83 What Is Awakening Like? Live Q & A

Welcome everybody.

I'm William Cooper.

Welcome to awakening together,

Relaxing into happiness.

Good to see you again Sandeep and welcome to everybody else.

Today I want to ask you,

Do you have any questions for me?

Something about your awakening process or your spiritual practice or really anything?

Hey Jennifer.

Sandeep says my meditations are not deep.

I'll tell you what I discovered Sandeep and you can type in and guide me a little bit if I get a little off track of what you're interested in.

But what I found was all through my spiritual practice when I sit still and I just watch my thoughts,

Watch my emotions,

What happens is that they're releasing themselves and they're spinning and they're melting and also sometimes I get caught up in my thoughts and my emotions.

And all of this is a releasing phase.

As long as their thoughts and emotions,

Things are being released.

Old stuff that we've carried with us.

And it doesn't feel deep at all.

It feels horrible sometimes because you're feeling all of this emotion.

And Jennifer says being still is harder for me when troubles and sadness happen.

Like deaths in the family and more.

Yeah,

That's it because when we go through life events in this world,

We store within us these deep griefs and sadnesses.

That's really what thoughts and emotions are based on too.

Our life events and our perspective on those life events.

So when we sit down and meditate,

It's very normal and good that these are being released.

But it doesn't feel deep at all because for a while it's just the whole cacophony of hurts and thoughts and feelings.

And a lot of that's also stored in our body.

So that can grip us very deeply.

And Lynn says,

Yes,

It's hard not to get caught in the thoughts.

It is hard not to get caught in the thoughts.

That's the human condition and people consider that to be normal to be caught in the thoughts because that's what most people in our cult culture were mostly caught up in our thoughts.

We're caught in many stories.

It could be TV,

It could be movies,

Or it could be the thoughts that we hallucinate.

The images that we hallucinate and those are called thoughts.

So sitting down and meditating is a release of that.

It's our practice.

It's our moment to just a little bit not get caught in those thoughts.

It's very difficult,

But it's good that you're aware enough to know that you get caught in your thoughts.

And sometimes I realize we get taken away by our thoughts and emotions and suddenly we realize that that's happened.

Well,

Just return back to your awareness position,

The watching and feeling,

Experiencing.

And then continue watching and feeling until you get caught again in your thoughts and your emotions.

I'm going to do a podcast.

Jennifer and I are going to India at the end of this year for two months or so,

And they'll still be podcasts every month.

I mean every week.

And so I've already pre-recorded some and some of them are on different ways of meditating.

The reason I bring this up now is perhaps you've heard of Transcendental Meditation.

And the way they work with being captured with our thoughts is they give you a mantra that has no meaning to it.

It could be a mantra,

A sound that could be M or could be anything,

But they don't want it to have a meaning.

And generally they assign you a mantra based on your age and whether you're male or female.

But it's a sound that doesn't have any meaning.

So your mind can't get caught up in it.

Like if it was the word peace or something like that,

You might be thinking about that peace or relaxation or wellness or happiness.

So they give you a nonsense sound.

And right when you start to notice a thought coming up,

You say your mantra M.

That way you don't get caught into that thought.

You do the mantra instead and then you let them both go.

You let the mantra go and you let the thought go.

And then the next time a thought comes up,

You say that sound M.

And then you let them both go.

Anyway,

There'll be a podcast coming up on that as well as a number of other meditations,

Different ways to approach it.

The point is,

Len,

It is hard not to get caught up in the thoughts.

And that's why they have these different practices is to help us.

And Sandeep asks,

Is it the duration of the meditation quality over quantity?

And that's another great question,

Sandeep,

Because you could go either way.

When we meditate a long time,

Deeper stuff comes up and it can feel more and more disconnected.

However,

It's that feeling of disconnection or that feeling of boredom or that feeling of anxiety that itself is the feeling that's asking to come to the foreground and be felt and to be observed.

So it can eventually melt out.

Now,

It can be so big and such a habit.

It could take quite a while for it to melt out,

Depending on how deep your habit is,

Your habit of feeling a certain way.

But it's a good thing to let it melt out.

As far as a shorter meditation,

It doesn't often bring those things up as deeply,

Perhaps,

Because it's such a quick meditation.

And because of that,

Maybe it's more possible to focus on the quality of our being,

The part that's observing everything,

Because it doesn't have as much time to be distracted and overwhelmed by the deep stuff that does need to melt out eventually.

But it hasn't had a chance to fully activate,

So we can feel the quality of our being,

Perhaps.

The part which is observing,

We can feel that more fully.

