Father Abbot Robert O.S.B. aka
"Quantum Robert"* Presents!!!!
*Just as electromagnetic energy absorbs or emits in a discrete packet (i.e., quantum),
so, too, is Robert just a discrete packet of energy absorbing and emitting information.☺If you wish a LIVE!!! presentation delivered to your community (however that might be configured, i.e., corporate, educational, psycho-social, drug rehab, spiritual, etc.), just let us know by emailing us. Please give us requested date or dates, city/state, county as well as a general description of the type of nonduality presentation and outcomes desired. Please also note the number of participants. We will get back to you shortly with Father Abbot's availability and further questions re presentation. Cost? The White Robed Monks of St. Benedict gratefully accept donations.
Email directly (Fr.) Robert OSB.
Excerpt from a live Science and Nonduality Conference presentation: Nonduality: Monastic Perspective
Below, please find the PowerPoint Slides (in PDF format) w/ Abstracts of A. or Q. Robert's previous Science and Nonduality Conference presentations:
• Theme: Form ≡ Emptiness ≡ Emptiness ≡ Form.
• Intention: to relieve one's attachment to one's allusions (false stories), delusions (false beliefs), and illusions (false perceptions).
• Goal: to assist one in alleviating one's own unnecessary pain and suffering (worry, anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, or blame).
• Method: to educate (L. e=out + ducere=to lead), to bring forth one's own acquiescence to the Human Condition and, hence, be free of it.
• Behavioral Objective: Laughing & Being Merry, Quieting and Being Still as one enjoys this Merry Dance! of Life in all of its facets with wonderment and awe.************************************************************************************** INDEX
- 2010 Abstract Title "From beyond the I: Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Believing"
- 2011 Abstract Title "On the Edge of Time: The Perception of Time"
- 2012 Abstract Title "Nature of the Self: NO SELF"
- 2013 Abstract Title "Exploring Consciousness and Perception: The Nature of Perception: A Phenomenological Perspective"
- 2014 Abstract Title "The Entanglement of Life: God, Love, Sex: Quantumly Entangled Experience"
- 2015 Abstract Title "What does God, Love, and Sex have to do with Consciousness?"
- 2016 Abstract Title "Death: the Ultimate Nondual Experience (Phenomenological Insight)"
- 2017 Abstract Title "A Resolution to the Human Condition: A Phenomenology of an Emergent Universe: "
- 2018 Abstract Title "Adviata for the 21st Century: A Phenomenology of Nondual Interdependence"
- 2019 Abstract Title "How come we aren't one yet? Or are we?: Phenomenology of Relationship"
- 2020 Abstract Title "Phenomenology of Living with Dying"
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- 2010 Abstract Title "From beyond the I: Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Believing"
We live our lives based upon possibilities and assumptions we create. We then call these possibilities and assumptions our beliefs. Because these assumptions or beliefs are held in the mind, are products of the mind, they are made-up, created. We then believe our beliefs. We call them true or false. If our beliefs are challenged, we argue, fight, or declare war upon each other to find out whose belief is supposedly true. Some of us love the drama and, within it, create meaning and purpose for our lives in a universe with no meaning and purpose as the universe is just as it is that it is.
None of us really knows what we each are doing. We may believe we know what we are doing and, in the same moment, we may realize that we also made erasers for our pencils or can press the delete button on our key pad.
Examine how we interpret our lives and our experience. What assumptions have we made about our own selves and the world, and have left these assumptions unexamined for months, years, and millennia? For how many years did we believe the Earth was flat? Being without thought, as infants, did we actually choose not to like spinach - or did we just not like spinach? From whence do we emerge our thought, feelings, emotions, sensations? We have science that can explain via neuro networking activity how we think, feel, sense, and emote . And from beyond the I, we know, neither from our science nor from our experience, that we make all of this up. So let us let our ego-selves reside in Peace and let our beliefs be just what they are - beliefs.
