Poetry Of Brian Lewis - L,L,&L W/ Glenn Ambrose

59:34

59:34

Poetry Of Brian Lewis - L,L,&L W/ Glenn Ambrose

by Glenn Ambrose

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

9

In this episode I discuss the dynamics behind the mental gymnastics most people struggle with on a daily basis. How does the art of allowing lead to a happier, more peaceful existence as opposed to focusing on our preferences, desires and judgements?

Spirituality Ego Poetry Meditation Letting Go Interconnectedness Discipline Ego Dissolution Creative Meditation Spiritual Community Spiritual Awakening Spiritual Practice

Meet your Teacher

Jamao al Norte, Dominican Republic

Meet your Teacher

Jamao al Norte, Dominican Republic

Transcript

Welcome to Life, Lessons & Laughter with your host, Glenn Ambrose. Hello everybody. Welcome to the show. So today I have a special guest. As you guys know, I don't have guests on that often. Um, But I was, I was online and I read, I came across this poem on social media and I was like, Wow, I'm really moved by it, Really impressed by it. So I reached out to this gentleman and he was nice enough to come on. So without further ado, I'm going to introduce to you Brian, Lewis. Here he is. Hey, Brian, Welcome. So much. Thank you for having me on your show. Yes, Absolutely. Yeah. Like I was saying, I came across your poetry and I was like, Wow, Completely blown away. So, Yeah. Why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself? Okay, I live in Singapore at the present time. I'm from the United States. I came to Singapore to Babysit and help teach two grandchildren So here I am the other side of the world from you. I Have been here a couple of years. I've been writing poetry for for a long time Although I guess I started really Keeping track of it about 15 years ago, And recently I've been sharing a poem a day on LinkedIn and Facebook and I'm in the process of building a website which I hope to have active later this year. I really appreciate your interest and your kind words about what I write. I'm happy to be here with you this morning, Or this evening, Which is great. Yeah, It's morning for you because we're 12 hours off. So yeah, It's evening for me and morning for you. Yeah, It's 6. 17 in the morning on Tuesday and 6. 17 in the evening on Monday for you. Exactly. So yeah, Thank God you get up early. I'm difficult with that. I get up late. I mean, I, You know, When I, Of course I read more of your poetry. Since I contacted you and since I came across this, This one. This one, It just, To me, You know, I see a spiritual shift happening on the planet. And I, It feels more and more like there's always overlap, You know, But it feels more and more that where we are, Where There's been a lot of spiritual buzz going on for years. And you know, Like, What was it last year or the year before the word for the year was manifest? Like, Which has a spiritual connotation to it. So like, You know, It's become more mainstream, And more, A lot more people are familiar with the self help the spiritual type, You know, Dynamics, But there's also there comes a learning curve with a lot of this stuff, In my opinion. So there's kind of a lot of pseudo spirituality and a lot of spiritual identity as this, You know, Exchanging one identity for another identity. And so when I was reading your poetry, It just seemed to shine a light on that and really go deeply into that so we can understand it better. So if you wouldn't mind, I'd ask you to read that poem. That first jumped out at me. Okay, I'm happy to do that. Thank you. Mantras, Incense wrapped around ambition, Enlightenment marketed as acquisition. Become more peaceful, More evolved, More awakened, More admired, For having transcended admiration. But reality is not interested in decorating the self. Reality dismantles it, Not cruelly, Not vindictively, Simply the way fire removes the illusion of permanence from wood. The great disappointment is not that the heavens remain silent. It is discovering that they were never withholding applause. There are no trumpets waiting for you, No invisible audience leading forward in reverence while you ascend beyond suffering. There is only this. A slow humiliation of seeing how much of your spirituality was still hunger. Hunger to matter. Hunger to survive death. Hunger to become untouchable through purity, Wisdom, Or transcendence. And so the path begins where fantasy collapses. Not an ecstasy, But an exposure. Layer after layer, The masks come loose. The compassionate one, The awakened one, The wounded one, The special one, Even the watcher standing quietly inside the mind, Taking notes on his own enlightenment, Especially that one, Until eventually you stand nowhere, Without costume, Without witness, Without the narcotic of becoming. And strangely, This is where tenderness enters. Because once the performance dies, Life no longer needs to justify itself. The wind through trees asks for nothing. The old woman feeding birds asks for nothing. The tired laborer placing one brick upon another beneath a burning sun asks for nothing. Existence itself has never demanded sainthood, Only participation. Perhaps this is why real spiritual life often looks ordinary from the outside. No halos, No cosmic earthquakes, No angels singing through ruptured skies, Just a human being becoming slightly less defended against reality, Slightly less consumed by the endless project of protecting an identity that was never stable to begin with. And maybe enlightenment is not illumination. Maybe it is exhaustion. The exhaustion of maintaining separation. The exhaustion of carrying the unbearable