Know Thyself - E170 - Dr. John Churchill: The 7 Stages of Awakening (and How Consciousness Evolves)

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Transpersonal psychologist and dharma teacher Dr. John Churchill joins us to explore how ancient wisdom and modern psychology unite in the path of conscious evolution. Drawing on decades of training i...n Tibetan Buddhism and developmental psychology, John reveals how the Bodhisattva path—awakening not just for oneself, but for the benefit of all beings—offers a map for our individual and collective transformation.https://livemomentous.com and use code KNOWTHYSELF for up to 35% off the best creatine in the game20% off Pique Life Tea:https://www.piquelife.com/knowthyselfGuided Meditation: https://youtu.be/i_5WApfC1pMAndrés Book Recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list___________00:00 Intro 01:38 Humanity’s Evolutionary Moment 03:14 Planetary Perspective & Spiritual Transition 04:15 AI as Symbol of Transformation 05:06 End of Time & Psychological Judgment Day 07:18 Destiny vs. Fate in a New Age 09:06 Shift into Love as a Developmental Stage 10:57 Individuation & Inner Sovereignty 12:00 Seven Stages of the Heart-Mind 13:32 What Is the Heart-Mind? 14:02 Reincarnation & Consciousness Evolution 16:02 Awakening in Animals & Soul Development 17:00 Beauty, Goodness & Truth vs. Ego Development 18:43 Ad – Momentous Creatine 19:04 Cartesian Split & Blossoming Intelligence 20:21 Stage 1 – Awakening the Heart Seed 23:06 Stage 2 – Emotional Healing & Astral Awareness 26:08 Stage 3 – Training the Mind & Sacred Sciences 33:15 Stage 4 – Stabilizing Heart-Mind & Path of the Bodhisattva 36:46 Pitfalls on the Spiritual Path 42:00 Stage 5 – Integration & Service46:22 Ad - Pique Life 48:30 Stage 6 – Transcendence & Non-Dual Awareness 56:00 Stage 7 – Embodied Wisdom & Planetary Participation 01:04:00 The Bodhisattva Path in Modern Times 01:11:00 Navigating Glamour & Spiritual Ego 01:18:00 The Role of Practice & Discipline 01:25:00 Collective Awakening & Cultural Healing 01:32:00 Mystical Science & Sacred Technology 01:39:00 The Return of the Sacred Academy 01:46:00 Inner Sovereignty & Social Transformation 01:53:00 Living from the Heart-Mind 02:00:00 Final Reflections & Call to Action 02:06:00 Conclusion ___________Episode Resources: https://www.planetarydharma.comhttps://www.instagram.com/planetarydharma/https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/https://www.youtube.com/@knowthyselfpodcasthttps://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com

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Starting point is 00:00:00 What's a financial system that is beautiful? What's a medical system that's beautiful? What's an agricultural system that's beautiful? I mean, I think we all have a sense of ones that aren't. You begin to intuit that there's a matrix. We're at a moment of significant transformation. The question is, what story do we find ourselves in? We started with rubbing sticks together to make fire.
Starting point is 00:00:25 And here we are at a moment where we're about to release a fire, which is the symbol of AI, of artificial intelligence, it's going to reveal our imaginations to us. Which way are we going to choose to go? When we pull way back, I think the first thing we have to recognize is that our story as humanity is woven into the story of our beautiful planet. We are part of a much larger system. We're not alone.
Starting point is 00:00:55 It's the sense of separation that makes it so difficult. I think the world's going to get kind of interesting. It already is. It's more and more by the day. Yeah. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Know They Self podcast. Our guest today is a returning guest.
Starting point is 00:01:15 He has a degree in both contemplative psychology and clinical psychology. And he has really deep knowledge from a mystical lens of Tibetan Buddhism. And we've had the pleasure, which I don't always often have the pleasure of doing. Having a couple days in advance to spend some time together to dive deep to support each on each other's work and missions and just a pleasure to be with him, Dr. John Churchill. Thanks for coming back. Thank you, Andre. It's a pleasure to be here.
Starting point is 00:01:42 I thought it would be great to, again, set the context for this conversation by exploring what evolutionary moment we find ourselves in right now. Humanity finds itself in right now because you have this really unique background and practice to be able to have the conciliant understanding of these different ancient wisdom traditions about what they all point to, like where humanity and Earth finds itself at this time right now. And as we later in this conversation weave in how we can both find our own unique gifts and unique responsibility to show up for a planet that needs us in this time,
Starting point is 00:02:20 it's helpful to set that context. So I would love for you to share your thoughts there. Thank you. Well, it's helpful. Small question. Yeah, it's helpful to start with, You know, with the story, I think it's, story is one of the way, it's one of the languages of the universe.
Starting point is 00:02:43 Like there's a language of mathematics, there's a language of physics, and it's definitely a language of story. So the question is, is what story do we find ourselves in? And when we pull way back, I think the first thing we have to recognize is that our story, as humanity is woven into the story of our beautiful planet. So whatever it is that is occurring to us, we are part of a much larger system. So that planetary perspective, I think, is super helpful because our own spiritual journeys, our individual spiritual journeys and the evolution of us as a species is related to this planet we find ourselves on.
Starting point is 00:03:39 Clearly, we're finding ourselves in some kind of moment of transition, you know? Is that your sense? I think it's everyone's sense. Okay, good. You know, I think for the most part, we all have this feeling that we're on the precipice of a big transformation,
Starting point is 00:03:57 and in some sense it's never been better, and in some sense it's never been as worst in terms of like the mental health. pandemic and right I think we could all agree that we're in a moment right now we're in a moment yeah we're having a moment yeah so that that's that's really helped just to hear from you that that's like yes so clearly if we look at the the symbol the big symbol that's in front of us right now which is the symbol of AI right of artificial intelligence which is a symbol of in many ways humanity's tool-making capacity.
Starting point is 00:04:40 We started with rubbing sticks together to make fire, and then we've used fire for however many cycles of time it is, and here we are at a moment where we're about to release a fire. fire. So it's helpful, I think it's helpful to look at it through a mythic lens. And by that, I mean the kind of the, what's the story here? Well, the story of this fire is that we're at a moment of significant transformation, that the humanity is asked to evolve from one state to another state. And if we look at all of the various wisdom traditions, they all point to an end of time. And I don't mean that in a kind of the end of the world, but I do mean it in the sense of an end
Starting point is 00:05:47 of a world because we've been living inside the time. And as I said to you the other day, there's no way that 30 years from now AI is going to think that living in the Gregorian calendar is like a really well-harmonically designed way of bringing humanity into relationship with the cosmos. So we're at the end of a time, and my sense is, if we look at that psychologically and metaphorically, it's a psychological judgment day, if you will, for our civilization, meaning which way are we going to choose
Starting point is 00:06:31 to go because we have this amazing tool that is that is like that is inevitable it's inevitable is coming to us and it will send the wheel of suffering spinning one way or the other or probably both ways right so it's a it's a it's a time between ages it's the seeds of maybe what we have called the new age, which quite literally means a new time. So we're at the moment where the old timing isn't working. I think we all feel that. We recognize that there's a world that our hearts know is possible, right? And yet we're going to have to make a journey in time, if you will, an exodus from one way of being to another. With immense opportunity and also I think it's probably going to get a little bit crazy as well.
Starting point is 00:07:46 Yeah. How does that ring true for you? It feels like any system goes through its own evolutionary process and it's easier to see from like the microcosm of a human being that is born and grows through adolescence and becomes an adult and goes through old age. age, and there's a timing to that. There's like an evolutionary process that you can observe. When it becomes this big complex system, you know, while you're inside of it, I think it's
Starting point is 00:08:18 harder to gain context for where it's at. But I think I wanted to start here because it helps frame the place we find ourselves in. Sure. And then it asks, you know, it begs the question, what do we do? What is the most. Yeah, what to do? And I just know. that there are many themes and questions that I personally ask myself that I'm sure our viewers
Starting point is 00:08:42 and community also ask themselves of like how to best most effectively use the and make use of the gifts that God has given us individually and our unique skill sets and our unique capacities to show up and you know feel the responsibility of the time that we're in right and um and so I'm just curious if you had one perspective shift you would love for our listeners by the end of our conversation to have? I think we're being asked to make a significant shift into a world of love. And by love, we actually mean a developmental stage. We mean actually a developmental stage.
Starting point is 00:09:30 You can say there's a developmental stage where love comes on in a really major way. And that along with that love comes a depth of wisdom and intuition and synchronicity, that we can, that is trustworthy. So I think what I'd love to leave our listeners with is a sense that there, of where to discover what is trustworthy, where do we discover what is trustworthy within us, where we can find refuge and sanctuary, and from that place then allow ourselves to blossom
Starting point is 00:10:20 in amidst all of the uncertainty that's going around us. And that having confidence that that's actually the macrocosmic process that we're going through as well. that each of our own little journeys to our heart and to a deeper sense of interdependence is what we're being asked to do individually and as a species. And if we do that, if you do that, then you're going to move in the direction of destiny and away from being caught just by fate. Young is quoted in many different flavors in context saying that if you don't make the
Starting point is 00:11:07 unconscious, conscious, it will rule your life and you'll call it fate. And I think what's really powerful about your understanding, your teachings, and kind of multidisciplinary approach to understanding the human developmental process is that it reclaims a sense of sovereignty and ability to help people where they are at along the journey. And what are the things that need restructuring in our psyche? What are the parts of us that have not become individuated? And then, then building up of the higher centers as well. And so last time in our last conversation, I love how we went through the Senate,
Starting point is 00:11:46 the sort of seven-person perspectives that we kind of grow through. And as you wake up to the world that's happening out there, which you can't avoid, nor would we want to, but it's in front of our face every single day, and we ask ourselves what to do. A big part of it is to actually reconcile the division that we have internally
Starting point is 00:12:11 as then you'll be most effective doing that externally. So shall we start to make our way through the seven stages? Through seven stages? For sure. Yeah? Yeah, that sounds good.
Starting point is 00:12:26 I was thinking this is more now the seven stages of the heart mind itself. So kind of maybe like going inside those seven stages a little bit deeper. How would you describe what the heart mind is? For people that don't know that term, what are you referring to there? Well, so in the East, in the Buddhist tradition, they talk about this term Bodhi Chita, which Bodhi means awakening and cheetah literally means mind.
