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Most people are not present to the fact that they are not present.
Transcript:
We call this little chat “Being Present”.
Most people are not aware that they are not present to the fact that they are not present.
If somebody is present and meet somebody who isn’t present, they feel as so there isn’t really a connection. And what happens is something like this: Let’s say the average person, and by that I mean 99% of people, when their eyes look at you a signal goes to the brain and it looks inside the brain for information about what it sees. And if is somebody that it’s seeing before it doesn’t really see the person that is in front of them it goes to the memory of the person. And even although is nanoseconds to recognize the person, usually the person fills in with something.
So in Australia for instance you see a person and they say: Hello, how are you? But there is nobody there saying how are you. What it’s happens is, the brain is looking for who is out there, goes to the memory of that and in the meantime slips in the disc to fill in the time that says “How are you?”
So you see they are not really there, and if somebody is present they can see and feel and sense that the person isn’t there. Then the person may start to talk but the person who is present will see that this talk is not coming from them. It’s their story and is coming from a part of them that stored that story that delivers it to lots of people in the same way, but they not “present”, “present”.
So what is presence? It’s being here now, now. Me talking to you, over this recorder and you hearing it. Now what usually happens is, when the brain hears something -ears hear it and it takes it through to different parts to the language to the meaning and so on- it connects with the meaning that’s being programmed in there, unless you are present.
And if you are present you will be listening, you will be present, so present. You will be sensing what is this person saying. And yes you got your old information and your old knowledge but there is something else, there is another sense you are picking up… because words cannot say what’s there. They are very restrictive. But if you are present you sense something, a form of empathy. You actually become the person and go beyond their words and often beyond their meaning into a deeper meaning of them. You connect on a different level.
If you live that way, moment to moment, you will live in a different world from everybody around you. Everybody will seam crazy, and I mean that, I mean crazy. Look at the television, look at the news, go into the shops and listen to the sounds they are blaring out. This is a crazy planet. And if you are not crazy if you are more present, you watch this and see this going on. You watch it. You will be the watcher to it. But here is the thing, you also be a watcher to yourself because one part of you is also crazy. How come is crazy? Let’s talk about that a little bit.
Each one of us is unique and we are in collections. So we have collections of Muslims, collections of Jews, collections of different sorts of Christians, and Buddhism and Hindus and so on and so on and so on and atheists – collections.
Now on the moment of conception you are starting to pick up your environment and as you develop in the womb, you are picking up. You pick up sounds. You pick up senses and feelings through the mother.
When you are coming to the planet, when you are born, you need to pick up what’s going on in order to survive. So you may come in conscious. You may come in as a sensitive being, but you are in a body and you have to learn how to survive and to do that you are watching and listening and you are learning. You are learning what gets you into trouble. You are learning what gives you praise, for you to survive. And you are developing your brain for that.
Let’s talk about something else. Let’s go off on that a little bit.
Most people want to be happy, of course. Now what is happiness? Let me suggest this to you: Happiness is when your inner state is matched by the outer state. It is actually very rare. It’s usually a compromise. So your inner state has been developed in a certain way, according to your family, your environment, your country and so on. And your brain is formatted that way. The brain is most happy when the outside matches the inside. The difficulty is, it never does because we are all unique.
And what we are attempting to do all the time is, if the outside doesn’t match, we try to change it. And this is what happens in relationships. The inner is trying to change the outer to match the inner so that it can feel comfortable, safe, secure, predictable, and happy. And of course the other person is trying to do that as well. Conflict.
And if you look, specially now, you look at the news, you look at the games, you look at the films, look everywhere: conflict! We are in a stage of conflict. We are trying to match the outside to the inside and it doesn’t work.
Now, a person with presence is aware of this. What they are aware of is that they brain is trying to get the outside to match the inside, but with this presence there is a separate presence that watches. It watches the process and says: Oh, now the inside wants this person to be like this and I can watch that. And I can also watch that the other person is trying to get me to be like the way they want me to be. And it watches the process.
We will take that a little further.
