Duncan Trussell Family Hour - 750: David Nichtern

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

David Nichtern, Duncan's meditation teacher, founder & CEO of Dharma Moon, and co-founder and CCO of Strawberry Moons Media, re-joins the DTFH!Interested in getting certified to teach meditation?... The Dharma Moon Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training begins on June 12th, 2026. Click here for more info about the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Click here to register now!On Tuesday, May 26th, join David and Professor Robert Thurman for a FREE live online event exploring the profound practices of mindfulness and the journey of becoming a meditation teacher. Click here for more info and to reserve your spot.Ohio family! Duncan is coming to Hilarities in Cleveland, May 8 & 9. Click here to get your tickets now. Thank you, and we love you!!This episode is brought to you by: Get 10% off your first month of BlueChew Gold with code DUNCAN. Visit BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at MintMobile.com/Duncan.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to you, my friends, and welcome to the DTFH. Today, we have a premiere episode for you, but first, some dates. I am very excited about the next few dates coming up, and I want you to come see me in Cleveland this weekend at Hilarities, the Fourth Street Theater. After that, you could find me at the La Jolla Comedy Store. Coming back home, that's May 15th through the 17th. And then after that, I'm going to be back and show.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Charlotte NC at the Comedy Zone. Come out and see me, won't you? All right, listen, I know the DTFH goes off the rail sometimes. I know that I have people who are generally considered by default reality to be maniacs on the show. People like Jeremy Corbell,
Starting point is 00:00:46 Alex Jones, I love listening to what these people have to say. I find it to be fascinating, interesting, and educational. But, every once in a while, It's time to ground ourselves into something maybe not so out there. And so I would invite you to stick around for this episode with David Nictur. Not only is he an incredible musician, not only does he play for Krishna Das, the famous Kirtan Wala,
Starting point is 00:01:19 but he's also an incredible meditation teacher. And he studied under one of the most enigmatic Buddhist teachers of our time, Chogium trumpet Rimposhae. And I'm lucky enough to have him as my teacher and he's awesome. So if you're interested in Buddhism or if you find the stuff that David talks about interesting, I definitely do. Then I would invite you to check out Dharma Moon. This is David's online and offline Buddhist community.
Starting point is 00:01:54 You'll hear him talk about that in today's episode. David studies Tibetan Buddhism, but he's just really good at breaking things down and simplifying things in a way that people like me can understand. And in this wild maelstrom that we are all experiencing, I think you're going to find some tools you can use to calm down a little bit in this episode. So everybody, welcome to the DTFH David Nicturn. David, welcome back. to the DTFH. It's good to see. It's been a while.
Starting point is 00:02:31 Yeah, thank you, Duncan. And I know you've been traveling a lot too, right? Oh, on the road, nonstop, every weekend, going to Cleveland tomorrow. Wow. You know, got a bunch of kids. You know, a bunch of kids, they need organic food, mortgages, householder stuff. Do you have any idea whether they're going to be following in your footsteps or not? If they're going to be comedians?
Starting point is 00:02:59 Well, or what else do you consider yourself to be? God. Do you got an hour? Well, that's exactly what we have. We exactly have one hour. I have no idea. And, you know, I mean, I try not to think about that too much. I know I love making stuff.
Starting point is 00:03:19 And I also know that, you know, if you, like, I have to support whatever it is that they're doing. This is something Ram Dass said to me when I asked him, I'm a brother. cheesy question at one of the retreats. How can I be a good dad? And he goes, Dad, roll. Son,
Starting point is 00:03:40 roll, soul, not roll. And I thought that was very wrong. That's very powerful, very beautiful. And so that's, I try to remember that. Though, you know how it is. You're not going to remember that all. It doesn't,
Starting point is 00:03:56 it doesn't change, cease, though, even when you you get older and they get older, you never reverse. You're still the parent. That's right. I mean, but your son has followed in your footsteps. You know, that did happen. Yes and no.
Starting point is 00:04:12 This is a very own unique way of doing things. And, you know, as a musician, he definitely is not a musician, that part of my whole arc. He didn't track. But he is a wonderful Dharma teacher, and he's also quite a good writer. He's written a bunch of books. Very insightful human, very sharp, clear mind. Yeah, sharp. Like a library, a walking codex of obscure Buddhism that you can articulate in incredibly clear and precise ways.
Starting point is 00:04:43 Yes. Agreed. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. That's got to feel good. Well, yes. And, you know, it's so ongoing. You know, I've enjoyed being your friend as a dad, you know, and you becoming a dad.
Starting point is 00:04:57 Yes. And sharing a piece of that action because it keeps evolving. It's funny how it just keeps evolving. You have to stay loose to be a dad or a parent. Absolutely. And when you're juggling four of these sweeties, you know, it's a constant analysis, you know, because it's easy to accidentally leave one of them out, you know, and you're focusing with the little ones, you know, because it's got three,
Starting point is 00:05:28 little ones and a seven-year-old. You know what I mean? And so then just accidentally that it can happen where you snap into reality and realize, oh, my God, he's just... Home alone. He's seven. Yeah. What are we?
Starting point is 00:05:42 What are like, I have to get these kids bathed and there's more energy that goes into getting them ready for bedtime and stuff. But he's just a seven-year-old. He deserves as much attention to as you can give. So it's constantly a, uh, a strange kind of dance that you're doing and trying to stay tuned in and not being too permissive
Starting point is 00:06:04 and not being too strict and not projecting all the projections you know like you're you're projecting the things you wanted to happen to you and your childhood onto them you know and then that's how you turn into a Disneyland dad which is the term
Starting point is 00:06:20 for a dad who just wants to have fun with the kids while the mom has to be strict and that's a real trap I had a friend back in the day who had four kids and she realized little kids and she realized she was losing it when she found herself in the bathroom with the four of them in the bathtub together and she was pouring tied into the bathtub. Oh shit. Oh shit. You know, all four of them been there laundry detergent. Let's get this piece over with, you know.
Starting point is 00:06:49 That's sleep deprivation right there. That's pure sleep depth. That's probably three hours of sleep for the last. two nights. Duncan, I hate to tell you this. I think there's going to be another one. No, there's not. No, you did the thing?
Starting point is 00:07:08 No, but now I am. After you say that, I'm definitely getting snipped. We can't do five. I don't have a farm. I don't have mules. I don't have cows. I don't have crops to till. I don't want to have five kids.