Starting point is 00:12:59 But as you know, in India, mind is here, not here. So Bodhi Chita means awakening heart mind. or heart seed. And it's basically comparative to what we would call Christ consciousness. So the heart mind is referring to the first split that we have suffered from. So for whatever reason, we look back into mythic time and frankly, who actually knows the causes. but we've experienced a split between our intelligence from our knowing capacity and our feeling capacity.
Starting point is 00:13:45 So even in our culture, in Western civilization, there's a kind of split. But as you know, whether it's, well, all the indigenous traditions from Native American to druidic to the Vedic to the Chinese, Mayan, heart and mind are. synonymous, right? So the first thing to recognize is, is that. And so, you know, the birth
Starting point is 00:14:14 of the heart mind happens somewhere along our evolutionary journey, because all of these wisdom traditions, there isn't one wisdom tradition in all honesty that doesn't consider a kind of some kind of reincarnatory or a longer, that we're on a longer journey. journey than just a single lifetime. From the Gnostic or mystical roots. Yes, from the world's esoteric herennial tradition. Because people would say, of course, Islam, Christianity, no, but if you go down to the mystical Sufism or mystical Kabbalah Christianity.
Starting point is 00:14:56 Yeah, for sure. Like those, those... They see life on a continuum. They see life on a continuum, which means... And there's also a perspective. and those evolutionary perspective in those traditions of consciousness itself slowly evolving from matter right from rock through the plant kingdom through the animal kingdom through the human and so forth so that kind of sense of progression which um i mean now with the insights of quantum physics
Starting point is 00:15:36 this idea that consciousness might be like a fundamental, the foundation of reality, it's actually, it isn't so far off. So at some point in that process, we might say consciousness begins to become aware of itself in a way where it no longer experiences itself as being separate, but begins to like open itself. So, right, in the Christian mythos, that's like the birth of the baby in the manger, right?
Starting point is 00:16:14 The birth of something in your heart that extends itself beyond yourself. And quite honestly, you can have, you can see that even in certain animals. I have three dogs, and clearly these are souls who are their bodiceita has awakened, right? Obviously, they're not a full Buddha, but they're in that process. Like, you can see the light in their eyes, the joy in their eyes. So what we mean by the heart, mind is the, another way of putting it is the soul, right? So the soul, the individual, individualized unit of consciousness that slowly blossoms through loving wisdom. So it's important to recognize that last time we talked about seven stages of development.
Starting point is 00:17:15 But development doesn't necessarily mean that the heart is developing. So you can be quite sophisticated and still be significantly selfish. So when we talk about the heart mind now, what we're going to talk about is, let's say, how beauty, goodness, and truth unfolds, not just how development happens. Does that make sense? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, guys.
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Starting point is 00:19:27 as the premier form of knowing, of garnering information. And what you're speaking to with the heart-mind is like, okay, the blossoming of knowing that is beyond just the intellect. Like, unlocking your intelligence as a life. And that's like the blossoming of that is the raising of the beauty of what it means to be human. And so I think it would be great to kind of go through the arc now. and yeah, talk about the developmental process along the journey. Right.
Starting point is 00:20:00 So we're talking about developmental process that our listeners can probably recognize in their lives that it's unfolding and also pull back that you can also recognize it unfolding in the world around us because you can see people who are really at certain phases for a whole life. So maybe the first, you know, the first birth of that seed when it happens to us and we begin to realize for whatever reason that we're not in Kansas anymore. Something begins to awaken in the heart and because whether that's care for another or care for the world. but as the heart opens, what comes along with it is an intuitive capacity. So when we talk about the heart mind, we're also talking about a level, a form of intelligence that isn't causal, that isn't a thinking kind of intelligence, but is a direct intelligence,
Starting point is 00:21:17 direct knowing. So when the heart begins to open, the very early stages, you begin to get an intuition. And if we use the common language that our cultures develop now, you begin to intuit that there's a matrix. You begin to realize that there's something going on.
Starting point is 00:21:42 You don't know what it is, but the story that you've been told about what's meta, about what money is, about the whole story that you find yourself in, something begins to not feel quite right. And that's also, so the world begins to get rocked a little bit, the world that we've been told, you know, what the world is. And this is where, when that happens, people can begin to have a susceptibility to conspiracy, because in fact, Conspititus, yes, like there is something going on.
Starting point is 00:22:24 However, because what happens now is a journey of not knowing, it's difficult in the beginning to handle like not knowing. And so the mind wants to grab onto the kind of what an alternative truth might be, which of course, once you hold onto, then you've created another matrix, right? But that first phase has to do with in some ways waking up to the sacred dimension of your body, of matter, of realizing that spirit is real, that the sacred is real. And often the first thing that you realize that is sacred is your body because that's kind of where you're at. So we become aware of what's good for our body, what food to eat. eat. We begin to intuit like, oh, maybe these medicines that are being pushed on us, maybe they're
Starting point is 00:23:25 not medicines, maybe actually they're poisons. So that whole journey of taking care of the body, taking care of your health, starting yoga, going to the gym, drinking your green juice, right, so that it can look like that. It can also look like kind of attacking the system, if you will, on a physical, like, this world is not right, you know, being an activist, if you will. So that's the first, like, step one. The seed is beginning to sprout. The next phase, if you will, is when that process, as the heart begins to open,
Starting point is 00:24:10 more, it begins to open into our emotional body. So that's where we begin to recognize, not only is there a physical body to be tended to and loved, but there's also an emotional body. And then along with that can come access to what some traditions will call the astral. So this is the phase where therapy psychedelic work, sexual healing, healing of all kinds of the emotional body becomes super important. And I mean, I think everybody who's listening, we've all made that journey in the recognition, like, oh, I need to feel what needs to be felt. I need to come back to my, to process the kind of multi-generational trauma, that I might be holding.
Starting point is 00:25:10 So that's that whole second, that whole second phase. Does that ring true in your journey in terms of taking care of yourself and taking care of your emotional state? Yeah, it feels like the value start to shift because you realize one, oh, there's a matrix in a sense that there is a world I was born into that has a way of operating that becomes the status quo that you realize. doesn't have to be the way that you live your life. And then like, oh, okay, I want to reclaim sovereignty
Starting point is 00:25:44 instead of just being a good consumer for a system to like remove a, and then start to go on that process of removing the baggage that you've been inculcated with. Yeah, right. And that's a big, I mean, there's a big, there's a large amount of people now engaged in that process of purification.
Starting point is 00:26:08 And of course, what happens is the heart is opening up more. As we're purifying the multi-generational trauma we've inherited, the intuition is also opening up more and more, and we're beginning to intuit. Maybe our intuition is now becoming more accurate. Well, for instance, now because we've moved in some ways deeper than the physical plane, our intuition is being able, it starts to actually be able to see accurately
Starting point is 00:26:41 what's happening physically. Like what are the forces, if you will, at play in the world? What are the various kind of political, social power struggles that are happening? You begin to be able to see that because for some extent, your heart is now, let's say, deeper than the physical. And in some ways,
Starting point is 00:27:06 you become curious like, well, what's going on like in these other realms? Right. So that's also where people's multi-dimensional experience can start to open up, and particularly if they're working with psychedelics, which opens up that whole shamanic realm, which is becoming increasingly popular. So that's the second. face, the challenges there, traditionally, was a term called glamour. And glamour is where the astral, well, it's just a word, it's just that's the word,
Starting point is 00:27:57 like one can become enamored by the imagery of the spiritual, if that makes sense, right? rather than the, well, the self will always hold on to something. So at the first phase, we hold onto the physical body and as body beautiful. And the second phase, we kind of hold on to our self-image and it's a kind of imaginable beauty. We're kind of holding to ourselves as a self-image as a story. The third phase as the heart opens even more is it begins to include more and more of the mind. So it's interesting because this is an area of the sacred that has really been somewhat hidden. And I'm sure you've had quite a few guests on who talk about alternative science and physics and those kinds of things.
Starting point is 00:29:04 but essentially as the heart opens into the cognitive mind, we begin to get a whole appreciation of, let's say, the sacred dimension of physics, of chemistry, of mathematics. It's where the interest in the maps, the interest in mind training begins. We realize, oh, wow, I have a mind. It needs to be trained. So there's a whole path of mental discipline that begins that begins there.
Starting point is 00:29:43 And I say it's somewhat missing in our culture because for whatever reason, and we should maybe talk about that, but a good example would be Isaac Newton. So clearly, he's one of our ancestors who is really grounded in Western ways of thinking. So what many people don't realize is 90% of his work was on alchemy. So just to get a sense of what the academy, what the sacred academy would look like if the sacred had been part of the rena of the renaissance and the enlightenment for the last 600 years. And that's been somewhat hidden, you know, and hidden.
Starting point is 00:30:40 mainly because as the sacred returns back to the mind, then there's a question of, well, who's really running power on this planet? By who's in charge? Because for a lot of, for since the, you know, the deal that was made between, let's say, the church and science was that the church got spirit and the science got matter, and then they were kind of separated. But that third phase is really about recognizing that actually it's a spectrum. And so all the sciences connected to understanding the spectrum of vibration and quality like music,
Starting point is 00:31:30 vibrational medicine, they're all kind of born at that phase. And so obviously you've had guests come on who that's their kind of. department, that they're really helping to revive the sacred sciences. So that third phase, now for some of us who maybe we're not, we're not scientists, but on our journey, we enter that third phase when we realize, oh, I have a mind, and this mind is out of control, and I need to train it. So all the, you know, the Patanjali's yoga sutras, the beginning of opassana practice. Any kind of meditative discipline
Starting point is 00:32:22 really begins at that phase. Okay, great. So you wake up, you realize we're not in Kansas anymore. You have your first initial pop into, okay, reality is different than I had the presumption of. Then? Then you start to go into exploring
Starting point is 00:32:45 different modalities to reclaim your sovereignty, essentially. That's right. You begin your healing process. You begin to realize that there are other realms beyond this realm. And then you begin to realize, oh, I need to train my mind. My mind needs to be trained because in order to go further, I need to have some kind of, some kind of stability, some kind of my attentional system is all over the place. I'm not, well, you begin to have moments where you recognize there's something beyond your mind.
