Sovereign Heart Frequency Podcast

SHF Podcast Episode 9- Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times with Douglas Bentley

• Katherine Finley

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In this episode of the Sovereign Heart Frequency Podcast hosts Katherine Finley and Miriah Feehery enjoy a heartfelt conversation with spiritual teacher, Douglas Bentley

Douglas, is the cofounder of the Sacred Wisdom School, with his wife Prema Bentley.  He has been on a spiritual journey since a young child and brings his wisdom to others in a refreshingly simple way.

This podcast explores the concept of harmony between the heart and mind, suggesting that societal and personal unrest often stem from an overactive mind disconnected from the heart's wisdom. Douglas emphasizes how aligning with the heart's guidance can foster personal and collective harmony, underscoring the importance of presence and acceptance in spiritual growth.

Additionally, the conversation touches on the role of painful experiences in spiritual evolution, proposing that these challenges can either derail individuals or guide them back to their authentic path. Douglas stresses the significance of inner awareness and non-resistance in healing emotional wounds, leading to a state of unconditional love and harmonious existence.

Overall, the podcast offers insights into themes of spiritual awakening, emotional healing, and the transformative impact of aligning with the heart's wisdom amidst personal and global challenges. It encourages listeners to reflect on their paths to authenticity and harmony, highlighting the profound effects of inner work on collective consciousness.

 Find more about Douglas' offerings at sacredwisdomschool.com

Welcome to the Sovereign Heart Frequency Podcast. I'm Katherine Finley with Sovereign Heart Coaching and I'm here with my co host Miriah Feehery of Whole Being Counseling. We recognize that we're living through an intense time on our planet. There seems to be more polarization and division and less connected communication than ever before. We are here to change that. We intention to hold conversations in a container of love and authenticity. We believe that when humans come together from a heart centered place, we can not only understand one another, but we can get creative together, solving problems we couldn't solve alone. It's time to reimagine and rebirth a new world in which everyone's authentic voice is included in the harmonic orchestra of human voices, to create a world that works for all of us. Thank you for being part of this conversation, we're excited to have you.

Speaker:

All right. Welcome everyone back to the Sovereign Heart Frequency Podcast. I am delighted to share that I have a friend and mentor of mine here with us today, Douglas Bentley, and Douglas Bentley is the co founder of the Sacred Wisdom School. Bringing forth ancient wisdom for modern times. And I had the privilege of meeting Douglas in India at an ashram where Douglas was a monk for 10 years. He's been on a spiritual path since he was a teenager. And after returning from India began the sacred wisdom school with his wife, Prema Douglas is also a successful entrepreneur and believes in thriving in the external world while growing internally. He offers accessible spiritual teachings that support his students in living their lives fully. We're so excited to have Douglas here with us today. Douglas, thank you for being here. I thought we could start with you telling us a bit about why you think you've been on this spiritual path since you were a kid, really.

Speaker 2:

My spiritual journey started actually when I was in third grade. And it was a very distinct moment in my life. I was actually walking in the hallway. I used to walk in line. And I was walking, holding my book bag in both my hands. My straps, you know. And all of a sudden a big white light came into my, my head. And everything went black. And, In the space inside that the white light brought in A voice said the purpose of your entire life is to move into a state of cosmic consciousness and there was this sort of like understanding what that meant for a third, you know third grader and then all of a sudden the light left and the I was able to see again and I kept walking the hallways and for whatever reason that single moment made me a very sincere spiritual seeker. So I literally became like the priority of my life. And I, from that moment onwards, always believed and knew that you could move into higher states of consciousness. And it became a massive priority from that moment onwards. I would say what has kept me on the spiritual path has was the need to heal emotionally. I would say that as life unfolded, hurts and pains accumulated. Me not knowing what to do with that got me to a place where I found myself deeply in pain and very stuck emotionally and started suffering physically because of that and that pain inside was the major driving factor to say I Have to address this and I would say that that was where the mature stage of spiritual growth took place for me to prioritize and Inner transformation to come out of the pain inside and that's what led me to live in India Be a monk learn the journey of self healing and restoring my heart to just feeling love again and so I'd have to say that that's sort of the unfoldment when I was younger.

