Societal Pressures & Heartfelt Living | Episode 117 with Dominique Aramati

(00:09) so I wanted to start by asking you about Dharma or life purpose finding your life's purpose I know you have an interest in this so what what engages you about the topic of finding your life's purpose it's a very big question to start with but when I think of what is our purpose well my purpose our purpose both yeah on a personal level and also just generally speaking you know um the path that everyone has to discovering what they really want to be doing with their time the first thing that comes to mind
(00:54) is that we are all I'll start big and we'll get smaller um we're all [Music] seeking peace and love in this lifetime which sounds really simple but I feel that our heart is our true Compass when we're trying to navigate our way forward so there are different varying levels of awareness of what that feels like when you're in your heart space and when you're following something that feels aligned with with your life and so in terms of Dharma like looking outwards like how can I do something in this life
(01:36) that not only brings me more feelings of love and joy but how can that also be the thing that I'm doing is also sharing that with other people like whatever I'm doing I feel like has to be reciprocal because that kind of I guess changes it from oh well I love you know perhaps something that um doesn't bring joy to other people um and I I mean that more on a um I'm getting kind of like you know like good or evil like if it's you like something really evil then that's perhaps not really your true you know
(02:11) what you really truly should be doing so do you think the heart would point us in that direction if we're really listening to the heart no absolutely not but I feel that there can be a lot of um questioning of like well like you know for me joy something that brings me joy and love that feels very connected to my heart space is like the practice of like Kon and having community that is very you know lifegiving and life affirming and my heart is clearly there um I don't know if doing something that was evil
(02:42) would really make my heart sing um and I think it's more of like there's just an awareness like the more aware we are of what truly brings ourselves joy that that is the distinguishing factor I think between um doing something that's like just for you which would be you know selfish versus having it be like a reciprocal experience um and I think going off that like something that's really important for me in my life is connecting people to Nature and like the environment and the outdoors because with that it's so
(03:21) obvious how much love there is and although it may not be clear for all I feel like when you're just spending time in presence with nature where there is no doing it's just like you're just witnessing and you're seeing how slowly things move and how it's so a there's so much Synergy there like everything is taking care of each other and although we can't see it on this time frame like you know when you're staring at a tree or not seeing all the processes that are happening underneath
(03:51) the soil or the way that it's interacting with the other species but if you if you research that and you realize like what a Synergy the whole ecosystem has then that knowing of how effortless it is for that comes back to like humans and how even though it might look like chaos like maybe it is all just working itself out in a way um so for me it's really just my Dharma is like how can I connect more in my heart space through things that feel life-giving life affirming that feel loving and then making sure that those practices
(04:31) are also like bringing like not bringing harm so like a Hima not harming other um species or people or things sentient beings does that make sense yeah yeah do you feel like there is the possibility of a conflict there happening between the choices that you make and it being beneficial to other people people like if you really tune into your heart what your heart wants is there a chance that that is going to be something that's selfish and not beneficial to someone else to others I think of course there is that possibility
(05:21) absolutely because as as humans we're so imperfect and I feel like we can make decisions that perhaps we thought we thought with our mind that it was our heart but like really it wasn't and I feel like you won't realize until after cuz I think we like people say you have like a knowing like there's this inner knowing that we have and for me it's like this little voice like I get these little like intuitive pings and when I don't listen to them I'm like oh okay because the mind is so quick to come in
(05:49) and to try and take over the show and I think the whole practice is to like get more in the body to me the body is the compass the actual heart is the compass and that knowing is so so when you feel it it's like of course like when you um for me it's you know if you hug someone that you really love that feeling is just so palpable and that feeling can also happen in other circumstances if you're eating a really good cupcake or you're you're having a really good conversation with someone um so I think
(06:22) that there can be mistakes that are made in trying to follow the heart if the mind is in the way but I I think when we're really centered and grounded in our body it's um yeah we just have to give ourselves that space to actually slow down and be in the body and of course everybody's having their own perception of of what you're doing or the way that you're acting or the way that you're being so um yeah I think it could easily be misconstrued as perhaps what's most loving for you or what's most loving for