weight of me and mine through a universe that has been trying all along to place us back inside one another, Not annihilation, Release, Not transcendence of the world, Return to it, Barehanded, Unmasked, Without guarantees, Without applause, And finally capable of loving without needing to become someone for having loved. Wow. Yes, Yes, Yes. You know, This is it's it blew me away when I read it. It blew me away when I reread it. And when I reread it, Right before we hopped on this call, And then just listening to you, It's just like, You have a gift, My friend, You have a gift. And thank you for sharing it. You're welcome. It's been it's been My wife told me a long time ago that I should just share and not think about ever selling anything and I have come to agree with that I saw I share as much as I possibly can and don't think about making money from any of it and if it resonates with people and they share it with more people than that person creates a sense of harmony that I feel is needed in the world today. Yeah, Absolutely. I mean, It's, You know, I You know, I mean, My business is spirituality as a spiritual advisor and stuff like that. And I think that this is there's so much value to this stuff. I mean, As far as you know, I see somebody that plays sports or sings a beautiful song and they make millions. People helping the world should be able to live a decent life, Too. So, You know, I'm of the I view everything as an exchange of energy. So, You know, And money isn't to me, Money isn't money. It's it's an expression of energy. Energy, You know, So it's, You know, It's full circle, Full circle. So hopefully I personally, My personal opinion, I think you should be making some money off of it, But. We'll see, You know, Who knows in the future what will happen. But I'd like to share something about my background, You know, Maybe explain so my approach to this. In 1980, I was in China for the first time. And I visited what is known as the Shaolin Temple. And at the Shaolin Temple is where Bodhidharma meditated for nine years. And in 1980, There was nobody at the Shaolin Temple. I think there was one or two monks and that was it. If you go back there today, It's crowded with all types of spiritual seekers, Martial arts seekers, Et cetera, Et cetera. But at that time in 1980, It was really empty. And I saw where Bodhidharma, The founder of Zen, Meditated for nine years. And I sat there and I stood there and I said to myself, He did it for nine, I'm going to do it for 10. Wow and so i meditated every day for 10 years i forced myself to do that at times it wasn't uh it wasn't easy but it wasn't it was something i had committed to myself to do and some days i just did everything i could to not do it but i still did it and that's part of the struggle that i think is reflected in this poem i just read it's not the notoriety it's not the fame it's the just the drudgery work of doing in what you have committed yourself to do for your own growth, For your own experience, For your own life. And if, You know, If my writing conveys that type of message, Then I'm being successful in what I did. And at the end of 10 years, I still wasn't satisfied with what I had learned about myself. And I said, Okay, Another 10 years. And at that time I was still unsatisfied. And so now it's been, It's now 2026 and I'm still meditating every day with the idea of self-improvement and contributing to humanity and contributing to society where I can. Wow. That's a, That's an interesting story. So what, 46 years now? 1980 till now? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. And actually, I started meditating before that I started meditating in 73. So a little bit more than 50 years of continuous meditation. Wow. And today I tend to wake up this morning, I woke up at about 2. 30 to meditate. And that's sort of my practice as I wake up early in the morning. Some people would say late at night, But for me, It's early in the morning. I meditate, I'll read, I'll study, And I'll often go back to sleep, And then I'll wake up and continue on with day-to-day things. Yeah, A lot of people do like those hours, You know, Like two, Three, Four in the morning or so. It seems some people say that the veil is thinnest at those hours. You know, I don't know, But you know, I just wake up and do it. Yeah. Well, After 50 years, Yeah. You you're in somewhat of a routine. Probably. Yeah. But, You know, It's I'm glad you said that because it does bring some insight into what this, Like you said, What this poem is about. It's there's just so much like teaching people, Like one of the things that that I have to navigate as as a spiritual advisor is what I call spiritual snobbery. It's like when people when people first wake up and their eyes start opening and they start seeing reality as it actually is, It's very intoxicating and it can be overpowering. And a lot of times it starts turning into judgment of other people, Because, You know, Like once you see your it's it's so obvious, It's it's almost like, How did I not see this before? You know, So it's so obvious to us. And then everybody else who isn't seeing, We have a tendency to be like, What's wrong with them? Why can't they see? It's like you were just like that two weeks ago. For 40 years. This is what I see, You know, Your you're always bringing it back to yourself. It's not about everybody else. It's about us. And I think that that is the best thing to counteract that spiritual snobbery. We don't need to worry about who sees. It's like That saying that one person can't change the world said eight billion people. You know, It's like it always starts with