Transcript
[0:18] Namaste. Welcome.
[0:22] Einstein once said that two things are
[0:25] infinite. the universe and human
[0:28] stupidity.
[0:30] And I'm not sure about the universe.
[0:34] [sighs and gasps]
[0:35] Through history, wherever humans have
[0:38] gone, we've devastated ecosystems and
[0:43] driven many animal species to
[0:46] extinction.
[0:47] And just in the last weeks, uh the
[0:49] current administration, United States,
[0:51] is proposing to speed this up.
[0:54] A recent global survey said what most of
[0:58] us know that there's widespread
[1:00] pessimism about the future. You know, a
[1:02] sense that things are getting worse.
[1:05] We're careening at an unimaginable pace
[1:08] and that this next generation is really
[1:11] in trouble.
[1:12] So, it's healthy and sane to see the
[1:17] dangers of these times and do all we can
[1:20] to protect the well-being of life on
[1:23] this planet. And here's the challenge.
[1:27] The more stressed and anxious we get
[1:30] about the state of the world and about
[1:33] our personal lives, the less we have
[1:36] access to the very capacities we need to
[1:39] move towards healing.
[1:41] And there's one capacity in particular
[1:44] that gets blocked when we're stressed,
[1:46] and that's healthy imagination,
[1:49] spiritual imagination.
[1:52] We need to be able to envision the kind
[1:55] of life or world that we want if we're
[1:59] to manifest it.
[2:02] This from Bill Hooks that imagination
[2:06] creates the future. It's not a passive
[2:10] mirror. It's a tool of transformation.
[2:15] So last year I began reflecting a lot
[2:17] about imagination as a superpower, one
[2:21] that we urgently need in these times and
[2:24] that we can develop. And so what I'd
[2:26] like to do is share with you uh two
[2:29] talks I gave last year that feel only
[2:32] more timely on how we can cultivate our
[2:35] imagination in ways that open us to new
[2:39] possibilities in our personal life and
[2:41] can help us collectively in responding
[2:44] to our world in a transformational way.
[2:48] So I hope you find this helpful.
[2:53] A few weeks ago, my sister handed me an
[2:57] old yellowed newspaper. It was from 1955
[3:00] and the headline was queer Brock's ties
[3:05] and um my father was on the city council
[3:09] where we lived and opponents were
[3:12] challenging him, questioning if he
[3:13] should be in office due to his
[3:16] friendship with a man who was in the
[3:18] communist party, actually a very close
[3:20] friend. So my dad was a left-leaning
[3:23] Democrat and he had people questioning
[3:25] him and this was the time of the red
[3:28] scare. This was McCarthyism in its peak
[3:31] and you know fear was being stoked by
[3:34] leaders and the media that communists
[3:36] were infiltrating everywhere. You know
[3:38] schools, Hollywood, government and
[3:41] threatening our American way of life. So
[3:44] it was crazy time. You know facts were
[3:46] irrelevant. Rumors were treated like
[3:48] truth. You know, people were imagining
[3:50] hidden enemies everywhere and careers
[3:53] were destroyed, lives were ruined,
[3:57] communities were turning on each other.
[3:59] Um, a lot of dividedness and he survived
[4:02] just fine. And that particular scare,
[4:06] the red scare, that imagined world
[4:08] faded.
[4:10] But our habitual trance of bad othering,
[4:15] our vulnerability to that is of course
[4:18] very much intact. And it collectively
[4:21] intensifies during times of uncertainty
[4:24] and fear. So back then in the United
[4:27] States, it was communism that was the
[4:29] threat to our American way of life. And
[4:31] now the thread is woke leftists or MAGA
[4:35] or pro Palestinian or immigrants or
[4:38] LGBTQ trans non-Christians, non-whites.
[4:43] Um the collective trance of enemy out
[4:48] there leads to violence.
[4:51] It leads to political violence. We're
[4:54] seeing it and it's tragic. It leads to
[4:56] ethnic violence. Um it's pervasive and
[5:00] horrific leads to wars. We're watching
[5:03] it all. And even in our personal lives,
[5:05] so many have talked to me about this.
[5:07] Those that are politically have
[5:09] different views, different cultural
[5:12] views, there's a sense of that person's
[5:14] in some way scary or dangerous. They
[5:17] represent something threatening.
[5:20] So when we're in a trance of bad
[5:23] othering,
[5:24] we're not just disconnected from them,
[5:27] we're also disconnected from ourselves.
[5:30] We're not living from our full being.
[5:32] We're contracted, cut off from our
[5:35] hearts.
[5:37] And so we've explored many times
[5:39] together because it's a theme that has
[5:42] felt so important that the pathway out
[5:46] of trance it begins with mindful
[5:48] presence. Okay, let's recognize what is
[5:52] happening here inside and to recognize
[5:55] the fear and the judging and the old
[5:57] stories that are moving through and the
[5:59] feelings in our body when we're divided
[6:03] from others or ourselves and just
[6:05] meeting that learning to meet that with
[6:08] uh kindness with presence. So
[6:11] mindfulness is our superpower and it
[6:14] does bring space. It brings clarity. It
[6:17] opens the heart. It lays the foundation
[6:20] for another superpower that we're not
[6:23] often aware of but has a very huge
[6:29] impact on our life. And that's
[6:32] imagination,
[6:34] spiritual imagination. What we can
[6:36] really imagine or sense is possible.
[6:39] So when we're afraid,
[6:42] our imagination contracts.
[6:45] Uh we envision danger, disconnection, no
[6:48] way forward. But when we're mindful,
[6:51] this larger reality becomes available
[6:54] and we start imagining what's possible.
[6:56] We can imagine love.
[6:59] We can imagine belonging. We can imagine
[7:01] others as part of our own heart.
[7:04] We can imagine and begin to sense who we
[7:08] truly are beyond the limiting stories
[7:11] about ourselves and we can sense our
[7:15] collective potential for creating a
[7:18] better world. So that's spiritual
[7:20] imagination. This capacity to glimpse a
[7:24] deeper truth or possibility that's
[7:26] always been here but it's not yet been
[7:29] fully seen.
[7:32] So today's reflection and and this will
[7:34] actually come in two parts. The second
[7:36] part will come when it's ready. But it's
[7:39] it's on spiritual imagination. This
[7:41] imagination
[7:43] of our full potential and it's inspired
[7:47] the greatest leaders. It's the essence
[7:49] of Martin Luther King's dream for us.
[7:53] It's the possibility of growing
[7:55] compassion and respect and justice and
[7:57] harmony in our world. And on a personal
[8:00] level, this imagination has to do with
[8:03] the possibility of living from our true
[8:05] nature. Really living our lives in more
[8:09] spontaneous and loving and wise and
[8:12] creative ways.