(06:56) me in my life may not be you know in resonance with somebody that's in love with me but perhaps I'm not in love with them um it might hurt for a little bit but I know like Within Myself my own inner compass and like what what is truly oh okay it's keep digging it's It's Tricky I think navigating um this like how do I make decisions am I making decisions based on what I think is beneficial for someone else outside and could be uh hurtful to my own being or it's not really what I want to be doing but I
(07:36) think it's what someone else wants me to do you know is is that a path to follow like I don't really want to be doing this but someone else wants me to do it or they're asking me to do it and I want to be selfless therefore I'm going to do that is that wise and what is the impact of actually doing what I feel is the best thing for me what what is the ripple effect of [Music] that I I keep coming back to like being like living in a small community and having like the ripple effect of every action like I feel like it's pretty
(08:15) large here um because when you're I think the smaller you are even like in a family system like those ripples are going to be felt a lot more than in the World At Large like the world is so big and we're so tiny and yet we're all playing these parts Within These you know dramas of of our smaller ecosystem let's well let's let's take just making decisions based on what I think someone else wants from me or expectations that other people want from me do you think that could be a a beneficial uh approach like have you
(08:50) seen positive results from that in my personal life if I do something that I don't want want to do but I feel like it's going to be so I'm thinking of this in like a like a client relationship like having work clients and having a project that I really don't want to do um and then if I say yes and then I try and do it there's a lot more inner resistance which could be you know I I learned something through that process but for me the more that I have those situations where I'm like okay well that
(09:28) you know that could have been a lot more peaceful if I just set my boundaries and said you know like this I don't have time or doesn't feel aligned whatever the reasoning was if I had kind of re rethought like if I didn't have a fear of letting down the client then I feel like it would have been a much more easeful um situation for both of us and um I think with anything if you don't if you don't have an inner like there's um I forget which book it is but they talk about about like the inner yes there's
(10:02) like this yes and there's this no and it's within your sacral and it's very um it's very obvious like you know and like if someone you know someone that you like goes to give you a hug you go and reciprocate if it's someone you don't know or someone you don't want to hug the body naturally is like so in exploring that like sure there's going to be you know if if you're don't want to do your kitchen cleanup but you have to and you're just like no I don't want to do it like
(10:29) that's not probably the best like that's a small situation where like you should push through but if it if it's something bigger if it's something like you know a project that's going to take a month or it's something um you know a relationship I feel like there's it's always best to honor your own inner guidance system because otherwise there will be problems down the line and especially you know we're at an asham where it's selfless service selfless service selfless service well how much
(10:54) selfless service can you selflessly give until there might be feelings of resistance to that like am I really serving for the greater ho or am I perhaps um losing myself in the process even that the selfless service to ask the question why am I selflessly serving you know it could end right there like okay selfless service that's it like I just believe in that and I'm stopping but why do I believe in that there's some to me there's something in that that is beneficial for this being and it's okay well I'm I'm very certain
(11:43) that I have absolutely not come close at all to transcending my ego or like I feel that to be able to selflessly serve and just be completely witnessed like just complete witnessed everything and just completely unbothered it takes a lot of practice to get to a place where you can even be in that space and I have not yet experienced that space of just complete surrender to allowing you know letting go of the material realm letting go of these parts of life that I still feel very connected to because I guess maybe perhaps my
(12:22) faith isn't strong enough to really trust that I can just fully let go and let you know through the selfless service like if I if I truly was selflessly serving and just volunteering at the asham with no income it's really trippy to me to be in full faith that I would be able to take care of myself later on and be able to have a cell phone and pay my bills it's just a whole it's a trip living off in the 21st century because it's like you know you have Society telling you we need to save money and you need to buy a house and
(13:01) you need to pay your rent and it's like okay but how can I fully let go well yeah I think it it comes back it's great it come it comes back to this question about the relationship between my mind and my heart or the the the inner knowing and to to witness that where am I operating from right so yeah I mean what what I see what I think that you're talking about here when you talk about um um you know having enough money being able to provide for yourself being okay all of that is in the mind you know and connected to to fear
(13:38) right um so okay that's my mind is that that has a place but where do I really want to be making decisions from the heart or maybe or maybe a healthy balance between the two right the relationship between the definitely has a play because I think what you're saying is legitimate and do I see myself completely eliminating my mind like is the mind not going to have a role of of of of planning you know of just taking care of things all of that I don't know if that's realistic for most of us right
