The most astounding fact
Is the knowledge that
The atoms that comprise life on Earth the atoms that make up the human body are
traceable to the crucibles that
cooked light elements
into heavy elements in their core under
extreme temperatures and pressures these stars
the high mass ones among them went
unstable in their later years
They collapsed and then exploded scattering their
enriched guts across
the galaxy
guts made of carbon nitrogen
oxygen and
All the fundamental ingredients of life itself these ingredients become part of gas clouds
That condense collapse form the next generation of solar systems
Stars with orbiting planets and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself
So that when I look up at the night sky
And I know that yes, we are
part of this universe
We are in this universe
But perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us
When I reflect on that fact I look up many people feel small because they're smaller than the universe is big, but I feel big
Because my atoms came from those stars
That makes me want to grab people in the street and say have you heard this
But it's not simply
It's Carl Sagan aside. We you know, we are star stuff
but
There's a more poetic and I think more accurate way to say it's quite literally true that we are Stardust
in the highest exalted way one can use that phrase and
so I
Feel and I use words I bask in the majesty of the cosmos
Given the
Chemistry of it all and that nuclear physics of it all not only are we're in the universe. The universe is in us
and
I
Don't know
Any deeper spiritual feeling than what that brings upon me
Everyone is a hero in his birth. He has undergone a tremendous
transformation from a little
You might say water creature
Living in a realm of the amniotic fluid and so forth and then coming out becoming an air-breathing
Mammal that ultimately will be self standing and so forth
It's enormous transformation and it is heroic act as a heroic act on the mothers part to bring it about
If you will think of ourselves as coming out of the earth we are the earth we are the consciousness of the earth
these are the eyes of the earth and
This is the voice of the earth
What else?
The ordinary momentum of primate evolution
was
interrupted and for a period of about who knows pick a number somewhere between
15 and 50 thousand years
Ending about ten thousand years ago
we actually
Lived in a kind of paradise
Where human beings were at equilibrium and in balance with the earth?
where men and women
were in balance with each other and
And so I believe that really that was the golden age of humanity that we all
Long for and and have a great
poignancy for that has even been called the
nostalgia for paradise
I believe we have this nostalgia for paradise because we are the victims of a fall
We're going to be talking about the oldest problem
the oldest mystery which man has faced and
What I'm going to say
again
Is the oldest message in human history?
At Birth
The human being is presented with an extraordinarily valuable gift
an instrument
magical and intricate and powerful beyond belief a
Camera with literally billions of lenses. I'm talking of course about the human brain
Neurologists tell us that the brain contains between 10 and 13 billion nerve cells
that any one brain cell can be hooked up with as many as
25,000 other cells so that what you're dealing with is a matrix a network a computer
the number of associations of which
again is stupendous
we're told that the number of possible associations of the human brain at any one second is
larger than the number of atoms in the universe
Neurologists tell us
That the human brain fires off about five thousand million signals a second
There's a tremendous amount of activity going on in the seven inches behind our forehead
There's a tremendous amount of information and a tremendous amount of awareness going on there
Your brain
Is aware of a thousand?