[8:14] So we'll be looking at the unseen role
[8:17] that imagination plays in each of our
[8:19] lives. both how it can keep us either
[8:22] stuck in trance when it's fear-based or
[8:25] if it's grounded in presence, how can
[8:27] open us to a radical kind of healing and
[8:30] transformation.
[8:32] And we'll explore the practices that
[8:34] activate it. The practices that activate
[8:38] imagination in a way that can deepen our
[8:41] relationships and free our hearts and
[8:43] guide us in how we can bring healing to
[8:45] the world. So, this will be hands-on.
[8:48] Um, a real key tool that activates
[8:52] imagination is inquiry. When you ask
[8:56] questions, it actually brings alive our
[8:59] imagination.
[9:01] And when we do it with real curiosity,
[9:04] um, it's it can be really very alive.
[9:08] So, in that spirit, I thought we'd
[9:10] start. I'd like to ask you a few
[9:12] questions to invite your imagination
[9:16] into the room or space you're in right
[9:18] now. So, let's begin first by
[9:23] consciously arriving. Let's call on that
[9:25] superpower of mindfulness.
[9:28] Wherever you are, just sense the
[9:30] possibility of becoming a bit more
[9:34] still.
[9:36] Perhaps taking a few full breaths.
[9:40] And with each outreath, sense that you
[9:42] can let go a little.
[9:48] Letting go of unnecessary thoughts.
[9:52] Nice deep full inb breath and a slow
[9:55] outreath.
[9:58] Breathing out and letting go of tension
[10:00] in the muscles. Perhaps the areas of the
[10:03] shoulders.
[10:05] Perhaps a softening there.
[10:11] Letting go and relaxing
[10:14] your heart.
[10:21] Then widening the attention to feel a
[10:23] sense of your whole body here breathing.
[10:30] Noticing the quality of presence that
[10:33] emerges with just a few moments of
[10:35] paying attention.
[10:41] And so inquiry,
[10:45] imagine yourself, your ego, your
[10:48] personality, your thoughts and your
[10:50] feelings
[10:52] as a kind of covering.
[10:55] And that beneath it, your true essence
[10:58] is light.
[11:00] It's what everything's made of. Light,
[11:04] aliveness,
[11:05] love.
[11:10] Can you imagine that? That like the
[11:13] golden Buddha, your essence is spirit,
[11:16] is basic goodness.
[11:23] And what if this basic goodness is
[11:26] something you can intentionally invoke
[11:29] and remember and trust more and more?
[11:32] Imagine that.
[11:35] Imagine how your life might begin to
[11:38] change
[11:40] if you really trusted in your basic
[11:42] goodness.
[11:47] And imagine that the same light lives
[11:50] through everyone.
[11:52] Your family, your friends, even those
[11:55] you struggle with,
[11:57] all beings.
[12:02] Can you imagine that? No matter how
[12:04] clouded this basic goodness or spirit is
[12:08] there, it's our shared essence.
[12:16] And can you imagine a world where more
[12:19] and more of us had the courage to look
[12:22] for the goodness in each other,
[12:25] to regard one another with generosity?
[12:33] What would that be like?
[12:37] And what if you live the rest of today
[12:40] with that intention to look towards the
[12:42] goodness in others and in yourself?
[12:46] What might that be like?
[12:55] What if you trusted that we are
[12:58] inexorably connected?
[13:03] that all that you touch you change and
[13:05] all that you change changes you.
[13:10] The only lasting truth is change
[13:16] and this interconnected world.
[13:22] And what if you believed you truly
[13:24] believe that it's possible to help
[13:27] create a more just and loving world?
[13:29] What if you believe that even given the
[13:32] suffering of today's world?
[13:35] What would that change about how you
[13:37] show up?
[13:53] And for a moment you might sense the
[13:55] capacity of your imagination
[13:58] to give wise hope. The hope that carries
[14:02] us forward.
[14:12] If your eyes are closed, feel free to
[14:14] open them.
[14:16] So there's a well-known quote. This is
[14:19] uh King James version of the proverbs
[14:21] that without vision the people perish.
[14:25] That vision, imagination, it's what
[14:28] energizes are evolving both individually
[14:31] and collectively.
[14:33] Our trust in our capacity to evolve
[14:36] evolves us. You know, I heard a story
[14:39] that moved me and was John Lewis telling
[14:43] it. He's most of you know lifelong civil
[14:46] rights leader, congressman, champion of
[14:48] nonviolent change. So he was on his way
[14:50] to Montgomery. He was on a civil rights
[14:52] pilgrimage across Alabama in 2011 and he
[14:56] was talking to a young aid and he told
[14:59] the story to the young aid. He said 50
[15:01] years earlier, 1961, he talked about how
[15:04] he and a colleague were at a bus station
[15:08] in Rock Hill, South Carolina, when a
[15:10] group of young white men attacked them
[15:12] and they were beaten with baseball bats,
[15:14] badly injured, bloodied. But Lewis and
[15:17] his friend didn't fight back. They
[15:20] didn't press charges. They treated their
[15:22] wounds. They got some rest and kept
[15:24] going with their civil rights work as
[15:27] John Lewis did for the rest of his life.
[15:30] And then he told the young man what
[15:31] happened nearly five decades later later
[15:35] 2009.
[15:37] He said a white man about his age,
[15:39] Lewis's age, walked into his Capitol
[15:42] Hill office accompanied by his
[15:44] middle-aged son and he said, "Mr. Lewis,
[15:47] my name is Elwin Wilson. I'm one of the
[15:50] men who beat you at that bus station in
[15:53] 1961.
[15:55] I want to atone for what I did. I've
[15:56] come to ask, will you forgive me?
[16:01] And Lewis said simply, "I forgave him.
[16:03] We embraced. He, his son, and I, we all
[16:06] wept and then we talked."
[16:09] And as he finished telling this story,
[16:12] he leaned back in his chair and looked
[16:14] out the window because they were passing
[16:15] through countryside that had once been a
[16:17] killing ground for the Ku Klux Clan, a
[16:20] group that Elwin Wilson had belonged to.
[16:22] And then Lewis spoke again softly, kind
[16:24] of to himself. He said, "People can
[16:27] change.
[16:28] people can change.
[16:34] I share this because his vision of our
[16:37] potential to change, our potential for
[16:40] goodness, to keep evolving, that's what
[16:43] kept him walking forward all those
[16:45] years.
[16:46] He was manifesting spiritual imagination
[16:50] despite everything he'd seen that spoke
[16:52] to our capacity for cruelty, for
[16:55] injustice, for hate.
