Mindflow Radio #123: Where Is Your Attention?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Mindflow Radio.

SPEAKER_09 0:03

Mindflow Radio.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

She's Jalen. And here's Monty. So buckle your seatbelt and get ready to take a trip towards reality. If I must. Oh, maybe you do. Have to. Well, I think we all have to eventually.

SPEAKER_11 0:25

Yeah, whether we're kicking or screaming or being all good and sitting in our seat proper.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah, enjoying the ride. Either way, we gotta go there. Sooner or later. I'd rather do it sooner, personally.

SPEAKER_11 0:41

Yeah, get into reality.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Yeah, move well, moving towards reality at least, with my mind state.

SPEAKER_11 0:49

Yeah. I guess that kind of brings the question what is reality?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Well, I mean ultimate reality, it's it's like this infinite intelligence, consciousness, higher power, right? That creates all the material universe, I believe. I mean, from my perspective, there's a spiritual reality and there's a material reality. And we're stuck in the material reality, right? At this very moment.

SPEAKER_11 1:23

But the spiritual reality is overlaid.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah, the spiritual, the spiritual reality could be seen as like a much bigger segment of reality, the material reality.

SPEAKER_11 1:36

Yeah, I think of reality as we all have our reality that we engage in. Yeah. And it's true for each of us. Yes. The challenge then becomes accepting another person's reality that may not be your reality. And that can be difficult.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Certainly can be, you know. Yeah, we do it each, like we create our own reality. And ideally, the more in harmony our reality is with the ultimate reality, the easier things are. That's why I hear that's what they in the Tao De Ching, you know, you uh get in harmony with the great mother, and the great mother takes care of you. That's exactly it, I think.

SPEAKER_11 2:31

And so, how do you get in harmony with the great mother then?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Well, meditation doesn't hurt, prayer doesn't hurt. Okay, you know, yoga doesn't hurt, you know, the whole thing, just you know, maybe examining our minds, uh examining our own thoughts and our beliefs, and noticing, oh, maybe that belief is not in harm. Maybe that belief was handed down to me, you know, from generation to generation, or maybe the media implanted that belief in my mind, you know, whatever it is, but just like really examining the beliefs and trying to effectively evolve our belief system. I think that's the way to go, you know, and effectively evolve our state of consciousness too, which means essentially not thinking too much and being present some of the time, every day, yeah, and seeing things from a soulful perspective. I mean, that's something I'm working on every day.

SPEAKER_11 3:39

Yeah. Yeah, I've been working with uh I made up a mantra a while back. I know it's in our piece reset, and it's uh no bot no no story back to the body because as a human with a smoking hamster wheel in my brain, just going so fast the gears are getting smoky and smells bad, smells like you know, brakes burning. Okay. Um, yeah, so it doesn't matter what it is, you know. What I've realized is that I can be meditating and just absolute random stuff goes through my mind fast and hard. Okay. And and I could be down some tangent that has nothing to do with anything.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Right.

SPEAKER_11 4:38

And then I'll remember. Oh, wait, no story. Back to the body. You know, it doesn't have to be a trauma I'm re-experiencing in my mind. It could be like a hope or a dream or or a worry about somebody that I know, or it just it absolutely there is no rhyme or reason to my mind. Right. At least that I have found. And the only thing that I can do is just come back to the body and come back to watching my breath. How are my ribs moving?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 5:13

Am I breathing into my lungs fully? Is my spine tight?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 5:19

You know, asking these kinds of questions instead of, you know, what's that story in my mind about and why is it there? You know, doesn't matter. Right. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

No.

SPEAKER_11 5:30

And that's, I guess, where I get to the whole reality of things, and and um I t I speak with a lot of people, I talk with a lot of people, I listen to a lot of people. And we all defend our stories.

SPEAKER_06 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 5:51

And the stories don't need to make sense to defend them, you know? They don't need to make sense to anyone else. Like it might make sense to ourselves. But what I'm finding, and this is something I've been studying for years now. Right. You know, it started with Dr. Joe Dispenza, and I I can't remember exactly the book. I think it was you, I can't remember the name of the book, but he's talking about where you put your attention is where things are created in your life. Yeah, oh yeah. And if your attention is on how bad things are, then you get more of how bad things are. And then that led me into the reality transurfing, which says the same thing. Well, and pretty much any manifesting teacher says the same thing. Where do you put your attention?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Right. Well, but there is, I want to say, there is a a time and a place for if I'm in the middle of let's say a war, I need to put my attention on bad things because I want to survive. You know? Okay. And so there's a yeah, there's an appropriate time for Right.

