Jeff Foster 1 - 'Life Without A Centre' - Interview by Iain McNay

Jeff Foster - 'Life Without A Centre' - Interview by Iain McNay
The simple and direct message of Life Without A Centre is this: 'There is only ever Oneness. And in Oneness, the dream of separation arises, the idea that you are a separate 'person in the world', with a heavy past and an uncertain future, somehow divided from everyone and everything else. And in this dream there can be great suffering, because to a separate person, life will never seem complete, and a longing for Home will pervade all action. What we are talking about here is the possibility of waking up from this dream. And it's an awakening that's simpler and gentler than you could ever imagine. This radical message lovingly allows all spiritual paths to have their place, whilst at the same time making them completely obsolete. And this may feel very threatening to a mind hooked on ideas of paths, processes and perfection. But in the presence of this revolutionary clarity, the endless seeking of the mind cannot last. And then, in the place of striving, suffering, and solidity, there is only ever lightness, love... and so much laughter. Some have called this 'spiritual awakening'. I call it Life Without A Centre.' His first book "Beyond Awakening" is available on Non-Duality Press.
The transcript of this interview is available to view here.
www.conscious.t...
The transcription of this interview is included in the book 'Conversations on Non-Duality' which is available both as an ebook and hard copy. A link to the book is here:
www.amazon.co....
You can find out more about Conscious TV here.
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[@PrivilegedWhiteRabbit]

These Videos are incredible, they can help so many people who are spiritual seekers but can't actually find what they're looking for. I understand now that this had to happen, and if you're reading this or watching this video then it had to happen for you too.

[@timmyskidoo2253]

5:25 "it's the hardest thing to see of coarse, that 'you' are just a thought! Your whole past and future. It's just a thought that's arising now." That is stellar commentary... let the mind contemplate that for awhile.

[@LourdesAB]

Simple and straightforward. No new-age romanticizing. Thank you for posting this video.

[@billsf94131]

Jeff Foster does an excellent job at describing something that is really beyond words. I had this amazing awakening type of experience years ago and my life has been much better because of it. Each of us has an ego and a spirit and non-duality is when they come together in harmony. We know we exist as a seperate person, but when you look at earth from space, you realize that you are also part of that whole. It's a shift in perception and perspective.

[@conscioustv]

The transcription of this interview is included in the book 'Conversations on Non-Duality' which is available both as an ebook and hard copy. A link to the book is here: www.amazon.co.uk/Conversations-Non-Duality-Eleanora-Gilbert/dp/1901447677/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470654154&sr=1-1&keywords=conversations+on+non+duality

[@TheSolsonia2003]

THANK YOU JEFF FOSTER AND LAIN MCNAY....THANK YOU...

[@MsSeb7777]

Thank you for your answer....I think I am ready to throw it all away and just look at experience itself. In a way it feels good to admit defeat in the seeking and just let go

[@conscioustv]

The transcript of this interview is available to view here. www.conscious.tv/text/02.htm

[@jesuisravi]

Ian--you are an interviewer of genius

[@chengoldman83]

The important thing is that it's more right than wrong. After questioning his 'liability' I realized it's my problem. It helps other people, so good for them.

[@dianaroo12]

thank you!

[@MsSeb7777]

I am extremely frustrated right now. My mind (ego) is capable of turning everything into a concept. Even beautiful words like these. I can't solve this problem. I have looked for myself over 20 years now and I am as thick as before. The ego has won.....

[@swhite8381]

I get it!!!!!!

[@OilyBoily84]

Humanity loves fear, so we are just basically playing around with concepts. We could choose differently, and change our lives. But it's to funny to stay where we are so it won't happen. And it's not about becoming noone, it's about being who we are wich is really a free expression. And as such can go anywhere. And who I/we are is interconncted to all there is, and is not. All is included yet chosen separation is an experience to.

[@Forkfoot]

This guy's a good interviewer. He's all, "So when you say you're not there... what the hell are you talking about?"

[@mattstocks4749]

Loooooooooool

[@Minimessiah42]

i understand what ur saying and its beautiful. basically relax and get on with ur life.. i could say this is ur ego playing tricks or that uve given up, but that matters not just one thing tho!! all these "enlightened" ppl arent lacking passion, not lacking peace of mind. in fact, theyre not lacking all the things that the typical person has. u cannot create peace with ur mind.. its like trying to toss a coin and get heads every time. or make ur way through the world without a single stumble

[@Lehmann108]

Well, yes, but there has to be the transcendence of the final attachment which generates the "I-thought". The path to this is quieting the mind but there has to be movement beyond a simple laya of the mind.

[@nisheeth16]

Here is the answer to the question about 'development of personality'. The guy who is known here as self-realized is still seen to talk, just like now he is seen doing something and later he will be seen doing something else similarly his individual personality will also be seen developing, but it is all happening on its own. It is the same entity watching developments (all imaginary) at different locations called individuals. Nothing ever changes.