Starting point is 00:33:20 So the heart mind is opening up naturally. So you begin to get experiences in nature or in relationship or doing kinds of practices where the mind drops away and you get a sense of ease and spaciousness and openness and love. but it's not sustainable. And so that's really when you realize, oh, I need to pick up a practice. So that's that third phase. And so much of the emphasis there is on training the mind
Starting point is 00:33:55 and training the attentional system. The fourth phase is where as that heart seed, if I use the language from Christianity, the Christian mystical kind of journey, that first phase like the birth in the manger. So the birth of the seed
Starting point is 00:34:18 begins to grow. The second phase is called the baptism, which is the waters. So the emotional waters are being cleaned, so to speak. That third phase is called the transfiguration. So you begin to get moments where you're transfigured,
Starting point is 00:34:38 where you're experiencing, you have tastes of that deeper heart mind, it's not stable. In the Buddhist tradition, they call that the path of seeing. You get moments where you see. The fourth part of the journey is where you've done, you've begun to do your practice enough, that it has enough momentum,
Starting point is 00:35:09 that you're beginning to able to shift from being identified with the mind to being identified with a heart. And what happens there is, in the Buddhist tradition, they call that the beginning of the path of meditation, not because you started meditation, but because now your inner state of meditation
Starting point is 00:35:36 most of the time. It's not that experience of love, wisdom, or of spacious ease is far away. In fact, you can bring it back in any moment in time. Now what you're doing is you're really walking the path of allowing that to mature itself in the world. And in the Buddhist tradition, they call that the path of the Bodhisattra. It means that now the heart will open up more.
Starting point is 00:36:08 That heart wisdom opens up more as you actually engage with the world more. And in the Christian tradition, that's called the crucifixion. And crucifixion because essentially what happens is you realize there's no way to go higher, there's no way to go lower. You essentially find yourself crucified, if you will, in that fundamental openness of love. And you have nothing to do but participate in the world. So that's that fourth, that fourth phrase. So can we just pause for a second?
Starting point is 00:36:54 Yeah. What are some of the pivotal realizations and practices you've been alluding throughout that kind of are things and pitfalls along the journey of kind of like arriving to the heart where you're living your life from a integrated intelligence that is greater than just the intellect? You start to grow your intuitive capacities, all these things. some of which you mentioned are you could fall into the conspiratorial rabbit hole and stay there you could become identified with the spiritual look which is quite common and easy
Starting point is 00:37:28 and slippery and comes in waves i think um start to identify with the form of how something looks right um so that so the third the the next sticking point is you get stuck on the tech on the spiritual tech. So is that what you mean? Like what else comes along? Yeah. Another, yeah. So another one is like the necessary discipline of training the mind is obviously important,
Starting point is 00:37:53 but then it can become... Then it becomes a thing. Yeah. Because you're training your mind, the tendency is to think that you're the mind. Because you're training the mind, your mind becomes more capable. Because you become more capable, you become more efficacious and more effective. And so now the sticky thing is, is not... now you've got an even more efficient mind that is more capable, is more able to be successful.
Starting point is 00:38:19 And are we able to release that? That's also that the stickiness there is also, there is a, it's easy then to also get caught in the technique side of, whether that's, let's say, you know, healing with sound or whether it's like vibrational healing or healing the mind. There's a whole world of technical, um, technical sacred sciences to be learned and explored. And of course,
Starting point is 00:39:04 that's a really important thing for work. Like some people, that's their work, but you wouldn't want to stay identified with the mind of that place. So that's the, getting caught in the mind is super, super easy, particularly as it becomes an enlightened mind, right, the mind of light.
Starting point is 00:39:28 So for all intensive purposes, it can look very spiritual, but it's still a thinking mind. What do you see is like the predominant, I guess, shift that takes people from the transfiguration to the crucifixion that goes from, like, and maybe in your own personal, What was the thing that really deepened you from like the attractiveness of the aesthetic path and the contemplative practices to like not coming to practices because it's what you think you ought to be doing, but rather your heart brings you there and you're, yeah, you're moving more from that center.
Starting point is 00:40:14 So that really has to do with the heart itself. So in my own experience, part of that is beginning to realize that actually love isn't a technique. And so the more we begin to realize that the essence of the opening of the heart is its relational. So to the extent that we begin to realize that the world out there isn't just a world out there, but it's a reflection of who you and I, who we are. So to the extent that we begin to see in the world, the suffering that we see, the struggles that we see, to the extent that we begin to realize that we're not separate from that,
Starting point is 00:41:03 and as the heart naturally opens in terms of compassion, as it opens, that interconnectivity opens up the wisdom mind even more. So what happens is the wisdom mind is now opening based on the depth of your feeling of interdependence and care for creation, for the world around you. And then I think as that, as you begin to get a sense of that, you also begin to realize that there's also a larger intelligence that is, I mean, some traditions would call it God, but that at least the first kind of level of God is, if you will, that the planetary system that we're in, it's also an expression of the sacred,
Starting point is 00:42:03 and that everything that is arising within this planetary system is an expression of that one life. So you begin to, I think you begin to feel the one life and the one heart. And your intuition begins to guide you into service. So that's part, I think part of the service part of the path is how can you serve? and then things begin to open up
Starting point is 00:42:39 it's a more of a natural process begins to become a little easier it sounds like probably for the majority of people and I'm assuming in your path the thing definitely in mind the shift there is having the subjective experience of unitive consciousness having taste beyond just the mind
Starting point is 00:43:03 and the practices that open up the attentional system like you referred to you experience like the interpersonal dynamics of the world and you feel connected to it. Yes, yeah, yeah. So the unit of experience, which in some ways is not the highest experience, but what it is is the one that we share the most.
Starting point is 00:43:27 So that unit of experience of feeling that there is a field of love that binds and weaves everybody together, that it's intelligent, that it that it can that it's trustworthy and it can guide you that I think is that
Starting point is 00:43:48 that's like the the birthing of a new level of your GPS system for yourself start to be guided from a different place you start to be guided from a different place and you start to experience synchronicity in a deeper way
Starting point is 00:44:07 how does that change the relationship between you and what you think you want. Because I'm curious, like, when operating from the mind, we proclaim all these things that we think are best for us. And often they're futile when compared to the intelligence of the heart and these deeper intuitive capacities that, you know, life can actually unfold much more beautiful. And how have you, whoa, how do you differentiate that?
Starting point is 00:44:39 I think, firstly, identifying that desires from the, the mind can only be a recombination of past information or input. So I can only think I want something based off of being exposed to it already. So it's kind of in the known already. So there's some degree of not knowing and innocence in how the heart unfolds as opposed to the mind. Yeah. And there's a certain level of when it comes to the mind, a level of it's my own perceived, self-imposed genius.
Starting point is 00:45:16 Like this is the, you know, right. Right. The mind thinks its own ideas are brilliant. That's right. That's right. So the difference between, I think the difference between the heart and the mind here is that the mind's, the heart's process, if you well, is it's auto-poetic, meaning it unfolds in a dynamic way, really centered in the here and now. And it can handle the not knowing, as opposed to the mind where it tends to orient towards the past and the future. And it's building, as you said, it's building whatever it builds based on what it knows.
Starting point is 00:46:02 So the future that wants to be born in this moment and time is going to be born out of the heart, if you will. And that means it's going to be born out in an emergent process where we don't, where we, where we kind of have to stay with the mystery and have a capacity to stay with what we what we don't know rather than what we do know. Hey, fam. I get asked all the time about what kind of tea I'm drinking on the show. And honestly, not all tea is created equally. A lot of brands out there cut corners.
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Starting point is 00:47:17 mess, just pure, clean tea. Plus, every batch is tripped. toxin screened so you're not getting any pesticides or weird additives and because you're part of this amazing community peak is giving you 20% off for life plus a free rechargeable frother and glass beaker when you grab their puer bundle they even back it up with a 90 day money back guarantee so you can try it totally risk free just go to peaklife.com slash know thyself to grab yours now that's peaklife dot com slash know thyself i hope you enjoy back to the show how do you how would you respond to someone saying that feels quite idealistic when you look out in the world and see how much division and separation there is, do you just think that there needs to be a significant
Starting point is 00:48:00 minority of people that kind of reach that level of consciousness? Well, I think the first thing to recognize is that it's not that you're intelligent, it's not that all of the skill set that you have developed over this lifetime. It doesn't, it's not as if it goes away. So it's not as if your mind and all of the skills that your mind has developed goes away. It's more that it's able to start functioning spontaneously without premeditation. So the intelligence doesn't go. The strategic capacity doesn't go.
Starting point is 00:48:49 Whatever field that you're in, the body of, knowledge that you've built up, that's not going to go. What's going to happen is your capacity for innovative knowing, an innovative response is going to increase. So I think the first thing is it's not a, it's not, it's not a, yes, a one level you're living in a set, in a deeper state of not knowing. However, what the mind is able to generate from that place is actually of a higher grade. I think you're more able to also have the distinct knowing
Starting point is 00:49:36 and perception of what desires or actions are being motivated from love versus fear, which kind of goes into the fifth stage, which is like acting and expressing with this deeper intelligence. and yeah yeah so let me just take a let me talk a little bit first just about this this process is also a process of increased complexity so there is the mind is also we didn't leave the mind behind the mind is growing so it means that the mind now has more facets like a diamond so as that diamond has more facets
Starting point is 00:50:16 it becomes more beautiful. So we can think of the path as having dimensions of truth and goodness and beauty. So the goodness aspect has got to do with the depth of interconnection and the depth of relationality that opens up the love, wisdom of goodness. The developmental piece of intelligence, intelligence is related to perspectival capacity. We talked a little bit about this last time I was here,
Starting point is 00:50:52 first person perspective, second. And if you think of that as a diamond, having different cuts. So the development of the mind or of our perspectives is actually related to aesthetics or beauty. The mind itself becomes more beautiful because it has more cuts. It has more facets to it.
Starting point is 00:51:13 So, for instance, just approximately, like, I think third person perspective has the capacity for maybe 400 perspectives. I'm just, fourth person perspective has about 1,200 to 1,400 perspectives. When you get to 7th person perspective, which the way I see it, that is a kind of a mature bodhisattva, it's about 540,000 facets or perspectives. What does that mean? It means that the sense of cognition or knowing can be incredibly spontaneous and incredibly creative because there's not just there's 540,000 facets that the mind could take any one particular perspective
Starting point is 00:52:07 to look at a situation in a particular way. So there's a, yeah, you would say there's a direct correlation with the growth of intelligence and the ability to take on multiple perspectives. Yeah, and that's not necessarily like knowing intelligence. It's just knowing something like that. So it isn't that it's not that it becomes impractical. Actually, there is a very, very practical part of this process,
Starting point is 00:52:34 which is the mind becoming more beautiful and therefore able to create more beauty in the world. What's a financial system that is beautiful? What's a medical system that's beautiful? What's an agricultural system that's beautiful? I mean, I think we all have a sense of ones which aren't, right? But we all can get a sense of, oh, yes, there is a way that our financial system could be beautiful and equitable and based on a much deeper level of gratitude and sharing
Starting point is 00:53:05 than the one that we can't really have. So, yeah, so I just wanted to. It's not a kind of naive kind of woo-woo process. It's actually the opposite. You're going to become a more effective servant in the world. Now, you said that fifth phase. So to the extent that we are opening that heart mind and loving the world,
Starting point is 00:53:42 we begin to intuit this is where we begin to intuit that there is a that your particular soul so Andre has a particular skill set that you are apprenticing yourself to what I mean by that is
Starting point is 00:54:11 is that At that fifth phase, you begin to realize that, yes, you are a unique being with unique gifts. And those unique gifts, you didn't necessarily choose them, right? They're related to something that is authentic and archetypal. and whilst you might or I might try and possess them, they actually shine through as a unique gift that you have to give the world. Each of us have to give the world. Right.
