Unpacked In Santa Cruz
Mike Howard talking ....
Unpacked In Santa Cruz
Episode 32:Michael Yankaus: Discovering Inner Tranquility: Unveiling the Spiritual Benefits of Transcendental Meditation
What if you’ve been missing out on a simple practice that could fill the spiritual gap in your life? Join us at the Pointside Beach Shack in Santa Cruz as I reconnect with Michael to unpack the transformative power of Transcendental Meditation (TM). We share how the eclectic vibe of Santa Cruz has shaped our lives, influencing both the surf and business communities, and how TM has provided a spiritual oasis since my departure from the church seven years ago. Mick opens up about his early experiences with TM, the cultural hurdles he faced, and the profound spiritual benefits that have enriched his everyday life.
Our conversation weaves through our personal backgrounds, religious perspectives, and diverse spiritual practices. One of the most compelling parts of our dialogue is the story of how an intentional decision by one of our parents to keep religion out of family life allowed us to explore faith unbiasedly. We also dissect the often misunderstood nuances between Christianity and Eastern philosophies, drawing parallels between the dynamic nature of the ocean and the fluidity of life itself. We even share a heartwarming tale about reconnecting with a spouse, diving deep into the unique energy of Santa Cruz and its role as a repository for emotional burdens.
In our journey through transcendence, we compare the inward journey of TM with the spiritual teachings of Christianity. We challenge conventional notions about transcendence and highlight the importance of settling the mind for deeper awareness. We also touch on how meditation can help us embrace death, sin, acceptance, and living in the present moment with generosity and mindfulness. Tune in as we explore the interconnectedness of spirituality, consciousness, and science, and offer insights into how TM and spiritual practices can lead to a more fulfilling life.
Are you sure you're ready? I am Okay. Welcome to the Unpacked and Naked podcast. I'm your host, Michael Howard. We are sitting here at the Pointside Beach Shack. It's pretty cool, huh, Mike?
Speaker 2:It's beyond cool. Yeah, people don't know, but this is the coolest place in Santa.
Speaker 1:Cruz. Yeah, it's probably pretty interesting to be here and your office is right across the street. All the war stories I heard this last podcast with Mick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the O'Neill Design Studio and clothing, headed by Bridget O'Neill, was right across the street and it was epic, epic space. But this is like if you're a surfer and you have a sense of what is cool this is kind of the capital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anybody who's listening, just so you know any off-site meetings that you want to do with your business. This is a really great spot, oh my gosh. It's pretty magical. It's just so weird that it's right in the middle of everything. It's so peaceful right here.
Speaker 2:It's not just that they did everything right.
Speaker 1:The Duhigg brothers have very good taste. Yeah, that I will attest to.
Speaker 2:As we say, it's sick yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean all the cool stuff. Just so you know, mick, all the cool stuff that's gone up on 41st is generally them.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're getting their fingerprint on the county.
Speaker 2:So thank them and let them know they're appreciated. Thank them and let them know they're appreciated.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have you move just a little bit closer to the microphone. Sorry for the noise there. Anyways, if you haven't figured it out already, I have got Mick in front of me again and I really wanted to talk to him a little bit more about the practice of TM and rehearse a little bit more of our story together. More of our story together. And I do want to contextualize things a little bit, because any of you who have been listening know that I left church about seven years ago. Did you want to add?
Speaker 2:something TM. Transcendental Meditation yes, Is there another? Tm no, but just well trademark.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyhow, as part of my story I've talked a little bit about the friction that really emerged within church structure and you know you have a few years on me and you moved to Santa Cruz at a very interesting time in life 81. Yeah, santa Cruz has a pretty long history of attracting some weirdness is the best way to put it, but it's a fairly eccentric place but it draws a tremendous amount of talent and so you know, at least in this town I don't know really of any Christian institution that didn't get a little off at some point, you know, just due to all of who was attending. There's a theme that kind of lives in the county and I know in my own upbringing any approach from Christianity to Eastern mysticism was just a no-fly zone for Christians. It just got marked with cult-like things and we're not going to jump into that just yet. But any believer who's listening to this knows what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:And part of my goal with talking about Transcendental Meditation as a spiritual practice Transcendental Meditation as a spiritual practice, as we'll get to it later is really, you know, transcendental Meditation is a spiritual approach. It is not a religious approach to life and although there are things that we do in Transcendental Meditation that would resemble some forms of other practices and other religions. The reality is that all of us, I believe, are spiritual beings, and TM touches a piece of our heart, and it has for me in a way that other practices that I found in church did not. And so I want to first start not necessarily in a negative spot, but you know, I do have some questions about your early experience, because I know that the Maharishi had some issues that arrived when you have thousands of people showing up to you know, who are very broken. I mean, you shared a little bit of your story, that there was just something that was added to you that you hadn't experienced in life yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and let me interject that I had general awareness, like most public, of different issues in culture as I was growing up some religious, some political, some this. But my background, my parents, unknown to me, decided when I was a young child to not interject religion to our home life. They felt it was something that is very personal and that it is a decision I would make when I got older. They never said anything about that, Just when other families were going to church. We were going to the beach or water, skiing or outdoor family events, Very tight family but purposefully they did not enter that, Although I had Catholic friends and I would go to church with them. And then I had Lutheran and I would go to church with them, and then I had Lutheran and I would go to church with them and I looked at it as a visitor rather than a direct participant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in other words so what you're introducing is fascinating to me, because now I get insights from the inside.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know I think it's pretty safe to say that in most of Christendom that anything related to any Eastern philosophy, I guess, other than Greek orthodoxy you know there's a real misunderstanding in Christianity that all the religions are from Eastern mystics. You know it's like we perceive, for whatever reason, israel to be part of the West.
Speaker 2:I think it doesn't take a big.
Speaker 1:I think it's Middle Eastern Well yeah, you know, it's just this strange notion and I do understand it from a historical standpoint the West is really founded on mostly on Judaism, you know, if we're being honest on the law, that's found in both the Torah and the Bible.
Speaker 1:And you know there's a freedom principle that's inside of Judaism and liberty that people really don't understand, that even the notion of salvation is liberty, it's freedom. And so you know it's a mixed message, because whether they're transliteration issues or just cultural issues, when you don't know what it is, you're saying like let's just start right there. If the Hebrews were talking about you know, if David, you know David's saying to himself in a song, you know, creating me a clean heart and renewing right spirit, you know, restore to me the salvation, restore to me the freedom that I had with you, god, because I'm feeling bound by something that's a very different thing than the Christian association, which is like restore to me the crucifixion of Jesus, you know, and the fact that I've invited Jesus into my heart. You know those become very touchy things if we don't know what it is that the original author was saying to God at the time of the song that he was writing.
