Consciousness and the Mind October 22, 2006 I'm very interested in, I guess, seamlessness between— Okay, like rather than seeing the separateness, the seamlessness. >>Yeah. >>Of being in the world, but not of the world. >>Yeah. Yeah. It is one of the great paradoxes. It is all one—you know. It is all one because that's how it's made. That's its reality, and we have created this slightly bizarre consciousness that makes us experience that it's not one, and so in a way the mystery, I suppose, is not that it's all one, is what on earth did we do. But I don't think we have time to explore that in too much detail because I think there is an urgency to return to what is fundamental about life and then it works—you know—because it's one. That's why I find it very beautiful seeing the perspective of oneness. A gathering like this is consciousness of oneness coming together. You have the image that you are all individual people coming somewhere in Mill Valley for a gathering, but that's just really a mental concept. There is another perspective that sees this as, in a way, I see it more like a gathering of light cells of oneness for the sake of the whole. And I am fascinated as what is the potential when light cells that carry the consciousness of oneness come together in time and space for the sake of the whole? >>This is much bigger than any individual thing. >>Yeah, I mean, in a way there never is an individual thing. >>Yes. >>That's again a myth that is created by our separatist society. >>Yeah. >>But it's what happens when you—as she said—when you carry the intention because intention is very, very important. Intention is like the seed that creates the acorn that creates the oak, and there are 2 sorts of intention on a very basic level. There is your personal ego intention which is—you know—I want to buy an SUV. All right, or I want fries for dinner or—you know—whatever it is. And then there is the divine intention that is given to your higher self, that comes into your consciousness, all right, and what we are working with here is divine intention because people wouldn't come from personal intention to sit and hear me talk on a Sunday afternoon when you could be—you know— doing all sorts of other things. So there is a divine intention present, and how a divine intention works in the world is again, for me, quite fascinating. Because divine intention carries, to put it very crudely, the intention of the divine. And what is it that the divine wants to do? Again, the only thing I know as a mystic is the divine has plans much bigger than our plans, has vision much bigger than our vision, and also knows how to do things because it's the divine. And I always say it's the best company to work for—you know. You don't get necessarily the fringe benefits you might expect. But it's a kind of long-term investment. And if the world belongs to God, the divine knows how to make things happen. They aren't the way—they aren't according to our plans, and so that's what—and also, again, I repeat this because we have been fed a particular myth which is that if you want to change something, you need a really big organization to do it. You need to get together thousands of people, or if you're lucky, millions of people to change something. But this in the past has never been the case. What created the Renaissance that changed enormous amounts in Western Europe was a guy on a donkey coming from Constantinople to Italy and creating an esoteric group. That's what changed the Renaissance. A gathering of a few artists like Leonardo and Michelangelo into a particular esoteric school. And it's throughout the whole culture, history of humanity. You know—it has been small groups of people coming together that have changed human culture. But we have been fed this myth that you've got to have millions of people signing up to be able to do anything. I'm not quite sure why this myth has caught— because it's not historically accurate, and so to have a small group of people like this that carry a divine intention, to me, is very powerful and quite revolutionary. Then the beauty is that there is this network of small groups of people that can function organically. That belong to the organic structure of the spiritual body of the world. That also interests me, how that is going to work. And please remember it's not— Again we've been conditioned to think that things have to act linearly over a long period of time. But spiritual things happen exponentially. They get accelerated, and that's why I think the internet is a very good example. Because it shows how a particular quality of consciousness, which is what the internet is, and the technology to go with it changed exponentially and is still changing exponentially. So, that's why I'm very fascinated by what happens when, as I say, a group of light cells that carry a divine intention come together, because that's what human beings are, just cells of light. Very beautiful. You'll see them somewhere, very beautiful, yeah. >>I'm one person who did buy a book. >>Thank you. It was "The Light of Oneness" >>Right. >>and the very last page you share a vision. You shared a beautiful one that stayed with me. You say there's a theatre and the curtain is rising >>Yeah. >>and the