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Most of us, most of the time, are looking for existence to fit our neurosis.
When it fits the shape of our neurosis we feel good, secure, satisfied.
This recording includes a Spanish translation by Vikrant Sentis.
Transcript:
The one thing that comes up is a saying attributed to Heraclites, “The Hidden Harmony”. And I think that’s the way that I now assume things are. There’s a perfect harmony happening. Everything is harmony. And when it doesn’t look like harmony, it’s us taking a position. And the position says, without us realizing it, “I will not be happy unless this is like this, and this is like this, and this is like this.”
So, we’re looking for what we call existence, the outside, to fit our neurosis. When it’s the shape of our neurosis, we say that’s good.
And again, that’s what happens in relationship. If a person is in the harmony, the state, they don’t look for a relationship, because they don’t need one. They’re already in the state, perfection, the realization that everything is perfect, and open for whatever happens or doesn’t happen – part, flowing with the harmony.
And most people, most of the time, are not in that state. So, they’re looking for something to create that feeling inside. So, some go after money, some go after fame and success and relationships, but it’s all to try and satisfy the distortion of their neurosis.
And in a Satori, when there’s a realization, there’s the realization everything is always perfect. It’s always exactly perfect, and what I need. Usually, when we’re looking for a partner, we’re looking for somebody to fit in to our neurosis, so that we’ll feel good. And of course, they’re doing the same. So, “I want you like this, so I feel good.” And they say, “No, I want you like this, so I feel good.” But it’s not recognized. It’s done unconsciously.
And in fact, the best possibility is to find a partner, live with them, and a person who keeps making you angry. Everything they do and everything they say, upsets you. That’s a perfect relationship, because it helps you to see yourself. It’s no good bothering to see them, you need to see you. What is not in balance in you? So, as you find a partner that upsets you, it helps you to see yourself more clearly. And every time you get upset, “Thank you very much.”
And in the state, Alan Watts, I met him once in Sausalito, San Francisco. I went on his boat and he had, as far as I can see, he had been in the state. He was no longer in it, but he wrote about it in his memories. And I can’t remember, but most of the people that have that, they write things like, “Be here, now. This is it. Take no thought of tomorrow. Be presently here, unconditionally, as you possibly know how.”
And unconditionally, doesn’t mean without conditions. Unconditionally means, yes to your conditions. It’s just yes. Yes. This is what is at the moment. This is how I’m feeling. This is the circumstance. Yes. I’ll be with this. And then, The Peace that
Passeth all Understanding. It’s not understood. It’s just …, and then there’s no word.
You see, if I say then it’s sensed, but it’s not a sense. If I say it’s felt, it’s not a feeling. It’s unexplainable. The truth cannot be said. If it’s said, it’s not the truth.
And people like Alan Watts who had that, people who do the Satori group and have an awakening, they all have a similar state, that they can’t explain, because every word from the mind has an opposite. And this state has no opposite. So, we could say it’s a state of love, but it’s not love as we know it, because it’s not the opposite of no-love. It’s just unconditionally universal, not only to everybody, but to everything.
It’s a state.
And to me, it tingles. Tingles. It tingles in the body. It tingles in the air. Everybody’s tingling. Nothing is solid, which, of course, is what science is saying, “Nothing is solid.” There’s no basic solid energy. It’s energy. It’s not solid. So, I describe it as a tingling.
Just close your eyes for a little while and see your interpretation of tingling. And if you get in touch with something, imagine that tingling right out to the edge of your skin. And then imagine, it doesn’t end at the skin, there’s tingling on the outside as well. And you’re tingling on the inside and the outside. It’s in unison. It’s together, not separate. And then that tingling, in a unique way, is in everybody and everything. Everything is tingling. And not only are we part of it, we are it and it is us. Tingling.
Now, just as imagination, feel that tingling in the body and just imagine as you walk, the tingling, that was you, doesn’t move. It’s you that moves. Your unique tingling moves through the tingling. It’s as though you disintegrate and integrate, moment to moment.
Nothing is really solid. It’s a flowing and everything in harmony with everything. And whatever happens, it’s for us, opportunity. And we don’t have to do anything, just allow. So, just play with this. Is that sound of the rain inside, outside or just is.
And take your time, come back when you’re ready. And experiment with that through the day.