Speaker 2:And that it was a different culture with a different dialogue, and how they would understand that at that time might have been very different than what we assumed they actually meant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, we know what we mean when we say it, but I don't know that what we're saying is right. That's my point, or with the intent of the author.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we discuss or describe transcendental meditation which comes from India and an ancient tradition in India which predates Hinduism, which is called the Vedic tradition. V-e-d A Veda and then pertaining to Veda, is Vedic. Veda simply means knowledge, specifically knowledge of life holistically, knowledge of life holistically and therefore it's a very naturalistic approach which I think Christianity and Judaism and Buddhism they were all very naturalistic in terms of life being experienced by the people of that era. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I concur on that. You know, philosophically it's certainly taken some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know you do and I'm just sharing for the public. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:I always like more words, not from my mouth, so that's good too, you know because it's you know. I mean my glasses are still tinted a particular way. I mean I can't undo, you know, 53 years of believing a particular way so easily, which benefited you.
Speaker 2:And my perspective of Mike Howard is this guy is very, very intelligent observationally and um, and the way you go about life is from you know. You're just a very highly intelligent surfer, that's funny, and there are many. Yeah, they'll shock you. We talk in a certain way and whatever, but a good surfer is highly observational because of the dynamic. The ocean is different than a tennis court. Right, the tennis court is fixed, it's always that. Maybe the wind's more, but it's structurally that. But the ocean is a gigantic metaphor.
Speaker 1:Metaphor to life. Right, there are things that are going to happen out there that you have no control over, and that other people don't walk through, but we do and we like it and we like talking about it. So that's why we're here. It is why we're here, I mean, let's sit with that for a minute because that really touches on, I think, a spiritual quality that lives here.
Speaker 1:And let me share a quick little story about this you know, when I sobered up and was just spending more time with Kim a couple years back, it was a very big winter and you know I've lived here my whole life and you know life had slowed down enough and I would just go to the beach and watch her picking up sea glass and it was just a great time.
Speaker 1:You know, we've been married 30 years and you know we're getting to know each other again as the kids are all gone. So I'm just watching this woman that I married and there's parts of her, I don't know, but the joy of just picking up sea glass. And she came to me I think it was March and she said specifically about this place she goes, there's just, you know, and we're watching a couple other people. The beach was pretty empty and, you know, there's mountains, there's trees, there's so much to offer here in Santa Cruz and she goes, you know. I just had this thought I wonder if the reason why Santa Cruz feels so weird, you know, and so kind of convoluted, is because everybody comes here just to dump their shit into the energy of here.
Speaker 1:You know and know, and and not not, it wasn't a negative thing, it's just it's a freedom space, for sure yeah, but it was this really brilliant observation of, like you know, I I really do believe that we live in continuity with the world. Whether we want to or not, we're either in friction against it or flowing with it. But you know her point, her perspective, was that, wow, this place is catching so much from people, you know, like like they come here to dump these, these things, that they're going through literally onto nature, like it's. It's just one of those unique spots, and that moment caused me to love this place more and like, oh yeah, there's really something to that that there really isn't anybody I know that doesn't live here, that isn't in some sort of friction with kind of having to live here, like there's nowhere else they can go, you know, and it's not because it's weird.
Speaker 2:It's because somehow all these I mean don't tell anyone, but this is pretty much. Yeah, right, yeah, everybody knows that I mean I've been all over the world. I mean I've lived in Switzerland, france time in Germany, switzerland, france time in Germany, travels to London, holland, spain, mallorca and then different parts of India, and lately Bali's been on my path, but Santa Cruz is like it's got a thing, it's got a thing it's got a thing.
Speaker 2:I lived in laguna. Laguna is kind of a bit got it, but it's too overly. They finally structure. They finally ran orange county.
Speaker 1:They finally ran the hippies out about five years ago because they had that. What? Whatever that road is, you know when you drop to laguna from the 405 or from the 5. I lived right off of that, yeah, yeah, laguna Canyon Road. I lived on Canyon.
Speaker 2:Acres.
Speaker 1:I hadn't been there until 10 years ago. I'm like, oh, there's another enclave that looks like Santa Cruz, Like it really is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Laguna is that way. I mean, that's why Tinkus is there. Yeah, you know he's got an epic space up there. Tinkus was one of the legends of O'Neill and is with O'Neill clothing down in Southern California, Mm-hmm but he embodies it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to do a little tackle a word, you know, before we talk a little bit more about the practice of transcendental meditation Cause, one of the hiccup points for me theologically, you know, as it pertained to Christianity was this idea of transcendence, of approaching things truly spiritually and to to my point earlier that I was bringing up that there is this, this cult label, that kind of lives with the Eastern mystics from Christianity that if you're doing anything like this, you're part of a cult and you want to avoid cults at all costs. The podcast with Colin and I just this last time, we tackled the concept of the difference between sin and evil. That would be, for me, the difference between misunderstanding and actually doing something wrong. I think there are distinct differences, but transcendence is one of those words that never gets talked about in Christianity. So I'm going for it with you because because, as I have taken this approach, you know, involving tm and other philosophies of, of not pushing transcendence out out of the lexicon of words that I will employ as goals you know that when we're deciding to transcend things, it is this decision that I'm going to take a spiritual approach, not a physical approach.
Speaker 1:There are physical things that we do to get to that spiritual place, and the quickest answer I could give to what Christians do is that we will worship, we will sing together, and there's something transcendent about that that somehow these voices become one voice and it's no longer a bunch of individuals, it's a group and we're in one spot together.
Speaker 1:And so it was always a little weird to me knowing what transcendence meant. Like, well, gosh, when I worship, we're transcending, because I'm not one thing when that's happening on these things together, and that's one way to embody, you know, I think, what I'm trying to reflect on here and contemplate. But the reality is that you know so much of the christian message, message and the dogma that that that sits in it is that there will never be transcendence till heaven, as though transcendence is this place, and it's like no, I think it was a principle that Jesus' whole life was offering to us. It's like do you want the freedom beyond this physical reality that you're experiencing right now? Not only that, not only do you want that freedom, do you want the empowerment that comes with it to be something other than what's coming at you?
