All Is Impermanent - OM School Live

In the premiere episode, the floor was open for questions about pretty much anything that GP responded to. But the most powerful response was GP talking about impermanence. Impermanence is an essential subject to explore in the world of non-dual self-inquiry. It is key to understanding life, the flow of life or the Tao.

Transcript

Welcome to The Flow from OMSchool Live. The Flow is a profound mix of wisdom and humor as student Lisa Berry asks spiritual teacher G. P. Walsh questions you would ask an elder, A wise man, Or a sage, And receive direct, Simple, Comprehensive, And deeply human lessons and teachings. Step into these conversations with a master spiritual teacher and discover that you are way more than you think you are. You are The Flow. Hello, Everyone. All right, Well, Welcome everyone to the first The Flow Live and we've taken it off of radio platform and have brought it to live here on all these multiple platforms. And G. P. And I have been, We've done actually, We successfully have done 40 radio shows. So we're taking it over here. And as you've heard, It is, We've shortened the little title to The Flow because that's all there is in transformation. And just a few housekeeping items as we begin. We are here on many platforms, But we are, We're launching, We're beginning in the private group, Which is on Facebook and it is G. P. Walsh Spiritual Teacher. So if you are not with us in that group and you would like to be a part of this group, We would love to have you. So please come on over and request to join there. And while we're on Facebook, We have, We're on a few other networks. So we have to say welcome and hello to EWN, Both the English and the Francais and housekeeping for the French channel. Si vous a voir maintenant. G. P. I have to brush off my French here. Tonneau va pas display tout doit metre une bouton et dans permission. So it doesn't say Facebook user. And because I know it says bonjour, Paulement. And also as we're stepping into this one, What we're going to do, We're going to be here for an hour. So you know, And if you would like to leave any comments in there so G. P. Can ask answer questions and I'll be reading that to him as well as I have a question as well ahead of time. If you are watching the replay, Let us know you're watching the replay. We can come back to it. And this way, G. P. , We actually are not titling the lives like a radio show. We may add one after the fact. Yes. Yeah. So we don't actually have a plan like we did before. We didn't have to produce it. You know, We had to make the description in advance and be very, You know, Professional and radio like. Yes. We can still sound very professional radio like. We will still sound very radio like. Yes. Yes. We can still sound like a radio voice. So this is going to be a fun, Interesting show. We'll see. Like it's a different time. You know, On Sundays, You usually show up in the YouTube group for a set song with G. And that's three hours later than now. So we'll see if we can catch new people. And we've already got some comments coming through and we can say good morning. I know that I'll let G. P. Say all the beautiful good mornings, But we do have Alex and Penny. Hello. And Roberto. Hello. And we've got some questions. Kyle is watching Kimberly and I don't want to miss anybody here. Playa, I hope I said that correctly. Virginia, Robbie, Rosario. This is fun. We've got some people here and we have some questions already. So shall I jump in with a question, G. P. ? Yeah. Jump right in. Maybe you have one or grab one off the stack. I'm going to grab Alex's question here. Oh, I don't know if it's male or female, But I think the illusion of self or thinking is like a transparent curtain, Which adds an extra layer of information to our vision. We see our thoughts, But they don't exist in front of us. Do you like to talk about where our thoughts are? Yes. It's very true. We don't. We don't see what's in front of us. We see our thinking. We live in the world of perceptions. This is simply a fact. I mean, It's a physiological fact as well that we don't see objects out there. We see an image in the mind, What we call the mind. So we're forever interacting with our thinking, Our thoughts about things rather than the thing itself. And the entire spiritual journey is about cutting your way back through the jungle of thinking to the clearing of what is actually here, What is the reality that's here. And the discovery is that the reality here is the one being, The one beingness that manifests itself as every form that you experience. And that is you. The real you is the infinite one. That's the fact. Right? But the mind can't grasp that. You can't process that through thought. And so it is an extra layer and it's, To a certain degree, It's necessary because we're interacting with each other without thought there's no communication, Right, Other than pure silence, Right, Which is the highest communication there is. But not like it's, Not like it's said. You know, Our conventional life is completely driven by our thinking. And this is of course a very powerful thing, But it's also the big, The big flaw because we can be easily deceived. That's where delusions and illusions come from. When I mistake my thought about anything for the thing, I have stepped into the realm of illusion. I am now lost in my thoughts. So no thought is ever the truth. It is, It can be a good representation at best. It is never the actual fact. And this is the most true, The most significantly true when you consider the thought around which all other thoughts revolve, And that's the thought of yourself. The thought I is nothing but a thought and it has just layers upon layers upon layers of beliefs and assumptions and memories and associations and all sorts of things that it makes this little universe, This little solar system, Sitting in the middle of it is that sense I, Which is almost never challenged. That I is accumulated over time. It is an image. It is a thought. It is a belief. It isn't the reality. And the only way to get to the reality of you is to step back to the experience of being prior to thinking, Which is there all the time, By the way, Because obviously if you weren't there, Neither would thinking be there, Right? The thinking, Thoughts aren't thinking you, You're thinking them. And so, And we all have the experience. I mean right then when I made that pause, There was no thinking going on because your attention was focused on my words when I slowed the patter down a little bit and leave a gap because you're waiting for the next thing. Your