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Namaste.

0:28

Welcome friends, thank you for being

0:30

here. So

0:33

I'll start by sharing a story I

0:35

heard from my friend who, her

0:38

mother, for years and years, you

0:40

know, everybody kind of considered

0:42

her this refuge of the heart.

0:45

Anybody who's having difficulty in

0:47

their extended family and circles. My

0:50

friend discovered in her

0:52

mother's later years that through

0:55

most of her life, she had

0:57

been an hour a

0:59

day doing prayers for

1:01

her circle, all those

1:03

that she was considered

1:06

and thought of as part of the

1:08

extended family, I think about a hundred

1:10

people. She'd include them with blessings.

1:13

And my friend described her

1:15

dying as so peaceful that

1:17

she really sensed this belonging

1:19

to all beings. And

1:22

as we can imagine, when

1:24

you really trust your belonging, there's

1:26

no loneliness or fear. So

1:29

the words that jump out for me

1:31

when I listen to the story of this

1:33

woman, the main word was devotion, that

1:35

she was just living true to

1:37

what most mattered in her heart. And

1:40

we know what devotion

1:42

looks like, whether it's the devotion

1:45

that's expressed when someone's creating

1:47

a work of art, a work

1:49

of beauty, nurturing

1:51

a garden, healing others,

1:55

those fighting for justice, for

1:57

freedom, are someone communing

1:59

with the divine. Devotion

2:01

expresses our

2:03

sincere, pure

2:06

love for life. And

2:08

the sign of devotion is there's

2:10

a sense of belonging to something

2:12

larger. An

2:16

inquiry I'd like to invite

2:18

you to explore really is

2:20

What is your life devoted

2:22

to? What

2:24

is your life devoted to? And

2:26

just take a moment to sense what

2:28

comes up, what

2:30

matters, what's the

2:33

deep intention, the

2:35

sacred intention that guides

2:37

your life. And

2:48

as you reflect, you might

2:50

consider moments that you've actually felt

2:52

a very alive sense of

2:54

devotion, maybe to your work, to

2:56

a relationship, helping

2:58

others, serving to the

3:00

spiritual path and what

3:03

it's like when you

3:05

feel that your energy,

3:07

your words, your thoughts,

3:09

your being is really

3:11

guided by devotion. And

3:18

you can spend time with

3:20

this on your own, but

3:23

I ask because it feels

3:25

to me that these are

3:27

times in the history of

3:29

our humanity that are calling

3:31

us to be more conscious

3:33

of what matters to us,

3:35

more awake and remembering our

3:37

larger belonging. I

3:39

mean, here we are, our

3:41

world is just unraveling with conflict

3:43

and mistrust and animosity. It's

3:46

just so chaotic and unstable. And

3:49

we go into survival mode.