Starting point is 00:07:21 I can't do that. Four is enough. These sweet darlings, I'm too old to have another kid, by the way. I'm too old. Okay. All all duly noted. What do you say we launch into this with a weird thing that has just emerged into the zeit guys, which I know isn't your standard sort of lane,
Starting point is 00:07:38 but this just happened, and I find it to be so funny and so weird. Here is my question for you to start this off. I'm going to name just a few quick things that just happened. We got a pastor, Pastor Stone. evangelical Christian claiming he was approached by government agents telling him to prepare his congregation for alien disclosure. He also said that they told him there were his, they told his friends there were lizards. Now, I think it's horseshit. I'm not trying to get into an alien conversation with you, David. That'd be a complete waste of your time. But it spread like wildfire through the
Starting point is 00:08:22 internet and this story. And on top of that, we have a convert. A conversant. of so many bizarre things happening simultaneously right now that I am astounded and delighted by it. But also, if I had to like take a temperature of the room, it feels like people are really scrambling right now for meaning. People are scrambling right now for anything that they could grow roots into that isn't being upended and changed. Jobs are going away because of AI. It's going to crescendo. The entire reality tunnel people are existing in where there aren't aliens could theoretically be shattered. And then on top of that, the never-ending political madness and potentially World War III or boots on the ground.
Starting point is 00:09:25 in Iran. And so anyone who's going online right now is touching an electric fence with their brain. And what I'm grocking is that people have no sense of stability at all. Not to mention the economic factors involved in most people's lives. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck. They can't get a house. People in college don't even know if they should be studying for what they're studying for because those jobs might not exist. So this is, to me, pure Kali Yuga, pure, like, just the collision of so many different historic events meeting the individual. And the individual, the human wants stability. The human wants some sense of relevance, some sense of being able to prognosticate what's around the corner. And it feels
Starting point is 00:10:16 like many of us are feeling completely confused. And maybe we're masking. the underlying fear with like pretending to be fascinated or nihilism or whatever, but what's your take? What does Buddhism offer people in this moment in time? Yeah, well, it's great to, you know, frame out a period of time and see what the mood ring says about it all. And whether it's our take on it or the group take on it or, as you said, the zeitgeist, you know, earlier.
Starting point is 00:10:53 So it's always good to check back in on I would say anytime I perceive like something seems to be happening. I'm sorry, you have a fan on, I believe. Air conditioning on? No. You don't have any. When you talk, I'm hearing a shh. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:11:12 You don't have any champion noise happening in your house at all. Okay, we'll just live with it. Keep going. Sorry, guys, we're going to live with that one. This is. Should I try it without the headphones? Use the mic on the, yeah, try that. Sorry, this is a tumult.
Starting point is 00:11:28 This is what I'm talking about. This is everything is so incredibly technologically. Oh, you know what? I think it might be my laptop. Your fan? I say we roll with it, David. It's a podcast. It's not the Gettysburg address.
Starting point is 00:11:52 Is it any better or worse or the same? You can fix it in post, really, Josh? Okay, Josh says he can fix it in post. Sounds like that's a lot of post, Josh. Okay. Maybe there's a frequency. You can just like throw a filter on, drop a frequency down. Let's just do it, David.
Starting point is 00:12:07 Let's just do it. Let's not let these obstacles get in the way of this conversation. Usually the best ones are the ones met with some kind of technological problem that wants you to like get distracted. Well, yeah, and I was just saying, can you hear me okay now? Yeah, I can't. I was just saying to everybody last night, a good dress rehearsal always indicates a bad show. coming up. Wow.
Starting point is 00:12:34 I don't know if you've been introduced to that principle, but. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, so overcoming and working with obstacles separates out the gliders from the sliders, you know. Okay, yeah, sure. So, yeah, this idea of checking back with oneself, obviously always is a good idea. Or like in that Seinfeld episode, it's not you, it's me, you know. that kind of perception.
Starting point is 00:13:02 Yeah. So we want to do a self-assessment always when we feel that there's something in the zeitgeist or in the atmosphere. How are we doing? Then reaching out to with the recognition that whatever it is, it's momentary. Yeah. By definition, by nature. So it may be a wave coming in and then a big wave comes in, like when you're out of
Starting point is 00:13:25 the ocean and then a little wave comes in. There's no permanent waveforms. That's, that's, if you're asking. Buddhism. Buddhism says there's no permanent wave forms. Let's use the wave analogy. It's like, yeah, there's one wave coming in, another wave coming in. Pretty soon there won't be any more waves because I'm going to be underwater.
Starting point is 00:13:41 Well, okay. That's where learning how to swim is a good idea. Yeah, but sometimes it doesn't matter. Yeah. You could be the best swimmer ever. You're out there in the North Atlantic fell off a boat, cold-ass giant waves. You're done. I mean, the transient thing I get, but I mean, it's like sometimes.
Starting point is 00:14:01 you don't make it from out of the next wave. That's just true. Well, yeah, and like, it should, if you're, if you're relating to Buddhism as a transcendent kind of approach, you know, that goes beyond just the iteration of this moment and this lifetime and so forth. Like, I was drowning two years ago. I was in an ocean, and it got out of control, like what you're talking about there. But from my point of view, the practice was the same, whether it was or it wasn't. I just went one moment at a time. This is what's happening. Yes. And so rather than panicking, I think, is the other approach is that this was a very pith instruction I got from my teacher, which was when you've heard it before, when things are going bad, don't panic. And when they're
Starting point is 00:14:48 going, well, don't relax. Right. So you keep that kind of sensibility about it. Now, of course, it's more challenging when you're drowning to try to be mindful. Sure. Absolutely. You know, and it's even more penetrating to try to stay aware when you can't breathe. You know, but I want to point out something here, which is the reality of achieving this kind of peaceful reaction to chaos. But being surrounded by people who haven't gotten there yet. And that, in fact, your lack of panic regarding certain situations, can seem offensive to them.
Starting point is 00:15:33 You will, you can, you can seem like, uh, you are in denial. Uh, that could be an accusation level that you, you're ignorant. You're in denial. You don't want to face the truth as it really is. And, um, have you experienced that before where people who are not, who haven't done any kind of practice or training or don't have any kind of platform that they can, uh, find some stability in in stable moments are legitimately offended by your lack of being freaked out. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:12 And should we worry about that is what you're saying? Well, yeah, I mean, because we're social animals. It's a reality. And, you know, not everyone's Buddhist. Certainly not everyone has had like Chogium Trump or Rimpashe is a teacher. But some people don't even understand this idea that you don't have to be reactive. when things aren't going your way. That's why we're having this conversation.
Starting point is 00:16:36 Yeah. From my point of view. Yeah, right. So, and it just trickled on to like every year for me, there are themes that are coming out of the Buddhist vault that seem to thread themselves into every conversation that I have for that period of time. So appropriately, the theme this year is imprints and triggers. All right.
Starting point is 00:16:57 Okay. Cool. Okay. And it is reactivity. it is the essence of what we're talking about. So we have a Buddhist psychology course going on right now, Dharma Moon, that is just all about imprints and triggers
Starting point is 00:17:08 based on the Buddhist teachings of Abidharma, which is the study of mind and consciousness and how it actually operates. So we are trying to learn more about our own apparatus, right? That's what you meant by somebody who's a practitioner, as far as I'm concerned. You're trying to learn more about your own equipment and how it operates and how you can work with it.
