GF Live 7-9-22 Drink From The Fountain Of Truth

We can console ourselves by explaining our pain to ourselves, or we can dig in and do the work of consciously exploring it. One of these two actions produces “fool’s gold,” while the other enriches the soul... even as it leads it to liberation. Choose wisely!

Transcript

Good morning to everyone.

So we're going to look at something that in one respect is very simple and I think should be simple to see.

But the thing is that there's a lot of things that we can see with relative ease but that for some reason seem so difficult for us to do.

And in this instance we're going to talk about what I have coined the phrase the fountain of truth.

We've all heard of the fountain of youth,

I assume we have anyway.

It was back in 1500,

16th century that the king of Spain,

At least this is what the book tells us,

Counseled with Ponce de Leon and sent him out searching for this mythological,

This fabled fountain of youth.

Now Ponce de Leon did not find the fountain of youth but the truth is that the task was taken over by advertising companies,

All of whom try in one way or another not just to sell you what might be a youthful product but to sell you an image by which when you identify with it you feel new momentarily.

And this is actually rather an addictive thing because when we look at it and we look at it closely we can see that there is something in us that innately,

And it's a proper word,

Innately wants to have the feeling of being new.

I'm pausing here for a moment because when you examine,

For instance,

You make a plan to go do something,

Well there's a feeling of excitement in it.

You're going to go have friends over,

You're going to do something and we do this for so long and at a certain point it dawns on us that,

If it does,

That this search of ours is for something that no matter how eloquently or elaborately,

Lavishly we're able to accommodate the idea of what will make us feel forever youthful.

Whatever we find in this world,

Its fountain of youth,

It doesn't last very long.

And then that leaves us doing what?

That leaves us listening to a mind telling us what the next thing is that we have to do.

And honestly,

If you're able to see it in yourself,

We're terrified of not having not just something new to do,

But really just something to do at all.

And I think that you can see there's a kind of cynicism that starts to grow inside of this psychic system of ours where we begin to lose hope that there might be this new thing and at a some point,

It's inevitable,

We realize that we're not going to find it.

And then we kind of reach a point of compromise in our lives and I want for us today to see that there is in fact a kind of fountain of youth,

But we're going to call it the fountain of truth.

Not youth,

But truth,

Because in truth,

All that is youthful lives.

And I'll show this to you.

We're going to work toward a very specific exercise of a sort.

We always work that way if you're just joining us for the first time.

We've all heard the idea,

Have we not,

That beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

There's something comforting about it.

We know it's true because we have the experience of it.

We may not understand what that means,

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

But we're going to look at it closely.

Because if beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

If what is ageless is in the eye of the beholder,

Well,

Let's look at this.

Two nights,

Three nights ago,

We had one of those sunsets that looks like Mount Sinai had been transported over to southern Oregon.

It looked like it was a Moses meets God on the mountain sunset.

It was unbelievable.

Kind of rare to tell you the truth in this time of the year for us.

And you see the splendor of something like that.

And in those moments,

You experience something that is ageless.

I'm asking you to see it with me.

I'm not trying to convince you of anything.

As I often say,

You look up at a night sky and you are absorbed in the depth and breadth of it and there is a timelessness there.

In fact,

Part of the appeal of the night sky looking up is because when we look up and out,

What we are experiencing is in and within.

Because where is this ageless beauty?

Where is this timelessness?

Have you ever watched this time of the year here in southern Oregon,

For instance,

All the deer are giving birth to their young.

And young fawn,

First year fawns and bucks.

When something happens and you don't know why,

It's like somebody prods them with a little electrical jolt.

And all of a sudden,

They're just running all over the place.

They are the expression of youthful jubilance.

And when you watch something like that,

You can't stop a smile from coming over your face.

You feel some kind of joy in their exuberance and you have for a split second an awareness of an unending youth.

Because there it is,

Once again,

Instrumented in these creatures that as they go through the seasons of their lives,

Implement the various principles,

The various life forces that animate them that.

And you look at that and in that moment,

You know beyond the shadow of a doubt that what you are experiencing in that moment of boundless youth and ageless sky,

That if the beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

And what we're beholding is actually the experience of our own consciousness,

Then what that means to us,

If we can see it,

Is that the ageless sky,

The youth,

Is not out there.

