I am obsessed with this interview, it's so charming. Douglas is so charismatic and warm. The message is so clear, begging to be noticed but often overlooked.
Yes, I’m guessing he could be giving us the natural end point for meditation. A way of getting completely away from the « self ». But I can’t quite get with it. What if we just listen to our brains? What if we’re just a random set of synapses that lie, distort, and manipulate to insure our survival? For me the miracle is that we have the capacity to step back and see ourselves thinking. Do we have to go further? Happy New Year BTW I can’t find you on Annika’s thread.
@@michelechaussabel732 It's not surprising to hear you say that you can't quite get with it.....it takes time, daily contemplation. The trouble of listening to your brain, is that it gives us the impression of 'us and the world', a subject object relationship. Everything outside of our heads is in some form a threat to us, we associate with that voice without realising it and it actually causes (for some) a lot of unnecessary suffering. When you cut through this duality of conscious experience, you can live from a place of open freedom and love. This path is quite steep and it took me a good while to 'get-it'. Yes it is a miracle that we can step back and be aware of ourselves thinking, but how often do we do that? I would say 90% of thinking occurs without any conscious awareness. Meditation has helped me massively and I'm slowly breaking through to see the reality of conscious experience. When you come from the place Douglas Harding talks about, everything is a miracle. The very fact of consciousness is a miracle, and ordinary experiences turn into miraculous ones. Happy New Year Michele. Really, ok I have had some problems with UA-cam comments, maybe they don't like me :)
@@HelloJamesBond I’m working on my reply. I have to listen to Harding again. Maybe I can put up with the Loss of my head in exchange for universal joyfulness. But don’t we have to go about the everyday business of living? How do we separate being in our lives, and being out of our bodies? I’m putting comments in a lot of places, so UA-cam won’t keep knocking us out.
I enjoyed your response. In fact, I spend a bit more than 10% of my time thinking about my thoughts. It’s more like constant monitoring. You say that Douglass has helped you. Do you detach from your mind? Does this dull the pain? I have suffered greatly at times, but, rather than cut off my head, I distract myself with books, videos, and challenges. As to otherness, I’ve recently felt that I am as one with all creatures, part of the train of evolution. It makes it difficult to eat a chicken, or smash a spider, or argue with a fellow human. Although I am almost the same age as Douglass, and I feel some deterioration , I don’t hope for eternity. I want to go in a timely fashion, and without regrets. I console myself with thoughts, yes, thoughts, about the amazing life that I have had. If Life is a lucky accident. consciousness is a miracle. We can agrée on that. I will take another look à Douglass, and at Terrence McKenna
Another wonderful interview. Whenever I think of Douglas Harding I think of a quote from Tennessee Williams who said “There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realise that what you see is all that you ever will be”. If only Tennessee Williams had read Douglas Harding as he was, after all, something of an expert when it came looking in mirrors and seeing what’s ‘really’ there. Thanks for the upload, Richard.
This interviewer is excellent, she asks a question and allows him to answer that without interrupting. How rare is this today in 2021...thanks for uploading. I really wanted to give a hug, I empathise so much with him as a man, right down to our shared love of early Chan masters.
@@headexchange I didn't think you'd respond! Hi Richard! I just want to say thank you for posting all this great content AND for what you did on the Waking Up app. I've been following through the course and working through the section with your content. It's truly great. It took me some time to understand what you were getting at but eventually it clicked. It really is right on the surface. You don't really need to look hard at all. I think for a while I was making it more complicated then it really was. So Thank you Richard. It's nice to be headless. ;-) :-)
What an incredible concise language guide to seeing from where you really, really are !! Douglas’s brilliant transmission of this highest Truth so beautifully received here💜🌀
👉👁️ I still have a vivid memory of being shown the pointing technic back in the mid/late eighties and now turning back to see whose seeing is more normal than breathing 🤣
After seeing your true nature due to Douglass’ teaching you can only feel total delight when hearing his words, voice, and love springing forth from what we are. A real gift.
This voice......My favourite writer with the most important topic, just from reading his books and listening to him, and of course doing the experiments, mind is slowly slowly relaxing back into it's source.....Douglas always destroys my strange notions and ideas about spirituality :)Thank you Richard for posting this interview.
Ironically, as one who knew Douglas Harding personally and intimately for quite a long time, it is not his ostensible peace and relaxation which I find myself being impressed by, because, as was usual for him, when speaking about his favorite subjects, namely these, his intensity was liable to ratchet up quite a bit and become oppressive at times. Whereas Barbara maintains a lovely equanimity and true relaxation, while ostensibly only the interviewer and 'unenlightened'.... As the good book says, by their fruits you shall know them.