[@sleepingwhale]

webley that made me feel warm and fuzzy, hahah, and i guess those 5 thumbs up felt the same way.

[@fibanacci8]

Highest regard :-)

[@SmokeAlexOut]

We are all enlightened, you just don't know it yet.

[@MrNakhann]

It's like a wave saying :" hey, if I was the ocean, I wouldnt look like that !" You are not separated, you cannot separate, you just are. You THINK there is something away. you THINK you are separated. Thought are illusion ;)

[@gainsbourg66]

@Ge1Ri4 -that's fair comment. Years ago I had a sense ("experience") of non duality for quite some time, but looking back now I now realise I was simply experiencing depersonalisation - from which I now believe the philosophy of non duality stems - even Buddha's! From reading and listening to many non duality teachers I split them into those who are walking and talking depersonalisation and those who are depersonalisation wannabes. This is why understanding all this alone can't get you there.

[@philtrem]

For instance, you can allow yourself to be special and not create separation. To do some explaining, if what is going on inside you is that you are feeling special and want to express it but that you choose to project something else, there is a disconnect and you are not being true. It's never about the apparent nature of what is expressed. If I feel I have to express anything else than my truth, I'm not enlightened.

[@JamesLyons1]

If their was only oneness, I would not be able to separate myself through searching or through ego or whatever. If non duality were true, we would all be normally "enlightened." We would have to be. Unfortunately, we're not.

[@AmberFlame1]

Long live CTV!

[@philtrem]

Watch the video, and throughout ask "What else could it mean?" It's easy to assume what he means is what you think he means.

[@telkines]

Be calm and aware: that´s all.

[@Ge1Ri4]

@gainsbourg66: a huge problem is that we not only communicate, but also perceive and interpret the world through the veil of language, as applied to the selective interpretations of the limited 5 senses by the finite brain. We try to imprison all of existence into a few words. Words like "depersonalization" or "tree" appear to be pointing at something real, but are they?

[@gainsbourg66]

@Ge1Ri4 again you are right - ultimately there can be no certainty about "what is", including whether anything is real or an illusion, dual or non dual, but either way I believe the notion that nothing is separate (and therefore that that there is no creation, choice or free will) i.e. non duality - arises from instances of depersonisation, rather than being a spontaneous awakening to the true state of "what is" that percolates through to some "apparent" individuals.

[@oggfish]

Like all believes, they are there for people who dont do what they believe. Making them more passive then actually do something. These video`s can be helpful but for many people they are poison. Its just another channel that the ego can involve with. Its like watching these kind of video`s in the weekend and on monday go of to work like nothing has happent. Entertainment then shifts from movies to spiritual video`s what actually keeps one from waking up.

[@kaifinn]

@JonMcIntyre68 of course you can think that you are awake. as long as you know that it is only more words for something you can not catch in words, enlightenment is a part of the illusion, there is just THIS.. and then there is what you think about this. and that 's the veil.

[@philtrem]

He has interesting insights and I can relate to a lot of what he said. Is he enlightened or not? I'd say probably yes, and no. If you try to judge, you can only get it wrong. The moment you ask yourself is he enlightened or not, and that you try to figure out, you are deceiving yourself. I do think though that he's level of experience seems limited in some regard. I personally don't see separation the way he describes it as being the core issue.

[@ccsnd77]

I don't want enlightenment...it just seems like ordinary life with all its sufferings, except that there is no one to identify with it. Instead I want peace of mind and a passion for life even if it is illusory.

[@Ge1Ri4]

@gainsbourg66: in that case, I guess the real question is, who are we? What are we? Are we our bodies? How do you identify where a body ends? If part of it gets cut off (heaven forbid!), are we still us? If so, doesn't that cast the original assertion that we are our body in a bit of doubt? The number of cells varies from moment to moment, the very atoms that make up those cells come and go and the atoms our bodies started out with are not the atoms that make it up now....

[@Ge1Ri4]

@gainsbourg66: As long as the idea that Jeff is somehow separate from everything else is there, that this separate thing that is Jeff is somehow dodging a question put by a different separate thing, then non-duality is not being understood. Of course, that's just an idea that is appearing in this moment, and so, just like the question being responded to, is illusion. :-)

[@Deppell]

@lightwarrior1982 Like there is more to say about THAT -.-* ... It's hard to build a word-made castle around something so subtle, that it escapes every grasp trying to get hold of it. The most sacred mantra in hinduism and buddhism is "OM" (Aum)... One word... Only one word... enough to understand the very nature of THAT ;P

[@WIREDFORGO]

Hypnotherapy is a very powerful tool. Could non-duality be a kind of Hypnotherapy. It traps the mind into giving up. I am only asking. Just an idea i had.

