Tara Brach - Spiritual Empowerment (2016-09-28)

Episode Date: October 1, 2016

Spiritual Empowerment (2016-09-28) - When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious strategies of seeking power, and the ways that mindful and compassionate awareness reconnects us to the source of true empowerment. When empowered we are tapped into the universal flow of love, wisdom and creativity, and are free to respond to life with "a heart that is ready for anything." Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara  

Greetings. We offer these podcasts freely and your support really makes a difference. To make a donation, please visit tarabrock.com. Welcome. It's really lovely to be here. As many of you know, I've been away for almost a month doing some writing, a writing project. I'm trying to put together a book proposal. And I wanted to share with you what happened quite a bit at the home stretch of that process. everything was pretty much flowing and fine and then right towards the end I got a bit of a sinus infection and I had one full day left to get out a final batch of stuff to my editor

and I started getting tight around that just anticipating I was going to get back into the fray and not have time to put the pieces together and so on so I decided I really had to get my act together for that last day and I did something I rarely do, which is I kind of intervened and took some cold medicine to work on the congestion and so that I'd be just a little more with it. So I took it and I started in, I got it to the computer and I was really ready to, you know, all guns ablaze and in about 45 minutes I felt like I had been hit over the head with a sledgehammer.

It's like my brain was pure fuzz. I was just completely in a trance and I realized I had taken by mistake the nighttime cold medicine. I took the green pill not the red pill. Anyway, well, I was a zombie through the whole day and even in my zombiehood I had enough energy to do a little self-flagellation. I could not believe I had sacrificed my last day to being in the thickness of, you know,

like this kind of trance. So, you know, the day had really mattered. And Jonathan watched me staggering around. He told me that someday I'd look back and laugh, but it wasn't right then, you know. But it was really interesting that somewhere about an hour in, even there's this kind of inner zombie voice that said, watch your mind.

Now, not a huge amount was happening in my mind, but there was enough of, you know, it was like there was an attitude. And the attitude that was that I was trudging through this predicament, I was kind of doomed, it was not a good thing, it was a problem, and there was a sense of being a victim of my own stupidity and just having to live with that, just kind of grudging and these flare-ups of resentment at having been so dumb. It was kind of like the plug had been pulled,

and I was like really resenting that. And so I started watching this trance that I was in with this self-scolting and so on. And the more that I witnessed it, the more on some level the plug was put back in the socket and it wasn't like I became alert, I didn't. But I wasn't in a trance. There was some background awareness

that was just noticing, okay, it's like this, we'll do these little online things we can do in this state of mind since we can't think creatively or clearly, but there was a sense of, okay, this is the kind of day it is. I wasn't at war anymore. And that shift came just from the sense of that rather than being the zombie in the trance, there was a way to bear witness, to watch, and have some more choice. And I actually at one moment thought, wow, I actually feel empowered. Even though I'm not going to get anything done I wanted to get done, there was a sense of being free

to choose how I was relating to the day. So I wanted to start with that story because it's an example of how in a small way life doesn't cooperate. We don't cooperate and others don't cooperate and it also happens as we know in really deep and big ways that we really lose our health or someone that we love does or that we get into a financial squeeze that really keeps us from being able to feel like we can live our moments or something's going on with our children that's really, really deeply disturbing. And what happens to us usually, especially if we haven't done much practice, is if there's not a

witnessing so much, we are inside the... separate self that feels oppressed, victimized, and caught in a problem. So there's not a choice on how to relate. We're disempowered. It happens to us. Individually, it happens as a society that we get insecure and we go into a trance or we just try to control things. And that's what I was doing. The beginning of my trance was when I had, I sensed that I had this infection and that I wasn't going to be able to get what I wanted done. Life wasn't cooperating and I tried to take control by taking, you know, medicating myself. And then the second round of the trance was then I was the victim in that, you know, and I was trying,

you know, and I was trying to take control really by judging myself. We do that. When life doesn't cooperate, we go in a trance and we try to take control. And when it happens on a societal level there can be a lot of violence. So I read a book some years ago and I want to read how it begins. It starts with a story of an Austrian woman named Clara. She's made pregnant by a married uncle and then when his wife dies he marries her. All of her children die soon after birth.