SPEAKER_11 7:10

But when I'm meditating, I don't need to be thinking about this or that or the other thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Right. Well, uh, yeah, I mean, you keep coming back to the body, which is great because what you're saying is I mean, ultimately when we're just connected with our bodies in the moment, our minds, I would suggest our transcending thought, our transcending analysis. Just being we're being. We're being, we're being I mean, that's the beauty of like working out or going for a bike ride. You have moments, moments of just being, which is a state that um gives our minds a break from the constant chatter, which a lot of us get caught up in this constant, constant chattering mind, and then our minds are not designed to be computers, so what happens is the mind gets agitated, kind of, and but then we point our fingers at oh, it's because of this story, it's not going like I wanted to, that's why I'm agitated. But a lot of the time it's just we're overthinking.

SPEAKER_11 8:29

Yeah, overthinking is so intense. And I also wanted to loop back epidemic in our culture to uh my Qigong teacher, Tavia Feng, he says it's about the three acquired minds, and it's all about what was given to us, not who we are, you know, from from our family, from the media, and from our feeling of I think I can't exactly remember the three, but one's from the family, one's from the culture, and one's from the the media, basically.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 9:07

And how to basically look at ourselves and go, well, where did this belief even come from?

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah, yeah, it takes a level of introspection, certainly, to really drill down and see where our beliefs originated from.

SPEAKER_07 9:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

But it's worthwhile. Oh, actually. It's worthwhile. Like, is this huh? Is this belief from the media? That's pretty obvious, actually. That one, you know, or you know, from my family, you know, from the way I was raised.

SPEAKER_11 9:44

Pre-verbal. Pre-verbal, I think, is really important. And um, yeah, there's a some point this month where I was explaining to you how uh uh the nervous system is passed on, imprinted upon the baby in the womb, and how before the baby is even born, it's got the same adrenaline and cortisol levels of the mother. Oh, yeah. And that, you know, goes to show you if there's a woman who says she's living through a war and pregnant, right? You know, and maybe the war's over by the time the baby's born, but it that doesn't matter because the baby probably will always feel like it's in a war. And so, and without even really even understanding why, you know, and this is of course just an example. But if if that baby grows up and doesn't ever look at it, like where did this even come from? Right, then it's just something you carry through your life and it colors your reality, and that's how you see the world.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

And yeah, but ideally, you know, somebody like that could perhaps um just evolve their mind state, you know, just shift up their subconscious beliefs and find moments of peace through, you know, working with their breath or sure.

SPEAKER_11 11:17

That wasn't my point, but that is the answer, kind of. I mean how yeah, I mean, if you don't need meaning in your life, then yeah, you can just skip the meaning piece. But for people like me, meaning is important and for me to understand, and this is why learning the neuroscience of trauma was so important to me because now I get it. Now I understand how does trauma even begin in a being.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Okay. So what's the you said meaning is important. What's what's the meaning of life for you?

SPEAKER_11 11:59

Well, the I don't think it can be that simple. I'm talking about like if somebody feels troubled and feels like they're always in a war, and then they have the ability to learn that their mother's nervous system was imprinted on them, yeah. Then the meaning of them feeling like they're always going through a war was just imprinted and impressed upon them in a non-verbal state.

SPEAKER_06 12:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 12:30

And then it can be seen for what it is. Yeah. It's just an something that you came into this world with, and if you can see it for that meaning, then you can set it down.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah, if you can understand it.

SPEAKER_11 12:46

Yeah, that's what I mean by meaning.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah. All right. Yeah, that makes sense. And if you can understand something while you're shining your light of attention on it, on your nervous system, and you try and like figure out why it is the way it is, and what the beginning of it was, is what you're saying. And so you you have like a level of understanding there that perhaps you can use that and like change it at that point instead of just accepting it.