→ The 2010 PPT Presentation: Nonduality (Comprehensive)
- 2011 Abstract Title "On the Edge of Time: The Perception of Time"
No Time! The mind of a child knows no time. The child lives in an ever-present now, the proverbial kingdom of heaven, nirvana, or the like. Within the now, what is time? How does time exist? Time is an illusion, albeit a false perception. How is time a false perception? Perceptions are true as perceptions; that is what they are. Do we not perceive from inside our heads? We create time. We create Linear Time. We create the past, the present, the future: all but thought forms. We create even different types of time to suit our self-created purposes. Time is just a measurement of motion. Who measures? We do. Remove us, remove time. There is no time. If anything, just Eternal Now.
The mind of a child is resilient - it just lets go. The mind of a child has no ego, no personal stake, no belief and, hence, no past, no present, or no future: just now. No more, no less, being present, being before reality itself as it meets the eye. The mind of a child is Presence - as suggested by the Latin root: pre + esse: to be before. Hey folks, it's just entertainment!
The person who generates the perspective of a child knows no unhealthy stress. There is no past conflicting with a future from a present. What is, is. What isn't, isn't. From within this perspective one generates healthy and productive resolutions for events now past, plans for events in a yet to be future from within an ever fleeting present.
One deals effectively, efficiently, and effortlessly with tasks at hand, handling illusionary past-present-future situations and events simultaneously - as they are just now.
→ The 2011 PPT Presentation: No Time
- 2012 Abstract Title "Nature of the Self: NO SELF"
About what "Self" are we speaking? There is the conventional "self" we reference in the Great Trinity: Me, Myself, and I. There is the "self" refracted in conventional reality: The True Self, The Guardian Self, The Frightened Self, The Spiritual Self, etc. If these are not sufficient, we also have reference to the Transcendental Self, the Mystical Self, and, of course, the Enlightened Self and, most especially, the Nondual Self. For some, the "self" is but a metaphor for bio-electro-chemical activity in the brain that generates the illusion of one self. For others, "self" is the sine qua non of human essence/existence itself.
Applying Occam's razor to these conflicting hypotheses about the self, we can generate a description of the self in linguistically limiting words. We know unconditionally, given the Mind of a Child, the "self" being simply self-identity as absolute contradiction, perceiving oneness of cause and effect, knowing one before one and two or more. Its nature: not this, not that. Such self-identity as absolute contradiction is totally unconscious of itself, yet totally aware, and, hence, is not imprisoned in the intellectually bifurcated state of consciousness that knows only dualism. Hence, there is neither Self nor No Self. There is just one without self. Hence, the nature of self is without self.
Let us surrender our delusions about the nature of the self, our beliefs which are, by nature, all inherently false. (There is a lie in every belief.) The same with allusions, our false stories about the nature of the self that we use to keep us away from truly waking-up. The same with illusions, our false perceptions about the nature of the self in that we fail to realize the myths of our own creation. Our beliefs, stories, and perceptions are they not anyway but fantasies as we create in our heads for our entertainment or distraction?
How does one surrender? How does one fall asleep? "Let it be" - FIAT! - unconsciously. If we are conscious and try to go to sleep, the more unsettled or restless we are. Surrender and let be, being without self.
The goal of this workshop: To consciously learn to unconsciously let be and to simply enjoy the Merry Dance! of Life with those two characters: Merriment and Glee. Peace.
→ The 2012 PPT Presentation: Mind of a Child
- 2013 Abstract Title "Exploring Consciousness and Perception: The Nature of Perception: A Phenomenological Perspective"
The self, as such, is but the result of electro-chemical responses over synapses in our brains. We use these electro-chemical responses to render the illusion (false perception) of the self or ego as being a real, actual entity. We evolve a set of beliefs about this ego whereby we begin to delude (false beliefs) ourselves. We overlook that in every belief there is a lie, the lie being that the belief is true, factual, and/or absolute. Based upon these illusions and delusions, we compose the story, the allusion, of our life history. The ego-belief-story exists only in our heads and as such is but a fantasy, is it not?
