A Golden Opportunity

welcome nice to see you all so I think as everybody's aware we seem to be in the midst of what's being called The Meta crisis a global crisis of survival many many things are happening all at the same time that are making this a very precarious time to be alive there's Global instability for many reasons and you all know all the reasons why climate change the fear of the collapse of global markets political in fighting inability to come together to work together to solve our Collective problems in a way that's very dramatic and the revolution that's happening with AI which looks to be potentially very dangerous and there in there infinite problems that we're facing right now you you know them you know about them all as well as I do many people have pointed out that um we're living in a unique time in history that we've never faced A Moment Like This in history before where we're facing the possibility of our own Extinction might be a remote possibility but it's a possibility the possibility of our own Extinction is also of the destruction of the biosphere of the very Planet that's our our home our mother so a lot of very serious thinkers feel that this is a a unique time in history that's never occurred before that Humanity has never been faced with their own potential Extinction before we've been faced with enormous enormous crisis and small extinctions but not a total potential for a total Extinction so whether that's going to happen actually or not we don't know but what we are becoming gradually aware of is that the world that we've known it's ending and we're coming to a new new new era of human history that's going to be pregnant with dangers that have never existed and probably a big feature of the near future is going to be instability and a lot more suffering than there has been before on a global scale and more and more of us are becoming aware of these frightening truths a lot of people want to know what to do about it so I don't have the answer I don't have the answer because um I'm a spiritual teacher I'm a teacher of Enlightenment and um I'm an evolutionary so evolutionaries always see the problem evolutionaries always see the solution to the human predicament the the ultimate solution that that human beings got find themselves faced with usually is solved in an evolutionary context by the by the evolution of Consciousness all the problems that we're facing have been created by us and the solution from an evolutionary point of view is always the evolution of Consciousness easier said than done of course it's true that if if we want this crisis to be averted if we want this we want these challenges to be met with met met with uh with reason and compassion and care and Justice Consciousness has to evolve on a more or less global scale in a way that that's very dramatic but uh it doesn't look objectively like we're anywhere near close to any kind of event like that and it seems that we're becoming more polarized nationally and internationally and struggling against each other instead of with each other maybe more ways than we ever have been before so the world we're living is becom more complex and the complexity not making these questions easier to answer it's make them harder to answer so the solution to the to these Infinite Crisis from an evolutionary point of view is always the same it's the evolution of Consciousness but that doesn't look like that's going to be happening anytime soon on a global scale so what are we to do so I what I wanted to suggest in this talk was not a solution for the global particular we're all facing because I'm not equipped to to give that kind of answer and I don't really know if anybody is but I I um what I want to suggest to speak about is is a potential what what's the most appropriate what what could be the most spiritually appropriate personal personal and maybe Collective response to this crisis not how can I solve this crisis how can we solve this crisis because I'm not so sure it's going to be solved anytime soon but more different way to look at the question I want to ask is what might be the most appropriate way for me the most spiritual appropriate context appropriate way for me to be able to respond to this crisis to be a for me to be able to relate to it in a way that spiritually makes the most sense that seems to be most in alignment with the challenging reality challenging and changing reality that we're in the midst of we find ourselves in the midst of so so I wanted to speak about that and I wanted to to say that um I I'm usually when I teach I'm always offering one perspective and it's the perspective I've realized where my own Consciousness got awakened in a powerful way when I met my teacher almost 40 years ago so the what he made me realize is that the ultimate truth about the ultimate nature of reality is to be found when we transcend time and we're seeking for a do Awakening to enlightened awareness we experience that Awakening to enlightened awareness when we transcend the time process when we transcend the time process we transcend the mind because the mind and time arise along the same line so when time is transcended the mind is transcended and we begin to see things very differently see things from from a perspective of of inner freedom and primordial freedom and and Liberation a profound Liberation and joy so this the enlightenment experience of the Awakening to the profound experience of Liberation and joy makes it possible for us to live for human beings to live in a very different way it enables us