Speaker 2:and having to respond to that, I think he inferred that, with my limited knowledge was kingdom of heaven is within you. Yeah, kingdom of heaven is within you. So transcendence a synonym would be transition. But in the ultimate sense, transcending means transitioning from one level of experience or knowledge to another, and it's typically referring inwards, to a deeper value. And we use it in the context of transcending your normal level of thinking. And it doesn't matter what your religious perspective is.
Speaker 2:Everybody thinks, but what's the basis of thinking? And naturally, if you're thinking, you are conscious of what you are thinking about. Or if you are intellectually analyzing or memorizing or organizing, you are conscious of that activity within your mind, within your intellect. Or you're conscious of your emotions, or you're conscious of visual or auditory or sensory perception, or you're conscious of physical activity or sensory perception, or you're conscious of physical activity. So consciousness, our perspective is consciousness, therefore, is primary, it's fundamental, but we generally only experience in reference to the activity of what we are conscious of, gotcha. So the purpose of transcendental meditation means to inwardly transition from the active values to the underlying state of consciousness itself in its fundamental condition.
Speaker 1:And I don't know. I can go into that now or I can leave that door open. No, we're still. We're in the flow here. So let's back up a little bit, because again you used a term that's going to make a Christian's butt pucker is the best way to put it no, no, and it's not.
Speaker 2:No, I'm good, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:No, you're not. It's nothing you've said that's wrong. It's just like. We have our keywords Like ooh, what does it mean to look inward, like is that selfishness?
Speaker 1:And I want to be super careful here, not because we have to tiptoe, it's that I think this is important. But what I think I'm hearing you say is that when we're looking inward, we're not looking at the things we naturally look at. You know that there's this active participation that we involve ourselves in every day. You know, at 2 o'clock I'm going to start cutting hair. Now, when I'm cutting hair, am I thinking about cutting hair? No, I'm not. I believe that this is the inward thing that you're referring to, that that there's this subconscious portion that is our consciousness. Also, we're only conscious of what we are doing. You know I'm Mr ADD guy, so I can I can think about 20 things at once, and still my work. You know so I'm a little bit more attuned to those realities that there's a lot of things that might be going through my brain, and because my physical talents allow for that right. So you know I don't get to take credit for that, that's just. However, I've been blessed if that's the word we get to use for being tormented by having a thousand thoughts at the same time. But my point being that when you're referring to looking inward, which kind of leads me to where I was trying to start with, is this what, what we do with religion or activities that give us purpose? And then we think that, oh, by doing this, therefore, we are better for us, not necessarily imagining that we're judging people, and you know it's.
Speaker 1:It would be um, what, what's the word that's getting used all the time now? Not not wokeness, but, um, mindfulness. I mean, you know that it has a cult-like status again. You know, oh, I'm being, I'm having mindful practices and let me tell you all about it. You know, and you can't get a word in edgewise about what you're mindful of, like, like you're not even minding the conversation. So what does mindfulness mean? And I think, looking inward, you know, when I go back to my childhood, the narratives that were happening in church about, you know, eastern mystics and where these philosophies should be, I think, interwoven. But there's a disconnect because the religion and the religious structures are like, no, no, that's bad, that's cult-like stuff. We're not a cult either, but don't do that, or else you don't belong. You know, not imagining that we might be developing cult-like behavior with the people that are following us.
Speaker 2:We're the anti-cult cult, but don't call us that.
Speaker 1:Exactly. It's pretty funny, you know it's funny to laugh about, but it's so uncomfortable to actually be conscious of. You know the divisions that this has created in humanity.
Speaker 2:You know, the thing is is that it's very similar to I'm French and you're German and therefore you're different and therefore you're a cult.
Speaker 1:You're the German cult. One of us has to be better, but we're not, yeah, but we're because we're French.
Speaker 2:It's just you know there are natural boundaries within life that you become familiar with educational or institutional, or cultural or artistic or whatever music. That is just what you're familiar with and you become comfortable with it. And when a different dialect or observational reference comes out, then you question it and you may say no, that's too dangerous. According to what I'm doing, so I really do.
Speaker 1:I'm not really agendizing this as much as I am like I really want to get to this. So when you're saying, looking inward, what do I mean? What do you mean?
Speaker 2:Actually, you use the term looking inwards. I said moving inwards.
Speaker 1:Your mind is settling inwards. There you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just because you can have an inner experience. That is what a dream is, or an inner visual, but you are conscious of it. But you are conscious of it just as you are conscious of what I'm saying or what you are thinking. So consciousness is primary and in the tradition that transcendental meditation comes from, there are many texts that give beautiful descriptive analysis of these different levels of the mind and they are linked to yogic philosophy and practice and so forth. And the central teaching of yoga is Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. The central teaching of yoga is Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, and the second verse of the sutras, which are very short, simply says the state of yoga is attained with the cessation of thinking. So earlier I said, if you're thinking, you're conscious of what you're thinking about. So if there's no thought, then you're just conscious. And what does that actually mean experientially? How does that affect you? What are you experiencing in that state?
Speaker 2:In another text called the Upanishads, there's a beautiful, simple definition of the three fundamental qualities of consciousness and in that terminology, which was Sanskrit, those qualities were identified with the terms Sat, s-a-t that's the English transliteration of how you pronounce it Sat, chit, c-h-i-t, ananda, a-n-a-n-d-a, and people who've studied Eastern philosophy or yoga. A lot of them hear that, have heard that description or read of it Sat-Chit-Ananda. When you translate it, however, it's not spiritual, it's not religious, it's natural cognitive experience. Sat simply means your thoughts are active and they are sounds that you memorized intellectually how to pronounce your words, whatever language you're thinking in. And then there's the meaning of the sound. So the word boot you learned how to pronounce that has a meaning it's a trunk right In England.
Speaker 2:Right the boot of your car and then other language booty, but we won't go there. And then there is sequencing of words into formal language. So your intellect is constantly active with the pronunciation, the meaning and the sequencing of thought. So this is why your mind is constantly active. It's also stirred by memory and reactiveness and so forth. Stirred by memory and reactiveness and so forth.