Several thousand activities going on in your kidney at every one second. It's aware of what's going on in your liver
It's processing the most incredible kinds of chemical information
pH content blood levels sugar levels oxygen co2
Your brain is aware of this
Enormous amount of information but
we that is I Timothy Larry and
Each one of you is cut off of course from awareness
of most of these processes
Now the gap between what the
mind is aware of and
the limits of consciousness within our head
is the robbery that I mentioned before
That's your ego holding you in
what I want what I believe what I can do what I
Think I love and all that
When I regard as the aim of my life and so forth. It might be too small
it might be that which pins you down and
If it's simply that of doing what the environment tells us to do it certainly is cleaning you down
You
You as a human being you
Grow out of this physical universe in just exactly the same way that an apple grows off an apple tree
So let's say the tree which grows apples is a tree which apples
using Apple as a verb and a world in which human beings arrive as a world that peoples and
so the existence of people is symptomatic of
the kind of universe we live in
But we have been brought up by reason of our two great myths the ceramic and the fully-automatic
Not to feel that we belong in the world
So our popular speech reflects it we say I came into this world you didn't you came out of it
You're not something that is a result of the big ban on
The end of the process you are still the process
You are the Big Bang the original force of the universe coming on as whoever you are
See when I meet you. I
See not just what you define yourself as mister so-and-so miss song so mrs
So-and-so I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I
Know I'm that too
You and I are all as much
Continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean
the ocean waves and
the universe peoples and
As the wave I wave at you and say you the world is waving at me with you and saying hi. I'm here
But we are consciousness
The way we feel and sense our existence being based on a myth that we are made
That we are parts that we are things. Our our consciousness has been influenced
So that each one of us does not feel that
We feel we have been hypnotized literally in attacks by social convention
Into feeling and sensing that we exist only inside our skins
That we are not the original bang
But just something out on the end of it
What I am
Involves what you are. I don't know who I am. Unless I know who you are
And you don't know who you are unless you know who I am
In other words, we are not separate we define each other. We're all back some fronts to each other
You know you can't for example
Have two sticks you lean two sticks against each other and they stand up because they support each other
Take one away on the other falls
they interdependent and so in exactly that way we and our environment and
All of us and each other are interdependent systems
We know who we are in terms of other people
We all look together
Now this is
again, and again the serious scientific description of
how things happen and
Any good scientist knows
Therefore that what you call the external world is as much you as your own body
Your skin doesn't separate you from the world
It's a bridge through which the external world flows into you and you flow into it. Just
for example as a whirlpool in water
You could say because you have a skin. You have a definite shape. You have a definite form
all right here is what a flow of water and it suddenly it does a whirlpool and
Then it goes on
The Whirlpool is a definite form, but no water stays put in it
The Whirlpool is something the stream is doing and exactly the same way
The whole universe is doing each one of us and I see you today and I recognize you tomorrow
Just as I would recognize a whirlpool in the stream
I'd say oh yes, I've seen that well pool before it's just near so-and-so's house on the end of the river and it's always there
So in the same way when I meet you tomorrow, I recognize you. You're the same. Well pool you were yesterday
But you're moving
the whole world is moving through you all the cosmic rays all the food you're eating a stream of steaks and milk and eggs and
Everything is just flowing right through you when you're wiggling the same way. The world is wiggling the stream is wiggling you
But the problem is you see we haven't been taught to feel that way
The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense
Have not taught us to feel identical with the universe but only parts of it only in it only confronting aliens
And
We are I think quite urgently
in need of coming to feel
that we are the
Eternal universe each one of us
What we need is a sense of unity
Not an idea of unity not an ideology of unity
The primacy of experience is
the centerpiece of being
Not regret not plans
not
Projections but the primacy of the felt experience of the moment if we stick with that
We not only gain a kind of authenticity for ourselves
But we open a space for dialogue
It's a very powerful way of looking at the human mind
The doing mind is what reacts is reacting to what I'm saying thinking about it saying
Oh, that's good or that's rubbish that reaction is called doing
planning
remembering figuring out things
Initiating action decided to walk figure out we're gonna do when you leave here and where you're gonna we're gonna do on the weekend
All that is part of the doing mind
The other part of the mind is just what knows
The passive consciousness just being aware
Feeling the itch on your arm
Feeling the coolness of this room
hearing the sound of the traffic in the distance just
knowing
Now once you know the difference between those two parts of the human mind, it won't take you long to notice
That most of your mental entity
90 over 90 percent of it goes into doing stuff
Reactive
Which means you've hardly got anything left just to know to be aware to feel
Which is why that so many people they can't even see the stars are dice
Even when they're up
They can't see they're just doing too much. They can't feel the wind
They don't know what it rains
The too busy doing something else
They're not alive
And they're also very very tired
Doing far too much being far too little
And what happens if instead of actually thinking you just are just
Feeling
Feeling the wind to feeling the cold feeling the heat
Walking back to the car with your shoes off
feeling the the
Stone or the glass under your feet
You feel alive
but not just feeling alive you are feeding energy into knowing taking away from doing so much and
when you put energy back into the passive awareness knowing
mindfulness
Know tiredness starts to go
You wake up
Because the mental tiredness is the knower with very low energy
Put energy into the awareness and if you're awake
So the realization of being is another word from becoming conscious of yourself as presence
So when you then look at something that's I'm just using as an example the visual perception
I could also use auditory perception I could also use touch
but the predominant sense for humans is
Seeing when you look at something
You can look at something without imposing
Interpretation are you able to do that for just a brief moment just
Are you able to look around this room?
