Dialogues

EXTRACTS FROM MEETINGS IN NOT-KNOWING

DIALOGUE WITH JEMIMA

(NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT!)

Jemima: But it must be different for you otherwise you wouldn’t be talking about it. It must be better. If you are bothering to talk about this then it must be extraordinary for you. But for me it’s just ordinary.

Unmani: It is totally ordinary. And not worth talking about. But most people talk about some special experience which is available in some possible future. So what is being said here is that this is absolutely ordinary. The thing is that this is rarely said because it’s so ordinary. Why would you say it? What I am pointing to is so ordinary that every word makes it sound too special. I am attempting to put into words that which is absolutely nothing. How ridiculous!

J: But people who talk about this say it’s amazing. What are they so excited about?

U: Some people talk about an experience. This may have been a particularly amazing experience in the story of that person. But an experience none the less. Only an experience can be amazing. An experience can be anything, including awful. Sometimes when hope for more amazing experiences is seen to be just a thought, the simplicity and ordinariness of what is right now, is appreciated.

J: So when I see hope as just a thought, I will appreciate this?

U: Jemima, you know this already. There is no hope for anyone else to tell you how it is or should be. You don’t need me to tell you because you are the only authority to know this. What hope for anything more could there be right now? This is not going to get any better than exactly the way it is. This is the only reality.

J: That sounds so right. But why do I still feel doubt when you sound so confident and certain?

U: This sounds right because this is what you are. Doubt happens in what you are. Doubt is simply thought happening. Thought, physical sensations and all experience goes on happening in what you are which is never touched by any of this. What you are is absolutely nothing. In this is everything happening, including doubt.

J: So if everything still happens, is doubt happening for you?

U: Whether there is one thought or another is irrelevant. There are all kinds of thoughts that happen but what I am (what you are) doesn’t care. It is also irrelevant, what is happening for me. So if I told you a story of what is happening for me, this would be simply a piece of information that you could file away in your book of understanding. You are absolutely alone. There is no me or you. There is only you.

DIALOGUE WITH RADCLIFFE

Radcliffe: Why is it I am only aware of my life and my sensations if we are all one?

Unmani: This idea that we are all one, is simply a thought happening. It is a belief that you have perhaps heard or read. It sounds lovely but I have no idea what it means. The sensations happen in what I am (what you are) which is much less than one. It is absolutely nothing. There are only these sensations. The belief in other peoples’ sensations is a thought-sensation happening in absolutely nothing. No body owns them and nobody owns life.

R: But to say that there are no other sets of sensations would be insane. Just because I can’t know them, doesn’t mean they’re not there.

U: What is being pointed to is absolutely insane! I’m not suggesting that you now believe that other people’s sensations are not there. I am simply pointing to what is, without delving into thought. All that is, is this sensation, this image, this sound.

R: So what do you mean by ‘what I am is what you are’ if you don’t know anything about what sensations are happening for me? It sounds like we are absolutely separate.

U: What you are is absolutely nothing. This is the emptiness in which all sensation happens. You know this right now beyond all these questions and words. What you are is the nothing that knows this image of apparent separate characters. It is a paradox which can’t be understood. There is the appearance of separate characters and this happens in that which knows no concept of separation.

R: If this can’t be understood, so what can I do to recognise this?

U: What could you possibly need to do to know absolutely nothing. In not knowing anything, this is known. You don’t need to do anything. But anything can happen. All happenings happen in what you are which needs no recognition or understanding.

R: This is easy for you to say when you already recognise this. I don’t know this yet.

U: There is an assumption that there is a separate character sitting over here that recognises something. Actually all there is, is an image. You don’t know anything more than that. I don’t know anything more than you. What you don’t know is what I don’t know!