Transcripts
Every contemplation and conversation, transcribed for quiet reading. Pick one and take your time.
Pre-channel writings — nested here, same reading surface.
Contemplations
The Way to a Lasting Peace
In the entire universe there's only one thing that can truly hurt you. And that is your own mind. All the anxiety, despair and depression, fears and anger; wha…
The Profound Nature of Self
Imagine you're listening to music. There is a speaker across the room from where the sound is coming. There is something very amazing going on here, which if w…
A Deeper Definition of Consciousness
Have you ever had the experience of walking or driving through a thick fog? There is a sense that just about anything could appear out of it. A truck bearing d…
The Problem of Misery and the Insight That Brings Relief
Do you think if you won the lottery you would find a lasting happiness? Of course it would take care of your financial worries, but if you look at the the rich…
The Insight that Settles the Debate on God
Two friends are having a debate. One says, "I'm an atheist." The other says, "I'm a theist." And they go on this long and winding conversation.
A Deeper Recognition of the Self via the Mirror Test
If you put a mirror in front of an animal, most of them react with aggression. They attack the mirror because they don't realize they're looking at their own r…
The Proof of Your Self-Luminous Nature
Between the time light enters your eyes, and you see the world there is a delay. It only amounts to a few milliseconds and it's never really mentioned as being…
The Mind's Blind Spot and the Self
Consider what it would be like if there was an experience to being the Sun. What would the universe look like from the point of view of the Sun? You would see…
Mountains Walking — A Zen Teaching to Eradicate Anxiety
Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore, they always abide in ease and always walk. You should examine in detail this quality of the mounta…
The Non-Dual Nature of Reality
Have you noticed that if you think of any two opposites there is always a common dimension underlying both of them. For example, if you think of near and far,…
The Reality Beyond Spacetime and Your True Role In It
Have you ever wondered how space and time themselves emerged? That is the point where the universe begins. And science does a beautiful job of explaining what…
Why You are not the Brain
You've seen your face in the mirror, you've felt your heart beating, and when you're breathing hard you've even felt your lungs. But it may seem that you've ne…
How to meditate on "I Am" and recede into the Bliss of Being
Today I'll share with you how I managed to turn my mind inwards during meditation. This isn't a technique I learned somewhere. It came intuitively through expe…
A Direct Pointing Out | The Unobservable Self
All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like dew, or a flash of lightning. Thus, we shall perceive them. All composed thin…
The Standpoint of the Sages
In meditation circles you will hear the phrase that, "Experience is all there is." Or that, "Consciousness is all there is." And when this is spoken, you can t…
A Heartfelt Understanding of the Heart Sutra
During the inner search there comes a point where all the wisdom teachings, and the profound texts, and scriptures, and poetry, they all suddenly seem quite cl…
Why experience is local and limited, but You are not
If I am Pure Consciousness, why do I only have access to this experience? To the experience associated with this body? Limited to this point in time and space?…
Ode to Silence | A Contemplation on Ego Death
When the mind becomes unbearable, Silence is the cure. There is nothing more precious than Silence. No final conclusion, no ultimate insight, no peak experienc…
Self-Realization | Most Ordinary, Most Divine
You know you are present. You know you are aware. These facts are already known to you. They are beyond doubt.
From the Intellect to the Heartfelt
One of the most well-known sages in recent history is Ramana Maharshi. In Nonduality circles he is universally acclaimed as an example of perfect enlightenment…
An Understanding of the Bahiya Sutta | A Glimpse of the Buddha's Mind
Among the Buddhist teachings I have come across, the Bahiya Sutta stood out as a very clear and concise summary of all that is to be understood. It didn't hit…
You exist without consciousness | What deep sleep reveals about the Absolute (guided contemplation)
What are you in the absence of experience? This is the riddle of deep sleep, of coma, natural or induced, and death. In the inner search, as you come to the re…
From the ego to the Self
These days when someone gets into meditation, they're very quickly handed the punch line, the spiritual punchline, that there is no self. And then they're told…
You Alone Are | The pointer that led to Nisargadatta's Enlightenment
Sometimes you come across the words of a sage to a disciple which are just a brilliant delivery of the Truth. And often they contradict what you thought you ha…
The subtle difference between Consciousness and Awareness
In trying to communicate the insight of Non-duality, you often hit the problem that how you understand a word is very different to how it is generally understo…
The Reality where science and spirit converge
The body, mind, and the world appear in the state of consciousness. Something that appears later in consciousness claims this state at its own. As, "My conscio…
The Mind is the Buddha
Imagine you're having a vision. You see the Buddha standing before you. Or if not the Buddha, then Jesus, or Krishna, whoever your favorite religious icon happ…
Insight into a Zen Koan
"The whole universe throughout all its ten directions is the One Bright Pearl." This quote is attributed to the Master Xuansha or Gensha. The entire universe i…
The First-Hand Perspective of Nonduality
It is said that no individual has ever entered Nirvana. This is true. You cannot enter Nirvana as an individual. But luckily, you're not really an individual.