Speaker:

Wow, what a amazing and unique experience and I have the curiosity coming up because I haven't heard the story of when you were young Did you have anyone to talk to about that experience or relate to around that experience or did you feel alone in it? What was that like?

Speaker 2:

No, I had literally, literally no one. I had never even really communicated it until many years later. But I was having those kinds of experiences pretty much every several years, where there was sort of like something touching base with me. And it seemed every time I got out of alignment and was sort of heading off track, Very miraculous things would take place, like very, very miraculous things that would Snap me back on to the journey of self growth. It was like if you're playing a video game, you go out of the bounds. Something pops you back on to the boundaries to continue the game. That's, I would have to say, was a reoccurring theme and still is to this day actually. These days I'm so used to that. I'm only just listening for that, actually respecting that something, something greater is leading the way. Just let it happen.

Speaker:

Wow. Do you feel like that's true for most of us or all of us when we get off track in life? There's something that is pulling us back on, like pulling us back to source.

Speaker 2:

I think you hit at the very heart of the question of, incarnation. Because if you look at nature, things are all in balance.. And when you overall look at nature and it's interwoven harmony, systems supporting systems, you could look at a very common thing, which is everything seems to be doing what it's built to do. It seems to be in the flow and in harmony, seems to be in resonance and vibration with the whole. Then you take any human being, you know, the average human being, and you look at them, and you say, what part of you is not in harmony? Or a better question yet, do you feel unconditional love, and are you happy? Great question. That's a marker. The average person will say, No, I feel insecure. I feel terrible. I feel discontent. I feel isolated. I feel lonely. I feel a tremendous lack of love. So then we'll have to say, Well, what is it that causes that? And we can boil the whole thing down to certain functioning of the brain that's producing an overactive thinking process. So, there is just something a part of our evolution at this moment that is producing an overthinking. And thought divides reality. Thought causes a sense of confusion to the natural state of listening to the knowingness and the feelingness and the passion at the core in your chest. So you could say the mind has hijacked the heart. When a person is just listening to the heart and the mind is the servant to it, They're completely on track with their life. Doesn't matter what it is, they're happy, go lucky, auspicious, harmonious, and successful in their own right. They're at the right place at the right time. Life naturally provides for them. They live a miraculous experience. But when a person moved away from listening and the heart, And is reeling in the mind, struggling with fears and insecurities. That person is completely disharmonious inside themselves. Therefore, they're not in resonance with all of life. So I naturally think that life is constantly trying to snap you back into resonance. It just only knows how to do that. And so the big moments of our life sometimes have to be quite dramatic. Life has to really punch us in the nose for us to stop and say what am I doing? This isn't where I wanted to go. I really wanted something else and then it's this huge journey of confidence And unlearning and prayer and intention and hard work to just finally find your way into the life that you want That we can see across the board when a person's living the life that their whole being wants to live they shine They absolutely illuminate. And that's the natural state of every human being. And it just seems right now, as a collective, we're just fallen out of it. Or, we've missed the mark. So, that's the very heart of spiritual journey, isn't some elusive state called enlightenment. It's you being completely heart centered, letting it lead the way, and you being completely in harmony with yourself, hence all of life. So I think all of life is always trying to keep us on track.

Speaker:

