(The following is based on personal notes and taping. Please do not consider as verbatim or as a quotable source for Eckhart’s teaching)

A person was studying with a Zen Master and it was time to leave and go home and so he came to the Master and said can you write something in my book, something that I can then remember, remind myself of something important about Zen. It's already a sign, of course, that he didn't get it. And so he gave him the book and the Zen Master wrote something in it and he looked and he saw he had written "attention!," in Japanese presumably. Just one little symbol probably shorter than our language, just (makes a sound like a brush). Is that all, he said? Surely can you say a little bit more please. And he gave it back to the master and the master wrote something else and he looked and said "Attention! Attention!" "Oh come on surely there's more than that to Zen!" And he gave it back, "Please, just a little bit more." And he got the book back, "Attention! Attention! Attention!" "What is this "Attention!", its interesting. What does attention mean anyway?" he asked the Master. What does it mean? And the Master said "Attention means attention."

With Zen stories you never know whether that the end or not.

Well, that is the end. Now you notice its an interesting story, you can notice two things, the mind's need for more...say a bit more...and then the need for further explanation. "What does attention mean?" He wants more explanation... and so that is why he doesn't get it because he is seeking the answer in the realm of thought. That's why he is asking really saying "Give me a little bit more to think about so then I can understand what Zen is, through thought." And of course the essence of Zen is, knowing the dimension of consciousness that is beyond thought. That is not something that you can achieve or attain. Another obstacle is that belief. But that dimension is already there. That's the strange paradox in you, so to speak.

Ultimately within and without are one. That dimension of consciousness is already there. It is to a large extent obscured by thought, by constant preoccupation with thought. But without it [consciousness] thought couldn't even be there. It is one could say the medium in which all thought-forms are floating. And it is there in between two thoughts. That may be very brief in many people, these gaps. It is there in the first moment of perception. It may be there when you wake up in the morning and the machinery of thinking hasn't started up yet. Your first moment of opening your eyes. At that moment there is certain things already that are being perceived. That there's also that beautiful field of still attention in which the perception takes place. That is sensed as a kind of background peace. The foreground is that which arises. In the first instance, sense perceptions, then thoughts perhaps arise in it. Thoughts are arising here at this moment but they haven't taken over. So even though thoughts are happening, that dimension that is beyond thought is as present or more present here than thoughts. And it is possible to live in such a way that you are conscious continually of this background field, even when thoughts happen. It does not depend on whether thoughts are there or not.

That frees you from excessive identification with and attachment to the forms of this life. Whether they be external forms that come into your life, things, people, situations, circumstances, or thought-forms. It frees you from excessive attachment, excessive identification with the thought-forms and the emotional forms also. There's a flux, a continuous flux of phenomenal existence within and without. Ultimately its all within. The entire world one could say takes place within you. And it's all happening against this background.

One could compare it perhaps to water that’s everywhere then all these things swimming in it. And then the fish says, "Where is the water?" I've been looking for it all my life. And the water makes up the very essence of the fish. It's not just around the fish. The fish, too, is mostly water. Just a little analogy.

This is something very obvious, subtle yes, but so natural,...could be potentially for the human being to live in connectedness to that dimension. And not to sense that not to know that not knowing in a subject object relationship but to know it as the essence of "I." No longer “I am that” because that refers to some kind of form or name or identification. It's the essence of "I-AM." Not to know that is really to be deprived of the most important thing of all, it is a "no-thing."

The only thing that absolutely matters in one’s life is to know that. Everything else may matter also, but only relatively. Whether you’re healthy, or ill matters but only relatively. Whether you are in prison or in a beautiful home matters but only relatively. If the prisoner in prison knows that dimension within, then he is much better off than you are in the mansion. And if the person in hospital bed knows that, perhaps even sensing the approach of death. And it may have come because there's the impending undoing of the physical form which for some people is one way of encountering that dimension.

