No separate self | Live Q&A (Public)

QWell, I can start if you like.

NYes, sure.

QFor me, a question that I would like to ask — because it's been said so many times in so many teachings — about emptying the mind. Emptying the mind is supposed to have — or at least I understand — is like to erase the past and erase your thinking of the future, and that way your mind will be empty. Is that kind of like what he's trying to refer to?

NSure. So it depends what that particular teacher meant, but for me it's not about permanently emptying your mind. There's no such thing. Otherwise you're lying catatonic. You're dead or in a coma. But even if you empty your mind for like one instant — when you do that, there's nothing left. Everything is mind. The colors are mind, sounds are mind, everything is mind. If you ever empty it totally, that's it. If you do it in a way that you are aware that everything has vanished and then you'd see it come back, that is the proof everyone's looking for. And every mind is going through it. That's what I try to explain in my videos. Every night it happens. It's just the instruction is: try to do it in a way that you see it happen.

QOkay. Okay. Thank you. So I'd like to ask a question. Sorry if I'm trying to formulate that in my head. So I am kind of like getting to the point where I see — you know, you are not your body, and so you're something more. It's like you can tell that you are that which — like you call it Sentience.

So the happening of things, the experiencing of things and all that I can see — but it's still at the local level. Like it's somehow me, as if I am doing it. And I know what you're saying — that Awareness, you cannot bottle up the Awareness into different bodies and different entities and all that. One thing. But I'm trying to make that leap from to the global sense — like this is, you're no different at the core of it than anybody else, any other experience. You could be all experiences, all lives. So how can you — how can I get — what do you recommend to make that step?

NSo I think what often happens is as you think about if there's just one Sentience or one Awareness, you should be experiencing everything, not just this one life. Is that what you're thinking of?

QYeah. Yeah, it is. It is. It's almost like saying it's my Sentience as opposed to having Sentience, which is like — you cannot. So that's the leap I'm trying to make.

NSo I guess what you'll find out is that expectation is wrong. We're not talking about one global mind. If there was one mind — as in just one huge brain and everything that's going on in that brain, let's say — then you're aware of all the experiences in the universe or multiple universes, whatever. But that's not what Awareness is. Awareness is not a mind. It is just the potential to be aware, the capacity of being aware. Now the way even one brain works is you're not aware of everything going on in that brain. You're aware of some parts of it. So whatever that threshold is where something becomes an experience, that's for the scientists to tell us. I don't know. But what's happening is the Awareness is aware of these different experiences. In a human experience, it's actually quite interconnected. You're getting the stream of sights and sounds and thoughts, everything connected together.

That's the experience. But that's not defining that Awareness. That's all Awareness is. Awareness is just making that possible. And then you look away from that, not towards what's going on in the mind. Look at what you are. That's where you find that — that is where you can't say there's more than one. So it's not a point where you will start to — your experiences will expand or start to merge with other people's experiences.

That make sense?

QYeah. Yeah.

NWe turn the interest away from the experiences. We're trying to evaluate it. We're trying to evaluate enlightenment based on the state of the mind — what you're experiencing — and you start to lose interest in that. That's not how — that's not the measure.

QYeah. It all like sometimes crosses my mind — like when you do get enlightened, will you be able to, if you wanted to, experience what some other person is experiencing — like an extreme level of love. I mean the mind plays these tricks all the time, and I realize that, but it's almost like —

NSo what do you think is experiencing that person right now? Like all these different seemingly different people here — who is experiencing them?

QWhen I say that, it's actually absurd, because I don't even experience what goes on in my body. Like a lot of it, I don't even know it's working. I don't even know. So I think that that's the wrong way of saying it. I realize now that that's the wrong — as you said, that's the wrong expectation.

NAll right, let's keep it going. Chris, I'm going to pick on you. You're looking very serious.

QI look serious. I'm not serious. And I honestly don't have any questions. There's not really anything to ask, because there's an understanding that I can't do anything.

NRight.

QAnd it'll happen when it happens, or if whatever happens. So I just — whenever I can I just try to stop and feel this sense — words can't even really describe it. Whatever this is underneath it all. And for lack of a better word — wait, really. I listen and watch your videos. It's helpful.