[16:58] So imagination or vision of our
[17:00] potential. It's what us gives us hope
[17:02] and resilience.
[17:04] There's a Tibetan teacher who taught
[17:07] never give up on anyone.
[17:10] And it doesn't mean that change happens
[17:13] on our timeline the way we expect. More
[17:16] it's that all beings have Buddha nature
[17:19] have this essence of spirit and it's
[17:21] possible to manifest. People can change
[17:24] and that of course includes ourselves.
[17:28] The more you can imagine your own
[17:32] potential to keep evolving,
[17:34] the more that potential is fueled, is
[17:39] nurtured.
[17:41] Here's an essay some of you might
[17:43] remember. It's called spiritual fitness.
[17:46] If you can start the day without
[17:48] caffeine or pep pills. If you are
[17:50] cheerful ignoring aches and pains. If
[17:52] you can resist complaining and boring
[17:55] people with your troubles. If you can
[17:57] understand when loved ones are too busy
[17:58] to give you time. If you can overlook
[18:01] when people take things out on you when
[18:03] through no fault of yours something goes
[18:06] wrong. If you can take criticism and
[18:08] blame without resentment. If you can
[18:10] face the world without lies or deceit.
[18:13] If you can conquer tension without
[18:15] medication, if you can relax without
[18:17] liquor, if you can sleep without the aid
[18:19] of drugs, then you are probably a dog.
[18:27] I have always loved that, you know, and
[18:30] I figure if we can learn from our dogs,
[18:32] that's a step towards manifesting.
[18:34] [snorts]
[18:35] So
[18:37] the more we imagine our potential, the
[18:40] more it waters the seeds of awakening.
[18:43] Thomas Merin puts it this way. He says,
[18:46] "Life is this simple. We are living in a
[18:49] world that is absolutely transparent and
[18:52] the divine is shining through it all the
[18:54] time. This is not just a nice story or
[18:58] fable. It is true.
[19:04] The truth of who we are, that sacredness
[19:07] gets covered over by stories that we
[19:10] tell ourselves
[19:12] and we can use our imagination to go
[19:14] beyond them to reconnect.
[19:17] So let's pause because we'll just keep
[19:19] practicing a bit with our imaginations
[19:22] as we move through this. So let this be
[19:25] a time where you pause and again arrive
[19:29] right here in your breath and your body.
[19:35] And as I continue to speak, if there are
[19:37] words I use that don't match your
[19:39] experience, whether it's
[19:42] the word divine or I often speak about
[19:45] our true nature as love light or as
[19:49] loving awareness. Feel free to change
[19:52] words.
[19:54] The gist is that you use your
[19:55] imagination to sense what's possible
[20:00] through breathing,
[20:03] feeling the aliveness through your body.
[20:06] You might take a moment to feel your
[20:07] hands and soften them. Feel a tingling
[20:10] there.
[20:12] Feel your feet.
[20:16] Feel your body as a field of sensation
[20:21] relaxing with the movement of the
[20:23] breath.
[20:32] And again, take a moment to sense how
[20:35] you might habitually view yourself.
[20:38] your ideas about yourself, your ego,
[20:41] your personality, your body,
[20:44] how you're doing, your [clears throat]
[20:46] career, your relationships,
[20:57] the covering
[20:59] over the golden Buddha.
[21:03] And then allow yourself again to sense
[21:05] that deeper truth.
[21:08] Imagine and sense that there's a
[21:10] fundamental aliveness or light or
[21:13] awareness
[21:16] that is animating your being living
[21:18] through you.
[21:23] That its purest, most natural expression
[21:25] is love.
[21:29] That it's inside your heart and inside
[21:31] your body, your hands, your feet. It's
[21:33] everywhere. This awareness, this love
[21:36] light,
[21:38] it's filling you and it's around you.
[21:41] It's everywhere.
[21:43] You might sense the space around you
[21:46] filled with this love light and bathing
[21:48] you
[21:52] permeates all the spaces inside you and
[21:55] through you. The sea of love light.
[22:02] Just rest in that. that sense of your
[22:05] essence allowing the different waves of
[22:08] feelings and thoughts to arise and pass.
[22:15] So you're resting in the ocean and
[22:17] cradling the waves that are made of
[22:19] ocean.
[22:23] There can be a sense that love is always
[22:25] loving you.
[22:27] Whatever the waves, the ocean's always
[22:29] holding and cradling them.
[22:33] You are made of ocean, of essence, of
[22:37] love light.
[22:42] And that's more true than any limiting
[22:44] story.
[22:54] And that in this life it's possible to
[22:56] be guided by this basic goodness, to
[22:59] live from this basic goodness more and
[23:02] more.
[23:07] Imagine what that would be like
[23:11] tomorrow,
[23:13] next week,
[23:18] to feel guided by
[23:21] loving awareness,
[23:25] to feel your life is expressing it.
[23:28] You might even imagine one particular
[23:30] way
[23:33] that your life is expressing loving
[23:36] awareness.
[23:38] In the near future
[23:50] and sense that just by imagining it,
[23:52] you'll be more drawn
[23:55] to manifesting.
[24:04] Okay, taking a few full breaths. If your
[24:06] eyes are closed, opening your eyes.
[24:10] So in times of darkness where there's
[24:14] really a shadowy atmosphere
[24:18] in our collective human psyche,
[24:21] there's so much fear, so much
[24:22] reactivity.
[24:24] This imagination and vision of the light
[24:26] of the sacred is essential. Wise hope is
[24:30] essential.
[24:32] People can change. We can evolve.
[24:37] Spiritual imagination has soul force as
[24:40] Martin Luther King taught. It helps us
[24:43] to open to and align with and move
[24:45] towards the light and it helps change
[24:48] the world. Bill Hooks writes,
[24:51] "Imagination creates the future. It is
[24:54] not a passive mirror. It is a tool of
[24:57] transformation."
[25:00] So you might try that on just to think
[25:02] of imagination as a tool of
[25:04] transformation. [clears throat] Now the
[25:06] challenge is that individually and
[25:09] collectively when we're in the thick of
[25:11] pain and suffering when there's a lot of
[25:13] fear, when there's a lot of unmet needs,
[25:15] trauma, uncertainty as there is in our
[25:18] current world, the survival brain takes
[25:21] over. As I mentioned often, it's a
[25:23] limbic hijack. We're narrowed into
[25:26] fight, flight, freeze. It's not so easy
[25:30] to arrive in presence and to evoke
[25:33] imagination. It takes intentionality,
[25:36] which is really my motivation in um
[25:41] reflecting on this with you because if
[25:43] we get more on purpose about imagining,
[25:47] we all of a sudden discover we have a
[25:49] tool for transformation we didn't know
[25:51] we had. So like mindfulness,
[25:54] imagination's a more recently evolved
[25:57] capacity. It's one of the gifts of our
[25:59] prefrontal cortex, our higher brain. But
[26:02] when the survival brain takes over, we
[26:04] lose contact with presence, with
[26:06] tenderness, with compassion.