one person right change yourself Don't worry about what the other seven and a half billion people are doing just worry about yourself be the change you wish to see in the world You know, And I think that that's gotten lost in in some of the the surface II spiritual games or identities that people are playing with now. You know? Um. . . So yeah, I mean, We, If you don't mind, We could kind of break this thing apart a little bit. Sure. So there comes a moment when the seeker realizes the universe was never negotiating. Like you caught me right there, Because that's one of the things that I noticed with my own journey is. I was trying to manipulate and negotiate with the universe at times, And I didn't even realize I was doing it. I was like, I was actually trying to do things to get what I wanted. You know, And and I didn't even I was lying to myself. I didn't even realize I was doing that. And then when you get really deep and honest with yourself, It's like, Oh my God, What was I thinking? Like I was trying to act spiritual so I would experience peace. Like you. You can't do that. You can't. One of the things I've noticed in taking care of small children, Infant children, Is that they respond to stimuli different than adults do. But on the other hand, It's a training process to teach them how to become members of society. And a lot of it is subconscious, And a lot of it is overt. But it's all directed towards putting people into a place of societal acceptance and practices. And to teach them to do otherwise is really contrary to how society organizes itself. And so this type of path that you're describing is something that what you just described is part of that response, Stimuli response. Activity of how we've been raised since we were small infant children. And so seeking the glory, Seeking the recognition, Seeking all of those things, It's just part of answering the question right for your test in first and second and third grade, Etc, Etc. And to get to grow, To expand, If you will, Or to, To, To to not respond in that way. It's not easy and it's a lot of discomfort. Yeah, Absolutely. And it's it's just I love when I follow my nudges because that's all this was. I followed a nudge to have you on. And it's I know I identified with what you're saying, But the more you speak, The more I understand why, You know, And this is something that I had just like I woke up spiritually 22 years ago when my son was like two years old. And I and I was divorced. We got divorced right out, You know, Like within a year of his birth. So I was and then I wake up spiritually. So now all of a sudden I'm kind of trying to co-parent this child and I'm spiritually awake and his mother is not. And I'm like, OK, How do I do this? Like, I see life completely differently than the conditioning, You know, That I was raised in. But yeah, I you And I had no custody rights, So I kind of had to. You know, Keep my mouth shut in certain situations and try to figure out how to raise this kid. Where he fits into society to some degree. Because I don't have the possibility of pulling him out of school and homeschooling him or anything and teaching him what I think is right. But yeah, I still need to expose him to the spiritual realities and stuff like that. So I was navigating that for a lot of years and it wasn't easy. I mean, Fortunately, He's 25 now doing wonderfully. So something worked, You know? Yeah, Of course. Yeah, Good. It's, You know, I do Tai Chi. And Tai Chi is a very interesting form of exercise because you do the same thing over and over and over again. And you try to do it as accurately as you possibly can. And so the benefit of practice, The benefit of repetition is something that's ingrained in my life. It's part of who I am. And it's, You know, What you just described with your own child, That's part of that process of attainment, Of enrichment, Of expansion that can grow out of repetition of a mundane kind of act. Yeah. Yeah. Consistency and, And, And a certain level of discipline, Which I'm hearing discipline is another thing right now in the spiritual shift, I think is, I think in the next year to two years, Discipline is going to be a lot bigger in the spiritual teachings. And what I'm hearing is that, That that's something that you take seriously in your own life with the meditation discipline consistently and the Tai Chi practice. Yeah, Absolutely. I have a friend who's dead now, But he was in China and he was an artist. And he died, He was, When I met him, Which was 19, In the late 1980s, Early 1990s, At that point he was in his 70s and I was in my 50s. And he was an artist and during the Cultural Revolution, He told me that every day he would be Instructed to paint a picture and he was told to paint the same picture and every day they would tear it up and yell out I would tell him how horrible an artist he was neat had no concept at all of what he was doing And this went on for seven or eight years, You know He said that he struggled with this every day and when he didn't do the way they the Red Guards told him that he should Then they would castigate him and they would do all kinds of unpleasant things to him, But he struggled through it and you know the the The interesting aspect of this is that if you were to visit the Great Hall of People in Beijing today, His murals cover the wall. Oh wow. Yeah, So it's, You know, It's about, It's also about going through the pain of rejection, The suffering that comes with the doubt. And in his case, And I think in my case, And probably everybody's case, It's, It's not just self doubt, It's also the doubt that is expressed to you, Because