Fundamental Shift Podcast

If you haven’t checked it out, you need to know about Dharma Mix. These guys put inspiring messages to really cool beats so that we can soak ourselves in higher kinds of messaging. I got a chance to do the voice over on one of their mixes, and I chose to do it on “Changing […] The post Check Out My “Change Your Story” Mix from Dharma Mix appeared first on Rob Scott.

What does it mean to be spiritual today? In this podcast Rob Scott and Kerri Kannan discuss how to implement spiritual teachings in a down to earth and realistic way. This interview is from a show that Kerri runs called World Awakened on Blog Talk Radio. Topics covered include: Beginning to Work With Our Mind […] The post Implementing Spiritual Teachings appeared first on Rob Scott.

A good friend of mine, Kimberly Garrison interviewed me for the Philly Fitness and Health Podcast last week. The Daily News owns the show and allowed me to post the show here in it’s entirety. This tells a little of my personal story and discusses finding higher function and overcoming obstacles. Show music: Walk Away […] The post Rob Scott Interviewed on Philly Fitness and Health Podcast appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk is about being in relationships with others. It describes mistakes we make that end up leaving us hurt and confused. It also describes successful relationships and what we should strive for when we come together. We are always in relation with everything. Even when we identify ourselves as separate individuals, we are still in relationship with everything else. Let's work hard to understand and foster healthy relationships. Reference: Stephen Covey Song: My Baby Just Cares For Me by Nina Simone

This talk is about being in relationships with others. It describes mistakes we make that end up leaving us hurt and confused. It also describes successful relationships and what we should strive for when we come together. Often when we enjoy being with others what we’re enjoying is the presence that arises. Being with someone […] The post A Bit About Relationships appeared first on Rob Scott.

Why is it so hard to make big changes in our lives? We all seem to want things to be different than they are. We'd like to lose weight, make more money, be more organized, eat better. In this talk I point out a couple of ways to help bring lasting change. One of the ideas many people hold is that we change once. People often feel we'll make one large switch, and then things will be different. I'll go on a diet for a little while and THEN I'll be the way I want. I'll learn a new investment technique and THEN I'll be wealthy. I'll clean my whole house and THEN I'll be organized. But in reality those changes rarely stick. To make changes stick we need at least two understandings. By aligning our values with our goals, and realizing that it's little changes instead of one big switch, we can make massive change in our lives, and those changes can last. These little changes lead to a total, transformative “Identity Shift.” Song: The Changeling by The Doors

Why is it so hard to make big changes in our lives? We all seem to want things to be different than they are. We’d like to lose weight, make more money, be more organized, eat better. In this talk I point out a couple of ways to help bring lasting change. One of the […] The post Big Things From Little Changes or How to Have a True “Identity Shift” appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk is meant to suggest the importance of a regular meditation practice. The pull of the world, and the normal distractions and natural egoic self builders don't remind us that we need to see that there is more than thought. There is experience. We can exist without our minds running all the time. We can train a state experience that fulfills us deeply and gives us many other perspectives on how to live, what is important, and how we can behave with one another. We need to practice daily however. We need to train the mind in this new way of understanding. If you are not training your mind, you may not see when you get lost again. You may not be as aware as you can be of your own belief structures that can limit and ultimately harm you. If you are interested in self growth, I humbly suggest you commit to a daily meditation practice. The benefits are enormous. But more than that as a selling point, I want to say that if we talk about growing, but don't do the work, we may still be just as lost as those that haven't woken up at all. Song: Soup by Blind Melon

This talk is meant to suggest the importance of a regular meditation practice. The pull of the world, and the normal distractions and natural egoic self builders don’t remind us that we need to see that there is more than thought. There is experience. We can exist without our minds running all the time. We […] The post Do You Have A Practice appeared first on Rob Scott.