[26:10] These days, there's some people that are
[26:12] considering empathy a sin. I mean, we
[26:14] lose contact. And imagination,
[26:17] sensing what's possible is a huge
[26:19] casualty. And it goes hand inhand with
[26:21] losing hope. So if you've been feeling
[26:24] that it's in the wider culture we're
[26:27] kind of cut off from the imagination
[26:30] that actually gives us hope.
[26:34] So again it's an essential ingredient in
[26:37] human evolving to be able to imagine and
[26:41] it's shaped every leap in human
[26:43] consciousness from fire to language to
[26:46] civil rights to quantum physics. So so
[26:49] many stories I think of Albert Einstein.
[26:52] So when he was a a young Payton clerk,
[26:55] he imagined what it would be like to
[26:57] ride alongside a beam of light. Okay,
[27:00] this this is an act of pure imagination
[27:03] unconstrained by existing physics. And
[27:05] that's what led him this imagining led
[27:08] him to the theory of special relativity
[27:10] which transformed our whole
[27:12] understanding of time and space and
[27:14] motion.
[27:16] Imagination, he later said, is more
[27:18] important than knowledge. Knowledge is
[27:20] limited. Imagination encircles the
[27:23] world.
[27:25] Another example, I love these, so I'm
[27:28] sharing them with you. In the 1840s,
[27:30] Ignas Semlowise, he was a Hungarian
[27:33] physician, he noticed that women were
[27:36] dying in much higher numbers in hospital
[27:39] maternity wards than in midwifeun
[27:42] clinics.
[27:43] So he imagined, and this is radical for
[27:46] the times, that invisible particles on
[27:49] doctor's hands might be the cause. Germ
[27:52] theory hadn't been developed yet, but he
[27:54] required doctors to wash their hands
[27:56] with chlorinated lime before examining
[27:59] patients. What do you think happened?
[28:01] Maternal deaths plummeted. And at the
[28:04] time, he was mocked. But his act of
[28:07] imagination, you know, believing in an
[28:09] unseen cause and acting as if it were
[28:11] real. Those two things paved the way for
[28:14] the discovery of germs and the
[28:17] transformation really of modern
[28:18] medicine.
[28:20] One more. In the 1500s, Nicholas
[28:23] Capernicus, he dared to imagine
[28:26] something unthinkable in his time, that
[28:28] the earth was not the center of the
[28:29] universe, but that it revolved around
[28:31] the sun. Right? So this was not based on
[28:34] new instruments or data. It began as an
[28:37] inner vision, a re-imagining of cosmic
[28:41] order that went against centuries of
[28:43] doctrine.
[28:45] So imagination that's grounded in
[28:47] presence, not fear, allows us to picture
[28:50] unseen reality.
[28:53] I mean, how could we have crossed oceans
[28:55] without imagining land beyond the
[28:58] horizon? Or how we could heal from
[29:00] trauma if we don't have some imagining
[29:03] of ourselves as more whole. Or how could
[29:06] we have developed some semblance of
[29:09] democracy without imagining equality
[29:13] among those caught in hierarchies of
[29:15] power?
[29:17] How could we forgive without imagining
[29:20] the humanity and someone who's caused
[29:22] harm?
[29:24] And really, how could we begin to repair
[29:27] our planet without imagining a future
[29:30] where life can thrive again?
[29:32] It's the key to all evolution, including
[29:36] spiritual unfolding. I mean, you would
[29:38] not be drawn
[29:41] to the spiritual path. You wouldn't be
[29:43] here listening if you didn't have some
[29:45] intuition,
[29:46] some imagination
[29:48] of a love, a light, a truth, a
[29:51] connection, an awareness that's larger
[29:54] than the egoic self.
[29:57] People, all of us can change and evolve.
[30:01] We can awaken to a larger truth.
[30:05] So the remainder of reflecting together
[30:08] will explore the role of imagination and
[30:11] practices that activate imagination in
[30:14] our personal life. And then the next
[30:16] segment when it's ready and these things
[30:19] are organic they have their own timing
[30:20] because this is a new set of talks we'll
[30:24] expand it to include the practices that
[30:27] activate imagination and serve our
[30:29] relationships and our collective psyche.
[30:34] Okay. So again that quote where there is
[30:37] no vision the people perish. It's true
[30:40] also in our personal life. I mean
[30:43] consider when you have felt most stuck
[30:45] in suffering whether it's recent or more
[30:48] distant past when you've been caught in
[30:51] the trance of unworthiness caught in
[30:52] depression despair.
[30:55] As you know when we're in it
[30:59] um we feel like there's no way out. It's
[31:02] like things will never change. we're
[31:04] flawed to the core, you know, we'll
[31:06] never find love, we'll never be happy.
[31:08] So, it's this imprisoning doubt that we
[31:11] can't have a good life. And it paralyzes
[31:15] in those moments where we're we're cut
[31:17] off from imagination, from the part of
[31:19] us that can see new possibility and a
[31:22] brighter future, the part that gives
[31:24] hope. So, the shift is two steps. The
[31:28] first, as I mentioned, is the superpower
[31:32] of mindfulness.
[31:33] bringing a mindful and kind presence to
[31:36] what's here. And then from that
[31:39] presence, once we've truly arrived, we
[31:41] look towards what's possible.
[31:44] One of the ways that I found in my own
[31:47] life is most direct and powerful in a
[31:51] daily way at um cultivating my
[31:55] imagination is through prayer. What
[31:58] happens is that imagination makes prayer
[32:01] stronger and stronger. And the stronger
[32:03] our prayer, the more our imagination
[32:06] grows in different areas. And the reason
[32:09] is this
[32:10] that what we're most deeply praying to
[32:14] in some ways a larger field of
[32:16] belonging.
[32:18] And what we're praying for often is love
[32:20] or peace. And those are all already
[32:23] here. They're just not visible.