you're doing something different than what society thinks everybody should be doing. And that's a reflection of what most people are doing in their own life. And so they, When they see somebody challenging themselves, Challenging their perspective with, With a different type of approach to life, It's threatening. And part of the reason that poetry attracts my creativity is because poetry doesn't normally threaten people's thinking. It opens their thinking. It exposes their thinking. It offers them opportunities to think in a different way without threatening who they are. It's like a myth. You're creating a myth in their mind almost. And so, You know, That's part of my rationale or raison d'etre for being a poet, As I call myself. Wow, That's really, Really interesting to me because it's. . . You're I see exactly what you mean. It's there's a softness to poetry. There's you're giving people the opportunity to be exposed to something new without jamming it down their throat, Which is so common nowadays. It's you know, It's like it's my way or the highway now. And I'm right. And it's, You know, Of course, Being right is the best way to strengthen your ego. So it's like people are so defensive now. It's hard to get new information into them because their walls are up. Protecting their way of thinking but with poetry, It's just anybody can read a poetry and not feel threatened You know, They could did just like oh, I'm just reading this poetry. Oh, I don't like it I don't resonate with it and they put it down they don't feel threatened and I think just the very fact that they don't feel so threatened by it allows the absorption of it You know because they're not they don't feel like they need to protect themselves so they can stay at least open enough to entertain it You know, That's the dream. Well, Well, You know, It might not work all the time, But I think it works a heck of a lot better than a lot of other things, You know. You're getting all this. With me getting all jacked up and yelling on my podcast. Why aren't you guys seeing this? That doesn't work too well. Yeah, I got so I'll try to get through more than just one line. So the universe was never negotiating, Not with your longing, Not with your prayers, Not with your secret image. You carry, You carried. Not with the secret image you carried of yourself, Walking radiant through the world while others whispered your name as though it were holy. You know, It's when I, When I first started my business, Like 14 years ago or something, You know, It was like in Rhode Island and it was this little community and, And I was connected with people through AA a lot because that's where I woke up spiritually through recovery, Uh, Originally. And, Um, And, You know, The the the people that were around. At that time were like, They're still very special in my heart and wonderful people. And they kind of like my founding members almost, You know, That's that's like I hold them in this special place. It's a good organization. What's that? It's a great organization. Oh, Yeah, Absolutely. I mean, It saved my life, You know, And and it's so like it was just so, So wonderful. But in that in that in a and in the community in general, It was kind of like I got known as Spiritual Glenn. And and I accepted it because I knew they meant it out of love, You know, And they did. But there was this aspect of it that that always was like, Oh, It feels like an identity. You know, It's like, So so people over there going, You know, Oh, That's spiritual Glenn, Boy, He really gets it. He's really spiritual. And I'm sitting over here going, How come? How come I still get jacked up at my son's soccer game? Like, You know, Like I'm not perfect. I don't think I'm who they think I am with that self-doubt and everything. You know, After my mother died, I did something that is a historically, It's a Confucian tradition, Where the eldest son would withdraw from society for a period of three years. Oh, Wow, To meditate and mourn and express their love about their mother in their life. And I, Two weeks after she was dead, I was in a living in a Buddhist temple in central Taiwan. And my job at that temple was mopping and sweeping the floor every day. And at first I resented it because I thought I was important. I thought I was good. I thought I was something different. I thought, You know, Why should I be having to sweep and mop the floor? With time, I came to feel that I was fortunate to make a small contribution to the maintenance of something that so many other people had built. Allowed me or it caused me to reconsider what you were just describing about self-importance, About who I am, Et cetera, Et cetera. And they couldn't say my name, So they called me Mahdi, Which means mopping the floor. And so when I hear that, I think, You know, I feel a sense of honor, If you will, To be called mopping the floor. Yeah, And you know that was that was something that that was eye-opening In a way that I was surprised about And three years ago the head of the temple was dying asked if I could return to visit before she passed away And so the next day I was on a plane flying to Taiwan and the next eight weeks. I was sitting by her Bedside in the hospital every day and many nights as well there, You know, And be present with her. And sometimes we talk and other times we would just sit and be quiet. But the opportunity to be quiet and to serve and to give love is really a a benefit in life that comes from these kinds of practices. Yeah, Yeah, Absolutely. And it's You know, You make you make wonderful points, Which, Of course, You're going to because you wrote