It's a little bit late but that's fine, and from there your whole life, your whole past suddenly makes sense because it brought you to the flowering, to that point. The old past which is otherwise perhaps of some meaningless accumulation of events, and in some peoples lives, even seemingly meaningless, absurd events or a series of mistakes, a series of things that shouldn't have happened to me, were not really meant to happen but they happened. People are trying to make sense of their life on the relative level but you can't. Whatever edifice you build up mentally something will come and you will no longer be able to make sense of it.

Collectively it can happen when a collective disaster happens such as last year in September not far from here. And suddenly people cannot make sense anymore. The explanations fail. Let them fail. It's good when the mind's attempt to explain, to form some philosophy on which I can base my life, fails. It looks like bad news to the mind. But it's good. And here it's also failing. As we are sitting here, I am taking away from you, not really, you are voluntarily letting go of identification with all that. [Who] I am, my name and my story and my thoughts and my emotions, me.

(pause)

So this sitting here is so easy if you are fully here and that's all that’s needed for that dimension to emerge from within you. And its so subtle, where is it? It's there this moment, even if you say 'where is it?' and instead of thinking where it is, you, so to speak, listen to find it. Listen really is an analogy for attention. Where is it? Your attention is there as if you were listening. That's it. Pure field of attention. That's why Jesus used some of these parables of somebody waiting for somebody to arrive. Waiting not in the usual sense of impatience. "When is it going to happen?" but of alertness. When is he or she going to come, that kind of waiting. It's the same state you might notice that is there when you look at something, a tree or a flower in the state of attention.

(pause)

So no matter what happens in your life, there always two dimensions, one could say in your life. Now most humans are lost in one dimension, completely. That's the dimension of the manifested world. The world of form, the world of phenomena, the world of time, of thought. They totally, they don't know anything else. And then there's the world, the dimension, not the world, the dimension of the unmanifested. The One Life, prior to form, the One Consciousness that underlies all life, no matter whether its life on this planet or somewhere else in this galaxy or another galaxy of those billions of galaxies. The One Life prior to form, the One Consciousness, one could almost say that which was there before the universe happened continues to be there even now.

Scientists ask and puzzle over the question, what was there before the big bang? The big bang they say is when it all started, out of one point or out of nothingness came a whole universe. And what was there before that? And what was there before time started? The mind stops. So scientists maybe haven't quite realized that they come up, these days, physicists come up with koans, Zen questions that have no logical answer. All you can do is the mind comes to a stop. And when the mind comes to a stop, that's the answer!

That is the stillness of the unmanifested. And compared to the mind-forms it is so subtle that at first (one is dumbfounded) and its the most powerful, the only power there is. The essence of all life-forms is that. And it is that, it is only when you now that within yourself as the deepest, I-AM in its deepest sense, simple sense of presence or I-AMness that's left when you forget your name and when you forget your story. What's left is that which always was the essence of your story, the one thing that gave you your sense of "I", so precious. And that got mixed up with form, with the story of me so your sense of identity then you think its in the story of me but really it is hiding beyond the story. It just gets mixed up with the forms, the memories, the thought-forms, because so the innermost essence of who you are, even the story of you is true.

That innermost sense of something so precious here and then because it got mixed up with form people have this fear that they could lose that through death, but that's the one thing that is not lost. The essence, it is Consciousness itself. That's what's left when the form goes and some people need to experience death to find it. Death means the form dissolves and leaves an opening into the formless. That's why death is sacred.

Now the opening may not be there for very long. It gets covered up quickly. And that's why even there are sacred places where great humans who, early flowerings of human consciousness, as I call them, who broke through to that dimension and the place where they died is considered sacred. But any place where death happens is sacred because a form dissolved. That moment of death the formless shines through that opening.

And of course there is such a thing as psychological death which is when the identification with the psychological me dissolves. Sometimes through intense suffering caused by identification with the psychological me. It's a beautiful paradox. Nothing that happens is not right. It may look mad but even within the madness the universe is unfolding as it should.