Starting point is 00:17:28 Tell me about imprints. I think most people are familiar with triggers. This is a, I mean, it's in the pop culture vernacular. I'm triggered. Is this triggering to you? But imprints, I don't think people are quite as familiar with that concept. This episode of the DTFH is brought to you by Blue Chew. The future of erectile function is here.
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Starting point is 00:19:26 and we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the podcast. Yeah, it's like the trigger would be the cheese in the mouse trap, and then you go to try to get the cheese and the trap drops, which is the imprint is a deeper rooted, conditioned into our experience and often embodied before we're aware of it, sense of being wired up. Like a pre, like a mine. A mine would be an imprint. You've dropped mines in the straight of Hormuz and they're just sitting there.
Starting point is 00:20:19 Now, they'll just sit there forever until a boat comes along, hits it. So that being the trigger, the mind being the imprint. Okay. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:20:29 That's really cool. And in our makeup, in the way we talk about it, it's called the seventh consciousness or the claysia consciousness. Yeah. It's unprocessed or unprocessed emotional psychological septic system. Yeah. That is stuff that's kind of lurking there, but we're not really aware of it in a similar way that the Western psychologists said you're not really aware of that.
Starting point is 00:20:51 It's subconscious. Yeah. Right. But the everyday activity puts us in touch with, you know, triggering that off. If there was nothing there to trigger, you can't be triggered if there's no imprint. Yeah, right. It's impossible. Right.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Of course. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. So the two are interdependent in that way. So we're not just looking at the trigger and reifying the trigger and saying, oh, I'm so sensitive.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Look for the imprint. Look for what it is that's being triggered. That's a matter of personal work that anybody can do under any circumstance. Yeah, from this perspective, it's almost like the trigger is a secondary consideration that, you know, you can adjust and maybe, you know, adjust the way you're navigating your boat through this trade of war moves. And maybe you'll get lucky. You won't hit some minds. You know where the minds are at. But I mean, that's a terrible analogy. But what I'm saying is like if you've got these imprints, inevitably, the mind's going to go off. inevitably, you know, you will, and that would create this cyclical hell pattern that a lot of people experience, because as long as those imprints are there, you can expect them to, you know, blow up or to, you can expect them to be triggered for the rest of your life until they're gone.
Starting point is 00:22:07 Well, and our work that you talk about, if somebody is involved in any kind of, you know, psychological or spiritual work, it's to learn more about their substrata and what they've been through and to make it more conscious, become more aware of it. And so that you don't keep getting blindsided as you walk through life. Right. Yeah, I do think it's interesting from a pop culture perspective. And not that you can establish like the psychology of all humanity by the word that gets used over and over again. But the focus does seem to be these days on triggers more than imprints.
Starting point is 00:22:44 That, you know, and blaming someone, you, you triggered me. your trigger warning you know that this is on the burden for your imprints is on the truth it's like asking minds to get out of the way you know it's when really if you're being triggered probably you should be looking into why what is that is it is it some part of you that is just permanent as stain that's there forever no no no okay so that's an important thing you're bringing up there. And again, I'm speaking in this context as a Buddhist practitioner and student, but none of it would be permanent.
Starting point is 00:23:26 That is a fundamental view that you could test. You could explore that. So if let's say, in an interrelational space, somebody says something, you're always doing that, and it kind of winds us up, and then we're kind of like out of control and stuff, we could. look at our own piece of that equation. It doesn't mean the other person, it wasn't rude or wasn't unconscious themselves. But we could look at our piece of it to start with, right?
Starting point is 00:23:55 Right. We do that, right? Right. Right. So if we're just blaming the other person and the external reality, there's not much traction going to be there. Right. And who wants to be marionetted by rude people? You know, who wants to be a puppet for the rude of the earth? Because you are. At that point, you're a puppet. Like at that point, and this is sort of when the term pushing buttons comes up, which is, you know, if someone knows your imprints,
Starting point is 00:24:24 then it's like knowing the most vulnerable spots. And that puts you in a very weak position when it comes to being with people who don't have your best interest at heart. You can now, you know, this is famously used by exploitive types to manipulate, to con to force people to do things they don't want to do just by knowing which trigger which imprint
Starting point is 00:24:51 buttons to press it's like a code a typewriter of imprints that you could type into somebody and make them do whatever you want and you can almost define it as the toxic version of leadership right right right right as you know you and some of the most famous um kind of bad guys and girls in buddhist history were the ones who actually knew quite a bit right not not the ignorant, you know, sort of untrained ones, but if you have some training, psychologically, you can see what's happening with people, and you use that like in a cult or in a, you know, sycophantic relationship, use that to manipulate the person. That's really considered very, very bad.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Well, yeah. Yeah, that's really not good. It's the very worst thing you could do. But, you know, before we carry on here, is from this Buddhist psychology, from the perspective of this Buddhist psychology, are these imprints always negative? Are there positive imprints? Is like, like, are there various types of imprints? Horny imprints, for example, you know, or? It's such a great question. That's a great question. Because on some level, they would,
Starting point is 00:26:04 I think I'm right in saying this, they'd be characterized as neutral, ultimate, the ultimate nature of them is neutral, because they also have wisdom in them. Right. All of the answer. There isn't a negative imprint. They're neutral. These are just facets of where you're at right now. If they're stuck and your relationship to them is frozen, that's what we mean by negative. Okay. Not that there's some relational situation that has qualities because it always has the wisdom quality too.
Starting point is 00:26:34 For example, we talk about the three root imprints. You know this are grasping, you know, attachment and aggression, pushing things away or ignoring. Right. That's really basic engine of duality right there. You see something that's other. You either like want to bring it in, you want to push it away or just space it out. Right. And we're doing that very quick all day long in every situation. All day long. Now, you could say flip it. Every time you want to grasp it something, connect with it and communicate authentically with it. So the passion or grasping becomes communication. You could say that, okay, sorry. No, please, go ahead. Finish your thoughts. You could say that the enlightened dimension of aggression is clarifying the situation, creating proper relationships, boundaries. Right. Somebody's hitting your kid in the playground.
Starting point is 00:27:23 You don't go up and say, oh, we're all one, man, you know. No, you say stop doing that right now. Yeah. You know. Yeah. But you don't have to get all, you know, the aggression thing, it tends to reify a solid sense of self. That's the problem. The glaciers create a very strong sense of self, justification, all the rest of that.
Starting point is 00:27:41 Right. This is sort of the like personality matrix or something that you use to identify, this is me versus the other assholes out there. And usually the imprints are justified, right? It's like, you know, whenever anybody's, quote, triggered, it's not like they're saying that all the time, but they will set out in a fairly predictable series of behaviors. Like, you know, it's like a wind-up doll or something.
