The New Now

I like to start like this lately. Years ago, if you told me I'd be starting like this, I would have... Remember, it's a nice way to say hi, and it's a way of extending love. It's nice, it's nice. It's not cult behavior. Not yet.

So thank you for coming tonight. Thank you for coming to the crib. This is the last crib, you know. I didn't think I was going to start by saying that. But man, it's been a good ride.

But as with all rides, you keep riding, it's not over. It's jumped us into the next spot. So there's a couple things in addition to that. Mostly I'm going to... It's like there's a mindset that I believed in for pretty much forever, which has been going through this... an update. I'm going to try and talk about that.

You got to sort of bear with me a little bit on it. I haven't talked about this before. I'm still in update mode. But partly what's fun about it for me is being put on the spot in a moment that I value highly with people that I value highly in a profession that I value highly. I've been teaching yoga for 42 years now, 41 years.

And I feel like I'm a better learner than ever. And the update is happening. And it's sort of like confusing and clarifying. It's a little slippery. It may not seem like such a big deal at first, but for me it's feeling like huge.

So the idea I grew up with was that we are spiritual... Did it just happen right then? Just kidding. The perspective I grew up with was that we are spiritual persons, however you want to put it, in temporary bodies. That we are eternal, spiritual personalities. I'm sort of hesitating on the word personalities right now, but you get the idea.

Spiritual types. But in a temporary body, this perspective needs to be updated. And like the update, and again, I'm still just groping for words with all of this, but like the update is the essence of the shift from a three-dimensional perspective or understanding of life to a fourth-dimensional understanding of life. Did it happen just now? In easy words, you're not a body being aware.

You are that which is aware of the body. You're not a body being aware, you're that which is aware of the body. You will always have a body, always is sort of the point, and the body is the visibility and the tangibility of your spiritual essence. But you as a conscious being are not conscious because of the body. You're not a body being aware.

You are a conscious being that looks like something that's rendered visible. Oh man, is it happening now. It is interesting. And again, I don't want to ruin your evening by blanking out. But it's interesting to have this happening.

You're not conscious because of your body, you are that which is aware of your body. That's the theme that I'm going to get into in a second. But first, it's sort of important to know that what yoga is, and this is a yoga conference. I've been very interested in yoga for a long time. Yoga is essentially, it's the inquiry into truth.

That's sort of what it is. It's the inquiry into truth. You find yourself here, somehow. Next thing you know, you got to pee. Next thing you know, you're hungry.

Next thing you know, you're sleepy. Next thing you know, you got to pee again, then you're tired. And you find yourself in the middle of this movement of life, and it's sort of like, what's going on? What's happening? That's the beginning of the inquiry into truth.

What is the truth here, really? Yoga is the inquiry into the predicament that we find ourselves in. If yoga is the inquiry into the predicament that we find ourselves in, then the most important question that you should be digging with is, what is the truth here, really? What is the truth here, really, really, really? I call that the practice of the conscious pause.

In my mind, that little sentence and the inquiry into truth is the main practice that you should be involved with. And of course, in miracles, they talk about it as the holy instant. I've studied the course a lot, and so I've started calling it the holy instant. You practice the holy instant, you practice the conscious pause, you practice the inquiry into truth by many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many times in the day, you pause and you say, what is the truth here, really? What is the truth here, really?

When you pause and you say, what is the truth here, really? What it does is it puts a comma in your normal commentary. For those few moments, you're not energizing your usual perspective about things. And when you're not energizing your usual perspective about things, there's the chance for new insight to bubble up into your consciousness. The practice is, and do it when it occurs to you, don't think, oh, that's a cool idea.

I'll do it later when I have a good moment. When I've got some quiet time, I'll inquire into what the truth of this moment is. Where it occurs to you is like the exact moment when you should like pause and just wonder, what is the truth here, really? And then you learn to zip it mentally. You learn to think less momentarily.

