What could be more free than not wanting anything?
What would be more free than not needing this moment to be any different?
What could be more free than being unquestionably whole and complete?
Not,
I'm so free that I'm going to go get the wholeness in the future.
You see,
That's what the traditional assumption is.
I'm so free that I can finally go get the thing that I want to make me whole.
That's the world's idea of freedom.
Real freedom is to connect deeply with what is real and true.
And in the recognition of this,
There is a profound permission to be present.
I'm so free that I can just be.
The title today is a powerful one.
And playfully,
There's a whole bunch to be said about this.
And it's always a fun,
Non-serious challenge to communicate these things in a relatively imaginary short amount of time.
Because ideally,
I want to spend a whole week with you and dig into all of this stuff.
Because as we take our time,
It just goes deeper and deeper and deeper.
So let's get this thing rolling.
The title of this episode,
Number 13,
Is Want for Nothing and Be Free.
Granted,
This is a bit of a spiritual pointer.
And I really enjoyed the pre-broadcast reflections where I took a moment to write some thoughts as I contemplated this topic and shared those.
And depending on where you're listening from,
Those reflections aren't too difficult to find.
But I mentioned in this reflection that when you say something like,
Want for Nothing and Be Free,
There can be a lot of automatic assumptions that just get in the way and miss the point of the pointing.
We could assume you're being told that you shouldn't want,
It's bad to want.
You could also assume,
In my human experience,
I don't want.
And I'm saying that you should be like me.
You see,
There's just so many assumptions.
And so I invite us to kind of move gently and slowly and not believe these words,
But be open to see what they're pointing to.
Because,
Of course,
As I've mentioned before,
The truth of these things is so beyond the words.
The words are so silly.
And even sillier is believing the words.
And even sillier than the silliness and believing the words is arguing about the words.
And so I'm not here to proclaim in some way that what I'm saying is what's true.
But I am communicating an opportunity to see something that words can never touch.
And when you see it,
You won't be able to say much about it other than maybe,
Holy shit.
So let's carry on in a playful way.
Want for Nothing and Be Free.
This is so beautiful,
As this has been said in so many different ways throughout so many different spiritual teachings.
And the one that comes to mind,
Considering I grew up in somewhat of a Christian environment that halfway had me convinced I was going to hell.
But I remember there was this Bible verse that I can't even tell you what it is or where it's from,
But it said something to the effect of,
God takes care of me and I shall not want.
And I remember to a certain degree hearing that and being irritated.
Again,
Assuming that it meant that we're not supposed to want.
And if you want,
Then you're going to hell.
Which in a manner of speaking and pointing points to a particular truth,
Which is beautiful now,
But in these previous interpretations as a child were completely misinterpreted.
What it was pointing to was as you see the truth of life,
Which includes the truth of what you are,
Which includes the truth of what others are,
Then this movement of anxious wanting,
Feeling separate from what is wanted,
Gradually,
If not rapidly,
Subsides.
And what is recognized in a very beautiful and coherent and a very true way is that I already have everything I want.
There is nothing missing.
And what I love about that so much is the contrast between deeply seeing that and then the experience of thinking that's total bullshit.
Because I'm familiar with both sides of that coin.
And of course to interpret it as total bullshit is to misunderstand the pointing,
Is to innocently not see a depth of what's real and true while being,
Let's just use the word blinded to what's really happening in this human experience.
As we explore this and I wonder in myself which direction to go,
Let's look at the nature of suffering that gives rise to what we will call anxious wanting.
And unless I'm the only one,
It might be appropriate to assume that you're familiar with an energy of anxious wanting.
And what I mean by this anxious wanting is sort of an interpretation that one cannot be relaxed,
Present in a state of peace unless he or she gets what they think they want in the future.
And this could be expressed in a million different ways.
And beyond that,
It can show itself as wanting a promotion,
Wanting someone to love you,
Wanting money to pay your bills,
On and on and on.
And as a playful exercise,
I guess while we're here,
You can explore your own experience and see what anxious wants might be showing.
But recognize this energy that in some way says this moment is incomplete and that something that I want would complete this moment.
If I had it,
I could be without anxiousness to whatever degree.
Even to the extent when it comes to things like purpose or fulfillment,
We could have the thought there must be something more than this.
Understandably,
Like this can't be all there is.
But more accurately,
What is being communicated is I'm not seeing the fullness of what is.
And if this is confused,
Then we go looking for it.
And where do we go looking for it?
There's two answers to this,
Which is the same thing.
We go looking for it in the future and we go looking for it in our imagination.
And the future is imagination.
We go looking for it in the mind's content.