(pause)

So the essence of your identity, "I-AM", that’s what left when all identifications have gone.

(pause)

Presence, Being, I have difficulty with names, remembering names because they don't seem that important. The being underneath the name, that's a different matter. That's why I got the name wrong, this wonderful artist who does these flower arrangements here. His name is Anthony. And whenever I meet him, there's no, I don't need a name, there's simply a meeting on the level of essence, on the level of consciousness. That's why I didn't remember the name. And so the world is then recognized as relatively important but it loses its overriding importance, seriousness and heaviness.

And it's, I feel there is so much compassion when I see people, how important things are to them. What importance they give, not only to physical things, how much importance they give to situations and what happens or doesn't happen or a circumstance or how much power they place there in the world of form. They expect something from it that only the formless can give. They expect to find themselves somewhere in there. They expect happiness through the world of form. It can give you happiness briefly and then it takes it away. So you become dependent on what happens or doesn't happen.

And sometimes its the littlest, tiny things that make people unhappy. I ask why are you unhappy? Well this has just happened. What does it matter? So its the impossible expectation that people place on the world. Fulfill me, make me happy. The world means places, people, situations, circumstances, doesn't matter, all that means the world. So they have these expectations and demands and no place, no person, no situation, no circumstance can meet those demands for long.

And this is why life is experienced by most humans as very frustrating, almost designed by some devious God to frustrate you. And many people experience their life as its designed to frustrate me, continuously. I try so hard and always something happens to frustrate me. Of course, there is an impossible demand being placed on the phenomenal universe and that demand is not only make me happy because true happiness in the deepest sense is simply knowing yourself, who you are beyond the forms, true and lasting joy and happiness.

But they are looking for happiness through some imagined configuration of forms when my life, when those forms in my life, those circumstances, people, places are in the right configuration then it will be fine. And it could even happen that for a brief moment they are in the right configuration, you just moved to a beautiful new home, you just fell in love and the stock market has just gone up and your doctor says you have the most healthy body I have ever seen. Everything is just right. And then probably you would claim, the ego would claim some merit or achievement. It would say, "I did that."

The world of form or the forms looks solid. This is the illusion when you walk around, especially in a city, the solid structures, man-made, the solidity of, the form look so solid. It's an illusion. We don't realized that the world of form is very much like vapor or mist. Physicists know that too. They know that there is nothing solid here. Even the most solid building can collapse in a moment. The grandest edifice whether it be an office building or a temple can collapse at any moment. Sometimes they do. So the apparent solidity of form is an illusion.

To anybody who hasn’t been to India I recommend at least going there once to experience that the physical universe, the solidity of the physical universe is an illusion. In India it's much easier to know that because things are not that solid in the physical realm. Things could go wrong at any moment...and its beautiful and this maybe the reason why India produced the greatest sages. The very first spiritual awakening of humanity happened there. Perhaps because the physical realm is less solid or the illusion, if less, the illusion of solidity is less there than here so because of the illusion of solidity you believe that there can be something permanent in the phenomenal realm but very quickly here too things shift, change, leave you, or make you unhappy.

Today it makes you happy, tomorrow it makes you unhappy. That beautiful position that you got, a husband or wife makes you happy then makes you unhappy. Anybody who has been through more than one marriage and even those who are still in one marriage know that the person who makes you happy is also the person who makes you unhappy. So the demands that people place on the manifested world are impossible. Make me happy! And when that demand is dropped and sometimes this dropping, this letting go of that demand can happen when the world has totally frustrated you. Totally.

So much has gone wrong so-to-speak which means not really wrong but against the expectations, against what I wanted and needed that you let go of any further expectations not in a negative sense because if you let go of any further expectations in a negative sense that means that you are saying, "Who care? I don’t want to know anymore. I'm done with the world!" You're not. There's still allot of attachment but a true letting go, perhaps you even smile or laugh. "It's gone, it's all crumbled. Once again!"

