'Sailor' Bob Adamson

'Sailor' Bob - Talk Dec 2006

Questioner: So, awareness cannot know itself. - So, that which it knows cannot be it.

Bob: It is self aware. - Self-knowing. - But that, which it knows, is it (also) – but not as it is appearing or (what it is) known (as). - That, which thinks it knows it, is it also.

Bob: (Long pause) - You can never get around it with a concept or grasp it. We get this word ‘awareness’ and try to define it and make something of that. It is just a pointer and not much better than a lot of the other pointers. What is the actual experiencing there?

Questioner: Of awareness?

Bob: No, just your actual experience – what is going on?

Questioner: I would say that it is projection, when we recognize that it is projection.

Bob: No before that. - What is the actual experience there? - Can you say you are not?

Questioner: No, you could say that that sense of ‘I’ is not.

Bob: That sense of ‘I’ is not but there is still ‘seeing’ there.- (you are) still hearing, breathing, heart still beating. - Thoughts may start coming up on that and then pause for a moment. - Could any of that take place without that knowing that you are or that basic being or life essence that you are? (If we have to put a concept on it)

Questioner: I would say that it couldn't happen without ‘knowing’ being there.

Bob: Well ‘knowing’ is what I call intelligence. Not your intellect. Intelligence. That is the activity of knowing – intelligence energy. - Knowing is an activity – of something that is going on in the immediacy of the moment. - Any activity is a movement of energy. - Not the content of knowing, I know this or I know that, than is all acquired, all conceptualized, all words stuff.

The basic activity of knowing. - You are not knowing a moment ago. - You are not knowing a moment in the future either. - It is going on in the immediacy of the moment, so its an activity – something is happening now. - It is this energy or life force or whatever label you want to put on it. - It is functioning there in the immediacy of the moment. - That is what you are.

You can never encapsulate it in a word or an idea. Well, have a look at that knowing – thinking is taking place in it. - Seeing, hearing, heart beating, the whole lot is taking place in that knowing.

Questioner 2: Bob, these are senses, the seeing, hearing.

Bob: That is how they express through that pattern we call the body. - But you see, what you call these senses, if the life essence was not in the body, what senses do the body have - without that life essence?

Can the corpse see or hear? - Can the corpse be aware, can the corpse feel, taste, touch or smell? - (No) So it is not in the body, it is in that life essence itself. For it to express as a feeling, taste or touch, there has to be a pattern for it to function through. It is like a computer, you have all sorts of information in the computer. - It is useless without the power surging through it. - Take that power away and the keyboard won’t work, the screen has no images, no words, the screen is dead – the whole thing is inanimate. - This body (of ours) is just like that.

That intelligence energy form a pattern, just like it forms (all) lots of appearances. This particular pattern has the capacity of ‘reasoning’ and that tree out there has no capacity for reasoning but that pure intelligence functions as a root stretching out to find moisture or food in the soil. - It will go down between rocks or whatever it needs to do to find what it needs. - The branches and leaves turn around towards the light.

When the cold season comes, the sap stops running and the leaves fall off. Spring comes and buds and leaves form. - Fruit contain the seeds for new growth, new trees. - It is all within it, innately within it. But then again, cut the root and what good is the tree? - Branches and leaves wither and it is dead.

Questioner: So in meditation, you have a feeling or a thought, you just label it ‘thought’ or ‘feeling’ or ‘shame’ or ‘guilt’ or whatever. - Then you let it go.

Bob: What if you don’t label it?

Questioner: I want to get the connection here, you say everything is energy, patterns. - So whatever feeling comes up and I do not label it, just let it happen, that is a different thing (than what I mentioned before). - The Buddhists say just label it and see it for what it is and you say “Don’t label it”. - What about this?

Bob: Well, if you are not labeling it, you are really seeing it for what it is. It is just pure intelligence energy. - When you put the label on it, you have got the concept of what you believe it to be.

Questioner: So why do they say to do that?

Bob: You will have to ask them. (group laughter) This intelligence will still bring up the concepts that are needed for the functioning in the activity of the moment – but you haven’t got an entity in the way that is saying “It shouldn't be like this” or “I don’t want this” or “It’s going away and I want more of it”. - That is constantly interfering and causing the conflict. - It only does that because it is not recognized that that is ‘it’ also. - There is nothing there with any substance or independent nature of itself so it could not be anything separate from That (Intelligence Energy). So if reference points come up, they are not hung onto.

That is part of what it says in Hsin Hsin Ming – “Hold no opinion for or against anything”. - (note: ‘The Great Way” - read the whole text from link on the shiningthroughthemind website) It does not say “Don’t have any opinions”. If you look at it closely, all your problems arise from that belief in an entity that has got some power of its own. - That has become the self centre or the ego. It is simply a reference point. - It has no independent nature or substance – it is just a group of thoughts. (Without all that) You are in the natural state – that natural functioning is going on.

http://www.shiningthroughthemind.net

HTML by Mike Graham, 19 Jan 2008, last edited 7 Feb 2008, last edited 17 Feb 2008