From Coping Strategies To Inner Peace (Live Replay #33)

Is it possible rest in peace in life, to move beyond coping with suffering to thriving and inspired living? Important questions. Answered! Open to the resources and power that are unlimited and unchanging. Join Western Mystic Philip on this journey! Including simple, powerful awareness recognition Meditations and answers to key questions such as: What is God? Fear of dissolving the ego identity, non-personal awareness, how does Philip know these things? Group: Nothing Special with Philip Wade.

Transcript

So welcome everybody to tonight's stream from Coping Strategies to the Inner Peace Witches.

And this one,

The inspiration for this one came to me whilst I was away on a break with my wife.

And reflecting on,

You know,

We've all used and probably still do many sort of strategies in life,

What if we really want to experience and express true peace?

We ultimately,

The core message tonight is going to be is about moving beyond our strategy and realising,

Embracing and recognising the peace that's already within us and we're going to go on a journey with that tonight as I tend to try to do on most of my streams,

Take you on a journey.

So you know you may have strategies and so forth using them and these are wrong or right,

Nothing is that from a spiritual self-realisation perspective,

But we may not even realise what some of our strategies are.

When I'm talking about coping strategies we could be talking about anything from,

You know,

A commonly used phrase quite a lot years ago now but I'm sure it's still used here today in the UK,

People say,

Oh you know I've done retail therapy,

You know,

I've gone out to the shops and bought myself some nice things as a kind of way of forgetting about the stressings and strains of life.

It could be anything from that to,

You know,

We might go out and eat too much or drink too much or we might do other things in life and even some of the practices that we might use can also be strategies.

But usually with all these things that are strategy based is they can be short-lived and really what we're looking for is lasting peace,

Lasting joy,

Lasting happiness and the ability to thrive in all situations in life because life as we all know can have a tendency to throw curveballs at us and sometimes these can come very unexpectedly and can really knock us off balance.

And so the kind of key question tonight,

You know,

Is it possible to move beyond these cycles of suffering to thriving and inspired living?

And my short answer to the question is that it is and that's what Self-Realisation is all about.

But we really need to embark on an inner journey to do that and so that's what we're going to do tonight is embark on an inner journey,

Look at some of these things and I'll summarise what that journey is all about.

And really what I want to do is give you some headlines now which I'm going to repeat again at the end because this inner journey,

Because the key thing that people always want to know is the how-to.

You know,

The most common question I get is how do I move beyond these painful emotions,

Issues,

Struggles,

Strives in life and I've done a number of live streams about that already so this is coming at it from a different angle.

Before we go any further I just want to say thank you to Blossom who's already made a donation.

All the donations are appreciated both on herself and Insight Timer because it helps me so you have the kit to do these streams which is fairly considerable and Insight Timer to provide the platform so they're much appreciated so thank you very much for that.

I'm glad to hear that you're learning so much SML and there's many people who are clear to that to be here.

So then I'm going to give you a headline summary about this kind of moving beyond strategies to a lasting peace which I'll repeat at the end and when I do it now it may not mean as much to you but hopefully after we've gone through the stream and I share it again this will make wholly more sense but the how to question really when it comes to self-realisation essentially and lasting peace is about really a few bullet points I'm going to share with you here and you might want to jot these down or whatever.

It's about moving from an outward focus much like my Fabrioptic Lamp here where each one of us is these points of light and we see ourselves as separate from others and our focus is typically outwards into the world and that creates a sense of separation not only from other people but also actually a disconnection from that which is within us the inner infinite awareness or infinite silence or infinite consciousness.

So it's about a movement from looking outward using the Fabrioptic Lamp metaphor to the inner and inward journey and that's what the meditation journey is all about.

It's about looking down the Fabrioptic Filament to recognise the source of being what I call Spheres of Light and then that which even gives birth to that and is the witness to that which I refer to as infinite silence.

So the how to in this Moving Beyond strategies is really all about that.

The second part of it is about recognising and embracing the unchanging awareness that we all have and we'll do an exercise on that in a short while to become to open to that.

Whether you're new to the stream tonight or whether you've attended many streams these exercises and our practices are all about recognising and embracing this awareness and they all ultimately lead to the realisation that you are that.

So that's the second part,

Recognising and embracing the unchanging awareness.

The third part and these are in any particular order and you'll have heard me if you've been on several streams or listened to the audio replays talk a lot about this point.

It's about dissolving what I refer to as the case of mistaken identity.

The case of mistaken identity and that case of mistaken identity in summary is the belief that we're all conditioned into having is that all that you are is this body-mind.

That all that you are is this body-mind and using the fibrotic lamp metaphor again that belief creates a sense of separation from the inner infinite awareness,

The infinite consciousness that we truly are.

So that's point three.

And then finally,

Although we might use many techniques,

Tools and strategies and as I've said already there's nothing wrong or indeed necessarily right about those,

In fact many of them can be very helpful at various stages on our spiritual journey,

Ultimately the realisation of the self,

The inner peace within,

Moves us beyond technique,

Beyond technique,

Beyond strategies,

Beyond tools to awareness.

To awareness and that awareness is the unchanging infinite essence that I refer to as infinite silence.

So that's what the journey of our self-realisation is really about.

