part0008

The big secret is no secret at all. It’s just sitting there in case you want to look. I’m looking at it right now and I’m not even trying. Everywhere I look, there it is, so not a very big secret really.

M ARICHELLE IS AWAKE . She is from Switzerland and now lives on an island off Honduras. In response to many requests, she gave a one-time series of talks in English to a small group. The transcript of these talks has been provided to me with permission to use. Attempts to organize this material only seem to make things worse, so I’m just presenting the best of it in loosely strung-together bite-sized bits. The talks were lively, but audience interactions have not been retained. I have made minor changes for readability .

Thinking and seeing are the same thing like believing and dreaming are the same thing. If you want to stay in coma you have to use believing. If you want to come out of coma you have to use thinking.

Believing and dreaming are very nice but they don’t let you go anywhere. Thinking is not very nice but if you want to go anywhere you have to do it. You can’t just make a wish. There’s no magic wand you can just wave around.

There’s nothing wrong about believing everything unless you want to stop doing it, then it’s bad. The real thing is what you really want and what you say you want. It’s good for those to be the same.

Everything is just what it is. If you don’t like this kind of thing, don’t even worry about it. Why make a thing if it’s not a thing? Maybe you’re still at that question. Maybe it’s not even a thing for you.

You should know the difference between what’s a thing and what’s not a thing. Maybe you’re saying it’s a thing when it’s not, but then why are you here, I wonder. Try asking that one for starters.

If you want to stay like you are there’s no problem, but if you want to go forward there’s a problem. Saying there’s no problem is not a good plan. There’s a pretty big problem.

There’s a problem with your understanding so that’s something you need to have some thought about. It’s more of a problem if you don’t know about it, so basically, try to know about it. This is where thinking can help.

There’s no real stuff going on, just fake stuff to make everything seem interesting. Maybe you don’t care about that but don’t be quick to judge. Why should real be better than fake? It’s a serious question.

There are many games to play, people play many games. You can play many games or just play one game. This is what I think is a good one, but it’s really just whatever you like.

Thinking is the key and we already have it, so why don’t we use it? Thinking is the right tool for the job but we’re too scared to use it. We have the key, so why we don’t open the door is a good question.

My job is what? I tell you there’s a door and you have a key. That’s my little job for what we’re doing here. Then I go back to my life and you go back to yours. What you do with your life is up to you. I like to knit and play with my dogs. I think there’s a cat around here too.

I should teach you to knit, not this other business. With knitting you can actually make useful things. This other business probably does you no good but on a cold morning a warm shawl is a real thing.

Nothing is what you think, or maybe everything is not what you think. Maybe both are right. Maybe they mean the same thing. The more you try the harder it gets, or maybe the farther you go the further it gets, something like that.

The more you try to understand things the worse it gets. You don’t make muddy water clear by swishing it around, you have to wait and let it settle down, right? You have to be relaxed about it which might be pretty hard. You want fast results so you keep swishing.

We can break everything down to inside and outside. That’s it, that’s everything. Inside you can know, outside you never know. That’s the difference. We think there’s only one side. That’s true, but it’s not the side you think.

It’s usually fine and you just go along and have a nice time, but now you want to change or do something else maybe. Now you’re talking to me and I can only talk about one thing. Coming out of coma and knitting. Okay, that’s two things. And dogs. Three. And maybe the cat.

Everything you think is real, all the way down to the most inside of yourself, is not real. That’s all just coma stuff. Pretty crazy I know. You are a part of your coma just as much as the doorbell or your shoes or something.

As far as you go inside, it’s all coma. You have to keep going until you get past all that and there’s nothing left. Then you’re getting somewhere. That’s where all the confusion suddenly makes sense.

Emotion always wants to go back into coma but thinking always wants to go out. I never thought about this before but it seems like a good point even if I’m not saying it right. It’s confusing because emotion is also a big part of coming out of coma and being out of coma, just not the biggest part.

Don’t worry about how smart you are, this isn’t like that. This is about something different like how good you can think, which isn’t the same as how smart. Even if you were the smartest person ever, this is true. You haven’t even tried thinking yet so you don’t know what it can do.

See how tricky it all is? But also pretty simple. Very tricky but pretty simple. No wonder no one gets this figured out. Pretty tricky, I would say, but also pretty simple.

Even the smartest person doesn’t get close. They want to understand things as they seem, so they are not even in the right place to do good thinking. Being smart doesn’t matter if you’re looking in the wrong place. I would say that being smart is not a big advantage based on results.

Just logic is all you need, but then you have to go where logic tells you. That’s not too easy which is why no one figures it out. No one even looks, but when you look, there it is.

It’s a thing where you really have to do it, not just talk about it, or else it all seems like nonsense. I’m aware of that. Talking is easier than doing. This is something you can confirm in your own life.

I know you think you think but you really only feel you think. In normal life we are mostly all feeling and almost no thinking. If you change that even a little you can change a lot. Try it sometime, you’ll see.

It’s good to know what you can’t know, like what nobody can know and what can’t be known. You can’t know what can’t be known but you can know what you can’t know. I don’t think I’m saying this the best way but it’s really true.

There’s no manual for this like you get with your camera or your fishing pole. There are no people you can call for answers like a hotline. You have to find everything out for yourself or you never find it out.

It’s all just playtime, no big deal. You come for a nice visit, play some nice games and then it’s over. It’s something to do. There are different games, that’s all. I like this one. I didn’t always like it so much but I like it now.