And no further expectations are placed on the manifested and suddenly you sense this enormous peace. What is that? Everything has gone wrong and yet there's this deep sense of rightness. That can happen in cases where people become totally frustrated. It can also happen in a spiritual teaching, to see, when you are ready to see. That readiness is there because the frustrations have already been there. You wouldn't have come otherwise. That's already been there. And then suddenly you see the demands. And part of the demands, a very essential part of this demand that is placed on the phenomenal world is the demand that the future should make you happy. The next moment, the need for the next moment. And it is a great act of letting go when the psychological need for the next moment is relinquished. That's always an essential part of coming to an end of placing expectations because every expectation that you place to some extent implies future.

(pause)

And so its a wonderful thing that the demands that are made upon places, people or situations or circumstances are not there. And then you are comfortable with places as they are because no matter what place you go to, it could be ideal in your imagination but when you actually get there, something will be there that is not ideal. Any, whatever place you go to, and person, and circumstance and that's the thing that frustrates you. And that demand is not made anymore. It could be a simple thing even the demands you place upon people. Understand me! He doesn't understand me. My parents don't understand me. My children don't understand me. So? Is that so bad? They understand what they can understand. Their stage of evolution, they understand just enough for them to understand. They are okay with not understanding. You don't realize that nothing is added to you by having somebody understand you, except a psychological thought-form, confirmation that I exist. He's confirmed that I exist. What is that existence that needs confirmation that you exist, or [the] confirmation of the world? Some people think they need fame. Fame is totally overrated.

(laughter)

There's nothing in it. That's why some famous actors are interested in this teaching. They realized how empty that thing is. If fame fulfilled them would they come to this teaching? What for? They're fulfilled by fame. By recognition. Everybody recognizes how beautiful or great they are so isn't that fulfilling? No. You think it's fulfilling when you don't have it and if you have it, it's fulfilling for a little moment and it's no longer fulfilling.

And you see another way of finding this dimension, always being totally frustrated and getting nothing. Another way is getting everything and being totally frustrated. And some famous actors go to drugs, they try to deaden the frustration that they feel which ultimately is a form of pain. They try to deaden it that way. Famous people, many are very unhappy, committed suicide. But some others see that so it doesn't really matter if its through achieving everything or achieving nothing you find it.

For most of you its kind of a mixture. You’ve perhaps experienced success to some extent and failing to some extent. And you've experienced success turned towards it's opposite. So that is the realization that everything in this phenomenal world is fleeting. Buddha came up with that realization. Impermanent. Everything that you encounter. He said there are three characteristics of human existence, everything is fleeting, there's no self in it. If you are seeking a self in any situation, through an enhanced sense of self. This is why people make these demands, make me happy, make me feel fully who I am. Make me more myself fully because happiness is knowing yourself at the deepest level.

So when you say, "make me happy" you're saying to the world, "help me find myself." Enhance my deficient sense of self, this feeling of not-enough-yet. Yet! This feeling of lack. Not being fully myself yet. Please help me get there. This person. Maybe if they understand me they will add something to me. Maybe if the world recognizes my worth, I can add that to me and that will do it. Some achievement. And nothing works.

It's a self-seeking, this demand that is placed upon the world is ultimately a self-seeking in the world through the things of the world, the forms, the phenomenal and that's why its frustrating. No self in any of these things, the Buddha said. Anatta is the word in Pali for this characteristic of all conditions, no-self. And another characteristic. There are three characteristics, one is no-self, and that was along time ago, one of the first flowers of humanity saw that, no-self, impermanence-anicca, and dukkha is, it sounds negative at first but this is exactly what we have been talking about. It means, the third characteristic, suffering. It makes you suffer. What that means, dukkha, suffering. Suffering is one translation, the other translation is misery, another translation is unsatisfactoryness and there are other translations. Some are quite funny. And they all point to that basic element that you find that no matter what condition you encounter externally in this life, you find that somewhere. That's why its so frustrating. Dukkha, anicca, anatta are the three characteristics when you do not know who you are. He didn't add that. He just said, then he pointed the way beyond also.

