Fully Integrated Leadership podcast

In this episode, I answer this question using three perspectives: Vedanta, the science of consciousness Philosophy, specifically Analytic Idealism Science, specifically Conscious Realism Bottom line, we are all on consciousness. With this understanding, the way the world is going today is not so good. However, there is hope that through the growth of the intellect in each of us that allows us to discern truth about some of the big questions...who am I? What is the nature of reality? How, therefore, do you relate correctly to the world? 

Stress is the mental agitation produced by unfulfilled desires. The mind produces endless desires, because that is what it is designed to do. When we train the intellect through introspection and contemplation, we strengthen it. A strong intellect discerns when to give credence to the mind's desires and when to mitigate and regulate it. 

The paradox of happiness is explore in this short episode. 

It is... I am it... I forget... I remember...

Being a good person entails right actions, flowing from a sense of giving rather than taking; operating from love, our shared sense of being; and from the knowledge of our true self as awareness. 

Three paradigms are explored in this episode: 1) the sense that we are separate from one another, 2) the sense that there are discrete objects that are separate from me, the subject, 3) the sense that we are the thinker and the doer at the center of experience.

When we view ourselves as the body and mind, free will is an illusion. When we know ourselves as Consciousness, free will is a reality. 

We often confuse consciousness/awareness with first person subjectivity. Consciousness is that which is aware of even our first person subjectivity. This is a subtle but important distinction.

The belief that I am a separate body-mind is the core belief that causes our individual and collective struggles

When we sit in simple, wide open, spacious awareness, we notice how the mind takes an aggressive stance towards the present moment. 

This episode starts with an update on some current thinking around being a spiritual being having a human experience. I then go into a summary of the current state of play around artificial intelligence, why it is a potential threat to our way of being, and what we can do about it. Remember, you are a loving, compassionate, caring and connected being. The world tries to convince you otherwise, but when you pause and reconnect with the essence of your being the truth is revealed. Spread the love!

I've had many conversations recently where people report feeling overwhelmed, busy and somewhat out of control. In this episode, I share a few reflections on why this might be happening, and how we can use our "I am awareness" practice to help reorient ourselves in the face of the mounting chaos.

Asking the simple question "what would love do?" sets up an interesting experiment. Love sees no separation, no conflict, no lack. It looks for connection, collaboration and abundance. However, the mind sees limitation, lack, need, and therefore competes for scarce resources. When we remember that we are awareness, or better said love, we show up different in our interactions with others and with the world.

What happens when we let go of the traditional belief that "I" am somehow in the body or the mind? What happens when we let go of the idea that we are here to develop and instead see that we are here to remember? 

Once we relax the body, we notice the randomness of the mind. We see how it grabs onto thoughts, sensations, sounds, memories, etc. We can relax the mind and notice the open space of awareness that we are.

How we live our life is determined, in many ways, on how we answer two vital questions: Who or what am I? Am I simply a body-mind, separate from other body-minds? Or, am I awareness, appearing as a body-mind and deeply connected to others? What is the nature of reality? Am I subject ineracting with a world of objects? Or, is there no separation between subject and objects, all of it just being awareness?

The weapons of mass distraction around us keep us from getting intimate with reality. But when we do, we experience a very different reality from the one fed to us by the mind. 

The center is found between breaths, between thoughts, between actions. It is ever-present and inherrently peaceful. In this episode, I walk through various ways to experience and stay with the center.

When we remember that we are awareness, and that everything depends on awareness for its existence, we can remain in a state of contentment and wholeness. Our pre-programmed minds, however, convince us that we are incomplete and that we need to compete with others and the planet to attain some object that will make us happy. 

Grasping, holding, resisting. These are the primary modes of mind. There is suffering in each mode. To end our suffering, we must ask "who or what is aware of the thoughts of grasping, holding, resisting?" This is the key to unlock our ever-present bliss. 

It is often said in the Vedas that the world is an illusion. This does not mean the world is not real; it means that the world is not what it appears to be. When we understand this, we can stop grasping at the world and find the perfection in the now.

In between thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions there is a space. It's not actually something that appears in the moments between; it is ever-present. This is what we are. The implications for this understanding are immense.

Psychedelics help to break down the brain's habitual patterns and it's desire to validate its preexisting models of the world. This also helps to reorient how we think about ourselves and what the nature of reality is.

We fear irreversibility more than anything else, and death is the ultimate irreversible experience if we orient as a body-mind. Religion promises salvation from this through faith in God; philosophy promises the same through wisdom/knowledge and rational thinking. 

To be human is to suffer, but to be awareness is to be happy, free, whole and complete. How can we "live in the and" of these two seemingly conflicting views? 

"What you are looking for is what is looking" is one of my favorite quotes. In today's episode, I talk about how the mind is constantly chattering at me to do more, be more, get more, etc. When we re-orient as awareness, we see the mind as an object and we are no longer slave to it. 

In this episode, I talk about integrating the beliefs that we are: 1) happy, free, whole and complete, and 2) everyone and everything is connected; I also talk about how stoicism and Vedanta are similar in how they suggest living virtuously and being dispassionate about results; I then talk about the human fear of irreversibility and how it drives our behaviors.