Finally she has her fourth child who's sickly. So she's, this is an example of life's not cooperating, vulnerable and secure. She nurses for two years obsessively. This is her trying to take control. He tried to get away from the nipple and she'd force it as if that would be what would make him live. She was also obsessive about having a spotless house and she lived in fear of her husband's beatings. So her son grew up to be excessively fearful and controlling in his own way as an adult. He was a vegetarian who was afraid of microbes, of germs, of dirt.

He felt the very blood in his veins was dangerous because of the incest and would bring around defects and feeble-mindedness. He was afraid of gossip about his incestuous family. He never had children. He was afraid of tainted blood. And he was terrified of cancer, which took his mother's life. And he was horrified that he had suckled at diseased breasts. He was also afraid of moonlight and horses of snow, water, the dark,

of judges of Americans, of old men and poets. So this is, again, the trance. And when we're in trance, there's a controlling and monitoring every part of our life. and the question is, how could anyone live with so much fear? Well, this man seized on one all-encompassing explanation for the existence of sin and disease and for his failures and disappointments. There was no weakness in his parents, in his blood, in his mind.

That was all faultless. Others were felfth. He could not change his china blue eyes, but he could change the world they saw. He would identify the secret source of every evil and rooted out. Free Europe of pollution and defilement. Only health and purity would remain. Are such grim and comic facts significant or merely interesting?

Here's another. The doctor who could not cure Clara Hitler's cancer was Jewish. So what I'm talking about now and what we're going to explore is the kind of trance where we feel disempowered and insecure and we grasp for control. And how that robs us, whenever we're trying to control, whether it's the small ways that I was trying to do it, are these ways where we try to grasp control and ruin our relationships with others

and hurt other beings. Whatever level, it's a trance. And how do we wake up from that trance of being insecure and control, and really come home into trusting the awareness and the love which is what we really can plug into. Anything else we try to secure ourself with doesn't really work. So this is really the invitation of spiritual life. It's to, rather than to seek power, try to manipulate our world, it's to discover the source of all power, that awareness and love that really gives us a sense of profound security

and freedom, it's really that the empowerment that comes when we've connected with timeless spirit. And I love the way Victor Frankel describes it since I invoked Hitler, I'd like to invoke the response to when that control and violence comes your way. How do you find empowerment then? And here's what he writes. He says, We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of his human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any set of circumstances,

to choose one's own way. So that's empowerment. The freedom to be able to choose our attitude, our response to what's going on, no matter what it is. So I'd like to explore in this class what spiritual empowerment is, what does it mean to be authentically empowered, free to choose our attitude. And I'll start with the more common understanding and definitions of empowerment. Often they're considered in the more societal context, which is really the more the degree to which different peoples and populations within a society have access to resources.

Access to food and housing and education and justice. So that's, you know, the domains of shared concern. How much do you have access to it? That's generally empowerment in a social level. And then we think of it individually as we're empowered when we have access to our own resourcefulness, to the qualities that we most value in ourselves in those moments. And you know what it's like when you feel like at work that you're actually accessing your clarity or your capacity, some mastery in some area whether it's writing or being persuasive

or helping other people, whatever happens to be. We feel empowered creatively when in some way we're accessing and channeling that creative talent. When it's in sports it's when we're in the flow and there's that sense of agility and energy and skill there. So there's different ways that we each can feel empowered at different times. But if they're hitched to our body being in certain condition or our mind being clear, being able to do certain things that clearly come and go, we're in trouble. Because our empowerment, if it's dependent on us, you know, having our athletic prowess, forget it.

one little story. Her two elderly couples were enjoying a friendly conversation and one of the men was sharing that he was going to a memory clinic now because he was having such trouble remembering things. He described the different techniques they're using visualization, association, what a difference it was making. And then his friend asked him what the name of the clinic was. And of course he went blank, which is what happens.