NWhat do you think? What do you think the core question is that you're trying to answer? What is it when you say it will happen when it happens? Like what are you waiting for? What is the expectation? Or do you know the question and you're still not clear on the answer?

QMy search started with, I guess, a desire for truth — and asking and begging and tears and the story of how it all began. And I just feel like I ended up somehow being pointed towards that which is. The question used to be: what is truth? And maybe it's just this expectation that at some point whatever others have experienced that they describe as enlightenment would be experienced here. I guess that's — I don't know other than that.

NSo let's take that truth. Truth is the goal, let's say. It's fine. I know everybody says there should be no goal. To me there is a clear question we're trying to answer, and there's various ways you can formulate the question. One way it comes is: I want to know the truth. So then you have to set your understanding of what do you mean by truth. How would you know if you saw the truth? It should be stark clear. It should be the most obvious, most unquestionable thing that is truth.

QYeah.

NSo you start with that. All right. Where would I find it? I'm not going to find it in a research paper. I'm not going to find it as an equation. It won't be something I see. You have to refine the question. Like you look at all the great masters I talk about. The ones you've probably come across — they have refined the question into something very simple. Who are you? What are you? Because when you find the truth, it can't be something external.

You have to find what is true about yourself. What am I? What is real? So there's this idea: oh, you can't make it happen, you can't do anything, effort doesn't help — which is true in a sense.

Later you find out, wow. For now you should put your mind into refining that question. What am I really after? The question becomes clearer and clearer and then the answer becomes obvious. What is true right now? What would you say is most true?

QWell, there's only one thing that I can say with certainty, and the only thing I can say with certainty is that I know that I am. And anything else — anything else would be an idea, or even a potential it could be, but I don't know. And I have felt that and went from asking the question who am I as a question almost as a mantra.

And when I first heard that phrase — like everything else, you ask yourself a question in the mind. When those moments when I ask who am I now, it's not the same. It's that: what is this that even considers itself me or I — and then try to feel it, because I can't know it. And that's really it. That's the most of what I think I could do at this point, really.

NSo there's a thing happening here. When you ask who am I? What am I? Whatever happens next. Or whoever tries to then look — all of that is actually being seen by you. So the answer is not an experience. I think you know already. It is in the — you're already there. And the thing that's struggling to find out who you are — that is not you.

That is the brain trying to compute something it can't compute. The purpose was only for you to just take that half step back from the mind and whatever it's doing.

QYes. And it's like I know that. I know that.

NThere's no big blast at the end. That's probably already happened for you — those peak experiences — and then you know, maybe there'll be a bigger one at the end, maybe for some people.

QOkay. I appreciate that.

NNo worries. Who's got a question? We need questions.

QNabeel, can you hear me? Sugandh this side.

NHey, Sugandh. How are you? We can hear you.

QGood. How are you?

NVery well.

QFirst of all it's a pleasure to be here and to be able to hear you like live and not through the videos.

NYeah. Many people think I'm an AI voice. No.

QSo yeah, first of all, thank you. I mean, I really can't thank enough for everything that you do and all the things that I've experienced along with it. But — not really — I mean it is a question. So like I think Chris mentioned, I'm also following the same method or the Self-inquiry method. And it has been wonderful in the sense that the mind has really quietened down to an extent that I've never really known. Because all the negative thoughts, all that self-talk is like just gone. So my question really is this inquiry. Is there any — continue with this inquiry of asking the questions, you know, the different variations of these questions of who am I or what am I or who are these thoughts appearing to or who does this world appear to? Yeah, I mean I don't know what my question is. I just wanted to speak to you to be very honest, but yeah. I know it's not a matter of time. I know it's not a matter of time because — I don't know if you got it, please answer.

NHey, we lost you for a bit, but I think you're asking about the different variations of the inquiry, right?

QYes. Yes. And should this —

NI lost you again. Give me a second. Give me a second. Am I audible now?

QYes. Okay. Okay. My question is that: should I just continue with this Self-inquiry method as one of the ways to realize the truth or realize myself as, you know, the Atman or the Brahman or whatever we call it? That is the question — or is there any other method too?

NThis is it. That's the question. That is it.

And it's already working for you. If it's quietening your mind, it's having that effect of you pulling back from the mind. It's starting to answer the question itself. The variations are many.

