December 6th, 2006
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Surrender means to give oneself over to something. The type of surrender I’m discussing in this talk is not a sign of weakness, in fact, it might be the greatest sign of strength. The ego doesn’t usually like to hear about giving in or surrendering, but one of the greatest teachings we can learn is to surrender.
This practice is learning to allow your ego to surrender to what is. No experience is bad when we learn to drop the conflict around a situation. That conflict is the ego’s desire for things to be other than they are. Surrendering to what is is the dropping of the ego for true experience.
Surrender implies awareness, because we need to know what to surrender to. Learn to ask yourself what you’re feeling, that brings about awareness. Then the trick is allowing yourself to be the thing you’ve become aware of, to be what you feel. Often this will seem counter intuitive: I don’t want to be sadness; I don’t want to be anger; I don’t want to be cold. But learning to be these things, even when that isn’t what you want to be, is true surrender. It is waking up to be what you are. That is surrender, and it can change your life.
June 4th, 2006
This is a talk about fear and fear based teaching.
Any teacher that offers fear should be watched very closely. There is nothing to fear. You cannot kill god. The death of bird, the Exxon spill, 911, tsunami’s and hurricanes, all of it can’t kill god. We may not understand it, but it is OK. Even the extinction of the human race can’t kill god.
If we can learn to identify with god-consciousness, we will see that we are a part of the whole. That realization allows us to not fear things. We are temporary, but we are part of the infinite. All things in the infinite will change, but the infinite itself is timeless.
The idea that we need to save the planet is quite funny. What we really feel is the need to save ourselves. When we set up the idea that we need protection, we introduce the birth of fear.
The planet will be just fine whether we litter a five feet deep layer on it, or blow craters the size of Texas in the side of it. It will be fine. It’s us who feel we need the protecting. Wild life extincts itself and yet new species are born. Change is constant. I’m not at all saying we should try to extinct things, but as we do, we don’t kill god.
Leave a plot of earth barren or in any horribly assaulted condition and eventually life will come back to it. We’re getting better at making it barren for longer periods of time, but we still can’t stop life. Life wants to come forth. And so it will. There is nothing to fear.
Fear based teachings aren’t helpful. We need to learn to grow past fear. "Bad" actions, like mistakes and killing things come from a fear based mind. If we open to a fearless state of mind, we will make better choices. Not a reckless state of mind, but a truly fearless one.
There has always been catastrophic things to fear. War, famine, sickness, nuclear attacks, etc. Our current struggles are nothing new. They won’t end until we evolve past the idea of fear.
We all die, and need to learn not to fear that. But we most importantly need to learn to live. The illusion is that we’re not OK. This world is perfect as it is. This moment never has anything wrong with it.
Referenced: Tao Te Ching #46
November 9th, 2005
A discussion of the importance in understanding what beliefs are and how they affect us. Beliefs are the filter we see our world through. We need to begin understanding their use.
Three ways to perceive the world: Truth, opinion, and belief. Truth is what is. Opinion is when we make a judgment of a truth and take a separate stance on the truth. Beliefs are when we erroneously treat opinions as truths.
There are many facets to life. There are levels of intention and perspective. Opinions can be used effectively to enhance performance on some of these levels. Referenced Ken Wilber’s book No Boundary about boundaries of self - body, ego, persona.
Beliefs are the most powerful ideas there are. Every war has been fought because of beliefs.
How do we watch beliefs? One way is with meditation. Beginning that is to watch when we get upset. That tells us that we are bumping into a belief we have.
Referenced: Ken Wilber
Discussion on beliefs:
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