(14:22) but instead maybe the the heart can have more of a voice or what is this relationship between that's happening between the mind and the Heart yeah you do have to have both you do have to have both I mean I've lost my mind a couple times and it's always got to come back um yeah I feel that with the knowledge at the mind is is you know basically operating off a I mean a baseline it's like how can I you know how can I protect you how can I you know keep you you know living and surviving in you know in this world
(15:01) um but I think if we're looking at like you know which direction should we like I feel like there it's it's it's big and small again like I feel like the heart is the bigger compass on like where we should be putting our energy in the world like do we like what kind of work do we want to be doing and what does that look like like what are we actually doing in the process of you know our our day-to-day um and the mind's good at you know the the details figuring out how that's actually going to happen but I
(15:30) think yeah not giving too much power to the mind because if if you start really getting into you know I feel like a lot of I'm trying to plan all these things and it's like yeah the mind can be very just well it can be limiting and it can also just have an entire story line that doesn't even exist because like all we really have is this present moment and everything that happened to us before and like I feel like the of life is that you never know what's going to be around each corner so like I think the purpose
(16:03) of the heart is if you really if you want to make a decision based on something that like is going to really let you up and and feel like really new or exciting then like the heart is the way to go because the mind only knows what's happened it doesn't know what's possible it can never know what's possible so I feel like it's different different parts like having the mystery of life within the heart and using that Compass to navigate the mystery versus having the mind which is just going off of you know whatever
(16:36) happened do you think in a way that the mind um needs to be convinced to trust the heart or can be convinced to trust the heart like is that the is that the work yeah absolutely I mean because we you know it's your heart space is so tender and intimate it and if you've ever had the experience which I'm sure you have of like first falling in love with someone that's a very like tender can be a very like frightening time because it's you know you're you're playing like can I trust you can I is this really like are these
(17:19) is this reciprocated and you start going through that whole mental trip where like you know what you feel in your heart you know what those butterflies feel like or and this is like you know I'm talking about specific type of love but you know immediately the mind's like wait a second like it just always tries to jump in and we know this we know that the mind is tricky and we know that it's always trying to jump to conclusions or keep us safe but I feel like that visceral experience like taking that one
(17:45) example of yeah like feeling those feelings and then you know it's almost like emotion versus um ration rational yeah I like how you equated uh falling in love externally with the this relationship that we have internally with the mind and the heart and I think it's really the same thing that's going on like just without involving anyone else there's this relationship that's happening within myself where I'm noticing is my mind trusting my heart trusting this inner knowing you know who's in charge is really what it
(18:25) comes down to and it varies day to day sometimes it's yeah sometimes it's oh I'm all in this my heart and sometimes like whoa I got to like really take a step back yeah um I wanted to go back to what you talked about with nature and being in nature do you feel that you yourself are a part of nature I am nature you are nature absolutely and I think that we all are I just think that there's been a a a purposeful well I don't maybe not purposeful but there's just a forgetting like I don't ever I
(18:59) think if people don't remember like it's just because they've forgotten but like we all have been on this planet for however many years interacting with nature and it's just recently that we've kind of entered this realm where there's this disconnect between us and nature and it's you know we're all inside all the time and we're not you know witnessing I'm looking at the trees now but I just think that there's so much peace from just witnessing the pace at which nature moves which
(19:38) is pretty chill and slow and so the fact that we're all zipping around you know or zipping around sending emails doing this doing that it's just such a interesting time to be in where we're I mean some of us are nature enthusiasts and we want to be in nature and we want to be enjoying it and just spend time but there's so many that are I think fearful fearful of nature okay but I think it's important to get straight on this so it's like nature is used to describe you know the woods or being
(20:13) outside so inside is not nature or generally speaking I am not nature like if I am nature like what is not what isn't nature is there anything that isn't nature well everything's made from things that came from nature right it's all Earth matter we're all nature wow I mean I'm just wondering is it is it if this is the reality is it important to create new words yeah to describe what we're talking about here yeah right like even though we're sitting inside are we not in in nature right now I
