Stuff to NOT Think About Too Much... :-)
This page is for videos, audios, and articles, that point to the beautiful little truths of life in some way...
The Danger of the Single Story
Believed thought is often invisible and is incredibly powerful. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a lovely way of sharing her own experiences of the dangers of the single story, and the grace when we see beyond them...
Our True Self
Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey discussing the "true self".
(A lovely Facebook post from friend Cheri Gilling, via an Ekhart study group.)
Oprah: Have you lost your ego?
Eckhart Tolle: Yes.
Oprah: You have completely?
Eckhart: Well, let's see. Who knows? Tomorrow it may suddenly appear again. You let me know if it does, because I wouldn't know it if it's really the ego.
Oprah: This is one of my favorite quotes of yours: "You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you and allowing that goodness to emerge." Again, we're talking about going to presence, the divine within you, and bringing that forth to whatever it is you do.
Eckhart: Yes. Because trying to be good is often to improve one's self-image.
Oprah: Right. That's ego-driven.
Eckhart: Ultimately, it's ego. For example, some people have been trying for centuries to love their neighbor as themselves. But they have been finding it difficult because loving your neighbor as yourself really means, first of all, you need to be in touch with yourself, the self that you are beyond the form. And then you can love your neighbor as yourself because you recognize your oneness with your neighbor.
Oprah: Yes. And so, what you're saying is so beautiful. I get it. Lots of bing-bing ahas here. You're not saying love your neighbor as yourself—not as yourself the personality. It doesn't mean give your neighbor tickets to the theater or whatever. It means the deeper inner self. The higher self.
Eckhart: Yes. So, I call love the recognizing of yourself in the other, and yourself your essential self. Then, when I meet people and interact with people, I see them on two levels or feel them on two levels. On one level, they are the form, which is the body and their psychological makeup. On another level, they are the consciousness that I also am, that pure essence.
Oprah: You see that in every person that you encounter?
Eckhart: Yes. And that makes it much easier to interact with people and much more pleasant, because sometimes the personality, the psychological makeup, is not that wonderful. And then one is able to let that go because you can sense that beyond that there is an essence to that human being.
- Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, discuss a fresh way to understand our relationships and ourselves. This conversation was taken from the new book The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations.
Life and Death
A discussion between Zach Bush and Rich Roll, where Zach speaks to something I experienced as a "near life experience" rather than a "near death experience"...
The full 2 hour episode full of wisdom on a variety of topics is worth listening to...
Wisdom in Connection
A lovely video with Radhanath Swami pointing to the wisdom in connection...
The full TedXTalk is here... https://youtu.be/BW24z3Dlsu0
Do Our Thoughts Shape Our Reality?
A beautifully done 5-minute video (by "Gone With Gary) featuring Mara Gleason sharing her understanding of the nature of thought...
The 9 Attitudes
The most profound thing that anyone can get a glimpse of in this life, is the interconnectedness or oneness of all things.
From that single realization, in whatever form we happen to receive it, we will experience a deeply felt understanding of inner peace, security, and unconditional love, that then allows our better nature to more naturally arise in the forms of whatever we think, and see, and do.
In this lovely video summary, Jon Kabat Zinn has a gentle way of explaining the simple and beautiful understandings (attitudes) that can come from this single realization.
In the video, he speaks to all these understandings from the perspective of "being attained through practice", rather than through simple realization. BUT, he does mention something very significant at the end...
He first shares how each of the practices themselves are all connected.
He then shares how having just the one, simple, profound realization of interconnectedness immediately changes our perspective of everything. The realization then begins to "live through us", in the attitudes of our heart, our body, and our mind.
Exploring the Secrets of Light and Consciousness
A podcast with guest Jacob Liberman who has had some interesting insights into the truths of life, and who has a lovely way of talking about light, and sharing how he experiences and navigates life...
