Western Baul Podcast Series

All Things Lovely Exist (Naomi Worob)

The way we identify ourselves and are identified in the world puts us into boxes of what we do rather than conveying who we are. Moving our bodies in any way we want to is dance. Part of “all things lovely” is having wide eyes on what is beautiful, intriguing, and awe-inspiring, and moving toward that. Pillars of pleasure activism are considered: we become what we practice, what we pay attention to grows, our no makes way for our yes and yes is the way, make justice and liberation feel good, when we are happy it is good for the world, and moderation is key. Practice is alive in every moment, and compassion for self and others are elements of it. “All things lovely” doesn’t mean that everything is easy. Meditation gives us space to notice where our attention goes and to realize that we have the power to shape thoughts and focus attention. We can label thoughts, let them go, and focus back on the present moment. The more we honor our yes and no and communicate that with kindness, the more we can move with strength toward beauty. Being able to listen to others and understand their perspectives affects our ability to be in relationship. Our wellness and joy impacts relationships and spaces we’re in. Resilience is rooted in being part of communities that offer the space to grieve and experience the whole spectrum of emotion. There is beauty and love at the depth of sorrow. Examples of people who have practiced in the most difficult circumstances and chosen to focus their attention on connection and beauty are discussed. Expressing a true yes or no is scary if we don’t have a strong anchoring core of self-compassion. Naomi Worob has practiced living with kindness, generosity, and compassion on Triveni Ashram in the high desert of Arizona. She has engaged in dance and theater performances with Nervous Theatre, Collective Movement, and Jacob’s Pillow.

The Urge to Win, Dominate, and Control (Bandhu Dunham)

Ego is the foil to our spiritual development, to fulfilling our capacity for awareness, compassion, creativity, and self-transcendence. The urge to win, dominate, and control is a pithy definition of ego. It can also be defined as the self-sense or survival instinct involving cognitive and emotional as well as physical survival, or as the freedom of mind choosing an alternative to God or a higher power. It’s pretty obvious when someone is trying to win, dominate, or control but challenging to see in ourselves. It is helpful in our spiritual evolution to pay more attention, have restraint, and take time to pause and reflect on our actions. Having a sense of purpose and sense of space can be useful reminders. It’s usually possible to have humor about situations. Responsibility is not control. Examples from the Japanese television series, La Grande Maison Tokyo, are discussed. Moments of peace and quiet are rewards of knowing we can’t control everything. We can only control ourselves and our conduct. Success on the path is not about winning, dominating and controlling, but about surrender and coming to center. We can’t tell if we’re off center if we’re not familiar with our center. Accepting what is as it is, and acting, can take us to the end of the path, to being one with the universe. Obstacles we encounter reveal the way to move forward. Four virtues of stoicism to be developed over a lifetime are wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. If things don’t go the way we want (e.g., with the outcome of an election), we can still live according to our principles and practices. Grief is loving something or someone we have lost; love is grieving for someone we haven’t lost yet. Negative personality features are the flip side of authentic manifestations. Our success depends on what we set up for ourselves. Bandhu Dunham is the author of Creative Life and an internationally recognized glass artist and teacher.

Present Attention is Objective Love (Red Hawk)

The being that occupies the body has two qualities—presence and attention—which is all that is needed to awaken. Attention has will and can place itself anywhere inside or outside the body. The present is the domain of the Divine and of love, which is not the emotional, sexual, or romantic love that we are taught and programmed to believe in. To be in service to the Divine, attention has to be present. If we’re not aware of the body, we’re identified and not present. Masculine energy holds attention in place, allowing the feminine to emerge by being receptive. When we’re present we can see what’s going on in the inner world. A distinction can be made between mechanical attention and conscious (or second) attention. Presence and attention in the inner world, which wears ego down, are like wind and water acting on stone in the outer world. We can watch the action of the ego structure, which slowly gives up its energy to the being, to attention and presence, but this is difficult because attention is weak. The great majority of humans live a life of constant distraction, identification and imagination. “There is only God” is a profound teaching. If God is love, then why is there violence and evil? In its mechanical state, the egoic structure alters love to assert its own desires. Conscience is easily overrun by the will of ego. Present attention corrects whatever is out of alignment with the love of God. Love—not my will, but Thy will—is the supreme intelligence which works through us. Ego does not want present attention; it wants identified attention. Effortless effort can only be unraveled by direct experience. Super effort does not come just from me but the being in harmony with the Divine. Red Hawk is an acclaimed poet and the author of 13 books, including Self Observation, Self Remembering, The Way of the Wise Woman, Return to the Mother, and Book of Lamentations.