You look at your new car. And it is new. You just bought it, you are very please, you are very happy. And something on the inside is very happy about that. Something is being stimulated in there, some chemicals and electricity and so on. If you are involve in the happiness, if you get lost in the happiness, you eventually going to be unhappy with your car. Something will go wrong, or not the way you want or it gets old or something.
If you watch your happiness… You love your car. You always love it, not matter if it breaks down, you still love it. You may not be happy with it, but you still love it.
If you get this knack of watching because you are not your brain activity. Your brain activity runs on its on. You are the one that can watch that, and if you really do want to be, let’s say, fulfilled, in a state of balance, harmony, you make this your priority.
Every time you look at something you register what’s goes on: I like it. I don’t like it. I’m happy with it. I’m unhappy with it. I want it the way it is. I want to change it.
And you watch the process but you won’t be caught up in it, you won’t be involve in it. And then you start to see that there is something else, something else, there is what we call the body and the senses, the automatic part. And there is another part that can watch that. Once that (Paul snap his fingers) click happens and you get that you can watch the happy and the unhappy without getting lost in it, you are free. Free!
This is what happens to most people that have a near death experience because the first part of that is usually they come out of the body. Let’s say they are in the operating theater. They see the body on the operating table and then there is a realization: I can see what I usually call “Me”, but that isn’t me because I can see and I am up here. And I can see the things going on there but I’m not feeling that. I am not identified, caught up with that body anymore. I’m free. I’m free.
Many experiences in that state that show you that you have something that is you, that you are unique self and that is not that body, that is not that mind that is not that emotions, that is not those words, that is not those actions… it is like a robot and you become to watch it.
One benefit that comes from this is that as you watch… let’s say you get angry. Most people get angry. Some people have been meditating or looking at how to be different, they get angry at that they get angry. Or they judge that they get angry, that is there all caught up in it, instead of saying: Ah look, anger, judgment… oh look judgment to the judgment, watching, watching.
You are free. Fear disappears.
Most people that had near death experience have absolutely no fear. Not only no fear of death, they are looking forward to it. Free, free.
Let’s come back. You heard it before.
You, you, a being I’m talking to now, not the one that is translating into meaning. Not that mind. There is another part of you that is sensing in hearing, and what you hearing isn’t you. Somewhere you know this because “Thou art that”. You already know that. You are not that body. You have the body, you are living in the body but that is not you. There is something else that is you, something that is.., oh I don’t use this word very often, is divine, wonderful, magnificent. That’s you.
Every single person has that, even the serial killer. They are not in touch with it. They are much further away than you are.
If you are listening to this, that means you are very close or you wouldn’t be listening. You are close. Sometimes you might even feel it, it might be for a second. Suddenly its like oh! and for a second or just for a few seconds and then you can’t really say what happens but some people say: Oh I don’t know who I am.
Or everything goes still: The peace that passes all understanding, time no more. No time, no space, only here. A moment of…something that is indescribable. And that is in you, in everybody. In some it is buried deeper, some it is closer to the surface. And as I said, if you are listening to this -listen!- it is close to the surface.
Now you may get frustrated and say: Well I looked, I meditated, how come? If you are looking, what you are doing is complaining about where you are. And when this thing happens, it happens when you are with what is just as it is. There. Unconditional. And there it is. And you are one with it.
If you are working for that, you are complaining with what is. And what I’m suggesting is where you are is exactly the way you need to be in this moment.
And where you are and what you are doing, the next moment is different. As soon as you get this moment unconditionally, the peace and movement, always movement, everything is moving.
Now the movement may not be physical but there will be a movement. You will be aware that there is a movement. Often sages say, it is like a river that is continuously flowing.
If you are trying to wake up you are swimming up stream. Most people stand still. Just jump in the river and see where it goes – the river of life, the rhythm of this very moment.
You are judging? You are judging. You are judging the judging? Ah, I am judging the judging. See? It is very simple, isn’t it?
But we get impatient and we try to push the river.
Being with what is.