And when you think less, then there's the space for the insight to start flowing in and you'll find yourself beginning to know stuff that you didn't know you knew about the predicament that you find yourself in. And so the main practice is, what is the truth here, really? And do it a lot. And do it a lot. But do it when it occurs to you.

It's sort of like I've sort of learned that that's the trick. Don't just agree with it and think you'll do it later. You never quite get to the later. If you're ever going to do it, it'll be in the new now that you're in. When it occurs to you, it's the universe tapping you on the shoulder, saying, hey, dude, pause and like tune into the new now.

And so the practice is pause, wonder, what is the truth here, really? And then just sort of listen quietly. Again, when you listen quietly, new knowing flows in. And what that begins to teach you is that there's more going on than you normally think, that your mind is actually connected to the infinity of mind. And the more you do it, the more you start to get the sense that, oh, wow, the infinity of mind that I'm able to listen to is actually my mind.

There is only one infinite mind. Big mind is the only mind. Big mind is my mind. Big mind is everybody's mind. There's only the infinite big mind.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And once you start getting the sense of that, you'll find yourself more and more willing to like put the comma in your commentary. Listen for wisdom. And then give expression to it. So yoga is the inquiry into truth.

What is the truth here really is the main question to be walking around with. I would vote, just memorize those easy little words and like sort of like train yourself to say it a lot. The other thing is love. We know this, we talk about this, but it's like, really, it's about living love to the best of your ability, you know? And yet, you know, what is love?

What is the truth here really? And so like the definition, the working definition that I use that I like for the word love aside from loving things, I love this bowl, I love this smacker, I love these flowers and the pretty girl gaming wherever you are. I love my watch. I love this carpet. I love my dog.

My dog, Bill, is probably the easiest thing for me to love, like for sure. It's nice to have an easy thing to love. And again, part of what I'm learning is where it's easy for you to love, go for it. And so I'll be petting Bella, but I know that I can pet her with more love. I can do it with more conscious affection.

I love her. I have no problem with loving her, but I know I can love her more. And so with things that are easy for you to love, do it more. Pet her with more conscious affection. She gets into it more, I get into it more.

And so I like love, but like do it more and more and more. But the working definition that I like for the word love is that love, and again, I would recommend that you memorize this, I memorize this. Love is the willingness to recognize that which is real about something. And so you look at anything and you say, and you'll be willing to recognize that which is real. When you're willing to recognize that which is real about it, what you're doing is you're doing what I said a moment ago about the practice of the holy instant and the conscious pause.

You're being willing to recognize, when you're being willing to recognize that which is true about something, you are in effect loving the thing. You don't have to get totally gaga about it, but if I just look at the shmacker and be willing to recognize that which is true about it, that's how you practice love, the willingness to recognize that which is real, and sort of understand, if you're not willing to recognize that which is real, what are you doing? You're insisting on an unreal assessment. No wonder you're having a weird experience. And you can count on it that everyone else is doing the same thing.

No wonder it's like looking the way it does. And we're living at a very interesting time on the planet. The world is waking up to unity. The world is waking up to unity. We're not creating the unity.

We're waking up to the fact of the already existing unity. We really are family, have been. We really are brothers and sisters, have been, are, and we're waking up to it. But tribal mentalities are sort of duking it out along the way. And like with the internet and just global communications, the way it's happening, it's just becoming so obvious that, whoa, the whole human family is the human family.

We are brothers and sisters with one another. Now, the interesting thing about being a brother or a sister, we're all brothers and sisters, but you're a brother or a sister with somebody when you have the same parents. And as it turns out, we're all sourced by the same source. And so part of the practice is that when you look at somebody or you look at anything and you wonder, what is the truth here? You'll start seeing the source popping through that person's face.

You'll start to recognize the all, which is looking back at you. The all is being all. We're brothers and sisters because the all is in infinite self-expression. And so it's sort of like we're even more than brothers and sisters. We're actually the source in infinite self-expression.