[@mickehill]

So, when I realize this, what do I do then?

[@gainsbourg66]

The sense of separation may vanish after awakening but the dream character cannot end until death. it seems Jeff Foster wants to recite his (well versed) knowledge about awakening rather than answer the question about how the personality of the dream character changes after awakening. Even though he is asked this twice. It's as if he's not really concentrating on the questions, Why Is this I wonder? I'm sorry but I think he's still not there.

[@Pimp-Master]

He's a younger and cheaper version of Eckhart Tolle--check out Tolle if you don't know him. ET would never never in a million years answer someone's You Tube comment, but Jeff does. Jeff will live about 30 years longer after poor EC--who's 65 pretty soon; and that's another good advantage.

[@bay751]

@mickehill live

[@Etaks89]

In my experience, some of the things he says I can understand but he puts it in ways that I could see many confusing it. In my own experience, all though it just spontaneously happened all at once, my mind caught on to a few things.. The first thing I noticed was how here everything was, the space that everything existed. This space was nothingness, there was no qualities to it, nothing to define it, it was so lacking in self that all could exist in its place. Next I noticed that I was no longer in the world, but rather the entire world was with in this space that I was. I was the space, the complete udder empty unchanging nothingness, so in that way, there was no I. Time was reversed, or my sense of time was, or rather I realized there was no time ticking away, there was only here and now and it was forever for there was no time for change to happen to this emptiness. It was beyond all form and all things, so how could it ever be made or destroyed. All that I perceived was just there in front of me, inside and of me, rather the space that i was, the empty still space. I became overfilled with joy and everything felt like a celebration. As I looked at other people even with their troubles I saw that they were celebrating this life. Thoughts slid off, they came but would not stick, they just went away. Then the thought came up what if I forget this, what if I lose this.. .And I grasped onto it and sure enough I slowly found myself caught in the web once again.

[@Ge1Ri4]

@gainsbourg66 : plus we look very different than we did when we were born and will look different still when our bodies die. So, if we're not our bodies, what are we? Can you point to us?

[@MysticGizmos]

Yo, judge, whaddup?

[@hansjoergajja]

...living without a centre, but pointing to his chest, when he speaks about himself...

[@gainsbourg66]

@Ge1Ri4 There could easily be no such thing as a physical body or location whether there is a self or not; duality or non duality. Concepts like location could just as easily arise from the self ("The Matrix" illustrated this beautifully) as from oneness. Non dualists feel that the environment of the world and all its apparently separate, simultaneous streams of choice-making consciousnesses arise (accidentally and for no purpose) from one. This philosophy arises from depersonalisation.

[@gainsbourg66]

Jeff is obviously a nice guy and obviously very well versed in non duality, but is he genuinely "awakened?" He ignores the questions he is asked in favour of reciting his knowledge about non duality, especially the question "has your personality changed" which he is asked twice. After awakening the belief in being a separate individual may go, but the apparent person, the dream character is there till death, along with all its characteristics and instincts such as hunger, sexual desires etc.

[@tube4625]

@mickehill then you just relax; lol

[@MrNakhann]

you don't have to, that's the trick ! ;) stop searching and check for yourself

[@tube4625]

blah blah blah. every creature is seeking something; something to eat, something to have something to own. this is a natural and dynamic part of life. then you hear someone say there is something inside you so u start seeking this something inside yourself. this something inside you when you will find it; it will end duality and you will be one with the whole cosmos. it will be bliss and you will become enlightened. but one last thing when this happen u as u know yourself will not be there;

[@tube4625]

@tube4625 holy crap; do you see the ridiculousness of all this activity. peace.

[@CalumnMcAulay]

anyone can repeat this sort of thing

[@Forkfoot]

@sillydog67 False teachers give answers. Real teachers point to the dissolution of the questioner.

[@NondualityAndScience]

@sumitraji and at the same time none of what you said is true. It's all ideas, concepts. All there is is DOo da dee dee da dee dum dee da doo weee woo da

[@FirstPersonHood]

Stop playing around just vist headless.org !!!

[@telkines]

wrong, only the Ego says I M GOD!

[@JamesLyons1]

If everything was one thing, you wouldn't have to search for it. Sorry, Jeff, you're wrong.

[@godasa108]

Don't be frustrated. Jeff is overcomplicating as the impersonalists tend to do, because there is a desire for annihilation of individuality and fundamentally a desire to remove god. It is actually atheism. As we know atheism requires a complex mind. Ease your spiritual condition immediately by tapping into the teachings of the yuga-avatar Lord Caitanya, the moon-like incarnation, whom delivered the conclusion to the vedanta. Jeff is presenting 1000 year out of date philosophy on vedanta.