It's also what this journey tonight is about and that's the summary and I'm going to give you that again at the end.

If it doesn't make as much sense now hopefully it will make a lot more later.

So the other thing I want to say before I go on to the first exercise is that you know strategies,

They can be beneficial but ultimately when it comes to lasting peace they're limited,

They're limited.

So with that offering that insight there what I'd like to do now is go to our first exercise and as I say some of you may have done this before,

It doesn't really matter how many times you do this,

The true meditative journey is all about repetition and opening to that which is already within and if you consider the amount of conditioning that everybody's gone through it's like an undoing process of that conditioning and that's where repetition in spiritual practice is very important.

What I'd like to invite you to do now is an awareness recognition exercise and what we're going to do is just close our eyes and simply,

Silently,

Just firstly become aware of what's here now.

That may be feelings,

Other physical sensations,

It may be emotions,

It may be the breath,

It may even be thoughts,

And just simply,

Silently,

Invite you to accept everything that's here now without any judgment,

Without any judgment,

It's just simply here being watched,

Being witnessed,

Almost like you're watching a movie from the inside.

All of these phenomena are being witnessed without any judgment.

And you may notice the change of the time,

They may increase or decrease in intensity,

They may completely disappear,

They come and they go,

And if we use emotions as an example,

It may be a few moments ago,

In life,

There was no real sense of emotions,

And then an event happens,

And emotions arise like a wave,

Or they can become intense or strong,

But eventually it might take time,

They pass and they go,

And all phenomena are like that,

Beings,

Thoughts,

Sensations,

They're moving,

Changing,

Shape shifting,

So what is it that sees these changes,

Is able to report them,

What notices the changes,

The movements,

Are you the movements of emotion,

Sensations,

Feelings,

Or are you simply the witness to them,

Are you the movie watcher,

Or the phenomena,

Surely you must be the witness,

The one that sees the changes,

Witnesses them,

The question now comes,

Is this witnessing presence affected in any way by the changing phenomena,

Or is it simply just watch,

Neutrally,

Silently,

Effortlessly,

Have you noticed that if you identify with an emotion,

You get lost in that,

But if you simply allow it to be there,

And watch,

Without judgement,

That it simply passes,

And it will pass more quickly,

So back to our question,

Is the emotion in this example simply an appearance,

The next minute it's not there,

The next minute it's there,

The next minute it's gone,

What saw that,

And is that which saw it affected by it,

Or did it simply just notice the arising of emotion and it's passage,

And even if you can't see that right now,

You will eventually come to see that actually this witnessing presence,

This awareness,

Is unaffected by the appearance of any phenomena,

It just simply,

Silently,

Witnesses and watches,

That's all,

And this presence,

This watcher,

This witness,

Is a fundamental key to what meditation really is,

To what self-realisation is about,

The key to inner peace,

The key to lasting peace,

The key to joy,

The key to being able to thrive and live in an inspired place,

Just this one awareness,

That's always here,

Is within everyone,

Always,

And because it's silent,

It's more often than not simply missed,

Simply missed,

That's all,

And if we can open to recognising and seeing all the phenomena in life,

As appearances on the green screen of consciousness,

Just like the green screen in the movies,

Now we have found the key,

And the key is actually that which we are already,

An unchanging awareness,

An unchanging presence,

I call it infinite silence,

And this is the power within,

This is true meditation,

And it becomes a living meditation,

And we're truly open to recognising it,

And realising we collectively are it,

No matter what happens in life,

This awareness eventually is seen to be untouched,

Unmoved,

Unblemished,

And that you,

We,

All of us,

Are it now and forever,

And this makes the journey so much simpler,

It's this,

And this alone,

That you have been looking for,

And it's already here now,

And you are it,

And like this,

The key to peace is within,

Good,

So if you haven't already done so,

You can just gently open your eyes,

And that's our first exercise,

And actually meditation is alright,

And if anybody wants to share any experiences,

Comments,

Questions on that first exercise,

You can pop those in the comments,

Did you begin to recognise this witnessing presence,

Tears of gratitude says blossom,

You're very welcome blossom,

Did you begin to recognise this silent awareness,

This watcher,

This witness,

Jennifer says I don't really get it,

Don't worry Jennifer I'll comment on that moment momentarily,

But let's just see,

So let me just go on to Jennifer's comments there,

Somebody once asked me a question on my live stream and I get this quite a lot when it comes to meditation and people say they can't meditate,

And particularly when first people open to meditation and first want to try meditation,

One of the first things that they notice is that it's very noisy up here in their head,

Thoughts are going 20 to the dozen,

And at this point lots of people can give up and think that they can't meditate because it's so noisy up here,

It might be the first time that they've really recognised that wow just how much stuff is going on up there,

And it feels like you are your thoughts,

But this single recognition,

That wow goodness me it's noisy up here,

There's so many thoughts,

Things going on,

This one recognition is an indicator that an observation has been made,

Wow the observation being goodness me it's noisy up here.

Now what was it that make that observation?

It's thoughts come and go,

And it's been finally been recognised that it's noisy there,

What is able to report that,

To notice that?

That is awareness,

That is awareness.

