Introductory Talks

 Where Death Has No Dominion

Summary: In the absence of any questions for this last session in Linz, Michael gives a short talk about what goes on in his seminars. He tells participants that the crucial shift which is necessary on the Path is from being centred in the mind to being centred in the reality of Oneness, and he goes on to explain how his Work works to facilitate that shift, primarily through the process of resonance. He also stresses that a big step on the journey towards a truly fulfilling human life is to become completely disenchanted with yourself, not merely dissatisfied or discontent, otherwise you will continue to be side-tracked into seeking more satisfaction and contentment on the level of personality, rather than being available to a level beyond.

Well, these are the questions I’ve had from you - in my empty hand. (chuckles) So maybe there were no pencils or pens around, no paper, and you prefer to speak your questions rather than write them. That’s okay. Who’s first? (laughter)

(silence)

Of course, I know it’s my fault, because I know that the work we do drives all the questions away like the wind. (a participant raises their hand) Except one! (laughter)

Participant: I had one question, Michael, but you answered it by giving me my name. I’m sorry. (laughter)

This just goes to show we should have the questions first! (laughter)

(silence)

Now, you maybe all have your own idea or view of what’s been going on here this weekend, and for many of you who come often, of what goes on in the seminars, but I’d like to say a few things about how I see it. I am trying to bring you out of your minds. I’m not trying to destroy your mind, I’m not asking you to give up your minds, but I’m trying to get you from being lost in your minds.

Your mind is full of what you have learned, and read, and understood, and discovered in your life. Everybody has different details depending on who they are when they are born and what they have moved through in their lives. Everybody has a different selection. But reality is the same for all. And we are all part of that reality. And the Work that I do is intended to bring people back to that Oneness. And then the movement of the mind is set off from a place which is outside the mind. The mind is still there, you are still thinking, relating, working things out, but the starting point for that is not in the mind.

When you come from the mind, then whatever you do is not innocent. The mind is already biased, it already has its own view of things even before it decides to move. But when you come from outside the mind and then you move through the mind, then the mind is merely the instrument that you play, the instrument that plays your connection with the One. Now, many of you have had many experiences of being outside the mind, I know. But then it happens that sometimes for many years when one has such experiences, the ordinary mind says, “Ah, I had that experience of being beyond the mind.” So the centre of gravity, the point from which you operate, the nature of your movement and action and view in life, remains in the mind. And the shift has to happen from being centred in the mind to being centred elsewhere.

Now, through the methods of energy it is possible to make that shift. To be one with the universe is to vibrate with the universe. As I said to somebody today when I gave a name meaning ‘walking in emptiness’, that doesn’t really mean you’re empty, it means that you are at one with everything, and so on one level there’s no sense of a distinction between you and everything else, so it feels like an emptiness compared with the life where everything has its own separation, its own identity, its own borders. So when you reach that place, you are vibrating at the same rate as the universe, because you’re one with it. But it comes to me that the reverse is also true - that if you vibrate at the rate of the universe, then you will be one with the universe.

Now, this special vibration that is the universal energy is not confined to a feeling of Oneness only, it can move into whirls of all the other kinds of vibration, but because it is the fundamental vibration, it will move into these other vibrations in such a way as to change the rate of vibration of the other vibrations to be at one with that basic fundamental vibration. And the basic way that I personally try to make this happen is through the process of resonance.

There is in everybody the capacity to vibrate at this fundamental, universal rate, so if that vibration is sent out, then anybody who is open to it will begin to resonate in the same way. But you may not always feel that happening. Sometimes you will, and most of you have this weekend, at least at times, but of course what is often felt is the effect of that basic vibration on all the other ways that we vibrate. So that creates, of course, energetic happenings. And underneath those energetic happenings is this process that I’ve just described, in that this basic vibration, which is the most powerful vibration there is, through its meeting with the other vibrations, is attracting those other vibrations towards itself.

This vibration pervades the world, pervades the universe.

Of course, you can point to specific things about yourself - that you have a body, and you have thoughts, you have your feelings, and you have many things that are very specific about you that have a particular form of their own which is dissimilar to everything else of the same nature. Every leaf in the world, for example - and there are billions of them - is different.

Every raindrop is different. There is an extraordinary variety of forms in existence. So all these differences are there, multiple differences are there, but together with all the multiple differences there is a plane, a continuous unchanging plane of this very delicate, subtle vibration. And when you are in that state of being where you are vibrating in this universal way, then your relationship with the world is one of tranquillity, and bliss, and necessarily a movement of love.

It is not so much that you love, it is that love moves through you and you are love, because by its very nature that vibration reaches out only with love. So it is not a discipline, it is not a morality, it is not a kind of goodness - although those things can also be beautiful. To be a lover of goodness can be beautiful, but this is different. It is simply the way things are. And the potential to live at least sometimes if not always in that way is available to everybody here. Of course, it’s available to every human being on earth, but it is extremely unlikely that the majority of people will find it, because ordinarily in the world there is nothing that is creating a resonance for it, and so nothing in you is going to respond. Only where that vibration is ringing are you going to be able to benefit from this process of resonance.