Something a little different today. No talking. Just watching. What do the faces say to you? Where do our minds go as we walk through this life? How many of us are really here, and when are we most here? There's the pigeon, and the playing. The begging, and the pain... The energy underneath it all. There'll be more talking from me soon, but for now... It's just nice to watch. Find the video here. Song: From the Morning by Nick Drake

Something a little different today. No talking. Just watching. What do the faces say to you? Where do our minds go as we walk through this life? How many of us are really here, and when are we most here? There’s the pigeon, and the playing. The begging, and the pain… The energy underneath it […] The post A Rainy Day in Philadelphia appeared first on Rob Scott.

What is the difference between a healthy perspective shift, and losing oneself in another through co-dependent behavior? The difference is when we know who we are. Other's perspectives should inform us, but our actions need to remain based on our own values. This touches deeply on understanding our values and beliefs. And while this could be a whole other talk, our values and beliefs need to be understood, and at least peripherally mentioned here. My first talk I said that beliefs are an error of taking an opinion and treating it as a truth. What I meant by that is that an unconscious, unexplored belief is an attachment that limits, or affects, how we see the world. But we all have beliefs, we all have values, even though there is an ideal groundless state of being. To express ourselves as humans, as selves in relation to others, we need to be clear on what our attachments, beliefs and values are. The more we know about who we are as people, the more evolved, awake, and informed we are. Gaining the skill of looking at the world consciously through other people's eyes is an important growth for people. But we need to use the idea of an other's perspective to inform our own perspective, not lose our own perspective to someone else.

Many talks I’ve given have been about the perspective shift of being able to look through other people’s eyes. And while this is a deeply important skill to develop to inform ourselves and to evolve, if not done from a place of health, it can lead to enabling co-dependent behavior. Healthy perspective shifting includes: Understanding […] The post Looking Through Other Peoples Eyes appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk is an introduction to states and stages of consciousness. States of consciousness are our now experience, and stages of consciousness deal with the growth of self along many lines of development in time. In this talk I want to explain the importance of each of these perspectives of consciousness and begin to point at how we develop each of them. Basically, we want to learn to manage our state experience as best we can, and grow through the stages of development along all the available lines as best we can. Doing those two things is what self development and growth is about, in this moment and through time. Referenced: Integral Theory, Spiral Dynamics

This talk is an introduction to states and stages of consciousness. States of consciousness are our now experience, and stages of consciousness deal with the growth of self along many lines of development in time. In this talk I want to explain the importance of each of these perspectives of consciousness and begin to point […] The post Introduction to States and Stages appeared first on Rob Scott.

I was recently having a discussion with a good friend of mine. He mentioned that people who have had trauma and have learned to detach to protect themselves would make great Buddhists. They may have spent their lives not attaching to things because things or events had hurt them in the past. A trauma survivor may have learned to “turn off” from arguing or painful situations. Show song: Satisfied Mind by Jeff Buckley

I was recently having a discussion with a good friend of mine. He mentioned that people who have had trauma and have learned to detach to protect themselves would make great Buddhists. They may have spent their lives not attaching to things because things or events had hurt them in the past. A trauma survivor […] The post Learning to be Detached appeared first on Rob Scott.

Integral theory and spiral dynamics talk about the difference between states and stages. And while a full explanation of the difference is beyond today's talk, I will say that we are definitely trying for deeper states of consciousness, but also (and possibly more importantly) higher stages of development. Each stage is a level of attachment. It is a set of beliefs, or a paradigm that we walk through and act from. So the idea is not that we are trying to stay peaceful, or joyful, or happy all the time (which would be a state experience only, and doesn't happen), but rather we are trying to walk through these larger stages of development (which would lead to more and more wisdom, durability, capability, and hence better state management as well). We try to become identified with larger and larger portions of reality. Referenced: Integral Theory

Surrendering to the moment is a very important teaching. Learning to accept what is, is one of the fundamentals of growing spiritually. So if acceptance is fundamental to this teaching, then why do all these teachers want to change what is? Why are they unable or unwilling to accept the world in its perfection exactly […] The post Do We Change The World Or Accept It appeared first on Rob Scott.

