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The amazing thing about recognizing
and gaining familiarity with open intelligence, is that,
because it’s the basis of every impression and idea and feeling that we have,
that when we allow the feeling of not being at home to be as it is
then we realize very deeply that that is our home,
that feeling of not being at home is where we find our most cozy home possible.
And equally, when we feel like we are at home, that’s also where our home is.
And because our home is everything, everywhere, all pervasive,
it means that our sense of home is infinite.
It comes with us wherever we go and it stays with us however we feel.
And this is similar to the fact that
the sky always pervades everything that appears within it.
And an airplane can fly past carrying one of those signs saying,
“I’m not at home” but the sky is deeply at home
even when that plane’s flying through.
So when we allow data to be as it is,
open intelligence is instinctively obvious to us.
And we can always return to that when we remember
allow everything to be as it is
and find our home exactly where we are,
because that’s the only place that we will ever find ourselves in,
everything else is hypothetical.
So we are born here,
and where we are right now, that’s where we are born,
that’s where we live and that’s where we die, we are always just here,
infinitely and naturally perfect,
and we can just allow that to be as it is.
There’s no need necessarily to think about it or formulate it or figure it out or...
it’s just the way it is,
open intelligence pervading everything.
And so being together, for me, I don't know if it’s like this for everybody, but for me
the most significance I can see over the last six years that has most strongly affected me,
in terms of my own gaining assurance in spontaneous benefit,
is simply spending time with other people for whom it is deeply rooted.
And of course, as well as that or on top of that, is my own practice of short moments
and the teaching texts. But for me personally,
the most powerful thing has been spending time with my teacher and community.
And I find that just spending time with people,
in a receptive and an open way,
that those people's qualities who I deeply admire
and cherish and honor, become my own,
without me having to do anything at all.
And so this is one of the incredible benefits of having a teacher,
is that the more open and receptive we can allow ourselves to be,
the more naturally we find that the qualities we aspire to,
they just become increasingly evident in our experience,
without us having to do anything at all, anything clever or anything complicated,
without us having to work anything out.
For me it’s almost like...
probably most people in my generation
have spent far too much time playing computer games,
or maybe it’s a good thing, I don't know, but loads of time.
And in computer games, usually there are cheats, that you can look up on the Internet,
and you type in a certain thing and then suddenly you’re on the last level,
or you know, you go through whole game and nothing can harm you, or something like that.
And for me the Four Mainstays is like a cheat, it is like, “Oh!”
Part of me is like, “Oh, that seems a bit too easy.”
you know, part of me, just through habit, wants it to be difficult.
But the more I’ve just resigned to the simplicity of it, the more effective it’s become.
So just participation in this wonderful community
of people who are deeply committed to living a life full of love,
active participation in that, and commitment to that,
and being a support to each other in that,
this is the best way to get the most benefit out of our stay, during these two weeks.
And this is what you’ve been doing naturally, so that's easy.
Like Candice said in the video,
“Spontaneous benefit is our natural propensity as human beings.”
And the fact that it’s our natural propensity implies
that it doesn't require us to do something to arrive at it.
And,so...
I remember before I left Bristol, I had...
I lived in Bristol for a couple of years with the community there
and I sort of moved out a few months ago.
So I had a lovely gathering, where I invited the community over just to have some food together.
And one of our community members has the best dog in the world,
so the dog came as well, and it was amazing.
Half way through the gathering, somebody noticed that, wow,
every time somebody arrived at the gathering,
this beautiful dog instantly jumped up, just to go to greet the person.
And we realized, wow, that’s so beautiful,
as soon as she realized somebody new had arrived,
she was like, “Oh, I have to go say hello to them and welcome them!”
It’s like the best open meeting person in the world,
this dog likes to greet and welcome, “Hello and we’re so happy you’re here.”
And so somebody noticed that this dog is just
perfect mastery of being an open meeting welcomer.
And I’ve always been very inspired by animals,
and how they have a level of simplicity and innocence
that has really really supported me to benefit from the Mainstays fully,
because the more I have adopted that simplicity,
the more easy it’s become for me to benefit from the Mainstays.