Speaker 2:But when you transcend that into the yogic, meditative state which I think directly parallels Christ's description of the kingdom of heaven, you experience the silent, non-active peacefulness of your own consciousness. Why is it peaceful? Because it's silent and non-active. Also, it's profoundly stable. Thoughts change, emotions change, perceptions change, but consciousness is always consciousness and this is a naturalistic experience and scientifically it's called consciousness in the modern world. Okay, in ancient states it was called satchitananda, or kingdom of heaven, or nirvana, or satori, depending on the perspective of who was describing it. Through experience, and that is the key thing Some people were deeply established and familiar with that inner state. So Sat consciousness is silent, non-active, non-changing Chit. It's not the silence of sleep, it's awareness, consciousness, intelligence. So when you're not thinking, you are just consciously, quietly at peace, and you're aware of it because it's awareness in its pure state. Thirdly, ananda means bliss or happiness. What's blissful about consciousness? It's completely at peace and it feels very comfortable and we're very happy to be in that state heavenly.
Speaker 2:Now, many people have read that description in the Upanishads, that consciousness has the qualities of Sat-Chit-Ananda. And then they read the yoga description. The state of yoga, the experience of pure consciousness, is attained with a cessation of thinking, experienced in achievement in life by principles of activity which I will identify with three terms Effort, focus, control. Those are the principles of success in activity. So I want to experience pure consciousness. How do I go about that? The principles I achieve everything in are effort, focus, control. So I'm going to assume that this means you try to control the mind and stop thinking. But that takes effort and effort increases activity, and you will not enter a state of no activity by increasing activity. And this is what frustrates people when they try to meditate or try to stay in the deepest mindful state of experience.
Speaker 2:The founder of TM Maharishi, mahesh Yogi and that's a title. He was given that title because of his expertise and knowledge. He was a yogi because he was established in the knowledge. Mahesh means destruction, destroyer, destroyer of what, ignorance? It's a term used in that context. In India and Maharishi means great seer or great sage. A rishi is a seer, a maha Maha means great sage, a rishi is a seer. A maha Maha means great. So he was respected as being a great, insightful, meditative yogi. That's what the name is and what he explained is.
Speaker 2:When we meditate it's a completely different dynamic than our active life. We don't try to use the same principles. Effort, focus, control are for activity, because you have to create something and make it happen and manage it. Everybody has heard their mother say hey, mike, your room's not going to clean itself, that's right, so you're going to have to put a little effort into this. Or you're allegedly doing homework and your dad comes by and says and you're listening to music at the same time and your dad will say hey, maybe turn off the music so you can focus. You know, because when you focus on something you get more memory, intelligence, anything you're conscious of, you automatically have a memory, because consciousness is pure, intelligence includes memory. So if we want to experience pure consciousness, essentially we have to disengage the intellect. So we won't go into that state typically through analysis, like I am calm, or analyze my mind, or something like that Mindfulness.
Speaker 2:I think my perspective is. What it means is you're in the present moment. You're not projecting about what's going to go wrong in the future or what you did wrong in the past. You are simply in the current moment and that is when you're fully mindful. But it has to be a natural state, because as soon as you start trying to focus to keep it that way, you're going into either the past or the. It has to be a natural state. So Maharishi introduced what he called a revival of the original ancient principles of transcendental meditation, deep meditation and the principles are two things. When you practice TM that's the abbreviation for transcendental yes.
Speaker 1:TM Not tea that you drink.
Speaker 2:Yes, there are two aspects. One is it is based on the mental use of what is called a mantra, and I will explain that, of what is called a mantra, and I will explain that. And the other aspect is what Maharishi beautifully identified as the natural tendency of the mind. Now, the natural tendency of the mind is that your attention, your conscious attention, is guided by the qualities of consciousness, which, again, are silent, awareness and bliss. So the bliss is not fireworks, it's peaceful bliss. Right, you're just at peace. And your reference in life is I'm doing something, and if doing it is enjoyable, I will keep doing it. So surfing is very Ananda, it's a form of bliss, it's Ananda practice.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah right.
Speaker 2:It requires focus and so forth, but it's very strong in the ananda quality yeah, just liking to get choked to death of blissful qualities that that little awkward yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you're in a restaurant and you're given the menu, when we study the menu, are we looking for what would be the worst thing I could have for lunch or what would be more enjoyable? The tendency is towards happiness because that's your deeper inner nature. If you're thinking career, are you thinking how can I be miserable for the next 20 years? Or what would be the financial advantage Happiness related and is it interesting to me and does it enhance my life? So this is the tendency when we meditate if we can create a settling or a transcending transitional settling, influence, control isn't needed because you're settling into deeper inner peace. So the control part is not needed and it's eliminated by the natural tendency of the mind. And this is really very important because any kind of control will stop the settling. It has to go by its own.
Speaker 2:How do we create the settling? Via shifting from whatever we're thinking about. Firstly, I'll backtrack. When we meditate because it's for inner experience and the aim is to enter a non-active, deep state of inner peace. The physiology has to support that by also being in a less active mode. So we sit down. This is why we sit and meditate. We don't do it while we're running or jogging. People will often say, yeah, jogging's kind of meditative. But our perspective is, yeah, but it's very active and you have to focus or you're going to run into a tree or whatever.
Speaker 2:So we sit down. That is why.
Speaker 2:For safety reasons. Exactly, practicality is you got to sit down. We don't lie down because physiologically that promotes sleep unconsciousness. So we sit comfortably it's not rigid, just comfortably upright and we close our eyes. The visual sense is by far the most active and complex. Think of how many little things are in your visual and that is stimulating your brain, neurophysiology in the occipital area. And then your intellectual area is the frontal cortex and that is analyzing or appreciating what I'm looking at. But that keeps you very active. So we close our eyes and that dramatically reduces sensory activity Because the visual sense is the dominant and most complex. So you're simple, you're just sitting with your eyes closed. But typically what we experience is I will have a thought and one thought will lead to another thought, either associatively, reflectively, analytically.
Speaker 2:The urgency begins once those eyes eyes close and you're not doing something, or memory, and your mind keeps active with and your intellect is active with pronunciation, pronouncing the words, the meaning and the sequence. Now that's happening automatically because you've memorized that from childhood, but it's happening and so, very subtly, the activity of the mind and intellect continue and this is why a mantra in the transcendental meditation practice is very specific. There are thousands of mantras in the Vedic tradition. They are categorized generally as being sattvic because they're Sanskrit and Sanskrit is a very orderly language and when you listen to things recited in sanskrit it has a naturally kind of settling value. But most of the sanskrit terms all have meaning. So most of the the Sanskrit slokas or phrases in India like one of them is Gayatri Mantra Each of those words has a meaning and the meaning is kind of intellectually and emotionally uplifting. So Maharishi said any phrase in any language, even if it's a beautiful spiritual phrase, is for contemplation. So the kingdom of heaven is within, or you I'm sure have many phrases from the Bible that you favor and they uplift you because they are three fundamental qualities or forces of nature. Satva is pure creative intelligence. It creates flowers, it creates galaxies. That is the creative value of the natural world and it's incredibly comprehensive and orderly, because the flowers have a stem.