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/new-dimensions/id1143756294?mt=2&i=1000411672143
Love Versus Attachment
When I had my "awakening" to the truth of life, for a few days I had an experience of true unconditional love which was oddly detached and completely impersonal and profoundly expansive... a love that was much greater than any experience of love I had ever had before in my life. When I experienced this, I saw that all the love I had ever had previously in my life, had some sort of "pain" attached to it... it was conditional, I was personally invested in it, I would feel hurt if the relationship or person was lost. In contrast, the true unconditional love for all people and all things that I experienced was much greater than any personal love I had ever felt before... it had no attachment, no expectations, and no conditions. There was nothing but pure awe and appreciation and experience of beauty in everything (no matter whether typically perceived as good or bad). Everything was perfect exactly as it was. I realized that this was what all the wise throughout time had been pointing to in every religion and spiritual tradition and in the words and behaviours of any of those who have glimpsed or touched this truth in some way. Tenzin Palmo Jetsunma has a lovely way of pointing to this in her own words...
Slowing Down to Live
A lovely story of discovering that the joy of life is not in the doing or the having but in the being, from a gentleman known as "Slomo"
Walking in Two Worlds
A native elder (Basil Braveheart) who shares his understandings of native spirituality, Eastern spirituality, and modern science...
What Does Waking Up Really Mean
Eli Jaxon-Bear (in conversation with Prince EA) talking about the enlightenment of Papaji, as well as his own enlightenment...
Sound and Science
Just an amazing video of the mystery and wonder of life that is sound... (video created by Nigel Stanford)
An Exploration of Consciousness
Stand up for LOVE
A reminder from Michael Franti to communicate love, not hate...
Another video worth watching... https://youtu.be/JqBxpLIUfJ4
Martin
A beautiful example of wisdom from an unexpected source... (a film by Donal Maloney)
Six Levels of Consciousness
A lovely article about Mary O'Malley's perspective of our human journey...
http://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/the-six-levels-of-higher-consciousness-how-to-make-the-shift/
Thoughts Are Just Thoughts
A practical description of the illusory nature of thought by Jeff Foster...
Human Senses
An interesting TED Talk by David Eagleman pointing to the limited reality created by our limited senses...
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_senses_for_humans
Being Nothing
I think that my own insight into the illusion of all thought and the realization of the spiritual nature of life came after finally "giving up" the 23+ year search for how to change, and in hopelessness, just accepting myself as I was, all messed up and unchangeable. Funnily enought, in the space of "no longer trying", I was suddenly able to see something profound, that I had likely heard and read in many ways before, but just never realized as true. I suddently "woke up".
Following is a lovely blog post by John McIntosh, pointing to how his own access to wisdom and understanding was gained through insight (how he finally "got" something he's read a hundred times before, when he finally somehow allowed himself to be open to hearing it)...
http://johnhmcintosh.tumblr.com/post/161387717216/being-nothing
Nine Life Lessons
The idea of living life in the moment, with whatever it presents (from comedian Tim Minchin)...
How Not to Be Offended
This isn't 100% inside out, but at least it's pointing in a helpful direction...
The Friendship Bench
In Zimbabwe, depression is known as kufungisisa, or "thinking too much".
So Little Can Mean So Much
A lovely story from a passionate nurse who obviously loves her patients. She shares her perspective about how some of the "little" things we do each day, and often take for granted, and sometimes minimize in our moment to moment made up thinking, can sometimes instead, be very "big" things in the minds of others.
The Gospel of Doubt
Gaining insight from the Three Principles understanding, can include seeing the illusion of all thought, and realizing how solutions come from the space of not knowing. Here's a lovely TED Talk by Casey Gerald that points to the wisdom in being doubtful of what we think we know.
To Anyone Who Thinks They're Falling Behind in Life
One day, in early 2013 (after 20+ years of self help), I got really tired, and I just gave up. I gave up trying to "be better", I gave up trying to "do better", and I somehow just decided to accept myself exactly as I am, just deciding to live life, exactly as it was, and exactly as I was, all messed up and imperfect.