Starting point is 00:28:07 Like you, when someone's triggered, they'll go through a set, you know, series of a looping kind of reaction. This is what I've noticed in my own self. You know, it's a sort of loop. Yeah. And I guess the obvious question here is for I think most people listening to this have, are aware in some way, maybe not from a Buddhist psychology perspective, but they are aware of the modern terminology, trauma, trauma reactions.
Starting point is 00:28:41 you know all these things seem to be pointing to this place and then if you have any kind of any kind of meditative practice or anything at all whatever your religion may be you start becoming aware of these imprints more than they go from being unconscious in some kind of liminal place maybe even conscious and at that point that's where it gets interesting for me because I can recognize some of these things, the heaviness of them, the unwieldy nature of them, the sort of the way that they hurt just being there. And I've seen you have witnessed you doing exactly that, recognizing. But I don't, like, where I run into a kind of, where I run into a wall here is like I can
Starting point is 00:29:38 see them. I think most people are aware of like these things in them. But then now you're just sitting with this fucking thing. You know, this thing inside of you that you, it hurts. It's like a thorn in your paw or something. It just hurts. Nothing good about it. You stop ennobling it. You stop pretending that you're strong because you don't let anyone near your heart or any of that stuff. And then you're just like, what the fuck? I don't want this in me anymore. And that's, then it's almost worse because now you're just aware of this poisonous thing inside of you. How do you get rid of it? Well, okay, so technically, again, I'm, you know, for the moment, at least just holding this
Starting point is 00:30:23 perspective from like traditional Buddhist teachings. The first step is always awareness, because without awareness, you don't even know, like, you know, if you're trying to put a nail into a piece of wood, if you're not aware of the hammer and you're not aware of the nail, you're not aware of the wood, there's no chance at all. But the second level of the practice is sometimes called purification. Actually, that word is used. And in that way, it resembles certain Western traditions like what process people go through when they're going through addiction issues.
Starting point is 00:30:53 You know, they have to clean up your business a little bit. Right. Within that awareness and conscience, you have to apologize to somebody you're hurt. Oh, my God. You have to think, I'm not going to do that again. I'm going to really try to, you know, maintain a kind of, decorum about that, even if I'm feeling that I'm not going to project it onto somebody else and cause harm, those kind of things. Right. And then you look at, then, then the third step would be
Starting point is 00:31:17 really seeing the nature of it, which is energy. Right. It's a, I've gotten that far with it where you can just see, you know, I've done things with it. I've actually like experimented with moving it around in my body, like, you know, things like that. You can move it around. It's definitely, it's some form of psychic constipation, you know, it's, it's just. God, what's worse than being constipated? I guess diarrhea, but like... I don't know. I think we...
Starting point is 00:31:46 That's a straw pole if you want my opinion. That's a pole. That's a pull for sure. But, you know, when you know that you have not had a bowel movement in the last couple of days and you feel it in your body and you know like that on the other side of, the other side of this is going to be the greatest shit. of your life, sorry for being vulgar. And like, but you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:32:11 It's still, it's in you. And this thing, where, what orifice do you squeeze? Yeah, great. What orifice do you squeeze the imprints out of? Like, what is the, what do you do? Because some of these things, they, you know, the older you get, the more dismaying they become. It's the worst.
Starting point is 00:32:35 Well, there's a couple. of different perspectives on that. One is that there are methods, you know, there's in, in the Buddhist tradition, there's a lot of skillful means that have been developed over time, like here, methods to become more aware, to clarify, to release, to purify certain imprints. And then the kind of commentary on those methods, like, for example, here's a great commentary. Don't spiritual bypass. Don't use spiritual technology to just become a, you know, a bullshit artist. So, so, so, you Yeah, so one of the methods in the tantric tradition is called Vajasatva mantra, which is a practice. You have to be given this by a qualified teacher, but you repeat the mantra, which is sort of associated with cleansing.
Starting point is 00:33:23 And there's a whole visualization that's, and you're sort of expelling those kind of complements. It's like there's a guy on top of it. Yeah, there's Vadrashafa, which is a kind of representation of some inherent purity. Yeah. You know, that it's all based on the view that inherently, this is very important. Inherently, the situation is quite clean at its ultimate nature. Right. Right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:33:46 I saw Jet Lee talking somebody like that. Here's the cup. Oh, no, as long as I can't say, Ribchai, here's the cup, it's not inherently dirty. You just wash it. You clean it, and it's not a nice cup again. Right. Right, right, right. That's our Buddha nature is said to be like that.
Starting point is 00:34:01 It has a certain kind of positive valence to it. In the cosmic sense, it's a good thing. I'm sure other religions have a way of talking about that kind of basic goodness. But it requires maintenance, cleansing, awareness, and then sincere regret or effort to avoid harm, which is coming from the heart. It's not a mechanized thing. It's like it's sincere in that sense. You really do want to clean up your world. I mean, you know, speaking for my own personal experience, I don't like to be wrong.
Starting point is 00:34:43 And, you know, I, it's such an unnerving. It's not unnerving to be wrong about, you know, basics. I'm used to being wrong about, like, directions. I have no problem realizing that I'm lost, like, in the car or something like that. But there are deeper forms of being wrong that are existentially threatening. that, you know, I don't mean literally to your existence, but it's like your entire paradigm, your entire mode, everything. See, it can feel threatened by this inherent cleanliness, you know, if you've defined yourself as a dirty cup. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:24 What will I be if I'm a clean cup? Yeah, less conventionally important. What do you mean? Oh, right. It's humbling. Oh, that's absolutely. Humbling. Incredibly humbling.
Starting point is 00:35:39 But, you know, this is my wrong reaction to what you're saying. My ego and here's stuff like this, it's like, I don't want to be sidelined. You're asking me to go sit on the bench, man. I don't want to go sit on the bench and just watch the world and not get mad. You know, like, what about my claws? You know, all of the things. Well, well, but then you could, it's always interesting to flip. So you said that's what you don't want.
Starting point is 00:36:05 What do you want? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what I want. And I want the first thought there. Can I get the first thought? Maybe because we were podcasting today. So I'm falling asleep last night.
Starting point is 00:36:21 And I'm telling you, man, I had this. You know what I was thinking about? I was thinking about you were telling me about this strange Buddhist practice where apparently practitioners can open a slit in the back of their head. eject there's what astral body out of this what's it called it's got a cool name it's essentially like it's like the thing that pilots use for planes you know it ejects you out of the plane you parachute down it's something yeah you can shoot the consciousness out of the ground chakra consciousness blasting I think it's called consciousness ejection
Starting point is 00:37:02 consciousness ejection so I'm sitting there thinking about consciousness ejection because I was having problems going to sleep. And I was just thinking, man, I wish I could just open that little slit in the back of my head and eject my consciousness right now. I was trying to remember. You were telling me there was some kind of mantra around it. And you were also saying, don't do it. And I remember thinking to myself, I'm not going to remember that mantra. You had nothing to worry about.