3:51

It's quite natural to lose

3:53

sight of what matters to

3:55

us. So

3:57

this kind of reflection, what

4:00

is my life devoted to, what

4:02

is love asking, can be

4:05

a real lifeline that awakens us

4:07

from our personal trance and

4:09

also collective trance. So

4:11

with this in mind, I looked

4:13

through the archives and I found two

4:15

talks that I want to share

4:17

with you that help us connect with

4:19

natural devotion, the ways our life

4:22

becomes aligned with our heart. So

4:24

I'm sharing them with you

4:26

now and I hope you find

4:28

them meaningful and relevant in

4:30

your life, in your day -to -day

4:33

life. Okay, friends,

4:35

blessings. I'd

4:38

like to begin just a bit

4:40

of a personal biographical which

4:42

is that when I first entered

4:44

college I was planning to go

4:46

to law school. That was my

4:48

trajectory and when I left I

4:50

moved into an ashram. So

4:52

something happened. And

4:54

what happened was I in

4:57

my senior year started doing

4:59

yoga and meditation and there

5:01

was it was a radical

5:03

dramatic shift and I moved

5:05

decide the most important thing

5:07

in life was to spiritually

5:10

wake up. And

5:12

so I moved into an

5:14

ashram which is a spiritual community

5:16

and lived in a spiritual

5:18

community for ten, eleven years. And

5:21

the reason and what

5:24

kept me as part of

5:26

that community so long

5:28

besides the fact that I

5:30

loved my fellow community

5:32

members was… we had

5:35

a practice, it's called a sadhana,

5:37

spiritual practice, where we'd get

5:39

up at 3 .30 in the

5:41

morning and we'd start with a

5:43

cold shower and then we'd

5:45

spend two and a half hours

5:47

doing yoga and meditating and

5:49

praying and chanting. And by

5:51

the end of those two and a

5:53

half hours it didn't matter what mood

5:56

I was in when I began, my

5:59

heart was open. It just

6:01

didn't matter what was going on.

6:03

And a key element for me

6:05

that opened my heart was the

6:08

chanting. Because the

6:10

chanting, there was no

6:12

way that my highly

6:14

active mental processes could

6:16

compete. They just kind of

6:18

quiet down and I literally, there was

6:20

a going from the head to the

6:22

heart. And it didn't mean that I

6:25

didn't have access to my brains anymore

6:27

but I was just living more guided

6:29

by my heart. I love

6:31

the chanting. And chanting

6:33

is part of

6:35

a broader domain of

6:37

what we might

6:39

call devotional practices or

6:41

practices that are

6:43

sometimes described as awakening

6:45

the sacred feminine, which

6:48

is really that sense

6:50

of communion, belonging, connecting.

6:54

Every spiritual path I've

6:56

ever run into and

6:58

every religion has a

7:01

strong current in it,

7:04

a strong pathway towards

7:06

belonging because it's a

7:08

universal longing. mean,

7:10

every one of us,

7:12

deep, deep down, wants,

7:15

I was going to say, to fall in love.

7:17

We want to be love. We

7:19

just want to belong. We want

7:22

to be one with it all. That

7:24

doesn't mean we want to lose

7:26

our uniqueness or individuality, but we want

7:28

to trust our belonging to

7:30

the web of life. We want to

7:32

be at home in that. So

7:35

there's a lot of

7:37

different practices and we're focusing

7:39

more on the inner

7:41

practices that the way I'm

7:43

going to… the language

7:45

I'll use is that really

7:47

awaken that sacred feminine,

7:49

awaken that heart experience of

7:51

belonging. And there are

7:53

many that do it. I've mentioned the

7:55

chanting and the praying. There's

7:58

in the Buddhist tradition

8:00

the loving -kindness practices and

8:02

the compassion practices and there's

8:04

the outward practices of

8:06

bhakti which is the service,

8:08

like offering service. And

8:10

there's all sorts of relational practices. So

8:13

there's many. But

8:15

what I can say is in

8:17

the years since living in the ashram,

8:20

whenever I hit a wall,

8:22

whenever I hit one

8:24

of those life crises where

8:27

the rug gets pulled

8:29

or when am working with

8:31

others, when the big,

8:33

really dramatic, hard

8:35

stuff happens. There

8:38

is always two kind of

8:40

ways that we pay attention. One

8:42

is to deepen presence and

8:44

notice what is happening with clarity,

8:46

like really honestly contact what

8:48

is here. And that

8:50

would be considered as the

8:53

awakened masculine. that clarity and

8:55

that recognition. And

8:57

inextricably linked – this is

8:59

the second wing of

9:01

awareness – is whatever helps

9:03

us to soften our

9:05

heart and remember, reconnect

9:08

with that sense

9:10

of belonging. So

9:12

Srinar Sargadatta, one of

9:15

the Indian teachers I really

9:17

like, said that the

9:19

mind creates the abyss and

9:21

the heart crosses it. The

9:25

mind creates the abyss and

9:27

the heart crosses it. That

9:29

we need to recognize what's

9:31

going on in the moment.

9:33

But if we don't get

9:35

some taste of love, of

9:37

belonging, we don't soften

9:40

enough to really be fully

9:42

here. There's no real healing.