mind isn't, If I wait too long, The mind will jump and go, Hey, What's going on? But if it's the right amount of time, You'll notice that there's just this gap and there's no thinking happening. There's just alertness. That's your natural state. That's your natural being. And there's nothing there but you. But because you are not a thought and thinking cannot possibly grasp or conceptualize what you are, This is the only reason why non-dual self-inquiry seems difficult because it's non-conceptual. You can't think about you. You can only be you. That's actually, I think whatever, Even I struggle still with after, You think 10 months would be long enough, AGP? But it's just like, What is that? It's a very short period of time in this world. We all kind of want to get the concept immediately and just go, Okay, Good. I got it. Now can I make life perfect? Is what I'm suffering now? It's that time? Yes. That's the fact. We want to grab onto it as if it were a concept, A really good concept, Which can now fix all the other bad concepts. Exactly. Right? But it's not a concept. And the true understanding is when you take a step into that place that is prior to thinking and there's just the pure experience of being. But it is so unusual to our normal way of thinking that that's it. That's all there is to it. Yeah, That's all there is to it. But the profundity of that, If you spend some actual time there, Just in that place of watching, Of just being able to watch thinking from a different place, Watch the emotions and watch the sensations, Which by the way is all there is to your entire experience. If you're watching those three, There's nothing else. Everything you ever experience in your life comes in the form of sensation, Emotion or thought. Period. I'm glad you repeated that. The three are if we're just watching sensation, Emotion and thought. Yes. Notice that's all there is to it, Your experience. There's nothing else. Right. There's nothing else. The anticipation, Memory, Associations, Those are all thoughts, Which are layered on top of pure sensation and emotion, Which are closer to the truth because they're non-conceptual, They're more experiential. And then the mind kicks in with all sorts of stories about what I experienced and what the sensation meant. The realm of pure sensation, Which is the basis of a lot of meditation practices, Including I'll start people there, Just feel your body without thinking about it. Just the pure sensation, The pure sense of having a body. Just spend some time with that and really give it your attention and you'll find your mind begins to get quiet all by itself. You don't have to make it that way and it becomes quite enjoyable. It's quite enjoyable when that little yap yap thing in your head is going, That little shih tzu dog. Sorry for those of you who have a shih tzu, I'm very sorry. I was thinking that. I was like, Wait, You can't say that. Don't do that. You know, I've actually met a few that were at least calm, Like totally chilled out shih tzu. Not many, But the zen shih tzu. Anyway, Before I alienate half the audience. He hates dogs. On our last show, We talked about beheading people. I don't even know what happened. We're getting better. We're getting better. We're getting better. We're not just criticizing animals. We're not beheading people anymore. It's such a simple practice, But we are so used to being in our heads that it seems like immediately the mind goes, Okay, That's cool. Now what? Right? Okay, What's this going to do for me? Is this going to be able to manifest that new house? But all of that's thought. If you really can see that you become free of the mind. And it is the mind that creates all suffering. There's no suffering in emotion or sensation. It's all in the mind. Yes, Yes. And that actually will scooch nicely to the next question, Which I'm going to ask from No Thing. Because you said about manifesting the big house, The next thing and this question is about jobs and stuff. So No Thing says, I have a question regarding what work we should do. Is it correct to stay stuck in high paying jobs, Which is not fulfilling and all that and gives you a feeling of that rat race or do something that gives you satisfaction? Well, I think the answer is kind of self-evident, Right? I always like to use the example of the whale in the swimming pool. You know, This critter that swims the entire world, Right? Literally travel thousands of miles in a year as they just kind of wander throughout the entire, The seas of the entire earth belong to them, Right? Which is more than there is land. And you take that critter and you stick it in a swimming pool and you expect it to be happy. It's simply not going to happen. So when you're feeling that sense of not being satisfied, It means you're not in the right place. You aren't where you belong. You're not in an environment that is conducive to you. And you should start taking steps to get yourself out of it. You may not know where you belong. Most people don't. But you can follow that. That sense of discomfort is an accurate guidance system. You know, Following it to your bliss as Joseph Campbell would put it. And that doesn't mean you just, You know, Chuck it all one day and become a bass player in a rock band, Right? I mean, If you have responsibilities and maybe you've got a family and that sort of thing, You'll have to find a wise and a gentle way to move yourself into something else. But you definitely should be doing it, Right? You know, The allure of a high paying job. And the only reason a high paying job has any kind of allure whatsoever is because it's so highly honored in our culture. Right? But our culture is sick. Sick AF. So it's not really a model anybody should be following. But our culture really promotes conformity. It promotes productivity. It promotes consumerism. It does not promote individuality. Matter of fact, Individuality is a direct threat to culture. Culture is very much first chakra tribal stuff. And individuality is very much second chakra nymph stuff, Right? Just being who you are. And the two of these are forever in this kind of dance. And it's our job to be able to like make sure that we're consciously aware and in control of that dance. Otherwise you're stuck. Because the tribe will always be arguing against individuality and for conformity. And it always justifies it in terms of safety. That's always the key word because that is so important to human beings. So it's going to be a calculated risk, Right? But if you're capable of letting go of all of that, I did. I had high paying jobs doing architecture for big