to embrace what I call an AB absolute relationship to life and an absolute relationship to life is one in which we are not postponing a total commitment to to being alive a big part of the Awakening process as I've experienced it and as I experienced it is about having the inner freedom to embrace the total commitment that's required to live a conscious life and when a lot of people when a lot of people begin on the spiritual path they're not quite they're not quite aware of the fact that most of us aren't living aren't living very consciously aren't living very deliberately aren't living very intentionally we're usually not thinking in the deepest and most profound and most spiritually implicating ways about what it means to be alive what are the moral philosophical metaphysical implications of self-aware Consciousness in a complex world so usually if we haven't woken up we are kind of lost in the dream of our personal stories and are not embracing the challenge of being a conscious human being in a very big context so the gift of Awakening to Consciousness enables us to embrace a very different kind of relationship to the gift of life which means a much more conscious relationship to life and the more conscious we are it becomes more apparent to us that we got have that that for life to be lived consciously meaningfully purposefully intentionally with Destiny and Direction and higher meaning life has to be embraced with a kind of commitment that is total and unconditional and absolute without any reservation and the when we wa when when we wake up we find that the ego is usually not interested in a total commitment to anything except it's UNS survival so what I wanted to suggest is that um This Global crisis that we're all in the midst of one way or the other and is going to get worse might give us all an opportunity to stop waiting to wake up might give us all an opportunity to stop postponing whatever it is we're postponing so the way I like to put it in the way that I teach is postponing an unconditional uncompromised or absolute relationship to life so usually for most of us there's many things that we'd like to be doing we would we hope to be doing many things we we are interested in but we tend to be very busy and very distracted and very consumed with other things we tend to postpone the big decisions the big issues T to put them off and the luxury of time the the Bel the belief that we have time uh helps to diminish any sense of urgency we may have for for kind of a deeper kind of relationship to being alive for a deeper sense of purpose and context and deeper relationship to our own experience of Consciousness if we think for whatever reason that we have time that we have more time that it's not urgent we're probably not going to take the level of urgency that's necessary seriously enough to actually change and over the years I've been teaching I've noticed that most people even in relationships to their own potential to awaken to Enlighten awareness tend to be too casual about it tend to be to lack the sense of urgency that's necessary to succeed everybody should remember what the Buddha said when he sat down under the bod tree he said I'm going to sit down and I'm not going to get up till I'm enlightened pleas expressing a gra of urgency and a deep level of commitment and intention around his relationship to the task at hand so I think that this Global crisis Cris it's going to get worse could afford all of us an opportunity to stop waiting or whatever it is whatever the reason is that we're waiting This Global crisis could be a catalyst or a source of inspiration to stop waiting because maybe we don't have as much time left as we think we do we don't know but it looks likely that life as we've known it will not be sustained in the way that we' become used to and we're going to be living in very prec precarious times on this planet and so maybe we should embrace the sense of urgency as a as a gift for us spiritually to be able to stop waiting for anything more to happen in order for us to be ready to either let go of fear and doubt on one hand and or to or to stop making excuses about why we shouldn't do the most important thing in our lives whatever we think that is over the years I've been teaching I've noticed that a lot of people with spiritual interests tend to be in their spiritual practice in practice of meditation study of metaphysical philosophy tend to be in the process of getting ready to be ready to let go get ready to be ready to be enlightened one day in the future or in a future Lifetime and there's a very big difference between getting ready to be ready and being ready now so people who are getting ready to be ready feel that they're sincere about their spiritual aspirations because they are getting ready to be ready I'm intending to be ready my spiritual intentions are sound but in the end is relationship to awakened to enlightened awareness the only thing that makes all the difference is being ready now not being ready to be ready but being ready and um and when we get to when when when we get to that point when we stop get when we cease being getting ready to be ready cease compromising cease to post the most important issues the most important questions the most important choices in our lives we start to live life very differently we start to live with the kind of deliberate intentionality that vibrates that spiritually vibrates with absolute conviction spirit with spiritual presence and absolute conviction because we're not bargaining anymore we're not bargaining