When a loved one dies, and someone says "I'm glad they are at peace now", what does that mean? If we are awareness, it is inherently peaceful. No matter what is happening with the mind and the body, we are always at peace.

If everyone and everything is connected, but the system is set up for us to see ourselves as separate, how do we approach saving money versus giving it away? I recently had a stark realization of the gap between my beliefs and my actions on this front.

The mind is constantly 1) measuring, 2) describing, 3) comparing. The misconception is that meditation/reflection is about stopping the mind. My belief is that we cannot stop the mind, nor should we take the time to try...instead, we become aware of the mind and inquire into that which is aware of it.

The "normal" human state of mind operates on two beliefs: 1) I want what I want and I want it now, and 2) I want to avoid what I don't want. We operate blindly on these two beliefs, holding them as fundamental "rights" of being human. These two beliefs are destructive for us individually and collectively. 

Karma yoga is about 1) having an attitude of giving, not getting, and 2) being grateful for the results of our actions, regardless of whether they are what we want. Karma is distributed based on the needs of the whole, not the needs of the indvividuals. In fact, there are no "individuals" that are separate from each other. We are all one.

When we don't react to emotions and thoughts, when we disconnect from the illusory nature of the apparently separate self, and we connect with the awareness that we are, we are acting against the accepted paradimg of what it means to be human. 

If there is such a high probability for intelligent life to exist in other parts of the galaxy, why then do we not see evidence for the existence of intelligent life? Is it possible that other civilizations reached a "great filtering" event that led to their destruction? How is Vedanta the key to us avoiding the same fate on Earth?

Life is a school where we are taught to remember what the soul already knows. 

We tend to think we are the character or role that we play in this 3D existence, when in reality we are the "actor" playing these different roles. We convince ourselves that we are our story, our suffering, our joy, our experiences. Meanwhile, awareness is just there witnessing it all without judgment, desire or fear. 

As a coach, I often get into conversations about purpose and mission. My own journey has brought me to the conclusion that the purpose I am here to carry out is to remember who I and to share this journey of remembering with others. 

The mind wants our expectations and our reality to match, and when they don't, the mind suffers. What happens when we let go of expectations and find the gifts in the experiences, no matter how "good" or "bad" the mind tells us these experiences are?

We do not see the world as it is; we see the world as we are. The universe sends us little messages, opportunities to learn and grow. Our tendency is to grab onto the experiences we find pleasant and resist the ones we find unpleasant. Leaning into the situation, paying attention to the lessons, is the practice I am focusing on today.

All my life, I've been searching for something; something never comes, never leads to nothing; nothing satisfies but I'm getting close, closer to the prize at the end of the rope. This lyric from the Foo Fighters song "All My Life" is a perfect summary of what it means to be a human being who orients from the mind and body.

Even when we are aware of the brokenness of the paradigms we are living by, it is still quite difficult to act out of accordance with said paradigms. The belief that we are basically incomplete, lacking individuals who are separate from one another is so strong it is a constant effort to remember we are happy, free, whole, complete, and connected. 

At any moment, we can sink into the sacred nature of the now. Our minds tell us that now can be better, or we grasp to the "nows" that are enjoyable, or we resist the "nows" that are unpleasant. The practice is to notice that awareness is sacredly present in every "now" and to constantly reorient ourselves from this awareness.

The mind tells us that happiness is in the experience, and that "now" is not good enough/can be better. The move here is to return to awareness and experience things FROM our inherent happiness, not FOR our happiness to be present. 

Awareness is the same whether I am looking at a beautiful sunset or sitting in a meeting with my insurance agent reviewing our car insurance policy. The mind wants us to believe happiness is in the sunset experience, and that suffering is in the insurance meeting, but actually awareness is the same in both. 

A common question we all ask each other is "how are you?" In doing so, we unconsciously form a social contract that says "I am asking you the body-mind individual how are you?" My answer, when asked this question is "I am great, the body and mind are trying to catch up to me!"

There are three pains that result from object-dependent happiness: 1. the pain of acquiring the object, 2. the pain of preserving the object, 3. the pain of the eventual loss of the object. Orienting as the self, as awareness, we can still enjoy objects but we do not depend on them to make us happy. 

This morning, I jsut felt the need to tell my story of how I came to Vedanta/nonduality. There's a lot in here, including multiple visits from my awesome cat August! If you want to understand what it takes to get to lasting peace and happiness, this is the episode to listen to.

Despite my growing belief that we live in a deterministic universe and therefore do not have "free will" in the way most think about it, I do believe we can setup our environment so it is aligned with the beliefs "I am free, happy, whole, complete" and "everyone and everything is connected." 

Changing paradigms is the most powerful way to change a system's outputs, but it also requires us to leave the old paradigms behind. Doing so, when others we love are still living in the old paradigm, causes pain, but the belief in the new paradigm makes it impossible to go back. 

When I make a choice between one thing or another, am I the one who is choosing? We like to believe the answer is yes, but the emerging science seems to say no, or at least to make us pause in believing we have free will. What implications does this have for how we live?

In order to live by the knowledge of nonduality, we have to prepare the mind so it is receptive to these counterintuitive ideas. Daily practices of "mental fitness" help to prepare the "soil" of the mind so we can successfully plant the garden of self-knowledge.