And that's a value too,

Because in the end,

It's a balance,

Isn't it?

It's feeling who we are,

The part that's watching,

Observing,

Experiencing,

Not leaving that part,

Our awareness.

And because we're not leaving that,

We're not getting caught up in our thoughts and emotions.

And all they're left to do is spin and release their energy like a tied up rubber band,

Releasing its energy,

Or melting like an ice cube.

There's a lot of analogies.

But that's the advantage of a quicker meditation.

What I do myself and what I might recommend to others is there is no one way for all of these.

You listen to your heart,

You listen to your insides,

And do what is helpful for you now,

And you will evolve as you go along.

Sometimes it might be helpful to do a shorter meditation.

Other times,

It might be helpful to do longer meditations,

Have a period of weeks or months or years of longer meditations.

But you do what's making internal sense to you.

Chris says,

Mine was a combination of chakra sounds.

Yes,

That can be the case too.

Yes,

There's all different kinds of ways that these mantras are put together.

I thought my TM mantra was a combination of chakra sounds.

And then later,

On later research,

I found out that's how I was interpreting them,

But they weren't meant to be that.

You can Google TM mantra.

Now,

They may have changed that in the last five or 10 years.

So whatever it is,

It's good.

Let's put it that way.

But there are meditations with chakra sounds,

And I am also doing a podcast on the seven seed chakra sounds that is called chakradhyana,

Going up and down your seven energy centers,

And that has a place too.

You know,

The main thing is that you're doing consistent meditations for you,

Whatever works for you.

And you cannot judge how well it's working based on your comfort.

Because when there's discomfort inside of you,

That's discomfort inside of you.

And that is looking for a way to release.

The very fact that it's there,

And by discomfort,

I mean distractions,

Not feeling that we're making progress in our meditation,

That is a feeling or a perspective.

So that whole complex can start to be released.

And what I've found over time is in releasing,

What I mean is I used to do it sort of by willpower,

Like go,

You know,

This isn't right.

I don't want to feel this.

This is not a good feeling to feel.

So I might just push it to the side and move on.

Say,

No,

I do not stand for feeling bad or I don't feeling anxiety is not what I'm going for.

So I'm going to focus on a light or a sound or something else.

And that had its place.

But I found that that never dissolved the thing that I did not like,

The anxiety or the discomfort or the boredom or whatever it was.

It simply pushed it to the side or repressed it.

And it was there to come up later.

So in releasing,

What I mean by that now is I sit with it,

I feel it,

And I don't change it.

I let it expend its energy.

And I have no reason to hold on to it and eventually no reason to even analyze it or even wonder about it.

I just feel it because it has an attitude.

That's how it got stuck into my body.

It has an attitude.

It was something that happened long ago or yesterday or this morning.

But it is in my body because it wasn't fully processed.

And by that,

I mean felt.

And therefore,

Because I was ready,

Then released.

And what I mean by released,

Again,

Isn't a pushing away.

It's a kind of relaxing out of it.

Like that's not me.

Because I've meditated for so long,

Just like many of you have,

I know what me feels like.

And that's the awareness that watches everything.

That's always there.

And as I've described it before,

In my experience,

It's like a rainbow.

On one end of the rainbow is absolute nothing because it's out of creation.

It's beyond creation.

And that's the core of who I am.

And I know myself that way through my intuition.

And as I see myself coming into creation,

I first see myself as brilliant light and then I hear myself as sounds.

And then I see and feel atoms and molecules.

And as it slows down,

This infinite arc,

As it slows down,

I feel bliss and peace and wellness,

All the qualities of being.

So I actually experience these things.

And I say it in that way.

I actually experience it because for so long I did not.

But sitting still long enough,

You start to slowly get clearer and clearer after all that gunk melts off,

All that stuff that makes me feel that my meditations aren't deep.

That is simply a perception.

That's a distraction.

It's inevitable.

Everybody has it.

And it's a wonderful question that everybody is asking themselves.

Why do I feel this way?

Why aren't my meditations peaceful?

Now,

That's why.

Because that stuff is melting out and stuff doesn't get repressed because it feels good.

You don't usually have a pocket of repressed happiness.

You have a pocket of repressed anxiety or boredom or feeling like I'm not enough or I'm not doing it right.

These perceptions of ourselves are inaccurate,

But they're what we've lived with.

It's what we've been taught.

And those are the things that are melting out.

And those are the things that come up during meditation and make us often feel uncomfortable about our meditations.

Because we think,

Wow,

This isn't getting me very far.

I did another podcast on post-traumatic stress disorder.

I did,

I think,

Three or four of them.

