Here-Now-TVLived Wisdom!
Talk with Richard Sylvester from May 2019.
This interview with Richard Sylvester took place in October 2016, questions by ANdy aka Andreas Hegewald.
The same kind of chat taking place in Richard’s meetings since years – and Richard is enjoying it; Nonduality as part of spirituality; about Richard’s books, the first one “I hope you die soon”, soon written after the realization; “just relax”, enlightenment for the lazy person; the common period of despair before the dropping away of the self; the empty show – almost like a hologram; the book “The Book of No One”; “Drink Tea, Eat Cake” and its story of coming in existence; lazy writing – “only” editing the transcripts; the Zen saying “Cutting wood and carrying water...”; Richard’s humour; the latest enormous book “Non-Duality Questions, Non-Duality Answers”, another example for lazy writing, a collection of e-mail questions and answers; about Richard’s having stopped to answer e-mail questions; almost certain his last book about non-duality; about the book writing in cafés; about the using of drugs and their possible (no) effect in realization of the truth; electrical stimulation of the brain to effect certain experiences; Freud’s phrase of “the narcissism of little differences”; about the more stronger and more raw but less neurotic feelings after realization; about techniques; relationships after liberation – no rules at all; about bliss; when nothing has a meaning and nothing matters; the tree moving seeing in front of the window; nothing right, nothing wrong, simply what happens; about the fear of dying and the fear of death; about hope; despair is more relaxing than hope; depressions; the authentic self; non-duality talks with “therapy light” – confusing; “Confessions of a Seeker”, maybe the title of the next book of Richard.
This meetings from Richard Sylvester are from Berlin May 8./9. 2015.
Many thanks to Manik for these videos!
Video from Friday, May 8, 2015
Thanks to Manik, who did the filming of this talk with Richard Sylvester for us in October 2014.
The laws of physics; the expectations of change; dependencies of the individual characters; clearing blockages in order to see enlightenment; multitude of transformations is based on the assumption of separation; feeling oneself separate; the point is: no necessity to inside or outside changes – both in here and out there do not exist! The shattering of the appearance of separateness; literally unimaginable – a “person” cannot imagine it; unimaginable and completely ordinary; it is guaranteed that the sense of self will collapse; the end of everything I believed – but I still find myself here; the loss of everything seems insignificant; the loss of something which never really existed; it depends on how addicted the character is to stories; the role of childhood experiences.
Thanks to Manik, who did the filming of this talk with Richard Sylvester for us in October 2014.
Thanks to Manik, who did the filming this of talk with Richard Sylvester for us in October 2014.
This interview was conducted by Andreas Hegewald alias ANdy with Richard Sylvester in August 2014. Camera: ANdy; Translation: Oreas Kotschi.
Non-duality means seeing that there is no person and non self; there is just what appears; it seems as if there was a person, who experiences everything and it also seems there is past and presence; there appear to be many things, which complicate life of this person; the purpose seems to be to go somewhere in order to achieve a target in the future; all this makes it very difficult to see that there is just THIS; it is all about being liberated from something, not about having the freedom to do something particular; freedom from perception of being a person; with the disappearance of the person all other things like free will, responsibility, purpose disappear, all that collapses; we no longer have to work on our responsibilities and our targets, we do not have to work on anything at all, which seems to belong to a person; even after liberation everything can happen, life goes on and what appears simply appears; in the traditional teaching there is the relative and the absolute, but when the self collapses, it seems that both are the same; it is about seeing through the appearance of self, then it is seen that “my life” does not exist and relaxation can happen; it is not about anything; relaxation here now is the key to the Buddha-nature; there is no advice to be given; liberation from the self is the end of personal suffering, however, liberation contains everything and does not exclude suffering; non-duality cannot be exploited; about free will; who can have a free will? The free will collapses with the person; the direct seeing that there is no self; the difference between letting go and not being attached; letting go is a technique to protect from pain, but this has a high price: the loss of being connected with life; the unspeakable cannot be spoken; liberation cannot be seen or achieved by a person; liberation is being seen, when the person who wants to see liberation does not exist any longer; nothing has to be changed, life goes on, but for no one.
As MP3 audio Watch the video via YouTube
Thank you to Manik for filming and editing this video with the talk of Richard Slyvester in Berlin
Thank you to Manik for filming and editing this video with the talk of Richard Slyvester in Berlin. Watch the video
This interview was done by Andreas Hegewald (ANdy) with Richard Sylvester in May 2014. It was filmed by Dustin Bauer.
It can be directly seen that there is no self; metaphor of the managing director; seeing through the so called “self”; no one was ever controlling anything; neuro-scientists are confirming this; the metaphors of night time dreams and cinemas; often reports of laughter when this is seen through; the seeker is looking for things to do, is desperate to find; the concept of liberation; the practice of self enquiry is questionable; the energy of contraction of self enquiry; no person; practicing is irrelevant; no interest in the mass effects; Sam Harris book on free will; the person is not there; the mind finds the concept of non-duality extremely frustrating; the feeling of “something is missing”; we have to lose our self; no rules of awakening; awakening as a sudden seeing of emptiness; not understanding what happened; after the flash there is despair – but a big relief; relaxation is the great blessing; there is experience but there is no experiencer; there is just this; awareness is a tricky word; the absolutely obvious is that phenomena are happening; energy and consciousness are happening; seeing the fullness is the absolute end of searching; seeing everything is nothing and the end of stupidity; everything is love; mind is not getting this; mind will be seeking always; there are cases where no separation was active at any stage (e.g. J. Krishnamurti); the glimpse of emptiness; the virtue of laziness; there is no method but if there would be a method it would be to relax; in eternity the concept of time arises; the mind lives in time; awareness is everywhere; there is not any everywhere; no words to describe the indescribable; cause and effect just happen; awakening to the dream; the reality of the dream; the illusion of dream; even the mind will lose interest in knowing; the mystics know that nothing can be known.
As MP3 audio Watch the video via YouTube
For thirty years Richard engaged with a variety of spiritual practices while also training in psychotherapeutic techniques and teaching counselling.
In 2002 Richard met Tony Parsons and as he writes in his first book "That was the end of what I thought had been my life." There then occurred two events which he describes as 'awakening' and 'liberation'. Richard lives in a country town in England. He gives talks on non-duality in Germany and England.
Richard has written three books about non-duality, all available in German and English: I Hope You Die Soon (Erleuchtet - und was jetzt?), The Book Of No One (Das Buch Niemand) and Drink Tea, Eat Cake (Wer braucht eigentlich Nirwana?)