(20:52) think we are and if I I am nature MH to me when we think about nature an important element of that is everything is accepted everything has a purpose right it's kind of easy for us to accept nature the way that it is it's nature so if I apply that to myself and my inner experience then why shouldn't everything be accepted everything has a purpose even the fear inside of me which I might want to look at and um move away from sometimes I can do that while simultaneously seeing that there's a purpose to this and it's acceptable and
(21:38) it's okay and is this tendency of kind of creating a bad guy like the ego is the bad guy or the mind is the bad guy is that useful is that going to move me forward on the path in the way that I really want to be moving forward m H yeah I'm still like I'm still processing like yeah is you know is being in this building is this is this nature is this building part of the natural world are these closed part of the natural natural world H yeah I think like when when I I said you know well you know I'm nature and I think of the
(22:33) outdoors as being nature and then the the disconnect that I feel like is there which maybe that's just like I I I feel like what I'm trying to get it is that I wish there was more of an awareness that without trees and outdoor nature like there is no human species and maybe I'm just going on a on a side rant about the importance of being aware that like you know we are like we have to have trees to clean our oxygen like we can't live without the trees like it's wouldn't be possible and
(23:15) so if we're going down a path am I I'm going down a path in this conversation but like if we're going down a path where you know we're completely unaware that you know the outdoor nature is integral to our survival then no more human species but I just want I just wonder about like how the change happens because I how the change happens from from like okay the goal is to spend more time outside and to not destroy natural environments I think it's more of an awareness though it's just like being
(23:52) aware that that's important so that that ripple effect changes every single Behavior you have with the world yeah being aware that it's important can also have different flavors I think I can be aware that it's important and there's also fear there of you know what H what's happening right now is Scary or wrong and I can be aware that it's important with a sense of um accept how it is and not being afraid of the current situation either again the goal to me is like spending out the goal to me is
(24:42) personally being healthy and for the land to be healthy for all of nature to be as healthy as possible and I wonder how that happens you know often there's that you care what's that like you said I wonder how that happens like that you care about it or what do you like um on a total level like how more human beings see this value nature value their own time being spent moving being in nature like how does that happen how do more people make this choice I think you have to fall in love with nature because you maybe and then if I
(25:25) am nature maybe fall in love with yourself and and and your inner no because that's what I wonder it's like okay and that's why I even asked the question about you know are you nature and I believe too that we are nature that I am nature and what I've noticed is that that belief has a very strong impact on what choices I actually make right it's directly connected to what we're talking about with listening to the inner knowing because if I am nature there's no reason for me not to
(25:59) trust in this inner knowing the way that I make decisions is is is very different so if I do not believe that I am nature I'm probably operating much more in my mind which again is okay but I'm not utilizing my whole being right and that's the majority I think of society is operating from this place because that's what Society is like stay in the head space stay in the distraction stay in this mind and not actually be in the heart and we see it everywhere I mean you see it with the way that what our
(26:29) culture is focused on what people are focusing on it's I think it's pretty obvious when you're in a forest that everything is taking care of each other and that there are checks and balances and you know there are invasive species and there are things that are trying to disrupt it but somehow it's most of the forest is functioning um and I think just the lack of awareness that it is like if you're in your head you can't really it's a lot harder to connect to other people when you're in
(27:08) the head space because you're just in your head you're just thinking of you know your own situation you're in your own little bubble and we all go through phases like that in you know our day-to-day life where you know one week it's just totally like I just need to get through this week I need to you know get through whatever I'm doing and then the next week it's like oh of course I'll cover your lunch shift of course I'll do this because you once you're done thinking about yourself and you
(27:30) feel like you're you know you're in a space where you can you feel okay then then you can give selfless service to others but if you're not there yourself you know you're just going to be in this survival mode which I think the Mind puts us in survival mode because that's you're only thinking about yourself I mean maybe not but that's you know we're in our own bubbles of of our our beings and our minds so when you find yourself in your mind in that mode what's your process for moving from
(28:06) the Mind into your heart or into your whole being I have a couple different practices I think the first one which is the most obvious is just like how can you literally like touch your body so whether it's like self soothing which is like a sematic practice of like hands you know I'm very fidgety probably because you know that's something that I do to Cal myself but um that or even just I love I love you know full body movement whether it's dancing or hula hooping or something that's it just you