Starting point is 00:37:27 But I, uh, in my head, especially someone says, don't do it. I'm like, I'm doing that. Yeah. It's like, I'm not going to remember what those words are. But I'm telling you, I didn't eject my consciousness or anything, but for one split second, I was no longer in my life. Like, not in a disassociative way, not in an ignorance way, but in more probably because I was about to fall asleep in a way of like, oh, that was some kind of dream or it wasn't
Starting point is 00:37:59 insignificant or something. That was something. And the immense freedom, immense just. absolute sense of pure liberation, you know, and I would like, I would love to feel like that and still be able to maintain my role as a provider and a father while experiencing that level of pure freedom. That's absolute and relative bodichita. That's what it means. You have the sense of expanse and kind of non-stuckness. You know, there's nothing stuck nowhere. However, the relative world unfolds in a kind of, uh,
Starting point is 00:38:36 with a colorful drama in which all the clashes are seen as ornaments. Ornaments! So wait, that's why we should have opened these imprints that you're talking about are viewed as decoration, Christmas tree lights or something. Yeah, I mean, without trivializing it and without bypassing the heartfelt concern about, you know, the interactive situation, that would be the nealistic version of it. You could say, well, it's empty. it's nothing. That's not what this is saying, but it is saying that it is inherently free from
Starting point is 00:39:14 permanent existence, from independent existence, and from a substantial locus of existence. What you call yourself is free from those three things unless you can prove otherwise, which is go ahead and drive people who are trying for thousands of years. If you can make a case for a permanent identity, if you can make a case for an independently existent consciousness, if you can make a case for something that has a substance that is ongoing and ongoing, that's the kind of thing that you want to try to see if it floats or not, you know. Right. If the boat floats, you got to write it.
Starting point is 00:39:52 Got to see if that bow floats, but you don't want to do that. I mean, the reason people don't want to do that kind of interrogation is because it's really unnerving, I think, for some people. That's an unnerving thing to start working with. Yeah, depending if there's a lot of fixation and attachment to a reified self-identity, which is all of us in some level or another. Yeah, you're dismantling like you're, you know, the bungee jump. And you're unhooking it and jumping anyhow.
Starting point is 00:40:24 You don't see people doing that, right? No, you don't see people doing that. And good thing, yeah, good thing. But you also see this addiction to like, you know, I'm sorry to cut you off, But last thought in this regard, it just first thought, as you say, you know, I think about like when you see like animals being rescued or something, they might be living in just squalor. They might be in some kind of filthy cage or they might be in some kind of like just, you know,
Starting point is 00:40:52 decimated under the porch of an abandoned house covered in oil and shit. And, you know, they don't want to come out of that place. That's safe for them. They, that's, that's what they know. That's everything. And so they bite your ass or they growl at you or they run away. You know, so I think this, when people are hearing what you're talking about, they don't look at it as like getting out of a filthy, you know, cage or like they look at it as annihilation. They look at it as what else do I have then if I don't have a soul.
Starting point is 00:41:36 lean into. What else do I have if I don't have some permanent thing? What I don't want oblivion. In their view of oblivion is just sure, you know, it's it's not oblivion because they can picture it in their head. Yeah. That's why the gradual approach is is most often the best one where you go, okay, there's that animal under the stairs and a terrified, it's basically terrified. Let's face it. It's panicked and terrified. And you just give it a little spoonful of food or something like that. You introduce a loving kindness. You introduce some kind of compassion into the situation. And then, and then without that, there's not much hope of just kind of, you know, ejecting people into like, you know, kind of trans, you know, Darmakaya consciousness.
Starting point is 00:42:26 And, you know, that's very risky and not really called for and often misguided. Why risky? My whole, why? Well, because, as you said, they're used to, we are used to, you know, a trunk where you called it the cocoon. Remember that? That was that whole description of a kind of state of being that's, even though you're enmeshed in this kind of web of habitual patterns, it still feels comfortable.
Starting point is 00:42:53 It's dank and sweaty and it's kind of close and claustrophobic, but that's what I know, and I'm sticking to it. Right. So I wanted to go one more number. notch on that. Can we go one more notch into that? Okay, because this is sort of a conversation that is ongoing. So let's say you have a moment and let's say you either with a meditation practice or without one where you have a moment of clarity, you know, where you say, yeah, I'm triggered right now. I can feel this. This is not this person being nasty to me. This is, I can feel my body,
Starting point is 00:43:24 my whole energy system feels really stuck. And at that moment, you simultaneously have a sense of the spaciousness that that is surrounded by, the open possibility at the same time, because the awareness is what brings that. Yeah. You see what I mean? You can, and that's called co-emergent wisdom. The two things arise, the neurosis and the space arise at the same time. Your habit is to grasp onto the neurotic response. That's mine. I want to give it back to me. Yeah. Right. Now, in that moment, you do have a choice. That's why people do mindfulness meditation. You have a choice in that moment of wakefulness. I'm not going to going to go there. I'm not going to do, I'm going to let that thought go. It's just a, it's just a
Starting point is 00:44:06 form. Yeah. And then you, but then you either, you either go out into a kind of spaced out quality, which is not the point. Right. You stay with the vividness of the experience, the clarity of it. And at that moment, you're kind of like in, in a kind of, uh, interesting moment of recognizing the full situation. Then the forces that come along to glue you back into your place. I call the first one the lawyers. Right. The lawyers show, oh, no, no, no, your right to be pissed off. My client, not only was my client violated and abused, but even in this current situation, if you follow my logic members of the jury, they are completely justified in their way they feel and their actions. Yes. And so there's that kind of justification. I call that the lawyers.
Starting point is 00:44:57 Now, let's say the lawyers strike out. Next group of the defense team comes in and says, doesn't this feel good? Right. Isn't this delicious rage? No, not even. No, it's just tasty. You know, horny is tasty. Oh, wait.
Starting point is 00:45:14 Isn't it feel good to lash out? I thought you were talking about the team that always comes into my head. If I maintain the state you're talking about for more than maybe three seconds, is even maybe even worse, which is like, I guess you're enlightened now. It looks like you've achieved realization. Yeah. Yeah, that would be another. Then it kicks back into the other shit.
Starting point is 00:45:38 In all fairness, I never have that thought. That's because you're enlightened. I know it can't possibly be true. It's just too, you just take, do the case history, you know, when was the last time that that lasted more than three seconds? Never. Just be a little, be a historian about it. But, but it can taste kind of.
Starting point is 00:45:57 Like the way sugar tastes good. Oh, yeah. You know, like the way addiction is. So you start to go like, oh, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy. You know, this is love in my tummy, even though it's crap and toxic and neurotic. Yeah. Then if that, it doesn't get dispelled and or if you're able to go, okay, I recognize that too. The next one is it goes, I'm going into your body, baby.