It's within our own consciousness.

Those moments where you stand and something unfolds in front of you and it is reflected within you,

And you drink from that,

You have the taste of that timelessness,

Of that beauty,

Of that youth,

In that moment for a split second,

There is a part of you that is inseparable from the very thing that is unfolding before you.

I hope you can see this with me.

Can you see this?

You can just write a little yes there in the box.

I want to make sure that we're all on the same page before I take the next step.

Good.

Yes,

Yes,

Great.

Because you see,

If we can see this,

And in one respect,

As we drink from the depth and breadth of the awakening of a part of our consciousness that we were asleep to the moment before,

And isn't that what happens?

Right now,

Here in the morning,

It's a gorgeous morning,

When you partake from life like that,

You are standing in the fountain of truth.

The youth comes and goes,

Physically.

Spiritual youth is in time.

Spiritual youth is timeless,

Because the source of it is timeless.

And if a man or a woman wants to have a life that is as evergreen as their willingness to step into that fountain of truth,

It is there before them.

It is there within them.

I can show this to you,

If you'll look at it.

Do you remember the first time,

Your mom or dad or whatever it was that you went to,

Like Disneyland?

I do.

You go now as an adult and you watch these kids walk in and their eyes are wide open.

They're just full of anticipation.

They want to experience the whole park.

They want to take in as many impressions as is possible for them to do.

Yes or no?

And when the time comes for them to leave,

I don't remember if you remember this,

No,

I don't know,

I don't want to go.

I'm not ready to go.

Why am I not ready to go?

Because I haven't explored every corner of the kingdom.

In this instance,

We're talking about Disneyland.

But it could be anywhere,

A park,

A nature park.

And there's a parallel here between being as a child.

The child wants to take in all of the impressions that are possible.

I hinted at it,

It's because when we take in these impressions,

The impression is due to a revelation.

Something that we see comes and touches something in our consciousness.

That's what a revelation is.

That's what an impression is.

Something active,

Something we see touches the seer.

And when that relationship takes place,

That consciousness that receives the impression is brought into an awareness of a feature of itself that the moment before it didn't know.

The moment before it wasn't aware of the fact that it could feel that kind of exuberance.

That it could feel that kind of mystical experience of a sky like that.

And so the child doesn't want to leave because they haven't,

In this instance,

Tasted all the foods.

They haven't been on all of the rides.

And under that immense attraction is their innate wish.

It's not even them.

This consciousness to discover and to explore as fully as possible the undiscovered country of their own unrealized consciousness.

The undiscovered country of their yet realized consciousness.

Because how is our consciousness realized?

Rather than through those in quote moments where impressions come into us and stir in this consciousness its content,

All that it is,

Can and ever will be.

All that it holds in the corners of itself.

Every secret that isn't just a part of my consciousness,

But of the consciousness of humanity itself.

All of that sits in you and I,

Even as I'm speaking to you.

In fact,

If you're resonating at all with what I'm saying,

It's because you are experiencing the same thing I am at the same moment,

Which is we are looking at and talking about a fountain of truth.

And the fountain of truth is not outside of us.

We are.

Our true nature is the fountain of truth.

Now there's a small inconvenience to this fountain of truth business because on one hand it sounds pretty good.

Let me go pull up a little table,

Get a sunshade and just drink from the fountain of truth.

But by the way,

That is what we're meant to do.

But sometimes we have to,

We have to drink from a cup of truth that we don't want.

Because it's not part of what we imagined or all of the ride of this life is supposed to be like.

So back to what we were saying,

That these experiences introduced the child to something they've never seen before.

And quite often these new impressions can be overwhelming.

I mean,

I don't know why in some book I wrote about this.

I remember the first time I saw a collection of bonsai trees,

These small trees that these ancient beautiful trees.

They're the two,

Three hundred year old tree,

No bigger than this.

But it has all that,

The girth,

The depth,

The breadth,

All of the suffering involved in something that's lived that long.

There it is right there.

Bonsai means art in a tray.

That's what it is.

And you look at that miniature tree and what happens?

You experience it.

