Making Sense Of A Senseless World

Om Dave As Luther Valier So,

We've been putting out requests and if anybody had anything that they would like answered questions or things I'd like to hear about.

So beginning a few responses.

One of them was how to make sense of a senseless world.

And I kind of wanted to clarify with the person that sent it in what they were referencing.

And it was somewhat connected to things that we've been speaking about,

Things that are going on around the world currently.

But not just that.

When you look at history,

It's all pretty,

A lot of it seems quite senseless.

And how should we make sense of that?

So before addressing that,

I just wanted to say that everybody operates in a certain paradigm.

Everybody has a sense of what they hold to be reality.

Everybody has sort of some idea of what they think the truth is.

And from the top position,

The bird's eye view and the most simple thing that the spiritual perspective lens is number one,

The body that we currently have on is not me.

Absolutely not me.

I am a resident within this body.

I am an eternal spiritual being covered by this body and the mind.

The material perspective is that I am not spiritual.

I am material,

Meaning I am man,

I am woman or something else.

I am a particular ethnicity,

Racial extraction,

A particular body type or size or whatever.

And from a spiritual perspective,

That's not true.

That's not you.

That's something that you're currently should be utilizing.

But it is not you.

It should not define you and define who you are.

Because we are spiritual in nature and the world in which we live is material in nature,

That should tell us that this is not our home.

It's not.

What,

An eternal spiritual being is going to perpetually exist in a material dimension?

Of course not.

So then that becomes like,

Whoa,

That's a bit challenging.

So what the hell is it all about?

What's it all for?

We should understand that the eternal spiritual being has needs,

The need for happiness,

The need for shelter,

Meaning a safe space,

The need for a actual home,

The need for love,

To love and to be loved,

The need for relationship.

These are actually fundamentally spiritual in nature.

But in the material condition,

We are utterly absorbed in the external garment we have on the body as being the self.

And then we seek to fulfill those needs that arise from the soul itself in the realm,

The material realm.

And of course,

That never works out very well.

That's the formula for crash and burn big time.

Speaking to one of my friends last night,

She just went through a major medical crisis.

And she's like really vibrant and healthy.

She'd been teaching yoga for years and years.

I mean,

She's super fit and everything.

And she goes through this medical crisis.

And it's so bad,

It's worse place that she can't even dress herself.

She can't even get herself to the bathroom.

She can't even walk.

And it's kind of like,

Whoa.

Then she said a few days ago,

Now that she's bounced back and up and around,

She was in the supermarket.

And she saw this really old lady with a supermarket trolley.

And she's looking,

And she's going,

Well,

Now I know what that's like.

And that was from a lived experience.

And that's fortunate to make that sort of connection.

Because what it does is it begins to give us a kind of like real focus.

If I truly am going to be happy,

And I am meant to be eternally existing in a state of happiness,

If I'm going to be happy,

Then I've got to apply myself in a smart way.

I should not be trying to fight against the tides.

I should not be trying to create something which cannot be created.

It's not within my power to make the world perfect.

I can make my life perfect.

I can.

That's in my power.

This body I have and the mind I have,

I can utilize it in real spiritual pursuit.

I can live a life that is actually fulfilling.

And I can have some influence on others within my circle of influence.

I can have some influence and therefore bring change or help to bring change.

But change is always personal.

It can't be forced on anybody.

It's a voluntary choice.

And so if I want to live in a better world,

The first priority is for me to live a much better life.

I mean value-wise and focus-wise.

And in doing that,

In doing that by example,

To have an influence on other people within my sphere of influence so that they may also take up this task and adopt this kind of focus.

And that's about the extent of it.

You are not going to be able to permanently change others and external situations because everyone is gifted with an individuality and will,

Free will.

People can choose.

In the Bhagavad Gita,

It speaks to the reality that we potentially possess a higher or a lower nature.

If we are going to become totally absorbed only in the body and the mind and everything that's going on there,

Then we're going to be on a bit of a roller coaster.

And things usually don't end very well.

And the worst possible things begin to manifest when you adopt that idea,

That reality.

If I endeavor to focus my life more on the higher spiritual nature and then that begins to manifest externally in my life through my actions,

My relationships,

The way I speak,

The kind of things I consider important,

The kind of focuses that I want to have on life,

Then that brings the possibility of change around me.

But it will definitely bring change for me,

Positive and good spiritual change.

So having said that,

Then we must,

If that's our foundational understanding,

And that has to be a foundational understanding,

If we want to live a spiritual life,

Then everything that we view in the world will be through that particular lens.

And we will graciously accept the reality of things that I cannot change.

It's kind of like the serenity prayer.

Give me the serenity to accept that which I cannot change,

The courage to change that which I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

That serenity prayer is something that you can live your life by if you embrace and adopt that.

And that can guide your entire life in the most wonderful way.

So people become confused,

And you'll get these questions.

How do I make sense of the senseless world?

Well,

The world's not senseless.

It's functioning how it functions.

It's functioning according to the laws of material nature and the influences of the material energy.

And when people are totally buying into these false ideas of bodily consciousness that this is who I am,

Then they are going to live a certain way.

They are going to manifest certain attitudes and value systems.

And it is going to go through fluctuations.