corporations. And it was just very unsatisfying. Well I really liked it while I was doing it. It was just time to move on. It was time for me to, You know, Little by little I became more wanting to do just this, Which is not a high paying job. But this is extremely satisfying. I can do this all day every day, Which is exactly what I do. And I don't need to make myself do it. And I'll just keep doing it till I drop. There's no such thing as retirement for a spiritual teacher. GP, We have a comment from Kiran that we're going to have you boost your volume. Okay. So we can hear you a bit more. And as you do that, I love that you said, And no thing, I love this, Was discomfort is an accurate guidance system. I love that you said that. And when you said about being individual is not something we promote or accepting, And we even have a name for it. It's called the black sheep. And we judge it. And so, Kitty cat being bad. Kiran, And anybody else, Is that a better volume for GP? Let's have you. Well, This is, I've kind of got it all the way up, But I'll just do that. I'll just get right up close to the mic. Okay. That is good. Now move on to Roberto. I feel like I am naked in the middle of Times Square, Overwhelmed with all the neon. And no one could care less about me though. And I do not know how I ended up there and which side of the street to take. And so I'm envisioning somebody, You feel so uncomfortable, But nobody else notices. So yeah, Where do you go when you feel so exposed and nobody cares? Inward. Yeah. Yeah. You have to go inward because that sense of being exposed is a feeling that you are having. And it doesn't really have anything to do with external conditions. This is the most important thing to recognize. External conditions will come and go. How we feel based on the changing circumstances is completely a matter of conditioning. And therefore, Because it is conditioning, You actually have total power over it. But you have to recognize that it is conditioning. It isn't you. It isn't native or natural to you. It is feelings and thoughts and behaviors that have been trained into you that were never questioned. They were never scrutinized. And therefore, Something happens in the environment, We have a particular reaction. We don't realize that that reaction and the environment, That that reaction from that event in the environment is completely arbitrary. And it's completely based on just the way you happen to be raised and experiences you had in your life. If you grasp that, You realize that it's not hard-wired. It's not an absolute. Which means you can break that connection and create a completely different reaction to exactly the same event. The process by which that happens is first, You have to be with the event, The reaction takes place. You have to be with it without reacting. You can't suppress it, But you can't do what it would specify it wants you to do. It wants you to do, This happens, There's an emotional reaction, And then following that are a bunch of actions you're supposed to take. And it just cascades and it's got thoughts involved with it and emotions and all sorts of things. All to be behaviors that have been trained into you as a reaction to a particular event. Now the first thing you have to do is you feel it, You feel it running through the entire system, But you don't go with the behaviors. It is the most uncomfortable place in the world to be, I will admit. This is not fun, Right? But if you do that, You realize, First off you realize, My God, I do have power over this. I don't have to do what the little voices tell me to do, Right? I can actually sit here. And the longer you sit here, The more powerful it feels, Because you're no longer being pushed around by your conditioning. And the longer you sit there, The less influential those reactive patterns become, Until finally a gap begins to open up between the event and the triggering. And you're going to witness and it'll just get bigger and bigger and bigger, Until finally you don't have to, You can choose a completely different direction. Or the best is no direction at all. In which case the feelings, All of it, Will subside, Will dissolve into absolutely nothing and you'll be in this state of being imperturbable. And it will grow to the point where it doesn't matter what the event is, You are always imperturbable. It doesn't matter what happens, Nothing bothers you. That was incredible for so many reasons because, And thank you Roberto for asking that, One of the questions that I was going to ask for someone was like, I couldn't have, That was like the best answer. And I want to share the question because maybe there'll be a different connection. And that was, Are memories, Beliefs, And can we reprogram them? And what I loved about that was I could, As you were saying, All that is, If we have a memory it's because of an environment is reminding us, Right? So you're saying a reaction to an event and an environment. So we're having this reprogram, This loop of a reaction to an event in an environment and it's created, I'm going to guess on this one, Created with judgment, Like were we accepted, Were we not? I felt bad, I wasn't. And that it's not hardwired and that we can do, I love that. So to be there with, To have a gap between the event and the triggering and we need to go inward to do that. Yeah, There's no other place to go because it's completely, It is completely a programmed reaction that's been programmed into the system. It's not in the environment. People think they have to change the environment. Yes. Right. And if I change the environment, Then I won't react that way anymore. And that is true, That button won't get pushed, Right? So you won't react that way. But trying to change the world, I mean Ramana Maharishi says, Look, You have two choices. You can cover the earth in leather or you can put on shoes. Simple as that. So memories are interesting because memories are thoughts, Period, Right? And the program is not a memory. There was an event or series of events in the past that the nervous system created a reactive pattern to because it was the best way to stay safe in that moment, Right? So because that environment was there and it needed to stay safe, It created a set of behaviors to react to that system and that gets programmed into the system. The computer isn't remembering the program. It just happens to be running because you hit that key, Right? So it's not a memory, Right? It's simply a reactive pattern that's been programmed in and associated with an event. Now what it'll do is trigger memories. Right. Oh yeah, I remember when this happened. Oh