Exploring the two main differences between escapism and transcendence 

Listener question: How would you explain non duality / spirituality to a ten year old? 

Looking at Gangaji's words: We have tried everything to get rid of suffering. We have gone everywhere to get rid of suffering. We have bought everything to get rid of it. We have ingested everything to get rid of it. Finally, when one has tried enough, there arises the possibility of spiritual maturity with the willingness to stop the futile attempt to get rid of it and, instead, to actually experience suffering. In that momentous instant, there is the realization of that which is beyond suffering, of that which is untouched by suffering. There is the realisation of who one truly is.

Looking at Unmani's words: "Recognising who you really are, will destroy you and your whole life as you know it."

Looking at Alan Watt's words: "This image of yourself  is obviously not real.  Any more than the idea of a tree is a tree.  Any more than you can get wet in the word ‘water’."

Looking at Tony Parsons' words, "Being is totally whole just being. And it is alive and fleshy and sexy and juicy and immediately this; it’s not some concept about ‘there’s no-one here’. It’s not some concept about ‘there’s nowhere to go’. It’s the aliveness that’s in that body right now. There is pure beingness, pure aliveness."

Looking at the quote from Deepak Chopra "The real you is a field of intelligence in which the person you have identified yourself with, all other persons, as well as the environment in which they exist, all co-arise and co-evolve as a result of your own self-interactions."

Continuing a conversation from a webinar yesterday about what happens when it is realised that reality is a hall of mirrors 

Listener question: Can you explain the film metaphor? 

Listener question: 

Clare, 
I have three of your books, I listen to your podcasts and I have watched some of your videos. Yet I cannot work out how to live a life that is not dominated by negative thinking, anxiety and occasional panic...

....these thoughts were like the straw that broke the camel’s back with all the other shit in my life.  I’m waiting for an appointment with a consultant. So I don’t feel well. I feel shit actually. I need to decorate some of my house but don’t feel well enough. I work long shifts that are very tiring and I look after someone some of the week. I sometimes feel that I just cannot cope with it ‘all’. 

 It ALL. Is it really so much? Someone else might just cope with this stuff like water of a duck’s back, right?

I try my circuit breakers (your podcast on this was great) . Meditation. Trying some exercise, wine, beer, food, etc and of course it doesn’t work. How could it? But I cannot grasp this ‘isness’ that you speak of underneath all this shit... How can I? Obviously not on the level of the mind. I listen, but I will never understand on that level, will I?

 I know on the level of thought that this is like living in the Dream... But how do yo free yourself from this ?

 How do you do it?