This was fantastic. I feel like it brings me closer to understanding what an amazing individual and gift he was to us all. At the same time, it makes me a little sad to have not known him personally. Regardless, I’ll be forever grateful for what he (and Richard) has done in showing us who we are. No teacher (IMO) has done more for humanity.
What Douglas says about seeing who we really are being easy and simple is true in theory and in terms of intellectually accepting it, but holy smokes that damn ego has something else to say about it, both the collective and the individual ego. Process of letting go 24/7.
He's remarkable. I'm a new fan. I've seen his quotes over the years and have read his name mentioned in several books, the last being David Carse's book, but it's only until now that I've heard him personally. Quite a treat. Thanks for posting it 👍🖖🙏👁💚👁
Wow. New discovery for me after Richard’s appearance on Sam Harris podcast. Just love this stuff and so true. Realised after practicing transcendental meditation.
As usual, Douglas makes his case ironclad and irrefutable and then politely, is any Englishmen would do, suggest that of course, it is up to the individual to decide what is or is not true in his or her own perception. He cleverly plays both sides of the fence as he needs to either convince her ingratiate himself with his listener. Good old Douglas!
I love Harding, as well as Richard Lang's amazing grasp of this, but I am left with a question: How can someone speaking from inside of a body, limited to the view of the world presented by the senses, say he is unlimited, and that awareness is unlimited? How can he possibly know such a thing? Even to know that the self doesn't exist does not solve this dilemma except by way of logic. Reading the works of others does not answer this because it is not firsthand. To claim you know that you are infinite when your perspective is through the senses is quite a claim. It is obvious that there is nothing here where the meatball is supposed to be, but not obvious how anyone can generalize this awareness to everywhere and nowhere in specific.
WE collectively are psychologically conditioned to divide up reality into inside and outside, even so-called spiritual people and so-called modern gurus do this. But there really is no in or out, which is provable on present evidence. Regardless, we use these words for lack of any better. So when I look back at my self, where a head should be, there is nothing but a void - on present evidence. There is only potentiality, a capacity for all that is "out there." Where does this capacity begin or end? It is not restricted to a head or brain. It merely flows to wherever the attention is placed. Yes, the attention is reported back to the senses as long as the senses are part of a body. But the attention, the awareness, is not of the body. The awareness is unrestricted, unbounded, unchangeable in its aliveness, immeasurable, without substance or thought, and so on. There is no "my" awareness or "your" awareness; there is only awareness. Believing you are a body, or attached to, or associated with, a body, misinforms you that there is a "you" or "me" that is restricted to the body. But see for yourself that this awareness is not contained; it is unbounded. If you have ever completely lost the body during experiences of complete annihilation of self, as I have, then this is quite apparent. But this is not necessary to have happened to see the truth. The experiences come and go, so they do no more than illustrate the truth in another way about disembodied awareness. The beauty of Richard Lang's work is that you can see, while here and now and on present evidence, that there really is no center for this awareness. And his use of the word "center" is only an artifact of language - a pointer, so to speak - so we cannot let it throw us off track from "seeing."
I am obsessed with this interview, it's so charming. Douglas is so charismatic and warm. The message is so clear, begging to be noticed but often overlooked.
:-)
Yes, I’m guessing he could be giving us the natural end point for meditation. A way of getting completely away from the « self ». But I can’t quite get with it. What if we just listen to our brains? What if we’re just a random set of synapses that lie, distort, and manipulate to insure our survival? For me the miracle is that we have the capacity to step back and see ourselves thinking. Do we have to go further? Happy New Year BTW I can’t find you on Annika’s thread.
@@michelechaussabel732 It's not surprising to hear you say that you can't quite get with it.....it takes time, daily contemplation. The trouble of listening to your brain, is that it gives us the impression of 'us and the world', a subject object relationship. Everything outside of our heads is in some form a threat to us, we associate with that voice without realising it and it actually causes (for some) a lot of unnecessary suffering. When you cut through this duality of conscious experience, you can live from a place of open freedom and love.
This path is quite steep and it took me a good while to 'get-it'. Yes it is a miracle that we can step back and be aware of ourselves thinking, but how often do we do that? I would say 90% of thinking occurs without any conscious awareness. Meditation has helped me massively and I'm slowly breaking through to see the reality of conscious experience. When you come from the place Douglas Harding talks about, everything is a miracle. The very fact of consciousness is a miracle, and ordinary experiences turn into miraculous ones.
