What is the sound of one hand slapping?

Satsang with Paul Hedderman today was pretty cool, thanks to an invitation from Shawn Nevins, the administrator of the TAT foundation's spiritual discussion board.

We sat in a courtyard of a church in Marin County, near Sausalito. Because of a traffic jam we were so late I almost gave up and turned around before we hit the Golden Gate Bridge, but I'm glad we didn't. He welcomed us right in and introduced himself to me and Akemi.
My chair was in the shade and I was practically shivering, while everyone else was basking in the sun. That kind of weather is not unusual in the Bay Area in February.
Paul was better live than in his videos or writings on his website, very spontaneous and in the moment. One would have to be dense to not get that he had a profound way of looking at life. He shared insights that were comical yet severe, and didn't follow a script or dogma.
He asked if I knew about non-duality, and I said yes I know it, and yes I had been to satsangs before. He ended  his monologue with a few questions from the group. Shawn was there - I had just met him at Peet's Coffee in Oakland two days earlier. Suddenly, it was suddenly time to pass the basket. I didn't want to miss the chance to share a message  - a message I had been working on all morning to get into a short paragraph.

The Buddha became a ghost when I
copied this image from Paul's website.

"Do you have time for one more?" I asked. He nodded. "I wanted to share why I'm here. I'm done with the illusion. I'm turning my attention to finding the infinite awareness in the present moment, and it's happening soon, like you said on your website the 'experiential mode.' I'm done 'selfing.'" He seemed to be encouraging, so I went on. "The real reason I'm here is that I feel I need someone to guide me, to get to know me before it happens and be supportive after I'm in the place where there is no self."
"Sure, we can support you, just keep coming here, We meet 3 days a week." Then it was over and a few people introduced themselves. They invited us to a local diner, which was unexpected. I needed to debrief alone, with Akemi, so I excused us and we drove back to the peninsula. As I left the courtyard I couldn't tell if I was shivering was from the cold shadows or from the spiritual energy of that moment.