Eventually the inquiry will not be verbal. It's just happening. You're just noticing your place in all that's happening. What am I here? It's just — so the variations, they come on their own. If I tell you this is the best variation — and it's not true, because it depends.

You start with the basic question and then you go here and there and then you realize you don't need to go here and there. Mind starts to clear up and all it's doing is pointing you back to the Awareness: that's what I am, the rest is not I. That's just an experience which is also Awareness. So it's just — the method is Self-inquiry, as Sri Ramana Maharshi said. That is the only method. The rest is extra. And as your inquiry becomes — depends how obsessed you are with it. As you go to sleep, you'll be inquiring.

As you flutter between sleep and waking, you'll be inquiring. And so it does its own job. Just apply the inquiry. That's all there is. I think there's nothing else left.

QSo obsessed would be the right word to describe.

NAnd then the thing that was obsessed was also not you. That was the mind. But because it became — you know the devotee turned out to be not you. You are the one the devotee was devoted to.

QYeah. Got it. Thank you.

QHi Nabeel, Swati this side.

NHi, Swati.

QHi. So first of all thank you so much, Nabeel. I started watching your videos around two months back and it gave me a lot of clarity, I must say, because I was in a limbo for a long long time. And thank you so much. So it really helped me. And the question which I have is an extension of what Chris asked. So to a greater extent — or I'll say that — I mean there are multiple questions so it is all kind of mixed up. So to some extent I have kind of understood — or when I listen to your videos I do understand — what is the truth or the clarity which I am looking out for. But when I switch off that video, when the video is over, I'm out of it too. So now I understand that the Self-inquiry method is the method which can help you eventually reach to the clarity that I am looking out for. But what is happening is there is a constant battle going on in my head. It can be the mind talking, or something which needs clarity, something which is trying to embody that truth, that clarity — wherein I can see but I'm not able to embody it. I'm not able to live it. I feel very incomplete. It's quite difficult to live in a greyness, if I can call it — because there is a constant question which keeps arising out. For example if I'm doing certain things it's like asking myself, looking from standing aside into Awareness and thinking from that standpoint of view. So it's kind of — I'm not even able to frame my question right, what I want to convey to you, because there are so many things which keep popping up. And I keep asking myself who I am. I just keep walking and keep asking myself this question. For a moment I am into present while asking that question. I'm into now maybe. I mean I don't know — if you're able to understand what I'm trying to ask that will really help, because I'm not clear here at all.

NYes. It's definitely — it's after many who seek have seen the truth but then they're struggling with this. It's again a question of expectations. What do you think living the truth is like? Is it like you have to be homeless, you have to give up everything, you have to stop working, a family or whatever? That was one definition of the truth one people came up with. And that was rejected by the masters themselves — that is not living the truth.

So your mind is struggling with accepting that the truth is very obvious. It doesn't need anything to change. Who's going to change?

There's this yardstick. The mind will come up with a yardstick. Oh, I need to be like my guru. You know, my guru was Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi, whatever — and then you set that level. You know, I've got to be resistant to pain. I should let maggots eat my body and be fine with it — whatever, some ridiculous idea. But who would become that perfect being? You're trying to refine the mind. You're trying to perfect the mind. And the mind's trying to do itself, because that's its job. It goes through the process of learning. That's what the mind is designed to do. It takes input. It will rechange its connections and so on and get better. But the point is: as you listen to the video and you understand the truth, you know that you are not doing that. You're not — you can't be perfected. You are already perfect because you are the Awareness right now. How — just holding on to that knowledge, returning to it — that's a good thing. That's inquiry. You understand this is the truth, and as the truth remains in the mind it'll clear it up of its own accord. But how it might affect the mind — we don't judge it. So I used to be a person who never got angry. Like I would not get angry. I would bottle it up. Once I understood all this I can let it out sometime. I can get angry. So what? But that's just the mind processing: oh I don't need to bottle it up. Why? Like so. But it doesn't become a perfect mind. That's not the benchmark. Because if you're after that benchmark, that's where the seeking never ends. And it depends — like you're young. Or I'm a dad, I've got a job. Like it depends where you are in life. When I'm older and then I got it and I'm retired, well, it's a different state of mind. But those are all states of mind.