And then a smile broke across his face and he said, and he asked, you know, what do you call that flower with long stem and thorns? And the friend said, you mean rose? He goes, yes, that's it. Hey, Rose, what was the name of that clinic? So the typical ways we try to feel empowered

are unreliable. And that's where we turn to what is spiritual empowerment, which is really the process by which we learn to come into presence and access the awareness and the love which is timeless. That is spiritual empowerment. So we'll look at that and we're going to look at it mostly from a sense of how in each of our consciousness we can begin to access that more. But I want to name that it's as much a valued way of accessing empowerment to

empower each other. Every time you encounter someone and you see looking through their eyes that spirit, that goodness, that love, that consciousness, and in some way you let them know, you mirror it back, that reminder is an empowerment. We empower people when we help them reconnect with the truth of who they are. And that's what good friends do. In spiritual traditions, and This is particularly true in the Tibetan tradition. The relationship between teacher and student or guru and chelo, however you want to describe it, involves empowerment. It involves a transmission where the teacher who's supposedly more spiritually awake is able

to help the person they're with recognize their own consciousness, their own awake awareness. So we help each other be more plugged into the source. and for each of us it's an ongoing part of our own awakening to be able to turn our attention from our typical strategies of trying to control and make ourselves secure and begin to rely on and turn towards that source that's within each of us. That's the path.

One of the metaphors I find really helpful when I'm thinking about this, It actually initially I heard it through Joseph Campbell and he describes this big circle and that's awareness and he describes a line that's going through it. And he says everything that's above the line is consciousness, awake awareness and everything below is unconsciousness. That's sometimes called the shatter or whatever but the idea is whatever's not in awareness we get identified with. So the process of waking up is to bring the contents of our

psyche that we haven't been seeing and feeling into the light of awareness. But what happens when we're living from below the line? That's the realm, below the line, is the realm of trance. It's where there's not that choice to choose our attitude. Instead we're living on automatic in a kind of reactivity where when life doesn't cooperate, which happens all the time. We want more pleasure and less pain and so when it's not exactly how we want it, life's not cooperating, when we're living under the line, we're in a kind of reactive trance where

we're trying to control things to make them the way we want them. And it's a limbic reactivity that we used to gain power and security to defend ourselves. And you can see it if you begin to investigate in all our relationships. That's where I want to spend a little time because in a sense through the animal kingdom there's hierarchies of power. There's animals and they know where they stand, especially some species more than others. And in human animals you can certainly see it in our societies how control works. Now it ranges from explicit hierarchies of power to more implicit, but it's every bit there.

Whether you're talking about feudal or autocracies or whether you're talking about a democracy, still look at a democracy and whether it's government or whether it's in our institutions, and education, in our way, in racism and classism, there's hierarchies of power. So we see it there and we also see it between us. as individuals. If we begin to be honest, we'll notice that in every relationship there's some background monitoring of where the power is. And by power, like, who has more influence, who's more in charge? Who has more impact on the emotional tenor here? Who's more needing something and more vulnerable? That is all in a very usually unconscious way weighed out.

And then of course there's internal power struggles where we have our egos trying to have control over the more libidinal parts of us. So it's on every level that power is right at the center of things. And Nietzsche called this as the well to power is the primary drive in our human existence. this energy that wants to control and be in power. The primary drive. And Adler, a very well-known psychologist, said that described it also as whenever we feel insecure

or inferior, that activates this drive for control and power. Eastern cosmologies describe it energetically that when we're in flow, when all the energy centers are open, really our power is coming through the universe through us and that's empowerment. But when we begin to grasp, when we begin to try to control things, especially this, it's called the Dantian or the Naval Chakra, closes up. And so we're finding power from a much more limited, tight, contracted source, that sense of a separate cell. And then in Buddhism, we describe it as, you know, when the there's a grasping after power that exacerbates the sense of a separate cell, this illusion that we need to control.