God, It's going to happen again. Oh no, It'll be anticipating the future and remembering the past. The only time that's useful is when you're in the process of truly reconciling with that energy that the originating event may come up and reveal itself in the setting in which you can see the actual cause and effect, But when it happens in that environment, It's the process of healing, Right? Because when that event happens, When it is remembered and comes up now, You're not the same person anymore and most of these get put in place when you're very, Very young. So you're no longer the powerless one that's totally vulnerable. You're now a much more powerful adult, Which means that the entire energy that created that pattern in the first place can be diffused now in a very gentle way. That's how you resolve, Discharge the traumatic energy from the past because you don't need that level of safety any longer. It doesn't have to do that. As you become conscious, You become a participant now, Right? Whereas before when you're a child, The nervous system has to do it all, Right? Because you're not capable of protecting yourself, Of keeping yourself safe. So it just takes over. We're just going to do it, You know? It doesn't even ask your permission. And it just gets put into place. It gets stuck in that place because it doesn't realize when the environment changes. And for most of us, We actually perpetuate the environment through self-judgment, Self-criticism and all the stuff that we got as kids, We start doing it to ourselves. And so as far as the nervous system is concerned, Nothing's changed. The players have changed, But the game's the same. So you've got to show that it's actually different. The environment is different now. And step number one is you have to become safe. I mean, That's the beginning of inner reconciliation. You have to become safe for yourself. You have to become your own best friend. And so memory can come up, You know, Kind of spontaneously and that thought will trigger reactive patterns. But again, With a bit of training, You can get to the point where if that happens, You simply feel it. You let it run through the system. Because if you don't react to it, You don't feed the reactive pattern. You don't give it any energy. And if you don't give it any energy, It doesn't have any of its own. It has to get it from you. And if you don't give it, It just eventually fizzles out. Right? If the guy doesn't draw the cartoon character anymore, The cartoon character doesn't do anything else. Right. It did. Yeah. Actually, GP, I'm so glad that you brought that up about, Because I just happened to catch that you put up the first video of level one of inner reconciliation up on YouTube. And because I liked it this morning and take that opportunity to invite you all right now, If you're tuning in to not now, Because you have to stay here and ask questions. But when we're done, You want to go over to YouTube and you can watch the level one. Just start, Just start. It's one of seven. There's a series and it's there for you. Level one of inner reconciliation is the first video anyways. And I'm saying that right, Right. And it's a beginning. It's a beginning. And the whole thing is an introduction to inner reconciliation, Where it came from. I tried to be as succinct as possible. And the first one is just, Is just the events of my life that led up to it. And then, You know, How it actually began to take form. And then I go into where I, The third one is, Is called the existential crisis. It's really a description of how we became traumatized, How we became isolated, Alienated from ourselves and lost touch with our souls. So we ended up doing jobs we don't like and that sort of thing. The only reason that happens is because we've become disconnected with our, Who we actually are. And how that happened is important to understand. Then I go into the process in four, Five and six. It's invite, Inquire and integrate. And in the last one I talk about more about the process as to how to get better at it. So I'll be releasing the next one in a day or two. Yes. I still have to finish the last three. That's okay. You know what? There's so much in it that I think what, You know, When you, When I go into, I look and listen to them over and over and I always hear something new and different. So if you've tuned in here and you're like, Oh, I do, I want a little bit more of this. A couple of places to go to. First of all, We always want you to come to the website. So go to gpwash. Com. Super easy. Get on the light letter. We don't believe in calling it a newsletter, But the light letter. And there's another opportunity there for you to become a patron because we absolutely love doing what we do. We, Is this is all he wants to do. And so we, Um, GP has created, Um, A patron program subscription program. It's only $15 a month, And this allows you to have organized content, Um, And to connect and learn all these wonderful things. Um, We're going to keep doing as much free as we can. So here, Like we said, Every Tuesday tuning in again, Um, From 12 to one Eastern time, And then on Sundays, You can tune into YouTube for G's, Uh, Set song with G, Um, From three till five Eastern and ask all these same questions, Give or take. Um, But there's a, I love this one here that came in from a Facebook user. So I'm wondering if they are from EWN, Um, France or EWN. Um, But we will say that, Um, And I know it's namaste, But I don't know how to pronounce this one. Namaskaram. Can you say it again? Namaskaram. Namaskaram everyone. Hello. And can you please explain the statement, The witness is also perceived. Thanks a lot. Love you. Um, Yeah, I think that's, I think that's Steffi. Um, Cause she always says namaskaram. I think that's, I think so. I could be wrong. Yeah. Anyway. Um, This is very subtle, But it's very valuable, Um, To, To, To ponder this deeply, To really puzzle over it. And that is anything that is perceivable has some kind of attributes, Right? If it has no attributes, You can't perceive it, Right? You can't perceive music. You can only perceive the song. Right? So in and of itself, Yeah, She said down the bottom, I just thought, Yes, It's Steffi. So, Whenever you're, Whenever you are engaged with anything, Whether it be some gross object, Right, That you're looking at, Or if it's a feeling or a thought, Something very, Very subtle, The only reason we can refer to it at all is because it has some definitions, Some form to it. That is, It has some attributes, Right? Now you get into the most subtle of the subtle and there is just a sense of presence, Sense