Speaker 2:And where did all those ideas come from? They came from an underlying field of pure intelligence, which modern science calls the unified field. Okay, the unified field, okay, that field creates fields of energy. That in turn, and there's only four fundamental forms of energy according to physics my understanding of physics as somebody with a degree in art and design and a master's in education, so I'm a good communicator and whatever but unified field is a very deep understanding of modern science. Where does all the intelligence of life come from? Comes from a eternal, universal field that is non-active but it manifests as vibrating energy that creates particles. Particles form the structure of atoms. Atoms combine to create molecules. There are many, there's thousands of molecules, but they're all made from atoms. The molecules combine to make millions of different cells, plant cells, different kind of plants, fruit, vegetables, trees it's just amazing. And then cells form structures again trees, plants, human beings, central nervous system, brain, physiology, that unified field guiding creative energy.
Speaker 2:It's called sattva. But in order for creation to occur, there has to be dynamism, activity, and that is called rajas. And in order for evolution to occur, one state has to transition to its next value and the dissolution of the previous is called tamas. It's also referred to as dissolution or destruction. The seed creates the plant, the leaves emerge, the flowers bloom, but then they gradually age and then they become. They're dissoluting, they're becoming destroyed, and that's just how nature works. So it's a simplistic way of understanding the dynamism. But what's beautiful about that little categorization, sattva Rajasthamas is those qualities of life that govern connectivity and growth in the most positive and healthy manner are expressed as the different religious values. So when you adopted Christianity, you felt this put you more back on an evolutionary path. You felt this put you more back on an evolutionary path. And there are phrases in the Bibles appreciated just as the Torah and in Islam they have their texts.
Speaker 2:Those texts were considered very valuable and one way of looking at why they're so valuable is they give you guidelines for living that will help you evolve in a safe, positive way, and that is called sattva yeah, positive way, and that is called sattva. The mantras that are used in India thousands of them, they're sattvic, but the mantras that Maharishi identified as being the most directly effective for transcending, he explained, these are the most sattvic sounds. So, when you think it, it has a natural connectivity to the source of sattva, which is unified field, which we call consciousness.
Speaker 2:Modern physics says unified field is the essence of everything. So it's the essence of every cell in your body, every atom, every structure. But if it's the essence of everything, it's also the essence of your mind. Explain that unified field is another term for consciousness in terms of what gives us life intelligence. So our consciousness is really our individual connectivity to, or experience of, the unified field as our own consciousness, of the unified field as our own consciousness. So therefore, on that level, there's no difference between you or me or anybody else, because we all derive it from the same thing, and there's no difference in our source, from the source of that plant or that wall, even though it's man-made, or that wall, even though it's man-made, it's man-made of natural elements that were created by a unified field and therefore everything is consciousness.
Speaker 2:And I'll take that a step further in a minute. Just because if I say the wall is made of consciousness, that's like yeah, whatever, but what I mean is it's made of intelligence, because that is what consciousness is, and it is intelligently reactive. It doesn't think, but if the temperature in the spatial environment goes down, so does the temperature of the wall.
Speaker 2:it's not unreactive, yeah, it's, it's not, it's not sitting alone no, it, its structure is responding due to the same laws of nature that govern environmental temperature. It affects everything, so everything is intelligently reactive from that perspective and this is why there's a beautiful new book by Dr Tony Nader, who is the current global head of the Transcendental Meditation Organizations internationally. He was trained by Maharishi for that role, cultured for that role, and he's brilliant. He's a PhD MD, harvard and MIT trained. His specialty was human brain, neurophysiology and behavior, and his new book is titled Consciousness is All there Is, which is a really big statement. And then he academically defends it by giving you the history of how different cultures understood consciousness through different eras and then how it became increasingly more scientific and what the implications are for medicine and social behavior and so forth, and it simply gives you a different dialectic to what religion was saying is who created everything? Man didn't create it, man was created. God created everything.
Speaker 2:Man didn't create it. Man was created. God created everything. There is a spiritual essence to everything, and that is exactly what modern science is calling the unified field.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, no, I'm tracking. Yeah, can we rewind just a little bit? Yes, Because, I want to use my words, not because I think they're important, but I want to bridge what we perceive as conscious because of words in English.
Speaker 2:And I will just mention that. I will finish my explanation of how the mind can settle through the use of the mantra and why the mantra plays out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that might be another third podcast.
Speaker 2:Let me just say that when you learn TM, you learn a mantra specific for you from a group, specific for you from a group. We don't have a billion or eight billion, but we have categorized and you would be taught a specific ancient vedic mantra. The value of the mantra is it has no meaning, but the sound quality is harmonious with the mind's natural ability to settle. And when the mind settles, your physiology settles to a deeper state of rest During TM, compared to sleep.
Speaker 2:During eight hours of sleep, metabolism may lower 8% after five or six hours During TM, which is only done for 20 minutes we recommend twice a day, a Harvard Medical School study published in Science Magazine identified that within 10 minutes, meditators were experiencing a 16% reduction in metabolism. So this kingdom of heaven within this meditative state is deeply rejuvenating and it enhances your life, so that you are more mentally clear, because you're more conscious and you're more free from the stress of the past, because when you get deep rest, your body releases the stress. That's why you have dreams at night. Those are memories of your active life. During TM, these things occur and you don't just learn the mantra and to sit down, but you have to learn how to use it in a manner that is harmonious with the natural tendency of the mind, which will be drawn into pure consciousness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that is you know, because I have my mantra right that I utilize when I'm doing TM yes, and again, this little further explanation than you explanation than in my little three-class series that got me started on this journey, which is great. I'm loving hearing this aspect of it. I want to bridge a little bit just as far as religious structures go, because, again, anybody who's struggling a little bit with, yeah, beautiful, what is sounding very logical at this point it's logical because the last 15 years I was director of the Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1:And that is the logic capital, and so I synthesized everything that I had learned over 53 years of teaching this to communicate with these incredibly yeah, and, and I and I in in a way I don't I don't know this is a fair way to put it, but I do believe it's what we're experiencing here in this region. I I'm going to speak a little bit to christianity in this realm that more and more the quote-unquote science or intellectual narrative has dominated the conversation in america. You know, we just certainly went through a global crisis with covid, uh, on the political, the technocrats won, which is not necessarily spiritual right. Like we're trying to quote unquote, use science to be objective, but it became unobjective in a way. It was not, it became subjective. And this is what, to me, what the West does. Like we want to turn your thing into a thing so we can buy it or sell it.