What we're going to be exploring is like all compensatory strategies, trying to control things, ends up working temporarily to give us a sense of safety and over time it ends up keeping us from the one place and one state of heart-mind where we actually have access to empowerment. It keeps us from presence. You can't be trying to control things and at the same time be open, receptive and present. They don't go together. What we'll do is take a look because it's the beginning of making that shift from trance where we're trying to control unconsciously everything to this wakefulness where we can be empowered,

the beginning place to explore is to become aware of our particular strategies of controlling. Now, I'm curious, even as I speak this far, how many of you feel like you're pretty onto yourself, you pretty much know in relationships and so on the ways that you try to control things? Can I just see by a show of hands? How many of you feel you're pretty aware of that? Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. For those of you that are listening to this podcast,

there was about 50%. I like to report in because we're part of such a larger community here. So what I'll do is name some of the basic ways that we try to control to see if you can find yourself in them. But first, a short reading from Robert Johnson. He's a youngian therapist. He says, The night before their marriage,

they held a ritual where they made their shadow vows. The groom said, I will give you an identity and make the world see you as an extension of myself. The bride replied, Oh, be compliant and sweet, but underneath I will have the real control.

If anything goes wrong, I'll take your money and your house. They then drank champagne and laughed heartily at their foibles, knowing that in the course of their marriage these shadow figures would inevitably come out, but they were ahead of the game because they had recognized the shadow and unmasked it. So it takes a kind of honesty because a lot of us feel like that's a really ugly thing

to be controlling and we're embarrassed about it and we don't want to admit it sometimes to ourselves or others and yet if we can recognize, that this is universal. All humans are wired to seek control. Now, we don't always seek it in the fashion of aggressively dominating others. I mean, think of a feudal system. One way of trying to seek control and security was to be the serf who aligned with where the power was

and was subservient in order to be under the protection of the power center. And that's another way, an indirect way of seeking power. Does that make sense? It's those that are attracted to people that seem strong. Okay? Different ways that we go about it. No, one is by directly dominating. That's a natural major way where we want to make the rules.

In other words, in a relationship, create the standards. This is how it has to be. This is the way we act. This is the way we speak. This is what we do. And then use in some way, emotionally or physically force, maybe intimidation, guilt, punishment to ensure that there's cooperation. And often it's with the sense that we want to get someone to change,

but that's still dominating. So you can see that with authoritarian parents that might use threats of punishment to get children to do things a certain way, or a partner that uses guilt in order to get their partner to behave the way they want them to, or a boss who humiliates an employee or are threatens to take away the position, or the way we dominate ourselves by creating standards of perfection and lording that over ourselves and then punishing ourselves with shaming ourselves

when we don't meet them. So that's dominating. And as we know, power over is a temporary effective means. and in the long run not so effective. One of the illustrations I'll share with you is of three clergymenics, actually a Catholic priest, a Baptist preacher and a rabbi, they all were chaplains in this Northern Michigan university town. And they'd get together now and then,

and they'd compare notes about, they'd talk shop, you know, about what they were doing. And they decided that preaching to people wasn't really hard, but they decided the challenge would be to preach to a bear. So one thing led to another, they decided to do an experiment. They'd all go to the woods, they'd find a bear, and they preached to it and attempt to convert it to their particular faith. And then they'd come back in seven days and report.

So first, Father Flannery, who he has his arm in a sling, but otherwise he seems to be okay. He says, well, I went into the woods and find me a bear, and when I found him, I began to read to him from the catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me. He began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him, and Holy Mary, Mother of God, he became gentle as a lamb.

The bishop's coming out next week to give him First Communion and confirmation. Okay, Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He's in a wheelchair, has one arm both legs and a cast, and his best fire and brimstone oratory. He says, well, brothers, you know we don't sprinkle. I went out and I found me a bear. And then I began to read to that bear from God's Holy Word, but that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took hold of him and we began to wrestle and we wrestled down one hill and up another and down another came to a creek. So I quickly dunked him and I baptized his hairy soul.

And just like you said, he became gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus. Hallelujah. Then the priest and the reverend both looked down at the rabbi. Now the rabbi's lying in a hospital bed. He's in bodycast and traction with IVs and monitors running in and out of him. he's in really bad shape. The rabbi looked up and said,

looking back on it, circumcision might not have been the best way to start. It's not my best illustration of domination, but it was the one that I found in my files. I thought I'd share it. That's one way of control. Another way I'll mention right now is that we try to seek power

by manipulating people's impression of us. and I often reflect on how much we do, how much of our behavior and the way we speak to others and the way we dress and the way we act is to get a certain response. There is how much we're using our behaviors to get people to like us, to respect us, to admire us, to want to vote for us, to do what we say, that kind of thing. And we use all sorts of, we use our mask or behaviors with little niceties or flattery or acting knowledgeable and we don't know so much or acting concerned when it's the right thing to be, entertaining people. So, again, this is, in some way we're trying to give the message, you know, here's the kind of person I am and get in response that they, will either give us their money or their vote or their affection or their approval.