stage is a stage, but it's not a place. It's a quality. >>Yeah. >>A quality of being, a quality of intimacy >>Yeah. >>and I thought, Wow, something is coming and it is rising and it's a quality >>Yeah >>and so I wanted you to say more about that, because it fascinated me and drew me. But I didn't quite know where that's going or where that came from or what you're thinking underneath that. >>It has to do with a quality of being. It has to do with a certain intimacy. I also associate it with something I wrote recently called "Simple Answers" in which I saw that the way things are changing is that people are coming together in different ways, and it is like the most simple human qualities that we have somehow overlooked in our technological rushing around. Like the simple quality of friendship, of being together that are vitally important to being human and that there are these groups of people forming, and, again, whether the internet is actually part of this. There is, for example, a website of somebody— I think she's called Baghdad Girl. I don't know if she's still around—who had this website about cats and pictures of cats, and apparently people from all over the world sent her pictures of their cats and there's this whole website of all these cat lovers. It is something very, very simple. You see, as far as I can see, when life regenerates itself, it doesn't go for the most complex computer model. It goes back to what is essential, to what is most simple and one of those very, very simple qualities is human friendship which we've kind of overlooked. In this culture people have become strangely very, very isolated. Just knowing ones' neighbors, just—you know—saying— those simple patterns of relationship and through those patterns of relationship —you know—there can be love. There can be companionship. Again we've been conditioned to think we've got to go and sort it out, and we've got to have a plan. This is masculine hierarchical thinking. Somebody knows what's best and they're going to tell other people how to do it. And I really don't think it's like that, and I think there are these deep human qualities that have to do with just caring for each other and caring for the planet and doing things with care and attention that are what's needed to redeem something that's been desecrated. Another quality which I feel has to come back to life is joy. And I've looked at joy very carefully because joy is very different to pleasure. Pleasure is, you get—you know. Like if a good meal gives you pleasure or some nice music gives you pleasure. But joy belongs to life itself. If what you're doing is really close to life, you feel joy in it. It can be doing the dishes. It can be sweeping the yard. It can be—whatever. It doesn't matter what you're doing. If it really belongs to life, is a direct expression of life, you can find joy in it, and if people were given back joy— If you're in a state of joy, you don't need to go and buy stuff you don't need. You just respond to life completely differently. You're in empathy with life. Because life—life is a joyous expression of the divine. You just—you know—you look at the kids outside. I mean they're much closer to it than we are. We've got to think about it. They can live it. And qualities like that, if they're given back to us, if they awaken again within the human experience— I mean, on the most basic level, who wants to fight when you can be friends? I mean even in—if you listen to—because the Iraq war is so much in the consciousness, in the news —you know—but what you really hear from people living in Baghdad is they just want their neighborhoods back so they can have a meal together without being frightened. So their kids can go to school. Human beings don't want a lot. But somehow we've gone off on a tangent, and my sense is that the— the next civilization is not going to be this fantastic technologically advanced— We've kind of done that—you know. Yes, there are going to be technological changes, sure. But that isn't going to be the focus because we've lost the humanity in this road and we need to re-awaken certain very basic human qualities, or they need to be re-awakened. I mean, that's my take on it anyway. >>I have a question about the needing the Earth or needing the spirit of the Earth to help make this change. >>Yeah. >>People used to know how to work with the Earth and it was part of their everyday lives. It was how they got their knowledge, I think. If we're going to do that now, do we need that knowledge? Or do we just need a consciousness that there is a problem and a willingness to be used? >>That is a very deep question which— There were ancient traditions of how to work with the energy of the Earth. Particularly some Shamanic traditions and particularly in Tibet, they worked a lot with the Shamanic tradition and also the Buddhist tradition. They worked a lot with the Earth devas and the energy of the Earth and there were other cultures before. For example, I'm quite convinced that Stonehenge in England was a sacred site that worked with certain Earth energies. You can see how all the ley lines come together at that place and many Christian cathedrals are actually built upon convergence of ley lines, suggesting that even—there