this poem. So it came from somewhere. And it's a deep understanding. And I, You know, I completely resonate with it. Like, Sometimes people look at me because, You know, I live in the mountains of the DR and I'm, You know, I've got my own spiritual advising business and I can work from anywhere and I live in a peaceful environment, Like I said, And everybody's like, Oh, Wow, You know, Boy, Glenn really, Really has it all figured out. And, You know, Must be so easy to be happy when you're Glenn. You know, I hope so. Well, I mean, You know, It's it's but it's all about me. It has nothing to do with that external stuff. And you know, Like sometimes people are People are working all these other jobs, And they think being a spiritual advisor or a life coach is so above it. And it's like, No, It's not. It's all the same. It doesn't matter what you do. It's just if you do it, And you referred to that, Um in this poem when you were talking about the the old woman uh feeding the birds asked for nothing the tired laborer especially this one right the tired laborer placing one brick on another beneath a burning sun asked for nothing you know and like i think we we really have to get back to that like just do the work to do the work like it's fulfillment enough doing what you're doing. And then you put your piece together with somebody else's piece, With somebody else's piece, With pieces that were put together you know, Generations before you, And it makes the whole world go around. There is nothing, There's nothing that we do here. There is no job that is meaningless. You know, It's a life coach isn't better than a plumber. It's, You know, We all have our place if we recognize and accept our place and, And approach life with respect for and of human dignity with others. You know, There's a lot that can be done. Yes. Yeah, Exactly. And just appreciating what we have, You know, Instead of trying to negotiate with the universe and get something else. Oh, So let's see, Where was I? I didn't, I didn't make it very far. Um, The spiritual marketplace sells mirrors to people trying to escape themselves. Yeah. Golden chains, Polished mantras, Incense wrapped around ambition, Enlightenment marketed as acquisition. I love that. Enlightenment marketed as acquisition. It's something to attain. You know, Something to buy something to get. And then, You know, And I see it not only in like the kind of obvious way, But I see it in less obvious ways as well, Where like when somebody is somebody's working on themselves spiritually and they're not where they need to be. And it's like they go, Oh, OK, Well, Now I must have to go on another retreat. I must have to. Go through another healing process. I must have to do another drum circle. I must have to do, You know, And it's like they're looking for that key. That one key that's gonna wake them up. And if they don't have it yet, Plus we're in the information age. So it's just information everywhere. And as you said, The conditioning, Right? We've been taught that if you can be given information and regurgitate it back in your own words, Then you understand it and you get to go on to the next grade. So people think that's what learning is. And to me, If you're doing the real work on yourself, The learning is more like three tiers. Yes, There's an intellectual aspect of learning, But there's also a conceptual aspect of learning. And there's also a physical aspect of learning where you stand in your new behavior in a physical environment, In a physical situation, Which really helps shift our vibrations and stuff. So a lot of times it's like people, If they don't feel fulfilled or enlightened or something with the information in their brain, Well, They think that they need more information. And it's like a lot of times all they need to do is take the information they have in their brain and actually implement it into their, Embody it, Absorb it, You know, Implement it into their life. That's more important than just gathering more information. Are you preaching to the choir? Yeah. You scared me with that little pause. Thank you. You know it's a so it's all complicated, And it's all simple You know it's a it's that's the secret. It's as simple as you can make it, And it's as complicated as as as it is and To break through that is a challenge because to break through it is to question All the rationale all the emotion all the history that we carry on our shoulders so to speak physically, Emotionally. And if we set that aside, If we discard that, Then who are we? And, You know, That's, That's a real, That's something that's very difficult. And it requires, You know, It requires a student who has confidence and faith. Ideally, It also requires a teacher who can provide guidance. Yeah, And that's that's it. I think that that people are kind of unaware how much an egoic death can feel like a real one. Yeah, You know, Absolutely. Yeah, It's just so you know, And what happens what in my experience, What happens is almost everybody around you just denies your existence. It's, You know, It's quite terrifying. Yeah, It can be quite terrifying if you don't have faith in in the in what you're doing. Yeah, It can be very terrifying because you know, It you're you're literally it is like a an actual death because you're dying to you're dying away from everything that you think you are. So it's, And it can have physical symptoms and as sure as heck has huge emotional symptoms and it can have intense intellectual and mental, You know, Symptoms as well. So. All the above. So that's where a program, Like you said, You found yourself initially the AA is a really strong