on our relationship to life we're not hedging our bets we're not trying to have things our way what a novel idea we're not trying to have have things our way anymore we're just we realize that if this is going to work we have to give give it everything we've got we have to give everything and leave the rest in the hands of Destiny but it means we stop waiting we sto holding back we stop resisting we stop justifying ourselves and stop making excuses so maybe just maybe uh the an appropriate spiritual response to this frightening time we're living in Zack Stein call calls this time a time between worlds maybe the most appropriate relationship to this time between worlds is to come to the end of compromise come to the end of hesitation coming to the end of excuses about why we're not living completely fully and absolutely and unconditionally right now because the thing is once you do let go or once one does let go once we do begin to live with total commitment the intensity of the total commitment we're not living for the future anymore we're living for the present moment and we are embodying and enacting the immediacy of of of spirit in the way that we live and the choices we make and the actions we take in our in our fundamental relationship to life our Rel and in our relationship to the relationships with other people but fundamentally in our relationship to life itself to the gift of life we're playing for real and that means we cease to be superficial people we ceased we we ceased to be superficial people after that because we're taking life after absolutely seriously The Gift of Life absolutely seriously and we mean it we start to express a kind of sincerity wholeheartedness uh integrity and wholeness at love of the soul that makes us very different there a this imbus a kind of a a w or heaviness in the positive sense of what that means a depth to our soul to our being that vibrates with spiritual self-awareness that that's a result of the fact that we stop waiting we stopped hesitating we stop waiting for things to change we stop waiting for ourselves to change we stop waiting for anything we're not making any excuses anymore because we know that this is it there's nothing to wait for anyway it never was it never was anything to wait for but the ego keeps saying no I need more time I need more time to get ready to get ready so we put press the pause button and and after we press the pause button life doesn't stop and the karma creating machine doesn't stop either it all keeps going so life doesn't wait for us doesn't wait for any of us the process continues on and on and on whether we are think we're ready for it or not so from from an absolute point of view or non-relative point of view waiting doesn't never make sense anyway because it's out of alignment with the deepest truth about the nature of reality anyway that's why when we live our lives invested in the EG fears and desires we're always out of alignment with the deeper dimensions of life and truth and Consciousness and we when we cease to wait absolutely we let go of the fears and desires of the small self we find ourselves suddenly in the very middle of everything very center of the feels like the very center of the Cosmos level of Consciousness we start living a very different life in a very different way for very different reasons than most people do full of cons awakened Consciousness and awakened intention and with the vulnerability of kind of a full commitment to this journey no matter how hard it's going to be no matter how challenging it's going to be we fully committed to being here for the highest reasons so I think this Global crisis is not just giving us an opportunity to awaken in the way I'm trying to describe but it gives us a reason to transcend this most s gives us it gives us a reason to stop waiting when I die I want to die peacefully I hope and I know the only thing that's going to allow me to die in peace will be the doubtless conviction that I've given this life everything that I could that I couldn't have given more then as a result of that I'll be able to let go does this means to die without regret if we live with commitment we can die without regret and I think this is the kind of thing that this uh moment in history this time between worlds will give us because the fact is I just repeated what I said what I've already said the fact is that life and the continuity of Life maybe for some of us this is the security of Life uh and folding predict in what we believe was predictable ways is is going to become more and more uncertain so in the midst of that uncertainty we might become more concerned with focus on our survival that we ever have in our lives before and remember that when we're focused on Survival when any of us focused mainly on Survival we tend to have less time to focus on higher matters of the spirit of higher matters like philosophical questions spiritual questions metaphysical questions and moral questions so maybe it might be best to use the time we've got left we don't know how long how much we've got but maybe it might be a good idea to use the time we've got left to do anything and everything we can spiritually to be prepared to be spiritually prepared for the unpredictable nature of the kind of world we're going to be living in and oh what a glorious world we could live in if we all stop if we all stopped pretending and stopped holding on to the past and stopped resisting the totality of the present the IMs of the present and stopped trying to fake it till we make it see it's not being