To recap what you're saying, when we're really living from a place of being guided by our heart's wisdom, we are in harmony with nature. We're in the like cohesive fabric that nature lives through all the time. We had another guest on a few weeks ago, Ines Kinchen, that talked about the sacred geometry of the natural world. And it feels like to put the two things together, when we're living a real heart centered life, we are then creating our own harmonious. Sacred Geometry, which then connects to the larger Sacred Geometry of the planet and all living beings and, and she talked about how traumas, painful experiences can be these little anchors that take our Sacred Geometry off kilter but I love that you're saying too that sometimes painful experiences are actually trying to get us back into our heart. Or, or maybe it's both. Maybe it's can, can take us away, but it's also a path back when we're able to, go into the self healing process that sounds like you've put yourself in.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it seems, it seems the beauty of life is that there's actually no judging. So, and one way you could say it is time space is a place. Where there's no referee judging if you go left or if you go right, what was right or wrong. And the beauty of it is, any extreme forces you to head back in the other direction. If you turn the water too hot, you're gonna naturally find a better temperature. If it's too cold, same thing happens. So, you fast too much, you will eventually eat food. If you eat too much food, you'll probably end up fasting or finding yourself in the middle. So, I would say that. Life is constantly, by its nature, time space to uphold itself. There is naturally a harmony and balance that's there. And the problem which people face is the unawareness if they find, themselves out of balance. Which is beautiful, because to what extreme they go out of balance. They will gain that awareness, because as the water gets hotter and hotter, it demands you to take action. So, the more awareness you have, the more focus you realize that I have to constantly pay attention in my internal world. Then, you will Every time you start heading out of balance, you don't have to bump your toe so hard, or get punched in the nose so hard by life. You just see it, and you naturally come back into harmony. So, the, the big thing that is, I would say, the core of my journey, that I always contemplate, is, it seems that when unawareness is there, when, We fall into the stupor of unconscious thinking. It seems that the byproduct is anxiety and fear. And then the unconscious habit is, I must think my way to solve this. And we build up layer after layer of belief systems around why is there fear there, what is causing this, and what actions do you need to take to solve it externally. But when a person becomes vastly attentive, when a person falls into being the silence from a space of beingness. The byproduct of that is, you show up completely now, and since the I am ness shows up completely now, the mind lets go of all story. And if you can allow that to happen, something happens. Fear dissolves. So if we're talking about being a happy human being, it is a heart centered, Approach that requires you to be fully attentive. This is where the mind and its seeking for enlightenment gets it all wrong. The mind says, oh that felt nice, but I'm searching for something greater. So we reel back into the mind, move out of being present, shut down the heart once again, and are craving for some higher state, some higher understanding, or some identity that somehow will fulfill the mind's ideas of the perfect self. That's why the self dies in enlightenment. It's not a dramatic death. It is just that you see the value of softening into being, letting go of all story, and reclaiming your true identity, which is the silence that watches. So for me, the solution to a person's struggle in life, the return of being in harmony with all of life, and the person being able to thrive in the greatest capacity, All is a heart centered, letting go of story, being completely present each moment. It is the journey of enlightenment.

Speaker 3:

Seems like that's a lot easier said than done. It is. It's a beautiful practice, right? To come into that every day and remember that our thoughts are not, necessarily reality, and to try and separate and get back into our heart and into our feelings. And, you know, when I was first becoming aware of this idea of, you know, the power of now, and and our, our ego stories, and I, my immediate You know I guess immature reaction was to try and bypass all of my hard feelings, right? So can you maybe help us and our listeners, maybe avoid that trap of trying to get to this happiness and, heart centers place without bypassing all of the, negative experiences and, ego stories?

Speaker 2:

I would say if there is One simple practice that a person can use at every given moment that causes tremendous spiritual growth. It's the practice of being attentive of what's happening in your chest region on the emotional level, and at the same time, about every moment that you're attentive, letting go of tension and resistance. You're letting your physical body and your emotional body drop all forms of tension or resistance. For a person to pay attention to what is there and not resist, that equals acceptance. So, to me, I don't believe in a large thing called self acceptance, because I don't believe that there's this large thing called the self. Self acceptance to me is, what is there in this exact moment, and are you seeing it, and dropping out of all forms of physical and emotional resistance, and allowing your nervous system to feel it. an open heart. People always say, I want my heart to flower. It requires your full attention, requires you to let go of resistance. That letting go is in a state of total acceptance. If you see a great spiritual teacher, a great spiritual master, and you see such love in their eyes, the glow in the eyes is because the heart isn't resisting anything. They don't care what's flowing through because you have no control what flows. You have no control what life is bringing at us. But we can either resist it and turn away from it and move into an unconscious state, or we can face it with an open heart saying, I won't resist this. The value of facing at the moment you're in always, is that when you don't resist, the nervous system can process and heal it. That's how a person evolves day after day. So the problem is, life is only trying to actually Bring up. Life is trying to mirror what's going on the side. You're getting all these situations hitting you. But because you're resisting the emotions, the energy remains stuck. So you stay at the vibration you are, and you bring the same happening again. Money issues, relationship issues, health issues. There's a direct correlation to what's going on emotionally, to what's showing up externally. But when life brings the messenger of the event, it brings up the terrifying fear, or the hurt, or the pain, or the frustration, the anger, and we say, welcome. I'm not gonna resist you. I honor this experience. My nervous system knows how to heal this. Thank you. Thank you. Even pray. I'm asking for this to now heal. I won't resist. All of a sudden it works itself out. Sometimes it takes a day. Sometimes it takes three weeks. Who cares? Because when that thing works itself out, your energy shifts and your whole external world starts changing.