[32:26] We're praying to experience something
[32:28] that's here but temporarily out of
[32:31] reach. So that when we engage
[32:36] from prayer with presence and we get in
[32:39] touch with our longing, let's say our
[32:41] longing for love,
[32:43] we're actually imagining and calling
[32:45] forth what we're longing for. That's why
[32:48] I love the the quote from John Odonahue
[32:51] that prayer is a bridge between longing
[32:52] and belonging. I mean, think of it. You
[32:57] can't imagine love. You can't pray for
[33:00] love or peace or anything unless some
[33:03] part of you has already had a taste of
[33:04] it. So, the seeds are here and the
[33:07] prayer waters them.
[33:10] Let's just practice a little with this
[33:12] because I think practicing is what gives
[33:15] us a taste best. Um, we'll just explore
[33:18] a little bit of prayer and spiritual
[33:20] imagination.
[33:21] And to do so, again, uh if you're doing
[33:25] something else or your attention's
[33:28] distracted, you might create a little
[33:31] bit of a space right now.
[33:35] And in that space,
[33:38] you might close your eyes or lower your
[33:40] gaze
[33:42] and let your attention turn inward
[33:48] and become aware of
[33:50] what's inside you right now.
[33:53] Sensations,
[33:59] feelings, the mood of your heart.
[34:06] And set your intention to be open to
[34:09] explore this in a sincere way
[34:16] and to imagine yourself at the end of
[34:19] your life. that you're looking back, but
[34:21] you're at the end of your life
[34:26] and you're bringing to mind a
[34:28] relationship that you
[34:32] deeply value and also feel some distance
[34:35] or disconnection in some conflict.
[34:44] So bring that person to mind,
[34:48] person you care about but feel some
[34:50] distance from
[34:58] and just ask yourself
[35:00] looking back what would most matter
[35:03] about how you engaged in these current
[35:05] times?
[35:08] What would most matter about what you
[35:09] experienced with the other?
[35:13] So letting yourself feel both the pain
[35:15] of the distance
[35:17] and the longing for connection,
[35:20] what you're wishing for.
[35:26] And feel this as a sincere longing.
[35:32] Prayer is just the words we use to kind
[35:36] of
[35:37] embody and express that longing. You
[35:41] might mentally whisper.
[35:44] You can address it to the universe, to
[35:46] God, to high self, to whatever you sense
[35:49] is the larger belonging.
[35:52] Just address your prayer. It may be may
[35:55] we be close, may we be caring, may we be
[35:58] tender,
[35:59] more real. Just whisper your prayer.
[36:11] It may be please may I love and be
[36:14] loved.
[36:18] Or you might invoke the person and say
[36:20] their name. May we remember our loving.
[36:25] May we live from that loving.
[36:35] Imagine it happening.
[36:39] Imagining
[36:41] getting closer,
[36:43] more openhearted.
[36:48] The warmth, the tenderness.
[36:53] Both of you creating a space to be real.
[37:06] and sense that the loving is already
[37:08] here and that you have the possibility
[37:11] of living into this more and more fully.
[37:24] What if you regularly imagine this this
[37:29] loving connection growing deepening? How
[37:32] would that impact your relationship?
[37:43] Okay. Take a few full breaths if you'd
[37:46] like. If your eyes are closed, open
[37:48] them.
[37:50] So, we're just exploring how
[37:53] imagination actively picturing and
[37:55] evoking can energize us towards
[37:58] manifesting
[38:01] more full reality. Again, Bill Hooks,
[38:04] imagination creates the future. It's not
[38:07] a passive mirror. It is a tool of
[38:10] transformation.
[38:14] So what we know is that when imagination
[38:17] is blocked, when it's commandeered by
[38:19] fear, there's suffering and we can't
[38:21] evolve.
[38:23] And this is what's happening when we're
[38:25] most stuck. We're just caught in this
[38:27] trance of feeling separate, deficient,
[38:29] fearful,
[38:31] and the way our minds are imagining is
[38:34] fearbased.
[38:36] It keeps us in prison. So let me just
[38:38] take a moment to explain how that's
[38:39] happening a little more because it's so
[38:41] interesting. I mean that our brain is a
[38:43] predicting machine. That's what our
[38:45] brain does. It brings images of what's
[38:47] going to happen and it's based on past
[38:50] experiences. So it's constantly guessing
[38:53] what's coming and filtering the world
[38:55] through those expectations.
[38:58] So in this way in a way it's constantly
[39:00] constructing reality.
[39:02] We just don't see what's there. We see
[39:05] what we expect to see. So the brain is
[39:09] always imagining and given the dominance
[39:11] of fear, given our negativity bias to
[39:15] latch on to what's going to go wrong,
[39:17] we're often imagining a threatening
[39:19] world and an endangered self. It makes
[39:21] sense, right?
[39:23] I often think of the son and a mother
[39:26] together and the son is saying to the
[39:27] mom, "Pretend you're surrounded by eight
[39:30] hungry tigers. What would you do?" And
[39:33] she said, "I don't know. What would I
[39:34] do?" And then he said, "Stop pretending.
[39:38] So, we're we just keep generating these
[39:41] fear-based images of what's going to
[39:43] happen. And we can live for days and for
[39:47] decades in a world based on those
[39:50] limiting stories.
[39:53] I heard [laughter] this something this
[39:55] was on Spanish TV about this gentleman
[39:57] who knocks on his son's door. Jamie, he
[40:00] says, wake up. And Jaime answers, I
[40:03] don't want to get up, papa. And the
[40:04] father shouts, get up. You have to go to
[40:06] school. Jaimeie says, "I don't want to
[40:08] go to school. Why not?" asked the
[40:10] father. "Three reasons," says Jaime.
[40:12] "First, because it's so dull. Second,
[40:14] the kids tease me. Third, I hate
[40:16] school." And the father says, "Well, I'm
[40:18] going to give you three reasons why you
[40:20] must go to school. First, because it's
[40:23] your duty. Second, because you're 45
[40:25] years old. And third, because you're the
[40:27] headmaster."
[40:31] So, so here's what's interesting to me.
[40:34] We're [clears throat] hardwired for
[40:36] fear, for defending, for aggression, for
[40:39] revenge, for othering, for being stuck
[40:42] in a small world of the survival brain.
[40:46] We're also wired to perceive our
[40:48] belonging and to celebrate that
[40:50] belonging and to serve each other on
[40:53] behalf of that belonging.
[40:56] In other words, we're wired to realize a
[40:58] larger reality. And how we pay attention
[41:01] determines whether we stay stuck or we
[41:05] evolve because what we practice gets
[41:08] stronger.
[41:10] So I was working with one meditation
[41:13] student who was very his life was very
[41:17] uh contorted and twisted by social
[41:20] anxiety. A lot of people a lot of us
[41:22] have it. And so based on past
[41:26] experiences and beliefs during business
[41:29] when he'd approach a business gathering,
[41:32] conference, social events, his brain
[41:33] would automatically predict. I'm going
[41:35] to feel awkward. This probably won't
[41:38] people probably won't like me or respect
[41:40] me. I'll say the wrong thing. I won't
[41:42] belong.