completely authentic and totally real stop playing games stop waiting then we could all find each other in truth which would be so remarkably beautiful and uh unimaginably wonderful you know men who go to war often report that as horrible and as dark as the battlefield is many men report because they're F because they are bonded they're bonding in a situation where they're all facing life and death there something about sharing that life and death context with other human beings that they report is so is is is absolutely exhilarating and thrilling Beyond imagination and many men who come back from war in spite of how Gres obious can be many of them reported they never felt so alive and so awake and so in touch with reality because they were they were face to face with with death and this catalyzed in in a lot of them in experience of liveness that was transcendental that was thrilling so maybe we could maybe we can use the the sense of ter and urgency that many of us experience when we look into a lot of the problems that we're facing on a global scale maybe we can use this this urg sense of urgency and fear as as a source of inspiration to as to again as I said stop waiting stop pretending stop hesitating stop postponing and to live to make the commitment to live as fully and honestly and transparently and lovingly as we possibly can while we still have the time and the space to do it consciously when things are going well practically interiorly and personally spiritual practice is a luxury and things aren't going well that changes so we it would be it would be Noble and it would be appropriate appropriate as first to practice our aspirations to become spiritually awake evolutionarily enlightened spiritually transformed so that we can become that we could be beacons in this darkening world because the whole point of Awakening is significance of Awakening the meaning of Awakening the purpose of Awakening is the conscious discovery of a non-relative or absolute truth about the ultimate nature of existence anybody who discovers directly experiences awakens to the ultimate nature of existence in their own way begins to vibrate begins to transmit that the light the light of enlightened awareness the light of the highest truth they can be known by men and women and the more of us they can vibrate with this kind of this kind of nosis this kind of knowledge this kind of spiritual self-confidence okay we can help each other to face into some of the more challenging times we're going to be going through because it takes courage to face difficult times and you awaken to the highest truth it becomes a source of spiritual courage for all of us as I'm sitting here thinking I'm thinking that uh this whole idea of waiting waiting is never a good idea but maybe the gift of this this crisis could be the fact that we really don't have much more time to to wait anyway there's nothing more to wait for there The Jig Is up from a certain point of view and nobody knows where we're going and nobody knows what life's going to be like in even five years from now let alone 10 years from now let alone 20 years from now maybe it won't be as bad as some people say it'll be maybe it'll be a lot worse but we literally don't know we literally don't know where we're going we don't know what life is going to be like anymore this history is changing so what would be the most spiritually appropriate attitude to have metaphysical position to take in relationship to the unpredictable nature of the imminent future would be to stop waiting and so when we begin to take seriously what it means to stop waiting our spiritual cup begins to run over because then the immediacy of the challenge of Letting Go on the way I've been trying to describe it to you begins to reveal itself oh my God you mean I have to let go of that and I have to let go of that and I have to let go of that and that and that means it's time to clean out the closet a lot of people don't clean out their closets they say I'll do it next year in the face of this kind of Crisis maybe we don't have the time to wait which is the whole point of everything I'm trying to share with you so knowing that we don't have the time to wait is a great gift if we stop waiting but if we know that we don't really have much more time to wait we insist on waiting anyway than we're doing oursel and everybody else at DIS service so the spiritually courageous the spiritually Noble will not not resist the call of the present moment and we begin to let go of anything and everything that's in their way so we could truly be available for the moment and we can make make good on this moment see I realized I realized we were in a terrible crisis that we've created for ourselves but I'm making the best use out of this crisis and I'm so grateful I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to finally stop playing games to begin to let go of everything in my way I am becoming reborn I'm a new human being I know who I am I know why I'm here and I've discovered a sense of purposefulness that changes absolutely everything thank you I'm so grateful so grateful instead of becoming overwhelmed by the unpredictability of what's coming we should use this the unpredictability of what's coming as a source of spiritual inspiration to let go I know I'm a bit of a broken record but this this is a fundamental point I wanted to make I don't think it can be made enough because it's very tempting for all of us because what's what's coming seems to be so frightening that it's good to kind of turn the TV back on and pretend