Starting point is 00:46:21 I'm out in open space here now. You can see me. But now I'm going to, I'm going to, oh, right there, your left shoulder. I'm going in there. Right. Right. And then you see people walking on the street like this, you know? Right.
Starting point is 00:46:32 So the body becomes the kind of last refuge of ignorance and the resting place of the clashes. Wow. That is so cool. So if it can't like spawn some kind of like aggressive response, then it just nests in your back in the form of a spasm. It nests in your legs. It's so fucked up. And then what? Now you've got a spasmy back.
Starting point is 00:46:59 You know what I mean? You don't have to feel bad because you didn't blow up at somebody, but now you've got a knot in your back or you're, you know, suddenly your legs are cramping at night. Now what do you do? This episode has been supported by Mint Mobile. I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money where I can see it.
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Starting point is 00:48:44 That's mintmobile.com slash Duncan. Up for up payment of $45 for three-month five-gigabyte plan required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See MintMobile for details. Thanks, MintMobile. Well, basically, practice the way I have come to understand it is reversing. You like literally go back, you back up from where you got to be and reverse your track. So the first thing you do, if it's so deeply embodied that way, you do some bodywork. Ah. Go.
Starting point is 00:49:40 Go. Well, or, you know, people who do body work, they, like I study Tai Chi and Qigong, it's like, if you're going to, really open and relax, you have to feel the constriction. So you have, and you have to work with moving and letting energy come back through it, because what it really is is blocked energy. That's what it really is. Right. Right. Then if you go back to that and now you're into the toxic food, you need some discipline
Starting point is 00:50:04 because we eat a lot of poison food and kind of, and it's in a way, it's because we're not disciplined enough that we, like if I'm trying to not eat a lot of sugar. And I have to be very disciplined. It doesn't matter what I think about it. know that it's you know has certain toxic effect i just have to have some discipline and not do it yeah too bad they don't have a zempic for the clashes the no it's good the the okay so what about this the this pattern you're talking about it seems like the most obvious version of it is what you're describing you know some typical fight an argument uh reaction online or something like that it's the
Starting point is 00:50:48 overt version of it but isn't isn't there sort of iterations of it happening at any given moment inside of you like this like do you know what I mean like the the way that you are responding to other people you're probably responding to yourself or in other words you don't have to wait for the next trigger it's almost like you're you're tricking yourself into thinking you're you're not being your imprints aren't being activated in any given moment. If they're there, they're there. You know, if you've got a blister, you don't have to just stick your finger in it to feel the blister hurts. But if you're wearing a shoe, you know, you might get used to it. I'm just saying,
Starting point is 00:51:33 isn't, isn't there something in Buddhism showing that like these externalized reactive habits are actually constantly happening inside of you? At any given moment, this shit. going down. That is, you know, extremely powerful to have that recognition of the kind of granularity of all what we're talking about. And so, for example, when we're teaching the Abidharma teachings, they say one moment of consciousness, and this is written like 2,500 years ago, is about a 500th of a second. Yeah. That's how granular it is. And in the West, we would say microaggression. That's interesting. They say pay attention. And in understanding, systematic and systemic kind of problems.
Starting point is 00:52:21 You look at the little things. Yeah. Just the little way that you don't acknowledge somebody, the little habits that you have that don't seem all that dramatic. But yeah, to really, to really clean out the barn, you know, you move the big bales of hay, but then you got to get into, you got to get to the mice. You know, but it's,
Starting point is 00:52:41 this is my, like, it seems like, in fact, the, primary problem isn't this whatever the shit is you're doing with your like the people around you the primary problem you don't need anyone around you for these things to be triggered they're just weather systems
Starting point is 00:53:03 or they're looping they're just feedback loops or that are happening inside of you all the time right like this seems to me like all I'm saying is one could hear what you're saying and just think all right the next time that son of a bitch says that to me I'm not going to even get a muscles pass of much less react.
Starting point is 00:53:22 But it's like you don't need to wait for that. If these things are in you, they're in you. They're happening all the time. If you listen close enough, right? Like they're just going on all the time. It's a constant firework of a show. A 500th of a second. Right.
Starting point is 00:53:37 Yeah, I'm really interested in that 500th of a second moment. That is, you know, a very fast microcomputer running inside of us. It's very... Yeah, it's boarding. on a, bordering on a kind of quantum level of speed. Yes. And, you know, I don't, I certainly am not getting down to that. But I have paid enough attention to notice that the things that I'm seeing going on around me are happening inside of me. Even when those things aren't going on all around me, it's the same shit is happening from the top to the bottom.
Starting point is 00:54:10 Yeah. Well, and then, you know, some, some analogy was given, like, if you're driving a race car, fast, which I think you've probably done. Have you done that? Yeah, I have. Yeah, it was fun. You have to go with the speed of it. You can't like get panicked.
Starting point is 00:54:26 If you tighten up that, this is something trunk room, which I said, you, if you, if you, if you tighten up and freeze, you're going to have an accident. But if you go with the speed, and that's what I was doing when I was drowning. I said, I just got to go along with this. And what I was able to do is just not panic. And one of my teachers said, yeah, you know, most people in a drowning situation, they die from a heart attack. They don't die from drowning.
Starting point is 00:54:51 They freak out. They panic. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Yeah, that one. So I did, I tried to use what little training I have to not panic. And then I sort of found my way to these very sharp, slippery rocks, but that I could sort of take one step at a time and go in.
Starting point is 00:55:08 And, you know, it was an interesting moment because the alternative was just to get blown out to see because the current had caught me. You know, it's weird about panic is it's. Yeah. It's strangely very structured. It's not as chaotic as one would say. Like if you really like panic, what we would call panic, it's just sort of like throwing yourself into a kind of flailing autopilot or something.