In a quantum view, our perception of the world - what we sense: see, hear, smell, touch, taste and even think about is based upon what we believe. Change our belief, change our perception. What is comfortably hot for one person in the Tropics is extremely uncomfortable for another in the Antarctic. Witnessing a human body sliced open for some is horribly gross; for another, just a matter of course as is the case for a surgeon. The taking of life for one is despicable; yet for another, just a job as for a state executioner carrying out the will of the people in the name of justice.
When all is said and done, the basic want of all humans is a pleased self: a sense of satisfaction and completion. This is so whether we use fear or desire to motivate ourselves to action or inaction. We all have the same urges: to live to know, to be happy in the sense of being unlimited, and be at peace within oneself in our surroundings. We know from experience that we are not our ego, not our mind, not our body. We are nothing more or less than simply self-evident consciousness. This self-evident consciousness is the very nature of living, knowing, and being happy. This is that. The knower and the known are the knowing. The perceiver and the perceived are the perceiving. No matter how we mentally or physically change, we yet remain the same as we know from our experience.
How do we attain peace? Know the un-peaceful belief, feel/sense that belief, let it go; create a new belief.
→ The 2013 PPT Presentation: Perception
- 2014 Abstract Title "The Entanglement of Life: God, Love, Sex: Quantumly Entangled Experience"
Phenomenology - the science of experience itself - offers many splendid perspectives, even the nondual perspective of the Mind of a Child. Ever wondered how you got here or partnered - romantically, professionally, spiritually - with someone? A chance accident? A seeming coincidence? Or something else? Like synchronicity at-play?
With some experience under our belts, we eventually surrender to the fact that, on some level, what we have in our life right now is exactly what we want and what we do not have in our life right now is exactly what we want. We have surrendered to full and absolute nondual responsibility for the integrity of our life.
The more we become aware of how our life is a mirror reflection of our intentionality (our sentient, non-cognitive caring, what we truly care about without thought), the more we realize our place within the quantumly entangled universe of our own personal lives (family, state/culture, church) and of those in our purview, known and unknown. How do we attract what we want - whatever we have or not in our life?
As the saying goes: when the student is ready, the teacher shows up - our god(s), our successes, our lover(s), our failures, our sexual encounters: all real or imagined.
Be no longer co-dependent (attached): independent, interdependent, intradependent. Being without attachment (expectation) reflects our nondual nature. Let us take final responsibility for our quantum entanglement, get out of our own way, remediate unnecessary pain and suffering in our life, and be able to actually love. How? Just cut the cord. Unentangle the entanglement. How? Join us. Actualize your quantum nature as the creator of your experience (rather than its victim or by-product).
Looking forward to making your acquaintance. Thank you. Peace and Joy!
→ The 2014 PPT Presentation: The Entanglement of Life
- 2015 Abstract Title "What does God, Love, and Sex have to do with Consciousness?"
What is it like to be aware sexually; to be aware in love; to be divinely, universally or eternally aware? What is it like to be conscious sexually; to be consciously in love; to be divinely, universally or eternally conscious? After these "whats" are addressed, how is it possible to be aware and/or conscious sexually, lovingly, eternally?
There is a distinction we create in being aware and being conscious, although many times we use the terms interchangeably. We might recall the distinction between wetness and water - one goes with the other. Water is just wet. Yet we call water hard or soft. Awareness and Consciousness go hand-in-hand, yet one can be aware and not conscious.
Recall the inebriated person who says the evening before, I am loaded! and is not conscious of that fact the next morning. Yet, that individual's awareness remains the same: he is aware that he was unconscious of what happened the night before.
Awareness we sense as being nondual and somewhat absolute; consciousness, dual and relative. When we are in a new relationship, we are aware of the other's quirks and disregard them, drive them from consciousness, in the vitality of the moment. Only later do we again allow ourselves to notice these quirks, take them personally and start creating issues. We will not speak of our own quirks that we are aware of and tend to disregard as well.