Now if you're like most of us have been conditioned to do in life,

To catch what I call the train of thought,

Then you will become identified with thoughts,

And you will get lost on that train,

And that train of thought will take you to many stations and none of them are your truth.

What we're basically opening to recognise here and picking up on Steve's question,

Is that actually all phenomena,

All thoughts are just a phenomena,

A feeling is just a phenomena,

An emotion is also a phenomena,

The breath is a phenomena,

All of those phenomena are like appearances on a movie screen,

And they happen in front of awareness.

So thoughts are not awareness,

Emotions are not awareness,

Feelings are not awareness,

Physical sensations are not awareness.

All of those things I've just pointed out,

I'm sure everybody can see change over time.

So what is it that can see those changes over time?

What is it that can see that?

That's awareness,

And that is true meditation.

So I need to think what type of meditation is this?

You know,

There are people talk about many different types of meditation,

But from a self-realisation perspective,

The recognition of peace within,

There is only one true meditation,

And that's awareness.

That's all.

And that awareness is unchanging.

That is what meditation is.

Recognising,

Realising awareness.

So it doesn't have a specific type,

It's just simply that's what meditation is.

That's what meditation is.

Awareness has no name,

Says the who,

What am I,

And no person.

Indeed,

Awareness does not have a name,

And even the name awareness is just a label we give to this witnessing presence.

And we're going to go on and do another exercise shortly where we explore this question,

Who am I?

And it turns out that this awareness,

As it's come to be realised,

Is not personal.

Is not personal.

So we'll go on to this other exercise shortly.

If anybody else wants to share anything from that,

You can do.

What I'm pointing you towards here is to begin to open to recognising something that the vast majority of us miss,

But that pretty much all our lives,

That there is a presence that is unchanging,

Unmoving,

Untouched and unblemished,

And is completely silent,

And that everything else appears like on a movie screen in front of that.

And that is what meditation is.

That's all that meditation is.

That's all that Self-realisation is.

That's all that enlightenment is.

And the beauty of it is that anything I share about it is that you don't have to believe a single word I say about it,

Because the beauty of Self-realisation is that it's beyond belief.

It simply is realised,

Oh my gosh,

Oh my gosh,

I am that unchanging awareness,

That unchanging presence,

That unchanging witness that is unchanged,

Unmoved and untouched.

And when you can open to that,

That's what's going to make meditation so much easier.

It's what's going to ultimately lead you to a journey of recognising that unchanging presence.

And that unchanging presence within,

It is the perfume of that that is peace,

Love,

Joy,

Gratitude,

Grace.

And that exercise I did there,

Guiding you through that,

Was to begin to open you to recognising that.

And we'll do another way to do that in a few moments.

So what do you think of that?

Only now.

Where does the rest of it go?

The past tomorrow,

Where does awareness go?

I'm not here all of the time.

I'm not even aware all of the time.

Okay,

There's a few misunderstandings there,

Steve,

So let's hope we can unpack that.

Awareness is always present.

Never not present.

And as I've said already,

This is not about believing anything I say,

It's about recognising that which is already here.

There's never a time,

Never will be a time,

And there never was a time when awareness was not here.

There were plenty of times when it wasn't recognised,

Whether in the past,

Present or future.

But the mere fact that all of these changes can be observed over time means that awareness is recognising them.

So it might be because you believe that all you are is the body-mind,

And everybody has that belief until they don't,

Then you will get these fluctuations of appearing that awareness is not here,

Or that it's gone somewhere.

But awareness never goes anywhere,

Never goes anywhere,

And it's not location specific.

Awareness never goes anywhere.

The mere fact that all of these changes are noticed over time,

One minute there's emotion,

Next minute there's not,

One minute there's stress,

Next minute there's not,

One minute there's maybe thoughts,

Next minute there's a sense of peace.

Only awareness can recognise those changes.

And the only awareness is unaffected by them.

Only awareness is unaffected by them.

So that's a brief explanation.

Alan's reaffirming what I'm saying there.

There's are we the same?

Like is there a them and an us?

At the ultimate level Steve,

We are all infinite awareness,

Infinite consciousness,

Infinite silence.

And that is non-personal.

That infinite awareness,

Using my fibro-optic lamp metaphor,

However,

Expresses itself in infinite variety.

So you as this bloody mind experience of Steve,

Are an expression from that,

But the source of it is all one.

And that's like,

On this metaphor,

Is the battery at the bottom,

The power that drives it all.

And it does that in infinite variety across all of space and time.

And it's that that's recognised and realised.

For further exploration of this,

Watch any number,

Or sorry,

Listen to any number of live stream replays.

There's about 14 or 15 of them that explores this in further depth.

Jennifer says,

I had a time in Silent Patch.

That's great news,

Jennifer.

Embrace that.

Embrace that.

Sue's saying she's having some trouble with the non-personal part,

Like we don't have an identity.

This is a good observation,

Actually,

Sue,

Because we're so hooked up on and conditioned into being this point of light here.

So I am this identity,

Body-mind experience of Sue.

And there's nothing wrong with that,

By the way.

Nothing at all.