We go looking for it in the unreal.
As it relates to the nature of suffering,
Which I think is fundamentally important to bring a sense of understanding to,
Let's for a moment investigate the nature of our own suffering.
And this is fun.
If you can approach this in a playful spirit and not use this as an exercise to judge yourself,
But to observe almost mechanistically what happens in the human experience.
And this isn't,
Of course,
Looking at other people's suffering.
So let's focus on what we can actually know,
Which is our own direct experience.
What I invite us to observe or notice is how intimately tied suffering is to what we will call a loss of identity.
I'm not talking about physical pain.
It's very different from suffering.
I'm talking about that internal angst where you feel as if what you are is worthless,
Without value,
Inadequate,
Unlovable,
Unworthy,
And painfully separate from a wholeness that seems to be at a great distance.
Do you see how that all wraps around a personal sense of identity?
It wraps around who you think you are.
Have you suffered over anything other than who you are thought to be?
If we can say,
Yeah,
I've suffered over the loss of another person in relationship to who?
To me.
You don't suffer over the loss of people you don't know.
The only way you can suffer over the loss of another person is in reference to who they mean to you,
Your identity.
And then often when someone we love or deeply care about passes on or leaves a relationship,
We can often feel like I don't know who I am anymore.
And that can be a massive blow to a personal sense of identity.
We have an amazing capacity to sidestep this truth with our ability to tell stories,
To tell stories about why we're suffering without addressing the heart of the matter in the way that we can say,
I'm suffering because this person left me.
No,
You're suffering because you're interpreting it as meaning you're less than,
As meaning you're undesirable,
Unlovable.
You're suffering over a self perception.
I'm suffering because I lost my job.
No,
You're suffering over a uncertainty about your worth and value.
But you see what I mean?
And again,
Not that that's wrong.
In one way,
It's how we communicate telling stories.
But there is a caution in the wind that says,
Be careful about believing your own stories rather than seeing what your stories point to,
Which will always be an interpretation in how you see yourself.
And if you see yourself as unwhole,
You will suffer.
And if you see yourself as unwhole or incomplete or unlovable,
Then very clearly and directly,
You're not really seeing yourself.
You're not seeing what you really are.
There's a confusion.
There's a misunderstanding.
This is why,
Of course,
All spiritual traditions in their authenticity in some way or another are saying,
Wake up and see what you really are.
Whether that be a child of God,
Whether that be the one,
Or whether that be extraordinarily connected to everything.
I mean,
Again,
Stories.
But what are these stories saying?
In some way or another,
What they're saying is you're not missing anything.
And if you don't see that,
You'll suffer,
Which is an alarm system that points you home to see that.
That emotional pain is trying to get your attention to bring healing to perception in the same way that when you touch a hot stove and it hurts,
It's an alarm system that says take your hand off the stove.
I say all of that to help us understand that our anxious wanting,
Which is a expression of suffering,
Is an innocent misunderstanding.
That does not see the truth of what you are.
However,
In our conditioning,
In the environment slash society,
We have been born into,
It makes perfect sense why you would be with that confusion.
And that's not a statement of blame for society.
It's just where we are as human beings.
And it also sets the stage for a great discovery.
So,
Hooray.
As one sees more clearly,
Which is also to see beyond your conditioning,
Which is also the capacity to discern the difference between imagination and reality,
It becomes profoundly obvious that you're not missing anything.
And in the discovery of that,
There simply cannot be suffering.
And that might be a bold thing to say,
But it's true.
Now,
Let's also understand that there are beautiful and natural human experiences that could be experienced as unpleasant.
And then you suffer over those experiences,
And you think that those experiences are sufferable.
For example,
Like grief.
In our human dynamic,
The experience of grief is actually a profoundly beautiful thing,
As far as I'm concerned.
Grief is only possible because love is real.
The more there is a confusion about love,
The more we will suffer over the grief.
And we can think the suffering is because of the grief,
When rather the suffering is a misunderstanding that adds a certain energy of intensity to the grief.
But without the confusion,
Without the misunderstanding,
Grief plays its part,
Does its thing,
And often exposes a new depth of love.
In the same way that you can be outside and it starts raining and you get all wet,
You can suffer over that and turn it into something it's not and make it way worse and then blame the rain.
Or you can allow the experience to be what it is and go inside if you can go inside.
And if not,
Then let the experience be the experience and allow it to pass as all things do.
And so this is why,
Of course,
We are invited to move slowly as we explore these things.
Because again,
These things can be heard.
And with that comes a lot of assumptions that I'm saying something that I'm not really saying.