If you're the source in infinite self-expression, you're not the dweeb you think you are. Other people are not the dweebs they're acting like. And if you're getting tricked by their crummy behavior, you're not helping them wake up to the fact of their true nature. The only thing that you could possibly be is the all in infinite self-expression. The only thing that anyone else could be is the all in infinite self-expression.

If you're not seeing it, you're deluded. And when you have insight into the fact that, oh, actually we're all brothers and sisters, then you'll find yourself being a little more suspicious of the judgments that you make about everybody. Actually, they are the son or daughter of the all. Actually, even him, even the international terrorist is a brother or a sister, needs to be seen as such, needs to be treated as such. We need to start including everybody.

If you don't want enemies, stop defining other people as the enemy. So what is the truth here, really? Now part of the deal is I'm aware of things. I can see my watch, I can see you, I can see the beams. And everything that you see is a thing.

But the awareness that you are is not a thing. You are that which is aware of things. You look down and you see your body and you think, oh, I'm a body being aware. But actually you're the awareness which is aware of the body. You'll always have a body, but you're not a body being aware.

The body is the visibility and the tangibility of your spiritual presence. But you're not a spiritual presence because your body is here. What I'm trying to say is that the update is that you're not in a temporary form. You will always have a body. You will never become bodyless.

You'll never become a disembodied spirit. And the spiritual presence, the visibility and the tangibility of you will always be here and therefore, stop thinking about dropping your old physical body. You're not going to drop your physical body. You're not a physical body. You are the awareness which is aware of your body.

Thinking that you're going to drop your body is like one of the worst things you could do for your health. You are a spiritual presence. Your body is the visibility and tangibility of the spiritual presence that you are. Mind and body are inseparable and therefore the insight is that your body is actually as eternal as you. This is wild.

Practice looking at things, the lamp, the beam, the air and just sort of like get the sense that you're looking at things but you are not a thing. You are the consciousness which is being aware of manifest creation. You are conscious but you're not a body being conscious. The insight is that we are spiritual conscious beings and I can talk about this as much as I'm able to because I've been experiencing it a bit but you're a conscious being with a radiant light body whether you're recognizing it as such yet or not and most of the time I'm not but it's sort of like if you're out in the sea in the fog and you see the lighthouse flash and you have a clarity moment you'll have insight into something and then it fogs over but you've had the insight. You're not going to become bodyless.

This is sort of like the thing that's just getting me. You're never going to become bodyless therefore stop thinking about dropping your body. You're not a body being conscious. You're the spiritual presence that looks like something and the energy that you're made out of is light is love. You can begin to see it glow increasingly and sort of like when you practice looking at things you really get the sense that you are the boundless awareness which is aware of manifest creation and it's like the light of my awareness begins to see the light of your presence which is the definition of Namaste I think.