foundational program for people that need help and assistance in support of other people. So it's, You know, That kind of activity in the larger world is really has powerful potential. And to, To not associate religion with it is a another aspect of strengthening, If you will. It's easy to say, If you believe this way and you accept this and you do these rituals, Then you're going to be blessed by somebody. It's much more difficult to say, Do these things and find yourself and have faith that you can, That you can be successful. Yeah, I just kind of saw it as you were speaking. I just saw it as, As You know, Most times we're working towards something, You know, And and in recovery, In my experience, I was I was walking away from something I was letting go of, Not trying to get, You know, So like two of the big pieces that were popping up was, You know, In the beginning, My sponsor said, Like, Did you screw up your entire life? Or is there some parts that are good? And I mean, I had destroyed everything. So so I was like, No, I got it all. You know, I'm good. I destroyed everything. And he's like, OK, So is it fair to say that your best thinking sucks? Like he was like, Did you try to destroy your life? And I said, Well, No. And he said, Okay, So you, You actually tried to do good, But yet you destroyed everything. So would it be fair to say that your best thinking sucks? And I'm like, Yeah, It's that, That would be fair to say that's logical. I can follow that, You know? So then I was like, Oh, I have to let go of my way of thinking. And it was easier because. I had destroyed everything. So like, I wasn't hanging on to it. I wasn't going, Yeah, But this is my way. Like, And I was like, Oh, Yeah, My way sucks. So So I let, So I was able to let go, You know, And then the other thing that is to me along the same lines, These were the two things that were popping up when you were speaking was, Um, It's, They said half measures avail us nothing. So if you do it halfway, You don't get half the results. You have to do it a hundred percent of the way, Or you get zero. If you do a 99% of the way, You get zero results. So when I was going through it, Whenever I wanted to not do something fully, Like I, I just wanted to die. I didn't actually think I was going to get sober and it was going to work. I just wanted to, It was, I wanted to die with a clean conscience. So I needed to kind of prove that AA didn't work. So then I could go finish the job myself. So I was like, So I go there and I go, I know what's going to happen. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to give it 99%. And I grew up playing sports and I usually leave 110% on the field. So I'm going to give it 99% and I'm going to know that I gave it 99% because I can't lie to myself. And then it's not going to work. And then I'm going to have to start this whole process over again. And I don't have the patience for that. I just want to die. So I would dig deep and I would give it 110%. And that is truly one of the main reasons I think that I blew open is because I, You know, When it came time to fully surrender and let go of everything that I thought I was. I did it to the best of my ability. And, You know, So again, It was a letting go of those were the two things that I saw. I let go of my way of thinking and I let go of my identity. And surrendered fully. And I think that that's one, Those are some of the reasons why it works so well for me. You know, I was just reading here the part of my poem that I think resonates with what you're talking about, The compassionate one, The awakened one, The wounded one, The special one, Even the watcher standing quietly inside the mind, Taking notes on its own enlightenment, Especially that one, Until eventually you stand nowhere, Without costume, Without witness, Without the narcotic of dreaming. And strangely, That's where tenderness ends. And that's, You know, Exactly what you expressed. Yeah. Yeah. And isn't it interesting that you use the word narcotic in there? Well, You know, Sugars are narcotic as well. I love chocolate. Yeah, Me too. Fortunately, Chocolate's a fruit, So I don't feel guilty. I got a bunch of cacao trees right here on the property. But yeah, It's true, You know, That's that's it it's it's like It's letting everything else go and then just seeing what's left over. You know, I think that's when you truly meet yourself. Well, You know, That's an interesting statement because what's left over is everything is there. Exactly. Yeah. So it's not leftover. It's an awareness of the enormity of what is is there for you. Right. Yeah. And we're so scared to let go of everything. Right. We're just so scared. And then all of a sudden, Once we finally do, We're like, Oh, My God, Like everything that I just let go of was technically nothing. Like I have everything already. It's one of my favorite. One of my favorite quotes is from A Course in Miracles. It says nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. You know, So it's nothing real can be threatened. So all these things we're trying to defend and protect and hang on to, Like, We don't need to defend and protect and hang on to any of those things because they're not real. They don't, You know, And nothing real can be threatened. So we don't have to worry about hanging on to it because nothing can take it away from us anyway. Beautiful stuff. Absolutely. So the last line, The last stanza of the poem, And finally capable of loving without needing to become someone for having loved. Right. That's basically what you're describing. Yeah, And it's it's that. Yeah, That's so cool. It's so cool because it's