that uh it's not as bad as they say but it looks like it is it looks like it's going to get worse so if we stop resisting that truth get to face into it not for its own sake but so we can be more free so we can become potentially spiritually truly awake and truly enlightened then it will be a great gift this is my humble proposal what might be the most appropriate response to this time between worlds this metac crisis this crisis which you've never faced before I realized that might have been a little short but I shared everything that I wanted to say I'm happy to comment on it in any way you might like to hear more we should approach this with the kind of deliberateness deliberateness and awaken intensity that we have understood Samurai Warriors who also Zen Masters live ready to die ready to die ready to stand on the razor's Edge right now because they're so in touch with the immediacy the totality of reality and nothing's being pushed off into the future like a total Embrace of the present unconditional radical and absolute this changes our relationship to life the most radical way [Music] imaginable then we don't know what's going to happen but we don't know what's going to happen anyway is we stop pretending that we do that's the difference so when you stop pretending to yourself that you know what's going to happen you're you're living life much more on the actual Razor's Edge nobody knows anyway but if you can live in that with that kind of Consciousness from day to day with great deliberateness and intensity become a different kind of person someone who's truly awake and helps other people to wake up just simp because of the intensity of the transmission of our consciousness would you like to take questions any yeah I was yeah a minute I was just thinking about John Lennon's the phrase from John lenon saying life's what happens when we're making other plans it just coming back to me likes what happens when we're making other plans which is along the lines of what I've been sharing with everybody yeah just give you a minute or two see if there's anything else I want to add to what I said I think that more or less made the point that I wanted to make um I think we want our conscious our Consciousness to become so big that we're that we are at least metaphysically we're prepared for whatever ever happens doesn't mean we're going to like it but it means to the deepest level where we're prepared and the only way to be prepared is to stop waiting whenever we stop waiting when have to respond from a very different position very different part of ourselves to the depth of reality as that fault before us one thing is for sure we we can't go on as if the world isn't changing and as if these changes are not going to have an effect on us personally because they will the best thing for us to do is to face it with all of our being yeah I think I'm ready for some questions Daniela okay so please write your question in the chat box of Zoom you find it on the bottom of your Zoom window and I have a first question Andrew from gild he is asking can you please speak about right relationship because right relation relationship is here immediately with the people you live with can you comment on not waiting to be in right right relationship than go hey hi I'm back I noticed yeah um well I think right relationship has very much to do with with living in Integrity according to the context the wish this relationship exists so relationships are are consciously or unconsciously deliberately are not based upon shared values if you marry somebody will marry each other because they share the same values and they want the same things when you go when you join the Army become part of a larger Collective share the same sh similar values or enough similar values to be able to create a context in which men can begin to trust each other rely on each other anything and everything we do for scientists in the laboratory it needs to be there needs to be enough shared agreements to make it possible for us to work together with Integrity so I think that the issue with living in truth in in terms of the relationship context is that um we have to live in Integrity within an with that integrity that's in alignment with our own the shared values and the shared agreements that that brought us together so for for example in a marriage if there's a betrayal it means that there's a means one one or both of the parties involved have broken have broken consciously shared agreements some of these agreements can be explicit or implicit but everybody knows knows what they are if they're in a relationship if it's if it's a marriage bond if someone breaks the agreements the shared agreement they're out of they're out of Integrity they're out of the integ that the shared agreement was implicitly or explicitly expressing this is true in all human relationships so if we're Ser if we're spiritually conscious PE beings we want we need to be very very sensitive and very aware to how much Integrity do we have personally in relationship to these shared agreements with other people that we're in relationships with whether it may be in in in our work or our personal relationships or spiritual relationships are we in Integrity are we in and integrity means am I being true to the values which that we that we share we agreed upon usually relationships break up because one because one one one or more people in this in these shared agreements start uh acting out of Integrity so that's so terms of relationships the the integ being in Integrity with the shared