In fact,

Actually,

If we said the universe,

Infinite silence,

Infinite consciousness,

Has chosen to express and experience itself as Sue,

That's how important Sue is,

The issue comes is that if you believe that that's what you are,

And that's all that you are,

That creates an inner sense of separation from that which you truly are,

And that belief that you are that then becomes a source of suffering.

And the identity,

Because we're so invested in that for 10,

20,

30,

40,

50,

60 years,

We become so invested in that,

The one thing that ego-mind identity doesn't want to do is let go of its identity,

And the reason it doesn't want to do that is because it sees that as its demise,

And it's invested so much energy in it,

And the question it's asking inside,

Who will I be,

Just this carefully folks,

Who will I be if I let go of this identity?

And the answer to that from a self-realisation perspective is nothing.

No thing.

But this no thing is infinite and eternal.

It's infinite and eternal,

And it is that realisation and that realisation alone that is the source of peace,

Lasting peace,

Lasting joy,

Lasting truth,

Lasting grace,

And as I've said several times already,

You don't need to believe me on that,

It simply becomes to be realised.

And yet within that realisation,

As that flowers,

The body-mind experience of Suh can still be here.

It's just now been recognised that there's more to Suh than had previously been considered possible.

And so when that's realised,

The true expression of Suh,

What Suh is here truly to do,

Which is one,

To realise this,

And then two,

To express this in an unblemished and untouched way,

That pure expression then becomes a living joy,

A living grace,

And a living gift to the world in the form of Suh.

Like this.

Like this.

So hopefully that makes sense to you,

Suh and Steve.

Alan's saying he missed the lamp.

Well I did actually think of you earlier Alan as I switched it on,

And I thought Alan will no doubt mention the lamp,

And there you go.

So I knew that you were going to do that.

Alan is saying identity is a psychological construct and therefore a phenomena.

That's fine,

But what he's pointing at is beyond phenomena.

It's the very fabric of phenomena.

This is a good description that you've given there Alan.

It's a useful summary of what I've been pointing at.

Good.

Oh your silent patch was electronic.

Okay.

Oh I see,

Sorry you just made my sound cut out.

Right,

I understand.

I understand.

Okay never mind.

Never mind.

Never mind.

So what I want to do now is take you onto the next step,

Another way to open to this awareness.

All the pointings I give are about opening to awareness.

And this,

And again some of you,

You may have done this exercise in different forms before,

But as I've said repetition is very very important when it comes to Self Realisation.

So I'm going to invite you shortly to close your eyes again.

I can just see a donation that's coming from Shanti,

So thank you very much for that Shanti.

So let's just close our eyes again.

And like before,

Simply,

Silently,

Just being open to accepting and witnessing all the phenomena that are here.

Just like watching a movie from the inside.

So all those phenomena,

Breath,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Sensations,

Just being watched like an appearance on a screen in front of awareness.

Just watching neutrally,

Silently.

No judgement.

And now asking a question inside.

Who,

I?

Who,

I?

Who,

I?

And just rest with that.

If something comes,

Good.

If nothing comes,

That's also good.

Just watch.

Now asking inside.

Who,

I?

Without memory.

Who,

I?

Without memory.

And just rest with that.

Who,

I?

Without memory.

Does it matter whether something comes or not?

Just stay with this.

And now asking inside.

Who,

I?

Without strategies.

Who,

I?

Without strategies.

And again just resting with that.

And now this question inside.

Who,

I?

Without coping mechanisms.

Who,

I?

Without coping mechanisms.

Good.

So finally now asking inside.

Who,

I?

Without tools or techniques.

Who,

I?

Without tools or techniques.

Who,

I?

Good.

Good.

So,

Whenever the moment is right for you,

Just gently now open your eyes.

Good.

So if anybody wants to share anything from that exercise,

Feel free.

I'm just going to go back to Sue's comment there.

She says,

Thank you for your explanation about the non-personal.

That is so helpful and I understand it a lot better now and have less resistance.

That's a great result for you Sue.

I'm delighted to hear that for you.

It's actually a very important point that I remember coming across that many years ago myself and found it rather peculiar and odd.

And it wasn't really explained particularly why it was that way at the time.

And it was only when I came to the realisation that it became clear.

So it's actually a really fundamentally important question.

And so if that has meant something to you from inside,

That an inner standing emerged,

This is a great step.

It really is.

So I'm glad to hear that.

Steve says,

First I had to figure out who or what was asking the question.

It seemed to come from a different place question.

Something I get lost and opened,

Very vulnerable.

No physical or mental scared.

OK,

This is important what you've shared here Steve.

So,

You know,

Most questions in life,

They really basically are coming from mind,

Identity,

The ego mind.

Always struggling,

Striving,

Reaching,

Wanting to know,

Wanting to be in control.

The purpose of these questions,

Which are basically the essence of spiritual inquiry,

Comes down to really three words.

Who am I?

So whilst there is a sort of mind element within that,

Actually the true source of that exploration of who am I is from awareness itself.

And what you're recognising there with a reference to a different place is that I sense an opening there to that awareness within.

Not that it's a place,

But that's a limitation of language because awareness is everywhere.

But I get what you're driving at.

Now the second part is really quite important also.

Got lost and opened,

Very vulnerable,

No physical or mental.

Now this is very important because as you start to open to awareness,

Because we've been so focused on identity,

All I am is this body-mind experience,

Or Steve in this case.