Whereas when I first came to the Training,
I was so full of determination, which is brilliant,
but so full of determination, and very little idea of how to use that determination.
And the way that I used it in the beginning was to try to...
it was it was all day long, all day, all night, to try to figure out what is open intelligence.
“How do I best practice open intelligence?
Do I understand open intelligence correctly?
What is the most efficient and quickest way to practice open intelligence?
What’s the most effective practice? Am I practicing correctly?”
And I just thought about that continuously
and whenever it occurred to me that I had the choice to take a short moment,
I first had to think about
whether it’s a good idea to take a short moment, for about ten minutes.
And finally, after dipping into my resources of
you know, logic and reason, and then I would finally arrive at the conclusion,
“Yes, taking a short moment is a beneficial response”
And then I would take my short moment.
So if you ever saw me go like that, that was me taking a short moment.
But that ten minutes just decreased and decreased and decreased,
and largely with my teacher’s support,
because my teacher said to me,
“This effort that you’re putting into it
is clearly an expression of how committed you are
to living a beneficial life. It’s an expression of how determined you are to master it.”
He said, “The only thing you need to do is learn to express your commitment more effectively.
And that means to just immediately relax mind and body,
whenever it occurs to you,
without having to assure yourself with logic and reason that it’s a good idea to do that.”
And so slowly, I
had enough experience of the benefit of open intelligence
that I didn't need to think about it anymore.
I just deeply rested every single time it occurred to me to do so,
whether it seemed attractive to me, whether I wanted to do it or not,
whether I was afraid to do it or not, I just did it.
Just rest deeply.
And...
in this way, this spontaneous benefit which is everybody's natural propensity
becomes more and more obvious to us. And we see it in real situations,
like we have a conversation with a friend or a family member,
and for some reason during that conversation we remember to rest deeply.
And we find that our responses
are on an entirely different level of skill and sensitivity and benefit.
And so every time we experience the real, practical expression
of the benefit of open intelligence,
it’s like there is more evidence; we have more experiential evidence of it.
And due to that, we find that we need less,
there’s less hesitation in us to rely full force on open intelligence,
because with our experience of the benefits,
we are just taken over by it
and we know, without any doubt,
that spontaneous benefit is innate to all humans,
not just those that are interested in it and practice it,
also those that aren't interested in it.
And spontaneous benefit is every human being’s natural propensity,
so when we allow ourselves to be open and defenseless,
this is just our natural expression.
And there’s nothing even almost comparable,
in terms of a blessing,
than to be introduced and supported in that.
What could possibly compare?
It’s complete freedom from the prison
of needing to control our data,
and discovering that we are inseparable from the open intelligence of nature itself.
It’s just a full stop on a confused and a complicated life.
We weren't born to live a confused and complicated life,
it takes so much effort.
I think everybody is secretly lazy, even if they’ve grown out of the habit.
And I think that's what it sort of is...
maybe I am just biased, because I am lazy,
so it makes me feel better to have the idea that everybody must be lazy,
so then I feel better about it.
But I think it’s because we know instinctively that there is no effort to make,
we know instinctively that there is nothing to struggle with.
All of the moving around
and emotions and thoughts flying around, and the whole display,
somehow we know.
It's not natural for me
to be so intent on needing to do something about this display, to control it.
And so when we give ourselves these short moments of not struggling with it,
of allowing it to be as it is, then there’s nothing that compares to that relief.
So it’s just like a firework display,
just all kinds of sounds and explosions and things flying around,
but when we look at a firework display, we go “Wow, look how beautiful that is."
But the firework display inside, we go, “No, no, no,
not like that, like this; not like that, like this.”
But if we let it be as it is, then we go, “Wow, look how beautiful that is.”
Thoughts, negative, positive; emotions, negative, positive, neutral,
all over the place, all over the shop, endlessly, ceaselessly, unpredictably.
And it only seems like a a thorn in our side
because we have learned that we need to do something about it,
but we don’t.