SPEAKER_11 13:23

Well, there is an acceptance piece too. But uh one thing that I learned, and I can't remember exactly who I learned this from, but it you don't need forgiveness if your level of understanding can embrace the situation. So nobody did anything wrong if everyone was just in fight-flight, and you know, so it's like say you're in a fight and one person is defending their right to have this belief, and you're defending your right to have your belief, yeah. And then you realize you just have differing beliefs, and you're defending something that isn't even the same thing. And then there's this deep understanding that it wasn't meant to be an attack. It was everybody was just defending themselves. So then there's this understanding.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 14:16

And then it's like, okay, well, I can move on.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Well, that's cool. That's kind of reminds me of Socrates talks about evil being the root of evil is just a lack of understanding or ignorance.

SPEAKER_11 14:32

Because we stick with it and then we fight for it, and then we belittle people and our demeaning.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Well, it's so strange in this culture these days, it's sort of like a lot of people are are feeling like, well, if you don't have my belief, you know, I'm mad at you. Right. You know, that's kind of like the vibe.

SPEAKER_11 14:52

I think that's dangerous. That is straight up dangerous. It we are eight billion humans, and it is so important to be able to accept differing opinions because there is no way that eight billion people are going to have the same opinions. It's just absolutely impossible.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Well, it's just I I I believe it's a way, you know, just that idea of if you don't have the same belief I do, I'm mad at you. That's a really effective way at keeping the people fighting amongst themselves. Because we're always gonna, I mean, there's gonna be different beliefs. And if we find it intolerable to have for if somebody else has a different belief than you, it's just like it leads to just like this constant like battle.

SPEAKER_11 15:48

Oh yeah. And what comes up for me with what you just said is if we want to transcend and see the real reality, then we have to see who who is who is g uh gaining advantage for my defense? Like if what am I defending in the first place, you know? I think it it all just comes down to where are we putting our attention and why? And and this is where meaning comes in for me, and I'm learning that meaning doesn't always have to be there, and the why can just be because it's an old pattern, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Right, let's not overthink it, and where we put our attention.

SPEAKER_11 16:45

So if my attention is the media told me to be intolerant to people who believe in different uh vantage points, and then we hold our attention there and then we're looking, we're walking through town. Oh, there they they watch different news than me, and oh, they drive a different car than me, and you know, and we're just figuring out how we're different instead of the same, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

That's true. Different skin color, yeah, different age, different um religions, different religions, different like amount of money. There's all these reasons that we can different health. Some people are healthy, some people are sick, yeah, different different um IQ levels. I don't know. I mean, there's tons and tons of differences, yeah. And if you're right, if we if we put people down because they're different than us, then we're we're trapped.

SPEAKER_11 17:47

Yeah, I mean we're and that's where our attention is, and then we're that's all we can see, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Because we, I mean, in what you said just a little while ago, it's just so many of these things are just habits. Yeah, they're habits. We don't have to look any further than that. We're just in the habit of thinking this way. We're looking, we're in the habit of acting this way. So let's, if we're really going to change, well, all we need to do is shift habits. And so, in other words, instead of walking down the street and pointing out everything that's different in everybody in our minds, you know, let's point out something that's unites all of us in our minds, and then it's a completely different experience walking down the street. If I'm walking down the street thinking, oh, we're all soulful beings, we all have the spark of the divine within us, whatever. The Tao is like in all each of us. I'm walking down the street and I see that in everybody, it's like, whoa, we're all united, you know, even though on some level we're not, but on some level we definitely are.

SPEAKER_11 18:59

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

We're all united and we're all confused, unless you're enlightened, an enlightened being, which perhaps a lot of people think they are these days. I don't know.

SPEAKER_11 19:08

Maybe there are some well, thinking you are in actually being are different things too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_11 19:15

But then there's the question of am I gonna judge who am I gonna judge, you know?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

And I judge those people and those people and those people and myself. I'm just playing.

SPEAKER_11 19:30

What I'm I don't know how to exactly say what I want to say, but what what I'm intending to really shed light on is how there have been so many teachers that exclaim the potency of our attention.

