Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Alan Finger. Welcome to the Genius of Nothing podcast. Nothing is no particular thing.
Speaker: It's all things at once. Genius.
Speaker: Okay, welcome everyone to the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm Katrina Repka in London and I'm here with Sebastian Forsman.
Speaker: Where are you? Are you in Stockholm? Oh yes, in Stockholm where it's now sunny all the time. never goes dark most the time. but And Alan Finger, are you you're at home in Florida?
Speaker: In Florida, sunny Florida. Okay. And happy to be here with you all. It's very mercurial in London. um The clouds are dark and then it's sunny and anyway.
Speaker: And today we were talking before starting to record about um just how Al is a strong personality and of a different generation to ah to you and me, Sebastian. um But we had originally thought about talking about like friendship and relationships to a degree.
Speaker: And around that, i always come back to wanting to feel like secure in myself and feeling like i you know, one of the things that Alan has always been really inspiring to me about is that he really purports not to care what people think about him or to kind of fit himself into a stereotype.
Speaker: And to some degree, that has to do with not being necessarily like conforming to other people's beliefs about what is right or wrong. It can definitely be a wrecking ball. i will say that.
Speaker: Yeah. But I also think it's really interesting because i tend to always feel anxious and that I'm in the wrong and I have um this idea that I should have like lots of friends and be really social even though I find socializing with more than one person at a time like kind of difficult.
Speaker: Um, and I'm introverted and I think there's this element of me always feeling like I'm aspiring to be someone other than who I am. And one of the things that Al and I have worked on in my life is to feel okay about who I am, even though that's kind of quirky and, um,
Speaker: And to be unapologetic about it. And I still struggle with this. And I'm really interested, al like in your opinion about this, because you actually...
Speaker: really don't seem to care what people think about you. And I'm wondering how you actually manage that in your life. So, you know, and unfortunately, human beings sort of function from what's in their mind and what's what the thoughts are that are bouncing around in their mind.
Speaker: And when you do that, you become dependent on the emotional processes that occur from different exposures and things and life. And and of course, then you care what people think of you.
Speaker: And that's kind of the normal pattern. There is a a mantra which yeah says, Mangalam Garudad Vajah. And that means that when you lift yourself up like an eagle and you feel you've elevated yourself up out of your mind and you're like an eagle that now can see the whole area and all its prey, etc.
Speaker: If you can lift yourself up like that, you can see what's going on in life from above it. And when you do it, when you're in it, as if the eagle were on the floor, it couldn't see its prey.
Speaker: So it lifts, flies up high and hovers to look. And that's just an analogy for that if you can get out of your mind and observe your mind and be the, your consciousness is observing what's going on in your mind.
Speaker: And when that happens, You can see why people feel like they feel. You can see what a person's opinion is and say, no, no, I understand that, but it doesn't really affect me. It's their opinion.
Speaker: And so I see people's feelings and opinions, but I can just smile and say, no, I understand where they get that from. Okay. Okay. do i And often i will say, hmm, is this anything important to do with my programming? Let me see.
Speaker: and occasionally I might change something, but generally um i meditate daily. So i uplift my consciousness that I can observe it.
Speaker: And when you do that, you see it clearly.
Speaker: So I hope that helps bring you some clarity too, because it's not an egotistical thing that I know what's right and I'm right and I don't care what they think.
Speaker: Kind of not really like that. No, but but it also becomes like a problem. like anybody i feel like a lot of people that do start to meditate and meditate for a longer you know longer time,
Speaker: sometimes runs into this problem. And, and I certainly did. And it's really when you start to understand that some of your friends, some of your connections in life don't really serve you. Um, because it's like friendships are built, you know, not only on affection, but they're built on identity. Um, you know, you know, you're not just sharing time, like you're, you're sharing a story, your, your character that you have created and, you know, that you've agreed to play like the funny one or, you know, the, the quirky one you you know, all these roles that we kind of take and when you kind of, like you say, when you, and you like the eagle fly above and can see all this and kind of step away from it a little bit, you you see also what don't fit you. But that can also be kind of painful and kind of hard to to do. Because we, I mean, I've mourned a couple of
Speaker: what I thought was close relationships, but I kind of felt like, no, it's not really serving me. It's not really great. Because, you know, we we became friends in our 20s. And then, you know, in the 20s, you're, you know, everyone is in the same place. I mean, everyone is broke. Everyone is like unexperienced. You don't know shit about anything. And, you know, you just want to experience life and do you know crazy stuff.
Speaker: And then you grow up and you get to your 30s and, you know, it becomes more really from a group sport to, ah you know, one-on-one sport. And you have to like kind of maintain, it becomes much, much harder to to kind of maintain relationships because they become one-on-one much more. I think, Sebastian, you're talking about more having a problem of letting go something that doesn't yeah work for you. To be fair, most people have this and most people you know feel like this. you're You're unique in that way. yeah but But most people, I will say, do have that problem and are dealing with it in different ways. And to me, yeah, I don't have that problem.