Speaker:

That leads me to a similar question I'm wanting to ask you today, Douglas, of how do you hold it? the bigger things happening in the world, the painful things that are happening in the world, like the wars and when we hear about children dying how do you hold that in your daily life as a practice?

Speaker 2:

In general, for me I'm very well aware that humanity collectively is going through a huge transformation and I hold a lot of compassion. And a lot of love and concern towards everything that's unfolding. I think we're in a very monumental time period of extremes, you know. I used to make all of that a justified reason to feel stress and fear and to be in conflict internally. Then I realized at a certain point in my growth That the greatest gift that I can give humanity and myself is to learn the art of coming out of all story. Trusting that life is literally divine itself and everything goes through its processes. Acting accordingly based on the knowingness in my heart. So, if there's something happening that I have control over and somehow I can act and my whole being tells me to do it, I won't think twice, I'll be right there helping. Other times I see something, my whole heart feels, take a moment and send a very strong prayer to this. But for me to be reeling in my mind, I learned that doesn't help anyone or anything, but perpetuates more unconscious thinking and fear and anxiety. So I think for lightworkers across the planet, people who are very, very serious about their internal growth, the big question always comes up, how can I really help humanity? What comes naturally to me is, your heart has to flower. Through being aware, through not resisting, through a deep state of embracing, Your heart will restore itself to love and you'll come out of fear. You being in a state of unconditional love, tremendous state of awareness and beingness, and following the knowingness and guidance from the heart spontaneously each moment, you'll be a massive impact to humanity, both to the collective consciousness and both by your actions externally, which is guided by your The heart's knowingness, which is divine intelligence

Speaker:

that really resonates. I know for myself, sometimes I can get caught and I'm talking to you. I'll now say in the mind when I'm, I'm seeing other people take particular actions and I can get into a story of, I should be doing X, Y, and Z, or it's the right thing to do, to do this action or speak out on this., There's a letting go in what you're saying. It's really turning into only what we are guided to from that heart space. And then, I mean, if I imagine a world if we were all doing that, the harmonious actions that would be taken, we would have our unique divine roles that we'd be playing out. The speed at which things could shift would probably be quite tremendous. So it can feel sometimes to my mind that that's like not enough or not powerful enough to just to do my own internal work. I need to be doing something external and I'm kind of feeling out how powerful it truly is. And I've been in front of spiritual masters, right? And I've felt the huge impact it had on all of the people around, in my own heart, and I could tell by the tears of everyone around me, that our hearts were opening just being in someone's presence. So I do have experience of the, the power of someone that's really cultivated their unique heart.

Speaker 2:

I think such a beautiful marker about deciding your actions, deciding one's actions in the external world. Is what is the seed of my intention? Is What I'm feeling called to do out of fear, out of hurt, out of strong judgment. When you realize that even if you think you may have the best intentions, but it's coming from a place of hurt or fear or anger, It tends to only reciprocate or inflame that experience. But when a person is listening in their heart from a space of peace and love, they're not in fear, they're not inflamed, they're calm and they're clear, then whatever they decide to do seems to bring upon that state. You're delivering that state into reality. And I think that's a very important distinction as we grow. In our journeys of awareness, consciousness is learning to understand what, what is actually wanting to do something inside of me, what state of being is actually trying to express itself. And that's why it's perfectly fine whatever you decide to do externally, but where the work lies is first work on yourself around the matter to where you cleanse whatever needs to come up. And you come to a place of calm sense, sort of like a non detached, like a attachment to it. From there, there always will be a divine harmonious way to respond. That's immensely impactful.