Starting point is 00:55:34 Right. And based on these microseconds that you're talking about, it's like essentially you've decided to panic. Like you do choose to panic. It's a choice. It's someplace. Maybe in your mind it's not, you didn't choose to panic. But if you go deep enough in there, that's what I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:55:52 It's the exact same thing. It's this is this, this is the repeating pattern in Buddhism. As it's like, no, you're doing this, like this thing that you think. Well, you could call the panic the original zero and then freaking out would be the, this, your strategy now. Right. Because I'm afraid of losing my ground of ego ground. I'm, that's the panic. It's just like, uh,
Starting point is 00:56:18 you know but now the strategies i'm just going to freak out and then i'm going to solidify that into a kind of permanent sense like it takes you out of the situation anytime you do that you don't have to feel the it's just a way of like replacing one uncomfortable feeling with another uncomfortable feeling that it's all it is it's just it's like putting your head under the blanket you know it's just a blanket that you shove your head under right like that's all it is yeah easy, you know, it's easy for, as I say, that's easy for us to say. But the thing that takes it out of the theoretical realm is practice having the definition of becoming more familiar moment by moment with how you experience actually unfolds, not how you wanted to unfold, but how it actually is already unfolding, but just to become more aware of them. I mean, right? Absolutely. But I think sort of there's a place right here. I think we've had this conversation before where,
Starting point is 00:57:16 Buddhism and a lot of like the deeper manifestation philosophies meet right here because the I'm listening to Neville Goddard right now he's like one of the grandfathers of the whole manifestation thing and his central premise is that you what you're seeing around you is you are formulating your reality with the habituation towards whatever way you think the world is, that you're imprinting, like, reality in any given moment. You're making this shit. Like, it's, and that if you could just maintain,
Starting point is 00:57:57 like, in the first step that he recommends is what, I don't know if you knew what even knew the term mindfulness, but it's a recognition of the emptiness. If you recognize that empty place, which has got to be the mother of imagination, liberation, then you will recognize that you, I guess where the two things split is it's not about a jeweled ornament or not. It's about, it's not about realizing, oh, those are like medallions I'm wearing that used to neurosis. It's about absolute freedom and having the
Starting point is 00:58:37 courage to shift into completely different set of circumstances via the imagination. actually is his view. Not like I want this and then you picture what you want but by living in that place as though it had already happened. And you can't get there without understanding that you
Starting point is 00:58:59 you're fundamentally empty. And with the added proviso, which is what the heart suture brings to the equation, that emptiness also form. Right. Right. So if you, if you solidify that understanding, you could get stuck in an empty place, be on an emptiness trip, add emptiness to something that's already empty,
Starting point is 00:59:27 you know, like, so, so non, you know, at some point the rug has to get pulled properly. Right. Yeah. Because only that, only that way, and that's, in Vajiana, that's a kind of openness and devotional kind of energy that brings that possibility, but only in the sense that we're going to grab onto something, you know, we'll just make something up if we have to. Well, that's, I think, kind of what he's saying is not, don't grab on. It's just, for him, the grabbing on would be the sort of projection of creativity. The grabbing on would be a manifestation or a, the abysm. recognizing that you have so much more power than you think you do.
Starting point is 01:00:20 I mean, that you're an amnesiac universe or something that's found itself in the predicament of being in a body temporarily and is going on autopilot, living in a kind of dream. Yeah. And that you can get back to the universal state, not in some kind of like, I'm the universe, swollen up state, but that the place of pure spontaneity. that isn't filtered with your own bullshit. That's going to produce a good life. Yeah, and then the proof is always in the pudding.
Starting point is 01:00:51 You see where Kuster makes his last stand. And ego always will make the last stand. And an easy last stand for ego is to go for the universe, for a cosmic solution, something bigger than Phil, you know, a big situation. I'm everything now. I'm not annoying anymore. I'm literally everything.
Starting point is 01:01:13 Yeah, no, I don't think that's what he's saying. I think it's more of like a... He uses the Bible is the method to talk about this stuff, but... And he uses the Bible in a way. I think a lot of Christians would be like, that is not what it's saying. But sort of like that, you know, God says to Moses,
Starting point is 01:01:30 I am. And, right? Isn't that what Popeye said to? I am that I am. I am what I am. I am what I am. Yeah, that's essentially Moses was Jewish. but the god or i mean pop i was jewish this is the this is the description of yeah of god the humanity
Starting point is 01:01:51 is i am and godd gets way into that as yeah that will that's that's what you are too you that's it there is anything beyond that this sort of primary state of existence not an ego embellishment but just well yeah we might call it primordial But in Buddhism, it would have the texture of awareness, not a kind of thing next to it or a kind of. I think he just didn't have Buddhism. I think if he'd stumble upon Buddhism, he probably would have used awareness. I do think that. Because it's easy to think with the manifestation stuff that, obviously, it's like so many of these people into this shit.
Starting point is 01:02:33 It's pure egotomani. Solipsism and all that. But it's not really that. It's more saying, like, it's more drive all blames into oneself. It's more what's around you you've created. Why do you keep creating it? And the reason you keep creating it is habit. You keep creating it because you're habituated to a very tiny, relatively tiny set of predilections.
Starting point is 01:02:59 Like that is weaving this thing, right? This thing that's around you. That's why I think Buddhism and manifestation pair nicely together. Yeah. And Buddhism is just an ism. I mean, this is something that I, remember Mr. Peabody's Wayback machine where he can take, he takes Sherman back in time to look at things. I want to go back with them and go listen to a Buddha lecture, you know, and in real time.
Starting point is 01:03:26 And realize you're not Buddhist. Well, yeah, I mean, or maybe he wasn't. You know what I mean? It's, we're still from a skillful means perspective and relative truth perspective, We're trying to put words around these things. We're trying to like understand our life better. I think underneath that, we're trying to express something, which is manifestation. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:51 That emptiness really is not complete if it doesn't manifest in some form. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, this is what he's saying. Your desires are actually what you're supposed to be bringing into the universe. This is what you're supposed to be doing. And then the, you know, this sounds so tangential, so forgive me. But now that I'm fully engaged in making stuff with AI, not video, but like coding apps and stuff, and it's gotten so good, you realize that one of the hindrances in making stuff with it is you just think there's no way it could do that.
Starting point is 01:04:30 And you don't ask it. And but it can't. And then you realize, oh, my God, I'm, I've, what other ways am I doing that to myself? this, you know, having encountered some kind of technological genie, you know, I'm, Jeannie asked you, you know, what do you wish? You don't think, I don't know the genie can do this. You don't basically, you don't edit your wishes. And so from his perspective, it's like, there's just this thing that you want. And for a lot of people, you know, they're afraid to admit they even want something. They don't feel like they deserve it or whatever. And,
Starting point is 01:05:04 but at the root of it is the, moment you recognize this is something I want the lawyers come in right and they the first thing that they're going to say is you know well that we got to pare this down a little bit like you're not getting that like that's not happening and then the next thing that comes in is well but how could that even possibly happen there's no way and so his whole thing is like yeah no you don't have to worry about any of that shit any more than you have to worry about digesting food you know that's something not in the conscious mind. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:05:40 But yeah, I agree. I've always found there's this incredible connection between those two at some level. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BetMGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive.
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Starting point is 01:06:37 Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? There's some intermediate zone of like, hey, that just came out of nothing. Yes. And the other thing is we didn't get back to the aliens. Whatever. I didn't even want to talk about aliens.
Starting point is 01:06:52 Oh, God. You know, if you're open to it and you look around, you'll see the aliens. Oh, my God. They're walking down on 35th Street right here in Manhattan. You can see a whole bunch of them. Oh, you know, this has been. where my brain has been, ah,
Starting point is 01:07:09 that's a, my brain has been, like, sitting like, with this sort of, I'll send it to you. It's really amazing. They use some kind of
Starting point is 01:07:17 new electron scanning microscope to get the most precise, beautiful, uh, image of a cell? Yeah. The one cell?
