Freedom From Spirituality--part 2

[@bentleyjames4617]

I brought your book I’m very thankful for the true freedom

[@discovoid5357]

Robert your sanity, honesty and groundedness are a blessing to resonate with. I especially appreciate your comments on the uptight, authoritarian left. We need to approach cultural matters with the same non-dual outlook if you see what I mean. The so called right wing is simply responding to an imbalance on the left just as the left does at times when the right goes too far. All complex societies need both. Too much order is just as bad as too much chaos and vice-versa. We do seem to have a lot of chaos at the moment though but that is as much to do with social media as anything else I guess.

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thank you, DV. Yes, I lean left myself, or perhaps "progressive" is a better word. But the assumption that one's political ideas are automatically superior simply because one has them is just foolish. That is the downfall of the left: they always assume that they own the higher moral ground, and they simply don't. Yes, the religious right appears to be a clown show where it is believed that "God" loves Trump, but I do not see that those on the left who try to claim that one must not speak of two sexes because that is a "colonial" idea are any better.

[@leocarbaugh5074]

Now THAT is a beautiful cemetery!

[@eddrenaloveland5766]

I think you made a lot of sense when I let go and think of nothing and open my eyes and just fill I make a lot more fillings. Of just enjoying what is now

[@territhomasrn]

Thank you Robert!

[@RobertSaltzman]

My pleasure. :)

[@fernandoplanelles6443]

Beautiful, Robert. Thank you very much.

[@RobertSaltzman]

Mil gracias, amigazo. Te quiero mucho.

[@vasilispourpouris8808]

Thank you Robert, your words are so beautiful. There is so much beauty in those truths! It is always refreshing and elevating hearing someone being so truthful . So rare.....

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thank you, Vasilis. :)

[@lettersquash]

Yes, "luck" rather than "grace"! But I know one way that luck changes, and it's when someone like Robert tells you, with such humility and clear conviction, that nobody knows where all *this* came from. Just hearing about this - if you're already interested in philosophy or some kind of open-minded "seeker" - provides a stimulus that might lead you to ... dare I say it ... "tune in" ... to now. And that's why Robert's chats are so good, because "tuning in" and all that got so distorted over recent decades (and probably was always distorted) in cosmic explanations and rituals and priestly classes and gurus and steps and stages. Keep on seeking for THAT instead of being with THIS, is what much of it says. And even when it tells us to focus on what is, in the here and now, it attaches all sorts of meanings from traditional teachings or new ideologies, that aren't what IS for us.

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thank you, lettersquash. I am happy to hear that.

[@alinafrey1671]

IT IS A VERY BEAUTIFUL COMPARISON THAT THE MOMENT OF NEGATION IS JUST A HIT This ON A HOT IRON THAT YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT. There is a moment of touching the property to be discovered. The discovery is no longer done. The unspeakable but is done. It appears as something coming out of the picture, not fitting in its frame. It is between words and also flows in them. Beautiful , powerful, striking. You gave up the ghost and yet he is here.Thank you for these eternity letters from yourself to myself, pulsating all over with touch

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thank you, Alina. I wish you all the best.

[@irenataskova9222]

Thank you!!!

[@RobertSaltzman]

You're welcome!

[@swhite8381]

This sounds so silly but I am a brown woman and remember hearing Robert Saltzman say that nobody knows the answers to any of life’s major questions and it totally blew my mind . It was amazing. And now it’s so obvious nobody knows but I did not realize that 😆

[@RobertSaltzman]

Hi. It's obvious is you see it, but countless people believe that the answers to life's major questions are in the Bible, or the Q'ran, or in the Upanishads, or even coming out of the mouths of so-called (and often self-appointed) "teachers." That's why I make a point of mentioning it. Every now and then someone hears it. :) With all respect, why do you indenfy yourself a "brown woman." What relevance could skin tone possibly have in a conversation about snapping out of the hypnotic trance of religion and spirituality?

[@swhite8381]

@@RobertSaltzman sorry , that was supposed to say “ grown woman” . I said that because I can’t believe it took someone else pointing it out to me that nobody knows what’s going on here before I could see clearly.

[@RobertSaltzman]

@@swhite8381 Aha. Well, we humans are so deeply conditioned to "respect" the claims of religion and other sources of authority that it is not surprising that you and others need a little hint. I wish you well, whatever shade your skin is.

[@annieandaj]

This pretty much sums it up.....nobody knows. It's that simple and yet we keep trying! Truly futile and exhausting!