QI don't have the zeal to say anything else. I mean I just don't want to — I don't know. What do I want? I really don't know. I understand where you're coming from the perfection part. Fine. But I understand you as saying this because — maybe I'm feeling incomplete. I'm feeling — maybe because of the perfection that I'm looking out for. But there is a lot of emptiness. There is deadness deep within. And I understand what you said but I'm not able to embody that truth. I mean maybe you are right that I'm looking out for perfection — that this is how it should be, a state of mind — or the mind is trying to play with the truth that I have kind of understood from your videos. But still — I just — I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm just — I have no words actually. I'm sorry.

NIt's fine. It's fine. You just — if you have come upon truth. It will clear everything up.

All right. Maybe the mind is going through its final movements. That's fine. Who knows? Take it more seriously — if you take it seriously, it gets worse. You got to back off. Remember what you have realized?

And just that knowledge clears it up. What is the insight? What is the truth? There is no separate self. Separate to what? Anybody want to — a separate to what? When we said there's no separate self, what does that really mean? Separate to what?

QOther selves.

NYeah. Of other selves, of the world. Yeah. You go out and you look up to the sky. You feel so small. You know, you're sitting in your room. You're thinking all this. You feel so small. God, look at the sky.

There's no separate self. That whole space — it's not apart from the Self. And then you think: can you find an edge to it? Why? That's just where you see the clouds, and at night it goes further and you see the stars. Where is that space? The truth means looking at things differently, because now you know the truth. So don't accept when you again put yourself in a bottle — and then you'll get what you want, which is to live the truth.

QThank you. Thank you. Thank you. So what is the I — when you realize, how do you look at the mind? Like it all seems like mind is like — the Absolute created the mind so that through the mind it can experience basically — it can approach, it can experience things like perfection, beauty, divinity, things of that sort. I mean obviously it's verbalizing this thing, but when you are a realized person — how do you look at your mind? How do you get along with your mind?

NSo the Absolute — when we say the Absolute, there's no sense of intention or intentional action. Absolute means: if you take away all everything, all phenomena, all spacetime — what is the ground truth? That is what is called the Absolute. So when there's nothing — that what to the mind is nothing — that is the Absolute. And that Absolute is the Self, because the Self cannot be perceived. You cannot say it has this particular form. It exists in this point in space and time.

The Absolute is how Nisargadatta pointed to the Self. But that Self is not how the mind thinks of selves — separate selves with intentions, with agency, who decide I want to do this. So the Absolute did not create a mind. The mind is what you observe. When we say this is a thing — to me this is the mind. Whatever you can see, touch, feel, that is the mind. But nothing has created it intentionally. So to me a scientific worldview is very compatible with what we talk about. So when we go to the science of how the Big Bang happened and all this chain of cause and effect and you get these things — there's a flip side to it which science has not yet talked about. When a certain process takes place, to the Absolute that appears as sound or appears as feeling or sight.

That's — Reality is not a dead thing. It's not like — if Reality was a dead thing then you would need separate conscious beings who then experience life and they live and they die. And that's exactly what the insight is telling you. It's not true. You can't find the self because there's no separate self. The Self means Awareness. So that base Awareness — when certain processes happen, of course Awareness becomes aware of them. That's experience. When that experience is nicely bottled into this kind of thing here, it's a mind, because it's a self-contained world.

QI know. I'm making — sometime I go crazy. So do you — when you are progressing down this path, so to speak — I mean in the beginning you need to satisfy your mind, like our friends said, quieten your mind or satisfy your mind, and that's the main point of talking and listening to these things. So basically you're feeding your mind. But at some point you have to ignore — you have to just let the mind be. That's just kind of okay. It's just doing its own thing and you're aware of it just like you're aware of a sharp pain in your chest — and you're aware of the mind just doing all that but it doesn't affect you anymore, right? Is that the way — when you realize — is that the relationship with the mind? You're just watching it doing all that stuff that other minds do.

NSo even taking the position of watching the mind — you're watching it as it — there's still a little problem there. Okay. The relationship between Awareness and the mind is that Awareness is never affected by whatever is going on in the mind. Actually there's no such thing as the mind. The mind is — when there's a perception. You take the perceptions, you group them, you call them a mind. But there are many different perceptions right now. You might be feeling something, hearing, seeing. We loosely call it the mind, but there's no — you know, so there's one thing which has in itself this quality of being bothersome. Like there's a bit of pain. Nobody is being bothered. The experience is like that. And then there's a thought about it and the thought has a certain feeling. But who is being affected? There was never anyone who got bothered. The feeling of bothered — it was experience.