Now we're all different and we all have different levels of this capacity to be aware of what is moved in us by what is outside of us.

We're drawn to the things that move us that we like.

But we have this unfortunate misunderstanding when it comes to the moments,

Those rides in that undiscovered country that we don't want to go on,

That we don't even like the look of it.

And so we avert our eyes,

We turn our head.

You see,

At a nature park,

For me,

God,

By some blessing,

I live here on this mountain and I am surrounded by all of the wildlife,

My friends,

These magnificent bucks.

They will come very close.

And you feel this raw strength.

You are enamored.

I am.

You can't stand next to something long enough.

Ever have a chance to lay down with a horse or get close enough where you could touch a whale or swim with dolphins.

All of these experiences in the world,

We're drawn to because we are experiencing an interior world that most of us have no access to at all.

Because our attention is taken from us by the reactions we have to what we think we see instead of experiencing the consciousness that has been brought into that moment to realize itself.

So now we're talking about ourselves,

About you and I.

If you follow me,

You understand a kid,

They're drawn to it.

They can't not be drawn to it as a rule unless they're damaged,

God forbid.

How do we become as a child again?

I know there's a passage,

Something like that in the New Testament.

In fact,

I'm sure it's in all scriptures.

How do we as men and women start to realize that our life one way or another has become something that's a lot more like moving through a part of this world,

Whatever it may be,

And something in us deciding for us.

There's nothing there.

Or worse,

I don't want to have anything to do with this particular experience I'm having when I see certain situations.

We shun them.

And it is this consciousness that shuns any revelation that cuts us out of this fountain of truth because there is no moment that unfolds within us that isn't intended to be part of our awakening,

Our education,

The stirring of a consciousness that we then become aware of the content of ourselves.

And this is such an important idea because you see,

You are not just the content of yourself.

We think we're the content of ourselves.

I have this reaction.

It's a painful reaction to something.

One part of the amusement park,

I went over to my family for a reunion,

Whatever it may be,

Anything.

And suddenly some content is stirred,

Some regret,

Some resentment,

Some jealousy.

Up comes this particular ride,

This reaction.

And something summarily in us shuts the thing down because it reacts to the content of itself as if the content of itself is the whole of itself.

And no reaction is the whole of what we are.

Reactions are merely a kind of sudden revelation of this content that has been stirred into our awareness.

So in these moments without knowing it,

We have a mindset that shuts off the fountain of truth.

And when it does,

It shuts us out of the fountain of being present to all that is youthful,

All that is ageless,

All that is timeless.

Because you can't cut out one world and expect to know what the—it was a word I thought of yesterday—you know,

We've heard of the universe.

How about the holy verse?

How about that place in which where every one of us knows there's suddenly no point outside of us and no point within us when that beauty,

When that newness,

When that epiphany comes?

It is just a singularity where the observer and the observed stand there in an awareness of the fact that they have never been apart from each other.

We have moments like this.

Let me get back into this.

We know,

At least we've read anyway,

That no two snowflakes,

No two blades of grass,

Certainly no two sunrises,

No wave on the ocean,

Not one of them is ever the same.

Each is new with each new appearance.

We know this.

And if it's true that no two—no flakes,

No two sunrises,

No sunset,

No wave,

No blade of grass,

If everything is always new in the moment of its appearance simply because it is always being touched,

Acted on,

Brought into life,

Having life brought out of it,

If that's true of the world that we're in,

Why wouldn't it be true of our own awareness,

Of our own consciousness?

How much greater is our consciousness than that which is reflected within it?

The world we see is a reflection of our consciousness.

We're drawn to it because in this world,

As asleep and divided as it is,

The only way I get to know about the timidity of a goldfinch,

The spectacular balance of a hummingbird or a cat,

The only way I get to know about something like that is when I watch it,

I see it,

And then when I see it,

I become,

I feel that.

So we have to start recognizing if what we're experiencing is producing this in our consciousness and our consciousness is in fact reflecting it,

Then why wouldn't it be true of our consciousness itself?

Why wouldn't it always be being made new every moment?

Because part of what its existence is is out of this eternal newness that gives it its life.

I hope we're following this.

I know most of us,

God help us,

Are become just desensitized.

