How the Peace of Being Persists Beneath Difficult Feelings

Hi Robert. I'm William from Geneva. >> Nice to see you again. >> Nice to see you too. Um when I experience um you could say pure being unqu I know that it's unqualified and ever peaceful ever present and then thought comes up and it says something like um that was nice or you know, that's what I was looking for these last few days. Finally got there. Um, so I get what I sense is that I get out of that state of pure being and I'm back in kind of the mind, right? And so when I'm, you could say, identified with those thoughts that come up, I view the experience of being as just a state of mind as if it's yeah, just a state of mind. Like um anxiety would be one state of mind and and just pure joy would be another. It's like I I I I can't be sure when I'm experiencing something objective that it's that the piece of my being is actually still there in the background. How could I know that for sure >> if I'm not experiencing it? >> Because William, at any moment of your experience, you can just take one step back to your being. Just the very fact that you say um you think well I'm not experiencing the peace of my being because I am lonely that the feeling of loneliness has obscured your being and you're not sure then I think this is what you're saying you're not sure then that your being is present and inherently peaceful but you say I'm not experiencing the peace of my being because I am lonely right there in the statement I am lonely you have the I am qualified by the loneliness all you need to do is take the statement I am and ask yourself what what do I mean by I am what is this I am that is temporarily qualified by the loneliness and right there you go to your being >> yeah I get that but the thing is see I I guess it's language but I go to my being and it seems like that's also in time and that's if it's in time then it it could be also just a state of mind you know I I have this doubt like it's just when I'm there I know >> if it was true that that your being was a state of mind which which therefore starts and stops if if that statement was true in order to verify the statement of that experience you would have to ask yourself the question okay I need to find an experience in which my being is absent If I can find that experience, it would be legitimate to say that my being is a state of mind. Because for instance, you can't always find the feeling of loneliness. Like now I trust you're not feeling lonely. The feeling of loneliness is not present. So you can be certain because of that that loneliness is a state of mind. It's not present now and it will be present at some time in the future and by definition it will disappear. You know that. Why? Because it is not present. Now, now if you believe your being is a state of mind, you have to find an experience in which your being is absent, then you can say like loneliness, my being is not present now and it will be present in 2 minutes time. Therefore, it's a state of mind. >> No, I get that being is ever present, but it's more the it's it's inherent qualities. when I'm not experiencing them, I don't know that like the inherent qualities of being is peace joy happiness all that. >> You don't know that the inherent quality of being is peace. >> Is that is that what you're saying? >> I'm not sure because if I'm experiencing it, >> that's good. Okay. Tell us about you're having the experience of being now. You're aware of being now. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Tell us about it >> based only on your current direct experience of being. >> Well, now let's say I'm a bit anxious. >> No, no, no, no. I don't want to know about your I don't want to know what you're feeling. I want to know about the experience of being because you the question was I'm not sure that peace is inherent an inherent quality of my being. So that's the question I want to address. So tell us now about the experience of being. Don't tell us about your anxiety. I could say that I am. Yes. Good. So tell us about the experience that enables you to say with certainty I am. A >> sense of presence. >> Yes. Tell us about that presence. >> It's present. >> Perfect. Tell us. Tell us what are its qualities. You are experiencing it. So you are in a good position to tell us about [clears throat] its qualities. >> I want to tell you it's a bit veiled by something, but I know you don't want to hear that. >> I don't want to hear that. You're quite right. Don't tell me that. >> But it's still it's that that thought comes up. >> No, but now you're telling me about your thoughts. I don't want to know about your thoughts. I don't want to know about what veils being. I want to know about the experience of being. You are now having the experience of being. Yes. >> Yeah. >> You can say from your experience I am. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Tell us about the experience of being. It's unqualified by experience. >> Yeah, you're quite right. It's it's unqualified and therefore strictly speaking, we shouldn't say anything about it. But I want you to do the best you can with language to try to just imagine it's not possible but imagine that somebody didn't know what you were talking about about being. Someone had never it's not possible but someone had never experienced being and you're trying to use these rather clumsy symbols words to not describe but evoke in them what you're talking about. So just do your best. You're right. You can't really say anything about it, but do your best. Try to find words that describe the quality of just being. It's quite peaceful. >> You said it. I didn't say it. It's it's it's quite peaceful. You mean it's a little bit agitated and or is it just totally peace? Come on. I want to hear you say it. It's it's Do you mean it's quite peaceful? It's Is there any agitation in it whatsoever? Don't go into your feelings. Don't >> No. You seem so reluctant to say it, William. You think I'm not asking my question right? >> No, I think you are asking your question right. You're just reluctant to admit that it is actually your experience that peace is the inherent