Now when you know who you are and that's a strange way of putting it, all that it means is knowing the realm that is beyond form, beyond thought, the stillness that is here now. What the Buddhists sometimes call emptiness which is fullness also but does not contain forms. Fullness and emptiness prior to forms. It is that which Jesus points to when he says "I want you to have life in it's fullness." Sometimes translated as "Abundant Life." That's what his teaching also is pointing to. Obviously he's not talking about proliferation of things. That was not part of the teaching. Because that is mistaken when you are only aware of things and not aware of awareness, because that what it is. You are only aware of things, not aware of awareness, self-aware, I-AM, you're not self-aware then somebody speaks of the fullness of life, or abundant life, all you can think of is...more things.

And this is why the Western Civilization kind of lost its way from the source but that's fine, too, it's all part of how it should be. Getting lost is good too. That's why Western Civilization came up with shopping malls. Because all they can think of as abundant life must be more and more things. So let's create more and more shopping malls and fill them up with more and more things and this must be the kingdom of heaven that Jesus pointed to. But all the people who are running around shopping feeling frustrated somehow they are perhaps beginning to see that that is not the fullness of life. You can, by the way there's nothing wrong with shopping malls. You can enjoy walking through shopping malls when you don't need them anymore. But when many humans don't need them anymore, then I don't know what will happen to them. I sometimes enjoy for not too long, walking through shopping malls and just looking at the world of form. So many forms. And then its enough.

So that's why the fullness of life is not more of things. It does not refer to that dimension. It refers to the dimension of depth. The fullness that is there already within you for which you don't need future. The fullness that is already the essence of your being now, how could you need future to get there? So these three characteristics that the Buddha pointed to: impermanence, no-self, and misery, that is true as long as you don't know the dimension of depth. You don't know who you are beyond identification, you don't know the I-AM before it becomes a story. Before it becomes a thought. Then yes, then life is suffering. And every situation if you go into it you will find it there somewhere.

But when you know the unmanifested, the I-AM, then the expectations that are being placed upon the world, people, places, situations, circumstances are not there and the strange thing is that then when the expectation is not placed upon them, people, places, circumstances, situations, are quite pleasant. You could actually quite enjoy them. You enjoy places without the demand that they should be a particular way. You can ultimately, it comes down to enjoy the isness of what is now no matter what form this now takes. You enjoy the forms. Whereas if you needed the forms to be a certain way it never quite worked. You needed the forms to be in a certain way for happened never quite worked. Not for long. When you don't need it, then suddenly the world of form can be enjoyed. It's a beautiful play of form. The neediness isn't there and it's only then that you can truly enjoy so it's not this teaching, the true spiritual teaching, any true spiritual teaching, there's only one, is not a rejection of that dimension of the world but it becomes accepted, you embrace that in the vastness of who you are. That world of form is playing itself out, continuous fluctuating forms.

You can enjoy it and even the amazing thing is, you love it. But you love not the form, I love the flower, I love you without knowing your story or your name because what I love the formless essence that I sense only because I know it in myself. I can sense it in you and sensing it in you, sensing what is my essence in you is the realization that we're ultimately not separate. And that also applies to any, any living thing, all things are living, but let's talk about Nature, it applies to the flower, it applies to the tree, the cat, the dog. I sense myself in them. You could say God. Sometimes there is a term, a Christian term which is beautiful, loving the creator in the creature.

Loving the creature is loving the form, that really isn't loving it's attachment. My form seeking to enhance it self through adding your form to my form and completing me somehow. That's the illusion. But loving the formless in the form is recognition of Oneness and that is love. And so that is how even what you experience as the world of form undergoes a change when you know the formless within yourself. What you experience as the external universe takes on greater harmony. Your world, your life takes on a more harmonious flow. You are still for awhile on this mad planet. Well the only mad thing on the planet is at the moment humanity but the planet is beautiful and humans are beautiful too.