Happy New Year Michele. Really, ok I have had some problems with UA-cam comments, maybe they don't like me :)
@@HelloJamesBond I’m working on my reply. I have to listen to Harding again. Maybe I can put up with the Loss of my head in exchange for universal joyfulness. But don’t we have to go about the everyday business of living? How do we separate being in our lives, and being out of our bodies?
I’m putting comments in a lot of places, so UA-cam won’t keep knocking us out.
I enjoyed your response. In fact, I spend a bit more than 10% of my time thinking about my thoughts. It’s more like constant monitoring. You say that Douglass has helped you. Do you detach from your mind? Does this dull the pain? I have suffered greatly at times, but, rather than cut off my head, I distract myself with books, videos, and challenges.
As to otherness, I’ve recently felt that I am as one with all creatures, part of the train of evolution. It makes it difficult to eat a chicken, or smash a spider, or argue with a fellow human. Although I am almost the same age as Douglass, and I feel some deterioration , I don’t hope for eternity. I want to go in a timely fashion, and without regrets. I console myself with thoughts, yes, thoughts, about the amazing life that I have had. If Life is a lucky accident. consciousness is a miracle. We can agrée on that. I will take another look à Douglass, and at Terrence McKenna
Another wonderful interview. Whenever I think of Douglas Harding I think of a quote from Tennessee Williams who said “There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realise that what you see is all that you ever will be”. If only Tennessee Williams had read Douglas Harding as he was, after all, something of an expert when it came looking in mirrors and seeing what’s ‘really’ there.
Thanks for the upload, Richard.
Douglas looking in the mirror: Thank God I'm not like that!
This interviewer is excellent, she asks a question and allows him to answer that without interrupting. How rare is this today in 2021...thanks for uploading. I really wanted to give a hug, I empathise so much with him as a man, right down to our shared love of early Chan masters.
Absolutely amazing.
:-)
@@headexchange I didn't think you'd respond! Hi Richard! I just want to say thank you for posting all this great content AND for what you did on the Waking Up app. I've been following through the course and working through the section with your content. It's truly great. It took me some time to understand what you were getting at but eventually it clicked. It really is right on the surface. You don't really need to look hard at all. I think for a while I was making it more complicated then it really was. So Thank you Richard. It's nice to be headless. ;-) :-)
@@JMT34237 You're welcome!
@@JMT34237 I had the same experience - I think the headless way by Richard is the best content on the Waking Up app.
8:00
What an incredible concise language guide to seeing from where you really, really are !! Douglas’s brilliant transmission of this highest Truth so beautifully received here💜🌀
:-)
👉👁️ I still have a vivid memory of being shown the pointing technic back in the mid/late eighties and now turning back to see whose seeing is more normal than breathing 🤣
☺️
After seeing your true nature due to Douglass’ teaching you can only feel total delight when hearing his words, voice, and love springing forth from what we are. A real gift.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Douglas Harding was the real Father Christmas 🎅🏻
This voice......My favourite writer with the most important topic, just from reading his books and listening to him, and of course doing the experiments, mind is slowly slowly relaxing back into it's source.....Douglas always destroys my strange notions and ideas about spirituality :)Thank you Richard for posting this interview.
Thanks for the response. Yes, completely natural.
WOW four years of searching and I found this powerful voice today. This video awakens us.
Ironically, as one who knew Douglas Harding personally and intimately for quite a long time, it is not his ostensible peace and relaxation which I find myself being impressed by, because, as was usual for him, when speaking about his favorite subjects, namely these, his intensity was liable to ratchet up quite a bit and become oppressive at times. Whereas Barbara maintains a lovely equanimity and true relaxation, while ostensibly only the interviewer and 'unenlightened'....
As the good book says, by their fruits you shall know them.
This was fantastic. I feel like it brings me closer to understanding what an amazing individual and gift he was to us all. At the same time, it makes me a little sad to have not known him personally. Regardless, I’ll be forever grateful for what he (and Richard) has done in showing us who we are. No teacher (IMO) has done more for humanity.
ABSOLUTELY
A voice like Christmas pudding. Wonderful ☺️
What a great comment 😂
So true,
What Douglas says about seeing who we really are being easy and simple is true in theory and in terms of intellectually accepting it, but holy smokes that damn ego has something else to say about it, both the collective and the individual ego. Process of letting go 24/7.