9:46

So for each of you that's

9:48

here right now, And

9:50

those that are listening, there

9:53

is some quality of

9:55

devotion, of this sacred feminine,

9:58

of this longing to

10:00

belong that is active. You

10:03

wouldn't be here right

10:05

now, you wouldn't be

10:07

in a field that

10:10

involves deepening presence unless you

10:12

were longing for something,

10:14

unless there is something that

10:16

really mattered to you. I

10:21

remember being at a meditation

10:23

retreat in Rinpoche. He was

10:25

kind of a guest teacher

10:27

and this was a Tibetan

10:30

retreat and we were really

10:32

exploring this deep practice of

10:34

freedom, it's called rigpa, of

10:36

really recognizing the nature of

10:38

reality. And he

10:41

started speaking and he said,

10:43

you know, my meditation, eh, it's

10:45

so -so, my rigpa so -so. But

10:48

I have a lot of devotion. I

10:54

think in the West we

10:56

don't talk about it so much.

10:58

It's kind of an odd

11:00

phrase and we sometimes associate devotion

11:03

with some really rigid structures

11:05

of religion. And

11:07

yet if you end up

11:09

painting a lot or

11:11

writing poetry or taking care

11:13

of certain people that

11:15

you love or finding yourself

11:18

in nature a lot

11:20

or in some way being

11:22

drawn to getting still…

11:24

devotion. You

11:27

are devoted. You

11:29

are seeking that belonging.

11:33

So as we know there

11:35

are many moments of

11:37

our life that rather than

11:39

devotion we are being

11:42

guided by something else. It

11:44

is said that on the spiritual

11:46

path this is described as the devotion

11:48

or the sacred feminine is the

11:51

juice of the path. It's what's juicy.

11:53

It's what energizes us. People don't

11:56

stay on a spiritual path

11:58

unless there's some devotion, there's something

12:00

that really is drawing them,

12:02

that's carrying them, that's

12:04

really calling them. We don't stay.

12:07

The Buddha said that our

12:10

entire life arises from the

12:12

tip of intention. Our

12:15

entire life arises from

12:17

the tip of intention.

12:20

And yet as we know, we

12:22

move through life and we

12:24

are not always guided by

12:26

the awakened heart. We are

12:28

guided by all sorts of

12:30

other more twisted and sometimes

12:32

shadowy energies. So

12:34

what we are going to

12:37

be inquiring about for the rest

12:39

the time that I will

12:41

be speaking is how do we

12:43

take what sometimes the kind

12:45

of intentions that are murky or

12:47

shadowy and how does it

12:49

purify? more and

12:51

more moments of your

12:53

life are lived out

12:55

of that authentic quality

12:57

of devotion, of heart -carrying.

13:00

How do we align the compass of

13:02

our heart? I

13:05

think it is probably the most

13:07

critical question for all of us

13:09

because I run into so many

13:11

people that there is an undercurrent

13:13

of disappointment in their lives. that

13:15

in some way my life is not

13:18

what I wanted it to be and

13:20

that there is a gap between my

13:22

idea of who I could be or

13:24

how I could serve or my creativity

13:26

or intimacy. There is a gap between

13:28

that and what is actually happening. And

13:32

that gap happens because we

13:34

get hijacked by intentions

13:36

that are narrow and fixated

13:38

and not really issuing in

13:40

their full mature way from

13:43

that devotion. Does that make

13:45

sense? That hijacking? So,

13:49

all organisms, all living organisms

13:51

are motored by intention,

13:53

from the most primitive to

13:55

the most complex. There's

13:58

intention, it's a neutral enemy,

14:00

an energy. In other

14:02

words, a surgeon can be, a person

14:04

can be cutting another body with a

14:06

knife and it could be a surgeon

14:08

trying to heal or murder or trying

14:10

to kill, so it's intention. It's neutral,

14:12

it can go either direction. So

14:15

all life the most

14:17

primitive has intention and

14:19

it also, it often

14:21

gets contracted by fear.

14:25

So we think we're separate and our intention gets

14:27

caught in fear and then all of a

14:29

sudden our day is about getting things done so

14:32

we don't get punished for doing things wrong. Or

14:35

it's contracted by fear and we all

14:37

of a sudden are trying to cover

14:39

ourselves and show ourselves differently to people.