Not long after that "decision", I came across a wise teacher and realized something incredibly profound... that I had always been perfectly fine all along, and that it was only the belief in my made up insecure thinking that had me experiencing or believing otherwise. And then I saw how everyone else was innocently and unknowingly doing the same with their own made up thinking. And all of a sudden, everything in life made complete sense.
And, more importantly, I got a glimpse of what lies beneath all the ridiculousness of our crazy made up thinking... the perfection of the unconditional, impersonal energy of life that we are all a part of, whether we realize it or not. This blog post by Jamie Varon has an amusing way of pointing in this direction.....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-varon/to-anyone-who-thinks-theyre-falling-behind_b_9190758.html
Cool Mind Warm Heart - Steve Roberts
Lovely messages from Steven Roberts:
Stagger Onward Rejoincing - pointing to the InsideOut understanding, and reminding us in the face of adversity to be peaceful warriors...
https://www.coolmindwarmheart.com/stagger-onward-rejoicing/
A Dozen Things No Election Will Change
https://www.coolmindwarmheart.com/a-dozen-things-no-election-will-change/
Wise Words
The Two Weapons of Compassion and Wisdom
Whether this prophecy is for the times we are in right now, or whether for some time in the future, or even if it's not true at all, this story holds a great deal of wisdom about the creative power of the human mind, and how to live our lives...
(Joanna Macy on the Shambhala Warrior)
Gratitude
Suffering Created from the Illusion that We Are Separate
When I came across the Principles, I was suffering in the belief in my own depressive thinking, and was "suffering" from the behaviours of our next door neighbours, who were heavily affected by drugs, alcohol, and violent and destructive behaviours.
When I had my insight into the Principles, I immediately went from chronic fear of my neighbours to love of them. I saw that we were exactly the same in our common humanity, innocently creating our suffering from our thinking. I realized no one human being on the planet was any worse or any better than anyone else and that we were all connected in ways that we couldn't see. I saw that I was everyone and everything, and they were me.
And so what Thich says in this video clip makes sense to me... When we think we are seperate, we have a need to protect ourselves, and so we judge, we discriminate, and we make significance out of the differences, which leads to all manner of suffering for ourselves and others.
When we see and feel the deeper connection and common humanity, we realize we have nothing to fear, and so there is no need to give significance to the differences. There is only love and appreciation for the wonder of the system and the wonder (and innocence) of everything in it.
I don't happen to live in the awareness of that most of the time, but when I do occasionally remember that I am as much the hate-spewing politician as I am the compassionate carer for the suffering, I get to get over myself for a moment, and appreciate the state of grace of being nothing and everything.
And if you'd like to hear what Thich Nhat Hanh has to say about consciousness and quantum mechanics, here's another little gem... https://youtu.be/CPvqDmNlTrE
Ancient Wisdom in Modern Times
A conversation with Sadhguru and Deepak Chopra pointing to the universal...
What Is Addiction?
When I had my period of initial insight into the Principles, I realized that no one is really addicted to anything... that instead the primary driver toward any addiction (drugs, gambling, shopping, eating, sleeping, TV, video games, relationships, achievement, success, etc.), is simply to get relief or some level of distraction from the pain and suffering of thinking in the moment (not realizing that pain is from the feeling of thinking). Gabor Mate shares his perspective in this video...
Gratitude
A lovely essay on gratitude by Michael Perry...
The Cosmic Joke Behind Enlightenment
When I had my period of enlightenment over three days, I thought it was completely hilarious that we're all walking around believing in the illusions of our thinking. To this day it continues to strike me as funny that we could all probably be certified as insane because a thought appears in our head, we believe it just because we thought it, and we go around acting as if OUR thought is "reality" or is "right" or is the "only truth", and we continue to do that with every single thought in every single moment of our existence, me included.