When you open to awareness,

By now Jennifer,

When you open to awareness,

The identity can suddenly feel like it's been exposed,

And it can therefore feel vulnerable and frightened or scared,

Using Steve's word.

Now this might feel very scary,

And one minute though that fear might not have been there,

And suddenly there's this vulnerability and fear,

And suddenly the identity has been exposed.

Now the good news here Steve is that although there's fear there,

That fear is also a phenomena,

An appearance on the screen of consciousness,

And it can be seen to arise like a wave does in the ocean.

And if you let that fear be there and witness it,

Just watch it and feel it in other words,

Without judging it as good or bad,

And that includes the vulnerability.

There's only one thing that's going to happen,

And that fear will simply dissolve of its own accord through the power of awareness alone.

Now for a full exploration of that process,

Watch my,

Sorry not watch,

Listen to my live stream replay,

Transmuting Fear Into Love.

It's an audio replay all my time,

I'm inside time now.

So the good news for you here Steve,

Although I might not feel like it in the body,

The fact that this vulnerability and fear has arisen,

Is an indication that there's an opening taking place to awareness,

And the identity has now become frightened of that.

If you can trust the awareness,

That which is unchanging,

That fear will dissolve.

And it's important as part of the realisation of the self,

The true self,

Self realisation,

And this journey to inner peace,

That that fear is faced,

Felt and witnessed.

So this is really fundamentally important,

What you've shared there Steve,

And that's important not just for you,

But for everybody.

I hope that makes sense.

Alex got,

Without strategies I'm just forgiveness and allowing.

Good Alex.

And the particularly important word there that stands out for me is the allowing.

Because this awareness,

This infinite awareness,

This infinite consciousness,

This infinite silence,

Is the true allowing that's talked about in spirituality.

It's a total allowing that has no judgement about anything.

And the forgiveness part is that it's not only a forgiveness of self,

But it's a forgiveness of others as well.

And they're actually intertwined.

Intertwined.

So that's fantastic.

Jennifer's probably left us now,

But don't worry Jennifer,

Keep going,

Keep going,

And listen to some of the other live stream replays if you get a chance.

Shanti got,

I got silence,

The first questions,

Then freedom,

Oops sorry that's just scrolled up,

Then freedom and happiness with the last questions without strategies and techniques.

And the key word that stands out for me there in that second part is the freedom.

You see it's not that strategies and techniques are wrong,

Or right for that matter,

They're actually helpful up to a certain point in our journey in life.

But when we truly deepen into what meditation and self-realisation is about,

We must be prepared at some point to move beyond the techniques,

Beyond the strategies and beyond the tools.

And that in itself is a liberation,

A freedom,

A freedom.

So that really stands out for me there.

And that silence you got at the beginning,

That's also very very important.

I just wanted to remind you to share a little story here.

I remember when I began to open to the meditation journey myself 23 years ago,

I think it was now.

And I remember coming across what was probably,

Or possibly the very first,

Is the book where I learned how to meditate,

And in it were a whole host of what we would call these days self-help type strategies.

And I remember religiously going through that and doing all the exercises and so forth in this particular book,

I'd completely committed to it.

But I remember having the thought that goodness me there's a lot of techniques and tools and steps and processes here.

I mean that's a lot to take for people to take on in their lives.

And if you look across many self-help books and things in the self-help world,

There'll be endless strategies,

Tools and techniques.

And they serve a purpose,

They help you along the journey.

But I remember having at the same time a sense within that there had to be a simpler and more powerful and more connected way.

And it was not until several years down the line,

After 14 years of meditation and commitment to this,

That the realisation flowered and it became crystal clear that it was beyond strategies,

Techniques,

Tools and steps.

It's not that the strategies,

Tools and techniques were wrong,

They were like stepping stones,

I call them spiritual stepping stones.

But ultimately for true peace we step beyond all tools,

All techniques,

And we recognise and embrace awareness.

And we recognise and embrace awareness.

And hence the title of the stream tonight.

And Jali says,

Who am I without coping mechanisms?

That's a powerful one for me.

I feel totally different without coping mechanisms.

Just free like a bird in the sky with joy in my heart and songs.

That is a joy to read,

And Jali.

And that really,

In that few sentences you've shared there,

Is really central to the whole message I'm sharing tonight.

Is that whilst the coping mechanisms and strategies are tools and techniques and strategies that we might use that are useful to a certain point,

Eventually as we move beyond them,

This sense of liberation that you're pointing at,

Like a bird in the sky with joy in my heart and songs,

Is that that I'm pointing to.

They're not wrong,

They're just steps along the journey.

So I'm delighted for you,

Anjali,

That you recognise that.

Alan is saying,

Could I upload a meditation with that last technique or upload that part separately too?

Okay,

I'll make a note of that,

Alan.

What I've been doing is putting audio replays of all,

Not all of the live streams,

But most of the live streams,

I've kind of got a backlog of those.

And for certain ones I've been extracting parts of them.

So that could be one as a separate audio there.

What I would say is that it's not a technique.

It might feel like a technique,

But it's actually an awareness exercise.

It's to open you to awareness.