SPEAKER_06 19:56

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_11 19:57

And attention and intention are similar but different, you know. And I feel like it's taken me years to really understand this. And recently you shared a podcast, I I don't remember much about it, other than it was a fellow from the South and had been raised to be racist against um the other race, yeah, and lived his life filled with hate, and then had this massive heart attack, and then died, and while he was dead, had all these epiphanies about how he would want to live if he lived.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 20:44

And and then he lived, and he changed his ways like immediately.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

And his beliefs changed. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 20:51

And in more in line with what you're saying, we're all soulful beings. Yes. And you know, we don't necessarily need to die to figure that out because the cool thing about being human is we can learn from each other, and so somebody can have an experience and then we can realize from their experience what what road we were going down, and do we want to continue down that road?

SPEAKER_06 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 21:19

And I love learning from other people's challenges because I feel like when I learn from somebody else that I just saved myself a bunch of trouble.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah, oh yeah, right. Because we didn't have to learn the hard way.

SPEAKER_11 21:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Like that guy learned the hard way.

SPEAKER_11 21:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

You know, he's hateful, suffering, unhappy, blah, blah, boom, heart attack dies, and just sees like more of the truth, comes back, and now he's he feels way better, you know.

SPEAKER_11 21:53

And he his whole takeaway, his main takeaway was where you put your attention, Matt. And I thought that this was super, it was a huge wake-up call for me because that's what every single teacher I have followed over the last five or six years has said. Yeah. Maybe even more than that. Because I remember, oh yeah, I mean, I I studied under Carolyn Mace like ten years ago, and sh she was saying where you put your energy matters, you know, and where you put your attention. And she has this quote that if you have your mind in order, you could eat cat food and be nourished. You know, she says it's not about what you eat, it's about what's in your mind that matters. And it is how you digest and all of this, you know, and that was over a decade ago, you know, and I've been but coming from where I come from, yes, I do like to learn from other people's mistakes because I've made enough mistakes, you know.

SPEAKER_06 22:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 23:00

But there's some kind I don't know what the what the uh tipping point is. When you finally get something and oh when you finally it it turns into it.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

It absorbs Yeah, it becomes a subconscious belief. Yeah, well that's a that's an excellent point because to really uh implant a new belief system or a new new idea into our beliefs in our into our subconscious belief system, it takes a lot of effort. Yeah, I mean it takes a lot of focus, takes repetition because the old belief is gonna want to hang on. You know, and there's this guy who died, I mean, he just had this massive experience where he was fully immersed in this new belief and it just kind of held on. You know, you let go of the old one. But for most of us, we have to face this, face cognitive dissonance to change our beliefs because our old beliefs are like they want to stay there for whatever reason. They're just like well, it's a habit. Again, it's habitually our mind wants to think the same thoughts, and there's like there's some level of comfort in like thinking the same thoughts, and well, it's beyond that though.

SPEAKER_11 24:21

It's a it's actually a chemical thing that happens in our brain. And that's what I learned from neuroscience and from Dr. Joe Dispenza is that we do things not because we like them, but because we are conditioned into that habit of of making that specific chemical because that's familiar to us. Well, I mean if you're gonna look at And he says that if you want to counter that, then it has to be such a big and profound opposite experience that then uh equalizes the bad experience that created the belief and the chemical reaction that you've now become habituated to. It takes something so good, so profound. So like this guy dies, right? And it's so full, it's so profound experience, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

That he was able to just completely counter for most of us though, it it comes through effort and repetition. Right. I mean that that's what mantra is about. You keep saying it over and over in your mind. I mean, for example, if I if I hate, if I if I hate a certain kind of person, like um, I don't know, you could just pick anything, you know. But if I if I'm in that if I can just keep repeating in my mind, you know, that oh no, we're all soulful beings. Oh no, we're all soulful beings, oh we're all soulful beings, and we're all confused, we're all soulful beings, we're all confused to a certain degree. You know, if I keep going with that over and over and over, then that belief is replaced in my mind. Yeah, so that's another way of doing yeah, that's training your subconscious mind. Yeah, and it takes it takes effort, it takes a minute, it's not just you think the thought once and oh that's done, I figured that out. Yeah, you know, it's like no, actually not, because the old habit habits are not easy to break, you know, and another aspect of like changing our belief system, and this is like really important, I believe, is that a lot of people self-identify with their thoughts, right? They self-ident this is me, these thoughts are me. They hear that chattering voice in their mind, and they're like, Oh, that's just me. So they're scared to like change it because they feel like, oh, I'm gonna cease to exist. When in reality, it's sort of true, but you're gonna develop like a new and evolved self. You're evolving, you're leveling up to a new level of existence, and that's like a positive thing.