QBut the Sentience — but the Sentience is feeling all that, right? That which is — that's like — or am I getting it wrong — that when you say Sentience, is it that which feels all this, experiences all that, but it's impersonal? It just happens and you experience?

NSo that is still a kind of split which will break down. Because you still have a subject and object. The whole point of nonduality is actually there's no duality between subject and object. When there is a feeling, the feeling is not separate to what you are. We get lost in the appearance. So right now you're seeing a face here in a body. And you think this is the person you're talking to. But the actual experience is there's no person. There's a world here. That's your experience. You can't see your face.

There's a world and that world is inseparable from what you are. There is actually no way to separate subject and object. Everything is subjective. All the objects are subjective and you can never find an actual subject — like this is the subject.

And so that thing itself breaks down. It doesn't work. Like one of my own favorite videos was when suddenly this way of expressing it came to me: that you are not the one to whom all this is happening. It's not happening to you. You are the happening. You are the happening. When there's music, you are the reason the music exists. You are the music. Without you, there's no music.

But don't think of it personally like me. Because of me, there's music. Now, I'm talking about the real you. What is actually you is the Sentience without which there's no such thing as music or colors or shapes or feelings or anything.

QI've heard that.

NWherever you start to see — oh, there's actually a split here — that's where you should inquire. This split cannot be true because you know the truth is nonduality. Or if you don't agree that that's the truth, then we still question it. So okay, how could it — where are we wrong here? You can ask me. You can ask. You can meditate on it.

QThank you.

NHey, we can't hear you if you're trying to speak. Nope, still can't hear you. No, you can see her lips moving.

All right, we'll wait. We'll wait for you to get that working. Anybody else?

QHi. Can you hear me?

NYes, I can hear you.

QYeah. So I just wanted to say thank you. I obviously just came across your videos about a week ago or less than a week ago, and it was a time of like a great turmoil — when there's been for a long time everything seems so clear and still, and coming inside like a beautiful — at the same time extreme sense of sort of fear and anxiety is coming from sort of conditioning. So there's this feeling of like everything's falling apart, everything's going wrong and almost like getting worse in a way. But inside there's almost like this calling for some kind of guidance and trust that this is just happening but not to get too alarmed — almost just to stay still and just have that trust, you know. And then there was needed for this kind of almost like a guidance, something to hold on to, feeling like you know everything is okay. And now after, everything's just become very still and it's almost like it's seen through that kind of a turmoil where it feels like: am I actually on the right path? Why is life getting worse when it's meant to be getting better? I'm doing all the things. And yeah — so I don't know if I have any question but this was just kind of the thing — that there was this great sense of almost like a doubt when everything seems to be kind of getting worse. Almost like you said about not feeling anger before and then kind of having let the anger out and now you feel like I'm not so suppressing those things — like things are getting almost like I'm getting worse at sometimes. But almost feels like things are coming out and everything can be kind of like accepted — almost that rather than having to try to become that perfect person, as if the peace would mean that everything is just — yeah, I don't know what I'm trying to say here.

NI mean there's this idea that once you get it then you wouldn't feel anxiety anymore or you would never get depressed anymore. But that's — there's a chemical soup that makes it happen. My mind is prone to depression.

It goes up and down. Fine. I used to be very socially anxious — the social anxiety part is gone. But doesn't mean that I would never feel anxiety again or I can never feel depressed again, because that is just — you then again going back to one sample. In science we talk about samples. And we're talking about the base Reality. You've understood — the point of Self-inquiry is to understand what the Self is, what is real about you. That does not change how this one body should function. So it doesn't mean you will never feel anxiety again or things will get better and worse again, because then we still considering this one mind. But you step back and you see the big picture in a way. You see — in light of what the Self is — whatever is going on in this mind, you are just — it's because this process is taking place in nature. And you are nature. You experience the process exactly as it's happening. I cannot make — or I do not even want to — like who would want to change how the brain works? Only the brain has this self-improvement process that when I feel it —

That is again not I. What is actually I? So it's fine.