There are these three influences that we learn about in the Vedic texts that speak about these three qualities of nature.

They call them triguna,

Which means the three modes of material nature.

And they are described as the mode of goodness,

The mode of passion,

And the mode of ignorance.

And it's like this invisible energy,

Just like gravity is an invisible energy.

There is this invisible energy that is affecting people's consciousness.

And according to which one is more predominant,

You will manifest certain qualities.

You want to,

In the mode of goodness,

Be more withdrawn from the chaos of life and into a more peaceful environment and like more serene things.

In the mode of passion,

You are driven to excel,

Artistic creation,

Building,

Selling,

Dominating,

Being the best in an athlete,

All these things are the products of people influenced by what's called the mode of passion.

And the mode of ignorance produces lethargy,

Craziness,

The states of intoxication,

The states of losing the plot,

The states of self-harm,

Of all this kind of thing,

All the things associated with that and the influence of this particular energy.

And so because these are realities,

These energies are realities,

And they are going to have a pronounced,

Not just a pronounced,

They totally control people.

When you become moved by a particular one of these forces,

Then that's where you go in life.

And so a lot of the craziness that begins to manifest is a result of this kind of influence and the type of thinking that goes with it.

Trying to change everybody or trying to,

You know,

If you have another thing that we've talked about a lot,

Don't have false expectations of this world.

Don't have false expectations,

Unrealistic expectations of others.

Everybody's in whatever state they are.

The world is in whatever state it is.

Don't think that you can change it and don't think that magical thinking and wishing is going to make everything better.

You can make things better by taking charge of your own life,

Making your life better,

More spiritually directed,

And in that state having a positive effect and influence on others around you.

For those who don't choose to live this way,

Then of course one should feel compassion for the suffering of others in all conditions,

A saintly personality,

A great yogi would look upon a beggar in the street who is absolutely destitute and nothing and knocking on the window of a guy sitting in a Mercedes Benz with his Rolex on.

He sees those two people as being in exactly the same position from a spiritual perspective and given enough time they will end up changing places,

Maybe in a lifetime or two.

That's the nature of things.

You hang out here,

You know,

This is what happens.

And so there is this need for this acceptance of a reality.

While I was sitting back there I just had a recollection of when I was a kid I heard this story and I just looked it up.

And it's from a king from England in the 11th century.

His name was Khanut,

King Khanut.

And the story of his has been retold in many ways and many inaccurate ways.

He was basically,

You might have heard the story,

He was the one that sat on a chair at the low tide and commanded the tide not to come in.

Have you heard that?

And people tell it in different ways and for different reasons.

In most of the ways it's told is incorrect and inaccurate.

But I'll just read it here.

It's on Wikipedia.

It must be true.

So a historian,

Huntington,

He wrote this account.

He said,

Khanut set his throne by the seashore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes.

So one of the explanations that's given is that he was doing this to try and teach a lesson to his courtiers,

The people who followed him around everywhere and boys singing his praises.

Yet continuing to rise as usual,

The tide dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person.

Then the king leapt backwards saying,

Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings.

For there is none worthy of the name but he whom heaven,

Earth,

And the sea obey by eternal laws.

Of course,

He's referencing God or some higher power.

And in comparison,

Saying the power of a king is worthless and useless.

You can't do anything about that.

That's pretty far out because that's really the type of mentality that we need to really have and take on board if we are going to continue this journey of life that we call this journey of life.

And don't struggle to unrealistically change things.

Don't have unrealistic expectation of things.

Learn to accept things for what they are.

Become focused on that which you actually have power over,

Your body and your mind,

Your speech,

Your thought,

Your actions.

Use these things wisely.

Use these things compassionately.

And your life will become noble.

It will become very rich and wonderful.

And you will have an influence on others.

But understand,

Don't get angry at others for their state of thinking and their choices.

That's their free will to do it.

Feel sadness instead at wrong decisions that bring unhappiness.

And try and positively attract people to make good choices in life,

To live a dignified life,

To live a spiritual life.

So in short,

You don't try to make sense of a senseless world.

The world is not senseless.

Everything is operating according to natural law and the principles attached to it.

If you idealistically think it should be perfect,

Then this is same senseless.

But if you understand,

People are free to act.

They are free to open themselves up to be influenced by different ideas and different things.

It's not senseless.

It's working to some plan,

As it were.

OK?

Good enough?

Thank you very much.

And again,

Just a reminder,

If people have stuff they want to hear about,

Feel free to let us know.

And of course,

We know that the thing I always remember this really,

This lovely lady from out West Auckland,

We were doing a course working with a trust there,

People that mostly been victims of violence and sexual abuse.

And this really lovely older woman,

Middle aged woman.

And I mean,

She's just your average Kiwi.

And after going through the course,

And she came back and did it a second time,

She said,

I don't know what's happened to me,

But I've really changed the way I think about things.

It's really changed my life.

I don't know why,

But it's really changed.

Well,

Of course,

I know why.

That simply by hearing these ideas,

But more specifically by engaging in this process of meditation,

That this spiritual sound,

This transcendental sound has this amazing effect to touch people's heart and to bring light and understanding into their life.

So they begin to see things differently.

They feel about things differently.

They approach things differently.

So we'll do Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.