SPEAKER_11 27:05

It's you know it can't be scary because it's unfamiliar.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Well, exactly.

SPEAKER_11 27:10

So it's taking on the idea of yes, this will be unfamiliar and I'm ready for it.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Like there's gotta be a readiness. Well, there's gotta be a ready, and uh uh there's there needs to be almost a level of willpower involved with this because I mean the way people are is we surround ourselves with people with similar beliefs, and then so like the group supports it's each other. Well, yeah, we all hate those people, you know, and da-da-da-da-da, you know, whatever that is, and we support each other, and you know, we don't want to be ostracized from the group, yeah, you know, and but that kind of groupthink mentality that that's like one of the main reasons that humanity has been involved with like war after war after war, you know, it just like keeps going.

SPEAKER_11 28:02

And what I like to remember though is that there was a golden age and it was recorded, it was a long time ago, it was thousands of years ago. Yeah, but in China there was a golden age, yeah. There was, and I do believe that the golden age is going to return because all cycles seem to cycle.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, right. And we can achieve that here in this country for sure. It's just and in the globe, you know. Well, well, yeah. I mean, it seems like the country, I mean, this country that's something about being an American is a lot of other countries just kind of follow in our footsteps. It seems like we're kind of uh like we're so cool, we're the popular kids in high school. Maybe, you know, something like that. But it yeah, as we as we evolve, I believe, so does so will the world culture. Yeah, yeah, at least somewhat.

SPEAKER_11 28:57

Yeah. So let's play a song and then we'll be back to share. And I'm feeling free your mind. So enjoy free your mind, and we'll be back in a moment.

SPEAKER_08 29:40

Here we are. Now be here, no be here, no be here.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

For me it's to be free.

SPEAKER_09 30:54

We are um this together. We are all in this together.

SPEAKER_10 31:14

Forgive. Let go. Release. Forgive. Let go. Release.

SPEAKER_06 34:46

For everyone, here we are, here we are. Now we have the eternal present for your mind.

SPEAKER_11 35:04

Yeah, I think that's a good message. I think um that's one we wrote way, way in the beginning of our relationship of music, and I just love how in the beginning of our relationship we wrote all these awesome songs, and I feel like they are my stepstones to the world I want.

SPEAKER_06 35:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 35:33

Not necessarily uh where I am, but where I want to be. And it's just so funny that I was so inspired to write words and play music and and find these messages that show me how to move forward now.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah, right. I mean and just the way it when we fall off the path sometimes too. It's just the the nature of it.

SPEAKER_11 36:02

Yeah, it sure is. Being able to get back up and keep walking is a the true sign of willingness, you know. And I think that willingness leads to success because you know, they say for every successful person they experienced many, many failures. Oh yeah. And though I don't know that's true, I know from my own experience it's true.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

And that yeah, for a lot of I mean, for the basically the majority of humankind, yeah, we Right.

SPEAKER_11 36:36

You have to be willing to fall. You have to be willing to go for it. And it's really interesting because uh right now I feel a little bit afraid of falling, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Yeah, oh yeah. There's always that fear, but just the willingness to try and get back up.

SPEAKER_07 36:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

That's the thing. I mean, that's like where the determination comes by comes in. You know, and just the belief too that I can I can stand back up after I fall. I can do it, I can keep evolving, you know. Perhaps I made a huge mistake or whatever. Yeah. That's a drag, but you know something? Humans make mistakes. Period. And I'm a human, and so I'm going to make mistakes. That's just the way it is. But if I learn from them, I level up. Yeah. And that's the bottom line, and boom. And then mistakes turn into opportunities for growth.

SPEAKER_07 37:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

And then we if we if we realize that, then we can just learn from mistakes and not make them again, but we'll level up and then we'll make a whole different kind of mistake.

SPEAKER_11 37:51

One thing that I've been playing with in my head as somebody who seeks too much meaning, I think, is that this is beyond me understanding.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

It is. That's a that's super important.