like that was right at the end. Yeah, And finally capable. Of loving without needing to become someone for having loved, You know, That's such the that that's the That's the counterintuitive part, You know, It's like we're trying. We want to be someone who loves so bad. Once we let go of trying to become that, We find out we actually are. It's like the wind in the tree. Hmm the wind in the tree. Yeah, That means nothing Yeah. Our love needs nothing. Our love is expansive. And it's emanating from us and it's, It's, It's in our interactions and it's in that brick layer, Laying the brick, Expecting nothing for return. It reminds me of that, You know, That, That saying of the sun, You know, After all these years, The sun asks for nothing in return. It just gives and gives, You know, And, And, And we get, I mean, You know, We, We do get in return. It's just much more, Much more powerful and beautiful then we. . . Than we expected. I read an article a couple of days ago about the, There's a, I forget what it's called. There's an experience that astronauts have from being in space where they realize the unity of life and the lack of division, The lack of separation that we believe is the reality. And so when they're up there in space, They have this overwhelming emotional response to the rest recognition of the unity of life the fragility of our of our planet and they just knew it's almost as I think probably some of them will have will cry because of the deep emotional feelings that this image Creates for them and then when you come back to earth it lasts for a few days a few weeks a few months and slowly it just dissipates until they're back into the competitive nature of a satisfying of our daily. Requirements daily quote-unquote needs Anyway, That's uh, You know, That's uh, But you know, And then the alternative of that is that it or the the Another way of looking at that is that historically these monks would meditate and they didn't have to go up into space to realize the reality of the unity of life so we can attain that understanding we can achieve that understanding we can express that understanding if we if we open ourselves to the question of who we are and why we are and what are we doing. Yeah, Yeah. And it's, You know, What's ironic is, Is one of the ways that I love to connect and feel that expansion and connectedness. Is by going outside at night and not looking at the stars, Looking at the space in between the stars, You know, The blackness that we used to think was nothing. But we actually now know through science that it is something, You know, And like. So first I'll go out and I'll look at the stars and you know, Because the things capture our attention. So I look at the stars and I pick a pick a spot where in between them, Where there's nothing blackness. And I'll just focus my attention on that. And it's just like, Instant expansion in my chest and connection with all that is. So it's like, I'm using space from Earth to feel that and then when they're up in space and looking back at Earth to feel that, You know. And if you take your shoes off and walk with your bare feet on the soil, It's even more. Yes, Right, Some grounding, Some earthing action. Yeah, And it's funny, Right when you were talking about that, I was looking at that part of your poem that was talking about separation. You know, Maybe enlightenment is not illumination. Maybe it is exhaustion, The exhaustion of maintaining separation. The exhaustion of maintaining the illusion of separation. You see a lot of unhappy people because of that life practice, That life experience. And the screen that we carry around in our hands with all of this information is just further compounding that. Another poem that I wrote recently talks about how in your hand you hold up pictures of your grandchildren scroll down and you have pictures of war and destruction and murder. And it's all there in your hand. And how do you how do how do we respond to that? How do we? How do we? We are we are we're trained. We're not we're, We're trained. I don't want to say that word. We are condition, Mostly we're capable of, Of a residence within a small number of people, A village, If you will, But this screen exposes us to the suffering of the whole world. And so how do we how do we how do we How do we participate in that without becoming bitter and overwhelmed and fearful? It's not easy. No, You're right. So that, That perspective of the astronauts up in space, Looking down is one way to think about it. The concept of the, Of the monk, Uh, The, The, The practitioner sitting on a cushion and, And understanding the expansion is, Is, Uh, Is a, Is an expansion of that as well. Uh, But because of the, Intense nature of the algorithms that focus our attention on what we think we want to know. It's very compelling and it's very difficult to break free from that. It does. It's got a real strong pull. You know, It's it's it's it's not easy. And it's you know, I one of the things that helped me, I don't know, About about six years ago or something, You know, I was I was kind of going through another little thing with I think that there was a lot going on with COVID and the political atmosphere in the United States and stuff. There was just a lot going on, You know, Like six years ago. And I remember I had, It was, I had come over to visit the DR, If I remember correctly. And I went back to the US before I moved over, Which was only about a seven week period. But I, I happened to watch this series, Time of the Sixth Sun, And, Um, And it was like an eight part series and I watched and you had to stream it within 24 hours. And then