Take it in
and
at the same time as being aware of
What you are taking in the sense perceptions in this room
You are also aware
Let's do it right now. It's not a doing but just have to use words
At the same time as you're taking in the totality of this room visually
And you hear the noise my voice and any other noise?
and at the same time
Are you able to be aware of yourself?
Not yourself as the person
Not yourself as the historical person that has a name into history. No, are you aware of
yourself as the underlying
Presence can you sense that?
Presence that is the so to speak
One could say and use an analogy
It's the canvas on which the sense perception is painted
So I can you be aware of the canvas, which is your presence
As well as be aware of the picture on the canvas
Whereas before you were only aware of the picture on the canvas were identified with the picture
But now you become aware of their underlying
Canvas
And so you become a being that inhabits two worlds the world of form
Yeah, and the formulas
you live from the
From the formless and the formless lives through you and begins to express itself through you and that is the greater
consciousness
There is universal consciousness that uses your brain
To express itself through
uses you
To express it. So you are a focal point of consciousness in this world
the world consciousness universal consciousness every human what looks like a human being
Is a focalization of inner universal consciousness?
So you need to just realize that
There is infinitely more to you than
Who you are as a person
There's one true achievement
and that's
How much consciousness?
expresses itself through
you
at this moment
What is your conscience when you look at another human being and interact with another human being when you speak
How much presence is there?
How much are you aligned to the present moment
being able to accept the essence of things and yet being capable of action, but not
reaction
That's what matters
Realize who you are in your essence and
Honor
And
Be compassionate
With who you are on the level of the person?
Be in the two worlds
The world of
Farm lessness and the world of form
Being and doing
Thinking is also doing
So you have the two dimensions and then you bring them together. That's the ultimate way to live
it means even while you think and
even while you do things and
even while you talk to people
there's always a sense of
underlying presence
And as you sense the awareness in Nuuk you can sense the awareness or the consciousness in the other person
And when you can sense the other person when you when you can perceive the other person not only as a physical body
Not only as a psychological entity
That makes up the person but when you can sense the underlying consciousness in that person
And you can only sense it because you can sense your consciousness and ultimately it's not yours and it's not his or hers
its consciousness
When you can sense another person as consciousness
That means you love them
That's the deeper meaning of love. It's a recognition that
The other person in essence is one with who you are
That's who ultimately
The only
Person of being you ever loved is yourself
And yes, you see yourself everywhere
That is a deeper, meaning of self-love not the egoic self love
but the recognition of the other as yourself
And not only the other human can also look at a dog and recognize
When you look into the eyes of a dog you recognize
The consciousness of the dog behind looking looking through those eyes
Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness
Nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being
It is clear now that a historically irreversible process has started
and
that was the
Deeper part of the shift that happened then which I think is the most fundamental shift
Which was the shift in our perception of reality?
That we what happened to us was what I think Einstein did to Newton
It went from treating a reality as absolute to seeing that all realities are relative and the minute you do that
Social institutions are up for grabs
That changes the whole ballgame right there
and
This is a moment when changing from absolute reality to relative reality is a tremendous opportunity for growth
Now it's up to each individual one of us the way Gandhi said my life is my message
Reality is multiple and plural and very much a function of
Our own internal attitudes our own internal
intentions
Motives and perceptions and belief systems that we bring to it
So it's appropriate for us to adopt an attitude of humility to learn from those peoples that have preserved
Ways of life in which nature animals plants are treated with respect
It's appropriate for us to be in an attitude of respect and humility towards nature
itself for us to walk in the woods for us to really think about
What kind of food we eat and how we eat the food and what we do?