It's just a temporary mental illness because they have come the end of an evolutionary cycle. The end of a cycle becomes dysfunctional because a new cycle, a deepening is happening. The end of this evolutionary cycle, yes looks like madness. Things are not working. Things are breaking down. Great that's supposed to happen. And the madness increases as the mind-identified state of consciousness based entirely upon thinking, where humans derive their identity from thinking, that is coming to an end. And so it's beautiful and you don't even need to believe that. Most of the things I say here don't require belief because you know for yourself that is true. If you believe that its not happening that is fine too.

The only question is here, is it happening here, the shift. And it is. So yes, we're still on this planet. You witness dysfunction. You can also still feel to some extent the pain of this planet. At times you can still feel it, it's not a personal matter anymore. You may still encounter pain-body, collective pain-body manifesting in you. It's not your personal problem anymore. It is recognized as human pain. It accepted for what it is, gently, compassionately, you have compassion with your own emotional pain which isn't your own at all. Just looks like it. It's human pain. You have compassion with that. You accept that also.

And so you realize that acceptance of all the openings into that dimension perhaps the most beautiful, the one that works immediately without the need for any kind of time is acceptance. That takes you to knowing the unmanifested within yourself. Acceptance of the manifested if its pain, that's what it is. The spaciousness of the unmanifested is there as soon as you accept something fully. And then it changes. This is why I am saying when you live in connectedness with that state, even the external changes, yes its still mad but things around you, places and people around you unfold more harmoniously. It spreads, your consciousness spreads out and affects the world around you which becomes a more harmonious place. A place where love is there. You see love suddenly because it comes from within you and then you see it reflected, coming towards you from others. And that's a little miracle, when you don't need the world of things, the phenomenal to be a certain way suddenly it turns into a more harmonious place. The need is gone for it to fulfill you, it becomes quite a pleasant place and even that which is not pleasant at first sight in this world.

You will be taken into situations sometimes that are a manifestation of the dysfunctional mind-identified consciousness and which perhaps contain a great amount of human pain, the pain-body and your presence in those situations will be a decisive factor in bringing about a shift. It could be your presence at work, your presence in your family, your presence wherever humans come together to meet. Even your presence where there is heavy conflict. Maybe some of you may be taken to a part of the world where the manifestation of human unconsciousness is particularly extreme. And your consciousness there, you cannot imagine how important one realized point of consciousness is in those situations. One point of consciousness who is not, who is no longer totally identified with forms and is no longer reactive to forms but comes from the gentleness, the compassion, the love that is there when you are there as the formless presence, I-AM. And there you sit or stand while conflict may be going on around you and you just watch. You look upon it in the state of attention, not strained, relaxed, alert attention.

Whether it be a conflict situation is there happening next to you or whether it be a conflict situation, a challenge that affects you directly, there is the ability to look. I am using the word look here in a wider sense. You already encountered looking, how important it can be to look in the state of attention at a flower, a tree, or anything. Here I am using looking in a wider sense which is embracing it with your attention which is a field of stillness and that is the current of awareness so to speak that flows through you on to the situation which may involve a person or several people. So that intelligence comes into play in that situation, the unmanifested intelligence, not reactive, not analytical, not trying to work out, 'what can I do change the situation' or even trying to work out, 'what can I do to help these people?' A greater help comes when you enter that consciousness and then suddenly perhaps words come or suddenly action arises. Not perhaps even from within you. I may come from somebody out there.

You are the bringer of space, so to speak, space consciousness. The spaciousness of presence. So it is an enormous thing to realize what power lies in pure attention, pure looking, beyond just visual looking, even a blind person can look in that sense which is looking, placing awareness, embracing it one could say with awareness. Which implies allowing it to be as it is at this moment because it already is and that becomes the basis for change. So that's the most powerful thing in yourself is to discover that still power that never fight anything or anybody but embraces everything and everybody and is also the most powerful agent of change. Also transforms the outer so it becomes a more benign place, less hell, it approaches heaven a little bit more.

