Going Beyond the Mind – Part One – Berkeley, CA, February 25, 2010

Participant: I have a question.

David: Okay.

Participant: … Something that changes: I’m noticing the light in my eyes seems different. I don’t think I have cataracts and it’s, um, just my vision changed about a year and a half ago, in terms of the light that I see through, I don’t know. We just got on the topic of light, so I thought I would ask about it.

David: Well, there’s the Light of Being, which is not in the field of light. The Light of Consciousness is not a light that you see. So, if it’s anything phenomenal, it has to do with something perceptible, which means it’s in the relative; it’s some relative change. When you’re talking about Consciousness, you’re talking about something much deeper than the eyes, or where the eyes can go, or what they can register.

Participant: So, there is no perceptible change when Shakti and definitely in Shakti and …?

David: Things can happen to your seeing, but not necessarily as Light. It’s always within the faculty of your seeing that a Realization occurs. It’s something you see. The word Darshan, for example, means “sighting”. It’s related to seeing, to sight. Darshan is to “sight” or to be “sighted” by the Divine or the Light, the Divine Light. So, yes, seeing is involved, but not in a way where you might report a relative change in perception. Although, you can have spiritual experiences that produce that effect.

When you are talking about Consciousness and awakening into Consciousness, it’s in the very receptacle of your mind. It’s that which is your mind, which surrounds and holds your mind to the degree that the edge of the mind becomes porous to That which is beyond it — becomes transparent. Then, we can talk about “seeing” Consciousness. The mind that borders Consciousness begins to “see” into Consciousness, even though it can never see into That. No aspect of the relative being can look into that Absolute and say, “I see It”. So, when That begins to show itself, “That” meaning Consciousness, there is a dissolution of the separate seer and you begin to have that Realization.

You can feel the Power of Being beginning to manifest now, just though this conversation. Darshan is happening. Which is much more interesting than anything we can actually converse about. It is much more fascinating than any outer conversation. But, it just so happens that both can happen too. We can talk, and then in the midst of that speaking, there is this widening, opening, this powerful Current of flowing Consciousness.

Participant: About, I don’t know, maybe a week ago, I suddenly realized that something happened on a very subtle level and I feel different. It’s really hard to say, put my finger on it, but I feel something happened and I feel like a different person.

David: In another words, it has gone on happening.

Participant: It’s gone on happening, but there’s some kind of threshold.

David: Without actually happening. It’s something beyond happening or non-happening.

Participant: It’s something that I can’t point to, what it was that happened; it’s too subtle to point to. I don’t….I couldn’t….

David: And yet, a permanent change has registered?

Participant: I feel a permanent change happened. I feel actually I’m a different person now than I was maybe a week or ten days ago.

David: What’s the difference?

Participant: A lightening of being and a, a kind of a shedding of various obsessions and things like that. It just . . . it just evaporated and, uh, I feel so much better for it.

David: Well, talk to me in another month. Make sure it’s still there.

Participant: Yeah, right.

David: Make sure this isn’t just some quick rush.

Participant: But, the, uh, you know, I’ve heard that the more subtle it is, the more profound it is. This is definitely subtle, very subtle.

David: Every once in awhile, you will go through this; reaching transition periods or points where you notice something gigantic happening. And, you’re right, the more subtle it is the deeper and more profound it is.

This body is gross, but the movement towards Consciousness is through subtlety and all of the change registers in Awareness, not in the body, in Awareness itself, in the one who sees. The one who is.

Participant: As long as, as I just keep sticking with this, I just keep coming back in the room, keep on doing; this is just magic. This is what the sense is. It’s just, it’s unbelievable.

David: It should become totally unbelievable, otherwise it’s not doing what it needs to do. It should become outrageous.

Participant: Despite any kind of resistance or, you know, whatever, it doesn’t matter. It seems like it just, it just, it doesn’t matter.

David: The only resistance that could get you in trouble is the one that might convince you not to come back here.

Participant: That’s right.

David: Other than that, anything you bring in here, forget it, it’s just between you and me. It’s like Mohammad Ali and the next victim.

[Laughter]

David: So, no, that’s just the way it is. There’s nothing, there’s nothing more invincible. This is Vishnu. This is the God of all Gods. This is the Creative Power of the Universe that’s being offered to you as sadhana, as waking-up-power. It’s just a question of time. It’s like the sun shining on a piece of ice,. It’s just a question of time. It just depends on how thick the ice is and how hot that sun can get.

If we have an inner relationship, then that’s perfect. If you know that you know that you know, that we are together on the inside, that Consciousness is meeting you in this context, then that’s all you need. You can’t be fooled, because it’s all about you recognizing this. I don’t make any effort to convince people that things are happening. But, once you start recognizing what’s happening, that’s a whole different story. If you don’t need to be talked into this and your own Realization summons up this kind of description, then it’s being done; the work is being done. Your transmutation into Consciousness is happening. And, this is unbelievable. The word unbelievable is a good word, because you really can’t wrap your mind around this. You can only believe that which you can wrap your mind around and this is not in that category. This is about unwrapping and unraveling the mind itself and opening it to the Source Consciousness.