Starting point is 00:54:52 So to the extent that we begin to wake up to our archetypal identity. So you could almost say that this is beginning to wake up to your avatar self. Your own hero's journey. Your own hero's journey and you're beginning to be able to actually I mean, I think there's been a significant part of the hero's journey what we've described thus far, but I think this is where you actually begin to see who the hero is that you're meant to become, right?
Starting point is 00:55:23 Because I'm not going to become a Baryshnikov or an Einstein, right? And you might not become a Picasso, but you're going to become what it is that you're meant to become based on the unique archetypal qualities. that you exhibit. So in that sense, what's interesting is it becomes personal, but what you're apprenticing to at the same time is impersonal because you're in service to that.
Starting point is 00:55:55 It's not, and sometimes that's not easy because sometimes your personal gifts are going to ask you to do things and follow the journey in such a way that you're like, hang on a second. I'd rather not do this, but you have a sense of what it is that you're personally meant to do. She knows. How? Did you blam?
Starting point is 00:56:18 No. The Devil Wears Prada, too. He's the movie event 20 years in the making. Honestly, can't with the secrets anymore, so I think we just should tell her. Will you two please spit it out already? This Friday, be the first to experience it only in theaters. In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. Oh, because we're a team now.
Starting point is 00:56:38 That's a nice story. The Devil Wares Prada 2 in Theat's Friday. When a country's productivity cycle is broken, people feel it in their paychecks, their communities, their futures. What does this mean for individuals, communities, and businesses across the country? Join business leaders, policymakers, and influencers for CGs' national series on the Canadian Standard of Living, productivity and innovation.
Starting point is 00:57:06 Learn what's driving Canada's productivity decline and discover actionable solutions to reverse it. And I think it's important just to reflect on how, at least in my own life, the more that I've kind of sort of, the more that I've directly connected with the heart space, you could just call it, the more that from the abyss of my consciousness, I'll have intuitive insights, I'll have knowings that come to me, I'll have inclinations or thoughts or ideas that didn't seem to be stimulated from necessarily the outside. And like you said, those might ask me to do uncomfortable things.
Starting point is 00:57:49 Go on a journey, take a trip, go explore a practice or something that I feel like is going to serve me or others in a unique way. And I think there's a direct level of suffering that comes from ignoring listening to those things. And they need to be louder and become just more like someone's yelling in our ear before we listen to them. Right. First is the ability to, like, pay attention to the subtleties and the whispers that are, that we're actually being guided, that we can attend to these more subtle forms of knowing. And when you've done that in your life, would have been the, I mean, would have been
Starting point is 00:58:29 the gifts? It's tough to see in the moment, but in hindsight, it becomes much more clear that there is a string of events that feel so connected that without one. the other wouldn't have happened, that directly developed my capacity to meet life in the next moment, you know? And so I can see perfectly how different things or different chapters of life or skill tests
Starting point is 00:58:59 that I was developing contributed to me being able to do what I do next. And yeah, they're all connected. Right. So what we're saying is, is the synchronistic, There's a relationship. So this is important for all of us, double-click on this listeners. Our hearts are in resonance, that unitive field of the heart is in resonance with the unitive field of the planet itself.
Starting point is 00:59:29 So that's what the alchemists call the Anamamundi. So the soul of the world itself as a being is also trying to awaken. So our planet wants to become a garden university. planet, right? A university, a beauty, goodness, and truth, a learning organism, just like we do. So as our hearts are opening and they come into resonance with that unitive field, the synchronic nature of the intelligence of the planet, it begins to participate in helping to facilitate that process. So outer events begin to consider. aspire to support. Of course, the challenge is, is we like the synchronicities which feel good
Starting point is 01:00:19 and not the synchronicities that are like that feel bad. But to some extent, what's happening more and more now is our lives begin to become synchronic, which means that the function of destiny is beginning to come online, and that life itself is beginning to teach you and present to us exactly the circumstances needed for the right amount of friction, for the lesson to happen, so that you can then deepen into your embodiment of this. Because paradoxically, the deeper the realization, the deeper the embodiment. It's not the mystery of pure spirit. It's the mystery of incarnation.
Starting point is 01:01:08 So what we're talking about here is actually a whole incarnatory process of how does spirit get deeper into matter? And to do that, my soul and your soul, you need the support of the intelligence of the world and of your life to make that happen. So that's what begins to happen more and more. And to the extent that you say yes to the process, even though. if it's uncomfortable, then the, you know, then this, this kind of this next phase is really beginning to kick in. So that sixth stage, which in some ways connects to like a six person perspective as well, like the deeper knowing, you just sort of start to appreciate the hero's journey that you're on,
Starting point is 01:01:58 so to speak, and see that there actually is, like your deepening of your perception and ability to see that there is a grander intelligence working beneath. the surface, so to speak. Yeah. Before we, like, go to six-person perspective or that sixth phase, I think it's really helpful to just back up to the actual, like, the narrative structure of this. Because what we're describing isn't just our own personal process, but we're all doing this. So if you think about the heroic journey, the hero with the 10,000 faces,
Starting point is 01:02:38 Essentially what that is, is that is the archetypal description of how do we give birth to this new culture civilization. How do we land it? So we went through first and second and third perspective, the third phase. At that third phase, you're really becoming a sacred warrior. That's really cooking quite nicely. And that third phase, you know, I mentioned Isaac Newton. It's also got to do particularly with the sacred dimension of modernity. And by that I mean that you have a mind and there's a matrix out there and you have to somehow
Starting point is 01:03:25 conquer it in some kind of way. And that process of that third phase particularly bakes in the individuation process. to separate yourself from being fused with the collective and to become a true individual. It doesn't necessarily mean yet that you've become your archetypal avatar self, that's that kind of fifth phase, but you've extricating yourself from the unconscious
Starting point is 01:03:57 and from the collective enough that you've become an individual in this world, an individual personality. And that's really, that's the journey that we've all been doing for the last 400 years y'all so if you're out there we've done that journey
Starting point is 01:04:15 and most of the listeners know that part of modernity in the heroic journey the next phase of that fourth phase the crucifixion which sounds quite grim or the path of meditation but I think if we put it in terms of the story it's we get to the
Starting point is 01:04:35 village. It's like the heroes in the Avenger movies, you've been watching them, each of them individually do their own thing, and then suddenly it becomes the circle. Because in the heroic journey, the heroine, she doesn't get to actually give her gift until she comes back to the village. And the village isn't a metaphor. So it's not like you can just give your gift to the, you know, to the village when there is no village. So the actual, let's say, an important part of the heroic journey at that fourth stage is to, we need to build the village,
Starting point is 01:05:23 we need to build the circle, we need to build the community. And I think most of our listeners recognize how important that is, right? that actually, I'd love to hear, also your reflection on that, that the journey of kind of individuality, there's definitely a chapter where it ends and you realize that without a we,
Starting point is 01:05:50 this isn't going to unfold the way it's meant to. I think it's important to reflect also, like you said earlier, that as you grow, you transcend but still include the prior parts. So even though we wake up beyond the sense of just being an individual ego moving through the world, we are still a part of the greater whole. That's right. But it's just not our whole reality. Yeah, you're going to need that.
Starting point is 01:06:19 We're going to need it. That doesn't go. You know, your sense of being a strong, that phase of the hero's journey is about developing a strong solar plexus, like a strong sense of self. and that's also sacred. Like the idea that the self should have like a wet handshake when actually if you read the great classics, they're classics of heroism. And even if the hero, even if he or she wasn't a warrior,
Starting point is 01:06:55 she was a hero of virtue. Yeah, we were talking about this on the car ride the other day and the different ways that that sort of fire expresses itself differently according to the person, like Ramadan Maharshi versus Gandhi, and how they appear on the outside. They're doing very different things than they are. But the level of consciousness and stage of consciousness that they're tapping into is very similar.
Starting point is 01:07:25 Yeah, so actually that third phase, so the transfiguration is really about like the sacredness, of fire. And the fire, having a strong sense of self, that gives us the ability to digest experience. And as that fire gets stronger, that's what gives us the ability to digest enough experience for the heart to open into the circle. And that's the place in the story where the heroes and the heroines come together and they recognize each other.
Starting point is 01:07:58 because that fifth chapter, fifth person perspective, where you begin to really recognize your destiny, I actually can't recognize my destiny without you. Why is that? Because I need to be able to see you and to see your destiny and to see your kind of at the avatar that you're growing into, so to speak. The process is a mutual.
Starting point is 01:08:28 It's a mutual process. Because really what's born, what you really begin to get. And we talked about this yesterday. At that fourth stage is you're like, hey, hang on a second. This is a mewi. Right? But actually, the me, you begin to realize that your sense of individuality, that my sense of individuality somehow includes Andre and his mission and what he's here to do.
Starting point is 01:08:56 and the other heroes and heroines in the room, it's that actually we realize that somehow that we are within one another and that the sense of self is that we've been operating from a kind of sense of self that's separate and suddenly the sense of self begins to become more of a we. Right?