So thank you for that,

I'll make a note of that.

It may therefore stand as a separate meditation that I can extract from the stream.

So thanks for sharing that.

Niko Lambert is saying,

Yes,

I remember an intuitive writing I did,

And what came out was,

It is simple and good,

Also loving awareness,

All in capital letters.

Good,

And you call that,

Obviously that writing that you were doing there,

Whether you recognised it or not at the time,

Was coming from the inner knowing,

The inner awareness.

And it is ultimately profoundly simple,

And it's profoundly simple because it is that which you already are.

And when that's recognised,

That will become self-evident.

What's sitting,

Wow,

Such a feeling of liberation seems still very far away,

But I'm going to try to reach that.

Thank you Philip for all your teachings.

It resonates so much with me.

So very grateful.

I have to go now,

But thank you so much.

Good,

So I'm delighted to hear that,

And I don't know whether you're still here to hear what I've just said,

But thank you for sharing that.

And at some point we'll upload the audio replay of this,

But really any of my audio replays are really all pointing at the same thing,

And so any of them will all come at this recognising and embracing this awareness from a number of different angles.

So let me just have a look at what Steve's saying.

Can I ask you something then?

What is God?

I'm just asking where is G?

I think you mean God.

There doesn't seem to be anything more or less outside or separate of awareness.

Sorry if that's heavy.

Steve,

It's not heavy,

And it's actually an important question,

And various people have asked it over the course of the 34 live streams I've now done on Insight Time App,

And it's come up a few times.

And basically,

We first have to look at this word God,

Because if you were to ask different people in different parts of the world what that word means to them,

It could mean many different things.

Many different things depending upon what environment and situation you've been brought up in.

Not only that,

If you look across human history,

It can change over time what that word God might mean to people.

So,

If that word gets used,

And it does get used sometimes,

And I don't tend to use it very often,

Because it's a loaded word for the reasons I've just described,

It means many different things to many different people.

In the context of Self-realisation,

God is infinite awareness,

Infinite silence,

Infinite consciousness,

Infinite awareness.

And it is realised that we are one with that.

Collectively,

We are one with that.

There's actually an audio replay,

Steve,

Where I actually explore that further,

And it's called A Letter From God.

And as I say,

I don't use the words very often,

But that was Appearing Consciousness One Day,

And it's a meditative reading,

And it's an exploration in a meditative form of reading,

Which takes us through that journey.

So,

Do have a listen to that,

It's on my timeline,

Or inside timeline,

And I think it's about 30 to 40 minutes in total length,

And the question gets answered more fully in the letter.

But then,

Going on to the rest of you,

I'm just asking,

Where is God,

You say,

Also,

And if we equate God,

Universe,

Infinite silence,

Infinite consciousness,

Infinite awareness,

As we're all one and the same,

Then it doesn't have a location.

It is both everywhere and nowhere.

It's always here,

And we collectively are one with that.

And then you go on saying,

There doesn't seem to be anything more or less outside or separate of awareness.

Good observation,

Steve,

Because there is nothing separate from outside of awareness.

Everything,

All the phenomena we experience in life,

And that includes your experience of this body-mind,

Is an appearance in awareness,

And I've used the phrase,

On the green screen of consciousness.

Just like in the movies,

You can project anything onto a green screen,

So everything is an appearance on the green screen of consciousness,

Awareness and consciousness being one.

Makes sense?

So look out for the letter from God.

That will help you further,

Steve.

Yes,

He says,

Yes,

I'll look up for a listen and get calm.

Yeah,

I guess that's some of the vulnerability and fear that's still there,

Steve.

Also,

In saying that you just know,

Just let that be there.

It's not wrong.

It's simply an invitation for awareness to witness it and dissolve.

Look out for my audio replay,

Transmuting Fear Into Love,

To help you with that process.

It's a letter from God,

Blossom by the way,

Not a letter to God,

A letter from God.

Alan says,

In my understanding,

What we culturally understand as God is a conceptualisation of personification of awareness.

Exactly that,

And that point is covered in the letter,

Alan.

One of the parts of the letter uses a term that is often used,

Where in some traditions it talks about as being made in the image and likeness of God.

And what we've done there is personified the infinite.

Whereas what the in the image and likeness actually means is that you too are infinite awareness,

Infinite consciousness,

Infinite silence.

We've got it the wrong way round.

The image and likeness is translated into some bearded man in the sky of personification,

Rather than image and likeness truly meaning we too are infinite consciousness,

Infinite awareness,

Infinite silence.

Thank you,

Nicole Amber,

For reminding everybody the group name supporting the streams is called Nothing Special,

And I've changed the name recently,

Nothing Special with Philip Wade.

Nothing Special with Philip Wade.

I've added my name to it because it was recommended on an email I got from Inside Time out.

There was a comment there from Maria.

Ah,

Lovely to be here,

Philip,

My son Joseph,

Age seven,

Very attuned to God and questions asking how do you know all this?

That's a good question.

How do I know all this?

Well,

There's actually a misunderstanding in the question and it's a common misunderstanding because whilst it appears at the very human level that it's Philip,

This guy sat here on this livestream on Inside Timer that knows this stuff.

In truth,

It isn't Philip that knows.