The worst thing I see in people, and myself, is when we resist what is. When I am resisting life, I am deeply unhappy. When I accept what is, I can face anything. I can fearlessly feel fear. Whenever I choose to spend my time wanting what is not, rather than appreciating what is, I'm lost. The practice is to become aware that we are fighting this moment, and to drop that critique. We can feel fear, and not want to be anything else. We can be sad, and fully feel it without running away. When we do that we open ourselves to the joy underneath.

A teenage boy just heard that Tommy wants to fight him in the schoolyard. He feels fear, but it’s not OK to feel fear. He’s supposed to be a man. He’s supposed to be tough. Or at least that’s what his belief system is telling him. A woman in college was raised Christian and believes […] The post Fearlessly Feeling Fear appeared first on Rob Scott.

External clutter is linked to your internal state of mind. Ownership of things is part of what the self is trying to accomplish. It feels bigger and more important when it has more. Because of this, we tend to let things define us. This is one of the problems of finding true happiness. Things decay. Nothing but change is permanent. Your car gets scratches. You kitten grows up. Your clothes gets stains or get worn out. A large part of us ends up attached to the identity of these things in our lives. But you are not only your car. You are not only your possessions. Understanding that tendency of self is very important. And rethinking our relationship to the things in our life can be very freeing. I mention this to point out that our self is directly related to the things in our life. Self likes things. If growing your self is important (which it sometimes is for damaged people, like homeless people), then growing your things may be important as well. But if softening your attachment to self is important, then freeing yourself of things to some degree, or at least organizing them into what you really care about becomes very important.

External clutter is linked to your internal state of mind. Ownership of things is part of what the self is trying to accomplish. It feels bigger and more important when it has more. Because of this, we tend to let things define us. This is one of the problems of finding true happiness. Things decay. […] The post From Clutter to Clarity appeared first on Rob Scott.

What is nested duality? This talk begins to discuss the play of opposites. I talk about the importance of relating in new ways to good and bad. Ultimately this talk is trying to convey the error of nested duality which is when we make the non-dual experience something good. As we look at good and bad closely, we see we can relate to the concepts in different ways: Good and bad can feel like absolutes. Things outside us that we have no control over. Good and bad can begin to define one another. Without bad, there is no good. Sometimes perceived bad events end up being good events. Good and bad can be seen as perceptions of is-ness. We realize that we are much more involved in good and bad than we originally thought.

What is nested duality? This talk begins to discuss the play of opposites. I talk about the importance of relating in new ways to good and bad. Ultimately this talk is trying to convey the error of nested duality which is when we make the non-dual experience something good. As we look at good and […] The post Nested Duality appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk is about mastering perspectives. It assumes that someone capable of seeing more perspectives is better informed, and more able to act appropriately, happily, and well. There are many perspectives to any situation. Every moment there is your point of view, someone else's point of view, and third person perspective as well. There are also historical perspectives, we perspectives, singular and plural perspectives, inner and outer perspectives, emotional perspectives, and even imagined perspectives. To simplify, there are many ways to look at things.

This talk is about mastering perspectives. It assumes that someone capable of seeing more perspectives is better informed, and more able to act appropriately, happily, and well. There are many perspectives to any situation. Every moment there is your point of view, someone else’s point of view, and third person perspective as well. There are […] The post Mastering Perspectives appeared first on Rob Scott.

Our self is more than partially defined by the assumptions and beliefs we hold about the world. Our emotions arise as that self rubs up against its edges. Emotions often tell us when our boundaries, or self, have been compromised. There is no doubt that we need to work on our understanding of emotions. Teachings that help us understand our emotions I label as self protection teachings. Again, those teachings are very important. Once we understand self as the accumulation of our own beliefs, we can learn to drop it. I'll call the experience of dropping beliefs experiencing no self. That doesn't mean our self stops existing, it just means we learn that we are not as attached to the self, and that it can be put down for pure experience from time to time. Practicing meditation is the expression of no self.

Our self is more than partially defined by the assumptions and beliefs we hold about the world. Our emotions arise as that self rubs up against it’s edges. Emotions often tell us when our boundaries, or self, have been compromised. There is no doubt that we need to work on our understanding of emotions. Teachings […] The post The Problem With Self Protection appeared first on Rob Scott.