And it was just to put your toe in the water and give you,

Aim you in a direction to let you know what goes on with that.

But I'm convinced that most of us have some form of PTSD because when you experience something long enough,

Even if it's minor things,

But you experience them long enough,

They affect you.

And I think life itself,

The things that trouble us,

Our low level things that trouble us are PTSD.

They're kind of frozen into our body.

And one of the ways that you work with PTSD is you don't do anything,

You don't push yourself.

You just take baby steps because you don't want to lock up.

You don't want to freeze up.

So you take baby steps and small bites.

Feel what you're feeling as much as you can feel it and then take a break.

Be easy with yourself and let these things melt out easily.

And slowly over time,

That big ice cube will melt and it won't be almost like you're releasing it.

It'll just be like,

Ah.

Like when you get a massage,

A muscle's tight,

But if it gets rubbed and massaged nicely,

That tension is released.

You receive relaxation.

Relaxation is awakening.

You receive it in your body and you don't have to really release that tension.

It releases itself in a way.

You experience yourself as relaxation.

Well,

As you meditate and you get used to the one who's watching,

All that's not the one that's watching,

Just like that muscle tension,

Starts to release out.

It relaxes out because everything that you're watching is attention.

You wouldn't be having thoughts if there wasn't attention underneath it.

Thoughts are trying to solve problems.

So if you look at a thought and you look at it long enough,

You'll find that there's an emotion underneath it.

That's what you're really trying to release.

And if you release that emotion,

You'll find that there's a tension underneath that and that's in your body.

How do you know these things?

You just sit long enough.

You just meditate.

They're there in all of us.

Well,

As you sit with that tension long enough,

In awareness,

And you invite it to receive who you are.

You are peace and love and caring and compassion.

You don't have to manufacture these feelings.

It is actually who you are.

As you receive that,

That tension relaxes.

And when the tension relaxes,

It's gone.

It's gone.

There's nothing to argue about.

There's nothing to analyze.

There's nothing to figure out.

It's gone.

Do that enough and that's called awakening.

So you all are on the right path.

Whatever meditation you're using,

It will evolve into the next one and into the next phase and into the next phase.

Just listen to yourself.

Movement can be good because it can release these tensions that are in your body.

But everything in its own time and in its own order will happen.

It will happen.

Because you show up every day and do something.

So it will happen.

Lynn says,

She says,

As an enlightened person,

Can you talk about what life slash reality looks like to you?

Is it different when you weren't enlightened?

And wow,

What a great question.

And I remember asking or being in the,

I can't remember anymore if I asked the question or somebody else,

But somebody asked Lama Surya Das a similar question.

Well,

I think they just asked,

Are you enlightened?

And he says,

Well,

I'm enlightened enough.

And that is such a good answer.

So I'm going to answer your question in at least a couple of ways,

Lynn.

What it feels like to be an enlightened person is exactly what it feels like to be you without your problems.

It's you right now,

How you're feeling,

If every problem and discomfort was released.

Okay,

That's the first way of describing it.

I'm going to go on and fine tune that answer.

But there's no mystery because you,

Your being is what's looking through your eyes right now.

You don't need thoughts to look through your eyes.

You don't need emotions to look through your eyes.

You don't need any of that.

That's all extra stuff we make up.

That's extra.

We like it.

It's like making our own movies,

Our own 3D lifestyle.

It's fun.

So we do it.

The problem is,

Is when we make up too many thoughts and emotions,

We get,

As you said in meditations,

Captured by them.

And we then,

Because we're captured by our own movie,

We become separated from who we are.

That's called separation.

We do that long enough and we identify with these thoughts and emotions.

And the byproduct is,

Is when you're separated from yourself,

You feel separation anxiety.

You feel abandonment.

Life has abandoned you because we don't realize we did it.

And you feel anger.

You know,

Life's not fair.

I'm separate.

Because things don't feel good so much when you get too separated.

So awakening is reversing that process.

It's just letting these thoughts relax out of you,

Letting these emotions relax out of you.

So what's left is you.

The you that's there right now.

The you that's meditating,

Watching all these thoughts.

It's just that they haven't relaxed out of you yet.

So they're still appearing.

But the one that's watching,

That part's your awakened self.

And it just so happens to be watching a bunch of thoughts that are still revolving in your consciousness.

Yes,

Chris says eliminate mental clutter.

And that's absolutely right,

Chris.

I'm going to fine tune that just a little bit.

I found it very difficult to eliminate it.

It's just when I'm firmly know who I am and I'm coming from myself,

Rather than eliminate it,

It relaxes away.