[@cuchulainn1967]

GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thanks for that. :)

[@ChrisParkin76]

Hey Robert, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. It's very kind of you. Listening to it was very helpful. I've been seeking awakening pretty heavily 4 to 5 years, and I'm getting really tired. Recently, I met some people that have helped stop seeking. Listening to your talk here is also helpful in the same way. I really got caught up in something that was really difficult for me. Came with some pretty obsessive behaviors that just caused more confusion in the end. Thank you again!

[@RobertSaltzman]

Glad it was helpful, Chris.

[@markoleary5528]

So glad that your continuing these latest talks, Robert...they really do mean a lot to me. And offering a few words of encouragement is the very least I can do, so please keep em coming. I also found your recent Zoom meeting with John Troy to be deeply moving. And it was during that discussion that you raised this particular topic of 'encouragement' and how friends "en-courage" one another. Or more specifically the source of encouragement that John has provided for both you and your work. Lovely when you have that in your life, those kind of friends. I'm also pretty fortunate in that regard as well, Robert.Thanks and be well.

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thank you, Mark. Yes, John has been a great friend. Without his encouragement at a certain time, most likely I would not be speaking this way. It was John who got me onto Facebook in the first place and then KZbin followed.

[@StevenKaeser]

Hi Robert Thank you for taking the time to putting out this content,. What you are talking about has been dawning on me for a while now and the way you put it is giving me an interesting access. I feel the fear of fully falling into it and at the same time I'm curious to see what happens. I've seen that you take the time to answer questions and comments, so I'm gonna try my luck as I'd love to hear your thinking about "planing actions and following goals". Often, the goals we make are subdued in a hierarchy of values that we have internalized, influenced by personal and cultural narratives - those again are based on religious ideas or ideas of self-discipline / self-improvement. How do you see these goals and planing co-exist with your worldview / present moment experience?

[@RobertSaltzman]

Thank you, Steven. Goals, religious ideas, desires for self-improvement, and whatever else you see, feel, think, or otherwise experience are part of the present moment. You may imagine a future, but that "future" is a fantasy, and when the future you are imagining arrives, it will not be as you imagined but will have its own goals, ideas, desires, etcetera. Seeing this clearly may reduce your habit of looking to the "future," which is not anything factual but a projection of the fears and desires of the present.

[@konrad1811]

Recognizing you are lost makes you a bit less lost. Maybe in a way what we do is falling in and out of different hypnotic states of minds. Hypnotic = following not being aware we are following ideas and emotions.

[@tomsmith2361]

🎉😊👍

[@BuddyRetie]

Dear Robert. I am aware of your criticism of non duality. But when I listen you, and I like listening to you, I feel that your message is the same like the message of some of the non dual teachers. You are just using different words. When you talk in some of your video's about synchronicities, not being there, not being Robert, being in the flow, you describe exactly the same "something" which can't be put into words. Maybe I am wrong. The story with the wine bottle when your tacher passed. What a coincidence. Thank you for your work.

[@RobertSaltzman]

Hi. The word nonduality means different things to different people. I am reporting my personal experience of functioning in the world as an awake human primate animal, not teaching "nonduality." Nonduality is a fad that began in the early 1990s. Many people became "teachers" for fun and profit by jumping on the bandwagon and branding themselves as "nondual speakers." I have little interest in what any such "teachers" have to say about anything.

[@BuddyRetie]

@RobertSaltzman Thank you very much. I deeply appreciate that you replied.

[@RobertSaltzman]

My pleasure. I revised and expanded my reply to you here: facebook.com/groups/3633907716835096/posts/4344403672452160/

[@BuddyRetie]

Thank you, Mr. Saltzman. I value myself more after watching your videos.

[@diannea.2587]

I don't really understand this thing about defending Jordan Peterson. He is pretty right wing and comes across in my opinion as having a very angry and aggressive attacking attitude towards others, particularly the 'left'......which is just as bad as being equally left wing surely, and hitting back...? Each attacks the other? Perhaps someone here can explain a bit more why he is being presented here as himself a victim?

[@RobertSaltzman]

This came up as an example of what Joan Tollifson and I had been discussing--the tendency of the left wing to use bullying tactics to enforce their agenda, particularly extreme, contrafactual ideas about sex and gender. It's not a question of whether I agree with Peterson's political views. I did not mention them and I am not defending them. The point here is that the licensing board wants to cancel his ability to practice his profession because of his views on gender ideology of which they do not approve. But those views have nothing to do with his qualifications to offer psychotherapy. I hope I have made this clear.