Philosophers, Hindus, & Healers: Episode #4

Hey friends,

Neighbors,

Meditators,

Welcome back to the Meditation School Podcast.

Well,

I actually don't know if any neighbors of mine listen to this,

I hope not.

David's such a nice boy,

He's so quiet,

He's always over there meditating.

Except sometimes I hear him listening and watching Star Trek.

That part is true.

I watch a lot of Star Trek.

Anyway,

If you are not in meditation school and you want to come sit,

I don't think I've actually mentioned this on the podcast yet,

But it's MeditationSchool.

Us.

And I teach every other Wednesday and I have some other amazing teachers that come teach,

Like Desi Ivanova who teaches Hypno Journey,

She's a hypnotherapist,

And some other guest teachers.

So if you want to come sit for a long form meditations and do some deep inner work,

That is the place.

And this is the place where I discuss some of the topics that I teach in those meditations.

And today's topic is called Philosophers,

Hindus,

And Healers.

And I'll explain that through my own story.

So very briefly,

I majored in philosophy in college.

And at that time,

Even though I had already had some what you might call spiritual awakenings and I was a meditator,

Something kind of pulled me and I started believing that the highest form of intelligence on earth was the intellect.

So the smartest person in the room was also equally and naturally the wisest,

The person who could retain the most information or remember the most complicated concepts.

And I think for me,

That was partially because I thought on some level I wasn't very smart.

And so I like looked up to that.

So I think some of that worldview was coming from an invalidation of not as smart as these people,

Therefore they are in some way better than me.

But then I started to realize I'm better than them.

No,

Just kidding.

That's not what happened.

I started to realize that they weren't happier,

The philosophers,

Than anybody else I knew.

And sometimes they were less happy than the average person that I knew.

And I was like,

How could the smartest people in the world not be happier?

And then I realized wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing.

Wisdom and intellect are not the same thing.

One of my old teachers used to say,

Trying to solve something on a spiritual level with your intellect is like trying to wipe something off of your face in the mirror.

It doesn't actually come off.

It's a futile endeavor.

So eventually when I graduated college,

I moved to India,

Lived in the ashram,

Started looking at old wise gurus with beards for my wisdom.

I was carrying pictures of all the gurus in my pocket.

I was obsessed with gurus for a time period.

First I was obsessed with professors,

Then I was obsessed with gurus.

So I was still looking for it,

Now just in a different place.

And it was hotter in the Himalayas,

In the winter,

Actually colder.

And I studied the Vedas a bit.

I studied with Vedantic teachers.

And the Vedas just,

Vedanta is the end of the Vedas.

So the Vedas are the sacred texts of India.

And Vedanta is a tradition that focuses a lot on breaking through what they would call Maya,

The illusion of life and waking up to the truth.

Beautiful tradition.

And so again,

I thought,

Ah,

This is it.

This is the answer.

These guys have the answer.

I meditated a lot.

And I was like,

How come I'm not perfectly enlightened like they are or whoever wrote these sacred texts,

Errr.

It's not getting it fully here.

Although I did,

I learned an enormous amount.

And at that time,

All male teachers,

All the Vedantic teachers I encountered were men.

I'm sure there are some women.

And then I moved to Hawaii.

Don't ask me how I got there.

I'll do a whole another episode about that at some point.

And I started studying the healing and intuitive arts with almost all females,

Female teachers.

And it had a much softer,

Gentler tone,

Less kind of intellectual in nature,

Like study these concepts and you will know the truth and more,

All right,

Let's see what energy you need to process.

Are you absorbing other people's pain?

You know,

Where are the pictures and the places inside you that need healing,

The trauma that's making you live out certain patterns.

And I really,

Really enjoyed that inner work.

I stayed,

I did it for seven years.

I ended up teaching and directing the school and absolutely loved it.

And so I got this whole other side of the spiritual world,

This very energetic healer side,

Which you'll see a lot of in places like LA.

And I'm just saying that because I lived in LA for the last few years.

So just what I've,

What I've seen.

And I still use all the tools I learned from all of these places.

I integrate these tools into the teachings when I teach in meditation school and teach retreats.

But I also at a certain point had to step back from the philosophers,

From the Hindus and from the healers and go,

All right,

What's inside David?

What is the energy here that wants to express itself?

That's really true despite what any philosopher or teacher at an ashram might have to say.

And so I had to let go of all of that and almost start again.

And you might find yourself sometimes in this energy as well,

Where you're like,

Okay,

There's all this beautiful information.

Deepak Chopra says this and Oprah says that and that teacher says this.

You probably gave it,

Man,

Why'd you name those people?

Anyway,

And all of that information is outside of you.

And I'm sure you've heard this before on some level of learning to find that information on the inside.

But usually what happens when we close our eyes to go find that information on the inside or find that capital T truth on the inside,

We just get a bunch of noise or emptiness and we don't know where to look,

What to do,

Where to go or what tools to use.

For me,

Part of touching that truth inside yourself is really just letting things fall away.

Letting things end.

Letting the feeling of dissatisfaction of this moment of things are not exactly the way I want them to be right now.

You know,

That energy,

Letting that be there.

And then if it wants to,

Letting it fall away.

If it wants to get louder,

Letting it get louder.

And every single thing you experience,

Every form that comes up,

Every moment of turbulence,

Then you recognize that that's still just some kind of fluctuation of energy and it's not really the ultimate truth.

And if you can sit in meditation through that for a while until the rage and the noise kind of come and then go,

You might find this deep empty space,

This deep stillness inside yourself.

And then as you rest in that space,

As you sit in that space,

Something else might arise out of you.

Perhaps some kind of inspiration,

Some kind of answer,

Some kind of information.

Or it doesn't and that's it.

But you don't go into it with an expectation.

In fact,

You let all the expectation just fall away.

And that includes everybody else's expectations as well.

And as simple as this sounds,

It could take a lot of work,

A lot of sitting,

A lot of peeling back the layers and of letting go and of being still.

And that could take weeks,

It could take years,

It could take lifetimes.

Even if it's going to take lifetimes,

You sit and you close your eyes with the intention that it doesn't matter.

And if you want to touch the truth,

You kind of have to be willing to sacrifice it all to be able to sit still and let everything disappear.

And then just see what arises.

If you spend all your meditations constantly trying to manipulate energy or manipulate your experience,

I'm going to block this negativity,

I'm going to move that person away,

I'm going to chant the Vedas as many times as it takes to get the noise in my head to go away.

All of those tools can be helpful,

But at a certain point you might have to let them all go and just be who you are and be still and see what arises.

So if you're up for that task,

For that challenge,

If you feel ready and open to that,

Give it a shot,

Sit,

Close your eyes and see what happens.

And I'll see you on the other side.

Take care.