(28:40) can't you know you're just not thinking anymore um art is a wonderful thing if you can get over the hump of oh my gosh I don't know what I'm doing you can just really sink into that um Kiron is a beautiful practice because you're chanting and you're when you're in it you're not even you know I forget that my fingers are even moving and I for you know that I'm even it's just such a connected experience and there's everybody has their own ways of getting to that space But I think the most
(29:06) important thing is like something that is going to move the energy so dancing singing singing in your car yeah so would you say then there are gateways that exist in the mind that take us out of the Mind Right like you're thinking in your mind you're you're finding yourself operate in your thoughts and then you have a thought like okay I want to move right or like something needs to shift or change or it would be beneficial if it did therefore like the Mind itself thinks Kyon or movement whatever it is
(29:50) so are those gateways that exist in the mind that lead us out of the mind yeah secret portal secret escape hatch because when you when you're using the mind to get into that space you're then able to experience like like the flow state to me is just one of the most yummy experiences of this life and you get to that flow State when you're able to like you know you're not just laying in the floor and I mean you could you know in shabas you're going to find it but just being able to be like there's a thinking but it's a
(30:25) it's it's the intuitive thinking like when you're snowboarding down a mountain you're not really like thinking the whole time you're just kind of like it is this like hyper connection to the world around you where it's just like you're so tapped in that you don't even have to think about it and I think of it like yeah snowboarding is the first one that comes to mind because I've been you know you I've been doing it for so long where it's just like that but something
(30:51) um even you know even just dancing or just when you're just not even thinking about your body you're not thinking about anything else you're just in the moment and so you know live music or any type of music that's just going to allow you to enjoy but without the mind getting in the way um you know surfing skateboarding all those things that have this flowy element I feel like to them where you can just because you are connected you're you're more connected just in a different way is Kiran like
(31:22) that too in a way absolutely I mean I feel you know whether you're participating or whether you're leading like the experience is is similar for both because it's hearing everybody's voices around you and feeling that it's like a bubble of love like you're just hearing these voices that maybe you've never heard in that way before but it feels like you're being held in this just like energetic bubble of love because together like that Resonance of I mean the Mantra the frequency all of
(31:52) it comes together and it's just if you can surrender and like go and fully experience it it's just pure Bliss but I think when you know I've I met many people that don't like Kon or it's disruptive or you know too much and that's okay too like your experience can be whatever whatever your experience is but I think we have to like get past this like mental block that like oh well you know if for some reason you don't like live music or you don't like you know something like that it might take
(32:27) you a little bit longer to get into it but I think the beauty of the Kon is when it's a shared group experience everybody's participating and there isn't a thinking like if you're thinking about the Mantra you're thinking about you know it's very robotic type of Kyon it's going to be a completely different experience like fadc chanting completely different than having a full response experience where everyone's just sharing in that way together so when you're leading Kyon I
(33:00) imagine that still sometimes there's activity in the mind like you'll notice some some thoughts come across the Mind absolutely and so what happens what's your what's your process when that happens you're you're leading Kyon and then you notice a thought and then what oh well it depends on the it depends on the set and setting like if I'm sitting in a small circle with people that I love and cherish deeply and you know let's say all of a sudden I'm like oh wait like I'm my
(33:34) fingers are actually moving this actually happens more frequently than not but I'll be so in so into it that all of a sudden I'm like wait what's the next chord and then as soon as the thought happens my eyes pop open I look down at my fingers and I'm like wait what's that next chord and sometimes I get it sometimes I don't but the the funny thing is that the mind's just jetting in the fingers know exactly where to go there's no thought there it's just my fingers are going and um
(34:02) yeah it can be jarring but if I'm up here on a stage sitting 10 feet back from the stage and there's a camera and lights and a bunch of people I don't know and that happens it's a completely different experience because I'm you know then all of a sudden it's heightened oh my gosh and it's not even that it's a fearful experience it's just doing Kyon on a stage with cameras and it just it's not the way that it was meant to be like I don't think Kon was meant to be this
(34:33) performative thing it's not it's just it's something that you can do as a practice to just get into the heart and so I find it I guess I'm kind of going into my own personal experience but it's very jarring when you're I feel like there's an expectation to perform something a certain way um and doing Kyon in that way in like a prescriptive way versus doing it just from the heart and whatever whatever wants to come out comes out well this is a perfect example I think of what we were talking about