Certain polarities will remain in the outer realm. The keep the outer going, hot, cold, high, low, but they are benign polarities. They are to be enjoyed as the multiplicity of the phenomenal universe. It's to be enjoyed, the multiple forms. Life can appear in so many forms. So this is so simple and this is perhaps why it's remained a secret for so long. Take this consciousness anywhere and you immediately become a healer and again I'm using the word in a wider sense. That whatever enters that spacious presence becomes transformed and if it is not ready to be transformed it will remove itself. It's not ready yet and that's fine, too.

People will come to you now as this is arising within you more strongly, many of you will find and many of you are already finding that people come to you and they don't know why. They ask a question. You might meet people seemingly accidentally, maybe in an elevator or anywhere and something that they say or you ask, there's something there. They are seeking something from you. Something within them can sense something, that there is something there. They don't know what it is. So people will be drawn to you and there's the temptation, there's the possibility that your mind will reenter the stage and say, 'I've got to do something.' It might say 'I've got to help this person.' 'How can I help this person?' That's a natural temptation when people come for help. To try to figure out how to help. And a far more effective help is available when you become comfortable with that simple state of presence in which it seems that you don't know anything.

There's simply a being there, there's simply a listening, an open field of attention. The person may be speaking and there's an open field of attention. That is a very fine energy vibration. That is intelligence. Out of that intelligence whatever is needed comes. Through words, realizations, actions, insights, sudden insights, or simply sometimes the arising of peace in the other person. And so that is the greatest transformative agent. Its the frequency of Awareness.

And so the mind then takes secondary place. It steps back and becomes the servant so-to-speak. Thought still operates sometimes when the realization comes, it may need to be expressed in words so it becomes a thought and the thought becomes the words. It's beautiful then, the mind works beautifully. It doesn't take over. It may try again because its been running the show for so long but then it subsides. When you have one foot in the new consciousness, one foot in the old, it can still happen that mind takes over. It happens even to great spiritual teachers. It can happen that mind comes back, an identification with me as special comes back. If for years, if for 10 years everybody tells me I'm special because they confuse the essence with the form, if for 10 years people tell me I am special, then many if I don't meet, especially if I live in an Ashram, never meet anybody else who doesn't tell me I'm special...I'm special, I must be, everyone's telling me.

Enlightenment is nobody's possession or attainment. It is simply there in the absence of the density of the mind-identified sense of self. In the absence of that density the condition, the state of enlightenment is there. It's always been there even before. The sun just shines through now. The sun could become obscured again because it's nobody’s possession.. Nobody says 'I am in possession of the state of enlightenment!' Now who are you? It's in the absence of you that it is there. The absence of the mind-made you.

So the mind may come in and want to run the show again and then at some point you will notice it. Oh. This may...this state of consciousness...it's important to...when you talk to people even in situations that involve...that are not problematic, casual conversation, even there the mind can easily take over and you lose the spaciousness. In any human interaction, the decisive factor, the only real important question in any human interaction is, is there space. Or is the entire interaction dominated by object consciousness which means is the entire interaction dominated by the activity of thought. (laughter, Eckhart must be making some faces) And you can see how you get drawn into that. It's the mind-stream taking over, no space left, it's full, it's like living in a room cramped full of things. And then comes the next thing and then the next because when you are in a mind-stream one thing leads to the next, one thought leads to the next. There's no end. And some people, many people when they're alone it happens to them. (pause, laughter) And then it gets exhausted after awhile because it burns up so much energy and then they look for somebody else to talk to.