was an understanding of how to work with the energies of the Earth, which we apparently have lost now. Those traditions really got lost, and I know some people try to kind of find them again. But there is a cycle of spiritual knowledge. Like a river, it goes underground, it reappears again in a different way in a different place and there are different ways also to work with the Earth energies but my sense is we have to be taught anew and because in those cultures in the past, How did they learn? Because they were taught. Who taught them? The Earth taught them, and there are devas within the Earth that are very powerful and there is also a change. What people don't realize is there is also—just like there are shifts in the archetypal world, there are also changes in the devic world in the energy of the Earth. This is—just because we are so identified with our human predicament. We understand that. The fact that there could also be shifts and changes in the world of the devas, in the world of the Earth energies. For example, there is now a very powerful energy just here in the Bay Area that belongs to the next stage in evolution, and part of my work has been to learn how to be with the deva with the Earth energy that is here and to learn how to work with that and what incantations— If you ever get a chance again to actually listen to the recording of the last event, as I said, what I didn't realize until afterwards that the talk I was apparantely giving you here was actually an ancient evocation of the energy of the Earth. There was under the words. There was certain phrasing that belonged to an ancient evocation of the energy of the Earth and it is—and there are energies in the Earth that are going to be awakened that are needed for the next stage of human evolution. Just as there were energies say in the west part of England that belonged to one time. There were energies in Egypt that belonged to another period of human evolution. And I think that if we are open and receptive, we can learn. Because this is part of the feminine wisdom of listening, of being receptive, of being open, of not being too conditioned about how it should be. There are very powerful energies in the Earth and there are certain people who are being attracted actually to work with them. Who will, in time, be trained how to work with them. How to activate their energy. How to help it to benefit mankind, and we haven't quite got there yet. We're still at the cusp of this new era. But it has traditionally been the—you know—the Earth devas who have selected human beings. Who have trained human beings how to work with them. This is how it has always been. Why should it change? Because wisdom comes from the inner world, and there is also then the whole question which has to do with alchemy which has to do with the light hidden in the darkness, the energy that is working with that. Bringing heaven and Earth together. I was actually very—only recently I have started to read the Emerald Tablet which some of may know is kind of the most ancient alchemical text and I'll just read a little bit and I won't—I'm not an alchemist so I won't— This is one translation. There are different translations of the Emerald Tablet but— "In true certainty and without doubt, whatever is below is like that which is above and whatever is above is like that which is below." "To accomplish the miracles of the one thing, just as all things proceed from one alone by mediation on one alone." "So they are born from this one thing by adaptation." Just listen to this as written. Peter, when was it written, the Emerald Tablet? A long time ago. [Laughter] I'm innocent. What? This is just so similar to what we are talking about now. It says "all things proceed from one alone by mediation on one alone." "So they are born by this one thing by adaptation." "Its father is the sun and its mother is the moon." "The wind has bourne its body. Its nurse is the Earth." "It is the father of every miraculous work in the whole world." "Its power is perfect if it is converted into Earth." "Separate the Earth from fire and the subtle from the gross and with great prudence." "It rises from Earth to heaven and comes down again from heaven to Earth and thus acquires the power of the realities above and the realities below." "In this way you will acquire the glories of the whole world and all darkness will leave you." And if you think of the work we have been doing here, it has been to do with the above and the below. The mystical vision of oneness. That mystical understanding of oneness and bringing that into relationship with the oneness that belongs to the Earth, to the sacred being of the Earth. "That is from Earth to heaven and comes down again from heaven to Earth and thus acquires the power of the realities above and the realities below." The energies of the two worlds. "...and in this way you will acquire the glories of the whole world and all darkness will leave you." "This is the power of all powers." "For it conquers everything subtle and penetrates everything solid." "From thus the little world is created according to the prototype of the great world." From and in this way, marvelous applications are made." That's just part of the Emerald Tablet. But