Speaker: I see this is not right, this not working now, and I let it go. And I do that with anything in life. You know, yeah, we've sold my our house, right? As you guys know, we're going to move. And and it's a beautiful home.
Speaker: And it's like... okay, I've done my time in this house. I thank it. and i'm ready And I'm ready to move on. And i don't carry any remorse. No, but I think a lot of people do do that. I mean, I do move on from it, but I do mourn it in a certain way. Not so much anymore, but but it has its tough times. And I think you're unique, like Katrina was saying, like in a lot of ways. So I think a lot of people have this problem of just how...
Speaker: You know, when is somebody else going to come along? Am I going to be, you know am you know, alone when I lose these friends? Am I going to be alone then? or yes you know being trust That is the key.
Speaker: That is the key, Sebastian. Exactly. Alone. Yeah. You're always, alone means all one. Yeah. And when you can be all one and two, comfortable and in being you and together in you,
Speaker: then, hey, God bless this person. They're not quite, they didn't move their consciousness, they're stuck where they were at 20 or 30 or whatever. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I actually think about what your dad said a lot, like be hopeless. Hopeless. Yeah. Don't hope that your friends are going to be something that, you know, they perhaps aren't. But be careful even with that concept.
Speaker: Hopeless means you're all one. Hopeless means you're complete in yourself. You're not hoping for anything. Because you want to be careful with the words. Because although we played with that as a concept, hopeless,
Speaker: But you want to be careful because if people say, oh, I'm going to be hopeless, well, I've got no drive. and And really, it its means that it's ah it's it's but a play on words.
Speaker: We want to to, if you're needing to hope, you're not complete in yourself. Yeah, hoping less. But when you're complete in yourself, you move through your karma and your dharma most gracefully.
Speaker: Like Katrina's name, Santosha. But I have an issue with saying to some extent that, you know, these people haven't, that we are letting go of, haven't evolved. or Although I want to believe it because I want to think that I'm so... spiritually evolved the chosen one haven't katrina i have to stop because katrina haven't evolved like you or i or sabat or anyone it doesn't put you above them it's just their evolution their evolutionary path has taken them into a different direction to yours
Speaker: But you told me, you've told me quite a few times that I don't need friends. And I, like, I think that was to be controversial to some extent when I was having some issues wondering about, like, my relationships and my life. And expectations I had of people and, you know, like the word best friend, were like that, just erase that from your consciousness right now, because that's like, no one's your best friend. And it has helped me to kind of like, um, and have, you know, I have, I think about the people that are really close to me, my daughter, my partner,
Speaker: um And then I think about like people ah that are closer friends. And then I think about like distant relationships that are still relationships. And I think one of my long friendships has died in this past year. And um it was, I think, needing to die. I have grieved it a lot. But I have this identification experience.
Speaker: That I'm a good person or that I'm a good friend because I've had a relationship with this person for 25 years. Like I can have a long, close friendship. And as a result, that is like saying something about my ability to be a friend.
Speaker: And that makes it hard to let it go because I think, oh, I should keep trying or I should. And to your point, Sebastian, like there isn't an easy replacement to a relationship that's been 25 years long, right? so um Those take time to build and and you you generate experiences together. yeah So for sure I do think that this is an interesting Like being alone, all one is a very interesting perspective. And i do feel like when I think about relationships ending or when I'm, i do feel ah ah like a loneliness. I don't, I think that's the only way to describe the feeling that I have, a kind of wistfulness or, and then I have an anxiety that there's something wrong with me. I mean, I'll be the first one to to tell you, like, I feel the same way. And I mean, all one, the whole concept of that and, you know, talking about it, it's really nice. It's a beautiful concept. But to actually live that and feel that fully, that's a whole different thing and takes a lot of work. Okay. But but that that loneliness that you experience, you must understand what loneliness is.
Speaker: Loneliness is when you've cut a pattern in your brain and then that pattern has stopped and you haven't replaced it, but it's stopped. Yeah. if you replace it, that's what people try and do.
Speaker: Okay, well, I don't have any more. I'll go and shop, whatever it might be. ah because the mind is desiring to try and fulfill itself again.
Speaker: So loneliness just means that you broke off with someone, now that there's no one there. That that pattern, that rabbit hole has been closed.
Speaker: So you feel awkward at first because of that. But to me, the key, guys, is not in the psychologically, how to psychologically evaluate this.
Speaker: The key comes back to what I always teach people. Become complete. Realize that your consciousness, you're not all of this vritti that goes on, all of the modifications of mind.
Speaker: And then your consciousness is part of a greater consciousness. But consciousness is given birth. to our entire universe, our galaxies.
Speaker: And in a galaxy, think about it. Earth is, you can't even see Earth in our galaxy. It's such a little spot. So here we are, making such a fuss of things for a very ah blink of an eyelid in time that we're here, in eternity.
Speaker: So when you can really elevate, and the only, you can do it ah mentally. Mentally, you'll find every loophole to find a problem with it.
Speaker: But it's only if you can truly elevate still your mind, let your consciousness become complete. And in that stillness, all the mental patterns in that start to settle and find...