When something is transparent it is able to be seen through. In this talk I make an effort to show the link between transparency and awareness, making the assumption that awareness is healthy. Transparency is an idea that can be applied to any system to allow that system to behave healthily and naturally. Systems mentioned include self, companies, governments and society in general.

When something is transparent it is able to be seen through. In this talk I make an effort to show the link between transparency and awareness, making the assumption that awareness is healthy. Transparency is an idea that can be applied to any system to allow that system to behave healthily and naturally. Systems mentioned […] The post Introduction to Transparency appeared first on Rob Scott.

How can we make faith make sense? So many of us are lost in rational minds. Rational minds that are right in the external sense of “right”, but they lack the inner connection to being. Faith is something that often sounds too “religious”. But faith may end up being important, but maybe we need to change the definition. Quoting the Tao Te Ching we read “There is no greater illusion than fear, No greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, No greater misfortune than having an enemy. Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.” Referenced: Tao Te Ching

How can we make faith make sense? So many of us are lost in rational minds. Rational minds that are right in the external sense of “right”, but they lack the inner connection to being. Faith is something that often sounds too “religious”. But faith may end up being important, but maybe we need to […] The post We May Need To Kill Faith appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk is inspired by the question: In meditation, do we dive into frustration when it arises or do we drop it? I use this question to do an overview of meditation, and then answer at the end. Meditation is really about state management. We are trying to foster a better state of mind. To do that, we try to become aware of all that we are. What we are ends up being thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. The investigation of these aspects of our self ends up being our spiritual experience. Many of us begin to meditate to deal with Busy Mind. To quell Busy Mind we try to separate thoughts from emotions and physical experience. That is the practice of meditation.

This talk is inspired by the question: In meditation, do we dive into frustration when it arises or do we drop it? I use this question to do an overview of meditation, and then answer at the end. Meditation is really about state management. We are trying to foster a better state of mind. To […] The post Dive In or Drop It appeared first on Rob Scott.

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 too. 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.

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 […] The post Learn To Surrender appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk tries to explain the motion of desire, and our two choices. One choice is to satisfy the desire, and again science is showing us more and more that that doesn't work in a lasting fashion. We always want more. The other thing to do is to make well-being our real goal. Once we realize that well-being comes from self awareness and mental balance, we can choose to examine the dissatisfaction when it arises. This doesn't mean we don't accomplish things or have external goals. It means we understand more and more clearly what really makes us happy and what does not. Stimulus driven goals can be meaningful, but don't lead to lasting happiness. Understanding this is a huge step toward greater wisdom and compassion in our lives. Examining our goals to see if they are stimulus driven can be an amazing exercise in helping us find happiness. Referenced: American Psychologist

This show references an article in American Psychologist titled “Mental Balance and Well-Being – Building Bridges Between Buddhism and Western Psychology”. The idea of this talk is that goals, in and of themselves, are not bad things; but that choosing goals wisely is very important. When a sense of dissatisfaction is our reality how do […] The post Goals That Make Us Happy appeared first on Rob Scott.

It makes sense that people who don't have much feel a sense of lack. It doesn't make as much sense that people who have tons of stuff, lots of money and means, also feel lack. One point of this talk is that the sense of external lack is driven by an internal lack. If we learn to get our joy from inside, we don't need these external things to the same extent. Another point is addressing the actual lack in people and places on this planet. I've talked before about the state of consciousness that expresses enlightenment comes from a place of abundance. It has arrived. It has what it needs. It's interesting to see that the external things we want, all the Christmas gifts, and all the status we shoot for, they are fleeting. As I make a higher salary, I still want a higher salary. There is a treadmill here, and I'm not going anywhere no matter what I get or accomplish. Can we see this fictitious sense of lack and expose it?

It makes sense that people who don’t have much feel a sense of lack. It doesn’t make as much sense that people who have tons of stuff, lots of money and means, also feel lack. One point of this talk is that the sense of external lack is driven by an internal lack. If we […] The post Realizing We Have Enough appeared first on Rob Scott.