that has to do with the alchemy, the transformative alchemy and the power that is released by that alchemy. This has been a whole mystery esoteric science that has been hidden from humanity. It's been given technological mysteries. But the mystery of working with the Earth energy in that way and working with the light hidden in matter and the power that is released through that has been— this is a tradition that has been kept by a few alchemists over the centuries. This whole heritage that is now beginning to reawaken, and we have— What that could mean, not just on an individual level, but on a global level, we have no understanding because it is—you know—as it says, "This is the power of all powers." We have—that's why I wrote this book "Spiritual Power." To begin—hopefully to remind people there is a whole dimension of power— of spiritual power, whether it belongs to a transcendent divinity that can bring this energy of truth, of love, of this power that belongs to God into the world or also the spiritual power that belongs to the Earth that can change things in ways we can't imagine, and I say this whole aspect of spiritual power has been hidden for the last 2,000 years or more and what it could mean. So there—which has to do with Earth magic and what it could mean if we are given, again, the magic of the world. Are we mature enough to be able to work with it? Are we responsible enough? We are like children. But maybe some of us have grown up enough to be able to be given access to that spiritual power and what that would mean to the whole transformation of the world and that it's not some spiritual idea. This is what people forget is— Like what happned at Alexandria and various other cultures. All the great libraries of the esoteric—that contained all the esoteric knowledge. Hundreds and hundreds of years gets destroyed, and the Sufi said, if God wants to destroy something, He puts it into the wrong hands and there is a reason that that is—you know—that various spiritual knowledge is given and then taken away. I know that we can't make this shift into consciousness of oneness without a certain power being given back to humanity. Because there is so much the forces of darkness that keep us in the grip of materialism are so strong, so tremendously strong, and we can't be freed because power needs power. But what it would mean I don't know because we haven't had access to it for a very long time and I guess my sense is that there are people who are being trained, whether knowingly or unknowingly, to work with these energies or if you believe in reincarnation, there are people who are being reborn now who used to work with these energies. Then when the time comes, they will get given back the knowledge that belongs to them. But this is—you know—we have as a culture for so long lived in this very 3-dimensional world. That only if something is real or you can grasp it with the mind. Only if you can touch it is it real or if you grasp it with the mind that we— Our culture, our conditioning has very, very carefully censored out the spiritual dimension. Very, very carefully until we now think that spirituality is something you do to yourself to realize a certain awareness. Yes. Sure. But that is only one little aspect of spirituality. You know—you think how different cultures have rewritten their history and we forget how we have rewritten our entire history to censor out what doesn't belong to this material culture that we live in, and we have censored out enormous amounts. That's why I like it when you get—you know— One of the reasons I like something like Shakespeare is there are pointers there. Like in "Midsummer Night's Dream" in Puck and in Oberon, lord of the fairies, there was still a memory in the culture that Shakespeare expressed of a whole magical dimension being alive, and you can see it. You glimpse it from time to time. It's fascinating to see where it—we get it a bit in fairy stories. But even then, they have been censored a lot. There was a time when everything was alive, when everything was magical and we haven't completely forgotten. It fascinates people. I think that's why something like "The Lord of the Rings" is so potent and even the Harry Potter stories that had this—you know—there are the Muggles and the ordinary people who don't believe in the magical world. Because we have this hunger, this longing to reawaken. Because we know somewhere there is a magical world. We know it's just here just like in Harry Potter you go to this train station. It's platform 12. Is it 12-1/2? I can't remember. >>9 and 3/4. >>9 and 3/4. There you go. You go to platform 9 and 3/4. We know that it's just there on platform 9 and 3/4, and we can't get it and we long for it and what happened to it? What happened to this whole— you know—we've been given this kind of very censored version of our own human history and it isn't like that and we know it's not like that somewhere. There are people who come into the world today who have memories of it not being like that. But how do you access it—you know? Will you go to a few séances or whatever? No. As I said, there were whole libraries. In Tibet there were whole libraries. Alexandria had whole libraries. There were cultures that—it's