This is a knowing,

A wisdom,

That arises from this infinite awareness,

This infinite silence,

This infinite consciousness,

And it arises effortlessly,

Without any thought.

And as the nature of that which you truly are is recognised,

Realised and embraced,

Then this wisdom,

This knowing arises.

So let's give you an example of that.

Anybody here will have had an aha moment about even something relatively trivial in life.

Aha,

I've just recognised or realised x whenever x is.

Just realised that.

Now this self-realisation is like that.

When you have an aha moment on a livestream like this or in a meditation or an insight,

A seeing,

A recognition,

A light bulb moment,

There's a sense of I already knew that and the reason you already knew that is because you are that.

So whilst people get called spiritual teachers,

In truth there's no teaching here.

There's only realisation of that which is already known within.

So if,

Like several people have had on the stream tonight,

A wow moment or maybe an aha moment or a sense of stillness or a sense of peace,

All of that has come from within.

This isn't something that you learn.

This isn't something that you learn.

You can only realise it.

And hence the term self-realisation.

That word realisation is very important.

It means it is realised.

You already know inside.

And this self,

Capital S,

Is a non-personal awareness.

So it would be more accurate,

Maria,

To say it is known.

It is not that Philip knows,

It is simply known.

And all that's happening here is because there's a recognition and realisation taken place of this already,

Then the identity,

So to speak,

Is now not front and centre stage.

It's stepped out of the way and the wisdom,

The insight,

The knowing just simply flows like that.

So it becomes known.

Becomes known.

So yeah,

Maria says,

Yes,

Joseph tends to your words very carefully.

He says he understands your words.

That is fantastic,

Maria.

And for somebody who's seven years old,

That is absolutely wonderful.

And that's beautiful because children at that age are fortunate that they haven't gone yet through as much conditioning as somebody who's 57 years old.

And so there's an openness to them,

Within them,

And that inner knowing is already present in the innocence of a child.

So I'm really delighted for Joseph that he can not only understand,

But gets and understands these words.

And that's because he already knows,

Or more accurately,

It is already known inside him.

It is true for all of us.

A big advantage that children have is that they haven't yet gone through as much conditioning.

So I'm delighted that you've shared that news about Joseph and Maria.

That's really beautiful.

What a delight to hear.

What a delight.

Steve is asking a similar question.

Where did I learn this and was I surprised?

Steve,

I didn't learn it,

As I've already pointed out.

In fact,

For those of you who have attended many streams,

You will remember me saying many times,

I'm actually not schooled in any Eastern traditions whatsoever.

The journey was very different and very direct,

And I didn't involve any of the Eastern traditions.

And it was made clear,

By the way,

That that's how it was meant to be,

And how it was to be in the form that you know as Philip.

Self-realisation is not a learning.

It's not a learning.

It's a realisation of that which is already known within.

So it wasn't learned,

It was realised.

It wasn't learnt,

It was realised.

Was I surprised?

Well,

You could say from the perspective of Philip,

It was the greatest surprise in the universe.

Because he had no expectation,

Or in quotes,

Knowledge of any of this stuff,

23 years ago when the meditation journey began.

So yes,

In that sense,

It was a surprise.

It was the greatest,

Oh my gosh moment.

And we're all here for that same,

Oh my gosh moment.

There was a particular moment that I recall as the realisation had flowered,

And I just happened to be watching a video on YouTube,

Where somebody was guiding another person to this.

And there was a dawning realisation that I knew exactly what was going to be said,

How it needed to be said,

And where the person was misunderstanding.

And it was that point that it became crystal clear that it had been fully recognised and realised.

So to Philip,

Yes it was a surprise.

To the universe,

No it wasn't,

Because we are that.

If that makes any sense to you Steve.

Joy says,

Openness and curiosity in all of us.

Yes indeed,

Yes indeed.

The openness is very important.

The curiosity is important.

And openness to that question,

Who am I really?

Who am I?

And I've given you some variations on that.

Time for bed for us,

A little bit late.

Josef wishes goodnight.

Thanks Philip.

Goodnight Josef,

Goodnight Maria,

Thank you for listening.

And I'm delighted to hear that it made so much sense and resonance for Josef.

Fantastic.

Sweet dreams,

Many blessings.

Fantastic news.

OK,

So we're going up to the hour and a half mark,

And what I said I would do at the beginning is repeat some of the bullet points that I said at the beginning to see if they,

To reiterate them again now.

So this time they should perhaps mean a little bit more to you.

So with our question moving from coping strategies to the inner peace which is the how to.

A summary,

A summary is,

It's about moving from an outward focus,

All I am is this body-mind,

To an inward journey down the fibre optic filament,

First recognising pure universal beingness,

See my other,

Other audio replays for that journey,

And then recognising that even that is seen or witnessed.

And in the metaphor that's the power,

The battery,

Which actually is everywhere,

Not just at the bottom here.

So it's about moving from outward focus and strategies and separation to an inward one.

And that's what meditation is about,

That's what self-realisation is about.

That's point one.

Point two,

It's about recognising and embracing the unchanging awareness.

That first exercise that we did about beginning to recognise that awareness.

And recognising,

Once that's been spotted so to speak,

Recognising that it never goes anywhere,

And that you are it,

And embracing that totally.