Starting point is 01:09:21 And so I think that story is really important because I think, I think many of us are recognizing that the necessity for the we-mey. That's going to be a better name. I think it's a good name. The Mi-Wee. The Mi-wee. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:42 We don't exist in a vacuum. There's no such thing as a self-made matter woman and that our journey, our destiny, can't not be amongst a greater collective. The self is relational. Uh-huh. It like the self is a relational construct. And the fact that we haven't experienced it as such is because we were unconscious to that. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:03 So with that fourth phase in the journey, we're like, oh, wow, in order to actually perfect Andre, Andre needs a community, like he needs to be in a circle. Whatever that, it's a mythic circle, right? It's the ancient future village circle that is somewhere in the past and also it's somewhere in the future. that helps that fifth phase because to the extent that I know what it is that you're trying to manifest, to extent that you know what it is that I'm trying to manifest and bring in, we are able to help one another. And of course, that then, you know, that, then, if we then move to that sixth phase of the journey,
Starting point is 01:10:45 the sixth phase is related to a, so think of it this way. every one of these stages, there's a level of ascending that allows you to simultaneously penetrate deeper. So to the extent in that fifth phase, if you will, that you're able to ascend and begin to recognize your archetypal dimension, like the hero that's wanting to be born, then you're able to inform that into your personality structure. So there's a kind of like recognizing a soul form and then helping bringing that into your sense of self. That makes sense.
Starting point is 01:11:32 So it's a higher and lower simultaneously. The next phase, that's that sixth phase. The insight goes deeper. So let's just that fourth phase. we begin to experience a unitive field, a field of love, a field of deep interconnection, a field of interdependence, the field of Christ consciousness or the Bodhisattva, however you want to put it.
Starting point is 01:12:10 As we then kind of mature and we start to individuate into that, at that fifth phase, we become this archetypal self, this avatar, and we're beginning to like press that into matter. At the sixth phase, we begin to, let's say, go even beyond the soul or the avatar self, and now you're beginning to clearly recognize your identity as clear light. So there's a difference between clear light and the unitive field. That's like the difference between love as a warm ocean and an ocean of light, of like pure clarity.
Starting point is 01:12:54 And here we're beginning to make a transition if we were to use Western language from soul into spirit. Right? So spirit is now this, it's what the Buddhist call clear light mind. Right? It's like, and one sense of identity
Starting point is 01:13:12 begins to include this clear light mind that also does a number of things. It bakes the archaicels, the archetypal self deeper into the body mind. So the sense of self is becoming even stronger now in a good way
Starting point is 01:13:29 because that archetypal identity has now light shining through it and it's becoming even deeper embodied. The body is beginning to become the body is beginning to feel like oh, maybe I am a superhero.
Starting point is 01:13:47 And this is where you begin to have people who can do extraordinary things with their body, like, you know, extraordinary capacities with their physical body. That clarity of insight allows a much deeper penetration into the suffering or the trauma that's still stored in the body, particularly the trauma related to, like, the depth of emotion, like the depth of emotion and particularly like the depth of fear. because fear clearly is something that keeps everything contracted. So clear light mind is able to penetrate even deeper into the waters.
Starting point is 01:14:37 And so there's now an even deeper level of transmutation of the emotional body by spirit. And that then just leaves like one more step. I mean, unless you have, do you have the questions about that? No, so the last step after that would be. Well, so essentially, the last step out of that is you come out of the light. So the thing about the clarity of that light is the clear light is so bright it can, how would you describe that? it can in some ways it can blind you
Starting point is 01:15:29 it's the it's like the cloud of unknowing the light that the light can blind you to the extent that all you see is spirit and so this is where the teeth that like the and often of course these are the teachers because now we're getting up to let's say you know 10th 11th grade of high school so we're talking about mature soul not all them are teachers, but generally they will be, they'll probably be teaching because, you know, that's a, that's a gift. So there will be a tendency for an emphasis on the non-dual spirit and that's it. Like just pure spirit. Because it's so bright that in some ways,
Starting point is 01:16:20 some of the details of the world and the complexity of what's happening, get lost in that. The last phase, if you will, it's like when you hit the crown, because there's an energetic journey here we're describing. Essentially what happens is the realization, your realization becomes holographic, which means that rather than just pure spirit, you realize that you are the
Starting point is 01:16:55 the whole. So Christian theology, that's called the Logos, like you, the word. You realize that you are the word, that you are the whole. And so the whole world, you recognize that now the whole world is arising within you. And that includes both pure spirit and all of the realms, including the hellish realms as well. So it's like you come out of pure emptiness, to form. And this is where they say in the heart, this is like the depth of the heart wisdom, as they say in the heart sutra, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Or they would say Keta is in Malkut and Malkut is in Keta. Pure spirit is in matter and matters in pure spirit. And now the quality is one of, let's say, complete wholeness. And of course, that doesn't mean the journey
Starting point is 01:17:55 is ended, in fact, that's like the beginning of a whole other journey, if that makes sense. But clearly, you know, our planet, clearly we're in middle school on this planet. So that's how, yeah, that's how the heart mind kind of unfolds, if you will. And we can look at it energetically. like that first phase, the first center, second phase the second center, third phase, the third center, sense of strength, then you get to the heart, right, where the circle is, so to speak. And then what happens is from that point, the next phases are because the heart field is cohering your experience, as it goes higher to the throat, it goes lower to the solar plexus.
Starting point is 01:18:49 So archetypal dimension at the throat, sense of self in the solar plexus. As it moves up and really opens clear light mind, it descends even deeper to the second chakra. And because the second chakra is particularly resonant with the astral plane, that's why there can be a tendency of being blinded because the light here is reflected down and everything just becomes light. And the various traditions have name for that, like Zen sickness or you're lost in the brightness. And then finally, the heart gets to the crown and then it gets to the root at the same time. And that's where you get the rooting and the flowering at the same time, which is then that journey of like the heart opening itself up is kind of come to completion.
Starting point is 01:19:49 So what I think is really useful here is to see how they are all connected and that for the vast majority of us, we have a lot of work to do with like the lower center, so to speak, from attachment to attunement to the individualistic more sovereignty, you know, center. Yeah, that's right. And then to the heart. And so I would love for you to sort of walk through like what the foundation of all this? because I'm just as much as anybody love to talk about pure light consciousness and the recognition of that.
Starting point is 01:20:23 Yeah, let's put that sound. But, like, no, I think what really serves people and what is the pathway to get there is these lower centers. Well, so I think the first thing to recognize is really the work for all of us and for the mass of the people who are listening is to get to that fourth phase. That is the transatlantic.
Starting point is 01:20:48 that's happening on this planet is a transition from the fire of the solar plexus to the heart. So that's like we don't want to, what I often tell my students is actually over-shooting is undershooting. Because if you overshoot what's happening is probably you've stumbled into a class that wasn't meant for you. And that's of course we all have that tendency of wanting to get the highest teachings. But actually, the highest teachings don't help because what's really necessary is the teachings that are like going to speak to you right now. So for the majority of the people who are less, for all of us, what are needed, what are the teachings that are going to help us as individual heroes able to come together in that
Starting point is 01:21:41 circle? And so what that means is, is, okay, what are the skills that we're, what are the skills that we a mentor have learned thus far, right, through that first, second, and third phases of the journey. And how can we put that, how do we remind ourselves of what those are so that we can then focus on learning the lesson that's right in front of us and knowing what that lesson is? Because you're right, there really are, well, three main, the journey through, your sense of individual self is intimately related to the core psychological healing. Right.
Starting point is 01:22:29 And this is so important for all of us to understand because think of it this way. And we'll get to it, but I want to put the context of why this is so important. We know from the research that was done by the TM folks, the Transcendental Meditation folks, right? who, I think what they worked out was like square root, the square root of 1% of a population, if they are doing a meditative practice, in this case TM, were able to influence the field and bring down rates of violence and disruption in a city. However, of course, that doesn't last very long. So that's a shame.
Starting point is 01:23:18 Why doesn't last very long? Well, because what's happening is those contemplative practitioners are opening up higher states. And those higher states might pacify us, but actually they don't relate to the actual transmutation and transformation that needs to happen in the population, and so it doesn't stick. So if we want to see a significant transformation on the planet, we have to understand what is the band to dial into that if we expand on that band, it actually has something that can catch fire and actually burn. Because high up in those higher reaches of higher consciousness, there's nothing there. We actually need to transmute this trauma that we carry. So the actual meditative practices
Starting point is 01:24:14 that are designed to transform and transmute those lower centers, the lower parts of the psyche, if you will, are actually at this moment in time, more important than like the higher practices. Because if we get those right, the world actually changes. Yeah. I think the alluring thing too is that the more advanced meditation practices and whatnot are alluring in the sense. It's like there's a sense of specialness around them.
Starting point is 01:24:43 Sure. And a lot of the desire to calm the mind. and do take up practices that would be supportive to clearing out mental chatter. I would just love for you to speak to, like, largely, we're going, it's an uphill battle if we haven't resolved our attachment system and our nervous system regulation. That's right.
Starting point is 01:25:06 A lot of the things that we would struggle and strive for and different practices could be resolved. Yeah. So the first thing to understand is that we're at a unique moment. in terms of the development of practices, because every practice was designed in a specific moment in time for a specific population based on what the designer of the practice,
Starting point is 01:25:38 because these practices were the designed, they didn't flow down with elephants on wings and appeared, they were designed by human beings. So most, well, nearly all of the contemplative systems, that we know of were designed for a different time, if you will, with a different population in mind. Often they were designed for the elite, or they were designed for people in monastic environments.
Starting point is 01:26:06 And the thing about the monastic environment is, basically, it just leaves the lower centers alone. So let's not get into that. Right? And so if you don't get into that, then you can start from that place and go up. and go up. However, all of our listeners, you, me included, we are doing this in the world, in relationship. And so we have to, there's a need to design practices that address the challenges
Starting point is 01:26:38 that we're facing, which are. Well, so as you're pointing to, so the deepest sources of suffering are related in humans to the dysfunction of our attachment system. This is like the earliest early childhood injuries that are, most of the inherited. So they're multi-generational. I mean, it's not our parents' fault because they've inherited this kind of this, this momentum of trauma. So if we don't address those traumas, that's what's disturbing the mind.
Starting point is 01:27:24 So either we have to address those, we have to leave the world, because if you leave the world, then they begin to quiet down. And since we can't do that, we have to do practices that directly work with that attachment system. So the fundamental, the fundamental, function of the attachment system, the first thing is to give the infant a sense of security.
Starting point is 01:27:55 So to the extent that you and I don't feel, our listeners, don't feel safe in the world, what happens then is the factory settings get turn on survival, and then it's very difficult to do anything creative because we're actually in a kind of fight-flight response, right? the function of the attachment system is for the infant to be first physically held and supported by the caregivers. And so when you and I experience that being held, well, I mean, tell me, what does it feel like to be? When you actually, when somebody holds you, what do you notice happens in your nervous system?