Ah yes. That's the small print 🙂
Too simple to think about! LOL
But visible here and now !
I didn;t find this wonderful talk, it found me. Thank you Douglas and Richard.
we are Already home, we are home.
this is exactly what i need to hear now, no self, just drop Everything, im already free.
The cure to my problem is to see who it is who has the problem ! Brilliant sire so direct great pointer ! Right on ole champ
Thank you so much Richard! *dancing headless*
Dancing in the Stillness!
Crazy how Douglas Harding lived the definition of Bhakti.
I love the sweetness Barbara shows, her peace and joy.
Also, is the first time I hear Duglas voice. :) Very pleasant.
... So good...
❤
I loved it!
Thank you for that beautiful audio! 😊
❤
"Society runs on face to face model" - this is deep
He's remarkable. I'm a new fan. I've seen his quotes over the years and have read his name mentioned in several books, the last being David Carse's book, but it's only until now that I've heard him personally. Quite a treat. Thanks for posting it 👍🖖🙏👁💚👁
Douglas Harding's books are great. Kindleunlimited has most of his books.
One of the most important thought leaders of our time.
For sure !
I agree ☝️
And, fortunately, Richard Lang has taken the lead.
"The art of life is to see your true face"
Thank you for posting.
I found many a jewel in this interview - Priceless.
Agreed !
Thank you for posting this interview such a lovely dry headwine sat guru ki Jai! Jai jagganath
Beautiful audio and content. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it.
I love you, Richard 😊💕
One of the best explanations I’ve ever heard. A masterpiece.
Brilliant!
Genius :-)
"God is in, I am out" 👍
Wow. New discovery for me after Richard’s appearance on Sam
Harris podcast. Just love this stuff and so true. Realised after practicing transcendental meditation.
Glad to share this... :-)
As usual, Douglas makes his case ironclad and irrefutable and then politely, is any Englishmen would do, suggest that of course, it is up to the individual to decide what is or is not true in his or her own perception. He cleverly plays both sides of the fence as he needs to either convince her ingratiate himself with his listener.
Good old Douglas!
Wow. That was amazing. Thank you for sharing this.
You're welcome.
Is this the beginning of what we now call panpsychism?
Thanks for sharing💕
You are welcome.
Than you for all the fish, Douglas.
:-)
I love Harding, as well as Richard Lang's amazing grasp of this, but I am left with a question: How can someone speaking from inside of a body, limited to the view of the world presented by the senses, say he is unlimited, and that awareness is unlimited? How can he possibly know such a thing? Even to know that the self doesn't exist does not solve this dilemma except by way of logic. Reading the works of others does not answer this because it is not firsthand. To claim you know that you are infinite when your perspective is through the senses is quite a claim. It is obvious that there is nothing here where the meatball is supposed to be, but not obvious how anyone can generalize this awareness to everywhere and nowhere in specific.
WE collectively are psychologically conditioned to divide up reality into inside and outside, even so-called spiritual people and so-called modern gurus do this. But there really is no in or out, which is provable on present evidence. Regardless, we use these words for lack of any better. So when I look back at my self, where a head should be, there is nothing but a void - on present evidence. There is only potentiality, a capacity for all that is "out there." Where does this capacity begin or end? It is not restricted to a head or brain. It merely flows to wherever the attention is placed. Yes, the attention is reported back to the senses as long as the senses are part of a body. But the attention, the awareness, is not of the body. The awareness is unrestricted, unbounded, unchangeable in its aliveness, immeasurable, without substance or thought, and so on. There is no "my" awareness or "your" awareness; there is only awareness.
Believing you are a body, or attached to, or associated with, a body, misinforms you that there is a "you" or "me" that is restricted to the body. But see for yourself that this awareness is not contained; it is unbounded. If you have ever completely lost the body during experiences of complete annihilation of self, as I have, then this is quite apparent. But this is not necessary to have happened to see the truth. The experiences come and go, so they do no more than illustrate the truth in another way about disembodied awareness. The beauty of Richard Lang's work is that you can see, while here and now and on present evidence, that there really is no center for this awareness. And his use of the word "center" is only an artifact of language - a pointer, so to speak - so we cannot let it throw us off track from "seeing."
You have received the experience, now you have the privilege of exploring endless meaning.
I would also recommend Douglas Harding's article titled The Experience and the Meaning.
@@FirstPersonHood Yes, as well as the rest of his books; they are all good.
@@auggied6760 absolutely!