To be conscious we need a functioning delivery system - a CNS. To be aware, on the other hand, comes with the package of being in the phenomenal world as we apperceive from an empty living field - the field of our experience according to our cosmic make-up in the moment. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Are you consciously aware? Find out. Join us.
→ The 2015 PPT Presentation: What does God, Love, and Sex have to do with Consciousness?
- 2016 Abstract Title "Death: the Ultimate Nondual Experience (Phenomenological Insight)"
What exactly is that edge of the known and unknown? In the inner most parts of our hearts we each know and some of us are afraid to admit it. The edge is as sharp as a razor's and as exquisite as that of a diamond.
For Star Trek, the edge of the (un)known was "Space: the final frontier ..., to boldly go where no man has gone before."
And yet there is an edge much more intimate and personal. How we approach this edge is in direct proportion to how we accept unconditionally and with full and absolute positive regard our ultimate Presence in Non-presence.
We know (or we think we know) to this point that we are essentially composed of the energy reformed into finite matter at Big Bang and, hence, we are composed of star dust. We also know that the energy cannot be created or destroyed. It always been in some form - eternal, one might say. We are eternally infinite and infinitely eternal. And what is the edge of the (un)known?
Death. Some are afraid of Death as others are in awe of it. Some rush toward it, others try to avoid it at all costs. To the degree we have not accepted our own Death, to that same degree have we not accepted our Life. We live in fear - fear of dying and, hence, are really afraid to live.
Given what we presume to be true to date, we are eternally infinite material forms inhabiting a planet by living inhibiting lives. Join with us to discuss the edge of the (un)known in terms of our conventional day-to-day lives. Learn to let-go of the neurotic fear of death and dying and learn to live once again with the perspective of a child, unafraid to meet with Life with merriment and glee. See you!
→ The 2016 PPT Presentation: The Ultimate Nondual Experience
- 2017 Abstract Title "A Phenomenology of an Emergent Universe: A Resolution to the Human Condition"
Each discipline's perspective has its own connotation for emergence. For example, emergence may be Order out of chaos or may refer to the existence or formation of collective behaviors – what parts of a system do together that they would not do alone or a phenomenon whereby larger entities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities such that the larger entities exhibit properties the smaller/simpler entities do not exhibit. In short, out of what into what.
Out of what did the phenomenon of the universe, and the collective behaviors of God, love, and sex emerge? Into what is God, love, and sex emerging? Tenderness, perhaps? The Heart Sutra, a concise summation of Quantum Theory and Buddhism, recommends that Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form. It is commonly held that the Universe emerged (done deal) or emerges (continuing process) out of nothing. Nothing itself holds various connotations: that out of which a void emerges to chaos (which implies things in random disarray), to that space of existent/nonexistent energy packets. And such we find ourselves amid the emerging universe today: the human condition comprised of complex behaviors of worry, depression, anxiety and/or presence, peace, and joy.
What comprises form or emptiness? The composition of either comprises the composition of God, love, and sex and/or presence, peace, and joy: the foundation of the Human Condition. From what perspective does resolution to the Human Condition emerge? From what perspective does perspective itself emerge? The name of this perspective? Join us a stimulating exposition and discussion of a perspective far beyond form and emptiness.
Laugh and be Merry, Quiet and be Still. See you! Peace.
→ The 2017 PPT Presentation: A Resolution to the Human Condition
2017 Presentation Handout A: An Eschatological Laundry
2017 Presentation Handout B: Awareness Meditations
- 2018 Abstract Title "Advaita for the 21st Century: A Phenomenology of Nondual Interdependence"
Let us dwell in our creation of science, mystery, and the human experience. We think we know from science how many aspects of our experience have come to be and are. Yet, a scientist would admit that there is no absolute scientific explanation for anything. We may conclude that the mystery of Life is but a fantasy of our own creation.