SPEAKER_11 38:08

And I've been imagining that we each are like a cell in the body of this being.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 38:16

And we have our particular role to play.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 38:20

And at some point the cell dies and it it goes on. You know, it's reabsorbed and turns into something else. Yeah. You know, and that really shifted things for me to imagine it like that because it takes the pressure off of me trying to figure it out. Because I'm one cell in the body of this being, and what does it matter?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Yeah. Well, I mean, we we can't ultimately figure everything out with our intellect. We cannot. I mean, words can only point to the direction. For example, you know, I could say, oh, the universe is infinite. You know, I can say that. I can say, oh, time is infinite, space is infinite. But to really fully under I can't fully understand it. Right. Because it's beyond my capabilities. Right. At this point, maybe when I'm in the spirit world, sure, I'll be able to understand that. Maybe I won't. Maybe there's different levels in the spirit world. That's what I actually believe is like we'll enter the spirit world someday. And then there's like maybe five, six levels, and we get trained, and we can level up and level up and level up. And who knows what, you know, unless I make a bunch of mistakes, then I get shot back down to earth immediately. Just don't know. You know, I mean, I'm not pretending like I know, but that's just like a hunch I have. But ultimately, we can get wrapped up in wanting to know everything. And then, you know, arrogance, people thinking they know everything, sort of, and then they're arrogant, and then they're arrogant in what comes along with arrogance, closed-mindedness. I don't need to learn anything new. I know it. I know what's going on. I don't need to learn anything, you know, and that's that's a real thing in our culture. Our culture promotes arrogance, it promotes fear, it promotes anger, it promotes self-righteous anger, you know, like that's seen as like the answer to positive change, which is sort of ridiculous.

SPEAKER_11 40:30

I want to pull it back to the point that we wanted to make. And uh, you know, where we put our attention is a really huge factor in how uh pleasant our life is. And I've had two epiphanies this past month, and one of them is about pleasantness and what does it mean to be pleasant, and and it was it was uh self, uh how do I treat myself? And I I was going through a really hard time and having some medical issues, and I was really suffering, and I was like, wow, I am legit suffering over my suffering at the moment. And I looked in the mirror and my face was like twisted in pain and just like so much stress on my face, and I was like, wow, um, can I be pleasant to myself? And as I was looking in the mirror, I was like, huh, what does that mean? And and I relaxed my face some and I was like, Well, what is pleasantness? And what I came up with is that pleasantness is willing to be present. I don't have to figure anything out, yeah, I can just accept that this is what it is right now, and I don't need to treat myself like crap because that's not gonna help anything. And yeah, I might be in pain, but I don't have to suffer over it. I don't have to suffer over my suffering. I can let that be. You know, and then that kind of led me into asking for grace, and then I was like, what does grace mean? And this is the other epiphany I had, and it's like grace, if if I was to define it, would be accepting what is, having compassion for myself and the situation, and being courageous enough to do what I can do to improve the situation.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

There you go, you know, and one of my uh teachers, Jim Young, he he would say that or he told me in the past that grace was the shortcut. It's a shortcut to like spiritual development.

SPEAKER_11 42:44

Nice. Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Yeah. Thank you, James.

SPEAKER_11 42:50

Yeah, and I just think grace is this misunderstood, under understood. Uh I don't it's so huge, and yet we overlook it as a people, as a culture, you know. Grace is may seem weak, you know. It's like, oh, I wanna make a difference. And then it's like, oh be graceful. Wait, what? That's not making a difference.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Throwing a rock through the window is making a difference.

SPEAKER_11 43:21

Yeah, so it's that if we could individually have grace, be pleasant to ourselves, and accept that we are all in this together, and my individuality is also unified with all the other individuals. And my success is tied to everyone's success, at least in evolution, and our culture's success and this idea of moving into Back into the golden age and doing everything in my power, no matter what karma is, no matter what dharma is, no matter what it seems like I'm carrying for baggage, or you know, yeah, I could go on and on about I'm a traumatized individual and carry all these problems because of it. But what if that doesn't really matter in the end? And it's it's how graceful can I move forward and how how much can I love myself and love everyone around me? And that's to me, is like, you know, well, is that even a possibility, you know? And you know, I think about if I was in the city right now, in any big city, yeah, walking around downtown, I would see many different walks of life in a short amount of time.

SPEAKER_06 45:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 45:01

And how in the world could I accept and have compassion for so many different walks of life? You know, some people uh their line is the rich people, and some people, their line is the homeless people, and so you know, it's like to truly embrace all of humanity is a feat.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Oh, it is, it's so worthwhile too.