of your own being, Right? And you are aware of the fact that you are aware. You are aware that witnessing is going on. Therefore, Witnessing itself is a very subtle form, Right? It is being, That in a sense is being witnessed by something that cannot be witnessed. The ultimate truth cannot be something seen. It can't be known. The infinite, In order to be infinite, Can have no form. If it does, By definition, It is no longer infinite. It is, It is delineated. Right? So anything that can be perceived is a perceivable and therefore is not the truth. The ultimate cannot be perceived. You cannot know yourself, Period. The only way you could know yourself, The way we normally think of knowing, Is you'd have to get out of you and stand somewhere else and look back. And you can't do that because you are one. Because you are one, You cannot know yourself. Your finger can't touch itself. The eye can't see itself. The scale can't weigh itself because it's one. You cannot know yourself according to the definition that we normally use of knowledge, Which is the description of one thing in terms of something else. All of our human knowledge is all relative. It is always the description of one thing in terms of something else. It is always the subject-object relationship. I am looking at perceiving something else and then describing it. Right? But since you cannot look at yourself, You cannot see yourself, The entirety of human knowledge has to be set aside. Now that's a big deal for, A really big deal. Right? It means that everything you know, All of our classical analysis, The scientific method, Philosophy, Religion, All of it is set aside because it does not work here. A completely different means of knowing is, It has to be grasped. And that different way of knowing is what's referred to in Sanskrit as jnana, J-N-A-N-A, Jnana knowledge. And the one who knows himself is that is called the jnani. And that's the enlightened master. So this is why all the emphasis on stepping outside and observing the mind is there. Because all of the subject-object description and knowledge is defined, Is mental, It's conceptual. Where true knowledge is direct. You know yourself. You know you exist. How do you know? Not because somebody told you. Not because you stood up there and looked and said, Oh there he is. Even if all of your senses were shut off, As they are every night in deep sleep, You still know that you are. You have no object you're identified with. You have no image that you identify as yourself. But you are, You simply are. And that knowingness, That intuitive knowingness can't be described. It's pure awareness. It's God aware of himself. You helped, Maybe my mind goes somewhere helpful, Really helpful, Which always does. Somebody can't tell you you exist, You know you exist. And if we could step into that, I want to say empowerment, If we can step into that statement of knowing that's true, To say good. Okay, So if somebody else can't tell me I exist because I know it, Then somebody else can't tell me I'm not valuable because I know I am. Amen. Okay, I love you. Well, It opens up the door because now you've got, Now you've got, You've been established at ground zero. Yes. You have established the fundamental truth out of which all other truth can arise. I become the arbiter of truth. Why is it true? Because I said so. Because I am truth. I am the only self I know. I'm the only thing I know for sure. I mean I could be having a total hallucination right now. None of you could be here and I could be acting out this fantasy in an institution somewhere, Right? Yeah. I can't, I can't really tell. I could be an alien asleep on another planet, Right? And in terms of the experience I'm having, It can't tell me whether it's real or not, Right? But no matter how, No matter how delusional or illusory it is, Nothing can convince me I exist if I don't. Nothing can do that. So at the root of it, Something is. And our mission here is to find out what that is that actually is and isn't an appearance of something else and cannot possibly be an illusion. You can't have an illusion without something that is not an illusion having it. Now that's your Friday fun game everybody. That is kind of a, Yeah, That's kind of a mind. And on that, We have a whole bunch of people to say hello to. And I want to go through, There's a question from Marcel. It's kind of like a follow up question, Which I like that. It says, Marcel, Hey there, Great to see you again. I've got a follow up question to the discomfort guidance. And thank you for that because that means you've been here for a while. How do you know if it's guidance versus an old conditioning, Which you don't need anymore? It's not serving you. Experience practice. And you develop a sensitivity to it. It's true because at first, Just being aware that it's happening doesn't immediately bring you the clarity of when it is and when it isn't. But the more you stay with it, The more, You know, The conditioning has just got a bad smell. It's that simple. You just kind of, It doesn't feel right. And the more you know you, The more you're in touch with yourself, The more you're going to be able to feel what isn't consistent, What isn't in alignment with you. But if you are identified with the separate self, Which is nothing but conditioning, You're not going to be able to tell. You have to set your roots down into the place that is actually true. And then it will determine, It will give you the ananda, Right, The sachet ananda. It'll give you the feeling of you. And that's what guides you. That's what the ultimate guidance is. But you'll also, You know, You'll also make mistakes. And you'll learn that way. Oh, I could have sworn that was the right idea. And of course it might have been, Right? I mean, You may have needed to trip over your own feet in order to fully grasp the significance of the mistake. Right? Yeah. I mean, We don't become wise because we learn in a book you shouldn't do anything. The Ten Commandments doesn't make anybody wise. It's when you break them. Not all of them. When you break something and you actually genuinely experience the consequences, Now it's no longer a commandment. It's wisdom. You go, Oh, I'm not going to do this because it hurts. And when you develop enough sensitivity to others, You'll find that most of your behavior will rectify itself because you understand the consequences it's going to have on somebody else. The moment you realize you have done something to someone that has caused them a pain and there's nothing you can do about that, You cannot unring that bell. Then something inside just goes, You