(35:04) before in terms of selfless service and expectations of other people have we can relate this to Kon there are there o are there expectations that other people have for the experience or the Kyon that they're going to be receiving and do I try to cater to that or do I tune into what feels right for me and trust in the effect of that I feel like that's the best thing I mean trusting what you want to do is to me it's like cuz you never know what energy you're going to go into with a Kyon like I went through a whole phase
(35:44) of only doing ecstatic Kon and it was every song I can't hear you chant louder and now I'm in this phase of like I just want to do sweet sweet Melodies I just want to be I don't know have this different energy so I I think when there are expectations it just makes it a lot more difficult like and it's hard because it basically goes back to like well do I how can I put my ego aside to you know serve I guess the greater whole versus only doing what feels good because what feels what sometimes needs
(36:18) to be done doesn't feel good and it's just like especially I I've heard stories from very strict ashrams where it's like you have to you just you go through there is no no thank you I don't want to do it it's just nope you're doing it g Ganesha and I wonder what ultimately will be more beneficial to those around me if I make my decisions based on their expectations or requests of me no I don't like that nope because I don't think that well for I don't like being told what to do um so for me if I'm just
(36:58) doing something because it's what is expected of me and it's the right thing to do I'm going to be very dark and stormy inside because well it also might not even be what someone explicitly is telling you what to do it could be what you think the expectations are no one even said these are your yeah the unset or what your mind thinks it might not even be true but the Mind thinks oh there's this expectation of me yeah the mind has a lot of expectations I I always get very tripped out to think of like I mean we'll never
(37:32) be able to see ourselves from the outside in like we never know what what you know what our the perception of ourselves is from the outside but every single person is going to have a different story of you every single person so like and yes we are putting expectations on the world around us as well just as much like we're all just kind of you know mirroring each other and trying to trying to do the best we can which is like yeah how can we do the best how can we do what's best for us with I think of
(38:02) course having compassion to the environment around us but I do think that it's important to speak up when things aren't you know perhaps feeling good for you because if you're just hiding behind a mask that's not serving you like sure oh well we know you're keeping the peace but like no you're not because you're actually harming yourself if you're just messing all the time which living in an asham I feel like it's very recommended to mask in order to get through this experience more
(38:34) peacefully for everybody then we take Dharma dharm talking about that and okay the examples of people humans that you know that have really followed their Dharma right is it possible to follow your Dharma if you're catering to other people or putting on a mask I would say that's even the opposite of of following your Dharma the m the Dharma when someone's living their Dharma it has to be from this inner place right and those are the people that have benefited Society the external world the most the ones that have the courage to
(39:12) listen to the inner knowing so if we're interested in Dharma doesn't it have to be from this place absolutely and I love that you said that because it gets me like I'm getting excited as I'm thinking about it because I think of all these just incredible musicians or artists that basically like they had to say no to living a I don't to say normal life but like it takes great courage to follow your heart it really does because you know I'm 75% of my time I'm sitting in office and you know 5% or maybe even less I'm
(39:50) sitting at the harmonium and so I think it looks like you know taking a look at your life from a holistic perspective like where am I putting my energy because there are talented people in this world that not that you need talent but I think it's like where you're putting your time and energy like you if you want to become the next Picasso like you have to put the energy towards that and I think a lot of us are distracted by what we should be doing in the world to try and make ends meet or make people
(40:18) happy or whatever and if we were all just following what we really wanted to do in our heart like who knows what could happen who knows what could happen we might not have a functioning Society but we'd have people that are following a path that is really leading them back home to the heart what makes you say that we wouldn't have a functioning Society well because I feel well you know maybe some people aren't meant to connect to their heart in this lifetime but like there's so much of society
(40:45) especially right now which I feel like with AI being implemented like perhaps we live in a society where people don't have to do the dirty work but there's a lot of jobs and things that people have to do in the society that AR AR fun and that nobody wants to do and unfortunately like it's we're living in a modern slave culture where people have to do these jobs because they aren't as privileged um you know we're very privileged right now being where we are living in ashron that's a choice that