But that manipulation is another way that we're controlling, we're trying to seek power. And we do it again out of insecurity. Okay? So they're dominating others, making the rules, trying to get them to behave, trying to impress others and get a certain response, manipulate how they're perceiving us. Then another way that we seek power is, is when we feel we've just lost power. In other words, if you feel rejected or lied to or ignored or in some way put down,

there's a huge energy that wants to reclaim your power by getting back at the other. I'm sure you've noticed it. It's deep in us getting back at. I watch it in little children because it's the most obvious. I remember with my son we'd play and wrestle and if I in some way pushed him or got him in a certain way he had to get me back three times as much

to feel like we were equal I don't know what it was but it's that getting back in order to feel okay about ourselves and it has with it the energy of anger which is the energy of disempowered and trying to

overcome an obstacle and it's addictive The sense of getting back for most adults takes the form of judgment. You've hurt me, I judge you, I try to put you down so I'm up. Does that make sense? Okay. So this is another way that we, and it becomes very chronic, that we're, because we often are feeling insecure,

then in some way we're putting down others to feel better, about ourselves. In a societal way, these different modes of controlling, of dominating, manipulating and so on, make it so that we've got a limbic-dominated society. And you can see it that in order to change, and we're talking a lot about changing by investigating under the line in our individual consciousness, but we also need to shine a light on how our society are under the line? How are society's way of seeking control? Whether it's through racial dominance, you know, this pervasive unconsciousness of white bias, keeping whites on top, or whether it's the

deceit in political exchanges or aggression against other peoples, you know, creating fears you have to then aggress against others, or whether it's our aggression against the earth, living below the line as individuals and as cultures creates deep harm. So we're going to do some reflections in practice with where we sense ourselves living below the line. But it's important to sense again the attitude as we approach this. If you want to shift from seeking power to empowerment, the attitude is critical. And the attitude is understanding it's not so personal.

It's not really your control strategy. It's really our human ways of trying to control. It's rigged into our nervous systems. It's part of our culture. The given is that we get entranced and react by trying to control. So if you can take away the... that the judgment about it, to not feel embarrassed or judgmental towards the fact that you have your own control strategies, then you'll actually be free to shine the light of awareness

on them and not be so identified. You'll have more choice in stepping out. So we're going to look at how we begin to make this shift now from below the line controlling others to really responding for more freedom. And the shift is just as we explore really in all the different teachings, it's bringing mindfulness and heartfulness to the place we feel stuck. Always start right where we are, right where we're stuck, right where we sense ourselves below the line controlling. And I'll give you a sense in my own life of how that worked out because a lot of times the controlling is most obvious with those closest into you.

And so for me, one of the most really very vivid memories was with my son through high school of how much my perception was that he wasn't trying hard enough. And because he wasn't trying hard enough, he would end up not being fulfilled and having a happy life. That was my way my brain was going. and he partly agreed that he wasn't trying hard enough. Like he was pretty honest guy. And he agreed that he didn't have a wide range of interest.

But one of my complaints about him was that I said, you know, you have no wholesome interests. And I didn't quite use the word wholesome, but, you know, nothing, you know, enriching, that kind of thing. He didn't completely buy that because he felt like his video games were enriching. He played Magic the Gathering, this card game that's very, very complex and exciting to him, and he felt like his social life counted, so it wasn't that he had no interest. So we got into stuff. But what I'm sharing here is that I was very much in control mode. My controlling strategy was being judgmental and being critical.

There were so many conversations where whatever came up, all roads would lead to, you need to try harder. I was chronically annoyed. I say this with a sense of sadness. I look back and, wow, that that's the trance. And it went through a number of years of high school and then senior year, as many parents do, I went, wow, this is like a flash he's going to be out of here.