Starting point is 01:28:43 when somebody holds me physically when you're physically held other than pure terror pure frightening what do you notice happens in your body when you when you feel co-regulation right yeah yeah so when we're so literally in terms of matter they literally being held gives the nervous system a sense of support that is internalized as a sense of trust. Parasmpathetic response, relaxed and chill out. Right.
Starting point is 01:29:20 Relax, chill out. Exactly. And, I mean, it's terrible to say, but when they've done experiments with baby monkeys and they've taken away, like something for the baby monkey
Starting point is 01:29:35 to hold on to, the baby monkey dies. And if they give the baby monkey a little like metal skeleton that looks like a mother and it can feel held, the baby monkey survives, which tells you a lot about who we are as human beings,
Starting point is 01:29:53 that we do these kinds of things. So there's a level in us that needs to be held and be met by matter itself. And by matter, from an esoteric perspective, by the mother, literally by the archetypal mother that, like, I got you. How much of the distracted mind that plagues so much of contemporary culture is directly? I think all of it. I think all of it. My sense is so much of what we call attentional deficit disorder
Starting point is 01:30:30 is the effect of multi-generational trauma on the attentional system. Because the attentional system, if it's not safe, right, it's looking to see where there's a source of threat. And the truth is, is if that's happened for generations and generations, you might not necessarily have experienced anything threatening, but you've inherited the, you know, what kind of... The lens. That's right.
Starting point is 01:31:04 And so the body develops that. And then you add the matrix dimension of the... attention economy, right? So now, if we were to create a kind of a story, we would say that these devices are sucking our soul energy, right? You know what I mean? Farming our attention. Yeah, and that actually, so the ancients would say that your attention is your Atman. Your attention is your soul. So when you're actually doing this with your device, your soul energy is being fed into something. So it isn't just the attention economy. There's something else happening that is kind of pulling us, pulling us out of ourselves. So multi-generational trauma, scatteredness,
Starting point is 01:31:58 so much of that comes from a lack of just matter itself, right, being grounded. So that is internalized as sense of support. We talked about this last time, the next layer of that is got to do with attunement, and attunement is a little different. Attunement has to do with if you're holding, you know, if you're holding the infant and you're providing a sense of security and you're on your phone, what that means is the physical level of the infant is taken care of. but not the astral body, not the emotional body. So the emotional body of the infant wants to feel felt. It wants to feel mother, the matter.
Starting point is 01:32:50 It wants to feel matter at the astral level, which is what? It wants to feel that it is loved by the parent. Would you not just say the emotional level? Would you just say the emotion? It's not felt at the emotional level. No felt at the emotional level. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:33:05 So it might be felt physically, which is better than nothing, but the infant isn't experiencing themselves as feeling felt. Yeah. Right? So if you had the vision, you would see the mother holding the child
Starting point is 01:33:20 and you would see these little tendrils, these the mycelial tendrils of tenderness extending from the mother's heart straight into the child's nervous system and just feeling and modulating the infant. Of course, when my attention has been stolen by my device, those tendrils aren't there.
Starting point is 01:33:42 And so to the degree that you and I received that, those pathways through me are pathways that now as an adult I can use to attune to my own nervous system. So attuning to my own nervous system in such a way that you feel felt in a deep way, which allows the whole sympathetic system to come down even more, right? The more it comes down, the more the attentional system becomes more and more stable.
Starting point is 01:34:22 In some ways, you can look at these related to these phases of the journey. Like that first phase of the heart mind was related to the physical body, and like learning how to physically manage your physical bodies so you felt physically safe in the world and grounded. That second phase of the heart mind is it moves into the emotional body. The fruition of that ideally is when you have mastered to some degree attunement. Because so much of the therapeutic process itself is learning to have enough capacity to feel what needs to be felt and to be able to stay with your experience. And then that leads us to the third quality,
Starting point is 01:35:10 because both of those are young, those are pretty young qualities. If you think about the sense of self, it's young, but it's a little stronger, right? And so whatever injuries might have happened when we were young that stopped us from feeling a sense of industry, like a sense of capacity,
Starting point is 01:35:36 you know, like little Andre running across the playground, like that, you know what I mean? Like whatever stopped, whatever stopped that from happening and whatever suppressed your fire so that then as you grow into an adult, it's difficult for you to be as full of an adult as you want to be. So I think of that as like the fire of desire but not the fire of desire that distracts us.
Starting point is 01:36:08 It's the fire of interest and the fire of curiosity. It's the innate kind of fire of passion of a child that is excited and curious about the world. And also it's also partly due to the child a little bit older, seeing that mum and dad feels passionately about them and passionately about protecting them. So if you feel that somebody is like protecting you, you're five, six years old and your dad is like, hang on a second, that kind of quality of like, oh, wow, boundaries,
Starting point is 01:36:52 I'm worth protecting. When that's internalized, it's internalized as a sense of sovereign. which is really like that third phase is about sovereignty, right? Like being a sovereign sense of self, that it's okay to be full and whoever you are as a sense of self. So those, like those three qualities, the sense of stability that is internalized as safety, the capacity for feeling felt that is internalized as kind of self-regulation. and then the feeling of being like fiercely valued and protected that's internalized as sovereignty, when those three are internalized, then the heart opens naturally because it's kind of fulfilled
Starting point is 01:37:46 the lessons that it's needed to fulfill, that it's not, it can open itself up and at the same time feel safe and attuned and protected in a world that is, you know, that is, you can't be too naive, right? You can't, as you said, you can't just open your heart and think that everything is necessarily going to go, okay. You have to bring all of those skill sets that you have learned through those other parts of the journey. Otherwise, if you open your heart prematurely, well, what's your sense if what happens when people do that? I like to look at the analogy of nature
Starting point is 01:38:37 and think of a tree who's started to sprout grow into a sapling and develop a trunk and start to build branches and has a sense of self. Yes. And has yet to bear fruit fully, you know, which you could say maybe is more in the heart space.
Starting point is 01:38:53 Yeah. So I think there's an appreciation of the developmental process and even though you refer to these earlier centers, like attachment and attunement as sort of earlier stages of development, which they are in a society where things are drastically underdeveloped, they seem like superpowers just to be regulated. Absolutely right.
Starting point is 01:39:13 And also to walk into spaces and to be able to be attuned to other people's emotional landscape because you're not so preoccupied with your own neuroses in a sense. And that seems like and, you know, it feels like, a superpower when it's when it's not so prevalent yeah that's right but yeah we were speaking to this also earlier yes yesterday i think just how these higher understandings or practices to be put on somebody who hasn't developed to a relative degree these first three centuries is not going to it can be cruel in a sense yeah that that's so yes i mean that's why i spent so my own job
Starting point is 01:39:58 journey was kind of recognizing this maybe 30 years ago and then asking myself, okay, we need to redesign these contemplative practices so that the highest practice simultaneously addresses the lowest. So the way that I described it is actually like the taking care of the root, when you take care of the root, you actually take care of the crown because they're actually in resonance with one another. When you take care of the deepest sense of security, actually the psyche is willing to open itself up completely. Just like if you look at a fruit tree and you see it's bearing sour apples or the leaves are weird color, it's actually not an issue of the leaf or the apple. It's of the root. The root and the fruit. Yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 01:40:51 Yeah, connected. So we can redesign. contemplative practices so that we can open up, it can be redesigned harmonically, which means an appreciation that as you simultaneously develop a sense of safety and attunement, it can release those deeper parts of the psyche that have been caught there.
Starting point is 01:41:27 And because the youngest parts, because the subtlest parts are caught in the youngest parts of the psyche, if we take care of that, actually what happens is the highest parts begin to open up. So that, I mean, I'm not the only person who's been looking at this by any means, but this understanding of redesigning contemplative practices. you know, in such a way that the psychodynamic piece is integrated into the wisdom piece, I think that's the next cycle of love wisdom, which is really, which is like, oh, yes, of course, that actually if love really penetrates deep, deep into the infant, then, of course, the highest is released. And so in some ways, I think what we're discovering here or rediscovering is like the, it is like the essence of all of those traditions. There's always a few, you know, great mystics, the Rumi's or the Longchampas and the Zogjan tradition or the Christ or the Buddha. But understanding like, how do we democracy, how do we make that accessible to everybody?
Starting point is 01:42:55 And I think part of that is related to this understanding of these early childhood dynamics and their relationship with the deepest parts of our soul. I like to say sometimes to my students that I think Jesus was the Christ because his parents knew that he was. Right. So to the extent that that child is recognized to be holy. So to the extent that we recognize that infant consciousness and we tend to. to those deepest, most tender parts of the soul,
Starting point is 01:43:29 things open up in a supernatural way. And then the blossoming process, the flowering process as the one that I described, that happens as a kind of, it happens as a natural unfolding, rather than having to change gears in a car. Okay, flights on air Canada. Where do you want to go?
Starting point is 01:43:55 The Azores, for its hot springs, Volcanoes? Speaking of volcanoes, what about Japan? You know I love sushi. Not as much as I love tapas. Maybe, Majorca. We could hit the beach, then go hiking.
Starting point is 01:44:08 Hiking? Or how about a seaside stroll in Sicily? Ooh, I do love canoes. Wait, what do you think of... With a world of destinations to choose from, good luck picking just one. Air Canada. Nice travels. I think as you have experiences related to more of the higher
Starting point is 01:44:32 centers, you also see the, that like love is is a sort of intelligent field that you're returning to that like kind of exists and unites the whole. And so it is both that feels like the developmental process both a building up and also like a returning to. And now that we've sort of, you know, we've gone through the seven stages and an emphasis on on the lower three to build into the higher four. We were speaking to this piece on integrity because I think as you wake up to your own unique gifts, your own
Starting point is 01:45:18 contribution to the collective, there's like different levels of perceiving what integrity means. What does it mean to move through the world from a state of integrity, which integritas, like the etymolus, like the etymolone, of the word means undivided, a sense of wholeness. And that's something that I think has been a big theme and desire in my life and is important to reflect on. How would you describe the feeling of integrity?
Starting point is 01:45:47 How do you know when you're in integrity? So this is actually, and thanks, by the way, for looking at a piece I started writing and sharing me some of yours as well. It's been great to kind of go back and forth. But there's like many things, you can look at it from many perspectives. And on the surface, integrity looks like having alignment between your words and actions. So you do what you say and you say what you do. And you keep commitments.