Speaker 1:We want to make it an it, and I'm using that as a front end to what I want to say. This is the bumper in the car that.
Speaker 1:I'm wanting to drive a little bit, a little bit. Anybody who has read their Bible truly will know that the meditative practice that was expressed by David in most of the Psalms were all meditative practices, and you know one of the most famous of Psalms, that or songs that David wrote, there's this particular line that all Christians will know those who meditate upon the Lord will have their strength renewed.
Speaker 2:How beautiful.
Speaker 1:And you know it's lovely to sit here with you to remind myself of what David was saying is that there is this thing that is almighty. It doesn't have a name, and I want to rewind a little bit more to even when Abram and Moses had their encounters with God. Upon asking him what's your name, he said I am, that I am. And it was Augustine who was like we can't even transliterate this to Latin. Let me best explain it to you he is and he is not. I am and I am not. Go ahead and look at it. Yeah, that's me, but dare call me that and you've missed the whole point.
Speaker 1:You know, like, like, and this is one of the things that that you know. It's a little personal thing, but you know, because I was in such a big rub with God at the time, my sponsor when I went to AA another brilliant scientist right, he's a biochemist from Caltech, beautiful mind Was a fellow believer also, but he was so surprised that, as a former pastor, I'm like, hey, look, my big beef's going to be with God, it's not with alcohol. And so in one of the steps it is like you know the God that you so choose, like, pick one. And he was very surprised and I'm like I'm not there, bro. You know, I got a real problem with this concept of God, because that's where my rub is, and it was a funny thing. He said to me he goes well, can you make paint? And I'm like no, he goes well, can you make paint? And I'm like no, he goes well. Then, pray to the paint, it's bigger than you.
Speaker 2:And that practice I tried. It's a deeply philosophic wise statement it was, but again it speaks to this unified field.
Speaker 1:That that is quote-unquote. Now scientific, now science understands that there's a unified field as though it didn't exist before they understood it. This is my point. You know that it was absurd for me to pray to paint. It lasted a day. You know it was like like no, I mean god's not paint. You know it's bigger than me, but I couldn't wrap myself around the concept of God being bigger than my situation at the time and it was the thing that got me over the hurdle which was wonderful for me of like re-embracing my relationship with God and just how vast he was.
Speaker 2:But it also opened me up to this reality of what you're just alluding to that it not was is yes, he is all things you know and and you know, you know, put evil a way to understand that is, in this nice big open space building we're in, there is this space and it looks empty. Right, I mean, there's the walls, but then the space between you and I looks empty. But it's not because there are air molecules that we're breathing. Okay, we can't see them because they're incredibly tiny, but they're incredibly tiny, but they're there.
Speaker 2:And the air molecules are made of atoms and they're even tinier and we don't see them. And even tinier than that are the particles, and even smaller than that, but actually bigger is that they are made of vibrations, of energy, and these vibrations interconnect everything. And the vibrations come from what we can call an unmanifest, abstract, formless, eternal field of pure intelligence, and that field is what we would call God. So that field is governing the structure of every particle, of every grain of sand on the beach and, at the same time, everything on this planet and everything in the galactic universe on the gigantic scale.
Speaker 2:So it's bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest. But you can't put it in words because a word is a tiny little sound that does not do justice to infinite intelligence. Yeah, but it's there, your own consciousness. Then those deeper realities begin to be more part of your conscious thinking pattern automatically, and that's a higher state of consciousness, is the way we describe it. Anyone who benefits from a religious tradition is benefiting from that vision that the founder and the more exalted proponents, you know, the God has I mean Christ had the disciples Matthew.
Speaker 2:Philip John and they did their best to share what they felt by following what Christ had taught them. Yeah yeah, and my introduction to Judaism was seeing the movie the Ten Commandments. Yeah, yeah. And when Moses is communicating with the burning bush. That was my first spiritual experience really I was like wow, this is really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just as a point of reference, the burning bush, the fire that does not consume. You see, that's so antithetical to the natural experience.
Speaker 2:I am that, I am.
Speaker 1:I am, that I am and I'm a fire that's not come to burn you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a very different perspective of who God is, Whatever your tradition is at least inianity.
Speaker 2:We look at that as this, like understanding the peacefulness of the fire yes, and I think what people struggle with is god is infinite intelligence and grace. When you experience that level, it really enhances you. But what about this negativity and destruction that exists in the world? And that's a hard one to grasp, but it fits with these three forces of nature, yeah, yeah, Creative sattva, dynamism and then destructive tamas. And God, out of the unified field, out of its benevolence, created everything you know, which we take for granted. Like you know, you buy a peach. Where did the idea that you would have a peach to eat come from?
Speaker 2:yeah and the flavor. And then a plum is different and an apple's pineapple. You know, we just take it for granted. But there is this amazing intelligence this, this.
Speaker 1:This is the part where you know I have tried, like I have tried to be atheist three times in my life, like really tried, but it's eyeballs and love are always my hiccups, like how is it that even beings without eyes somehow see? You know, that just doesn't. You know it doesn't fit in the evolutionary model as it's been presented so far. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something guides it, something's guiding it Like there's a beautiful article I think it was atlantic or new yorker called plant intelligence and it explained that, oh god, yeah, the mushrooms, oh my gosh when, uh, if there's an underground aquifer water and there's a tree or a plant with long roots in that region, they will go straight to the water they don't like hit it by chance. So the intelligence that created the plant also created the water, and the dynamics of plant life follow those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's crazy but actually it's highly.
Speaker 1:It's beyond intelligent yeah, yeah, yeah well because everything is intelligence have you seen that thing on uh netflix yet about mycelium? You know, it's just about what mushrooms do no, no, like, like like in a square foot of mushrooms, like are just sitting under a log. There are billions of communications. Right Because the mushrooms are communicating with all the plants about who gets what it's nuts.