And I really didn't want to stay hooked in that controlling energy. So that's when I started deepening my attention and really sitting with my agitation and anger. Now, I had done many rounds of it, you know, where I had kind of been with myself and at times made little breakthroughs and we'd have conversations. But at this point, I realized as I was investigating

underneath controlling, of course, was fear. His life won't work out well. And also a layer of this grief that if he doesn't try, we won't be close because he'll never emerge into a more whole being, you'll never have interest that we can share, we'll never really have a way to connect. So there was the underneath, the controlling was actually a grasping after love and connection. Does that make sense?

I just want to check in with you, okay. So when I realized that, you know, I had kind of investigated, that's when I could sense, okay, but the love's already here. Yeah, I'm caught up and judging, but I love him. And then I could look at him and sense, you know, this fear about him not being okay. He's just bright, loving, you know, when he values his friends, it's because he knows how to be close with people. Why was I so worried?

You know? He's going to be okay. So then it became, after I really was with that and let that love and that feeling of his okayness really be present with that. I had more choice. It was like, you know, Victor Frankl talks about choice or attitude and any circumstances. And these circumstances where he kept on doing the video games, I had more choice than how to respond. One of the choices I made was that I was only going to say something critical one out of every five times that I wanted to. It was amazing. I cut by one-fifth. I mean, that was a really good strategy. The other

choice I had was that I was going to let him know five times as often what I appreciated about him. You know, his emotional intelligence, his commitment to his friends and his talent at magic cards. He's brilliant at this game, you know. And he's managed to leverage that. Anyway, so we had more connecting, more understanding and more fun. And he didn't change in terms of trying hard until he was a junior in college. college. And when he did change, it had nothing to do with me critically nudging. It was

just his own evolution. So I share that story because this was a shift from being below the line and really operating out of fear and so on in a very habitual way that was creating distance to taking that pause that let me deepen attention, investigating, really being with my own resourcefulness of, oh, love is here and being able to see through different eyes who he was and then having more choice. So I'd like to do is invite you to pick an area and do a little exploring yourself and do a time check. Yeah. I want you to try this out and this way that we're exploring of bringing awareness to a place where we're controlling and we're really using the acronym reign of mindfulness and heartfulness

just to recognize and allow, okay, this is how I control, to investigate, and then to bring that nurturing, that very kind attention. So I'll walk you through it, but you might begin by scanning your life and sensing where you're aware of controlling. And you might notice whether it takes the form of really trying to dominate others, by setting the rules and trying to get others to do it according to the way you want them to do it, whether it's in your friendships or at work or family. Yeah, or whether it's manipulating people's impression, trying to look good, trying to control

in that way, cover up what you don't think looks good, and the way you share with others, the way you present yourself, how much there's that getting back at, the judging of others, some way trying to control with your judgment or withholding affection to get your way. Noticing the ways perhaps you're controlling with yourself, that you attack yourself or criticize yourself. And as you scan, you might pick something that you feel ready to bring your attention to. I wouldn't bring it where you sense underneath the controlling is major trauma. That won't serve you.

But something where you just sense you've gotten habituated and you might, might be able to find some more space in it if you take a closer look. Some place that you know you're below the line but you're somewhat aware of that. And when you've chosen something you might go to a situation that most represents it where you're in some way being controlling, you've kind of tightened into that, trying to find power in the situation to get what you want. And the first step is just to recognize it. I can certainly like you're witnessing it.

The first step above the line is to witness what's going on. Just notice there's just a strategy, one of this human strategies to try to find our power. And from the witness position you can sense that just to allow it to be there. This is rain, recognize and allow, witness, let it be there. If you allow it then you can deepen your presence and without any judgment just to begin to investigate in a gentle way. I described how under my controlling I felt that fear that if my son didn't change something bad would happen.

Sense what's under the controlling, under the way you're trying to find power. If you couldn't keep on doing the controlling what would you have to touch into that's difficult. What bad might happen, what might you lose, you might sense the fear that things aren't going to go your way and in some deep way your life will really be harmed. We hold tight to control. When the place that feels most insecure underneath the controller you might sense what's the deepest need that's there, what is that part of you most need? For me I needed to be reminded that love was already here, to trust that, to trust the basic intelligence and goodness of my son.