It doesn't really eliminate because that almost is like willpower.

It's almost like an objective.

And as soon as I make an objective,

Then I'm somehow working through the mechanism of my psychology and I'm trying to get something.

And on a very deep level,

It's not that way.

It's I don't need that stuff.

I don't need the mental clutter because mental clutter comes about because it's trying to help me.

Like my psychology is trying to get something it doesn't perceive I already have.

It's trying to get love because it doesn't perceive that I am love.

It's trying to get happiness because it doesn't perceive that I am happiness.

It's trying to get peace because it doesn't perceive that I am peace.

Why doesn't it perceive that?

Because I'm separated from myself.

Why?

Because I'm lost in the mental clutter.

So it's a catch-22.

The only way out that I found is to rest in who you are.

That's what happens in meditation.

And then it can happen outside of meditation.

It can just happen all through your life.

So,

Lyn,

I didn't completely finish your question and yours was a wonderful one,

Chris,

And is.

But,

Lyn,

What happens is when Surya Dasa says,

I'm awakened enough,

That's the human experience.

It's not that you don't have any more thoughts.

It's not that you don't have any more emotions.

It's not that something deep doesn't release suddenly that you weren't aware of.

Because if it's in you,

Life will find it.

And it could be decades and decades and stuff keeps,

Sludge keeps coming up.

The difference is it slows down and you're not as apt to get caught up in it as it arises.

I had an awakened man live with me.

His name was Avasa.

Unfortunately,

He's passed away now.

But I asked him,

You know,

I said,

Avasa,

Does stuff come up for you?

Like,

Kind of like your question,

Lyn,

I asked Avasa.

And he says,

Yeah,

Sometimes stuff comes up.

And I said,

Well,

Does it bother you?

He says,

No.

He says,

I'm fascinated when it comes up because it shows me there's something left.

And when something comes up,

There's a lot of energy.

It's like a piece of wood or coal or something.

It releases energy when it burns.

That's what happens when this clutter comes up and you don't want to miss it because that's part of your energy system.

It's just that you're not jumping into the middle of it so often.

Maybe a little bit you do,

But quickly you catch yourself.

I talked to another monk,

This one in India,

And I asked him,

His name was Radhakrishna.

I said,

Radhakrishna,

He's very awake,

Very powerful.

And I said,

Radhakrishna,

Do you still have stuff coming up?

And he says,

Yeah.

He says,

But now when it comes up,

It almost vaporizes.

As soon as it comes up,

It vaporizes.

And that's what I would have to say happens for me now.

When stuff comes up,

It doesn't vaporize as fast as Radhakrishna does,

But pretty quickly it unwinds,

Releases and relaxes.

It kind of feels like a spasm and it goes out of my system.

But it's me.

It's the same me that always was there.

It's just the brilliance,

The happiness,

The light.

I can feel it better and better and better because it's not cluttered up anymore.

Did that answer your question?

If it didn't,

Just ask me a little bit more.

And maybe somebody else has another question.

So when people say that you're perfect the way you are,

It really is true.

All that's happening is a bunch of stuff is releasing that's not you.

And sometimes we get so caught up in our stories,

We think it is us.

I'm depressed.

No,

You're not.

You feel depressed.

You feel depressed because you're caught up in that depressive thought or feeling.

Because I experience myself as a rainbow,

As we mentioned in maybe the last or one of the last podcasts,

Different techniques,

Different practices work better depending on where my distress,

Quote unquote,

Is.

The thing that's distracting me.

If it's a mental,

Emotional thing,

Perhaps psychotherapy would be helpful or not.

You don't have to use psychotherapy,

But it is a helpful tool.

Meditation is helpful to just stay connected to who you are and start to let all the rest of the stuff release.

Yoga is good for stuff that's caught in the body.

But there's a great overlap between all of these things.

Mantras are helpful.

If I need a moment of rest so that I'm not jumping into my thoughts,

Mantras can be helpful,

As I described a little earlier in this podcast.

So there are all these tools out there.

What I started to say but forgot to say is when there's a lot of PTSD in us,

Sometimes we just need to relax for a moment.

That might just be an early step for us.

Like I'm so shell-shocked,

I can't,

You know,

I'm shaken almost.

I can't really focus.

I'm just worn out.

So maybe a good guided meditation is good for that.

It relaxes my nervous system.

Will it bring me to awakening?

I don't think so.

But it's a first step of many steps.

And when you put all those steps together,

It'll bring you to awakening.

Am I sure it won't bring you to awakening?

No.

It might.