The light of my awareness sees the light of your presence and the insight is like oh wow that's blinking later on. But you're not a body being aware you'll still have a body but you're not a body being aware you are awareness the awareness which is aware of the body that sort of makes sense. I think where there's really interesting point of realizing that death is a fake you don't really die when you die therefore stop believing in death stop believing in lifetimes lifetimes is what eternal life looks like so long as you still believe in death that's huge because you still believe in death you'll die but because you can't really die you'll be reborn but because you still believe in death you'll die but because you can't really die you'll be reborn and so you do that enough times pretty soon you start to get it oh wow that gunshot wound didn't actually kill me that cancer didn't actually extinguish my existence the word death means the extinguishment of being I had to look it up in the dictionary to just be clear on it death means the extinguishment of being and like there's no such thing as the extinguishment of being which means that and there's been talk about this in many many texts of getting off the wheel of birth and death that's what this means getting off the repetitive cycle of birth and death and birth and death and birth and death we're right at that point whether we know it or not we're right at that point and so I was thinking well then what the then what is like constant effulgent new life home what looks like birth and death from a third dimensional perspective will start looking like just the always new regeneration of itself now the fourth dimension let me just try this the fourth dimension is the way I'm my understanding the fourth dimension is consciousness consciousness is the context in which everything is happening consciousness is not a form consciousness is the infinite the not finite context it's sort of like the sky there's no border or boundary around the sky there's no border or boundary around consciousness consciousness is the not finite context in which everything is happening forms manifest creation is happening within the context of consciousness consciousness is conscious of the forms the ideas that it's having forms are always changing sort of like the weather is always changing but the weather is always changing within the change of the sky the change of the sky of mind of consciousness I'm conscious you're conscious you are that consciousness and again you can practice it in every new little moment you are the boundless awareness which is aware of change again you're not a body being aware you're that which is aware of the body and so like the shift from the third dimensional conscious awareness to the fourth dimensional it's the shift from it's like changing your address from thinking you're a body to the awareness that actually you're the mind that's aware of it all nothing changes dramatically except suddenly everything's different your body doesn't disappear manifest creation doesn't disappear but you suddenly start experiencing it differently feeling about it differently you and I right now are fourth dimensional conscious being with radiant light bodies practice mirror gazing and like look at your form the more you're able to be just clear in the now you'll start to see the glow of your form practice with someone that you like do eye gazing with them do it with someone you like it's easier and like get on the same mind being with them have you ever done that or have you done it lately it's so weird at first their face starts changing you start seeing ugly faces beautiful faces and then it begins to like stabilize out and you start seeing the exact same person that you're seeing but like the density of the form starts becoming more like a hologram to where you really do start to get the sense that forms our ideas in mind and the the forms the ideas in mind that you're observing are being observed by mind and you are that mind that infinite mind just already looks like it's not a huge thing but you are the infinite mind looking out and when you start seeing the glow or the transparency of the forms it's interesting you know that it's you're onto something I started getting the hang of it I don't know I was doing yoga I put a big mirror up in my yoga room because I wanted to check my alignment out and when I practice I go-go-go and then I sit in Lotus for a couple minutes and then I go-go-go and then I sit in Lotus and there I was sitting in Lotus and I had the new mirror up in the yoga room and I just started doing eye gazing with myself and as I got onto the same light beam and sort of like a thought-free but totally attentive manner suddenly the reflection in the mirror started shimmering glow I went whoa fix my glasses run out of the room come back in did it again but what I realized is that either I was beginning to glow more or I was beginning to see the glow that was already there and that's where I'm at with this the glow is already there you are a radiant light form and you can start proving it to yourself everyone is a radiant light form but mostly we're not seeing it mostly people aren't emitting it people aren't making it easy to see some people's easier to see than others but wow if you begin to see the light of the form then you start getting the sense that oh wow maybe really the person is not in a dense physical body that actually the form that's there is the spiritual presence that that's that's there that looks like something anyway just shifting my head about this I think this is cool you're not a body being aware you're that which is aware of the body those little sentences have just been like swimming through my mind for months now they're easy they almost seem irrelevant but it's like you're not a body being aware you're that which is aware of the body whoa and that which is being aware is not a form it's that which is aware of the forms and at first it was like well how could something that's not a form be aware but it's like that's what's happening so anyway I think we're at this point of like we're at the end of the reincarnation cycle is my prediction we're gonna stop dropping bodies it doesn't mean you're gonna be stuck here forever when it's appropriate for you to be somewhere