We do not know how to cure the common cold nor why or how we maintain a blood pressure. What perhaps may be the mystery of the human experience is our inability to overcome our natural propensity for violence, genocide, and other egregious ways of being while at the same time evidence compassion, empathy, and good will toward our fellow human beings.
We are not all that different from our ancestors in the cave. We fight for territory, for what we believe is right or The Truth. We talk about peace and brotherhood, yet act contrary much of the time whether we admit it or not.
We waver between trust and distrust, confidence and a lack thereof. Hence, we find ourselves in the world of duality creating controlling issues or evidencing arrogance or experiencing feelings of alienation. Yet, we somehow know such practices are self-defeating as we become ever more aware of nondual interdependence.
We are our own aggregate mystery. And it all happens in our heads — this illusion we call the human experience.
Let us join together and fathom the way out of our self-created conundrum. Join-in an eye-opening experience of mystery, wonderment, and awe. Thank you.
→ The 2018 PPT Presentation: Advaita for the 21st Century: A Phenomenology of Nondual Interdependence - 2019 Abstract Title "The Fundamental Matter of Love: Phenomenology of Relationship"
Peace.
Relationship is typically defined as the way in which two or more concepts, objects or people are connected - or - the state of being connected. Internally, how we relate to our thoughts, feelings, and emotions as well as, externally, to people, places, things and events - images how much we experience peace and joy, spontaneity and warmth as well as worry, depression, and anxiety. Ah ha! Love, The Human Condition.
Let us dwell for a few moments on how to relate such that we experience and share peace and joy and actually love. How? Learning to engender the spirit of equanimity and not taking life as a personal event. How do we engender a equanimous perspective? How do we show-up in life with composure, calmness, levelheadedness, self-possession, self-control, even-temperedness, coolness, cool-headedness and presence of mind? How do we take life not as an impersonal event but as a non-personal event? How are we love?
Hint: let's discuss the Human ego, the source of the so-called ten thousand tribulations. Let's take a look at our delusions (false beliefs), illusions (false perceptions) and allusions (false stories about ourselves and life). Let's unfold how we are the Eye of the Needle through which, with the thread of our intention, we do mend the fabric of our life. Let's relate with conscious, awake awareness. Let's just laugh and be merry, be quiet and still; it is all one in the same, is it not?
See you in the conference room!→ The 2019 PPT Presentation: The Fundamental Matter of Love: Phenomenology of Relationship - 2020 Abstract Title "Living with Dying"
Peace.
Keep death always before your eyes. (*Rule of St. Benedict 4:47)
How do we live our own individual aspect of life - between birth and its completion, death? We each begin being unconsciously incompetent about life and how to live life. We are nondual. We just live life as it is for us in that moment.
As we age we realize that something is going on «out there». Wonderment! What's going on? We become consciously incompetent. We created duality for ourselves.
Aging more we think we learn how to live life. We learn to deal with life's offerings in clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades. We create joy - sorrow, frustration - elation, ups - downs as we skim life's surface. We form conditional habit patterns of behavior: depression, worry, anxiety, emotional involvement, affectations, attachments. We use these creations to drain ourselves of our will as we become slaves of passion: power, status, prestige along with drugs, sex, rock 'n roll OR the equivalent for us in the moment. We use these experiences to mask our ontological anxiety about our own personal DEATH. We are now consciously competent
Eventually, we get it! We get it that we are making all of «this» up. We own the lie in every belief. We come to our own actual nature: the mind of a child - that knows no worry, depression or anxiety, having no-thought even when thinking; paying no-mind to what we are emerging internally (thoughts, feelings, emotions) or externally (people, places, things, events). We awaken to our nondual way of being aspects of the space-time continuum. We just live life with an eye to a possible future in the moment now. We address life with a spirit of compassionate equanimity smiling often. We are now unconsciously competent.
See you! Thank you. :-)
→ The 2020 MOV Presentation: Living with Dying BONUS:
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