Speaker:

And would you say coming from that place is a state of awakening? This term awakened, awakening, I feel like it's used a lot right now. How would you describe what awakening is?

Speaker 2:

I think the confusion around the term enlightenment and awakening is that The journey of growth is actually endless Like a tree growing in the forest. I mean, it's just growing and it's growing So if you walk up to it a hundred years ago, say are you growing it says yes 50 years later. Are you still growing? Yes, etc when you grow You get to a certain point where you realize There was no destination. There was just being in the flow of growth. Where people struggle is learning, learning the journey of growth internally. You could say one hallmark of a certain stage of the journey is where you finally heal the wounds of your past. They finally get spit back out and the heart restores to a state of unconditional love. You could say that that's a very beautiful milestone in the journey. That you could say, thank God I got there. I finally can walk around every day and whether I'm rich or poor, I just feel complete and I feel love for no reason. You could definitely say a person is pretty awake if their heart is restored into love. The journey continues. There's another major milestone, which is not at all the end, but it's where a person starts very clearly de identifying with the thinking process. They just start realizing the brain thinks, and I am not that. And there's another stage. At a certain point, A person comes to the clear experience, I and life are the same thing. There's a stage that naturally happens after that, where a person comes to a very beautiful place, but it's not the end of the journey, where they say, I, life, and God are the same thing. And why is the journey not end? Because then you're suddenly recognizing I am the divine awakening to myself. The journey keeps going. So, what's most important is being on your journey and making use of each moment of your day as a, a ahh ness of growth. And it's very simple. It just requires you to be present each moment. heart centered and stop resisting. You have to do that because the life force energy called the Kundalini that runs up the spine It's like water going through a hose. As long as the mind's in charge, your heart will have a kink of resistance in that hose. It stops all the energy going up. This is the state of humanity. But when a person starts showing up in their heart, each moment they're in, letting go of resistance, the kink to the hose gets lifted for that moment. And the energy can finally rush past, restoring the heart, restoring all the higher energy centers. And bringing the brain and awareness and consciousness back into a higher state of clarity, a clarity of oneness. So, people, the first part of spirituality is blindfully seeking something away from themself. When that fails, which it has to, a person starts looking inside themself. And then that's when they realize the work lies in my heart and requires my full attention. When a person catches on to that space They're good to go. They are finally growing each moment because they know where to put their attention. The rest of the journey is completely automatic.

Speaker:

And do you feel like you spoke a minute ago about humanity's collective consciousness is shifting in some way and we see, you know, the astrology is really saying that and indigenous elders have been saying that this is the special time. Is that what you're seeing and with your own students and your spiritual school or just how you're viewing what's going on in humanity? Do you feel like we are in this big collective shift into more awakening, into more heartfelt living?

Speaker 2:

The way I perceive things is I see the internal world and the external world all sort of the same thing and if you just look on the level of technology you And relationship that's taking place upon a species on a global level. You're seeing a unity happening. Yes, you're seeing wars. You're seeing divisive acts. But the whole world is able to look at it at the same time. The whole world is able to communicate. Each and every person can communicate with each and every other person. The whole world is relying on each other. One country produces things, one country buys things. So you can see that a unity is taking place. Even the financial institutions, everything's moving towards some kinds of currencies that can work on a digital level. All the concerns of old infrastructures that don't serve, major talks are there to just somehow solve it. So you can see that there's a thriving actually taking place. But the opposite has to be there. Once one extreme is there, the opposite has to be there. So you're seeing a lot of things. The urgency of the changing weather conditions on our planet. You're seeing new infrastructures needed to feed everyone. You're seeing health things. You're seeing so many extremes all happening. So something's happening. That something is because internally, The consciousness of humanity is evolving. when you see something external world, it's because internally something's happening. I've really enjoyed social media because so many years ago, I only saw Eckhart Tolle and Adi Ashanti. I flicked through Tik TOK and Instagram, and there's thousands now of people speaking spiritual truth. And sharing their message. So, all of a sudden, it's not just Buddha anymore. It's not just a handful of enlightened teachers from the past. It's these millions and millions of people who are authentically discovering higher states of consciousness. And passionate about inspiring others. So, it seems that we're on track and in the middle of a massive evolution. And all these external symptoms, it's because the internal consciousness of the collective is undergoing radical changes at breakneck speeds. It's going to be messy, but I, I sincerely feel humanity is going to persevere through this. Just seems that probably for the next decade or so, we're going to see a lot of new systems and old systems all undergoing their evolution.