Of course, you can fall into it in other ways. There are ways which are always accidents and not deliberate, where you can fall into it and suddenly find yourself in fact vibrating in that way. This happens to many people - not so many, but many - and then they have a moment of what is known as satori, where they feel this Oneness. But it’s just an accident. It just happens, and then it cannot be repeated. So there’s a difference between it being a possibility and it being a realistic possibility. And for people here this weekend it is a realistic possibility - not just because you’re here, but because I’ve seen it.

I see it. When I’m working from that dimension, then it is absolutely clear to me that the resonance in each person here is available and it’s awake. The reason why you don’t immediately fall into it and stay in it is because you’re still, as I said earlier, seeing what happens here as an experience that you as a separate personality are having. But your idea of yourself, which of course, in a way, is the self that you know, is really just a representation of what you really are - like somebody who goes to a funeral and says, “I’m representing the Queen of England,” or, “I’m representing the President,” or, “I’m representing the Chairman - he’s away today and I’m standing in for him.” To represent is to somehow stand in for something that is not there, and that is what happens with our normal identity - it is standing in for that which we really are. And as I see it, that is the whole purpose, really, of the serious life, as opposed to the life that just plays along with life - which can also be okay; the whole purpose of the serious life is in fact to find out who you are or what you are. And when you find out what you are, then with everything that you do, you’re not only in a state of joy when you’re there, but it feels joyful to feel that what you are doing is absolutely an expression of what you really are. And then you are living for truth. And then one life is as good as a thousand lives. Then one life is the experience of living a human life on earth. The hunger that brings us back to another life, according to those who say it happens, those who believe in the sense of a continuity of lives, the hunger that brings us back is that we didn’t live yet fully and truly a life.

But to be in that place where you feel you are yourself - you cannot say you are this or that, you are just feeling truly that you are expressing something fundamental in a dimension which is itself fundamental - this is to live a true life. And a big step on that journey is really to become disenchanted with yourself, not just dissatisfied or discontent.

When we’re dissatisfied or discontent we look for new ways in which the personality can operate to bring us more satisfaction or contentment. But to be disillusioned with ourselves is different. It is simply saying that, “I see that this can never work out, that I can never get a full sense of fulfilment through operating through my personality, so I have to give up that project and see what else can give me this feeling of fulfilment.” And the only thing that can give you that fulfilment is this feeling of self- realisation.

(silence)

The world is like a fairground. You can go and shoot rifles, and hit coconuts, and go on the bumper cars and the big wheel - all sorts of things. And it can be very entertaining. And there’s nothing wrong with entertainment. But if you live in such a world and just move from one side- show to another, then you are not going to feel at the end of your life as if you’ve really fulfilled your nature.

But the beauty is that if you find that place that I am describing and pointing to, then anyway death has no dominion, no validity, no power - because if you are joining the universal level, that was there before you were born and it’s going to be there after you die, and so you have transcended the whole birth and death duality, and yet you are participating in life as well.

(silence)

Now, often when I come to Austria and I give spiritual names to Austrian people, I sense in them something very original - something which has been buried under stuff, but is still somehow there. It is a feeling of something deep and true and original here that has been spoilt by currents of energy, political happenings, and so on, which have buried something very precious.

In the Work that I do I am fortunate enough to be able to see beyond this kind of debris that falls on cultures, traditions and countries, and I find that in Austria this precious stone is revealed in many people. There is a kind of star in everybody. And I think I always hope that the whole thing, for these people anyway, can turn around so that the star that has been buried underground can come up through the debris. And part of that is that my experience of coming to Austria, which I’ve been doing regularly now for many years, with much help from some Austrians, is that I get a feeling that the work here is a progression. It is not a starting again each time I come; I always feel when I come here, especially to Linz, where I’ve been coming for a long time, that we carry on from where we left off, even if there are different people here. So I am very optimistic for you all.

(silence)

Now, I look around at you and I see that what I just said was true. So even if you didn’t ask any questions, I gave you some answers. But maybe I’ve provoked some more questions, so if you want to talk about anything that’s come up, or say anything in response to what I have said, then we have time for that.

(silence)

Participant: I want to say something in a special way. I want to play something. (the participant goes and fetches a flute or similar musical instrument and proceeds to play a rather haunting and touching melody)

Thank you. That was very beautiful.

You know, Sandipa said to me, or Anuradha said to me earlier, “Will you be needing the music this afternoon, because Suchata’s taking it back, and she has to leave soon?” and then I said, “No, we won’t need the CDs.” And then just now, when we’d finished talking, I thought, “Well, what a pity - I’d have liked to have played some music now.” And then you provided it. So thank you very much!

(silence)

Well, I could sit here with you all for a little while, I’m sure, without any difficulty, but then we’d have to part after that. And I guess I have to accept that whatever happens when we’re together can also happen to some extent when we part. I have to trust that. So let’s part.

We can’t sit here together forever, so we have to trust that it works out without our being here together. So if you don’t have any more questions, now I’ve had my say, and everybody who wants to join the family of the Energyfield has done so, I can go down and have a nice, quiet cup of coffee and then wander back.

I can tell you it’s been a very rich weekend. There was a lot of hard work done yesterday, as always on a Saturday, but I think there were some results of that hard day which showed this morning, and it was a very beautiful morning. And may the beauty carry into your lives.

Questions and Answers in Linz on 29th May 2005. 32nd in the series, ‘True Happiness’.