(chiming) - That is the greatest,
the most amazing mystery that the universe is not only conscious, but becoming more conscious, the universe is awakening. Where it all goes, we
couldn't possibly understand. It goes to something vast. It's like as if a grain of sand wanting
to understand the earth or the universe. You can't understand, you
can get glimpses of it when you step out of thinking, you can get glimpses of
the vastness of it all that's unfolding that we
are part of that vastness. We are like a spark in the
awakening consciousness that appears briefly. Every human, you could look at every human as a spark of consciousness that briefly manifests out
of that one consciousness. It comes out and then it brings
back what it has learned. Not the details, but the
essence of what it has learned in this incarnation. So the universe, every human life on this
planet is that spark coming in, the consciousness coming. So it comes in. That was your life. (audience laughing) From a more universal perspective, human life is very short. And if you could look at it
from a higher perspective, a more universal perspective, you would see this planet and you would see
continuously these sparks, billions of sparks lighting up and disappearing all over the planet. Every lighting up is one life. And there's the one underneath it all, there's a one coming
again and again and again. And then it learns. It comes out, it learns. What an amazing process. And you are part of that, but it is liberating to know that because it frees you from the delusion that all that matters is
your little personal life. (audience laughing) And all the problems that
fill up your personal life, a few years from now,
nobody will remember. Just a few years. And I always, I like to
look at old movie scenes from cities where all these people are running around the
city in 1903 or 1910 or, and they're all gone now. And I look at this, we had a retreat last week and
I showed one of those clips, people running around the city in 1900, hundreds of people and now where are they? Nobody remembers their names even. And every life was on the
personal it was so important. So if you get with a
transcendent dimension, it gives you a true perspective of how important the
personal dimension is. Yes, you look after it, yes, you honor it. You clean it, you make it better, but this, it's relatively
tenuous and very fleeting. And so a more important question than whether you have
achieved so-called success on the level of form, if you have fine, be happy, but is it going to last? Probably not, but that's okay. Either that $50 million
are going to leave you or you're going to leave them. (audience laughing) So a more important question is, are you awakening? Are you awake now? So the greatest achievement, my greatest achievement in life, a wonderful achievement is, not that these books
have come through me but I'm not burdened by thinking anymore. And in fact, I don't have
to think if I don't want to. I just go. (audience laughing) And it's all liberating because
you are free of the person. I can look at and take everything in, whether it's a city or nature, and it's beautiful and you
don't have to comment on it. I could comment, but I don't have to. You just you're there as the awareness and there's a sense perceptions, and there's a depth to everything. And here we come back to being
with another human being. When you're only meeting
another human being on the conceptual level, you're not really meeting them at all. You're only ever seeing the
conditioning of your mind reflected in the other. So there's no true meeting, there's no true empathy. You cannot have this outflow
of benevolence or goodwill, loving kindness, feeling a connectedness, because you cannot sense who
you are beyond the person therefore you can only
react to the other person on the level of the person. But if you are connected, then you can look at another human being and have in the background
of your perception, that spaciousness. And then you look at another and you can sense beyond their personality there is a conscious being, and that consciousness is
one with your consciousness. And when you realize that that
consciousness in the other, that you can sense in the other, beyond their personality, which may or may not be pleasant, you can sense the deeper
dimension of their being and that changes the way in which you interact with other human beings. That brings only that state of
consciousness of spaciousness can bring in love. That is where love arises. Not the love that says come to me. Don't you ever leave me. I love you, I love you so much. (audience laughing) You better remember that. (audience laughing) No, the true, the loving kindness, I think that's a good expression. The Dalai Lama said, my religion is, he didn't say my religion is Buddhism, he said my religion is kindness. So what he's talking about is ultimately a state of consciousness because it's only kindness, this true loving kindness
towards another human can only arise out of that transcendent state of consciousness, where you're able to be conscious, but you are no longer controlled, burdened by, I can almost say possessed
by the thinking mind. You can then, the wonderful thing that happens then is the consciousness
that comes through you can actually flow into your thinking mind and use it for deeper purposes to bring more consciousness to
this planet in whatever way. It can use your form, your form identity and use it
to bring more consciousness. It show through an activity, through making something, through human relationship in many ways in which consciousness
can come into this world through you. And that's the beauty. And that now becomes
the purpose of your life is to express consciousness in this world. And so there may be one or two of you who look back on your life and you say, I've achieved so much. Maybe I don't know if
you would even be here. If you were totally identified
with your achievements, you might be somewhere else, up in the penthouse of your tower. (audience laughing) But let's say everything
you ever did failed. (audience laughing) Or it might be as somebody told me, he said in a kind of
half proud and half sad, he said I've never failed at anything because I've never tried anything. Okay. So let's say you failed
at everything you tried, you have your business ideas
and the business failed. And then you had your first marriage and the first marriage failed, and you had your second marriage, the second marriage failed, and then you finally made some money and then you lost it all. And then you went ahead
to experience bankruptcy, and then they put you in prison. (audience laughing) And then they let you out and now you're here. (audience laughing) And then you sit here and you can go, this total failure of my life, so if I look at all these people, they're all successes, great successes. They're all comfortable, they're doing well, they're spiritual and here I am. You can go that way or you can go and you can sense an
alertness in the background and a spaciousness and a presence that transcends the unhappy person. And so all your failures have taken you to this moment of awakening and you realize that in essence, you are consciousness. (water splashing)