Speaker 3:

So Douglas, you mentioned that when you're in this space of unconditional love, that it really takes care of everything. Everything is clear. The way to, the way to move forward in your life is clear. And so in thinking of these experiences you named, you know the, the threat of ecological disaster and wars and things that bring up feelings of fear in people. Let's say, this topic comes up at a family dinner and some family members have differing views about what's causing the war or who's right or what's causing the ecological disaster or how to fix it. And, you know the disagreement is fundamental. They're, they're not going to agree on the cause of the problem or the solution. How do you see unconditional love, responding in a scenario like that?

Speaker 2:

So, when a person's heart is broken, starts becoming untethered form of the mind. That's actually what it is, you know, your heart is built to feel love. Look at animals, you know, they got love in their eyes, you know. So look at a little child, you know, and take the same kid when he's 15. Those eyes are, those eyes are not bright anymore, you know. So when a heart is untethered from the mind and feeling love, There is a natural understanding that the mind was the problem. That the mind and its divisive thinking is the problem. So if you found heaven inside your heart, the fulfillment and love you were searching for is your natural state. And when you jump back into any form of, of opinion or perception from the mind analyzing. It takes you out of it. You're not going to touch that hot stove ever again. You're going to be like, We're good, man. We're good. And when you see people stuck in the mind, trying to say, My idea is right. My opinion is right. This is how it is. You know, poor fellow, is trapped in the mind. So there's just this natural compassion. That's And quietness about you because you know i'm not going to jump in there with you. I finally got out of there I have a lot of love for you. Is that your perception? Probably it's right. Maybe it's not I don't even begin to care. I'm not operating there Because you realize from the silence There is an intuitive knowingness every moment in your entire life your whole career Everything you do is coming from that just knowingness and that that happening of life life itself is the wind in your sail. So, I enjoy everyone's point of view. I love jumping in with their point of view and supporting them. Next moment somebody else comes with their point of view, I'm right there in their corner saying, I see it like that too. Because I know, what does it matter? It's playing with sand, right on the beach, right as the waves wash it away once again. That's all the mind is. Build up a little sandcastle, walk away, water comes, wipes it clean again. So the mind is a very beautiful thing, when we understand what it is. It's flaws and limitations, and it's strengths. And you recognize, nice little tool, I'm over here, and I'll play with this to relate to others, but I'm actually holding space over here. So, when people go unconscious, and they struggle, or they're upset, I found that if I pay attention to what it's bringing on inside of me, the hurt or the pain, or how I'm getting pulled into it, And I move into where I allow myself to get in touch with that and process it, I realize they shift right out of it. I realize the whole conversation goes dead. A great shift has happened. So, that was something I really learned as a monk, was that the greatest gift we have is consciously holding space and listening to ourself as another person's talking. So when a person's rambling on unconsciously, But you're present in the heart and you're allowing yourself to not resist what's going on inside of you. It pops them out of it. It pops them into seeing the unconsciousness and it's a great gift for them.

Speaker 3:

Yes. Presence is our greatest present, right? It's the greatest gift. And you've beautifully illustrated how letting go of resistance is, The, the how of letting life in and letting life flow through you in this really authentic heart centered way. And so I'm wondering if you can, if you can, Describe what your experience of letting go of resistance feels like in your body or any other description of how you can help guide people to understand what does that really mean for them and how can they tune into that on a, on a subtle or even not so subtle level.