Starting point is 01:46:23 And that's a monumental step in a world of individuals who don't do that. Right. And so that's definitely a level of it. the subtler exploration of integrity is to pay attention keenly to not just actions, but the motivations that those actions spring forth from. And so the thoughts and emotions and desires that are driving actions are also a form of action. They're just more subtle and less perceivable from the outside in. So even though you sit there and you look like, yeah, you're nodding at me,
Starting point is 01:47:00 you could be thinking and feeling all sorts of things. What the hell is he talking about? I know, I've never experienced that. And so for me, like integrity, to answer your question directly is the feeling of undividedness, a feeling of wholeness in self where I'm moving through the world and not only am I not acting in a way that has prejudice towards others. I'm also not feeling or thinking in a way that has prejudice towards others. There's a sense of transparency, you know? Yes, yeah. So I think the first thing is,
Starting point is 01:47:38 is if we recognize that within us, we have all these levels of development, right? We have the animal, we have the kind of the child, we have all the levels of development that are out there in the world within us. So the first thing, integrity has to do with the fact that you have a line of communication all the way through, right? So that means that there's not that all of the parts of you, all of the levels of development
Starting point is 01:48:13 are welcomed and embraced in a radical wholeness. Like there's a sense of wholeness because you have been willing to feel and know all of the different parts of you. So, for instance, the part of you, as we said, like that has a sense of destiny, the part of you that is sensitive and wants to be, you know, part of a larger whole, the part of you that is ambitious
Starting point is 01:48:40 and has drive, right, and wants to make something of himself. The part of you, the part of me that wants pleasure and wants to feel good. The part of me that wants to feel secure. So the whole stack, right? the whole, all of the levels. So first, there's that kind of integrity,
Starting point is 01:49:01 which I think is that's the, like, our psychological integrity. And for sure, there's also a kind of physiological dimension of that because I think it's difficult to have that and kind of like walk through the world. There's a sense I have that integrity has a relationship to architecture and structure, that there's actually structure that is able to handle pressure, right?
Starting point is 01:49:32 Yeah, you see, you look at a system or a building that was architected well. You would say it has integrity. It has integrity, right? So the personality structure has integrity and the anatomical structure has integrity. And all the ancients said that there's some relationship between the two, not exactly the same, meaning you could have back issues and have super psychological integrity, but to the extent that the training in Hata Yoga is really a training in, like, how to hold, how to have integrity.
Starting point is 01:50:07 So that's what you alluded to is like the radical wholeness to the whole of your interior, your interior family. And that you're not, I'm. I'm not surprised by any one particular part. It doesn't matter if I feel, if I feel anxiety, if I recognize that I'm anxious, then I won't be motivated by anxiety, right? So there's a degree of transparency with your experience.
Starting point is 01:50:40 I think that, you know, I like to look at this model of beauty, truth, and goodness. So the first, the interior piece I think has got to do with beauty and perspective so that you have integrity in your perspective. You have integrity in how you see the world. There's also the relationship with that can't be, that can't have, in order to be fully to full integrity, there also has to be an integrity with culture. meaning we have to be able and willing to see all of the levels of development within culture and be able to see them in a non-reactive way, understanding where people are at without being pulled
Starting point is 01:51:42 by it, so that we could actually have a sense of radical wholeness with what's happening with the world. and therefore actually respond in an appropriate way. And I think the third part of integrity has to do with like a kind of evolutionary integrity, which is what we kind of started with, which is if you and I are part of this larger planetary system, and that planetary system is going through a transformative phase, your alignment, my alignment with that, is the deepest form of aligning with gravity. To really have integrity with your anatomy, you have to be able to like let go so that you can actually be upright. But to let go physically means you actually have to recognize that there's a force that's coming through you and taking you into the ground.
Starting point is 01:52:48 that force, which is, you know, we call it gravity, but from a psychological force you could almost say that it is like love pulling you into matter. There is a comparable dimension to that, which is the planet itself, as I said, is doing something right now, and are we aligned with that? If you and I are aligned with a fact that we recognize that this planet, the humanity is going to be going to be
Starting point is 01:53:19 going through a significant shift, if we recognize that part of what's happening here is the fruition of fire and can fire come to the heart. So to the extent that I recognize that I'm part of a cohort of millions of other souls who are also doing that, and that my heart is aware of that in a horizontal way. So paradoxically, and this comes back to the crucifixion metaphor, that actually integrity has to do with a horizontal degree of embrace, of your brothers and your sisters, and a vertical degree of release into what's happening in sacred world,
Starting point is 01:54:07 like, arms wide and verticality. And when you get both of those two, like the sense of like sacred, verticality and horizontal and the ability to maintain both, I think that that's then that's some, that's some strong integrity. Yeah. Yeah, that relationship as you move through the world
Starting point is 01:54:32 from that state of integrity, I think, is a really interesting piece there because now as we go on our journey and we're revealing what our own, own Dharma is, so to speak, the unique puzzle piece that we are to this universe, you get to meet relationships and opportunities and challenges fruitfully, like with a sense of, with that sense of integrity. What do you think is important to remind people there in the discovery of their own
Starting point is 01:55:07 Dharma? Like, how do you feel like that really comes online? and becomes clear for people. So let me just see if I understand this. What you're pointing to is, it's a deeper level of integrity helps you discover your Dharma because it's kind of hardwired into you. Well, you spoke one aspect of integrity is alignment, right?
Starting point is 01:55:37 Yeah, that's great. So like alignment with self and alignment into a proper relationship with the world then puts you perfectly in the position to, to be here to do what you're supposed to be doing in a sense. So Dharma, the word Dharma means duty. So one has to have that sense of good sense of attachment and attunement. Dharma really is connected to this third phase, if you will, of strength of self to duty.
Starting point is 01:56:15 I mean, that sounds terribly old-fashioned. Right? But actually, well, it is old-fashioned because Dharma comes from that level of us that is related to the Knights of the Round Table, that is related to virtue, that is related to being willing to sacrifice for something higher. So I do think that there's part of discovering that has to do with with the necessary part of training the mind. Because in order to get in contact, let's say the Dharma resided in your heart,
Starting point is 01:57:00 it's something that is deep in your heart. In order for you and I to access that, we're gonna have to be able to access the heart. So which means that the childhood sense of safety and security, a sense of attunement needs to be there, but really what we're talking about here is a sense of strength, and a willingness to sacrifice the self
Starting point is 01:57:22 to recognize something that is deeper. So the sense of integrity, I think, it's related to sacrifice, it's related the willingness to perhaps even suffer for what your art is. I mean, the truth is, is that any of us who has a sense of our Dharma, there is some degree of suffering,
Starting point is 01:57:50 if you will, necessary to bring it forth, even if that suffering is having to go to school or having to, right, so there is some friction that needs to happen. So it needs, Dharma needs a strong sense of self in order to be able to carry it. does that speak to what you're asking me?
Starting point is 01:58:22 Kind of. Yeah, I think what I'm interested here maybe, you spoke to a little bit how intuition and imagination work together to sort of illuminate the path forward. So as somebody grows on their own path, I'm curious about how you think those two work together to sort of illuminate what one feels is going to be best use of their time energy.
Starting point is 01:58:51 How intuition, imagination. Yeah, how they work together. Okay. Okay. As a way of revealing Dharma.
Starting point is 01:58:59 There's something that comes up there? That's a great question. If our intuition, what we're saying is it's a, I mean, there's lower kind of hunches,
Starting point is 01:59:10 but what we're talking about here is heartfelt, right, our heartfelt intuition. So to the extent that that we are realizing that we're in a time of transition and that our care for the world, that this is going to be a transformation of the heart, that it's about the technologies of love,
Starting point is 01:59:40 the technologies of resonance, or it goes the other way. But to the extent, to the extent that you're, that you allow, your intuition into your imagination. So what does that mean? It does mean that we have to be able to imagine that world that our hearts know is good and true and beautiful. It's a really, it's really important for all of us, for our listeners, to particularly at this time, to take time to imagine what the flowering might look like. Because it's because it's the imagination of the world. It's how we imagine the world to be.
Starting point is 02:00:37 That's really what filters down into the physical world. So the first thing is we have to imagine what that future looks like and also have a sense and imagine like. and imagine like what's your role in that world, right? There's another way of thinking about this and just play with me a little bit on this, but let's say at night we fall asleep and we leave our bodies
Starting point is 02:01:11 and that world that we know is true and beautiful, that civilization already exists. The problem is, as all the great sages have said, is the amnesia, that when we come back, we're not able to remember. And so many of the initiatory systems are about remembering. The traditions say that we're externalizing that world. We're trying to birth that world into matter. So even if that isn't true, the thing is about the imagination is what your brain imagines
Starting point is 02:01:49 to be real. It kind of, it experiences as real. So if we take the idea that actually that all of our listeners, at night, we fall asleep, and you're already in that world, and it's working the way it's meant to work, and you have a particular function and a particular gift that you're giving in that ancient future village, you're already doing it. And then you come back to this world and you forget, I don't know what the hell I'm meant to be doing. So the thing about love, what the traditions say, is love has the capacity to feel through. the realms. So what the tradition say is, particularly the Wheel of Time tradition, says it's your love for that future, which is also already here, that helps you begin to, it begins to inform your imagination. Because allowing yourself to imagine what this world could be in 20 or 30 or 40 years
Starting point is 02:02:51 time, but a world that is actually beautiful and a world that you have an important place in in terms of what it is you're doing. You have, because the self, and we mentioned this earlier, the self is relational. What that means is yourself is always in a world. The self is linked to a world. It's what they call it in the Buddhist tradition, Namarupa, meaning you've constructed a world and a self at the same time. Does that make sense? Like you actually can't separate. Your sense of self isn't separate from the story that you tell yourself about the world is out there.
Starting point is 02:03:41 So listeners, as you're reflecting on the world out there, it constellates the self. And that's who you are right now. It's who we are right now. So if we want to make a change, if we want to change the self, but we also want to change the world, those two are linked.
Starting point is 02:04:03 What that means is whatever self is in that world is a difference. It's a different self. It's changed. It's transformed. So to the extent that you actually, and this is what they call in tantalphemy, This is called taking the fruit as the path.