And in any interaction so you can observe, is there space or has space been lost now. Space can never really be lost but there's complete unawareness of space which means there's no awareness of awareness. There's only awareness of things. There is only awareness of thought but awareness has become the thought, identification with thought. Awareness has been born into thought-forms. Consciousness has taken birth and is taking birth continuously as thought-forms. A continuous stream like...
The consciousness, the One Consciousness giving birth to form, is born into form one after another, rebirth, rebirth, rebirth. And you are in each rebirth as "me" complete identification with the form, the thought-form. That is rebirth. You’re condemned to be reborn, it's not some abstract Buddhist theory, rebirth. Rebirth is a concrete thing happening at this moment into the next thought-form and the next. And the end of rebirth is not some abstract Buddhist notion that you need another 200 incarnations approximately to come to end of rebirth. The end of rebirth, the possibility for that is here now, not to be reborn into the next thought.

And then suddenly space is there, a little bit of space around the thought. Watch people interacting or even better watch yourself interacting and see are you there as thought-form, perhaps wedded to an emotion that goes with it particularly you are trying to be right or reacting to something the person said or reacting to a place, a situation. And so how much space is there in you? Any? Even that question can be helpful because that question is a little pointer, a question is still a thought but its pointing beyond itself. How much space is there? Is there any space in you at this moment? And when you ask that question you come to the end of thought because to know whether there is any space in you, which is the space of awareness, which is the space of no-thought, that very question, "Is there any space in me at this moment", that question in order to answer it you need to listen, watch and be alert and attentive to find out whether there is any space in you and that is the space! That's why the question can take you there. To answer it the space needs to be there. Is there any space in me?

This is a similar question to the question we asked yesterday, "Is it still Now?" These are beautiful questions because to answer them you can't think to answer them. There's no answer in thought. If there's an answer in thought its a mistake, it's wrong. If you give that answer to a Zen Master he'll hit you. So that's a beautiful little thing, in any interaction, if you simply remember that question and you'll notice thought stopping for a moment because you have to find out.

And so you can learn to interact noticing the mind-stream. You will notice it more often when you are being dragged along with the mind-stream and then you're out. Spaciousness is there. And its good if you can when you speak to people, one can be aware that you've said what you have to say. The statement has come to an end and then you can step back into spaciousness from there. That's a beautiful thing to do. You've given your opinion, what do you think of such and such. Well. What do you think of political situation? Well, I think it's like this. I think he's right and then he's wrong. I think he's great, I think he's mad. There's the mental position. You've said it. And then you've stepped back into spaciousness. Okay. You've said what you have to say.

You can still have mental positions. Your sense of self is in the space not in the mental position. And then if he says, "I disagree with you totally. He's not mad, he's doing the right thing." That's another viewpoint. You can still defend yours. You can say "I think you're wrong because this and this and this." Without the self defending itself and then you are already creating an enemy there. The person disagreeing with you becomes your enemy because he is attacking your sense of self. That is madness. It's very normal and its mad. So you can play around with mental positions. You don't need to give them up. You may have favorite positions. I'm a Republican, I'm a Democrat. Why not? Or whatever. It's fine and your position maybe it's more right than somebody else’s. Who knows, it may well be. History will show that either he's mad or doing the right thing.

So do not become trapped in mind-forms because you are part of the madness even if you say that he's mad and you get mad because somebody else disagrees with your viewpoint. You're part of the madness. Anybody in whom space consciousness is not arising is really part of the problem. And then you see certain things of course from space consciousness inside so there you can see quite deeply into things and there's compassion in the seeing. Even if you see somebody’s doing a mad thing there's compassion in there, in that. And again compassion is not weak, compassion is an aspect of the unconditioned, derived out of that.

(pause)

I suggest that between now and then next our afternoon meeting we keep Noble Silence. Perhaps even beyond, we'll see. Between now and this afternoon space of silence in which you are alone with your mind. And be compassionate with your mind, accept it. Be aware of all the many little things, you walk, looking around, and aware of the field in which this is arising, which is you.

Continue: Part 4 - Tuesday Afternoon