quality of your being and that that is available to you 24/7. You just don't want to admit it. Okay. It just seems okay. Yeah. Sometimes I go from a feeling to being and I I feel like it's it's a back and forth. So I can't really see that. >> But that that's true of course because you any feeling of agitation or sorrow is totally permeated by being when we say I am lonely. The I am pure being is is permeated by the feeling of loneliness. So you you it's difficult to separate them out. It's like like when the movie is appearing on the screen, the screen is completely saturated with the color of the movie. >> Exactly. >> So it's it's difficult to distinguish them. So that that's why I keep that's why I push you a little bit and say, "No, don't tell us about your thoughts. Don't tell us about your feelings. Just tell us about the pure experience that enables you to say I am." Pure experience of being. And if you go there and I could see you you were you were taking time you you were taking time to go there. If you just go to the simple experience of being it's always peaceful there and it's always accessible >> always. >> Even when it seems like it's not. >> Yes >> it is. Do do you not say if you were to describe your any moment of your experience any take any time of the day imagine someone here would come up to you and say oh hi William how are you feeling today what would you respond I'm feeling great I'm lonely I'm sad I'm happy I'm I'm hungry I'm tired I Always always always I am qualified by a thought, a feeling, an activity or a relationship. But always there at the heart of your response will be the formulation I am. I am plus some temporary state or feeling. So yet the I am is to answer your question. Yes, the I am is always there and your language betrays it. So when next time somebody don't wait for somebody to ask you but next you can ask yourself whatever you're feeling you you can do this with yourself you can say William how are you feeling and then respond but don't let yourself get further than the I am just say I am and then pause don't add anything to it the I am is your primary experience sorrow loneliness hunger tiredness those are secondary aspects of your experience. But the primary aspect of every single experience is I am and this is conveyed in in in common parlance. I am having a conversation. I am hearing. I am hungry. I am lonely. Always I am. The I am is always shining at the heart of your experience. It's always I am deeply depressed. Your inherently peaceful being is shining at the heart of your depression. Depression is temporarily coloring your being with a with a dark mood, but your being is shining at the heart of that experience always. So say if a thought like that comes up again trying to interpret you know the whatever just go back to being not not try anything. What would you recommend? >> Yes. Just always take the the I am aspect of your experience. Whatever you're experiencing I am thinking. I am walking. I am talking. I am lonely. There's always that that there has to be something there that is qualified by a state of mind, a feeling, a a relationship, an activity. There has to be something. A a movie cannot appear on nothing. There has to be something there to be qualified by the movie. If there was no screen there, the movie couldn't exist. There has to be something for the screen for the movie to to arise on. Something to be colored by the movie. If there was no screen there, what would be colored by the movie? If your being was not present, what would be conditioned by experience? O on what would the sadness sit? Every experience needs a medium. Just like every movie needs a medium, every novel needs a page. Every cloud needs a sky. Every every experience needs a medium to appear on. And that medium must be inherently free of its subsequent appearance. The screen has to be free of all movies so that a particular movie can appear on it. The sky must be empty of clouds so that clouds can appear in it. Well, whatever the medium on which our experience or in which our experience appears must itself be empty of all experience. Otherwise, there wouldn't be room for experience within it. So, what is the medium in which or on which your feelings appear, whatever that is, must be inherently free of all the qualities that characterize your feelings. that that medium is always there in experience. It wouldn't be possible to have an experience without the medium within which experience arises. So by definition your being or the fact of being aware is always present either qualified by an experience or all alone but but it's always in the same condition like there's always the screen either qualified by the movie or not but the screen is always the same. It's never stained. It it allows the movie. It's the context for the movie, but it's never it allows all the colors of the movie, but it's never stained by any particular color. It never becomes green or blue or red. It remains transparent. And it's precisely because it's transparent that it can temporarily assume the colors are green and blue and red. It's the same with the medium within which your experience appears, which is yourself. Because it's empty of all content, because it has no color or form of its own. For that reason, all possible experiences are are all experiences are possible within it. It is on account of your emptiness that the fullness of experience can arise in you. So yes, in answer to your question, your being is always always always present and always available. And be because it's always available, its inherent qualities are always invaluable. You couldn't have it. You couldn't have your being present without its inherent qualities because then those qualities wouldn't be inherent. If they're inherent, it means that whenever you have being, you have its qualities. So yes, the inherently peace, your inherently peaceful being is always present, always accessible, and it's so simple to go there. It's just one small step back from the content of your experience. [clears throat] It's that simple. Thank you very much. It's remarkable that you can make its hope, dear. Thank you.