As long as human beings are not in Harmony as a whole, how then can everything be Harmony? If Paul lives in Harmony, does that mean, everything is? I cannot find e.g. any harmony in the Israel/Palestine situation. Does that mean, the Harmony is hidden and I am just too blind to see it? For Heraclitus and Osho I certainly am blind. To me it looks like a philosophical mind game.
as always Paul’s words come exactly when I need them
thank you
Dear Paul,
Oh my! Your words, as ever, so timely for me.
Blessedly, conforming what I have come to realize about the current living and loving situations/relationships I am experiencing. Tho the details are interesting to me— the perfect match for my conditioning!!— they are irrelevant in a way as I see, within my experience and what I notice with others , that yes indeed they are FOR. ME!
In such perfection that I can, when I am shaken to my true knowing, laugh and delight about circumstances that in and of themselves are not so laughable or would not seem to be by an outsider.
Dear dear Paul, since Niamh first shared tapes of your talks (yes tapes on a cassette player) I have always felt your words speaking directly to me! As likely each of us who have sat with you in person or via cassette have,
Also a note— I recal at the last Harbin (which is once again open for business) event I attended, you pointing out Thomas (Hubl) saying “keep an eye on this man. He (is or has) the real thing’
Indeed, he is offering beautiful contributions to the world.
Thank you Paul!
Love to you and Sabine ( whose presence in a group of 8 back then, offered me a kindness that helped presence me to the emotional survivability of being in a group like that as the beginner I felt I was— thank you Sabine)
🙏❤️
Susan. (Formerly at Earthgate)
Thank you Paul, for your invitation to share something of how your words are heard.
To ‘my’ perception you and Hereclitus are spot on in your articulation of Logos. Life seems so perfectly choreographed, so that daily I find myself expressing gratitude for the Grace full existence achille gets to live. As you say, quite beyond explanation, at least at the level of intellect.
That gratitude extends to you for that which you shared with us for the eight years or so I had the opportunity to be a part of the community around you. You contributed greatly to the foundation on which rests that which I refer to as ‘my’ life today.
In fact I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to be in dialog with you once again, as I’ve yet to find someone who can comprehend or shed light on the realization that became quite clear recently. That ultimately there is no achille to even lay claim to something that might be called a realization. Though the ego is alive and well, and would love to claim authorship to this perception; however the gigs up. I doesn’t quite comprehend who’s left onboard, but clearly that which remains always was, and is nothing that can be claimed to have been arrived at by this character achille. At once a very liberating realization, while somewhat disconcerting. As the Beatles sand so long ago, ‘nothing to do, no place to go’. As if the floor just whent out from under him. There’s no place left to stand….in a manner of speaking; and yet life goes on.
So often words ‘you’ spoke 25 years ago, still echo in ‘my’ awareness.
In gratitude for the time shared, and that which you shared and continue to share.
In appreciation and with loving regards dear Paul, achille
achille@shaw.ca
Seen or unseen … the harmony exists… with explanation it is absent… the mind attempts to interpret yet interpretation creates separation from the feeling… the feeling is beyond logic…it is a oneness that is experienced through allowing…allowing what is to be…and so it is….Thank you Paul… Much love
Thank you paul. love
Dear Paul thank you for this words …
it doesn’t need any more and it doesn’t have to be said any more …
and I can emtpy my bookshelf 🙂
Paul,
Thank you for these words. I am so grateful for the profound impact you have had on my life. The rains timing was perfect.
I have a question that keeps popping up in my thoughts and I was hoping you might have some insight…
What do you say to individuals who insist that other people’s happiness depends on their own unhappiness?
I have come across this often. I have even recognized myself having the thought. When I go into it, it seems like a very selfish thought but the ‘Ah Ha’ moment keeps escaping me.
With love. Thank you.
Hi Love Paul,
zzz…ing…flow. Stop! no where to go, nothing to find how divine.
p
So much of what Paul has shared all these years
has slowly become my own way of seeing and being.
And it’s not the words so much as the experiencing
the things I have somehow always ‘known’ inside
but were under layers of other stuff I thought was me.
Listening to this latest recording:
All the same words I have heard so often,
and yet the sense of freshness, authenticity,
a sense of the words being only echoes,
pointers to another wordless inner level
that can’t be spoken, and yet…
Resonance?
I feel blessed with the possibility I had of sharing with Paul and Sabine in their home with my group of friends. This talk was part of one of the mornings.
I feel full of gratefulness for the experience
Letting your words in, is like taking a fairy shower. Then go out with the dogs in the icy wind, and find everything, people, birds clouds to be freshly. And back at home, being at peace. So simple, so near. Much love to YOU.