Speaker 2:It makes me uncomfortable walking we want everything to be peaceful and supportive and evolutionary and fulfilling. And then there's dynamism of change so it's constantly changing.
Speaker 2:And evolving, yes, and there also has to be dissolution, meaning our body starts getting older and it doesn't work as well, it's becoming tamasic and eventually it's going to end, or it can end sooner if somebody who's thinking is too rajasic or tamasic becomes violent, violent. So the dilemma of life is, if we want to live a fulfilling life, a happier, more unified, we have to favor sattvic values or it's all going to go south on us. And that's what drew you to Christianity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, there's look, there's a transcendent quality that, to me, is living in this conversation, because you know I'll make a brief statement about one thing, but I want to touch on one more topic before we end this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please go.
Speaker 1:I've said more than enough, no, no, it's great. You know our notions of death, that it's narrowly defined as something dying is not accurate. You know it's like things have to die to rejuvenate. You know there's a reincarnative value in all that is alive.
Speaker 2:Beautiful statement.
Speaker 1:You know it is what it is. I don't pretend to understand that, but at least in christianity, you know, because of words like sin, you know the wages of sin is death. It's like, well, the wages of life is death too, like that's like we are going to deteriorate. And and you know, because christianity has applied this notion of heaven as this other thing. I'm not proposing that heaven or hell is whatever, just keep that aside but this reality that was steeped inside of Jesus' message when he was here. If he was God, I believe him to be, that he was God.
Speaker 1:Death was a constant prospect, but transcending death was much of the message. We applied that notion to heaven. As I've grown with my own religion, my own structure, as I'm looking around me to TM in one form, but all these other things, it's not about avoiding death, which, which I think must have. Most of the messaging that we receive as humans now is how to avoid death. You know, as though death is the worst eternal prospect that could ever happen, and whereas death is to me part of the eternal prospect in living, death to yourself in some way, you know that if death to the body death to the body, like death to this construct, that that we build for ourselves to protect ourselves.
Speaker 1:And you know, simply it's. You know, for me it's. You know, simply it's. You know, for me it's learning to approach death differently, because I've died to myself multiple times. The person that I am now is not the person that I was 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:Correct and that was a very conscious effort on my part. There's a lot of action and there's a lot of suffering in between those moments of deciding that the person that I am right now needs to die because there's something better that I could become, not this thing that I've formed to put on display. But again, death part is a part of an evolutionary process.
Speaker 1:And it's so steeped in scripture, like there's lots of scriptures that are kind of reminding me I don't want to get all preachy, but it's just this reality that the disconnect within my own religion was like. Well, you know, death's kind of the part where God really kicks in. You know you get to go to heaven if you're on the right team. I's like I don't think death is the same as we want it to be. I guess is the point.
Speaker 2:I think relating it to sin, sin can be if you do something that accelerates aging and disruption.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, and we can look at drug use and alcohol consumption as a basic metaphor to yeah, those are quote unquote, sinful practices Well, and only tamasic right. It's got a place and it's tamasic.
Speaker 2:You can choose. You can choose sattva, or you can choose Rajas, or you can choose Thomas, and too much Rajas will automatically push you towards Thomas.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to go on a little soliloquy just for a minute here, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because this is something I really want to talk to you about today.
Speaker 1:One of the main principles I've been operating in the last two years is in acceptance, like allowing things to be what they actually are and accepting that you know I do have some power of choice with myself, but inevitably there's very little I can change other than my approach to it, and you know I've tried to link that up in previous podcasts to this reality that you know there's a moment in the scripture it actually happens in Numbers where you know in what Numbers is. It's just who all the people were in the Hebrew family, right, it's so-and-so, begat, so-and-so but this strange moment happens like I think it's Numbers 4 or 5, where God goes. Oh and, by the way, I need you to know something about me. I'm not a man that I need to repent, and it sounds so lording over a man that I need to repent and it sounds so lording over. It's like, oh, I've never done anything wrong and I see everything, but that word, repentance, is this beautiful word and this is really what I've been embracing.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm taking a repentant posture.
Speaker 1:It's an amazing statement.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:But what God was saying is that I'm not a man and that I don't see things for what they are. And it's not that I haven't taken this breath in. Upon seeing things for how they really are, like, oh, that's not the way I was hoping it was going to be. You know, it literally means taking that deep breath, you know, taking in this thing. You've been alluding to that, this, this unified field of like thing. You've been alluding to that, this, this unified field of like. I have to take in oxygen that I don't make, you know, it's like I, I, I need to breathe in this life. That is, that is away from kind of almost what I'm seeing, and then have compassion on myself, seeing how things are. So, therefore, I can have compassion towards others, and I don't think that God was like, hey, I'm not like you, screw you, you know, I don't need to repent. He was saying I am God, I do see all things and I've already taken that breath and I've created the air, you know, and I have compassion both on myself and on humanity. And so this practice of acceptance right, which is just allowing things to be what they are I'm curious what your thoughts are in that, because you know my depression's gone away Like it's.
Speaker 1:Living in acceptance has been one of the most powerful tools I've ever had. You know that, coupled with the practice of TM. You know being in this worshipful state, right, just allowing God to be God, allowing my mind to go where it goes, accepting that. You know not using my mantra as a stick. You know allowing myself to be in the vibration of God, being in that conscious. You know what, in my illiterate form of transcendental meditation would be being in my subconscious, like what's really going on inside of me, and just allowing that space to be and the rest that comes from that. You know, and and again, living, living in this meditative practice, that David said those that meditate upon the Lord will have their strength renewed. You know I'm literally on God, in God in those moments. You know God and me.
Speaker 2:However, we want to garnish that hamburger.
Speaker 1:It's like you know, if I'm made in God, I'm in the unified field.
Speaker 2:Unified field is everything else, so I'm at ease. The unified field, and the unified field is everything else, so I'm at ease. I think that you're in that state where see people get stressed out. What drives anxiety is thinking too far forward, and the problem with that is you could think of a million things that could go wrong. So it's endless, right? Not just the things that you are thinking that could go wrong, but there are other things that other people are doing that may lead you there, unknowing because life is so complex, or looking backwards, you know you could point out a million things.
Speaker 2:You could have done better, but you don't have any control over yeah, I mean that's.