else you would just sit down accelerate dematerialize and teleport and again that sounds wacky at first but increasingly doesn't sound so wacky sounds skillful no cleanup no suffering I think this holds the clue to the end of disease suffering a whole lot of stuff and the trick is just like partly just start being open to it by wondering what is the truth here really and do it a lot and even just look at your hand and like wonder what is the truth here really what's going on here really even when you just look at your hand you get the sense that you're the boundless awareness which is aware of your hand you're not a body being aware of your hand like he's saying this because it's sort of like cool point you're not a body being aware and you're not gonna drop your body it's as though God it's as though manifest creation is the body of God God's not gonna suddenly like wake up and go oh really I'm a bodyless creation would disappear no creation is what formless presence looks like there will always be manifest creation as the self expression of the infinite formless mind you will always have a body as the specific visibility and tangibility of you again once you start having insight into that you'll start being attentive to how much of your thinking is sort of like looking forward to death can't wait till the rides over life's hard what's my body gonna do next and I said this before I said this last year but like the thing to get is that you're not subject to your genetics genetics plays a role in your experience certainly but push genetics to the source of genetics what is the truth here really the source of your genetics your genetic makeup is not based on what your father had or what your grandmother had or what your white person lineage is or your European lineage your real DNA is G.O.D. what you're really susceptible to is whatever the true nature of G.O.D. is therefore stop believing yourself when you think oh I've got this because of my grandmother yeah maybe you're predisposed to that but like try not to buy into the story temporarily long enough to pause wonder what is the truth here really and just like really silent minded about it get the silent minded about it as you can until you started experiencing the fact that wow the all is all the all is what I am in other words you had nothing to do with the fact that you exist that's a big insight you had nothing to do with the fact that you exist you didn't make you the all is being you in specific self-expression therefore whatever the true nature of the all is is what the true nature of you is that's why it starts becoming meaningful when you hear the phrase God is love the first one I heard God is love is always like well cool but what about me what does that have to do with me but as it turns out it has everything to do with you God the all is love and therefore so are you and therefore so are you the truth of what you are is living love whoa and you'll have insight into that and then you go nah and then you'll have insight into that and then you'll go nah but the more you have the insight the more you go well maybe nah maybe maybe maybe and so when you find yourself in the maybe mood like sort of go for it more seriously relax I wonder what is the truth here really and start having insight well I'm not a body being aware I'm that which is aware of it all that which is aware of it all of it all is the all the all looking out at itself from every specific vantage point that's why when you look at other brothers and sisters you start recognizing them you start seeing yourself and other people family because the all is all where's my juice anyway that's what I think it's as well as I can say right now you're not a body being aware you are that which is aware of the body you'll always have a body stop waiting to drop it start defining yourself as the mind which is aware of everything including the body which identifies your specific presence it elevates the fact of embodied existence I think you'll find that when you start to shift into mind identity rather than body identity that you'll actually start feeling healthier and healthier and healthier effortlessly I mean what a trip huh and you're doing something in your mind you do believe certain things you are making certain assessments start wondering more what is the truth here really I think this is true but what is the truth here really again the more you put that little comma in there then what's really true will start dawning on you God is love luckily it's so could have been something else and again that's the fear that it is something else and so you don't really want to know what the truth is I just want to I thought always it was I just want to make it to death and then everything will be okay but then whoa there's no such thing as death there's only the eternal new now therefore circuiting more and more hip to the new now that you're always in with the question what is the truth here really when it occurs to you to say that be willing to say it when it occurs to you again that's the universe tapping you on the shoulder be willing to do it do it for yourself and do it for the team the family even right now you're boundless awareness again just sort of get hip to that and if the all is all if God is all we should be having a lot more fun walking around it starts seeming like Halloween where you see spooky people and scary goblins but you know everyone's as dressed up in a costume start looking through the appearance of everybody's costume it's almost Halloween in it based on the insight that the all is all and that anyone you see anything you see is actually the specific and unique self-expression of the all it's God being that thing there's nothing else it could be as it turns out therefore give it the honor of letting go of what you normally think and be willing to recognize that which is true about it the light of your awareness will start seeing the light of its presence it'll start looking prettier the colors are start getting prettier then you start to see the glow etc and then the things start becoming more transparent whatever okay so maybe peace take it or leave it love to everybody huh love to everybody the willingness to recognize that which is true to everybody okay thanks for coming tonight have a great weekend