And yet the only truth is that we are alive, we think, we're aware of our thinking, and because of that, we're creating our moment to moment experience of complete craziness.
Fortunately, in those brief moments when our craziness quietens down, for just a bit, we get to see and experience something beautifully profound... the love, the peace, the wellbeing, and the greater reality that we're all connected to, and we're all made up of, but for our crazy made up moment-to-moment thinking otherwise.
It's a Beautiful Glass
A lovely perspective of life from the Human movie...
HUMAN movie YouTube channel... https://www.youtube.com/user/HUMANthemovie2015
Redefining Happiness
No Need to Fear Our Fearful Thinking
A Hearfelt Experience of Insight/Epiphany
Shared by Tommy Kraus... "Gratitude Beyond Words"
What is Reality
A Very Happy Brain
A bit prescriptive, but a cute little video. After all, if we ever feel we have to "do" anything to feel happy and successful, it's probably more hepful to stop looking outside ourselves, and instead to look within for compassion and gratitude, which by coincidence, is the same direction where happiness and success can be found in.
5 Things Julie Walter Would Tell Her Younger Self
Cute short video of "words of wisdom" that Julie Walters (from Educating Rita movie) would tell her younger self... (kind of prescriptive but pointing to the truth)
The Day I Stopped Saying "Hurry Up"
A lovely story about getting an insight into the beauty of slowing down to enjoy life...
http://brightside.me/article/the-day-i-stopped-saying-hurry-up-20655/
The Myth of Normal
Lovely perspective from Dr. Gabor Mate (a clip from the documentary CrazyWise)
Is There a Path to Awakening?
Adyashanti has a simple and clear way of talking about the path to enlightenment and what it all means...
The Ladder of Inference
Although we have personal free will, and ultimately are the instrument through which every choice in our lives is made (through 60,000+ thoughts per day), most of our moment to moment choices are habitual and unconscious. However, when we wake up to the illusion of thought, and notice that our negative feelings are just an indicator of our thinking, not of the situation, we tend to get less caught up in the current craziness in our heads, and are less likely to jump into reactive behaviour.
This video is a great demonstration of how our thinking becomes so convincing.
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/rethinking-thinking-trevor-maber
Want to Be Spiritual? Change a Bed Pan
We All Have Addictions
Jeff Foster shares how we get caught up in our addictions, forgetting who we really are...
Another Piece of Wisdom from Prince Ea
Happiness Within...
One of the many lovely short films by Nic Askew...
I Am Not a Label
Prince Ea points to our common humanity, instead of the limiting labels we create through our thinking.
The Secret to Productivity
Completely prescriptive, but some lovely points to consider...
A Talk on Mindfulness
A great, practical, common sense and "non-Three Principles" description of how the systems of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought work, as shared by Michael A Singer...
Hard-wired Happiness
Srikumar Rao... TED Talk loaded with lots of wisdom...
http://www.ted.com/talks/srikumar_rao_plug_into_your_hard_wired_happiness
Lessons on Being Human
Syd Banks said “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” Here's a TED Talk from Glennon Melton who has discovered the truth of that, along with the beautiful truth of being perfectly imperfectly human, no matter what craziness may be going on in our head or in our life...
Do We See Reality As It Is?
I Am That Which I Seek
Dying to Be Me
This TED Talk shares just a brief description of Anita Moorjani's near death experience, and her understanding of the truth of our human existence. If this piques your interest, it would be worth reading her book of the same name.
Life as a Roller Coaster
A great analogy for how our state of mind works, from sports psychologist and 3P practitioner, Garret Kramer...
Radical Use of Wisdom? I Think Not!
Enlightening TED Talk by Ricardo Semler on following wisdom, instead of convention, to guide work, school, and life...
http://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_radical_wisdom_for_a_company_a_school_a_life?language=en
To Live or To Play?