[41:43] And his body would go along with that
[41:45] tension. His mind would be small and
[41:47] tight. He'd arrive prime for
[41:48] disconnection basically.
[41:51] So
[41:53] he this was his prediction of the moment
[41:56] fear-based imagining that's what he was
[41:58] practicing over and over and over again.
[42:01] So and as we know when we anticipate
[42:04] being fearful and insecure it impacts
[42:06] how we act. I mean what actually unfolds
[42:09] I it's Gandhi said it so clearly that
[42:13] our beliefs create our actions which
[42:15] create our character which create our
[42:18] destiny. I abbreviated that but it's so
[42:21] powerful. What we believe creates the
[42:23] reality. So for this man most gatherings
[42:26] even though it's meant for deep
[42:28] emotional healing when he do gatherings
[42:30] with groups and so on um he felt like an
[42:33] outsider and he wasn't so easy to
[42:35] approach.
[42:36] So as we know with trance the beginning
[42:39] of healing is really deepening a
[42:42] [clears throat] mindful a presence to
[42:43] what's happening. see the old fear
[42:46] patterning and pause and open to what's
[42:48] here. And so for this man, we practiced
[42:50] together. We practiced together um a few
[42:53] times before actual events. So he
[42:56] started training himself before going
[42:59] places to pause and to come into
[43:01] presence so he could breathe and feel
[43:04] his feet on the ground and name what was
[43:06] happening. uh the I I won't belong
[43:09] story, you know, and then investigate
[43:11] and feel the vulnerability with that and
[43:14] the deep belief I don't matter. I'm
[43:17] invisible to others. And feel the the
[43:20] clench of a a small lonely self, real
[43:24] squeeze in his heart. And with that, a
[43:27] sense of of compassion towards that. And
[43:31] I asked him to imagine, I said, "Okay,
[43:34] from the view and the heart of a
[43:37] compassionate witness, just you're the
[43:40] compassionate witness. Just view that
[43:42] your inner life. What's going on?
[43:45] just see yourself. So he's becoming
[43:48] visible to his own higher self and and
[43:51] what do you see from that view? And in
[43:54] addition to seeing someone who was
[43:56] hurting, he also saw someone who's
[43:58] incredibly sensitive,
[44:00] aware, kind, bright.
[44:04] So I asked him, "What's your prayer from
[44:06] that place for yourself?" And it was in
[44:09] some his own language to trust his
[44:11] goodness, trust his his decency and his
[44:17] sense of humor and his rightness.
[44:20] So we further engage his imagination. I
[44:23] invited him from that place of trusting
[44:26] and imagining trusting to then visualize
[44:28] himself more at ease and curious about
[44:31] others and speaking authentically with
[44:33] others. You know, connecting with his
[44:35] kindness and his alertness and presence.
[44:38] I invited him to imagine being with
[44:40] another person who's friendly and open,
[44:43] maybe nervous too.
[44:46] So I want to step back and say this
[44:48] imagining it's not fantasy.
[44:52] It's a simulated possibility that helped
[44:55] his nervous system settle and gave his
[44:59] body a new script. One actually with
[45:01] more essential truth to follow. More
[45:04] following the truth of the golden Buddha
[45:07] than the coverings.
[45:10] He was learning to practice something
[45:12] freeing, not fear-based. And for him, it
[45:14] took many rounds.
[45:17] But imagining helped him come home to a
[45:20] larger sense of who he was and to trust
[45:22] that as more of the truth. So the
[45:25] challenge as many know trying to release
[45:30] very core limiting beliefs. The brain is
[45:33] pretty persistent. Okay? It likes to
[45:36] stick with what it knows. You know, it
[45:38] has a bias towards fear thinking as I
[45:40] mentioned and it's actually more
[45:42] efficient to do what it's familiar with.
[45:44] It was more efficient for him to just
[45:46] anticipate being awkward and an
[45:48] outsider.
[45:50] But that's what keeps us stuck.
[45:51] Sometimes we have to go beyond what is
[45:53] brain efficiency.
[45:55] So mindfulness is a key. Mindfulness
[45:58] helps us to pause and create more space
[46:01] to then be able to sense possibility.
[46:05] We really need to pause. I mean you know
[46:07] that that wonderful quote Victor Frankle
[46:11] between the stimulus and the response
[46:13] there is a space and in that space is
[46:16] your power and your freedom.
[46:19] It becomes a space of imagination.
[46:22] Now I want to emphasize here again that
[46:25] for that imagination to be spiritual
[46:28] imagination to draw us towards a deeper
[46:30] truth we need to be in an embodied kind
[46:35] of presence.
[46:36] Otherwise, imagination becomes
[46:39] untethered. It's spinning in fear or
[46:41] fantasy or reactivity. It's not grounded
[46:43] in it doesn't bring out a deeper
[46:45] reality. It loses its power to reveal a
[46:48] deeper truth because it's not grounded
[46:51] in present moment awareness. Okay. So,
[46:53] the trick is to use a different
[46:55] metaphor. We need to be fully present
[46:57] with the waves and then we become able
[47:00] to imagine the vastness and the
[47:02] luminosity of the ocean.
[47:05] Let me share another story because that
[47:08] gives such a feeling for the power of
[47:10] imagination, especially undoing old
[47:12] beliefs.
[47:13] One woman I worked with, she was in her
[47:16] late 40s and she had a huge amount of
[47:18] guilt and regret and self-hatred really
[47:21] for the way she had parented. Um, she
[47:23] had been drinking when her daughter
[47:25] [clears throat] was growing up, very
[47:28] self-centered, self-involved, and not
[47:30] attentive. And so as a young adult, her
[47:34] daughter really struggled a lot with
[47:35] anxiety and depression. She was in
[47:37] recovery for addiction. And the woman,
[47:40] you know, my fault, I did this to her.
[47:42] So that just kept her in self- aversion.
[47:46] And with her daughter, because she was
[47:51] so down on herself, it was difficult to
[47:54] connect. She always in some way was
[47:57] defending or protecting herself because
[47:59] she felt so bad about herself. She
[48:01] basically felt unforgivable.
[48:04] Her belief was I, you know, I failed as
[48:06] a parent. I let down all who I love.