And it's a twist on things because people today are so sensitive,

It's unbelievable.

This world has fallen into a kind of sickness that it may not recover from because when I take this hypersensitivity,

This immediate reaction of a negative kind where everything triggers me and it doesn't matter left,

Right,

Up or down,

Just that state of being,

That state in a human consciousness born of being so wound up,

That's not sensitivity.

And that sensitivity dulls the soul,

That kind of sensitivity.

It dulls the soul because it's always under a kind of an assault that it blames the world for producing.

When there is no world that assaults our consciousness,

Our consciousness reflects what the world reveals and then our consciousness,

Depending on the nature and the level of it,

Does with what is revealed,

Does what it does.

You look out and you hate the world or you get something or whatever that's going on.

In that moment,

When you're lashing out at the world,

The pain you're feeling is because your own mind is lashing out at an image in itself it doesn't want.

The world isn't producing the pain.

The world is full of pain because it's full of men and women like ourselves that don't understand the nature of our consciousness.

And in particular,

Because I have to keep going here,

That you and I,

Our lives are getting smaller and smaller,

Fewer and fewer impressions because we have become increasingly dependent on the things that create familiarity for us.

Have you not noticed that?

I don't want to do a lot of stuff anymore because I'm A,

Uncertain or B,

I just am listening to something tell me that that experience isn't going to be what I want.

And the only way I can know it's an experience I don't want is not just because I have some past experience,

But because that bit of psychological food stuck in the consciousness,

You know,

Is just stuck there.

It doesn't want to experience itself again and so it shuts us out.

It says,

No,

We're not going to do that.

We've already dealt with that,

Or we can't do with that.

And then our life gets shut down,

Nothing new.

Just the wear and tear,

If you will,

Of a mind stuck with the futile task of trying to recreate itself through old experiences and find something new there.

And there is nothing new there.

Look,

The real spiritual path is rigorous.

It's tough,

Because eventually,

A person starts to understand that I can't keep having the same dream,

Seeking the same pleasures just in some reconfigured form.

Getting rid of these people,

Bringing in those people,

So I can have a new experience of myself.

By the way,

Not caring what I do to those that I derive that experience from.

We have to actually start to understand at some point,

As surely as a child finally gets tired of the merry-go-round.

You remember that?

They're quite representative,

As above,

So below.

The merry-go-round loses its appeal,

Because all it does is go around and around and around.

And at a certain point,

We start to see that our identity has derived from these thoughts and their pursuit of some sensation in order to make me feel that.

At some point,

I realize I'm just going around and around and around.

Every conversation with people,

It's always about the past.

And you start to realize that just as a child is meant to outgrow the merry-go-round,

So are you and I intended to outgrow this world.

Because this world in passing time,

It's quite deep,

It's another topic,

It is a merry-go-round.

It just repeats itself.

Every time,

Just repeats itself.

You're willing to step back and see it.

You may be older,

Seemingly having different experiences when you go to dinner,

But it's same thoughts,

Same judgments,

Same desires.

Only as you get older,

They're harder to satisfy.

More desperation,

More frustration,

Round and around.

At a certain point,

A person realizes,

You know,

If this world had the fountain of youth in it,

As I've been deceived to believe that every time I plan a new trip,

Every time I have a new relationship with somebody,

Every time I go to rest,

I think about the pleasure of some food,

That every last one of those is just a split-second journey to what we would call the fountain of youth that dries up the moment we get there.

And this isn't negative,

It's just a fact.

How can a fact of life be negative?

And it is a fact of life that at a certain point we have to realize that we keep going around and around and around,

And then realize that just as the child outgrows the attraction to some rides on the amusement park,

We are intended to outgrow the attraction we have to these old reactions that keep telling us where to go to find a new life.

Because they don't know.

Nothing in that consciousness knows.

It's a big picture,

But this world,

Literally this planet,

Is a mustard seed.

And the world is as much a seed as you and I are a seed as well.

Something always coming up from within to without,

Trying to unfold,

Trying to increase the sphere in which these impressions can come in so that more self-awareness and self-knowledge can be integrated into this consciousness so that it can realize itself as the world it sees,

So that it understands the divine kingdom,

The truth that one seeks that sets one free is not outside of us,

But it will remain outside of us as long as this consciousness does what it does,

Which is divide the world up into experiences,

Reactions it wants,

And experiences and reactions it doesn't want.