just won't do it again. You just can't. Something in you, You become convicted by your own conscious. I have a follow up question on that one only because I have to share some of these fun, Fun personal experiences. When I was little, I was making fudge and my mom said, You can use this casserole dish, But that was a wedding gift. So you be careful with it. Oh boy, That was, Yeah, That was. You know what this story is doing. So I put it on a slanted surface while just for a minute, Mom, I'm just, I can be there fast enough. And I was not there fast enough and it broke. And I guess of course I felt awful and that was like, Oh, And the mess I had to clean it's fudge, It's sticky. I broke my mother's heart, But I broke the casserole dish. So of course I, Now I realize that that was a consequence in the importance. However, How do we move past, I don't, I don't want, No, Don't let me have anything that's important to you cause I'll break it versus I will be careful with it and do my best. Like there's a fear based one. And you got to break a lot of casseroles, Feel the impact of it, And then you'll have to go beyond the guilt. You know, Cause especially, You know, We, We do a lot of stupid things in a row, You know, You know, People who have, Have not developed any kind of empathy and most of them are running governments, Unfortunately, Are doing an enormous amount of damage, But they're insulated from it. They don't feel it. Right. It's been an interesting study that has showed that the more money somebody has, The less empathy they have. Now this is a psychological fact. They just become detached. But it's also been shown that those same people, If, If they undergo the right training, That is they become exposed to the suffering of others, That it will reawaken that empathy. Right. So it's, It's, You know, It is, It does have a cure, Which is, Which is good to know. It's, I, I've, I've, You know, I've worked with a lot of people, Both in groups and individually, Of getting through those, The guilt about past stuff that they've done in the past. And it, You know, Some of it can be so severe that it makes what, What I call a vow, Like a, Like a soul contract. I'm never going to do this again. And the way to guarantee that you never do that again is to not let yourself ever off the hook, To always remember, Always feel guilty, You know, Keep yourself poor, Keep yourself alone, Never have a good relationship. These can all be sacred vows from past lives that you made because you did something horrible and you realized it was horrible and you just want to, And you would rather go without the joy of life than to, For that to happen again, Which is a very powerful vow. And obviously it's a reflection of a good heart that is striving to be good. But now that heart has to be liberated from the self-imposed punishment so that it can be good because of its nature and not because of just, It's afraid of consequences or fear of punishment. You know, Just the fear of punishment never makes anybody moral. That's the whole fallacy of most religions. So I'm happy you brought the vow thing up. That came up in one of our shows and I was just like, Whoa, That's so, It wraps that up so nicely. So if there's, If somebody is watching right now or in the replay and you want a little bit more about the vow, You know, Vows that we were living by, That we're going by, What we've written, And if they're from before past lives, You know, Bring them on over here. Past life too, Yeah. There are, The vow is so powerful that it can go for multiple lifetimes. Yes. I remember when you said that. So I'm going to just do a little, I love to give everybody who's watching a little bit, Yes, If you have a question, Please, Please share it here. Cause we're going to keep reading them as much as we can and then we'll bring them into the next one. But we can also have G come back into the group and maybe do a couple little followups. Like, You know, So if you were watching the replay and you didn't get question in, G might pop on and say, Or I could pick a couple and say, Yep, We're going to have like a little mini five minutes throughout. That's why this group is so exciting. So if you know anybody who isn't in the group and you would love for them to be in the group, We are opening this up to invite other people. So if you're somebody that you would like to invite, We are, We're just, We want to be so big and help so many people and end suffering to be happy. And suffering to be happy. It's that simple. Yes. We have mindful zero and thank you for the compliment. She's not going to read it out loud, Notice. And hello David and Elaine. Oh, That was so nice. I got to meet them on a couple of your private VIP days there. GP, GP does those too. We're going to just announce all the good stuff that you do. But I like this one. So first of all, I want to compliment for you, GP, You have a radio voice. My radio voice. Yes. And he's constantly, I don't, Yeah, Constantly watching his mind, Not arguing with what is, Even though my life is not pleasant at the moment and I'm feeling really at peace. Surprise, Surprise. Surprise, Surprise. So that's possible. Is it possible to witness, Look, Observe and say, This sucks. Like none of this is good. I'm, And I could be miserable and unhappy, But yet at peace. Well does it suck? Or is that just kind of the opinion or is it just, This is just life, Right? And you know, This isn't to say, You know, I mean I, I, If I was living in like Omaha instead of Seattle, I mean, You know, I do have my preferences, Right? I'm just not going to let them, I'm just not going to let them create suffering for me. Right. And the suffering always comes from simply resisting what is. But one of the reasons we resist what is, Is because we have stories about what is. We say this is terrible because, And I've got my whole litany I've gone through in my mind. So again, Like starting going all the way back to the first question we had, Right? Am I actually experiencing what is really here right now or is it just my thought about it? And so this event took place. I've got a preset of a preset notions about what this event means and then I suffer because of my thoughts about the event. And if I can move through that and put the thoughts aside and just have the pure experience of the event itself, Just starting with just pure sensation, What's happening without thought? What am I actually experiencing? And you'll find it's just a set of sensations, You know, Some are more pleasant than others. But if you take all the labels away from them, They become simply sensations. At that