QI think that's a wonderful thing because I think one of the videos especially a couple of days that I listened — and it was like speaking directly what was needed to hear at that moment — and that gave like instant — it was like — I left a comment there — so it was just like tears of joy and relief, because it was just like everything is okay — that it doesn't have to be still and smooth all the time — that this is really the body with its conditioning and like you say chemical that can be acting in a certain way, but underneath there's this feeling of like but it's all okay. It's all okay. And that gives that peace. Not that everything has to be peaceful to be peace, but it's almost that acceptance and that's very powerful. And at the core there is the sense that everything is — all is well — and I think that is huge.

NYes. It's very hard to tell this to someone, but it's possible to feel the exact same feeling you feel during depression — feel them at the same time feel perfectly peaceful.

It's like a superimposition of what sounds impossible, because when you are depressed, you know there's nothing — no saving grace to it. But it is possible somehow. When you're aware of what you are, that there is a bit of space, and in that space it's just — that's it.

QAlmost like everything's allowed. Everything's allowed to be.

NAnd that is —

QAnd the thing is also I find it — like one more thing I would just say before someone else can speak — is that I'm just so grateful. And there's like when I have listened to some videos that even if there was this great turmoil of some kind of like bubbling — that just that say, feel or listen to the gap between the thoughts — in that very instant it was just that everything was back to that stillness. So I am very very grateful. It's been a huge help in this. And yeah, very very — yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you.

NThank you. We've got a chat message. Let's see. So Dr. Rabi Kumar, he's asking about the sense of doership — in spite of practicing Self-inquiry, this question pops up again. Can we manipulate our life in any way? So this is a problem which very few people ever consider. Philosophers and seekers. Actually it's inconsequential. So you'll see I hardly ever talk about free will and all that kind of question. It just — it doesn't matter. In practice things work the way they work, have always been working like that. So if you feel the urge — that oh I feel inspired to do something — that is the feeling of how it happens.

You feel the urge, then there's planning, and then the action gets carried out. You can't get rid of the feeling of how that happens because that is the experience of that process happening. But at the same time, you know, as you realize all what we're talking about here — the day is no separate self — that what you're experiencing is a process taking place and you are not playing a part in the process. It's you except that you make that experience possible. You make the whole thing possible. It's kind of — I don't know. I don't see the problem. A lot of people get stuck here questioning — like they get scared that there's no free will, and then the other side's arguing that it doesn't matter there's no free will. I would rather just — it's not the main focus of inquiry. When COVID happened my wife bought a piano to teach her daughter and I started using it and I'm still doing it every night. I love doing it. That's the expression. It's just a way of speaking, right? I feel the urge or the inspiration, the happiness, whatever.

But the insight is there's no separate self. So it's not like I decided to want to do it and then I do it — but the experience of it happening is — I don't know, it's contradictory, it's weird. It's because we use "I" in various ways, and the point of Self-inquiry is to become firm on what "I" actually means, and then the other "I" is just like a character in the dream. And that's fine. You can talk about it and speak in those ways. I don't take out prepositions from my sentences — and pronouns. So this answer probably won't help. But the point is I would not put a focus of your Self-inquiry on questions of free will. They're quite philosophical. They actually don't really matter once you see the truth.

Hey, there's another chat message. Let's see from Andre. Can you please tell me about remaining in the sense of I am? So this is an instruction given when you start your Self-inquiry: you stay with the sense I am. Okay. It's how you might — as you're starting to meditate — what you're supposed to do. I don't know. Like when you sit and you try to be quiet you say what am I supposed to do? The guru says you stay with the sense that I am. What are they actually saying? You know you are the whole time anyway. Whatever you're doing. If you lose the sense that you exist, everything drops away.

So you always have the sense I am. What this is telling you to do is focus on that. As Chris said, that is the only fact. That is the direct knowledge we have. Everything else comes later. You learn as you grow up. But as the baby comes out and cries — why does it cry? It has the knowledge of existence. There's some experience, something — all that that starts after that knowledge. When you say I am, it's not the words, but that basic kernel of knowledge. It's just the instruction to stay with it. But as you stay with it, interesting questions start to rise. What am I really? What does it mean when you am? What is the am?