In the spirit of that,
I invite you to not believe me because I already know that you don't hear me.
Everyone's hearing their own interpretation and everyone's hearing something different.
And so you're not believing or not believing what I'm saying.
You're believing or not believing your interpretation of what you think I'm saying.
I want to point to the other part of this title,
Which is be free.
We've explored the want for nothing and recognizing that this is something that happens naturally and effortlessly as you see more of what's really true,
Which is the discernment between what we imagine to be happening and what's really happening.
And the second part is to be free.
And I find that the exploration of freedom is quite interesting as well because it can come with a lot of preconceptions about what it is or is not the way that we might be conditioned to see freedom is that you can do anything you want,
Have anything you want,
Go anywhere you want.
But this is a very superficial form of freedom that simply in a playful way says I have unlimited distractions.
There is a deeper freedom one that has been pointed to since the beginning as a way of illustration.
What could be more free than not wanting anything,
Then not needing this moment to be any different than being unquestionably whole and complete.
Not I'm so free that I'm going to go get the wholeness in the future.
Do you see that's what the traditional assumption is?
I'm so free that I can finally go get the thing that I want to make me whole.
That's the world's idea of freedom.
Real freedom is to connect deeply with what is real and true.
And in the recognition of this there is a profound permission to be present.
I'm so free that I can just be.
In the earlier session today,
There was the present moment example of the dogs barking outside in the distance somewhere.
I illustrated the point that I could perceive those dogs is in the way of what I was trying to do.
I mean here I was doing this event being focused and then dogs are barking.
Yet there's this profound freedom that understands that there's nothing out there that can disturb me.
And so there's this profound presence to just let the dogs be the dogs and do whatever I can do in the moment.
And whatever I can do in the moment is enough.
It didn't need to be different.
In a similar way,
It's I'm so free that I can allow life to be life.
I don't need life to be what I want it to be in order to get to the future.
I'm already whole and complete.
I'm not missing anything.
There's a misunderstanding of freedom that we can call a conditional freedom,
Which is just as insane as conditional love.
It's a freedom that says I can be free if which means there's no freedom right now.
In the same way when it said I will love you if means I don't love you right now.
I will be free if is kind of like saying that if I was free then I would never experience sadness.
I would never experience grief.
I wouldn't experience all that comes with being human.
This isn't freedom at all because what that requires is some sort of control over life.
It's kind of like saying if life was my prisoner,
Then I would be free.
Real freedom says that I am so free that if I'm sad,
I can truly be sad.
Real freedom says that if there is grief,
I can be with that grief.
Just like with the experiences of the dogs barking.
It's not I can be free if the dogs shut up.
It's I am so free that the dogs can be the dogs.
I can allow life to be life.
Want for nothing and be free.
This is just a gentle and playful invitation to be open to that direction of looking.
Not a requirement,
Not an expectation,
Not a should or should not.
It is a gentle whisper to come home and see that you are already whole and complete.
Let's do some questions if there are any.
And I've seen a bunch pass by and I tried to include them in my talk,
The ones that I caught.
But I'm not going to scroll back through all of these.
And find the questions.
Unless I end up doing that.
But if you have a question,
Now would be the time to type it out and post it.
Mary said that this is hitting home.
The want to be enlightened.
That's a really good one.
That's a popular one.
This is one that I'm constantly talking to people with.
When I'm working with them privately.
In some way or another,
There's the want to be enlightened.
And that want to be enlightened is a misunderstanding about what enlightenment is.
And in the spirit of play,
To just speak to that for a second.
There is no person that is enlightened.
Enlightenment,
More accurately,
Is a temporary state of clarity.
It's almost like seeing life is enlightened.
So you can trust life.
And in the same way that suffering revolves around personal identity.
The wanting for enlightenment will revolve around personal identity.
And anything that revolves around personal identity is destined to fail.
Because that personal identity isn't real.
It's imaginary.
And it will always prove itself to be imaginary.
Which is every encounter of suffering that we have.
Just did a classic,
Wanted to say sorry to someone really close.
And managed to make things worse.
My pattern ran on autopilot.
Oh dear,
Done it again.
I wanted an outcome of stopping a pattern between us.
But my own pattern of how I've handled it has bitten me back.
The irony of it all.
Now I'm wanting this to be resolved and realize there's nothing I can do except accept the situation as a lesson to do it differently next time.
Yeah,
As an invitation to do it different next time.
But not as an expectation.
It's like you're invited to,
But you don't have to.
Which is really beautiful.
And Peter follows up with,
I see the above situation I explained as an invitation to just love.
Yeah.