This talk is about how non-dual experience can inform our morality. It was inspired by a magazine article that painted non-duality as morally irresponsible. Non-duality is not irresponsible. In fact, it can deeply inform our morality. What is morality? Morality defines and distinguishes between right and wrong. Our own history and belief systems are where our morals are born. It's important to note that our morals are not universal and can vary greatly. As much as we feel “our” morals are correct, they in fact are relative. There are endless examples of clashing morals, and this is where most wars come from. Referenced: Friedrich Nietzsche

This talk is about how non-dual experience can inform our morality. It was inspired by a magazine article that painted non-duality as morally irresponsible. Non-duality is not irresponsible. In fact, it can deeply inform our morality. What is morality? Morality defines and distinguishes between right and wrong. Our own history and belief systems are where […] The post Informed Morality appeared first on Rob Scott.

In this podcast we have a fist fight at a gun show. Two men, both deeply interested in safety, take very different stances on how to achieve that goal. One, having been mugged and beaten before feels as though having a gun will offer him safety. The other man, losing his son to a gun accident, feels that guns need to be banned. From those different stances, a fight ensues. If they had been more clear on what they really wanted, which is ultimately safety, they would have been able to avoid conflict.

In this podcast we have a fist fight at a gun show. Two men, both deeply interested in safety, take very different stances on how to achieve that goal. One, having been mugged and beaten before feels as though having a gun will offer him safety. The other man, losing his son to a gun […] The post Means to an End appeared first on Rob Scott.

In this talk I also discuss Jesus and the idea that he was the expression of being connected to the vine. If we change our concept of Jesus from needing to go “through him” to understanding that he was showing us “how to be” connected, we can actually begin to emulate how he lived. If we leave it as an idea, we won't be able to express his love. Referenced: Jesus

How do we remember what to do when we feel lost in our daily lives? Metaphor can be a great teaching tool to anchor ideas into our reality. “Connecting to the vine” is a great way to describe connection to oneness. What happens when a leaf gets cut away from a vine? It tends to […] The post Connecting to the Vine appeared first on Rob Scott.

Part of evolving as a human being, and part of the teaching that I'm trying to promote, is about bringing awareness to all the aspects of our lives. One of the big accomplishments in psychology has been identifying and naming what's been called the shadow. To understand the shadow we'll try to describe a fictional “whole self” and then discuss damage that occurs which can create shadow. What is a whole self? We could say that it is someone fully identifying with all the ways he/she can interact with the world: Thinking for objective experience. Emotion and body for subjective internal feeling. Spirituality for a larger context. Having access to all those experiences is what we might call being whole or fully self. (FYI – This is a different meaning of self, a more healthy meaning, than what I normally use to describe self.) Referenced: Integral Theory

Part of evolving as a human being, and part of the teaching that I’m trying to promote, is about bringing awareness to all the aspects of our lives. One of the big accomplishments in psychology has been identifying and naming what’s been called the shadow. To understand the shadow we’ll try to describe a fictional […] The post Shining Light on the Shadow appeared first on Rob Scott.

Turning subject into object is both a concept and a practice. In this talk I discuss the difference between inner and outer experience and how that relates to subjective and objective experience. We need to define perspective – subjective experience is what I identify as “me”. Objects exist within my awareness, but are not “me”. So how do we make the subject the object? We use introspection, questions, and cultivate awareness. The desire to see what you are brings this objectivity to the situation. We see as objects what we are. This is the practice of meditation. What is arising for me in this moment? We can make a practice of it, or we can do it when we realize we are unhappy. Just the simple action of making the subject the object allows us space for change. Referenced: Integral Theory

Turning subject into object is both a concept and a practice. In this talk I discuss the difference between inner and outer experience and how that relates to subjective and objective experience. We need to define perspective – subjective experience is what I identify as “me”. Objects exist within my awareness, but are not “me”. […] The post Turning Subject Into Object appeared first on Rob Scott.