This jelly bean video gives an interesting perspective of how we spend our time on Earth, and how little time we have left for "play". However, with an understanding of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, we can spend less time caught up in the craziness of our thinking, so that any moment, no matter what we're doing, could be filled with love or peace or gratitude, or even play.
Simple Gratefulness
A reminder of the simple things we can be grateful for, with a few little truths about life thrown in...
http://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-wiest/2015/02/20-signs-youre-doing-better-than-you-think-you-are/
Between the Human and the Spiritual
Jill Bolte Taylor's TED Talk explaining her experience of her stroke, moving between the worlds of the human and the spiritual, the individual ego and connected humanity, the functioning of the right and left hemispheres of the brain...
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight#t-1132557
The Overview Effect
19-minute short film presenting how astronauts are emotionally affected by their experience of seeing the Earth...
Simple Principles of Spiritual Awakening
An articulate description of what the Three Principles ultimately point to, as written by Jeff Foster... And what he refers to as the 10 Principles of Spiritual Awakening.
An Inventory of the Invisible
An amusing TED Talk by John Lloyd, pointing out the amazing number of important things in our lives that we cannot see and do not know... A view of the miraculous...
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_inventories_the_invisible?language=en#t-605789
Three Quotes Pointing to the Principles
From the blog of Steve Light...
Mission Statement: Peace of Mind and Quality of Life
Richard Hoover of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company... A Business Focused on the Simple Truths of Life...
Why Aren't We Awesomer?
An Awakening Story
A clip from Jim Carrey's speech at the June 2009 Event for the Global Alliance of Transformational Entertainment...
And the following part of his speech... another interesting and funny clip...
The Benefits of a Quiet Mind
A lovely article on what we can experience and tap into, when we have the opportunity to calm our thinking...
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/20-ways-sitting-silence-can-completely-transform-your-life/
What Are Glimpses?
Video and transcript of an interesting RSA Talk by Guy Claxton titled "Being Touched and Moved: Why Spirituality is Really About the Body" (Effing the Ineffable)
Science and Spirituality
Jeff Lieberman's TEDx Talk points toward the illusory experience of life...
How Do You Explain Consciousness?
At the end of this TED Talk, David Chalmers says that it will take the right crazy idea to explain consciousness. Perhaps the right crazy idea is that the three fundamental principles of Mind + Consciousness + Thought = Reality? I think that would fit on a t-shirt. But perhaps I'll let you decide... 🙂
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_chalmers_how_do_you_explain_consciousness#t-869322
The Art of Living Now
A bit "prescriptive", but pointing in a helpful direction...
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200810/the-art-now-six-steps-living-in-the-moment
Gotta Love Alan Watts!
The Real You...
Compulsive Thinking...
Live Fully Now...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HdqVF7-8wng
Choices and Decisions...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D7CH9cRN8Rg
The Secret of Life...
You're It...
The Greatest Skill of All...
Choices and Decisions
Having Fun...
When Death Happens...
Kensho - short movie of Alan Watts narration of the dream of life...
The Real You is the Universe
https://www.facebook.com/TaoZen2012/videos/1135810076446683/
Why Your Life is Not a Journey
You've Already Arrived! (Life, Music, and School)
Money!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNODsOnvYA
How to Make Yourself a Better Person
Venture Out
We Can Love
Where is Home?
The joy of travel, the serenity of standing still, and the meaning of home (TED Talk by Pico Iyer)...
http://www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_where_is_home?language=en
Love or Fear
This is Water
Waking up to Awareness (commencement speech by David Foster Wallace)...
https://youtu.be/eC7xzavzEKY (9 minutes)
Note: Sometimes the link above gets removed, but you can often search for the video by googling "This is Water"
It's also worth listening to the full version without graphics or editing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI&t=35s (22 minutes)
We're All Connected
It's Just A Ride...
When we see through the illusion of thought, we become aware of something much bigger than ourselves that we are all connected to and all a part of. This word-art-scripted video of Bill Hicks, touches on that.
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