agreements is what makes a lasting trust possible and of course if we if we can if we can sustain the if we can sustain being in committed relationships over a long period of time need the trust which which is which is which is a sacred bond between between human beings can deepen can deepen between um people that are married between people that work people in all kinds of different contexts the trust Deens over time that that becomes very sacred can I say something sure well I agree Integrity obviously is is uh something important but there's you know you one of the best things you've ever said is you know quoting the Buddha about right Association and right relationship as being all of the Holy life um now Integrity is part of it but we meet people who we are not who we do not share agreements we do not share values but we still have to be in right relationship with them and how specifically yes certainly Integrity agreements but there's more more to write relationship than integrity and agreements there's some lots of details in terms of basic orientation and how do I relate to this and you know the phrase spiritual friendship how to be a spiritual friend which is the whole of the Holy life what by being for real yeah so how to be a friend because a lot of people don't know how to be a friend no I understand that but Gil what you I think the point you're missing here is that I is is I'm talking about shared agreements it means that you and I would enter into a shared agreement where we agree on the rule to the relationship and if we agree on the rules that agreement is not has not been coerced but it's freely given then we both know what the rules are well I would agree with that with the rules so so so what you're saying is well how do I relate to people in which I don't have shared agreements with it's a different issue so if you don't have shared agreements with someone else you do the best you can you try and be kind and trying to be kind still Tres to be as kind as you can and forgive forgive everyone for their own forgive forgive yourself and forgive everybody else for their imperfections and do the best you can but what I'm speaking what I'm speaking about specifically relates to a context in which the shared Agreements are very conscious and deliberate of course in much of life is associating with people in which we don't have shared agreements and what do we do in those situation those varied situation we do the best we can yeah maybe maybe people can stop waiting to be kind you know stop waiting to be compassionate with the people you live with you know because I I really love what you're saying about don't you know don't wait you know there's some urgency there's some real urgency on being nice with the people you live with well it's true G but I in the talk the point is it's more than being nice is being real being okay then the words sure real authentic genuine and um how about powerful how about really powerful and caring beautiful if you're powerful powerful in the context of being loving absolutely now why now I think people are really postponing getting on with becoming powerful and caring yeah that's a psychological issue but that's true but if you want to be real it's not your problem that's their problem I'm just yeah I just love what you're saying like get on with it you know get on with it don't wait you know because there's thank you Gil because the reason I'm saying that is because what they call Karma and these is real so there is a karma is the momentum that comes from the past and if if the if the momentum has be generated by acts of selfishness small-mindedness ignorance and ill will that's going to cause us suffering in the present and in the future so so we have to stop being we have to stop living such a way that makes us makes us ourselves prey and subject to to be victims of our own ignorance and our own stupidity in the past that's why we have to begin to live so deliberately with with with such intentionality now so we can be free from the karma that we've generated in the past that's what I mean by being real and being real means that life life is real life can life hurts be very painful life can be beautiful beyond imagination and meaningful Beyond description but in order to know all those things directly we have to be willing to be absolutely real and stop give of all the pretense that we hide behind this pretense protects us from experiencing life in it in all its reality we give that up we have to experience a kind of vulnerability and intensity vulnerability that can be frightening it's why most people shy away from being real because they just they don't want to experience that kind of vulnerability so then they they prefer a life of pretense and usually these kind of decisions are made very early in life a lot of people find themselves fully grown adults and they they're living with levels and levels and levels and layers layers of pretense that they didn't even know we there and then as they begin to do spiritual practice and begin to wake up they discover oh my God I had no idea how full of it I am how unreal I am and how cowardly I am superficial so I'm speaking about what I'm speaking about here is important but I'm speaking it's a great ordeal it's a great ordeal I'm calling all of us to take seriously and I'm saying we could maybe use this meta crisis as a as fuel to catalyze our own deeper relationship to life yeah I mean hardly need a metac crisis people have enough crisis in their own life amen amen yeah thank you thank you for that thank you