The feeling of making a harsh situation,
Making a hash of situation is the invitation of love.
Not to run a story of what could have been done differently.
But to see love is always present regardless of outcome.
That's beautiful.
Mary says,
I get it about your example with the dogs.
I see how I'm controlling life.
OMG.
Isn't it adorable though?
It's super sweet.
And this is part of the freedom,
Right?
I am so free that I can allow the human to be the human.
In all of its silly patterns.
Because,
And oh my goodness,
Hear this.
You know what makes all of those things worse?
The judgment of those things.
Thinking they should have been different.
Rather than an immediate forgiveness.
Which is simply a love that sees there's nothing to judge.
Because,
And this is so beautiful.
What's the problem with the silly,
Adorable,
Confused humanness?
What's the problem with that?
I'll tell you.
What you think it means about you.
See this.
Because again,
To say there's a problem with it is like saying I'm suffering over it.
And what is suffering about?
Personal identity.
So your problem is not with the adorable humanness.
Your problem is what you think it means about you.
And it doesn't mean that.
Right?
You can perceive it in a way that says something's missing.
But it's really not to see the adorableness of it.
And the more you see it as something missing.
The more you judge it.
The more violent you become.
And the more violent you become,
The more confused you become.
Which gives rise to more unconscious behavior.
This is where love resolves it all.
That's really important to see.
To just take a moment and discern what's really happening here.
Am I suffering over what was?
Or am I suffering over what I think it means about me?
And does it really mean that?
Outside of my own projection of meaning.
What is true?
You see,
That's the question.
Not what do I think.
What is true?
What is real?
If I say that such and such circumstance means I'm worthless.
Is that true?
Or is that just a way of seeing yourself?
You know what?
It's important to bring clarity to as it relates to truth.
Traditionally,
The human being thinks truth is a product of the mind.
But the only product of the mind is imagination.
Do you see that?
Everything that comes from the mind is images.
Not reality.
Reality is before the mind.
Reality is what allows for the mind.
And the mind cannot see reality.
The mind can only see its images.
In a comical way,
It's kind of like recognizing that you don't think about life.
You think about your thinking about life.
You think about your images.
You don't think about other people.
You think about your image of other people.
This is the life lived in the mind,
Which is happening for 99.
Whatever percent of human beings.
Living a life as if mental commentary is life.
And that's as real as having a photograph of the sunset in your pocket and thinking that you're carrying the sunset in your pocket.
In a playful way,
It's that insane.
The reality of the sunset is infinitely more extraordinary than your photograph.
In the same way,
There is an infinitely vast difference between who you think you are and what you really are.
Right?
Because look at the contrast of the photograph of the sunset and the reality of the sunset.
The photograph isn't even alive.
What is who you think you are other than a non-real something that exists solely in the imagination?
That is not alive.
That has no reality to it.
Isn't that extraordinary?
And then we live our lives as if who we think we are is what we are.
And that character,
The imagination of this someone,
Is constantly terrified of realizing that it doesn't exist.
And so it's constantly building on itself.
It's constantly wanting as a movement to validate its imaginary existence.
Like if you watch your mind circle around anxiously,
It's trying to accomplish one of two things,
Which is actually the same thing.
It is either seeking for a way to solidify acceptance or desperately trying to avoid being rejected.
Right?
That's what's happening underneath all the stories.
It's looking for a way to validate its imaginary existence,
Prove I'm real,
Or avoid being rejected.
Which is a way of validating its existence.
And it has to do that in order to survive.
This is a whole other video.
Let's drop in for a short guided meditation and see if we can invite even more presence,
More beauty,
More gratitude,
And more love.
How's that sound?
Alright,
Let's do that.
Here we are.
In the stillness of right now.
We can recognize a movement in the mind that goes from here to there.
About this,
About that.
Thinking,
Thinking,
Thinking.
And yet what we really are remains unmoved.
Feel the stillness of what you really are.
Discern the difference.
There is the imagination.
And then there is reality.
Here and now.
Come back to your real home.
Regardless of the noise in the mind.
As we become more and more totally present.
It becomes obvious that in this moment right now,
There's nothing missing.
What you are is whole.
Complete.
Not wanting for anything.
This is the profound truth of what you really are.
And this truth is always here.
Right now.
Just waiting to be seen.
We're going to take three deep breaths.
And really breathe this in.
And allow each breath to drop us deeper in to this truth.
Let's breathe.
Regardless of the chaos that we can imagine to be happening.
Let us recognize a profound gratitude for the truth of life.
The truth of this moment.
And the truth of what we really are.
Thank you for meditating with me today.