But the reason I say no,

Probably not,

Is because it's a whole variety of things that we put together with the end result in meditation and clear seeing.

The reason why I have all these teachings in the podcast,

In the past ones and the ones that are numbered on Insight Timer and other platforms,

Those are teachings.

And the reason I have those is what my guru once said was,

To see is to be free.

And as I see more clearly,

I start to see what would be helpful to me because I see what's in my way.

And then I select the tool that would be helpful for me to release that thing that's in my way.

So there's not one answer to any spiritual question.

That's why.

In the last podcast,

I think it was Len,

But I'm not sure,

Asked me to talk about my experience with Jesus.

And I did.

And people don't seldom ask me,

So I seldom talk about it.

And angels.

I didn't talk so much about angels.

I talked about how Archangel appeared to me,

Archangel Michael.

And I'm bringing this up now because I thought about it after the podcast.

And my experience of things,

And you all have your own experiences,

I'm just giving you mine.

You stick with yours,

But take mine with a grain of salt.

But the way I experience it is angels or other very high beings can almost whisper in my ear or.

.

.

Remember I said in that last podcast that when Jesus was inside of my body,

We both shared the same nervous system?

So I knew everything he was feeling and he knew everything I was feeling.

Well,

When angels come,

They communicate in the same way.

They kind of share my body and I can hear what they're saying.

And how does that appear to me?

It just appears like suddenly I get a new thought,

A new perspective,

A fresh one.

Or an observation like,

Do this or don't do that.

And it rings true to me.

It seems really true.

So my deepest being feels the clarity of that angel and is giving me guidance.

Same with Jesus.

Now,

Why don't I just go out of my way chasing angels?

Because they certainly will talk to me and so will my friend Jesus.

And so will my friend Bhagavan.

But why don't I chase all that stuff?

You know what?

I'll tell you why.

Because in the end,

We have to go beyond all of them.

Yet on our path,

They do guide us.

Every day they guide me.

And I'm every day so thankful for that guidance.

And when I'm really in a hard way,

I might even ask a question.

But better if I ask that question to me,

To my highest self,

And wait for that answer to come.

Bhagavan said to me and some others,

He says,

You know,

Sometimes it's funny for him to watch various awakened people get into arguments about what awakening is like.

And he says the reason why they get into arguments is because they don't realize that they had an awakening through a certain chakra.

Like if you awaken through the heart chakra first,

Eventually all your chakras can open.

But let's say you awaken through your heart chakra first.

You'll experience awakening as deep love.

If you awaken through your crown chakra first,

You might experience existence as nothingness,

Beyond existence.

You're at the very deep place on the rainbow,

On that end of the rainbow.

How about at the base of your spine,

You might feel deep support,

The universe supports you.

I think I'll do a podcast on all that,

The different kinds of awakenings at some point.

But it's the same in our own spiritual journey day by day by day.

We can't be distracted by a teaching from this person or that person.

We take the best and apply it to the part of the rainbow in us that needs that teaching,

If it does need that teaching.

So just like these various awakened people awakening through various chakras,

We also are awakening all up and down the line.

So we're available to all of the different practices that are offered to us on,

Say,

In Sight Timer or somewhere else.

Lynn says,

Can I describe what my daily meditation practice is?

Yes,

Lynn,

Good question.

I'll tell you what it is now,

But I will also describe what some of the other ones that I've used through the years.

But right now,

It's just me sitting still.

And at this point,

I don't need to have my eyes closed.

I just sit still and I observe everything that's happening.

That's it.

Now,

Everything that the part that's observing is me.

And what happens is that if I've been caught up in something in life,

Because we are human beings,

You know,

We are using our minds and our emotions to get through the day.

So we do get.

.

.

You can't.

.

.

It's a tricky thing being a human being.

You kind of have to use everything that you've got.

And the problem is,

Is when we connect deeply into our emotional,

Mental self,

Sometimes our awareness goes in that direction.

And for a moment,

Even very lightly,

We become somewhat disconnected from the infinite of ourselves.

You can do both at the same time,

I think,

But I go back and forth.

And so what I'm trying to say is when I sit still like that,

I experience,

If I'm caught in something,

Which often I am,

I'll experience a boom.

And it's like a paradigm shift.

It's like everything flips inside out,

Like Alice going through the looking glass or something.

Everything goes inside out.

And suddenly I go from being a human being to poof!

Everything.

Now I'm everything.

And energies.

.

.

And I can feel myself vibrating and light coming out of me.

It's like everything releases.

If there was any catch inside,

It releases.

So that's my current practice.