14:42

Or we get hijacked by fear and

14:44

all of a sudden there is

14:46

a sense that in some way we

14:48

are really a bad person and

14:50

we have to make up for it.

14:53

So mature devotion evolves but

14:55

in order to take that

14:58

raw energy of intention and

15:00

have it become really a

15:02

heart energy that guides us It

15:05

takes consciousness, it takes

15:07

presence and practice. So

15:09

are going to look

15:11

at the practices right now

15:13

that unfold our devotion. And

15:16

the first practice is to get where the

15:18

blocks are. And when

15:20

I say blocks, to

15:22

the degree that any

15:24

one of us has

15:26

unmet needs, i .e. We

15:29

grew up in a culture

15:31

or a family where we weren't

15:33

seen, understood, loved, accepted.

15:36

To the degree that we

15:38

didn't have… that we had

15:40

unmet needs, what happens

15:42

is we try to meet our

15:44

needs by fixating on substitutes. And

15:47

most everyone I know

15:49

has… is organized around

15:51

some substitutes. We are

15:53

moving through the day and we

15:55

have a deep need but we

15:57

are trying to meet it through

15:59

something other than directly finding love.

16:01

We are soothing and comforting ourselves

16:03

in other ways. Now,

16:06

religion can be a substitute. You

16:09

know, Campbell described as the opiate of

16:11

the masses that it covers over the

16:13

mystery sometimes rather than plunging us in.

16:16

So sometimes we can use our religion

16:18

or our faith that way. Sometimes

16:21

the substitute is to have

16:24

power over others. That

16:26

rather than going

16:28

for that sacred feminine

16:31

of connecting, we

16:33

get hooked on trying to

16:35

have power over, having control. Sometimes

16:39

it's a real

16:41

aggressiveness, a real

16:43

domination. How

16:47

many of you were here last

16:49

week? with us, can I see? Well

16:52

then you probably know that

16:54

those that weren't, that as we

16:56

closed last week we were

16:58

doing what I consider one of

17:00

the most beautiful meditations of

17:02

the sacred feminine which is an

17:04

inclusive heart. What does

17:06

it mean to take another person

17:08

that you have distanced and

17:10

called an other and even put

17:12

down in your heart? What

17:14

does it mean to open the

17:16

heart in an inclusive way? And

17:19

we were doing that

17:21

meditation exactly at the same

17:24

time that in Charleston

17:26

nine people in a Bible

17:28

circle were massacred, exactly

17:30

at the same time, this

17:33

heart practice. And

17:35

it was hard not

17:37

to, the next day,

17:40

as many people, you know, rip me

17:42

wide open, just to

17:44

sense that in this world And

17:47

what we most need is the

17:49

awakening of the sacred feminine. We

17:53

need that sense of

17:55

connectedness. We need that

17:57

remembrance that what matters

17:59

is including and belonging,

18:01

not having power over,

18:04

not dominating, not aggressing.

18:07

So the practices we do together

18:10

to wake up this quality

18:12

of heart, we are really doing

18:15

for the healing of our own

18:17

hearts, but also in a rippling

18:19

way as it is part of

18:21

what our world most needs. So

18:25

other substitutes. You

18:27

probably know yours, I sometimes

18:29

call them false refuges. But

18:32

other substitutes are

18:34

accumulating wealth or fame,

18:37

looking good. And

18:39

then of course there is the level

18:41

of substitutes where we are addictions

18:43

to chemicals. food."

18:46

I read this little story, a

18:48

rabbi, a minister and a priest were

18:50

playing poker. They played

18:53

regularly when the police raided the

18:55

game. Turning to the priest,

18:57

the lead police officer said, Father

18:59

Murphy, were you gambling? Turning

19:01

his eyes to heaven, the priest whispered,

19:03

Lord, forgive me for what I am

19:05

about to do. To the police officer he

19:07

then said, No, officer, I was not gambling. The

19:10

officer then asked the minister, Pastor

19:12

Johnson, were you gambling? and

19:15

appealed to heaven and the minister replied,

19:17

No, officer, I was not gambling. Turning

19:20

to the rabbi, the officer again

19:22

asked, Rabbi Goldstein, were you gambling?