(41:16) like if I had $300,000 in debt I couldn't be doing this but I have a supportive family and just enough to scrap by and that's why I can choose to be here but um yeah I don't know where I was going with that privilege privilege and you know it's a privilege to follow your heart and if you have to worry about you know masa's hierarchy of needs if you're trying to figure out your safety security where your next meal is coming from you can't even think of focusing on any of the good stuff your Dharma you
(41:46) can't focus on your Dharma I mean unless you're either you know renouncing the world and just having people that are going to feed you which is all you really need but God I eat somehow food food is important food is important your mind will stop working without it are you having fun would you say being alive it's a trip yeah it's it's it's a good trip sometimes sometimes it's been you know less than ideal but I think of it as I have this analogy of Surfing the waves and I'm like oh yeah I love the highs
(42:29) and all of a sudden I'm getting all these lows and I'm like ooh yeah I'm swimming I'm swimming really hard right now but when we have a big high when we have Krishna us come and 300 people at yogaville it's a beautiful experience and of course we're going to feel the opposite of that shortly after because it's how a wave Works what do you think crash what do you think brings about your lows my lows um I think anytime I try and think of being 30 years old without having any savings and without being
(43:08) able to function in this world without um like having a strong support system it's terrifying and I think the existential fear of like well you know I have friends that have been working jobs that pay them a living wage for years and I've always chosen you know jobs that were more fun and that brought more joy than income so it's just scary to think of like I might not ever own a house or have a car payment I feel like that's a little dramatic but um yeah it's just it's really hard to I think money is the
(43:49) biggest thing for me that puts me in a low because it's hard to imagine just having the miracle Consciousness carry me through which is very real like we can totally just have the expectation that the universe will pull through and God will pull through and everything that we want to do is paid for um and at the same time I'm like well I really want that $500 discount to go to India this you know this winter but I don't have you know the $3,000 right now how is that going to happen um so anytime I
(44:22) try and like work out the details of the Mind in relation to having money to do things I want to do that it's just like oh do you think the Mind needs to stress about something I think depending on our like Baseline um our Baseline nervous system like yes like I think that a lot of us grew up in families where that was like there always was something to worry about and so if that's your normal then yes but I also think that you can kind of evolve out of that where like you can be peaceful and most of the time I am
(44:59) peaceful it's just yeah the Mind definitely likes to make problems especially with outside world when it's feeling unsafe what do you think is a healthy relationship with money healthy relationship with money well when I have a healthy relationship with money I'll let you know um I think like like money really is just a way to be able to do things in this world like if you want to do something you probably need a monetary way of funding it whether that's like someone giving you money or whether that's finding a way to
(45:40) make the money um so I feel like I have a full understanding of that I just really want to experience the World At Large and it's hard to do when you're Balling on a budget no and to maybe have have faith in tuning into your Dharma living your Dharma that the money might come as a result as a result of that yeah and that's and you I mean I'm looking around this room and I see all these spiritual Masters like I think the hardest like that is the biggest part of my journey is like how can I transcend this money
(46:16) thing because it's like you know if I want to go live at ashram I'm probably not going to be making any money so it's like very interesting to be at peace and just in full whole faith that you will be taken care of even if there's zero dollar in the bank account that's a huge trustfall that I just haven't haven't been able to do yet and I'm just I'm kind of like mad about it because I wish I'm like gosh and even like you know my car was gifted to me by my parents I've never bought a car
(46:46) before ever I have parents that are very generous but and even like you know I I anybody that lives here has to pay rent unless you're volunteers like that's a real live part of living so it's like oh it's just terrifying for me to feel like you know because if you are completely surrendering to not doing any money you have to be reliant on an institution or somebody that's going to take care of you like we have volunteers here but like they're reliant on this ashon being able to feed them by having
(47:19) enough money to buy food to feed them um if that ends unless they have a family support system that will get them out how are they supposed to go anywhere how can they buy a plane Tock get home how can they buy a car to get off campus like if you don't have any money you're basically all you can do is meditate and be in the woods which honestly wouldn't be that terrible so that's what I think of when I think of if the world ever goes you know if Society is no more and we just have to be in the
(47:51) woods okay that's not that bad ah thanks for sharing so much appreciate the time with you thank you this was a journey into it felt like five minutes of course appreciate you I'm glad that you're here thank you thanks for listening if you've enjoyed this content and think others might as well please feel free to share and subscribe