Oh,

And then after I like to do Yogananda's energization exercises,

You can Google them and find them online,

A YouTube that'll show you.

I have to say for the first couple of years I did them,

They didn't do much.

I did them anyway.

I don't know why.

I did.

And I dropped them for years.

And then I just started doing them again.

And what they're.

.

.

They're very simple.

There's like,

Let's say 30 different little exercises.

They're simple like tighten your hand and release it.

Tighten,

Release,

Tighten,

Release.

Like three times I do it.

Or tighten your neck muscles,

Release.

Or move your joints.

Very simple.

But when I do that,

If there's anything that's caught in my body,

Suddenly I have another paradigm shift.

Boom!

And it releases.

And I'm exuding so much light.

So much energy is flowing through me.

So some physical practice can be helpful too,

Is what I'm getting at.

Not that one in particular.

I like it.

I don't know why.

For me it works.

Other people,

Maybe Kriya Yoga or Hatha Yoga or Kundalini Yoga or any kind of exercise.

Maybe a good jog around the block.

However,

Yoga tends to be more thoughtful.

And it actually moves almost every joint in your body and is tied in with your nervous system.

So I remember the first time I did yoga.

I did not get any great first results.

I kind of was thinking something big would happen.

Nothing much did.

It felt like a nice easy exercise.

But over time I began to appreciate the power of yoga.

Now,

When I first started,

I got a book in 1972.

And I got a book and it said,

Light a candle and look at the candle.

And I did.

And I tried that for months.

And it was painful and nothing happened.

And I was trying to be in a yogic pose.

And it was horrible.

From there I did TM meditation for years and years and years.

And then I did another one,

Chakra dhyana,

Where you go through your chakras.

I did that every day for years.

Kriya Yoga and I did Sadhguru has one.

I can't remember I did that.

Anyway,

A lot of different kinds of yogas.

I have changed them as I've changed.

Lin says,

What do you do first thing after waking up?

Do you do it first thing after?

Yes,

I do it first thing.

My meditation is what I do.

There is no rule to it.

But that's what I do.

I wake up.

Not the first thing.

It's terrible.

But I look at the news and I look at the weather and I do stuff like that.

First,

Just on my phone.

So I'm not saying that's a healthy thing to do.

It's just what I do.

But then after all of that,

And I have some coffee.

And after all of that,

I do my meditation.

I've done it different ways.

I used to do it right off the bat,

First thing.

That's just what I do now.

One thing comes into my mind for some reason,

So I'll say it.

Maybe you all have… thank you for those questions and maybe you have more questions.

Chris says,

Sounds like Eckhart Tolle presence practice.

You know,

I'm not familiar what his practice is,

But yeah,

Probably so.

The one just sitting and being aware of everything going on.

That's a pretty powerful practice,

So I guess people call it different things.

Eckhart Tolle,

I've met him sometimes and he's quite a wonderful person and in a very high state.

So I could see him doing that practice.

You're welcome,

Lynn.

Lynn says thank you.

But the thing that was coming to me,

When I said that Jesus and I were in my body sharing the same nervous system,

It occurred to me later when I was with my guru,

Bhagavan,

And I had that awakening experience for like 10 years.

And I did a podcast on this,

That it was his energy,

His awakening energy.

I never awoke.

It wasn't my awakening.

I thought it was.

But it was like when Jesus and I were in the same body,

It was like Bhagavan's awakening energy and I were in the same body.

So we shared that same energy.

And the best analogy I can make is it's like,

Let's say you have your house and for whatever reason,

You've just let it get into disrepair and it's become very dirty inside and stacked up.

Maybe you've been depressed.

I don't know what the reason is,

But the place is a mess inside and outside.

It's a mess.

A friend invites you to stay at their house and they have a beautiful,

Immaculate house,

The best house ever,

Swimming pool,

Windows,

Great scenery.

It's got a great vibe and you live in their house for,

Let's say,

10 years and you get used to what it is like to live in a great house.

And after a while,

Your mood lifts and you feel better and better and better and you're with your friend and you're in a wonderful environment.

You're eating good food and you feel better and better and better,

Very healthy.

But somewhere in the back of your mind,

You know,

This isn't my house.

My house is a mess.

But because you've gained strength and clarity and insight,

You can leave your friend's house and go back to your house and clean it up,

Fix it up and make it into a very nice house.

Well,

That's what it was like to awaken through Bhagavan,

Through a guru.

You use their energy and you're living in their house,

But it's not you awakening,

In my experience.

Other people might disagree with me,

But that's my experience.

But I learned so much.

What is awakening like?

What are the steps?

How do you see life?