point, Suffering ends, Right? And you haven't had to change anything whatsoever. And I have found paradoxically that when you do that, Things harmonize. The actual circumstances change to begin to conform to your equanimity. Because there's an energy flow there, Right? So if I'm holding a certain energy about it, Right? I'm putting that energy out into it and it's going to reflect it back to me. But if I'm completely open and accepting, Inevitably that openness and accepting will begin to come back to me. Maybe not right away, But it will. It's inevitable. It's simply the way things work. You just reminded me of what I'm going to say. Susanna said this morning she was in such a grateful, Full of gratitude moment. She says, I really feel like it comes back the more I feel it. It's so very true. Yeah, Because it's nothing other than you. That's all you've ever been experiencing is those feelings. And when you do, When you really get that, You pay more attention to your inner world than the outer world. And eventually the outer world will conform itself to it because it's nothing but a reflection of that. Now, It may not happen right away. It may actually get worse for a while because there's an energetic relationship there, Right? And because everything involves our habits of conditioning, At first when we try to make a shift, Even though it's for the better, It will be resisted because it's a habit. Yes. Right? But if I'm really clear and I'm compassionate and I understand it's a habit and I treat my nervous system like a little dog that I'm just retraining, Eventually it'll learn to go on the puppy bed. Yes. That's what we're doing here. We're all learning how to go on the puppy bed. We have some hellos here. I hope I'm going to say this right, But Sabuugo, Mizira? Yes. I'm not sure if I pronounced it correct, But that's how I've been saying it. Okay. Oh, Good. Well, That's a hello. Hello to GP for that. And I just want to make sure I say hello. So Kimberly Wilkinson is here and she's always so interesting and in the flow is so opening up to everything wonderfully. Oh, Good. She's on the good side of that energetic relationship. And did I say hello? We get to Amir. Amir says, I think it was like a response. It's not because you say so, But because you are so. The are so is the power that infects and drives everything you say. So you create with the word, But the word is not the creative power. You are right. And so we actually do. I mean, It does happen. You know, If I believe my life's miserable, It'll be miserable. Why? Because you said so. It really, It really does operate like that. Now when it's trivialized, It becomes the law of attraction, Right? When it gets reduced down to something really trivial, Then we think, Oh, Okay, I just changed my thinking. Then I get whatever I want. Which is actually dangerous. I mean, It's just, That's, That's like giving a machine gun an ego and set them, Setting them loose in New York City. It's just blind. It's blind to the actual truth of itself. And the good news is for most people, It doesn't work. But the fact of the matter is that the power of consciousness is such that if it is believed enough, It will be believed into existence, Experiential existence. Nothing actually exists other than you, Other than the self. And the experience is all being shaped by what you believe to be true. So all you have to, All you have to concern yourself with is what is actually true. That's the only thing anybody has to concern themselves with. Not what's going to happen or when it's going to happen or why this is this or what's true. What is actually you? If that becomes the focus of your attention, That becomes the focus of your life, That is the fast track to reality. I want to do hellos and a question and I want to share with everybody. This was when I first started working with you, GP. And I didn't even mean to work with you. I just wanted to do the show with you. Who knew? And one of the things I learned was if I can, If I can see it, Then it's not me. And I was, I had, I was, I can't remember even what the situation was, But it wasn't pleasant. It was like, I don't like this. And I was like, Hey, Wait a minute. I can see me being that way and upset. So that's not me. And I was like, GP, You've taught me how to let myself off the hook. And really what I, What I got from that really truly is that I can love myself no matter what, Because who I am is pure love. And it was just the most beautiful thing. And I prefer that over the law of attraction because the law of attraction is what can I get, What can I have, What can I fix? And that really was a thing for me. So that was a happy moment. And we have faith. Faith is saying hello. And then, I don't know exactly, I don't understand this question, But you might, GP was, Words to be mine. Is this a predetermined simulation? I might need more. Well, Yeah, Cause he started with everything we know from this, This reality is the product of brain activity. And that's, And that's a belief. That's the dominant belief. Right. And it's, And it is a question that needs to, I think everybody needs to address. And while it is dominant, There are many, Even in the scientific community, The very most materialistic science community, That they're not so sure. Especially in the field of neuroscience, They're not so sure that consciousness is in fact a product of the brain, An emergent property of the complexity of matters the way it's thought. And that that gives rise to consciousness. Just looking at it yourself, Because nobody but you is more qualified to look at it because that's what you are. Right. I mean, Yes, Somebody else can tell you, No, It's brain activity, But what's your actual experience? Right. Because they're having the same experience you are, And they've come to their conclusion about what it is, But nobody has more authority than you, Right, For the subjective experience of your own being. And when I look at that, I look at all the different theories about material structures, And I cannot find any way a material structure can get to a sense of self. Right. They even say it's an illusion, Right, That it's an artifact. I say, Okay, But something has to be there to be experiencing the illusion. Right. So I would say, No, That our brain is an image in consciousness. It's exactly the opposite, That the functioning we know of as the brain is actually a very visceral mental image of the functioning of consciousness, And it's consciousness that is the functioning, And that that is the substance of the universe. It's exactly the opposite of the materialistic model, Although