Just This and the Practice of Assertion (Matthew Files)

Spiritual teachings can be easily understood in a conceptual and not a bodily way. Just This, or the practice of Assertion, is the recognition of what is real in every moment. It was a practice given by the American teacher Lee Lozowick which can be equated to “what is as it is, here and now.” But what is real to ego is everything that maintains the illusion of separation from what is. We may engage in spiritual practice because we sense there is more to life than what we see, which is full of illusion—projection, judgment and meaning-making. Just This is strong medicine to pierce such illusions that get in the way of accessing what is real about life. There is a lot that is real that we’re not aware of. It’s easy to fixate on the 3-dimensional realm as the scope of everything that is real. Yet, we are multidimensional beings. One aspect of Just This is that there is nothing missing right now. Just This is not a remedy, an affirmation to improve one’s life, or a mantra to repeat. Doing a practice in a relaxed way rather than trying to get somewhere without grasping makes the essence of a practice more available. When we accept what is as it is in the moment, the next moment may be a whole different experience of change. Just This is the reflection of reality in words, a doorway into the context of what is real in all of life which can be used at any time. This is Real is another expression of Assertion which can be done at specific times such as during completely natural bodily functions like eating, sleeping and eliminating that do not essentially involve ego. Just This needs a framework, a matrix to arise in that is built by traditional practice. Being human, which is more than having a body, is what we’re building through traditional practice. Matthew Files facilitates groups that support people to look deeper into their process, formulate their own questions, and become responsible for their choices.

Telling What Is True for Us and Trusting: Bridging the Inner and Outer World (Juanita Violini)

As long as we avoid truth, we are stuck in illusion. We may avoid telling the truth in small, seemingly inconsequential ways as a habit that originated in childhood as a survival mechanism. This can occur due to shame, denial, self-hatred, or by justifying or blaming. If we deny what is true for us, we don’t have to change. Deeply knowing the consequence of an action can sharpen our self-observation. Speaking about what is true for us and taking responsibility for it is not common. It is wise not to always share our truth and to discern who to share it with. Clarity is when we recognize what is true for us. Our inner experience is a bridge to how we relate to the environment. Lack of clarity is frequently self-serving. We don’t like to examine painful feelings and thoughts to find out what we are hiding from ourselves. When we sit with discomfort and focus on our breathing, clarity can arise. We may fear the truth and assume that it is worse than a lie. We can fear greatness and being powerful, which is about the influence we have in circles we are in when we speak our truth. Fear of making mistakes is often about losing face. The only standard to hold ourselves to is what is true for us. Grounded in our truth, we do not fear reactions or outcomes. When we do the right thing, we learn to trust ourselves. Once we know what is true for us, there is the challenge of learning how to speak about it which can lead to trusting that what shows up is in our best interest. When we tell the truth about ourselves, it is easier to let go of emotional charge, to accept what life sends our way, and to know if others are trustworthy. We can experiment with letting go of control which allows room for magic and something much better in our lives. Juanita Violini is an artist and writer/producer of interactive mystery entertainment who has been a student of the spiritual path for over 35 years.

Languaging Nonduality (Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick)

Grounded practice gives us direct experience of the pervasiveness of the mechanical, identified mind. Before we have direct experience of something, linguistic representations are ineffective at transmitting what it is. There is a distinction between results and practice. A teaching can be the result of practice, such as loving our neighbor, but we may consider it as a practice that we are unable to embody without having cultivated the necessary quality of being. Seeing the world as nondual is a result, not a practice. When nonduality is taken as an intellectual proposition, mind pastes over experience and co-opts the spiritual process, which is not realization. There are poets like Ursula Le Guin who use language to “point at the moon” or the sacred. There has to be some work with mind for the intuition and depth of nonduality to take root and inform all aspects of our lives. We may not be in a new paradigm of spiritual practice, but we are in a new paradigm of access to information and teachings. Nonduality is one way among others to talk about reality. Different spiritual approaches work for different people. For many, something has to be dislodged from its static position around the heart. There’s truth to being nondual and to being dual, which is paradoxical and indicative of a greater mystery. We can be grateful for language that brings our attention to something bigger than the small self. It’s not words but the carrier wave, where someone is coming from, that transmits what words point to. It’s helpful to hang out with people who share spiritual intention. Everyone doesn’t need to be involved in formal spiritual practice; lives are equally valid. Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick run Tayu Meditation Center and founded Many Rivers Books and Tea in Sebastopol, CA. They invite spiritual teachers, practitioners, and authors to articulate their stories on The Mystical Positivist podcast.

What Can My Secret Life Offer Me on the Path? (David Herz)

Our private life involves a flow between ourselves and others, and we may choose to share details of it with those we trust will receive it with empathy, responsiveness and understanding. Our secret life, on the other hand, is known only to ourselves. It would be hard to share with others except in a rather touching and intimate way. It's deeply personal and mysterious, unique to our individual being. A secret life can be compared to dark matter, which is not understood but which may be considered as the nothingness from which everything known emerges. We have created the world we perceive by limiting how much we perceive and defining how we perceive it. But the secret life is always behind this. It can open us up to a place where we want to be, where we find refuge and guidance. Poets have a natural intuition of the secret life. They need it to be in touch with what they feel called upon to do. This way of looking at a secret life is distinct from other perspectives we may have about what a secret life is. Different interpretations of a secret life are explored, including one in which addictive habits and shame are hidden. On the spiritual path, we may self-observe a shadow of compulsions and obsessions that can affect our work when they control us, which wait to be addressed. There is also the way some keep their practice secret by not talking about it as a way of protecting their work. In the spiritual process, some may address their need for help by appealing for it in an inner way and may not want to speak about it. But we may also feel a need for intimacy, to share more of our private and secret lives with others with discrimination. Vulnerability to the Divine is a state worth working for. David Herz is a spiritual practitioner who lives in Paris where he has been a journalist, technical writer, communications officer, and an English instructor at universities.