19:25

Struggling his shoulders, the rabbi replied, With

19:27

whom could I be gambling? So

19:36

we all have ours. We

19:38

have our ways of escaping the

19:41

present moment. We have our

19:43

ways of soothing ourselves and comforting

19:45

ourselves. And sadly

19:47

what happens is not only do

19:49

we use substitutes but then

19:51

we add judgment to those substitutes

19:54

so we don't like ourselves

19:56

for the ways that we try

19:58

to meet our needs. I

20:01

think often when I

20:03

talk about this our

20:05

search for kind of, we're seeking

20:08

belonging, we're seeking that peace and

20:10

that sense of union and we

20:12

have all these ways of doing

20:14

that aren't so healthy. I often

20:16

think of a story that I

20:18

read years ago in a magazine

20:20

called The Sun and it was

20:22

a woman, she had an eating

20:24

disorder and she was describing to

20:27

her therapist this pivotal moment. She

20:29

had run away from home, she ran

20:31

away regularly and she had been returned

20:33

by the police and She asked her

20:35

mother, right after the police dropped her

20:37

off, she said, Do

20:39

you love me? And her

20:41

mother said, How could

20:43

anyone ever love you?

20:48

And then she described how this

20:50

wasn't new, how her child

20:52

had been filled with these kind

20:54

of critiques, these messages about

20:56

her badness that hardened into beliefs

20:58

and took decades to heal. So

21:01

she was writing about her youth

21:03

and this woman described the following bedtime

21:05

ritual. This is what I want to

21:07

tell you about. She said

21:09

this. She said, From the age

21:11

of five or six until I was

21:13

well into my teens, whenever

21:16

I had trouble sleeping, I'd

21:18

slip from under my covers and steal

21:20

into the kitchen for some bread or

21:22

cheese which I would carry back to

21:24

bed with me. There I'd

21:26

pretend my hands belonged to someone

21:29

else. a comforting, reassuring

21:31

being without a name,

21:33

an angel perhaps. The

21:36

right hand would feed me little

21:38

bites of cheese or bread as the

21:40

left hand stroked my cheek and

21:42

hair. My eyes would close. I

21:44

would whisper softly to myself, there,

21:46

there, go to sleep, you

21:49

are safe now. Everything will

21:51

be all right. I love

21:53

you. So

22:01

I share this with

22:03

you because whatever your substitutes

22:05

are, and we all

22:08

have them, our deepest longing

22:10

is to love and

22:12

be loved. We

22:14

want to connect. That's

22:16

our deepest longing. And

22:18

it's the same energy,

22:20

like these primitive organisms, all

22:23

organisms want to live

22:25

and thrive and flourish. But

22:27

then we get contorted. because

22:29

of our conditioning, our society,

22:31

our families, we get feared,

22:33

afraid and then we fixate

22:36

on something smaller. This

22:39

is D .H. Lawrence. He says, Men

22:41

are not free doing just what they

22:43

like. Men are only free

22:45

when they are doing what the

22:47

deepest self likes and there is

22:49

getting down to that deepest self.

22:52

It takes some diving. So,

23:00

we might each ask ourselves, how

23:02

do we dive? How do we

23:04

get down to what our deepest

23:06

aspiration is? How do we

23:08

live more connected to that? And going

23:11

to name two pathways and we'll practice each

23:13

of them a little bit. And

23:15

they're completely related. And

23:18

one pathway is that whatever

23:20

is coming up, whatever wave

23:22

of experience is coming up,

23:24

we start right there. So

23:27

if right now you are feeling

23:29

numb or tired or restless or sad

23:31

or anxious, you start

23:33

right with that wave of

23:35

experience and you go in

23:37

and in and in to

23:40

get right deeply present with

23:42

the essence of that wave. And

23:45

the other pathway is

23:47

to turn towards the…

23:49

and open to the

23:51

ocean of experience to

23:54

wherever love is. Because

23:56

love is always here, we're just not

23:58

seeing it. So it's

24:01

an intentional opening, right? Okay,

24:03

where is it in my life? So

24:06

reaching in and in and in

24:08

through the wave or opening to the

24:10

ocean. And here's John O'Donohue, a

24:12

poet and a Christian teacher

24:14

no longer alive. But this is

24:16

one of my favorites of

24:18

his quotes. He says, prayer

24:20

is the voice of longing. It

24:23

reaches outwards and

24:26

inwards to unearth our

24:28

ancient belonging. It

24:31

reaches outwards and

24:33

inwards to unearth

24:35

our ancient belonging.