both science and non-duality converge at the point where we're both looking for what is. You know, Science recognizes that everything we experience, You know, Look at this little object here, It's an appearance of smaller products, Objects, That it itself is not a thing, Right, It is simply an appearance on one level of perception of something, Of a bunch of things that are smaller, And you keep going, Right, It's made of molecules, Which are made of atoms, Which are made of quarks, Which are made of subatomic, Which, On and on and on, All down to this level of quantum and beyond, Because what are they looking for? Something is, And is not an appearance of something else. There must be something irreducible and indivisible, And the only disagreement that I would have with that is that science says that consciousness comes from it, That it's out there, And the non-dual says, No, Consciousness is the indivisible and irreducible. So that's how, The next part of your question, How do I get to any kind of understanding about this reality or anything else? It is, As I mentioned in the beginning, This is an inner exploration that is totally subjective. You cannot rely on classical analysis, You can't rely on the scientific method, You can't have a double blind test because you are the only one who knows you, You're the only one who has the experience of you, And in your inner world you don't experience anything but you, The only self you know is you. Everybody else is speculation, I have images of everybody else, I have pictures of everybody else, But I don't know you, I only know me. Now that's a fact. Now if I really dive into that, If I embrace that, Then I embrace a completely different way of establishing knowledge, The totally non-phenomenal direct experience of myself. And for that I just keep pushing aside everything I believe about myself, All the speculation, All the assumptions, All the memories, All the associations, Because all of that got added later, And I keep going and I keep going and I keep going until there's nothing left but me. And what do I find? Pure consciousness, Pure awareness, The sat-chin ananda. I just made the journey and there was no place else to go, It was, You know, It's over. In such a beautiful way, Not a scary way. Oh yeah, I mean the mind would like to tell you it's scary, Don't go in there, It's done. You know, Because those are just all the old habits we have, Right? And the old fears that somehow I'm going to get lost in that, But you've already become lost, You've been lost in the quagmire of conceptual thinking, Where you're living with thoughts about yourself rather than you. But you're a reality, You are, That's undeniable. So if science is looking for what is, You can say with absolute certainty, I am, Right? That's the I am, By the way. That's the one. It's the only one there is, It's the only one you can possibly know. Everything else is speculation. If you stick with that which is not speculation, Right, But is internally verifiable, Well, What else, What other path to the truth could there be? That is truth. I am truth, You are truth. There was another comment down there about Brahman, Atman, From Plan, Yeah, Where'd you go there? About Brahman, Atman, And Anatman, I think I get it. Brahman is the word for the pure infinite awareness. That is the word in that tradition that represents the pure self. And Shiva represents that aspect, Also pure consciousness, And Shiva and Shakti, Which is the unmanifest and manifest world, But that's what they represent. So Brahman is the equivalent of the I am, The self, Is referred to in the Upanishads as Brahman. So if you see it as that rather than some a god, Right, As a personal god, You realize that it's pointing you to you. You are Brahman, Right? Brahman is all there is. Everything, How does the Rinpoche put it, All is the supreme being, Which is being, Consciousness, Bliss, And I am that. That's actually a beautiful closing statement. We do, Yes. My timekeeper. That really was beautiful. And then, Yeah, And you know what, It's fun just to read comments too along the side here, So knowing if I missed it, Or if you've made a comment and we didn't get to say it out loud, Then it's there for other people to read too. I encourage all viewers to revisit the comments. And for this as our close, We are going to be here next Tuesday again at 12 p. M. Eastern time and everybody's thanking for showing up and we really appreciate you guys being here too. This is what we were looking for, This interaction. Which we weren't getting from the show, From the radio show. It was a different way. We're in the airwaves, But you are a teacher, GP, You're a master spiritual teacher, And it's important to have students when you're a teacher. You're not much of a teacher in an empty room. Yeah, That's true. Right. So we are. I want to make that extra invitation to become a student by participating here into the group, Inviting people along. But you know what, Come on over to the website because that's where we have the OM School, The OM schooling. And it really is a place to begin learning, Studying, And finding out who you ask that question of self-inquiry of, Who am I? And so gpwalsh. Com, Just go there and everything else is, You'll find it from there. But I think that was, I'll leave it at that for the invitations because there's so much that I feel like I just did. But there's just so much opportunity with us and interacting the group, Even if we're not here on Tuesday. You know, Throughout every day, Whenever you come here, Just ask a question and make a comment and we can revisit it, Include it in the show or not. But thank you, GP, For inviting me to host this with you. And everybody here? Well, It's been good. You make it a show. Otherwise I would just, You know, It'd just be another sad song. Because that's all I know how to do. Well I appreciate learning about my crazy notes that I'm always taking. That's why you get to the top of my head, You guys. Gotta make it look pretty. So, Well, I look forward to seeing everybody showing up here. And thank you again, Everybody, For your time. And I hope that everybody goes in this most beautiful love that I'm feeling right now for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. You've been listening to The Flow from Ohm School Live. Join us each week as we dive deep into the flow of life and self-discovery. To learn more, Visit gpwalsh. Com and download GP's free e-book, Angels in the Basement. This is your host, Elisa Berry. Thank you for joining us and remember, You are not a thing. You are the flow.

Reviews

Thank you GP