SPEAKER_11 45:25

I just want to and we don't know what that means, we don't know what the reward is.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

Well, I I have moments of benevolence for everyone, which is really I so I know the rewards because I know how good that feels. You know, and all that means is you know, wishing well for everyone, which seems to make sense, you know. Oh, I even if somebody is messing up all over the place and creating all this suffering, it's like, well, I wish well for that. I hope they learn from their mistakes and change their ways. You know, that's what yeah, wishing well means. Instead of like, I hate that person, I wish they would just die. You know, I mean, there's such a huge difference in that. Yeah. But if this idea of benevolence for everybody is just really interesting to me. Because it essentially I want what's what's best when when I get there, it's it's a state where I want what's best for everybody and I feel like I'm on everybody's side, which is like kind of just very lighthearted.

SPEAKER_11 46:37

And is it you're on everyone's side or you're on the one's side and you don't care?

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Everyone's side. I want everyone to do better. Oh, if somebody is messing up and like whatever, creating chaos, I want them to live and learn and evolve. Okay, you know, whatever that takes. Um, but I wish well for that person. That's not like I I I'm not trying to judge them for all the mistakes they're making and you know, feel like that's the answer. Because that's like, and the bottom line is get this, when I can get into that benevolence for all state of mind, obviously I also apply that to myself, you know. But if I know if I'm in a judgmental state of mind, you know, those people are just so stupid, then boom, I make a mistake and I apply that judgmental attitude towards myself. So it's it's a mind habit.

SPEAKER_07 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

And if I can get in the habit of benevolence for all and point my you know, my attention on that. This is my attention, and it's an intention, right? But where the rubber meets the road is the attention part. You know, can I do this? Can I walk down the street? Can I walk by the homeless park somewhere and feel like, oh, I I I hope all those I wish all those people well. You know, to me that's like it's it's very it's a simple solution.

SPEAKER_11 48:12

And it's not easy. I feel especially in our situation where we actually do help homeless people, yeah, and people suffering with massive addictions that uh really make life hard. Yeah. And I feel like there is there is a line that um each of us has to hold, and that's where do you wish them well and where do you let go? Because a lot of people who care can care to the point of draining themselves. Well, that's a run out of steam.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

That's a different kind of caring. It's like I I think I think there's a big difference between benevolence and just like feeling sorry for people.

SPEAKER_09 49:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

You know, oh, I feel so sorry for those people, you know, and I get that, and I can have that too, but I really would rather focus on, oh, I I wish those people well, I I hope those people can figure out a way to you know eat healthier food. Okay. I you know, if if they're like if they don't have enough food to eat, yeah, you know, and the thing is if if culturally, if collectively, if we're benevolent, guess what? We're gonna like figure out the homeless problem. I mean, we're gonna we're gonna like band together and say, okay, let's do this. It's like we we don't need to wait for the government. So we're in this culture where it's like, oh, if the government's not doing it, well, that's that. Nothing I can do, you know.

SPEAKER_11 49:53

That's what I'm talking about, because there are a lot of groups and organizations that are trying to do things, but they're the red tape.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_11 50:04

I think that there's a lot of red tape, and I also feel I've seen this. Yeah, that there are people who they come into the organization thinking, I'm gonna help people.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 50:17

And then they get burned by a few people who are are using substances, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're like, oh, screw this. Well, sure. I mean, there's so they get burned. Well, there's and their compassion gets burned.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Yeah. I mean, obviously the whole system needs to evolve.

unknown 50:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

What we're doing for homeless people right now is not working. No doubt.

SPEAKER_11 50:43

Well, it might be in some places like Seattle, Madison's actually doing pretty good. You know, there are examples of, but why these examples aren't spreading?

SPEAKER_01 50:57

Well, I mean, it's it's a lot of it is just greed, and like the government's been pouring money at it, and these like organizations pop up and they'll be like, we'll help the homeless, give us some $10 million, and then they're all getting rich, and then they're like, Oh, we all we don't really want to solve it because we want to keep this homeless thing going. Yeah, because that's how I'm making my million dollars a year.