After that Awakening Experience
Even after you've had those deep profound insights, those Awakening Experiences where you felt this is it, there's nowhere further to go. Even all that ends up…
Rumi Explained | The Entire Ocean in a Drop
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. So said Rumi. And many of us have heard this line and felt its beauty and the insight here…
Time and Memory through the Lens of Nonduality
We've all heard someone say that time is relative. Or even that there is no such thing as time. But hold on a second! What does that really mean?
Receding into the Natural State
You cannot remember the peace of deep sleep, but you know that there was peace. You can't remember that peace, because peace is not an event. Because that peac…
What it means to be still and know that, "I Am"
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was once asked, "You say that in our real being we are all equal. "How is it that your experience is so different from ours?" But he r…
Mu! — An Understanding from Beyond the Gateless Gate
The monk asked Joshu in all earnestness, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" Joshu said, "Mu!" This is perhaps the most famous Zen Koan. It appears in a co…
Rumi's Beloved and a direct pointer to the Self
"A strange passion is moving in my head, "My heart has become a bird which searches in the sky. "Every part of me goes in different directions. "Is it really s…
Piercing the illusion | Insights on Form, Emptiness and the nature of Reality
There is a persistent belief among meditators and the spiritual community that this world is an illusion. That it needs to be seen through to find the Truth. B…
The day "I" died and the nature of Reality came to light
There is a point where the search for the Self suddenly terminates. Reaches its conclusion. That point is referred to as Enlightenment. I will try to describe…
A pointer to discern the ego from the Self | Shift from resistance to surrender
When you're struggling with life, what you are resisting, what you're rejecting, is consciousness. But what you truly love is also consciousness. This is your…
There is a Field | Poem and Interpretation
When the mind's inner turmoil recedes for even a moment, the heart soars. Everything becomes clear and all is well. In the poem we will contemplate today, Rumi…
Atman and Anatman | An end to the conflict between Self and no-self
Let's clear up a misunderstanding that has become quite common now. This teaching of the "no self". You'll hear things like there's experience but no experienc…
The Basis of Consciousness | The Jewel Garland of Inquiry
"If the basis is insentient, a separate seer is necessary. "If the basis is sentient, it will itself be the seer." I came upon this statement by chance in the…
The Basis of All Worlds
On the path to self-realization, what can be quite frustrating is that even after you've heard it all, and understood it, even felt it, you still keep falling…
When the world is seen as inseparable from the Self
Have you ever wondered what your name really refers to? Whatever your given name, it doesn't refer to some specific thing in the world. It refers to the whole…
A pointer to the Absolute
Let's do a simple experiment to demonstrate what is truly real in this moment. This will help discern the transient from the absolute Reality. Because Reality…
Mind, Matter, and You
You are the bridge between mind and matter. You tie the physical phenomena to the experience of it. Look at this image. On one side there are the trees, the mo…
Wisdom to overcome the fear and grief of Death
"All will come through, not a single soul shall be lost." This life had a beginning, and so it will surely have an ending. Chances are, even before this life e…
Don't Go Back To Sleep | Poem and Interpretation
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep.
It's just this Knowing that has appeared upon the Absolute | A Direct Pointing Out
Almost all lives are lived in denial at how completely and utterly this existence is soon to be snuffed out. If you think you're this individual person, then d…
The brilliant clarity of Self-Knowledge
There is this idea in the mind that Enlightenment must come from some profound insight. And the idea is that this perfect Knowledge must be rare and only obtai…
A pointer to bring relief from the mind
The body is quiet. The world does not speak. So then, what is disturbing the peace? It is whatever is producing all this thinking, and the moods to go along wi…
Let there be peace | A contemplation on personal failings and the perfect Self
If your life has been plagued by shame and guilt, remorse and self-loathing, this one is for you. Those feelings of inadequacy, imperfection, just not being go…
Take your stand in the Absolute | Why the Self cannot be negated
Have you noticed how your mind has layers to it? When you're wrapped up in thinking, your world seems to just shrink to that idea or problem. Whatever is occup…
Advaita! Ajanma! | A pointer to seeing Awareness as the Self
You are aware of being conscious. But are you aware of being aware? There is a difference. This is the hair's breadth of difference that separates heaven and e…
The view from beyond spacetime
Imagine being completely immersed in a story. And in this story, which is mainly about a person, there is an odd kind of twist. The story begins to refer to it…
Self-Realization as described by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"The ever-awaited first moment was the moment when I was convinced that I was not an individual at all." This is the start of a description of Enlightenment in…
Jñāna | Wordless, Heartfelt Self-Knowledge
What is the difference between an intellectual understanding and true realization? It may seem vast. Immense. Which is somewhat true, but the difference is als…
Whatever happens, you are the happening of it!