all very detailed. There are whole deep detailed esoteric knowledge of how to work with the Earth. Can we do it like that? No. Because it's different. The books are going to be rewritten. Have I seen how it's going to be? Yes. Because at the very beginning in the year 2000, I was shown how it can be for humanity. >>How? >>Yeah incredibly beautiful, unbelievably beautiful and what can be given back to humanity that humanity has forgotten. A way of life that is very, very simple, and there are some qualities that are going to be given back to humanity. One, as I mentioned, is joy. The other is the whole fun of creation which we've lost. Life is no longer fun. This world is a divine experiment. He's creating something. As the Sufi say, he recreates something new every moment. It is continually being recreated. We are continually being recreated. You are not going to be the same people who leave this room as you were when you came in. And if you've allowed, even your brains will have been altered a bit to bring in this energy of oneness. What does it mean? I don't know. Are we supposed to know what it means? I doubt it. Because it's His game. It's His experiment. We are a little light cell—you know—and it's like the Sufi say, can the frog understand the ocean? No. But we can get a taste of water. We can drink a bit. We can party a bit because creation is also a party. It's this extraordinary interplay of the divine and humanity which we've sung for some reason. We said the divine's in heaven and we've got to do it on our own. We can never do it on our own and—you know—even all of the worlds of the devas and all of that. I remember talking to, when I was in Germany, some people were there from Turkey and—you know—I was talking about how we've isolated ourselves from the world of the devas and this woman came up to me afterwards. She said—you know—when I hear my grandmother and her friends sitting around the kitchen table, it's all present for them. All the devas and elementals, they're all present. They live with them. And so how it's going to be I don't know. But it's an experiment. It's an experiment in human consciousness and divine consciousness. It's an experiment in waking up. Can one wake up large portions of humanity? It hasn't been done before. There've been very, very small groups. Yes, there was this society in Atlantis and apparently it didn't work out that well. It's not around to tell the tale and those books have gone too. So, who knows. One thing is, certain things have to happen in California first. That's actually part of the tradition. There's a certain energy here that enables something to be woken up here and so that's one of the reasons we're doing this work here. You can't—it doesn't mean it can't go around the world. It's a certain energy here in California, particularly in the Bay Area that has enabled something to happen. There's a certain Earth energy here. There's a certain magnetic field that belongs to the next stage of human evolution which is going to be so different to the last era of human evolution. People have no consciousness, and the only way one knows that is because if you've been on a spiritual path, when you flip a level of consciousness it is completely different. You are a different person. The values you had before, what mattered before, even the friends you had before change. What does it mean when humanity enters an era of global oneness? We have no idea. My particular thing is if the heart of the world wakes up and begins to sing. That's one thing I've been shown. I've told it a lot of times. Because there was a time when the world sang and you can see echos of this in Australia and aboriginal culture because they are one of the most ancient peoples on Earth. I think they've been there for, I don't know how many, 100,000 years or something. And they have in their tradition the whole meaning of the dream time and the song in which something in the world sings and we have— In the West it is not even in our—we have forgotten even that we have forgotten. It is so far away. There was a time the world sang and the song of the world is incredibly beautiful. Just like the song that every human being is incredibly beautiful. Part of waking up as a human being is you hear your song. Every human being has a particular song. It's very, very, very beautiful. It's the song of the soul. It's the soul praising God in its own unique way. Praising the creation, praising the creator. It is actually part of what transforms the human being is their own song. We don't realize it because we have sanitized so much. We have lost so much. But you wake up a human being just like you tell a human being their real name and once a human being knows their real name, they're never the same because they know who they are, somewhere, but not here. But somewhere. The song of the soul of the world also is so beautiful. It's such a beautiful being, this planet. It's so beautiful, so old, and there is a possibility that it may start to sing again. Of course, if it sings again, that song can be heard not just in this world but other places too. There are so many worlds. So that is just a little bit, a little page. So friends, God bless and thank you so much for coming.