24:39

So we're going to start with the inward. And

24:42

as I mentioned, the inward

24:44

is you start right where you are. And

24:47

I sometimes call

24:49

it tracing back desire.

24:52

to the pure source. I'll

24:54

give you an example and then I'm going to have

24:56

you try it out. An

24:59

example is a friend

25:01

of mine that I met

25:03

with recently and he

25:05

described his push -pull with

25:07

intimacy. Both craving and

25:09

avoiding it, which most of us

25:11

have to some degree. We

25:13

really want to be close to others

25:15

and we have all sorts of

25:17

fears that make us push others away.

25:19

So what would happen is he

25:21

gets very addicted and fixated on the

25:23

idea of the perfect relationship, okay? And

25:26

then when he gets involved

25:28

with somebody at first, because it

25:30

has the possibilities, projected all

25:33

this possibility on it, he fixates

25:35

on the person and a

25:37

lot of attention there and very

25:39

soon starts fixating on what's

25:41

wrong with her. And

25:43

then more and more becomes looking

25:46

at what's missing and judgmental

25:49

and shutting down and realizing he's

25:51

rigid and perfectionistic in it.

25:53

So we started exploring, what are

25:55

the waves that are coming

25:57

up? Okay, the waves are fear.

26:00

I do that because I'm afraid I'll get

26:02

involved with somebody and she won't be

26:04

right and it won't be good and we

26:06

will not have the thing I most

26:09

really want. And I said, and

26:11

what's that? He goes, what I'm wanting

26:13

is, and this is where, this is tracing.

26:15

back the wanting. Very, very

26:17

powerful process. He said,

26:19

Well, what I'm wanting is I want a

26:21

companion. I said, Well, what would a companion

26:23

do? Well, if

26:25

I had a companion, I'd feel

26:27

like I belonged, like I was

26:30

in a togetherness. And then I

26:32

said, Okay, so what would that

26:34

really be like if you get

26:36

under the words? I

26:39

said, I feel like I belonged, well,

26:41

it would feel like communion. I'd feel

26:43

one with God, I'd feel one. And

26:45

I said, what does it

26:47

really feel like? And they

26:50

went in and in it,

26:52

well, it would feel warm

26:54

and edgeless and fluid and

26:56

there'd be light -filled. It's

26:59

like the sense of we are the universe. It's

27:01

like we are the field, that

27:03

warm light -filled field. And

27:05

so I said, Now just inhabit

27:07

that right now. Just feel it.

27:09

Just be it. Be that. And

27:12

of course he blissed out in

27:14

those moments. And

27:17

I also said, This

27:19

is what you always and

27:22

already are. That

27:24

oneness you are seeking. It's not

27:26

out there. When

27:28

he traced back the desire,

27:30

he found the source of

27:33

it. When he was saying, I

27:35

want to feel oneness and I said, what does it

27:37

feel like? And he started naming it and feeling

27:39

it. It was already there in him. Does that make

27:41

sense? You

27:43

cannot imagine something and imagine it

27:45

fully if it's outside you. You

27:47

have to have some link to

27:49

the actual experience. It was already

27:51

there in him. But

27:53

as long as we fixate

27:56

our wants on an

27:58

object out there, we never

28:00

discover that the

28:02

source of our longing is

28:04

the love and the

28:06

presence that's already what we

28:09

are. Now

28:13

this is a practice that

28:15

needs to be done over and

28:17

over because we are so

28:19

fixated on thinking the what I

28:21

want is solved down the

28:23

road or with that person or

28:25

when that happens out there. So

28:29

if there is any takeaway

28:31

right now, the path to

28:33

awakening the sacred feminine, one

28:35

key element is when the

28:37

waves come up of wanting

28:39

or fearing or needs to

28:41

be different, wants something out

28:43

there, trace back in and

28:45

in and in because the

28:47

source of our longing is

28:49

right here. Now

28:52

just to say for this guy, he...