Speaker 2:

I had made a big mistake. I had thought that being spiritual and seeking enlightenment would put a complete End to suffering so I was very adamant that I would bear Any pressure any struggle any suffering because if I just hang in there One day the clouds are going to split a ray of divine light is going to kiss me on the forehead And I'm going to illuminate out of all forms of suffering. I waited at that bus stop for a very long time, only to realize the bus was out of order. Never came. So, for me, the big shift that I had was when I realized my enlightenment is not coming. Like, I, I'm tired of waiting. I'm miserable. I've invested years into this. I'm miserable. And it's just not showing up in the mail. So I was left with my suffering This was the most pivotal moment in my spiritual journey where I was like, well, I got to do something with this And that was the very first time that I actually started confronting myself. I actually started saying, I gotta take responsibility with what's going on inside of me. I'm not okay. not even slightly okay. And I've been pretending I'm okay. So, I started actually saying, I see you. I know. I see you. And I know, I, it hurts. And I am helpless right now. There's nothing I can do with this. But I'm not going to ignore you anymore

Speaker 3:

that

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, this is a hard night back in like 2014 You know, it's like well enlightenment's not coming and I'm miserable. I got to just look at this now, you know So I started just finally acknowledging. I'm not okay. They didn't understand what that even was gonna lead to But I finally just started saying I'm not gonna run from you anymore. I'm not gonna wait for something better to arrive It's time. It's time. It's time to embrace this and so I actually started it was a surrender that took place I can't even say I planned it. It's just you get tired waiting for that bus Got tired so I just started staying with it and what what evolved out of it was I I stopped being afraid of uncomfortable emotions inside. I stopped seeing them as the core problem and they just need to go away. I started just realizing Okay, you need to heal and i'm going to let myself stay with this. So I got used to Taking the medicine. I got used to To tasting the bitter of of a discontent inside. I got used to my nervous system Feeling something that does not feel comfortable and learning to actually say but i'm not going to move away from this I'm gonna breathe in fact You know what? I'm not going to do anything for the rest of the day. I'm going to sit here and breathe. And I'm going to let my nervous system have the ache it needs to have. So I started allowing my body to heal by being so present and not trying to work through anything, but to not resist so the wound can be felt and processed. It happened naturally. Because it was like I was so extremely denying this, that life just threw me right into it. But day after day, one little bit healed more. One little bit healed more. And day after day, I just got more used to When, if it hurts, if it stings, if it's anxiety, if it's fear, and my mantra is simple, it's okay. It's okay. I know it. I know it hurts. It's okay. So I learned to suffer fully. I learned to not run from, complain, or try to get through suffering. I learned to trust the nervous system from a state of Of compassionate awareness and non resistance. And day after day, year after year, layer after layer, shed. And big, big processes found me along the way. I realized, I always was like, where's the big processes? You are not ready. But when you are, boy, life just grabs you right then and there and throws you into it. But you have to have your foundation in place for the much bigger processes. Because your psychology would crack in half. If you didn't get to a certain place in your internal world. That's what my discovery was for me. You know, not saying you, saying me. So that was where I did my work because it came natural and then every once in a while out of the woodwork some very big process, some spiritual teacher, some master, some this, some that. Just came and finished it off, like a cracking in half happened, and I realized, wow, that's the intelligence of life. I don't have to seek the process, seek the master, seek the enlightenment. I have to show up each moment, not resist, not move away, but embrace, feel, and be, and the whole other aspects just happen spontaneously. When is the right moment for you?

Speaker:

So some of what we've talked about in this podcast at times is the ways in which external forces in the world are, are preying on our fear. You know, when we're in fear or when we're in anger when we want to be seen as good, you know, whatever it is, then, then these larger forces can. Manipulate that to make us buy something or make us engage in something, you know, manipulate us to engage in something or to stand for something. And so I'm just feeling this practice that you're saying is really the not only the way to. Come to peace and work through our own personal traumas in our own life and open our hearts, but also be resilient to these forces in the world....