What does life look like?

What is awakening not?

You know,

So much because you're clear.

You learn.

So it was invaluable.

Then when I went back to my house,

When Bhagavan said,

Okay,

Now go out on your own,

He took all that awakening energy and poof,

I was miserable.

It was like popping up in a dirty house.

I was miserable.

But I knew what happened.

And I knew that it was good.

And so slowly I've been cleaning up my house and awakening has happened within me.

But it's my own awakening and by my own,

There's only one.

But through this incarnation.

So,

You know,

Everything we do,

Every part of the rainbow that's clearing up is like cleaning another room in your house.

And after a while you're in a very beautiful house.

But in the end,

You have to do that.

You have to do it.

Laura says,

I like that film In Her Shoes.

What a beautiful analogy.

Oh,

Thank you,

Laura.

I don't even know that film.

I might have to watch that,

In Her Shoes.

Yeah,

That's what's good about being with a guru.

These powerful ones you find in India,

And they're not only in India,

But there's a whole bunch of them in India.

That's the advantage.

You can experience awakening before you awaken,

In a sense.

The problem can be that people never leave the guru.

They think,

Oh,

I've got to be with this guru.

I don't want to leave my guru.

Because why?

Because I feel lousy when the guru is not here.

Why?

Because you haven't cleaned your house.

So the path that you all are on now is a good one.

It's cleaning your house.

Oh,

Laura says,

This film In Her Shoes is with Cameron Diaz,

Who I like,

And Kate Winslet,

Yes,

Love.

They change homes,

And they change their lives.

Well,

That's right.

That's what it's like to be with a guru,

In a sense.

That's one portion of what it's like.

But do you need to be with a guru to clean your house?

No.

You could just clean your house.

So I don't want to force you to go to India or something.

OK.

Any other questions before we wrap it up for today?

I've really appreciated it,

And I always enjoy seeing you all.

Thank you for all your beautiful questions,

And just being here and sharing your energy.

We talk about so many different things.

If you're thinking of another question,

OK.

Oh,

Thank you,

Heather.

Thank you so much.

Heather says thank you so much.

For those of you that are new,

You'll notice if you click on my picture or something,

On Insight Timer,

You'll see I think I've published 72 podcasts roughly,

And then a number of these live sessions.

I record them.

That's what this is for.

And post them,

And it takes Insight Timer about five days to post it.

So you'll get this session on Insight Timer in about five days or so.

And you can listen to it again if you'd like.

But the other 72,

And I add to them every other week,

The other 72 are the teachings.

And we start with very basic things and work our way up step by step by step by step,

Each one building on the other.

But each podcast is also meant to be complete in and of itself.

So if you see a title you just really want to listen to out of order,

Go ahead.

But they're more powerful if you listen to them sequentially,

I think.

So I would invite you to do that.

They're all free.

They're all there.

And really what I've done and am trying to do is people have given so much to me because I really have suffered quite a bit in my life.

Just like you all probably know some suffering.

And without the help of others,

If we don't help each other,

It would have been very tough.

Everything that I'm telling you,

People have helped me with.

Yes,

All these talks,

Rachel asks,

Are all these talks on Inside Timer?

Yes,

They are.

Just follow me.

Put a heart next to this or type William Cooper under the search and I'll pop up and you'll have all the podcasts.

And Laura says,

Laura is asking basically,

Are we energy and can I feel anybody's energy?

And yes,

We are energy,

But we're.

.

.

Listen to my podcasts.

But all the way on one end,

What threw me for years is we're also beyond energy.

We're beyond this creation.

So you can't even feel your deepest self because it's out of creation and you can only feel those things that are in creation.

And then as we come in like one big long rainbow,

An arc,

As we are this whole arc,

We're not one end or the other,

We're the whole thing all at the same time.

That's why it's so hard to describe who we are.

I'm going to do a podcast on the purpose of life.

And the reason why people get confused about the purpose of life is because it depends on which part of the rainbow we're talking about.

There are different purposes in life.

But as we come in on the rainbow,

We come in,

Boom,

As light and then sound and then bliss and well-being.

And depending on where we first explode out of our body,

That chakra,

We feel ourselves as love,

As peace,

As well-being,

As even tantra or support energy.

So yes,

We are energy on one level.

We have an energy body,

We have a karmic body,

We have a cosmic body,

We have a mental body,

We have an emotional body.

We're all of these things and you experience yourself as all of these things.

Do you need a teacher in the beginning?

Very helpful.

But do you need one?

You don't have to have one.

You're your own teacher ultimately.

And I will tell you this,

Whatever you're doing is perfect.