Speaker 1:That's the cliche in psychology is that you know, depression is when you look back, anxiety is when you look forward yes be present. Be present now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the beauty of it is the only thing that you have any control over ever is the current moment, and the current moment is constantly changing. But what we would therefore want to encourage our children to do is just focus on what you're doing. So if you're studying, just study. Don't worry about whether you're going to understand it or not. Just read it and react to it. And if you have questions, make notes and just give your full attention at every step. Make notes, you know, and just give your full attention at every step. And the beauty of that is, if you do that, you're creating the best future, because you're giving your full attention to whatever you're doing, and that's as good as you can do. You can enhance that by taking, you know, a couple of meditation breaks to experience the transcendental value of your consciousness, which is the infinite intelligence of nature, within your own limitations as an individual. So I have no idea what your experience of that actually is.
Speaker 2:I only speak about it using general terms. But each time a person does that, it enhances your intellectual capacity, and so forth. And then the other thing that I think everybody has to appreciate is that so this universal intelligence of the unified field, aka God, is a vastly intelligent reality, and even if there are things happening in the world that we wish weren't, like the war in Israel and Ukraine, you know, oh my gosh, the horror of that Sudan, you know.
Speaker 1:just go down the list of.
Speaker 2:We just want that to end. There is a dynamic in human life on this planet that is evolutionary and, even though it's bad, evidently it is the best it can be at this moment.
Speaker 2:yeah, right in this dynamic of creation, activity, destruction. That's how things evolve. That is the state of the world that we have been gifted with, and it has its challenges because of those continual dynamics. They're not going to go away. What we hope for and what we can individually work for or towards, is become as positively evolutionary or sattvic or Christian as we can, and that's the best we can do. Yeah, and of course it's important to recognize what is wrong and then find ways to improve that, and then mainly work on ourselves so that we're a better person and we're living what we wish other people would behave like.
Speaker 1:But again, what I'm hearing from you, though and again I think at least this rubs me when I hear people say, oh, I'm working on myself right now and and all the activity is a selfishness which is, I think, often enough. You know where there's a lack of continuity in a relationship, sometimes with people where they're like, oh, I'm just working on myself. It's like, yeah, no, you're not, you're just doing whatever the fuck you want. You know, it's like. You know, I just don't want anybody to know what you're doing. You know, because you don't really like like there's an interplay, and you know I mentioned this a couple times that that you know.
Speaker 1:I, I really am convinced that if you know someone is truly becoming whole, it will affect others. But the only way to affect others is to suffer with them, to suffer through the process in some way, and it's not whether you're going to suffer in some way, it's what you're going to suffer for, it is the general prospect you take on a compassionate role to help that person and it's going to influence you as you go through it, but you love them enough that you're willing to do that yeah that's what a relationship, whether it be marriage or friendship, or you see someone on the street, you know.
Speaker 2:Like not to beat my horn, but I usually don't have a lot of. I usually don't have a lot of cash value in my wallet.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, one day I had like a $100 bill in there for some reason and I went to this little restaurant I would like to go to in Mountain View, near where our meditation center was view near where our meditation center was and there was a big guy passed out on the sidewalk and he vomited a little but it I didn't get the vibe. It was because he had fallen sick but he was drunk yeah, he was out you know, and I thought how can I help this guy?
Speaker 2:and I put the hundred dollar bill in his shirt pocket so he would find it later and know that somebody cared about him yes but I didn't, that moment, I didn't want to go through whatever else it would have taken to take care of that guy. So we can do little things like that, you know.
Speaker 1:And I'm really glad to hear that. You know, because you know it's funny, like this is a practice I've had for a long time. You know that that I, you know there's things that I buy with cash. I get change. So I have this bucket of change in my car and you know, honestly, whenever I'm stopped at a stop sign, I got my bucket. I prayerfully, okay, lord, is this the one? And like I don't, I don't have any judgment about what they're doing.
Speaker 2:What they're going to do with it.
Speaker 1:And they're like boom. Two hands every time and they're just pouring the change out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's a practice. It's a religion of mine now, so I don't get to go. Yeah, I'm a good guy, it's just part of my practice. So it's not as though.
Speaker 2:No, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:But living in you know, generosity, knowing that you know I've been supported by the one, by you, know that you know, whatever we want to call it, tithe, this honoring of like understanding that God is in fact the one who has allowed our agrarian society to do that. So I bring my grain, I bring my thing and offer that 10% of the first fruits, right, the good ones of? Hey, you know like I'm doing okay, especially compared to you right now.
Speaker 2:You need it more than me. You need it more than me, right?
Speaker 1:I got some eggs in my fridge. I'm going to be okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm not that separate from you. Yeah, it's not that far away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, hey, this was super insightful, michael, and I really do look forward to talking to you more in the future. Of course, we get to see each other more often than not, even though we still haven't surfed yet. Since you've been back from Bali, I have surfed a lot. Yeah, well, I have surfed, but not a lot. But we haven't surfed together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've got to get it done, we've got to do our four-mile run here sooner than later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's—.
Speaker 2:One little quick promotional thing, yes, please yes, you are. So our organization, which is Maharishi Foundation, usa, and we're affiliated with the David Lynch Foundation because filmmaker David Lynch really likes doing TM and he likes supporting it, supporting it we are starting a two and a half month project called Meditate America, specifically Meditate Santa Cruz, and the fee for tuition to learn.
Speaker 2:TMm, which is stratified by uh annual household income level. So that way it's affordable to everyone and fair for people who have the funds and it's easy, you know, and it we are going to offer a reduced rate and it's a 50% reduction from the highest level, so it's a pretty nice drop from 980 to 580. 540, yeah, 540,. Sorry so it's not quite half, but it's Close enough. No, it's 480. 480.
Speaker 1:There you go, it's 480. Yes, sorry about that, that's all right, or it's 440. So does that include the three-class structure, the?
Speaker 2:whole. Yeah, you get the lifetime membership.
Speaker 1:Okay structure.
Speaker 2:That the whole. Yeah, you get the lifetime membership, okay, and um, if anyone is interested, uh, you can contact me via email, m yankus m y a n k a u s at tmorg. Or you can just Google TM program Santa Cruz and you can contact me through that and we will get you started. Our center is at 4245 Capitola Road, suite number 203. We're near 41st Avenue, right across the street from Dharma's. It's a nice little center.
Speaker 1:That's great. Thank you, Michael. Thanks so much. Love you a bunch. Bud, have a good rest of your day.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to have this dialogue with you and hopefully some people may enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. All right, thanks. So much, everybody. Bye.