Point two,

That was recognising and embracing unchanging awareness.

Third point was enquiry into who you really are.

That's the question,

Who am I?

And I added various versions of that after to look at that from different angles.

I started off with who am I,

Who am I without belief,

And then for the purposes of this stream,

I did things about strategies,

Coping mechanisms,

Tools.

But there are many variations of that question across my streams.

The key one is who am I?

So that's the third one.

This links to the fourth point,

Dissolving a case of mistaken identity.

And that's the belief that all I am is this body-night.

The belief that all I am is this body-night.

That belief,

Which is a belief that you are one of these points of light here and that's all you are,

Is the only cause of suffering.

All other causes and beliefs are subsets of that,

And it's also the only block to self-realisation belief in the case of mistaken identity.

And as I've said many times,

You don't need to believe a word I say,

Because when it's realised,

It will become self-evident.

Finally,

Ultimately we must be open to moving beyond technique,

Beyond tools,

Beyond strategies.

It is not that they are wrong,

They are helpful stepping stones on the journey.

Beyond techniques,

Beyond tools,

Beyond strategies,

Beyond coping mechanisms,

Is awareness,

Is awareness.

And it's unchanging,

Unmoving,

Untouched,

Unblemished.

And then what I want to do is recommend,

I've mentioned a few already,

Some follow-up resources for you that are related to this stream.

And you might want to note these down.

These are audio replays already available on Insight Timer,

Full livestream replays.

First one,

Transmuting Fear Into Love.

Second one,

Emotions and Blocks.

I think the subtitle on that one is Pathways to Peace.

Emotions and Blocks.

Next one,

From Triggers to Treasures.

That's from emotional triggers to inner treasures.

From triggers to treasures.

And then finally,

On the streams,

Trust the Heart.

Trust the Heart.

And in addition to that,

There are seven versions of the Infinite Silence Meditation,

Which is a different version of the meditation we've done tonight,

Which go from fully guided 15 minutes to an hour and a half with big silent pauses,

And they go in steps,

And there are several of them.

Let me just have a look at the rest of the comments just to make sure.

Nick Garlan was saying,

I saw spray-painted quotes around that said,

I am God.

I didn't understand until my ego dissolved.

Ego dissolved,

And I was also saying,

Oh,

It's almost laughable moment.

Yeah,

I get what you're saying,

Nick Garlan,

But it's,

You know,

There's that,

There are various versions of that in spiritual traditions.

One that I have by my bed that I sometimes use is,

Be still and know.

Be still and know.

And that will come to the knowing and realisation of this infinite silence.

The peace that will be always here,

No matter what's happening.

And so back to our question,

Is it possible to move beyond suffering to thriving and inspired living?

The answer is yes,

And you are here to realise this.

This is your primary purpose and meaning.

My live audio replay,

Life purpose and meaning.

That's another one to listen to,

Life purpose and meaning.

So that is pretty much it from me.

We've done a couple of different versions of meditations.

Thank you for that comment,

Maureen.

Just thank Maureen,

Say thank you so much for that,

I'm so grateful for what I've received today.

Christine says your life purpose and meaning talk was life changing for me.

I'm delighted to hear that,

Christine,

I'm delighted to hear that.

I just wanted to go back to Sunita's comment.

I thought I'd done an issue from Rick,

Thank you very much for that.

Saying you're very grateful,

I didn't understand all of it.

And Sunita,

That is completely OK.

That is completely OK.

If there's confusion there,

Or lack of understanding,

It is the step before understanding.

So just let that be there.

And one day when the time is right for you,

That inner standing,

That inner knowing,

Will come.

Because it's already there within you.

Also I just wanted to pick up on that because there may be other people in that same boat.

There's lots of thank yous,

And hearts,

And thumbs ups and so forth.

And then to say thank you for sharing your insights and kindness.

Namaste,

Thank you very much.

And I think I saw a donation from you also,

Linda,

Thank you very much for that.

Thank you so much.

For joining us wherever you are in the world,

From Blossom and Cow in the land down under,

Through to all points east,

West,

North and south.

This is Philip Made signing off from the Universal Studio,

North Yorkshire,

England,

With five folks.

Thank you.

Reviews

Really enjoyed this one Philip. Love your verbage of the "innerstanding." 😀🙏🏼🌟

Hi Philip.
Love listening to LIVE replays multiple times.
I'm resting in SILENCE.
Thank you so much again for your guidance and pointings. 🙏😇🙏

Profound experience listening to this one again after a recent post yiu had in the feed just a few days ago 🙏🏼😇

I can thank you enough 🙏✨🌟🙏✨🌟🙏✨🙏.
You just appeared at the right time ✨ because I am ready to wake up 😲.
I already listed to 'live stream 11' on YouTube and 'Transmuting fear into Love' plus more on InsightTimer they are very helpful and I'm going to listen to them and more over and over till I don't need to listen to them anymore ✨🌟✨.

I don't listen to anything else except your recordings because it feels right now and is exactly what I need to hear 🧘🏻‍♂️.
Thank you again 🙏✨✨✨✨✨🙏

Awesome to listen to this again as a replay. Thank you Philip🙏🙏