SPEAKER_11 51:20

So, so this brings back to the idea of if we are each a cell in the being, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there are there's a role for everyone. Yeah, it really brings curiosity to my mind on how does this all work, you know? And I don't know the answer. I'm I'm not even proposing a question more than just a contemplation. What if we all just accepted our individual role as part of a functional cell or a functional, like who knows? Like maybe you're a part of the heart and I'm a part of the liver, and you know, somebody else is a part of the colon. Like, I you're not just one person, but billions or millions of people, you know, like so and every role is important. And what if we all accepted our roles instead of fought them or tried to escape them?

SPEAKER_01 52:24

Well, and it's interesting because that reminds me of like the Vietnam vibe. Because we were recently in Vietnam, and the people there, they're they're not like the people here in this country we're all like involved with politics, and we're all like political experts, and you know, 90% of the population is a some kind of political 90%'s high. Okay, 60% of the whatever. I mean, a lot of people here are all involved with politics, and their mind is just revolves around politics, and but in Vietnam, people are not like that at all. People are just doing their thing, and they're all they're not divided, they're very unified. You just feel it, and there's not like big class differences or anything, and basically everybody just works really hard, yeah, and consistently, yeah, and they're cool with each other, and they they don't have and there's not like this all these divisions, and I'm sure there's some of the yeah, I'm sure there's some of them. But I mean, if you look at like the there's there's no basically no math, no heroin, right? There's no no drugs. The news uh in Vietnam just works on uniting people, you know, the whole thing, but yeah, I mean, Vietnam happens to be a communist country where they're fortunate in the sense where they have some cool leaders, it seems like, that just want people to get along with each other and work hard.

SPEAKER_11 53:52

And there's no reason to talk about politics because there's no choices, right? Which it works out well right now, it works out well for them.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

I'm I'm not saying communism is the way either, because it all depends on the leader. If the leader was bad, right, you know, then what happened in Russia with Stalin and you know, he just like murders all these people, or that other country you were talking about, you were telling me Cambodia, yeah, that sounded horrible. Yeah, it was just like a disaster. So I'm not sure, but just the the vibe of these Vietnamese people of just like being with each other, they they had a real benevolent vibe towards each other, and which is a beautiful thing, I think, and it's something that I try and like foster in my own mind, just benevolence, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 54:40

So I think to wrap it all up, uh I feel like my challenge to you, dear listener, please watch your attention and notice it. Just that's the first step, noticing. And I know that it's a very annoying step. Let me tell you, I totally know, and it can feel very disempowering at times when you really start to witness your own thought processes and where is my mind? Oh, geez, I don't want it there, and then you don't feel like you have the power or the choice to bring it wherever you want. But it it is true that the first step is just paying attention to your attention. It takes a little time, it takes a little patience, takes a little grace, gotta find the courage, you gotta find the acceptance, and you gotta have the compassion to continue to watch your mind, continue to watch your beliefs, continue to watch your actions. And over time, the choice to change does become easier and easier. So I, like I was saying, you know, I've been on this path of understanding that it is about the attention for over a decade now, and in no way have mastered it. But I'm beginning to really see where my attention is. And for me, I just say no story back to the body and go back into my body's processes and honor the individual cells in my body and how they work together into all the systems, and how if one system's messed up, it messes up another system. And how can I honor the integrated like if this is working, then this will work, and if this isn't working, then this may have difficulty. So there's how do I encourage homeostasis within my being? Homeostasis is everything in my body is working the way it was meant to. And so if we include in your mind. Right. If we as a people individually work on homeostasis of our mind, body, and spirit and energy, which includes emotions, then you know it doesn't mean that you're all of a sudden not gonna have any illness or injury anymore in your life ever again. It means that you can manage wherever you're at and you can navigate more gracefully and have a more pleasant experience.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Sounds like a plan to me. I'll try it.

SPEAKER_11 57:32

Awesome. I'm gonna try it too. And uh yeah, I hope y'all have a great month there on WDRT land. And if you'd like to hear more of Mindful Radio, check us out.

SPEAKER_01 57:48

And please like and subscribe.

SPEAKER_11 57:57

And follow on whatever platform you're listening. And if you want to receive our little offering, the piece reset is easy to download. It's a little ebook that Monty and I made of our seven favorite skills to maintain a peaceful mind.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

A free ebook.

SPEAKER_11 58:19

Mindflow radio.life. And then you can download it. So uh we'll be back sharing more next week. And I hope you have a great week.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

Peace and love.