What is that part of you need? What sense of perhaps that part needs to feel seen or loved, held, forgiven? And as you sense what's needed, as you sense that that insecure place, what it needs, see See if you can call on the most awake, wise and loving part of your being, that part that's witnessing and feeling with tenderness what's happening, that's kind of behind your eyes and behind your being bearing witness with care. Sometimes we think of it as our future self, that which we're evolving into. And see if you can call on that part of that.

of you and let the resources and love and understanding of that part flow into this insecure place, that sense of the love that's here and the awareness, the understanding. It's like you're letting the universe's love and power and intelligence flow through you. Let's see if you can receive it and surrender and open into a larger sense of belonging. We only need to control when we're separate and cut off, when we start feeling ourselves hooked into the universe, the love that flows through and that awakeness and awareness, then we can just rest in that and trust.

You might imagine the situation that you've been working with where you're controlling and sense what it would be like to move through with that kind of empowerment where you could choose your attitude, you could choose a different way of responding. What would that be like? Just to know it's quite natural that we go back below the line and redo the patterns over and over but every time that you can pause and take some moments to recognize and witness and allow and just say okay this is happening and then investigate a little and get in touch with that insecurity and then really call on the highest part of your being, the love, the wisdom, invite that to live through you, fill yourselves in your heart and your being.

You'll get a taste of that empowerment of shifting from trying to find power as a separate self to opening to the love and awareness that lives through this whole universe, letting that empower you. As you're ready, you can open your eyes and we'll just finish with a little bit of just to get a sense of what's possible. The blessings of this practice of going from below the line to above the line is one that we really start trusting that the intelligence and love of the universe live through us. We really start trusting that source that we're plugged into.

And for artists to get, let you sense the inspirations living through you. Scientists like Einstein described it wasn't through his thinking. It was some universal sense of intuition that came through. There's an understanding of like the straw that's in the Gulf Stream when it's at odds and doing its own thing, it gets knocked around but when it aligns with the Gulf Stream, the flow of the Gulf Stream flows through it. The universe flows through us. That is empowerment.

The second blessing is that when that's happening, rather than reacting, we can then respond with the kind of freedom that Victor Frankel described. I like this phrase, the heart that's ready for anything. Anything that comes up, we have the freedom to respond because we're not operating from below the line. Very brief story from Richard Seltzer or a surgeon that describes this story. freedom. He writes this. He says, I stand by the bed where a young woman lies. Her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the

muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh. I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek out of cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight isolated from me private. Who are they? I asked myself, he in this rye mouth I have made who gaze at and touch each other so generously. The young woman speaks, well my mouth always be like this, she asks. Yes, I say it well, it's because the nerve was cut. She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. I like it, he says. It's kind of cute.

And all at once I know who he is, I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a God. Unmindful he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so close so I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers to show her that their kiss still works. On this path of awakening it's our nature to begin to recognize, oh, I've been inner reactivity, I've been clutching and grasping and trying to control and to make life feel safer and better. It's our nature to start noticing that and to bring that healing attention that wakes us up. And so we'll close with just a very short few moments of again

opening to that place of spiritual empowerment where we're really present with all that's here. To find the source of your aliveness, come right into the life. the body. It's through the energy of the body that we discover the space and awareness and love that lives through this universe. So let the breath collect you. Just take a few full breaths and then in the stillness feel the aliveness of your body. Feel the tingling in the hands, the tingling in the feet. Let there be an openness at the chest. Let awareness fill the heart, sense that you could widen the attention to feel your whole body all at once as a field of sensation, the universe living through you. Listening to these words in the radiant

sutras is translated by Lauren Roche. Rivers of power flowing everywhere, fields of magnetism relating everything. This is your origin. This is your lineage. The current of creation is right here, coursing through subtle channels, animating this very form. Follow the gentle touch of life, soft as the footprint of an ant, as tiny sensations open to vastness. Power sings as it flows, electrifies the organs of sensing, becomes liquid light, nourishes your entire being. Celebrate the boundary where streams join the sea, where body meets infinity. Namaste and thank you. For more talks and meditations, and to learn about my schedule or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com.