you got the next day for 24 hours and the next day. And I'm like, There's no way I'm watching anything for eight or nine days in a row. If I make it through one of these, It's going to be a miracle. I ended up watching all eight or nine parts of it, Eight or nine days in a row. And what it did was it was kind of like going to AA meetings Bye guys. We're in we're so inundated by unconsciousness and fear and negativity in the outside world that we need. We don't need you know I think the universe sets us up to win. If we're exposed to negativity for 10 hours a day that doesn't mean we need 10 hours a day of positivity. Counteract it, You know, Like even an hour is enough. It's like, But I exposed myself to a different way of thinking. That was what was right with the world, Things that were, You know, Um, Community living, Healthy eating, Um, Just, Just anything that, That was positive was part of this series. And I saw her eight, Nine days in a row. And I was like, It really helped me get over that hump from what what was transpiring in the world, Which is problem-based, To focus on solution-based thinking, And just to kind of fully disconnect from that, And then just start going, Okay, There's a lot of people doing a lot of good in the world, And I'm going to focus my attention on that instead of what's going wrong with the world. Yeah, Yeah, We have the ability to choose. I do the analogy of a computer program, Which is made up of zeros and ones. That's all it is, Zeros and ones. And if you say a zero is positive and a one is negative, Then you can choose if you want all zeros, Or you want all ones, Or you want a mixture of both of them. And if you start choosing the positives, Pretty soon you don't want to choose the negatives. And then negative will come at you from outside your control, But how you respond to it comes back to what you were just talking about. And so you can choose the positive and how you respond to the negative. So it's very simple, But it's, You know, It's, It requires effort and it requires determination. Yeah, And I think that's it. Yeah, That's a good example because it's, You know, I kind of see that as our brain is like that. Our brain, You know, The true creativity comes from the other side. You know, Our brain is basically a computer based off of our memories and everything that we have put into it our entire lives. So it's, You know, It's like what you just said. If you focus on, You know, Putting those zeros in instead of the ones after a while, You're right. The one that you look at a one and you're like, Oh, Why would I want that? It's true. Yeah, So we can't we do have that ability but that ability is not reinforced Because if you lose that ability, I mean if you have that ability Ability, Then you lose fear And if you lose fear, You're free. Yeah, And you're uncontrollable, Which the masses don't want. Yeah. It doesn't mean you become wild. It doesn't mean you become uncontrollable. It means that you don't respond to fear. Yeah, And that's, You know, And we got to wrap up. But, You know, That's such a personal thing for me, Because when I was young, I was ADHD, Which, You know, Was a euphemism for big pain in the ass back in the 70s and 80s. So like, That's how I was treated. And I started viewing myself as that. But I could never conform to society. You know, I always pushed against it. And and and when I was young, I didn't know the alternative, You know, And then it's It's like, Then I wake up spiritually and it's kind of this full circle moment where I still don't fit into society. But now I have like, When I was young, It was just rebellion, Right? Like, Because I didn't know what to replace it with. It was just like, I don't fit in there. So I'm going to fight against you. So that's what I did. You know, But then now I'm like, Well, I still don't fit in there. But I don't need to, Like, I can just be peaceful here. And I, In a way, I was kind of right when I was young. Even though I didn't handle it well. Active about all the wrongs in society. And one day I was walking with my dad and he said, Brian, You know, Your ideas are pretty good. But what if what if all the things that you protest against stopped? What would you replace it with? So you got your deep thinking from your dad. Yeah, Yeah. And I couldn't answer that question. You know, It really set me on my heels. He was acknowledging a lot about me, And also, You know, Giving me direction for my life. And so all these years of meditation have involved in the background in one way or another, How to respond to that question. And this poem that we're sharing today, Is part of that response. The other poetry that I've written is part of that response. And I believe the secret is that we need to realize that another poem I have is that all souls are the same. We're created to love. And if we can accept that about ourself and about other people, Then there's potential for life becoming something better than it has been. Well, I'm glad you chose to wrap up with that. Even though it doesn't happen often, I have nothing to add. I'm going to leave it right. I'm going to leave it just like that. So nice to meet you, Glenn. Yes. So such a pleasure. Such a pleasure. And yeah, Let's stay in touch. I really enjoyed this. And yeah, You have a lot. You're a very interesting person and have a lot to offer. So thank you. Like I said in the beginning, Thank you for sharing it with us. My pleasure, My honor. All right. All right. Well, Thank you, Everybody, For listening. And that's going to do it for now. And you can hang on right there for a moment, Brian, And I'll just play the outro.