Because that's where we are.

Can you not see how quick we are?

You get up in the morning,

And it's just so mechanical,

You get up in the morning and before you open your eyes,

Something saying,

I'm not really crazy about today.

I know what,

I'm not that interested today.

Now why would I get up and not want to get up unless something in me is telling me this is going to be your experience?

Because it doesn't,

That's exactly what it does.

You see someone walking down the hall towards you,

You're at the office.

You pick up the news,

You turn on the news and as soon as it starts,

Something says,

This is going to be your experience.

Now some of these experiences we want to keep having because they reincarnate a certain set of reactions that really make us feel alive.

I'm angry,

I'm frustrated,

I'm this,

I'm that,

You know.

And then because the way the world is constituted,

You will find some way,

Some group,

Some path that you can find that will go ahead and accentuate or exacerbate these sensations that you were drawn into,

Taking that reaction to be you.

No,

That reaction is not you and neither is the self that is created in the moment when that reaction rises up and says,

Let's go on this ride.

You're the whole park,

The whole world and worlds beyond.

When we've fallen into a place where rather than discover the truth of ourselves,

We would rather enter into a kind of unconscious conspiracy with the parts of us that don't want ever to be uncomfortable,

That don't want to see or deal with anything that seems to be an unseemly character in ourselves,

That's so quick to judge everyone and everything outside of us for what it stirs within us that we never get the opportunity to realize we can't have that reaction to whatever that quality or character is in the world around us unless there's a corresponding part in ourselves.

And when we deny and judge that corresponding part,

That's the same as saying I'm never going to forgive anyone or anything that makes me negative.

Believing that somehow or other the negative experience of that person or problem is because of that condition outside of you and it's not.

It's all within us and it is our task.

Much like that kid,

Let's go back to Disneyland for a split second or that nature park.

Mom says,

Okay,

Let's go.

Kid goes,

No,

I don't want to go.

We have to go one more ride.

One more ice cream bar.

Just a little longer,

Please.

Now,

I know how hard this is to understand,

But that child is really saying,

No,

Mom,

I haven't seen everything yet.

There's more to see and I want to experience all of it.

And the child wants to experience all of it because that's how the child discovers all that's in that child's consciousness.

It develops the child.

The impressions awaken,

Stir the consciousness.

Consciousness learns something about itself,

Discovers something about itself.

Instead of being like that child where basically the child is saying,

I want all that I am given to see.

Now,

The child can't say that to the mother,

Doesn't even understand it.

I want all that I'm given to see.

When you walk into a park,

You go on a nature hike,

You see that night sky,

You see something beautiful in a museum,

You're moved by a bone set.

In that moment,

Do you not want all that you are being given to see in that moment?

Because in that moment of all that you are given to see is the same as all that you are given to be in that moment.

If in truth,

There is all that I'm being given to see,

And I understand the direct relationship between the impression and the awakening of this consciousness,

Isn't all that I'm given to see the same thing as all that I'm given to be?

And if it's true which it is,

Then why would I ever turn away from something that I'm given to see?

I'm given to see a certain selfishness in my own character,

A laziness,

A fear and anger,

A greed.

I'm given to see it.

It's inescapable,

But it is deniable.

That's where most of us live is in this summary denial of any sudden movement of being given something to see,

That foreseeing that in our consciousness,

We have the opportunity to listen,

Please,

Not just to be what we are given to see,

But if we stand in that moment and drink from that fountain of truth,

That in that same second,

All that I'm given to be changes.

Because that character,

That quality that I didn't know was there until you did this or they said that or had to face a moment not knowing what was going to happen,

I don't have a clue.

And there it is.

And for the most part,

What happens to us is our mind starts getting busy.

It starts talking to us,

Self-talk,

Explaining why it is that we can't do this or shouldn't be like that,

Why these people are the way they are.

And every explanation the mind gives itself separates itself from the awareness of the content of itself,

The direct experience of itself.

Every explanation,

Every justification is separation.

