The Integrated Self

In the last episode, I said "Humanity is in a several thousand year process of... trying to come back into alignment with Love." But there's a paradox worth contemplating there, which is that while culture seeks to align more with love, love is also all there is. Even in the wars, oppression, and traumas of modernity. With careful nuance and honoring the pain and difficulties of very real suffering, in this episode I invite you to hold paradox with me, to welcome the experience and perspective of Love into your life no matter the circumstances you're moving through. In this episode: The inevitable end of modernity and swing towards balance The paradox of the path and the destination Practicing to reach enlightenment and the recognition that everything is already enlightened The difference between relative and absolute reality The unloving relative reality of modernity The absolute love of all things, including the relative process that is far from loving Living as if everything in relative reality were an angel Viewing relative reality from the absolute dimension Seeing Love is much easier from a wider, deep-time, developmental perspective How out of alignment the fascist dictator is The destination is in the journey, so try to have some lightness and enjoyment with the journey

Drawing from my experiences and wisdom received on two Vipassana Meditation Retreats in the lineage of S.N. Goenka, this episode invites and guides you to experience peace in any circumstance (equanimity), and recognize the eternal power of love flowing through non-attached, neutral reality. There can be a confusion around the Buddhist teachings and practice of non-attachment, if that means we can't care about life. Well, you can be both. Non-attachment actually helps you become even more engaged and present with life, and it can help you experience the unconditionally loving nature of reality. In this episode: Vipassana Retreats in the tradition of S.N. Goenka Equanimity - being okay while whatever's going on is going on Safety considerations for intensive meditation retreats Unwinding the rope - witnessing without reacting Intimacy with impermanence Non-attachment with care and engagement with life Ego judgments, preferences, and mental overlays between you and reality Our capacity for holding paradox correlates to our capacity for feeling equanimity The neutral nature of reality is positive All life is fundamentally an expression of Love Viewing humanity as a thousands-of-years developmental process helps to see life through the lens of love See and receive whatever supports are available to you The impermanence of modernity and a vision of culture evolving towards more love Trusting the process based on what you feel, not on what you see in the news

What happens when we live for the collective, not just for oneself? Modernity's guiding question is: "How can I make MY life better?" I believe a different question leads to a much richer and more fulfilling life: "What does life need now?" Holding this guiding orientation to life creates a radically different paradigm than the hyperindividualism currently leading to planetary and societal collapse, that carries an entirely different energy in the actions taken, and leads to vastly different results. Using the metaphors of making music and conversation, this episode explores how we can attune to reality to discern what's wanted to enhance the whole experience for everyone involved. Not "What can I get out of this," or "What will enhance my own status," but "What does this moment need?" In this episode: Are we live? Musical soloing vs whole band responsiveness ATTUNEMENT The silence between the notes The Celestine Prophecy and group conversation Listening for hidden purposes in encounters Socializing to enhance one's own status or to enhance the social event Group travel through the needs of the whole

Forgiveness is not something we do to let someone else off the hook, it's something we do for ourselves to allow more love into our lives. We can still maintain boundaries and discernment of what we're not okay with while we forgive, while we stop continuing to poison ourselves with the stuck energy of a grudge. In this episode: Preambles before we get to the point A Course in Miracles Forgiveness is a tool that transform poison into Light A personal example I felt regret for and the need for forgiveness Necessary and unnecessary suffering Grudges create walls between ourself and life / love Forgiveness as grace The paradox of unconditional love and things that aren't okay Resisting and accepting life A guided practice to actualize and experience forgiveness - Feel the effect in you of the thing you don't like - The mind opens to a wider understanding - Our pain around it sequences, digests, and releases - Love comes in and through us How a long, developmental view of life supports forgiveness

Providing an encore to the last two episodes, we round out our deep dive into the spirituality of Phish by focusing on the profundity of playing with humor. In this episode: The lineage of humility, humor, and light-heartedness of Phish and the sometimes heaviness of The Grateful Dead The cosmic joke of seriously mattering and simultaneously not mattering Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig on music critics' valuing serious art more than lighthearted art Grown ups standing still talking at each other Everything Everywhere All At Once