[48:10] And I'll just step back and make a
[48:11] comment that the belief that we're
[48:14] unforgivable
[48:15] when we're not able to imagine basic
[48:18] goodness
[48:19] um is such a prison for so many. I think
[48:24] of Carl Meninger who founded the Menager
[48:27] Clinic. He said that if he could
[48:29] convince patients in the psychiatric
[48:31] hospital that their sins were forgiven,
[48:34] he said 75% of them could walk out the
[48:37] next day.
[48:39] If we can shift
[48:42] what we experience from I'm unforgivable
[48:46] and bad to the possibility of trusting
[48:50] goodness.
[48:52] That's the radical shift that can heal
[48:54] our lives. So for her, we began with
[48:58] mindful presence using we used rain for
[49:01] that. So she could feel in an intimate
[49:03] way that whole cluster of believing that
[49:06] she was failing. She was falling short
[49:08] everywhere and hating herself, you know,
[49:12] just the feeling of hating herself and
[49:14] that others couldn't possibly love her
[49:17] because of her being so flawed.
[49:21] and she got in touch with never being at
[49:23] home in herself. That that basic kind of
[49:25] pressure and weight on her heart that
[49:28] felt like something was always wrong.
[49:31] And when she got to that, cuz I I asked
[49:34] her, you know, how how has it been to be
[49:36] living with self aversion,
[49:39] that was the moment of a real ouch that
[49:42] she could never feel close to others or
[49:45] at home with herself.
[49:47] And it brought up what I often describe
[49:49] as a soul sadness. When you see the
[49:52] landscape of your life and how many
[49:54] moments self- aversion has blocked the
[49:58] capacity to connect with others or to
[50:01] enjoy a moment and so she felt that kind
[50:04] of
[50:06] washing through of of grief. She was
[50:08] being fully present with the waves. So
[50:11] that's the mindful presence as a
[50:13] superpower.
[50:15] Then we shifted to imagination. And I
[50:18] invited [clears throat] her to view all
[50:19] of this from her wisest, most
[50:21] compassionate self, to see the suffering
[50:25] and to see what she saw about herself
[50:29] behind all all of it, that who she
[50:32] really was. And she said, "I see that I
[50:35] love imperfectly
[50:37] and I love and my daughter knows it some
[50:42] way. She knows it."
[50:44] And then I asked her, "What do you wish
[50:46] for yourself? What's your prayer?" And
[50:48] [clears throat] she said that that I
[50:49] could trust that I'm a loving person, an
[50:52] imperfect human, but there's not
[50:55] badness. There's a good heart. Then I
[50:58] asked her to imagine what would that be
[50:59] like if you trusted that? If you trusted
[51:02] you had a good heart. And you can
[51:04] consider this for yourself as you
[51:06] listen. Like what would it really be
[51:08] like?
[51:09] Who would you be if you didn't believe
[51:12] something was wrong? That's a question
[51:14] for our imagination.
[51:17] And she knew. She said, "I'd be free.
[51:20] I'd be more spontaneous. I'd be more
[51:22] real. And I'd be closer with my
[51:24] daughter." She began weeping at that
[51:27] point. Now, part of training imagination
[51:30] is to stay with and really get familiar
[51:34] with what we're imagining. So, I invited
[51:37] her to [clears throat] stay with that
[51:39] imagining
[51:41] of who she'd be if she really was
[51:42] trusting her goodness, that that freedom
[51:46] to be natural, to be close. Cuz the more
[51:50] familiar we get, the more we trust that
[51:54] possibility and we trust it more than
[51:56] the old stories that we've been living
[51:58] in. I shared with her another quote from
[52:01] Einstein that I like, which is,
[52:03] imagination is everything. It is the
[52:05] preview of life's coming attractions
[52:09] because here she was she was imagining
[52:11] some possibility of freedom. So for her
[52:16] like all of us it took a lot of
[52:18] practice. She had to do many rounds of
[52:19] opening to the waves and the pain and
[52:22] then imagining and sensing the goodness
[52:25] the basic goodness that she really
[52:27] wanted to trust. And also many rounds of
[52:32] imagining being closer with her
[52:33] daughter. She started imagining that she
[52:35] could let her daughter know how much she
[52:38] loved her and admired her. And then at
[52:41] some point after imagining enough, she
[52:42] felt called to do it. She felt brave
[52:44] enough to be vulnerable with her
[52:46] daughter and began expressing more. She
[52:48] honored her daughter's dedication to
[52:50] recovery, the way she was helping
[52:52] others, her courage. You know, she get
[52:54] she shared her trust in her daughter's
[52:56] path and her hope that they could deepen
[52:59] walking together.
[53:01] And I'll share with you that when she
[53:03] did that, her daughter um was so touched
[53:06] because her mother, she knew her mother
[53:08] loved her and yet her mother had felt so
[53:11] so pulled off, so distant and somehow
[53:14] now she was more available.
[53:18] And that is the gift of presence and the
[53:22] courage to imagine.
[53:24] We become more available to be who we
[53:26] can be. Relationships can evolve.
[53:30] Rebecca Snit writes, "We live inside
[53:32] imagined worlds. The task is to imagine
[53:35] better ones."
[53:38] So with this woman, she was imagining a
[53:40] more loving world.
[53:42] So as we're exploring, people can change
[53:45] and often the grounds of our work, we
[53:48] can wake up from ways that we self other
[53:51] and make ourselves bad. And for many of
[53:54] us, the most challenging world to
[53:56] imagine is one where we truly hold
[54:00] ourselves, our own lives with tenderness
[54:02] and love, with the same kind of
[54:04] cherishing that we hope to hold others
[54:06] with. And you might ask yourself, you
[54:10] know, what would it be like
[54:12] if right in this moment I could hold
[54:14] this very life with love, with
[54:18] tenderness, with reverence?
[54:21] What would it be like?
[54:28] I want to read one of my favorite verses
[54:31] in the world to you. This is written by
[54:33] the poet Raymond Carver. He was dying of
[54:36] lung cancer and this was his final poem.
[54:40] He writes this. He says, [gasps]
[54:43] "And did you get what you wanted from
[54:45] this life? Even so,
[54:49] I did. And what did you want? To call
[54:53] myself beloved. To feel myself beloved
[54:56] on the earth.
[55:00] And did you get what you wanted from
[55:02] this life? Even so, I did. And what did
[55:07] you want? To call myself beloved. To
[55:11] feel myself beloved on this earth.
[55:18] For me, what gives this short poem such
[55:23] power? Part of it's those words, even
[55:26] so, that he's acknowledging
[55:29] all the waves of imperfection. He's
[55:31] saying, even so, even with all the waves
[55:34] of judgment or anger or jealousy or
[55:36] loneliness or fear,
[55:39] there's something deeper,
[55:42] more true about who we are.