What is existence? Really, it puts your inquiry in the right direction and it sticks to the facts. You're not trying to experience something. You're not trying to reach a certain level. So it's just a beautiful pointer to make your inquiry very focused, put you on the way to realize what the Self is.

I see you, Hannah. Hi. And has been one of my first subscribers — or the most active subscriber since I started the channel.

Nice to see you. You're on mute if you're speaking. She's run out of questions. All right, we're approaching the end of the hour, so I guess one last question if you've got one.

QI have one, but I talk too much, so I want to give others the chance.

NNobody else is asking, so go ahead.

QOkay. So in one of your videos you said about that tug that takes form and then by attention being given to it, it could snowball — and then you use this also to kind of describe the birth and rebirth. And so you're kind of looking at it. So is it like when we come out of deep sleep every night, is that the tug of something that brings us back to this life, so to speak? Or can we choose at that — once we get to a point where we can catch ourselves — can choose not to, let's say say okay enough? Like how — what can you elaborate on that?

NSure. So that was the Ashtavakra Gita video — recent one. So that tug is — even while you're awake you can watch the tug happen. It's not going from sleep to waking. It's during — as you're conscious — there'll be that initial idea of me, the I which is not actually I. The character. There'll be that initial thought — or it won't be the actual like explicit thought "me," but it'll be a desire. It'll be something I need to do, something I need or want to do, or something about my stuff. And that's fine because that's how the brain works. You will have that tug come up. But just understanding how it works. So that does not refer to what is actually I. Now you've got a bit of space between yourself and the tug — versus if you totally accept, oh I've got to — really, yeah — and all the attention goes into that — that's where the desire can become all-encompassing, like it's taken over the mind now. So that's what I was trying to talk about. Once you understand the mechanism which leads to all the things we want to stop doing, you can do something about it — which is again contradictory, because who's doing something about it? But the brain itself — I don't know. We're applying a mirror there. Look: this is how this works. This is how this works. And it's not about you at all. And there's a humility that somehow enters the mind once it realizes — like that it made up a character and it said that's you, and wasn't you at all. And then the knowledge starts to seep in. Oh, what is you is what I thought was God, what I thought was Reality. That is actually you. Now when the mind has this process starting — oh I need to blah blah blah — and it realizes itself that that I is the fake I — it's not — and then so that thing that used to snowball and become anxiety and blah blah blah, fear, whatever — it can't go down that same pathway. Somehow something has changed. Just because now there's a bit of clarity around what I means. And so when I was saying this is what a sage means by rebirth — exactly. Because they don't — they've been quite clear. There's no such thing as birth and death, is there? They're quite clear. So then why — what is this concept of rebirth? You go through a million rebirths or thousand rebirths, whatever, before you realize the truth — is because you'll go through that cycle of taking the wrong thing to be me, and you will go through that and go to that until you realize: oh, there is no such I. End of the cycle of rebirth. But it wasn't that what everybody thinks of as life and death. It's all happening within one life cycle.

All right, last question is in the chat and then we'll call it a day. I have to go back to work because this is my lunch hour. What if we have glimpsed the truth and been there for a few months? Then you face a lot of resistance from the ego. The ego just doesn't want the truth and peace. So when you say glimpse the truth — who glimpsed the truth?

There's no glimpse of truth. There is the truth. And once you know the truth, you know the ego is not you. Actually, there's no such thing as ego. There's just chains of thinking. And chains of wrong thinking. That's how the Buddha would talk about it. There's the wrong thinking.

So if you've seen the truth, well, you just — there's no entity called the ego which doesn't want truth and peace. There's no such entity, because that would be a separate self. And the truth is there is no separate self. So there's no such thing to fight against or that's actively fighting against truth and peace. It's just about being clear on what the truth is and then things sort themselves out. That's — there's no resistance from ego, because if there was an ego that would be a self entity, a separate self. Yeah. All right.

Thank you all for joining. Or the plan is to do this — I don't know — every two weeks or weekly or so on, depends on how much time you get. Thanks for joining and these videos are being recorded. So for now the plan is to put them in the members area. Might make them public. I'll need to check if anybody's worried about their face going public on YouTube. So let me know if you are. Yeah. So thank you all. Cheers.

QThank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And blessings.

NThank you. Blessings. Have a great day.

QThank you.