With the animals that we farm and that we heard and that we have domesticated for our own purposes
a
Native American elder I think put a wonderfully when he said that we did not inherit our
environments from our ancestors
We borrow it from our descendants and I think that there's a lot of truth to that
You
Mankind has not evolved because every time we have a dispute
what we do in that dispute is
when someone has hatred or anger or any of these slower and lower energies is
that we respond with the same energy of hatred and anger and
What we do is we create a counter force and that counter force weakens everyone in its energy field
Just by being in the presence of someone who radiates out this kind of love you alter it and change it
And here's what mother Teresa said she said people are often unreasonable illogical and self-centered
forgive them anyway
If you are kind she said people may accuse you of selfish
ulterior motives
Be kind
Anyway, if you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies
succeed
Anyway, if you are honest and frank people may cheat you be honest and frank
anyway
What you spend years building?
Someone may destroy overnight
build
Anyway, if you find serenity and happiness they may be jealous
Be happy
anyway
The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow
Do good
anyway
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough
Give the world the best you have
anyway, you see
She said in the final analysis, it's all between you and God
It was never between you and them
anyway
If you can walk alone you walk alone
You want party going with you?
You walk with the party that you choice
You want to get there quick you walk along you
Want to go there having picnic on the way slowly?
You go with people
Choice is yours, but the important thing is whatever the hell you're doing. There's only one goal
So if you have set this up, then all the events of life. Everything is beneficial
You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future
You have to trust in something
Your gut destiny life karma, whatever
because believing that the dots will connect down the road will
Give you the confidence to follow your heart. Even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference
You've got to find what you love and that is this true for work as it is for your lovers
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life
And the only way to be truly satisfied
is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do if
You haven't found it yet. Keep looking and don't settle as with all matters of the heart
You'll know when you find it and like any great relationship. It just gets better and better as the years roll on
so keep looking don't settle
Death is the destination
we all share no one has ever escaped it and
That is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life
Its life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new right now. The new is you
But some day not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away
Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true
Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life
Don't be trapped by Dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking
don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice and most
Important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become
Everything else is secondary
If you're going to try go all the way
otherwise
Don't even start
If you are going to try go all the way
This could mean losing girlfriends
wives
relatives
jobs, and maybe your mind
Go all the way it could mean not eating for three or four days
It could mean freezing on a park bench
It could mean jail it could mean division
mockery isolation
Isolation is the gift all the others are a test of your endurance
Of how much you really want to do it?
And you'll give it
Despite rejection and the worst odds and it will be better than anything else you can imagine
If you're going to try go all the way
There is no other feeling like that
You will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire
Do it
Do it
Do it
Do it
all the way
war the way
You will ride life straight to perfect - laughter
It's the only good fight there is
Follow your bliss I'll be fine where it is and don't be afraid to follow it
You
McLuhan had an idea of what he called the global village and the global village is coming
to be
What I see happening and it was touched upon by others here is this intensification of local
identification by Oh
Regionalism awareness of your immediate place and then no hierarchical structure or identification
Until you reach the planetary level
I
Live in Sonoma County and I am a citizen of Earth
You know history history is a psychedelic experience it's
It's the collective
unfolding of the dream of our species in space and time and
We are at the apex. This is the peak. This is the second hour of the trip
We're going over the top
We have not even to risk the adventure alone for the heroes of all time have gone before us
The labyrinth is thoroughly known
We have only to follow the thread of the hero path
And where we had thought to find an abomination we shall find a God
Where we had thought to slay another we shall slay ourselves
Where we had thought to travel outward we should come to the center of our own existence
And where we had thought to be alone we shall be with all the world
You
You