[55:45] So he's basically saying is that feeling
[55:47] ourselves as beloved
[55:50] as uh feeling our spiritual heart or
[55:52] awakened love light requires embracing
[55:56] our human heart. It means including all
[56:00] the conditioned ways of the self
[56:02] impermanent imperfect waves and
[56:04] remembering they're part of spiritual
[56:06] heart space. The waves are part of the
[56:09] boundless sea. They're actually the
[56:12] particular ways that spirit's taking
[56:14] form in any given moment. I mean, that's
[56:16] what we are. We're love light and it's
[56:18] manifesting with all its conditioning in
[56:21] the different forms of our existence.
[56:24] Even so, and we're made of love light.
[56:29] So, here's the thing. If we truly feel
[56:33] ourselves as beloved,
[56:36] that tender heart space by nature
[56:39] includes the whole living world.
[56:43] So our final practice now
[56:47] we'll do a practice of presence
[56:49] contacting the even so the imperfect
[56:51] ways and calling on our imagination to
[56:54] sense what's deeper, what's always and
[56:56] already here.
[56:59] Again, it's not a long practice. Take a
[57:02] moment to uh put aside whatever else
[57:05] might be distracting you.
[57:10] You might sense that as you breathe,
[57:12] with every outreath, you're letting go a
[57:14] bit.
[57:16] Letting go of unnecessary thoughts.
[57:24] Nice long deep breath. letting go of
[57:27] tension that you don't need to hold.
[57:30] Softening and relaxing,
[57:38] letting go into presence.
[57:45] You take a moment to scan your life and
[57:47] choose somewhere that you feel like you
[57:50] get stuck where you turn on yourself in
[57:52] judgment where you feel deficient so
[57:56] that you're living in a kind of confined
[57:58] world might be something to do with work
[58:01] might be relationships,
[58:03] lifestyle habits, addictions.
[58:08] So that in th those moments you're not
[58:10] just feeling like an imperfect human,
[58:12] you're feeling bad in some way,
[58:13] unacceptable, unforgivable
[58:24] and choose a situation where this occurs
[58:30] and bring it closer in so you can
[58:31] actually
[58:33] see and sense what's happening. What
[58:36] brings up the feeling of bad,
[58:40] unacceptable.
[58:48] Since the worst part of this you get in
[58:50] touch with the feelings
[58:53] and you might sense what you're
[58:54] believing in those moments.
[59:07] When you're believing this, when you're
[59:09] really believing it as we do, what goes
[59:12] on in your body? Where's the sinking
[59:15] feeling or the tight feeling or the
[59:17] squeeze? Where do you feel most
[59:18] vulnerable?
[59:24] And you might let your facial expression
[59:26] and your posture
[59:28] kind of be a reflection of how you're
[59:30] feeling when you're feeling stuck, when
[59:33] you feel bad.
[59:42] And you might ask yourself, when I'm
[59:44] believing this and feeling in this way,
[59:47] what what's the impact on my life?
[59:52] How long have I been going into the
[59:55] experience of bad personhood?
[1:00:02] How has it affected my relationships,
[1:00:08] my spontaneity,
[1:00:12] my capacity to enjoy,
[1:00:17] to relax?
[1:00:20] So how is this story and belief and
[1:00:22] feelings cause suffering?
[1:00:30] And you might put your hand on your
[1:00:32] heart as you do this. You begin to bear
[1:00:35] witness that you're this is presence
[1:00:37] with the conditioned waves, the stories,
[1:00:40] the feelings of not enough self, bad
[1:00:43] self.
[1:00:45] This is the even. So the conditioned
[1:00:48] waves
[1:00:49] even so
[1:00:55] and to begin to imagine now calling on
[1:00:59] the most wise and loving part of your
[1:01:01] being. You might consider it as your
[1:01:03] future self
[1:01:06] 10, 20 years down the road, whatever,
[1:01:09] where there's more of a free flow of
[1:01:11] loving where your wisdom is shining
[1:01:14] through more or just that loving
[1:01:18] bodhicattva inside right now. Just call
[1:01:20] on that
[1:01:23] to bear witness
[1:01:27] to bear witness to the waves of pain,
[1:01:30] the vulnerability
[1:01:35] and also the gold, the basic goodness
[1:01:38] that in you which wants to know truth,
[1:01:42] that wants to love and be loved.
[1:01:46] the light that lives through you.
[1:01:53] Say, holding
[1:01:55] that inner life with compassion,
[1:01:58] sense what your prayer is for your small
[1:02:00] self, for your human heart.
[1:02:03] Maybe it's to trust your goodness,
[1:02:06] to feel loved, loving, to feel safe.
[1:02:09] What's your prayer?
[1:02:21] And whatever your prayer is, imagine it
[1:02:24] coming true. Imagine the possibility
[1:02:26] manifesting.
[1:02:33] So if you're wanting to trust your
[1:02:35] goodness,
[1:02:37] how would your life be different if you
[1:02:39] trusted your goodness?
[1:02:45] If you really trusted the purity, the
[1:02:48] light of your heart, how would your life
[1:02:51] be different?
[1:02:54] Relationships, just moving through the
[1:02:56] day.
[1:03:02] If you didn't believe something was
[1:03:03] wrong, who would you be?
[1:03:11] Take some moments to get familiar
[1:03:16] with who you'd be,
[1:03:21] the embodied experience of who you
[1:03:23] really are, yourself as the beloved.
[1:03:30] Use your imagination. Sense the
[1:03:32] aliveness and openness,
[1:03:35] the radiance, the care,
[1:03:41] the awake awareness.
[1:03:52] Sense yourself is resting in that that
[1:03:54] you are that sea of love light. You're
[1:03:59] cradling the ways of your being.
[1:04:02] truly tender. Your spiritual heart
[1:04:05] holding your human heart.
[1:04:15] And did you get what you wanted from
[1:04:18] this life? Even so,
[1:04:21] I did. And what did you want? To call
[1:04:25] myself beloved. to feel myself beloved
[1:04:29] on the earth.
[1:04:38] Once you know the pathway through
[1:04:40] presence through imagination, it's
[1:04:43] possible to return again and again to
[1:04:46] live from a larger, more true reality.
[1:04:51] Even the idea of feeling yourself as
[1:04:54] beloved begins to water the seeds of a
[1:04:56] deeper truth.
[1:05:02] If your eyes are closed, opening them,
[1:05:04] [clears throat] taking a few breaths.
[1:05:07] And I want to thank you, dear ones, for
[1:05:10] your presence and your care. I look
[1:05:13] forward to continuing this in the in the
[1:05:16] weeks to come. Okay. Blessings and love.
[1:05:26] >> [music]