My Interviews with Sisyphus (Tom Lennon)

The mythic image of Sisyphus, of a muscular man pushing a rock up a hill for eternity, represents something that needs to be known in us. We can consider it in various ways. For some, it’s about punishment by the gods for immoral behavior. For others, it’s a metaphor for an unfulfilling, demanding life. Or it can be a jumping off point from which to ask the larger questions of life. We can be taken by these characterizations, yet the Sisyphus image can open us to some other possibility. This talk is about inner world conversations, or interviews, that the speaker had with Sisyphus based on questions evoked over years by the image. How does Sisyphus endure his fate? What motivates him? What rock am I pushing up a hill? Do I have to struggle like I do? Who am I? What am I doing here? The Sisyphus story and Camus’ writing about it can only offer so much insight into the human condition as we are willing to explore for ourselves. We generally seek to be relieved of a burden we don’t want to feel. To go beyond that and resolve our own personal story requires an inner necessity that won’t leave us alone, a courageous intention to look into our own lives as opposed to looking to others for answers. It is lawful that help is available when we have a real need. Perhaps eternity does not exist and there is only doing what needs to be done in the present, here and now. We are binary beings who see life in terms of good and bad due to our thinking. We can’t open to an unknown quality of life beyond myth, to the path beyond self, by thinking. Feeling something “off the page” that is beyond thinking allows words to be used in a more refined context. Spiritual icons can be portals into another reality that can teach us. Tom Lennon, Ph.D., is a retired cultural resource consultant. He leads groups with the intention of supporting the spiritual process in others.

Seeing the Bigger Picture (Elise Erro/e.e.)

The reason we have questions is that we don’t see the bigger picture. As children, we don’t recognize the trauma we experience, but as we get older the sense that something is not right in life may lead us to the spiritual path. What happened to us informs how we respond to life in the present, but we live out of the programming of the past. As long as we’re reacting from childish programming that was designed to protect us then we’re unable to accept what is in the present. Self-observation and writing are ways to practically work with our thoughts, emotions, and patterns. When we have reactivity, we can come back to the body, be as present as possible, and be kind to ourselves. We can learn to be with what is going on for us instead of thinking that we should not feel the way we do. Homeostasis is when the body brings itself back into a stable and balanced state. Our habitual reactions keep the world intact and keep us identified with the person we believe ourselves to be. Loosening the intensity of our reactions makes it possible for us to see who we are underneath that. There is always more, always a bigger picture. We don’t fear the unknown; we fear the known ending. The prison we find ourselves in is the known. We may say we want to get beyond our known reactions, but it can be scary and our inner work will bring up resistance. Who are we if we don’t have our stories about ourselves? We can see how affirming, denying, and reconciling forces operate in our lives. There is benefit to working with people in a group who can remind us of our practice. We can hold to and nurture the experience that we sometimes have of who we are beyond our reactivity and definition of ourselves based in the past. Elise Erro (e.e.) has been committed to a life of engaging spiritual principles and service through theater, support for the dying, and bringing enjoyment to others as a chocolatier.

Conscious Surrender: Deepening Our Role in the Spiritual Process and Why It Matters (Vijaya Fedorschak)

The aim of all religions is to point out the path that leads to freedom, peace, and joy, which can only be realized through the surrender of ego. The principle of ego or separation permeates our lives. To realize oneness with God or the universe is to be conscious of the divine presence everywhere. Intellectual understanding is different than actual spiritual experience. Ego avoids surrender at all costs; yet the universe brings about transformation. In an absolute sense, surrender is already the case since the universe is what it is and couldn’t be otherwise here and now. When we are not flexible enough to move as the universe is moving, we cannot live in freedom, peace, and joy. But we can practice with conscious surrender and come to accept what is even when it is not our preference. Surrender is the intelligent way to relate to life since the universe rolls along without our agreement. Despite our apparent insignificance, we may lighten the burden of the Divine when we consciously accept what is. Everyday circumstances that we can surrender to and more challenging situations are considered. Surrendering to circumstance is different than surrendering to all of life. There is no proof of surrender other than the abiding experience, which requires self-honesty and has been the experience of different masters in all the traditions. Usually, we do not surrender to joy but tend to hold it in and try to contain it. Surrendering to others loosens the assemblage point, the way ego functions. Surrendering to our life purpose could be very ordinary or not. Surrender is surrender to self, but it is not so easy to distinguish between self and ego. Learning to surrender isn’t part of our education, but we can learn to follow what feels right and accept what is and act. VJ Fedorschak is the organizer of the Western Baul Podcast Series and author of The Shadow on the Path and Father and Son.