Bartholomew opened this workshop with a provocative statement, asking participants to stop taking notes and recognize that they don't need external information to discover who they truly are. He challenged the fundamental assumption that we are body-mind connections seeking knowledge, instead proposing that we are consciousness itself within which body and mind arise and disappear. The central teaching revolves around a radical shift in perspective: we are not the subjects of our lives looking at objects, but rather objects within the greater subject of consciousness or awareness.

The discussion delved into the distinction between awareness and consciousness. Awareness is described as total potentiality without any movement or motion - the silence and stillness from which everything emerges. Consciousness, by contrast, is the first movement arising from awareness, giving birth to the manifested, multi-dimensional world we experience. Bartholomew emphasized that true bliss lies not in consciousness but in awareness itself, which requires stopping the incessant mental activity and simply relaxing into what is already present.

Throughout the session, participants struggled with practical questions about how to achieve this state, but Bartholomew consistently redirected them away from "doing" and toward "being." He addressed the common spiritual trap of trying to create or control one's spiritual experience, explaining that such efforts perpetuate the very identification with limitation that causes suffering. His teaching suggests that any attempt to break free through mental effort only reinforces the prison of conceptual thinking.

A significant portion of the dialogue explored why consciousness would create suffering and difficulty if it could create only happiness. Bartholomew explained that human beings, as expressions of consciousness, actually choose contrast and challenge because pure happiness would be boring - we are "drama kings and queens" who thrive on the excitement of overcoming obstacles, experiencing the full spectrum of emotions, and engaging with life's complexities. This perspective reframes suffering not as a mistake or punishment, but as part of the cosmic play or dance that consciousness creates for the joy of experience.

The session addressed several participants' specific struggles, including feelings of heaviness around the heart, confusion about personal responsibility versus divine will, and frustration with spiritual practices that seem ineffective. In each case, Bartholomew's response emphasized surrender rather than effort, being with what is rather than trying to change it, and recognizing that the very desire for awakening comes from consciousness itself.