29:00

When I first talked to him about

29:02

this, when we first explored this,

29:04

it was several years ago. Subsequently,

29:07

he had an intimate relationship

29:09

that didn't last but it was

29:11

way different than anything beforehand. And

29:14

he described what would happen is that

29:16

every time he'd hit moments of judging and

29:18

he did, he would find… he would

29:21

look for what's wrong, he would say, This

29:23

is the conditioning. It's not that essence.

29:26

It's not that source. And then he'd

29:28

go in and in and in and

29:30

he'd feel his fears, defensiveness, his wanting

29:32

for perfection. He'd go in and in

29:34

and into that longing for love and

29:36

then right into the love itself. And

29:39

that gave him the space and

29:41

the trust that he could let

29:43

the waves of judgment come and

29:45

go and not believe them. So

29:50

this staying

29:52

with the waves and tracing back, it

29:54

not only gives you a taste

29:56

of the who you always and already

29:59

are, you can start changing your

30:01

life patterns because you start trusting that

30:03

and you don't have to obey

30:05

the conditioning. A

30:09

lot of people will

30:11

ask me, what's the difference

30:13

between kind of immature

30:15

substitute wanting when I'm fixating

30:17

and true aspiration? deep

30:20

aspiration. Isn't that another

30:22

form of wanting? And

30:24

there are three flags

30:26

that will help you

30:28

to really trust when

30:31

your aspiration is pure. And

30:33

you just heard them in a

30:36

way because one element when you

30:38

start reflecting on what do I

30:40

really, really want is that when

30:42

it's a true aspiration what you're

30:44

longing for is already a part

30:47

of you, it's your potential. You're

30:49

not longing to be somebody else or

30:51

for something else to complete you. It's

30:53

here. What you're longing for is here

30:55

and you can intuit that. The

30:59

second piece is that what

31:01

you're longing for isn't down the

31:03

road. If it's a true

31:05

aspiration, it's for something that can

31:07

be found right now. And

31:11

I mean right now, like right

31:13

now, we

31:15

postpone. We have it in the

31:17

future. It's right now. The only

31:19

way our aspiration will unfold is

31:21

if it gets very, very present. The

31:25

third flag of

31:27

a true aspiration

31:29

is you'll feel

31:32

sincere. Rather

31:34

than a kind of grasping

31:36

and a smallness, you'll feel tender

31:38

and open. Because

31:41

again, a true aspiration is a

31:43

relaxing back into what's here. Let's

31:46

try this out. Let's just

31:48

practice a little. You might

31:50

adjust how you're sitting and close

31:52

your eyes. You

32:08

might bring to

32:10

mind Somewhere in

32:12

your life that you know you're

32:15

a little hooked on wanting something, wanting

32:18

somebody to return your

32:20

affections or wanting a

32:22

partner or wanting financial

32:24

security or wanting to

32:26

change how you look.

32:30

Some charged wanting some approval

32:32

that you want to get,

32:34

some accomplishment you want. So

32:37

scan and sense where

32:39

something It's got

32:41

a fixation to it. It's something

32:44

you want that fits into the

32:46

category of wanting. In other words,

32:48

it's for things to be different.

32:50

It's in the future. It's

32:53

dependent on something changing.

33:03

It's dependent on someone outside.

33:06

What are you attached to? Let

33:29

yourself make it as big as it

33:31

is. In other words, even if it

33:33

helps to exaggerate, just sense yourself, what

33:35

makes this so important? Why do I

33:37

want it so much? And

33:40

you might even feel in your body what

33:42

it's like when you're wanting because when there's

33:44

wanting there's tension. There's a

33:46

fear of not getting. It's

33:49

in a way if you could embody

33:51

it. It's like a leaning forward. Sometimes

33:53

you can imagine your hands a little

33:55

bit clutched. So I'd feel the wanting

33:57

and sense, what is

33:59

it if you got what

34:02

you're wanting? If

34:04

it came through, what

34:06

would you really be getting that

34:08

you're wanting? Like what are you really

34:10

wanting? What's the inner experience you're

34:12

wanting? If you

34:14

got that financial security

34:16

or the person in your

34:18

life that you're wanting

34:20

to return your affections or

34:22

the right partner? our

34:25

success in some way in

34:27

your profession. What

34:30

would that give you that

34:32

is what you're really wanting?