Speaker 2:

I think when you're out of alignment energetically, you're not feeling the vibration of fulfillment and love. I think you naturally pull towards you that mirror. So if you're ever wondering what's going on inside of me, look at what's happening externally. I have found As I heal layer after layer, more financial abundance happens naturally. My relationships get better naturally. My time and space becomes more beautiful. And my health improves. My world flowers as I restore to the vibration of love. And when I look back As when I perceived the world to all be crumbling down and everything was just some kind of very scary place It was exactly where I was at inside myself in my own darkness So My experience these days which may be helpful as a perspective because my wife Prema and I always talk about this with each other Is that At one level, humans can always talk about what other humans are doing. And it's very understandable, and it's practical. But beyond just the humans doing what they're doing, there is the higher intelligence that is upholding all of time and space in the first place. There is a massive supreme intelligence that is appearing as all things. And when a person looks inside themselves, right between thought, right behind the psychology, you come to a very profound conclusion. If you're not the thinking, then who are you? You are that which is silently watching. And if you can just start asking yourself What is that? You'll suddenly realize that is the divine and Then you say well, then what is form? It is that vibrating as time and space and Then you realize isn't time and space so immaculately intelligent and sacred Yes, it is and isn't it doing its own thing? Yes You It is happening. Can't we just trust that? If you're in your heart, you definitely can. But when you're in the mind, it's like you bit into the fruit of knowledge and you're casted out of the Garden of Eden. You're now insecure and feel naked and separate from God and mortal. But if you restore yourself to the heart, you awaken again to your true identity, which is you are the dreamer. This is the dream. And it's all one and the same, and your eternity itself. When a person just restores himself into that space, the ideas of good and evil dissolve, and you only see everything as opposites. At the same time, there's no opposites. You just see the sun goes down, it gets dark. The sun comes up, it gets light. There's a lot of love, there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of clarity, there's a lot of confusion. There's hurt, there's healing. There's health, there's unhealth. Everything cycles, everything comes, seasons, they go. And that's when a person really catches on, but yet I remain. I remain. I being I am, remain. And you just acknowledge the great oscillation of time and space and recognize God is experiencing God. God is experiencing God. That's a very attainable state. It just requires a person to take the journey into the heart.

Speaker:

Well, Douglas, we are so grateful that you have been here with us today. Would you like to tell our listeners ways to work with you? I know you have some programs that are starting soon and how can they be more a part of your community?

Speaker 2:

So, our website is sacredwisdomschool. com, and I connect online every Wednesday evening for free as a satsang, open to the public, held on Zoom. And if it calls to you, let's meet there, and we go into really deep states of consciousness. And we, it's a place where we, we discuss spirituality, just like we're having now. We offer online courses and you can find that on our website. And we're about to launch our Costa Rica retreats. We do really deep dive processes in Costa Rica. And so I think a couple months from now we'll have those up as well.

Speaker:

Wonderful. What beautiful offerings. And I encourage everyone to check all of those out. Any closing words?

Speaker 3:

Thank you, Douglas, for the reminder that it really is just as simple as living in our heart and being open to the flow of that intelligence, of that that intuition and not being attached with any thought form of what it's supposed to look like. And yeah, it is, it is a reminder. To myself, that, those simple truths are, really easy to grasp, and also honoring my own process that they're really difficult to live into, so, you know, I always tell my clients, it's the most simple, basic things that I can tell you to do that are gonna have the most profound effect on your life, and be the hardest to do. So, so I never want to make anyone feel like I'm trivializing their, their problems or their pain in my office when I'm telling them, you know, if you just breathe, your life will be a lot better, you know? Cause it can, you know, when you're in a lot of pain and, and chaos, it can feel really patronizing for someone to just breathe. Let's breathe together. Let's, let's focus on our heart and be present. But yeah, it is the simple truths that will be the most profound opportunities for transformation and, and deliverance to the, to the human race. The place we all want to be, which is living in unconditional love and in our heart space. Well, I assume we all want to be there. I don't know. So thank you for that reminder. It was, it was wonderful to share this space with you today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you both so much.

Speaker:

And Doug, having known you for years, I can just give testament to what it feels like to be around someone who has been in this deep practice. I absolutely can feel your presence as one of lightness and heartfeltness and love and joy. And so these practices, this way of being really does have an impact. So thank you for who you are and thank you for being here.

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