Starting point is 01:07:29 I saw that. Yeah, I loved it. And you look at that and you're like, dude, that is so much weirder than aliens. And that is what you are. Like you're looking at this, it's some kind of organic quantum factory down there that you, that's just running.
Starting point is 01:07:45 It's working. There's nobody clocking in. There's no tie. It's fully automated doing insane shit that you could never do in a millionaires that we don't even understand how it works all the way. And so, you know, that, you know, to circle back in on the imagination or that you're, you're not bringing everything to the party. this is true and backed up in quantum physics just shit appears out of nowhere in the quantum world the spontaneity that we experience with any epiphany is also happening at a fundamental level of the universe that stuff just pops out and in terms of imagination we honed the sense perceptions
Starting point is 01:08:30 the internal sense perceptions so visualization practices and things like that you're actually tuning up that part of your capacity and using it to conjure a whole mood systems and whole intelligent systems. And that's what the deities are in Buddhism. They're not considered these external things. They're part of an ecosystem in which is fundamentally creative and expresses things like compassion and things like that with pictures and with three-dimensional imagery and with liveliness.
Starting point is 01:09:02 So I lately, I'm thinking like a lot more in pictures than in words. Oh, that's cool. Like somebody's talking to me. I see pictures. I see a lake with a little, a young girl on it. And she's trying to learn how to paddle the boat. Like when somebody's talking to me or, you know, somebody's kind of blowing up, you see a volcano or something like that. That is so cool.
Starting point is 01:09:23 Yeah. Try it. Everybody could try it to see what, you know, what pictures arise in your mind is as a shortcut to feeling the energy in the situation. Wow. That is really a cool idea. it. That is fascinating. Huh. Yeah, right, because the way we're interpreting is usually more sort of this cognitive self-talk than just... Which is good and it's great to be articulate. It is the language, but let's face it, you and I and other people speak other languages.
Starting point is 01:09:52 Already, we speak the language of music. We speak the language of visual art, you know, and that is an important part of our style of expression and communication. There's no doubt about it. David, that one, that's good. Okay, well, I'll leave you with that one. I'm carrying that around all day. I can't wait. That's so cool. That's wild. And you have to cut through the thicket of thoughts a little bit because the thoughts will overgrow it. And you can't be afraid. It is kind of a courageous thing to do. You got to accept whatever the image is that pops into your head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:33 You know, what's funny is, well, take a chance with it and everybody out there. If any of this disturbs, you don't do it. And it's as simple as that. I mean, it is tantra. I mean, come on. It is tantric Buddhism. Like, it isn't like beginner. There are warnings.
Starting point is 01:10:49 The way we're talking about it's not. I'm like saying, do this mantra and visualize this deity and do this sad. No, we're just talking about how you experience the creative part of your mind in flow. And if any of it's disturbing or more disturbing than you're comfortable with, just stop doing it. And don't worry about it. Like if you feel you've uncovered something that you need to talk to a therapist about, do it. You know, if you feel like you need a friend, find a friend. You know, so there's not, in our way of looking at it, there's fundamentally nothing to fear.
Starting point is 01:11:22 But that doesn't mean relatively, there are plenty of things to be afraid of. Yeah, I mean, if suddenly you realize you're on some kind of hyperdimensional spaceship surrounded by extra-dimensional entities that have a variety of moods, some of them benevolence, some of them disinterested, you know, that might be a little off-putting for people. Yeah, that might also be close to your ordinary experience. David, tell me about the upcoming class. Where can people find you?
Starting point is 01:11:51 How can people connect with you? Well, it's happening quite organically, and that's good. But we also have, as you know, a formal platform called Dharma Moon. And we're trying to have these kind of conversations and inspire other people to do these practices so that they have a way of working with their own mind and situation, just like you're talking about, like some solution to just giving in totally to chaos and disruption, that you have some agency. So that's mindfulness meditation. We have a teacher training coming up on, starts on June 12th, the mindfulness meditation teacher training. We do it three times a year. We have it's all live and interactive, but it's online.
Starting point is 01:12:31 So you're with real people. When are you doing men like it? We just did it. All right. It was just last weekend. So, but we have a retreat coming in Japan. If anybody has never been to Japan, it's on your bucket list. Duncan, October 31st.
Starting point is 01:12:46 These people around me, they've got to get a little older. I can't do it. Do it. Book a comedy gig there. Everybody will think you're funny because they won't know what you're saying. Oh! Tontric dagger in the heart! That's amazing.
Starting point is 01:13:05 You know me. But they know you in Japan. Do you know that? No, I didn't know that. We have people from all over the world coming to Dharma Moon. And just to put a bow on that, we'll put a link in the show notes, how you can register for that program. Yeah. They know me in Japan.
Starting point is 01:13:24 I fucking paid it, baby. I got to go. I want to play Pacino. Yeah. Yeah. talk more about that and the other the other thing is that we have a free information session with myself and robert thurman professor thurman come and that that'll be in the show notes too that's towards the end yeah all the links will be down below for those who you don't know
Starting point is 01:13:45 bob thurman is just a a buddhist scholar he runs to bedhouse pals with the dalai lama and just have an exact like he reminds me of that time traveler and back from the future he's incredible eclectic in the dictionary definition of eclectic he is there um yeah that's um on may 26th so that'll be in the show notes too that's a free info session if you wanted to learn about it links down below friends and overall i would just invite people to come hang out the way that you do and the way that other folks do we're not trying to um create something with sort of fixed boundaries kind of exactly more like it. No, it's the best. Just so everyone knows, this is like, David is obviously amazing and has helped me tremendously. And there is, other than we're pals, there isn't some ulterior
Starting point is 01:14:41 motive on this side of the fence for doing these things. I learn from him every time I talk to him. But I went to one of these retreats and it was the most incredible, I think about it all the time. It was just the most incredible, beautiful experience and really connected me with meditation. in a way that I'd never connected before. So this is the real item here, friends. Sign up. Do it. Thank you, Duncan.
Starting point is 01:15:06 And I'm glad that we get to catch up, you know. I know you got a full boat now. In my family, there was two of us, and so we needed our two parents to play a game of bridge. Yeah. But your kids can play bridge without you. Oh, God. I would love that.
Starting point is 01:15:24 I'm going to teach you to play bridge. That'd be great. Go play bridge. Yeah. All right. Thanks, David. I'll see you out there. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:15:32 That was David Nick. Turn, everybody. Come see me. I'm going to be at hilarities in Cleveland. Check me out in San Diego at the Comedy Store. I hope you'll come. I'll see you there. Goodbye.

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