How do I know that?

Because there's only one.

In the end,

There's only one.

There's only one divine,

And I hesitate to use that word because it's really beyond even divine.

There's only one,

And that one is orchestrating every event that happens in your life.

So if you don't have a teacher,

There's something good is happening that is teaching you,

Even if you don't have a quote unquote teacher in front of you.

But if you need a teacher or want a teacher,

You know when the student is ready,

The teacher appears.

That's because why is the student ready?

Because the one who you are says,

I'm ready on this incarnation level.

And then it brings the teacher.

So that will happen.

There's no debate about it.

And does it have to be the perfect teacher?

It's perfect for right now.

It could be the guy at the end of the street.

It could be the meditation group at the library.

It doesn't have to be going to India.

Or it could be,

Wow,

I'm really moved,

And I go to India.

It could be that.

And many of these Indian teachers come to the United States as well.

Or many of you are listening from other countries.

They come all over the world.

So you can ask around and find these teachers.

But yes,

Any teacher is helpful.

Are they absolutely necessary?

No,

I don't want you to feel,

Oh,

I don't have a teacher,

Now I'm doomed.

No,

You're not.

But they are helpful.

Books can be your teacher.

Podcasts can be teachers.

Oh my goodness,

All these great podcasts out these days.

All this stuff that just me,

One person,

Has put into these podcasts,

That's taken my whole lifetime to put together.

So you get to rocket forward.

The only thing that there is no shortcut to is you have to sit down and sit still and feel your stuff and watch yourself and let that stuff burn off.

There's no shortcut to that.

Nobody can do that.

Even my own teacher,

When I lived in his quote unquote house,

And I experienced his awakening,

It was so strong,

People would faint around me.

They couldn't get off the ground many times.

You know,

So I'm really telling you,

He let me have his energy for 10 years.

I was a very powerful person,

Because it was his energy.

He was the powerful incarnation.

Not me,

Really.

But in the end,

I had to do it,

Is the point.

He gave me a glimpse,

But in the end,

I have to do it.

In the end,

You have to do it.

Right now,

You have to do it.

Thank you,

Jennifer.

Jennifer says thank you for the podcasts and live sessions.

Thank you.

I want to say one other quick thing.

I had talked about angels and Jesus living in my body and so on and so forth.

They give wonderful guidance.

They're very high beings,

Often.

Not everyone is,

Because they're beings,

Right?

You've got low energy beings and high energy beings,

But most of them are high energy.

You can tell the difference.

But in the end,

They're just beings.

And in the end,

You go beyond all beings.

Like,

We're on Earth,

There are a lot of beings,

But then suddenly everybody wants to get to heaven.

Why?

Because those are supposed to be higher beings.

Well,

Once you're in heaven,

You're going to want to get to beyond that.

Why?

Because those are beings,

And you want to go all the way.

You want to realize yourself fully,

Which is beyond Jesus.

It's beyond the angels.

It's beyond all that.

So I talk about all these different levels,

And they're all important,

And I have great gratitude for all of them.

But in my podcast,

I really emphasize going to your whole,

Full self,

Beyond the guru,

Beyond Jesus,

Beyond the angels,

Beyond it,

Because you are perfect.

You are beautiful.

You are what you're looking for.

And you're complete right now.

And all we all are doing is realizing that.

Self-realization.

Right?

Self-realization.

Because we're perfect.

Right now,

Even if it doesn't seem like it,

You are.

All the stuff that doesn't seem like it is just stuff that can melt away.

It's just a thought.

It's a feeling.

My rough rule of thumb is if I feel any distress in my body or in my mind,

Any anxiety,

Any depression,

Any tension,

Any at all,

I know that's not me.

And I know,

Hey,

Perhaps I could meditate a little bit and let that go.

Let it melt out.

Because you are perfect.

And when that paradigm shift happens that I talked about,

Boom,

And it's just energy coming through your body,

You're just light.

You're wellness.

And in that regard,

You're right.

We are energy beings.

But we're much more.

Okay.

Thanks so much,

Laura.

And Laura says,

So enlightening.

Thank you so much.

Thank you,

Laura.

We're going to meet again in two weeks.

Follow me and you'll get a notice on Insight Timer.

Look at some of the podcasts if you would like.

Again,

They're free,

So they're generally kind of short.

Okay.

Great job,

Everybody.

Keep up the good work.

I know it's not easy.

I know it's not.

It's not.

But you'll get there.

And what is there?

It's oddly right where you are now without the junk obscuring your vision.

All right.

Take care.

I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

Bye.

Thank you.