34:34

What's the inner experience you're

34:36

really wanting? And

34:48

you can ask that question

34:50

again. Keep diving. What is it

34:52

that I'm really wanting under

34:54

that? What is it

34:56

you're wanting to feel or experience

34:58

or know or trust? Tracing

35:05

back the wanting,

35:07

the desire. You

35:10

might really investigate even more.

35:12

What is it that you most

35:14

want to be experiencing? If

35:16

you got the thing you wanted,

35:18

would it be that you

35:20

could relax and enjoy moments? Would

35:27

it be a feeling of belonging,

35:30

of being more alive,

35:32

more at home? Feel

35:40

what you are really wanting. Feel

35:42

the wanting and what you are

35:44

wanting to experience. Is

35:50

it a feeling of inner peace,

35:53

of warmth, openness? non

35:56

-separation, full

35:59

aliveness. Just

36:07

inhabit the experience that you

36:09

are most wanting. Inhabit

36:11

it. Just be it. Be

36:18

the longing, the

36:20

essence of the longing. Be longing. What

36:29

we are wanting is

36:32

what we are. When

36:35

we take our wanting

36:37

from its outside fixation

36:40

and trace back

36:42

the desire, it's always

36:44

and already here. These

36:48

are the words of Sri

36:50

Ramakrishna. O

36:52

longing mind, Dwell

36:55

within the depth of

36:57

your own pure nature. Do

37:01

not seek your home

37:03

elsewhere. Your

37:05

naked awareness alone, O

37:08

heart, O mind, is

37:10

the inexhaustible abundance for

37:12

which you long so

37:14

desperately. O

37:16

longing mind, dwell within

37:18

the depth of your

37:21

own pure nature. So

37:39

what you've just done

37:41

is explored a practice

37:43

that's a very powerful

37:45

devotional practice of taking

37:47

the energy of wanting,

37:49

of desire and tracing

37:51

back the longing to

37:53

the source, that

37:55

sense of it's really

37:58

love calling us home. When

38:00

you feel longing, instead

38:02

of turning outward, turn

38:04

inward to the source that's

38:06

right here. So

38:08

as I described, there's these two

38:10

elements as that's turning inward

38:13

and the second element is to

38:15

look towards what we really

38:17

long for by reaching out. And

38:19

don't have enough time in this talk

38:21

to get to part two. So that

38:23

means this is a two -part series

38:26

and you'll have to come back next

38:28

week or listen in on the podcast

38:30

for part two. So I'd like

38:32

to close in a very simple way to invite you

38:34

just to close your eyes for one last moment. really

38:47

exploring that sacred feminine,

38:49

that sense of belonging to

38:51

life, belonging to

38:53

love. It begins

38:55

with belonging to the moment. So

38:59

just sense the possibility

39:01

of relaxing and letting go

39:03

into the aliveness of

39:05

this moment right here. Mentally

39:23

whisper the word yes and

39:25

relax even more. See

39:27

how much you

39:29

can really let go

39:32

into the changing ways.

39:49

Belonging to your heart. sense

39:51

whatever is here right now,

39:53

just opening to and letting

39:55

go into the experience of

39:57

your heart. And

40:22

that heart space again

40:24

just sensing what is

40:26

your deepest aspiration that you

40:28

are aware right now, what

40:31

is it are aware

40:33

of most longing for, what

40:36

feels most sincere in this

40:39

moment. Just

41:05

feel that prayer or

41:07

that wish that it may

41:09

manifest and it can

41:11

manifest right here, in

41:13

this life, this body,

41:16

this heart, this mind. Namaste

41:30

and thank you for your

41:33

attention. Namaste

41:52

attention.