But it isn't you separating you from the world,

It is this consciousness separating itself from the possibility of seeing itself and transcending itself.

Because isn't that in the end what this is about?

If I realize,

You know what,

I'm 73 years old,

I better get,

If I haven't outgrown this world then when I leave this body,

I'm going to be clinging and clinging because I think,

No,

There's still more for me to do.

I didn't get to do it all.

I wasted my life.

Who wants that moment?

No one.

And when you understand there isn't a moment to waste because every single moment,

God help us to be present enough to realize it,

Is presenting to us something about the character of our consciousness.

And if I'm willing to receive the revelation of the character of this consciousness,

And in the very moment of that revelation a transformation takes place,

Which it does,

Because I'm no longer in the dark about something that was living in my consciousness,

It's been brought into the light and integrated.

And if that's true,

Then I start,

I need to recognize this condition in myself.

And I got to bring it,

Talk to it in.

Paris,

Are we supposed to allow that child to do the one more thing?

Oh,

Geez,

Paris,

There's no way to go back and explain all this.

You can and they'll put up on the board,

It will be repeated.

I got to go on.

And Paris,

Everybody,

Look,

See,

That's what we want.

We want to know,

We want to know,

Like hopscotch,

Jump here,

Two feet there,

One feet there,

We want to know where to jump and how to land.

That's not life.

Life isn't about knowing what square to jump in and how to land in it.

Life is about recognizing that you're being taken through this journey of revelation,

Of learning about the content of yourself.

And that if we really want to understand and participate in this fountain of truth that holds youth,

That holds beauty,

That holds compassion,

That holds kindness,

Pouring itself out from within to without and then being revealed the other way around in a perfect circle,

Then we have to realize the point of this,

We have to get to the point where instead of explaining to ourselves,

Judging ourselves,

Judging others,

Justifying ourselves,

Talking to ourselves.

Have you ever noticed how you talk to yourself when you get involved and watch,

Oh,

I wish I could turn my camera around,

The buck,

Hi bud,

Hi big dog.

There's a four point buck standing right at my plate glass window looking in to see what,

Yeah,

What,

Oh,

Okay,

Sorry.

So here's the exercise.

Stop explaining,

Start exploring.

Stop explaining,

Stop,

Start exploring.

Don't let something in you that tells you I have to avoid this reaction at all point,

At all costs,

Because it does.

When we have a reaction and we don't like the feeling that we get from the moment,

It's not the moments and the feeling we have isn't of the moment,

The feeling is of ourselves in that moment.

And if I don't explore the feeling of myself in that moment,

Then I'm essentially cutting myself off from the possibility of having the experience of the content that moment produced so that it comes up into the light.

And then the light will do to that consciousness what only the light can do,

Which is to begin to transform it.

We can't transform our own consciousness,

That's ludicrous.

But we can drink from the fountain of truth.

And if we'll do it and do it consistently,

Again,

The exercise,

Stop explaining yourself to yourself and start exploring yourself in that moment,

Regardless what it is that you see.

And then lastly,

Don't,

How do I say,

We have a saying in this,

And don't get off that ride.

You keep the seatbelt fast and tight.

You stay on that ride,

Meaning you stay as the observer of that reaction.

You stay witnessing all that is transpiring within and without at the same time.

And if you'll do that and stay there on that ride,

You will have understood it so thoroughly you'll outgrow that part of your own consciousness.

And then you'll be ready to go on to the next discovery,

To the next revelation that all that you are given to see is secretly all that you're given to be.

And when you're willing to accept all that you're being given to be,

You enter into another order of consciousness that belongs to another kingdom,

Because then there's no fear anymore.

There's no denial,

There's no trying,

Fighting,

Struggling to make people change people,

None of that all goes away.

Because you understand it belongs to a much greater world that you have begun to outgrow.

And then when you stop resisting the world and everyone in it,

They'll have a chance to instead of feeling the pressure of that consciousness trying to escape itself,

They'll feel this invitation ever more clearly.

That's it,

42 minutes gotta go.

Don't explain,

Explore.

Catch the mind.

Be present to it.

Become an explorer of the mind that's afraid not to talk to itself.

Oh,

Will you learn something beautiful and free.

Bye.

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