In the seen, there is just the seeing. In the heard, only the hearing. In the felt, just the feeling. In the known, just the knowing.
Self-Realization | What dreams reveal about You
You wake up from a dream and think, "Was that all in my head?" But do you have eyes and ears inside your head? How big is the space inside your head? If you ju…
I, You, He, She, We — These are not true distinctions
"I, you, he, she, we. I, you, he, she, we. In the garden of mystic lovers, these...are not true distinctions. "I, you, he, she, we."
Before the mind, I am
In the words of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, "Before the mind -- I am. 'I am' is not a thought in the mind; the mind happens to me, I do not happen to the mind. A…
Every Experience Contains a Message
In the words of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, "To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not. "And to know what you are not you must wa…
When you lose yourself in this love, you will find everything — Rumi
"Lose yourself. Lose yourself in this love. When you lose yourself in this love, you will find everything. Lose yourself.
The Enlightenment of Master Huineng
This is the tale of how Master Huineng realized the Dharma and became the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. In this tale is a brilliant pointer that can end any…
The face you had before you were born | Huineng's question and the answer
As the fifth founding master of Zen passed the robe onto his successor he declared, "Now leave this place as quickly as you can, lest someone should do you har…
Nisargadatta — The Suffering of Experience
"One morning we could see that Maharaj was physically quite uneasy, obviously due to the pain from the cancerous condition in his throat. During the last few m…
The Nondual Self
What are you in the absence of experience? If you think of something, what exactly is that 'something'? If you think nothing, what exactly is that 'nothing'? I…
The Way to the Heart
The Lover who was Naught. A story on the inner search and Self-realization by Jalaluddin Rumi. A man desperately in love arrived at the house of his beloved an…
The real meaning beyond the concept of God
Before you can decide whether to believe in God or not, you should have a clear understanding of what God is. Otherwise the belief or disbelief is only in rega…
The Eye with which I see God | A contemplation on Meister Eckhart's realization
If God is watching, how exactly would He be watching? There's an amazing answer to this, which is lost on almost everyone, religious or irreligious. It comes f…
The illusion of a separate seer | A contemplation on the nature of Self
Light falls down a hole. Why is it seen? The common intuition is that there's something behind the eyes that sees the light, that you're looking from behind th…
That Knowledge within You | Nisargadatta Maharaj
"How does a jnani see the world?" "A jnani is aware of the origin and the value of consciousness, this beingness, which has spontaneously dawned on him. This s…
Being aware of being aware
Consider if the five senses turned off. The seeing was gone. The hearing. The tasting and the smelling you forget most of the time anyway.
Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. As translated by Bart Marshall. This is the first part of the dialogue: Instruction on Self-Realization. Janaka said: Master, how is knowl…
The deeper meaning of "You are what you seek"
From Black Soot. What became of last night's promise? You broke it this morning! But why should I care?
You are Awareness, not a person | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. As translated by Bart Marshall. This is the second chapter: The Joy of Self-Realization. Having listened to Ashtavakra, Janaka now sees th…
What is it that arises as I? | Guidance on Self-enquiry
Self-enquiry. The first writings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. They appear as answers to questions asked by a disciple. "Master, what is the means to gain the state…
Test of Self-Realization | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Test of Self-Realization. We now get to the part of the dialogue where it gets more subtle. Ashtavakra's pointer has worked on Janaka.
A Nondual Meditation on the true meaning of “I”
You're going to be guided into composing a certain inquiry; a question. And as you ask the question, there will be a noticeable shift. The perspective of what…
Enter the Peace of Dissolution | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Four Ways to Dissolution.