Starting point is 02:04:20 Taking the fruit means is to the extent that you allow yourself to imagine, based on a world, not, so this is not like your personal desire, right? This is based on the desire of the heart. So to the extent that you desire to live in a university planet, a garden oasis of truth and beauty and goodness, sounds naive, but you know what? we're actually, like, it's either going to be that or ash. So let's, like, it's either going to go one way or the other way. So let's like, so to the extent it goes the way that we want it to go,
Starting point is 02:04:59 dial in to the extent you allow yourself to imagine what that world looks like, what it feels like, what the relationships feels like, what the financial system is, to the extent that you begin to allow your imagination, which in the traditions, the imagination, is an organ or perception, to the extent that you begin to imagine that future world, and what they say on the wheel of time is actually that future world is the world that you go to when you fall asleep at night anyway. So what's in the future is also what's within, as you begin to allow yourself to imagine the seats that you have, the circle that you're in,
Starting point is 02:05:41 the qualities of relationship that we have, that will then begin to help you kind of imagine this self, will have a little bit more of a sense of who you imagine yourself to be. And because that's actually connected to sacred world, because when you align with that dream, that's the dream that you have. It's the dream that I have. It's the dream that Chelsea has.
Starting point is 02:06:10 It's the dream that probably every other person who's listed, to this has that dream if they let themselves dream it. It not only is our dream, it's also the planet's dream. So to the extent that we allow ourselves to take the dreaming seriously, then the qualities begin to come, right? Then the intuition begins to work and that it engages that synchronic process and begins to draw circumstances to you. And to the extent that you're like that you realize quite honestly that your Dharma is worth dying for. Because the transition to realize your Dharma, all of us, like, when you were a child, you had to die from being a child and become an adolescent, right?
Starting point is 02:07:02 And when you were an adolescent, you had to die to become an adult. So clearly what all the traditions say is there's a death process here. The question is, is it a conscious dying process in a good way where we lock on to something that's good and true and beautiful and we are willing and we feel the energy and the commitment to sacrifice for something? Do we have that sense of duty? Because we all have, right, we all have a sense of duty, that sense of virtue. And to the extent that you and I are aligned with it,
Starting point is 02:07:39 then Dharma comes and slowly but surely you kind of you know we awaken in a new world with a with a with a sense of duty that's embodied and good that's that's how the that's how the tradition like how that's how the Tibetan tradition in some ways points to the magic of how how that happens yeah it seems like whether it's projections that we have are desires for what we want the world to see or feel into it a more beautiful world or that version for our own individual lives, the hanging out in the imaginable realm to kind of feel what it feels like and sense what it would be like. Like our neurology doesn't necessarily know the difference between something we experience and something we imagine. It doesn't know the difference. And so what's interesting with the AI, this is where. If we think about some of this tech is it's going to reveal our imaginations to us in a very concrete way.
Starting point is 02:08:53 And you're right, the brain doesn't know the difference between what we imagine to be real or what is real. So we're going to be given, it's coming a technology to the extent where we can probably, whatever we imagine, we're going to be able to some extent make real. So the question is, is like, are we, are we, our imaginations aligned with like beauty, truth and goodness? Because that, I think that's the, that's the judgment. It's like, can we imagine something that is, that is beautiful and good and true? I think we can do that if we feel safe, you know, if we, if we are, if we feel attuned. to if we have a sense of sovereignty and we have a sense of connection, then of course we can create something that's beautiful.
Starting point is 02:09:50 On the other hand, if we don't, then I thought, you know, we see so much of that kind of apocalyptic imagery in the collective conscience, you know, it's interesting because we see that in the movies. We don't see a lot of what's possible. of what could be beautiful. I mean, when I think of movies, like, it's only maybe in like Marvel with Wakanda that you get a sense of like,
Starting point is 02:10:20 well, what could be something that was high tech and included these previous levels of development? We don't have a lot of that. And so we all need to, we all need to be willing to imagine it together. Seems like it really comes to be through, well, one conversation. Like we talk about it.
Starting point is 02:10:45 What does it feel like? What is it like? Because our, your vision of a more beautiful world is probably slightly different, although overlapping in many different ways than my own, right? And in talking about it
Starting point is 02:10:57 and I think that's why it's so, community is so important also is because we kind of fill in the gaps. Two things that come to mind. One is a fellow teacher of mine who he's been doing some this envisioning work with some of his core students separately, and then they come back together. And of course, they're surprised as to how much they're beginning to agree on these pieces.
Starting point is 02:11:28 And I've also seen a sort of piece of work just recently where a colleague, Skyla and Ari, came back from the Netherlands, where essentially what they had done was interview a whole, community of people about what they envisioned together and then kind of took all of that processed it and then generated an AI movie so that they could all begin to see and share together in that dream. So I think you're right. We have to communicate with one another. We have to share with one another. One of the things I like to say to my students is is communion community comments. We need to have a sense,
Starting point is 02:12:23 we need to have an experience of that communion. We then need to learn to be able to stay in that field of communion and start sharing it with one another. Because I think one thing that's happened in our culture is because we, we don't, because the commons of our culture doesn't have a discourse around the sacred or around like very deep, like, there's not much, there aren't spaces to go where people can share the kind of the deep interior experiences they've had of the sacred. So because we
Starting point is 02:13:08 don't communicate with one another, we don't know the jewel. that each of us are holding. So again, this comes back to that, the importance of that fourth phase where the heroes, tied after a certain chapter, are able to come together and start to communicate and share
Starting point is 02:13:34 what it is that we're all seeing. I think that that's the opportunity that there's a technological, opportunity to be able to do that. It's in some ways, actually, I think that's our, that's part of our duty. Our duty right now and for our listeners is recognize we've all been on that heroic, individualistic phase. And there's a need for us to be able to come together and begin to share and communicate
Starting point is 02:14:11 what it is that we're seeing. because I think the world's going to get kind of interesting. It already is. It's more and more by the day. Yeah. What do you think with the context of this whole prior conversation would be important that we haven't already? Is there something that comes to mind that feels pertinent?
Starting point is 02:14:35 Wow. Jean? Jean. I think the one thing that is pertinent is that, is that, and just important is that every, every listener here recognizes that they're part of a larger cohort, that they're not alone. Right. And that when you're not alone, wherever you are right now as you're listening to this,
Starting point is 02:15:08 that whilst you might be alone physically, just be open to the fact and the truth that there are hundreds and thousands of millions of other souls on this planet right now that that love you that love that see the world that wants to be born and that you can we can rely upon that as a source of strength in these coming in these coming years i think that that's we're not alone it's the sense of separation that is that that is the um that makes it so difficult and hopefully as the physical spaces start to become more prevalent you know where people can come and have those shared values and realizations and insight be among community uh these digital spaces can be the the the version of that that kind of carries us and
Starting point is 02:16:12 starts to connect us with the tribe that I think is going to be really supportive and that's what I strive for this channel to be. And I think more and more as you're sharing your work online, what a gift it is to be able to live in a time where we have the capacity to be able to reach people from all walks of life on the other side of the planet. That's right. And that is unique to this generation and civilization unlike any other time.
Starting point is 02:16:36 Well, and the community. the community of people who right now are listening to this, whilst it might be virtual. Virtual doesn't mean that the quality of relationship, that there is a field here. So when people view your podcast, what I would say is, is that you are viewing a node, a room, but there are thousands and thousands of other souls, like, there with you. So don't having, when we passed through COVID, we had to shift on my teaching. So much of my teaching went online. And one of the things I realized then was that there is a, we have this enchantment of disenchantment.
Starting point is 02:17:28 What I mean by that is, as our friends are watching us right now, they think that there's like, that they're just watching a screen and that there's no connection. So the first thing is we have to dispel that enchantment and disenchantment so that whenever people take time to watch what's happening in here, that they are also realizing that they're tapping into a subtle dimension and that there is that this is a, that you know thyself is a node, if you will, that they, yes, they're watching something, but they can also feel that there's something here. Because that structure is real, right? The virtual, the virtual, if you will, is a way that we give
Starting point is 02:18:22 form to a quality of the invisible. So, yeah, you have a real community here and no doubt as it continues to build, it's going to precipitate more and more into actual gatherings, you know, with real events. Yeah. No, it's happening. And I'm very excited for it because no doubt you can feel connected to a community. I certainly do. I know by virtue of the comments, people feel very connected to not only the ideas that are
Starting point is 02:18:56 being talked about in the podcast, but the, uh, the, uh, the tribe that's all tuning into it as well. I'm excited for it to be translated also to more in-person stuff. If people want to get connected to the nodes you're putting out there and the offerings that you have, we'll leave links down in description where people can stay connected with you and your work. But what's the most, yeah.
Starting point is 02:19:24 What's coming up? So, you know, we offer a, well, the first thing is We have a new year retreat. That's called embodying the open ground. And that retreat, I think that's the second to the fourth of January, 26. The open ground work is the synthesis of the non-dual with the deep attachment healing. So that is one of the cycles of teaching that we teach. It's super accessible.
Starting point is 02:19:58 And it works with healing those attachments. those attachment injuries and opening up the kind of the non-dual love wisdom mind simultaneously. So that's super accessible and people really, really enjoy that. We have a two-year program, so that begins every fall. So next fall we have the Cedar cohort. We've had an Aspern and a Banyan, and so we have the Cedar cohort. That begins in the fall of next year, the fall of 2026. And that's a bodhisattva, a planetary bodhisattva training.
Starting point is 02:20:39 So essentially within the kind of the trait, within the context of the bodhisattva tradition of Christ consciousness, it's really a training for those who are engaged in or interested in what does that kind, what does that path look like in the 21st century? So that's in the fall and we have an intro. So if you're interested in that, then there's an intro in April. It's like a weekend, 24th to the 26th of next year of 2026.
Starting point is 02:21:11 So we have that open retreat, open ground. There's an intro. And then we have the full kind of two-year curriculum. And folks can go to the website, www. Do people still say that? Just you. Just me. Planetarydharma.com.
Starting point is 02:21:35 And they can find out more information, though. Sweet. Yeah. We'll leave links down below. I know some people from our last conversation attended and your work and we're definitely positively impacted. So happy to support. And yeah, man, thank you.
Starting point is 02:21:52 It's been a pleasure to continue to dive in and be in conversation together. My pleasure. bust out the whiteboard and talk about planetary transformation, let both of our nerdy little boys come out. It's great. Yeah, thank you. And I'd love to just, I'd love to, we were going to record a meditation later, and we'll just leave that as a gift so the folks can access that on the clips channel.
Starting point is 02:22:14 Yeah, yeah, we can definitely do that. Great. Thank you, man. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, for anybody who wants to listen to that guided meditation process, we'll just leave a link down in description to view that. YouTube and go from there. Thank you.
Starting point is 02:22:28 Thank you. Chelsea, thank you. Until next time, be well. Know thyself. Thank you, bro. Did it. The Madamy Holmes bike for brain health supporting Baycrest returns on May 31st
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