friend not different from us, me or you..
Bye
Cameron and Bob,
Thanks for doing your show.
Cameron, I think you were joking one show back when you said “this isn’t supposed to be funny” because people keep appreciating the show for its humor. That cracked me up too but seriously, I wouldn’t even be listening if I didn’t hear the profoundness of Bob as he speaks and you as you “play” the receiver and host. So thanks twice for bringing laughter and truth to the internet airwaves.
I also related to what Cameron was saying about no questions being relevant or something to that effect. Which is probably why I don’t ask any questions. I just listen to what Bob has to say and a few others who speak this clarity and remember that there isn’t anything else but this. Not that I can’t relate to “getting lost”, I just know there isn’t a question to ask when that appears to happen. It’s simply a forgetting for awhile.
So, much appreciation again,
— Bridget
Hi Cameron,
Guys! The show is fun to listen, great stuff. Cheers to all on the show.
I dont want to bore you guys more than necessary with my lengthy “enlightenment seeking story”. Just that after some stuff, it struck me that “enlightenment” is the same bullox concept as “not-enlightenment”. Anyway. What was I saying…? Yeah I wanted to squeeze a question out. So:
It has been (my) experience, that after realization that “I” am an assumption and the fact that thinking is producing most of the mud in the mind (except beer hangovers at the octoberfest here in munich), some kind of selfcleaning is happening. Less mud is produced and if some (old) mud comes up, by seeing it , is kinda cleaned or dissolved. (if you like you can exchange the word “mud” with concept, belief,hope, fear, assumption etc.). Basically a less and less muddy life is happening.
Any comments on this muddy story?
To ALL from ALL
Carry on !!!
cheers from Germany
A few days ago i was bitching and complaining about still being a self centered asshole who hates being alive… etc ad nauseum … and the bottom line was … life sucks.
Later that day … after a time to rest… i made time to listen to cd one of the 3 cd set of Bob’s Talks … and … finally … i got sane enough to call Bob.
I spoke with Bob on Wednesday afternoon (Thurs 6 oct, in the AM in OZ.) Bob quickly cut through the noise and the seeing cleared immediately… confusion came and went a few times since, but now the natural state remains clear and present here and now.
And all there is, is this no-state state of the pure I Am … here and now … regardless of what “comes up.” That Always was-is-will be, though … that’s the joke.
Then i heard the podcast 007 … licence to kill … my confusion!
It was virtually over after that … one last “event” happened though, sitting in a satsang with Bob’s friend John Wheeler. There was a sudden “eruption” of anger, and a bold expression of all that, and it just … evaporated. later i thanked all present for the Space … where that could all be let go of. I woke the next morning AS the natural state and it’s all clear, here and now. I am no longer looking to either concepts or feelings for what is Real … I AM the Real.
So thanks to no one for nothing … to everyone for everything. I’m toast.
all love … all ways
charlie
ps … hi bridget … how’s your back feeling? still ok i trust?
Hi Cameron and Bob:
I enjoy the podcasts Cameron…what a great idea!!
A question for Bob……I do have a “sense” that the “I” is just a concept, but how do “I” deal with this feeling that “I’m not here yet” ??? Maybe the I is just waiting for some bigger experience or a sustained sense of peace or something…..this waiting in time is likley the problem as Bob says….”the search itself is the trap”…..I geuss I’m stuck in the trap. Which way to the door???
Steve from Canada
I wish I die in Arunachala.