A Direct Pointing Out | Diamond Sutra Gatha
All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like dew, or a flash of lightning. Thus, we shall perceive them. All composed thin…
Liberation is at hand | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Nature of Self-Realization. The mind is stuck to a local viewpoint: This life, a handful of people, perhaps the entire human species, or a…
You were present when consciousness emerged | Nisargadatta's Vision
This is a dialogue between Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and a spiritual seeker as recorded in the book Consciousness and the Absolute. It starts with Maharaj speak…
To be aware is to be the Aware-ness | A Nondual Meditation
Meditate on yourself. Treat all thoughts as strangers on the street. They do not know you. They cannot describe who you are. Just walk past the thoughts as if…
Disassembling the mechanism of suffering | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Detachment. This chapter is very likely to be misunderstood upon first hearing it. So we must set the scene.
Detachment from the mind itself | A Nondual Meditation
To detach from the world is not hard. You just find a quiet place. Close your eyes, focus on the breath... And then where is the world anyway?
Just renounce what you don't have | Ashtavakra Gita
--- slug: just-renounce-what-you-dont-have ---
When 'I' left the city | What Rumi understood about Reality
He also made the key. A poem by Jalaluddin Rumi. When I entered the city, you moved away. When I left the city, you didn't even look up to say goodbye.
You are not a thing | Ashtavakra Gita
Ashtavakra Gita. Wisdom. Ashtavakra said: "Existence, non-existence, change — this is the nature of things. Realizing this, stillness, serenity and bliss natur…
You Are Why Consciousness Arose | The Absolute Prior To Consciousness
Questioner: "Why did this consciousness arise?" Maharaj: "You are both the question and the answer. All your questions come from identification with the body.…
You never were, can never be anywhere but Here | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Chapter 12: Abiding in the Self. Janaka said: "Becoming first intolerant of action, then of excessive speech, then of thought itself, I co…
The One Dimension That Holds Everything | Guided Nondual Contemplation
Length, breadth, height. These are the dimensions of space. But then there is depth. When we say "depth perception" that is referring to this quality.
Serenity of the Sage | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Happiness. Janaka said:
Soul of all souls, life of all life — You are That | Rumi
We can see the truth in your eyes. "For ages you have come and gone courting this delusion. For ages you have run from the pain and forfeited the ecstasy. So c…
The sage's inner condition is YOUR inner condition | Ashtavakra Gita (explained)
The Ashtavakra Gita. Tranquility. Janaka said: "Though appearing asleep like other men, one whose interest in the world is exhausted, whose mind has been empti…
What Is Truly I? | The Basic Recognition (Advaita Self-inquiry)
The Truth is simple. So the recognition of the Truth must also be simple. It is not a grand and epic journey but a simple basic recognition that reveals what i…
Does death subtract anything from You? | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Knowledge of the Self. Ashtavakra said: "A man of open intuition may realize the Self upon hearing a casual instruction, while a man of cl…
You Who Confound Spacetime
What does it mean to be here? It does not mean being at this place at this time. Because no matter what time and place this is being heard, it is "here". So, w…
I am not talking to an individual | Nisargadatta Maharaj
Consciousness and the Absolute. Questioner: "Why is it that we naturally seem to think of ourselves as separate individuals?" Maharaj: "Your thoughts about ind…
That which is beyond experience | Ashtavakra Gita
The Ashtavakra Gita. Special Instruction. Ashtavakra said: "You can recite and discuss scripture all you want, but until you drop everything, you will never kn…
Why You Can Never Find Yourself | A Guided Contemplation
If you try to observe the observer, all you find is the observed. You're not doing anything wrong. This is a feature, not a bug. But the key insight here might…
Satsangs
What remains is "Am" | Self-Inquiry taken to the end (Satsang) [public version]
N: Who am I? That is the question you have to resolve for yourself. But you soon realize that "who" is a pointless question. The mind can only answer "Who?" wi…
When the Truth Changes Nothing and Everything | Nonduality Satsang [public version]
N: So a couple of years ago I revealed a bit of this to one of my friends, but his response was very interesting. He said, "So what?" "Even if what you say is…
How Do You Know You're Not Dreaming? | A Satsang on What's Real [public version]
N: How can you tell if something is real? How can you tell if you're not dreaming? Folk wisdom is you pinch yourself. You pinch yourself.
You are That which is beyond experience [public version]
N: So Self-realization does not depend on having a specific experience. You do not require a unique and special experience for Realization. Realization is when…
The voice in the head is not You | Live Satsang [public version]
N: So let's start with an insight about what's called the voice in the head. It might put a mute on that, or at least lower the volume. So it goes like this. W…
Who is not conscious of you being aware? [public version]
N: So over the Easter weekend, I was on a little family camping trip. I was lying in the tent listening to the ambient noise, the trees, the wind in the trees,…
How can there NOT be dreams? | Why Consciousness Exists [public version]
N: So it might seem obvious that you need eyes to see. But then you consider that at night you see without eyes. Like when you dream, your eyes are closed, the…
What makes a thought "my" thought? | Nonduality Satsang [public version]
N: So, have you noticed in movies and books, it's always very clear who the villain is? It's quite obvious. But in life, the villains never realize they're the…
This Is My Life After Death | Nonduality Satsang (Q&A) [public version]
N: So in yoga there is a pose called shavasana. The corpse pose. You might be familiar. It's what we do at the end of the practice. You just lie prone, like a…
What is at Zero Distance? | The Self in Nonduality (Satsang) [public version]
N: So you are not a sentient thing. Sentience is what you are. That is the core insight. You're not a sentient thing. You are Sentience itself. There's a key d…
How a single line can change your default view | Working with pointers [public version]
N: There was a question from Daniel, I believe — how can you connect to the truth in a way that it becomes the default view? Because I think most of you who wa…
You are nowhere to be found | Peaks, troughs, and the end of suffering (Full Satsang) [public]
N: Right. So if we take stock of this moment, actually not that much going on. Any moment, you can actually — if you just observe what is going on right now —…
I am Awareness alone | The sword that cuts all confusion [public version]
N: So there's a line in the Ashtavakra Gita which I got a question about. We'll start with that, and it's in the first chapter: "Meditate on this: I am Awarene…
You cannot count to one | What Awareness actually is (Live Satsang) [public version]
N: So, today we're going to start by learning to count. Just like Sesame Street. So, if we start with how many people are on the call. It's not a trick questio…
Contemplating the Moon | A Deep Conversation on Self and Suffering [public version]
N: The light of Consciousness cannot be coming from an external source. It's not a reflected or a borrowed light, because it is the light of the one that is co…
Where Wisdom and Love Converge | Talk + Q&A [public version]
N: All right, let's begin. So there's a side to all this that is best expressed through the language of love. There's the path of wisdom, but there's also the…
You are the mountain | Self-inquiry in real time (Live Satsang)
N: All right, let's begin. So whenever there's the sense of "I," or the thought "I," you should see that as just a signpost. The task here is to find out where…
Your negative thoughts are just a twitch | Live Satsang
N: Sometimes you notice a muscle starts twitching. It's just twitching uncontrollably and you can't do anything about it. You just look at it. If it's not caus…
When We Die, We Will Meet | Satsang on Love, Grief, and the Self
N: So let's start by clarifying what it means to identify with the body. Because it sounds like once you see that you're not the body, you're past that. But ac…
Something has taken over your throne
N: One of the things to notice is how the right experience, when it's assigned to the wrong concept, loses all its magic. That was what the last video we've se…
Who says this land is mine?
N: All the wisdom teachings, all the pointers, they are about the nature of Awareness. They are about this quality of being aware. They're not about an experie…
The ego is a rope you mistook for a snake (Satsang)
N: Let's start by distinguishing thought from Thought, because there's a question in the post I wanted to address. But first you have to distinguish the usual…
The process that assumes it's you | Awareness vs. selfing (Live Q&A)
N: Let's start by taking a little step back. Let's look at what is life anyway. What... what has actually happened which we call life? So, if you consider...
The void which cannot be fathomed or measured | What Mind actually is (Live Satsang)
N: So there's been a word we've been using a bit flippantly. The word "mind". So, let's talk about what is mind. Because if you get to the bottom of that one w…
What Remains Between The Thoughts? | Live Deep Dive
N: I'll start by answering an email which was asking me to talk about Self-inquiry and surrender. Surrender more to be specific, and specifically how Ramana Ma…
Water That Cleans the Mind | Satsang + Q&A
N: There was a question just last night. So I thought I'll talk about that. The question is something like: what is the process to empty the mind? What is the…
No Separate World | Live Talk + Q&A on Nonduality
N: So what we'll do today is I'll start, and then we'll go into Q&A. So what's this all about anyway? You've all heard: it's not about an experience, it's not…
No separate self | Live Q&A (Public)
Q: Well, I can start if you like.
Self-inquiry, Perfection, the meaning of Awareness, extreme pain and Acceptance
From the outside there appears to be a face, a body, an individual thing. But firsthand, in direct experience, it's not like that. In reality there's just the…
Waking up, ego vs the sense of being, death and grief, abiding in ease, and other questions
The last Q&A video was well received, so here's another one. In this one, we'll be addressing questions on the transition from dreams to waking up, Whether the…
The nature of love, the end of seeking, and the felt experience of 'it'
Some of you have been asking questions in the comments section. Questions like, "I get glimpses, I've had mystical experiences, but still the ego rises and sti…