Speaker: their equilibrium with where you are at this point of time in matter, in time-space. Okay, okay, okay. That sounds nice and all, but if you are somebody that really generally feels loneliness, i mean, maybe you you know disconnected some relationships that didn't serve you, or marriage, or whatever it might be, and you really feel tangible loneliness, and we are in a loneliness epidemic. This has been...
Speaker: corroborated from all over the world. And it's because of several factors like social media and, you know, people are moving away and we're becoming more self-independent. And there's a lot of factors. But what do you really do when you feel this loneliness? And because because we do need people, right? I mean, otherwise we can just move to a cave and just, you know, get it over with. um It's a normal.
Speaker: It's normal. It's natural. But I don't want you to be normal and natural because normal and natural means that you are very comfortable in the mental patterns that you are.
Speaker: And, hey you know, I understand this is a very hard perspective because most people will try to rationalize this out And work it all out in their mind and then have an answer why loneliness is a good thing and but or a bad thing.
Speaker: That's the nature of our mind. yeah So the only way to truly for me to eliminate loneliness is to feel complete in myself.
Speaker: So i see people come, people go. And what that really does to you is that it makes you much more confident and makes you look more confident.
Speaker: And that attracts people in the itself because you move freely. You know, you don't, you're not attached to people or places that kind of makes you out to be this like, you know, confident person that, you know, goes their own way.
Speaker: And people are really attracted that. almost becomes like a magnetic pull almost. Yes, of course. Yeah. Of course you do. When you're radiating ah pure consciousness, people desire that. They feel the the radiance. They feel the um the purity of your consciousness when you don't have thought. Not of your or my, but the purity of consciousness, vritti ni rodaha.
Speaker: when there's no fluctuation in consciousness and it's pure and we all have the ability to be there. So, but it's hard because you live a life.
Speaker: You got your life, you got your family, got your catering, got kids, you got this and that, all the stuff that happens and it's all okay. And you got to sail through it.
Speaker: And so, Even I'm going through now changing and homes and getting alone and doing these things. And I go away. I go sit in my VW buzz after the thing. i sit quietly. i do my Hong So Kriya to send come back to my consciousness.
Speaker: And I'm ready to go again. And it's amazing how I'm able to have this Garuda Advisor, this Eagles view of even dealing with this move.
Speaker: So do you actually need the VW bus to do that or is that optional? Well, I mean, it obviously helps because it's it's called the VW buzz, B-U-Z-Z, the electric one.
Speaker: And so the buzz is close to the vibration of ohm. If you need to go fast. You get there. But how do you how do you feel so...
Speaker: confident and how do you like people who don't feel confident in themselves like I see the um my daughter or you know being now we're on the genius of nothing is on Instagram and So I've been on Instagram a bit and um all these, you know, these kids who are growing up looking at people and I don't think it really does much to make you feel great about yourself. um There are all these people posing and... Well, I do think that Instagram and ah YouTube, for example, in social media can be great sources of, you know, creativity and exchange of ideas
Speaker: between people all over the world, which is just, that's amazing. But it's also, the the science really tells us here, like, when it's good and when it's bad. If you're engaging with your friends and, you know, sending photos and communicating, that's not bad at all. That's great. But it's the dumb scrolling that is just, you know, going through other people's feed all the time. That can usually lead to social comparison and lower self-esteem. And it kind of snowballs from there.
Speaker: And then you have, you know, all these people who kind of get paid also to, you know, they have like almost their own channels and they, their, their own brand and they live out their persona, even if it's true or not. Yeah. Like the values that they are, are peddling, um you know, it it kind of, I don't feel it's that authentic and I find it difficult sometimes, even though I'm kind of curious as to what everybody, especially if I know somebody who's on there, what they're doing, but, um,
Speaker: I find it really like difficult to feel, you know, moving through the world that this world is set up to help you feel confident. I read a study a couple of weeks ago where actually Meta themselves admitted that 90% of the people that were on Facebook were actually not interacting with their friends or talking to their friends. They were just going through the feed and not even interacting with their own friends, which is insane.
Speaker: So we basically outsourced you know friendships to people we have no connection to that we don't know at all. And I just find that kind of sad, really. Yeah.
Speaker: It's so mindless, it feels. But then also, how do you feel? Well, but just that back to that, like how do you feel confident when you're being, you know, you might not feel um that you're good enough related to these, like the way the world works. And I think particularly like for somebody who's growing up, I mean, I didn't grow up on Instagram. I've only been on it for like two days, practically, you know. um So it doesn't it hasn't affected me. But certainly like I had you know other other things to contend with growing up, other idealized um visions of what I should be and and pressures.
Speaker: um But this is like a whole other level. Occasionally when Sarah shows pictures on Instagram and I go on and look, and of course I take a look at a few other things and I see people doing all this stuff.
Speaker: And i I say, wow, and I'm the eagle up in the sky flying, looking at this. I don't take any of it personally. I'm saying, look what that people needs to do for themselves, that person.
Speaker: Look what that one's doing. Interesting. sure I don't take it personally. I'm not looking for something for myself. I'm not identifying to it. And that's, you know, the guys, it's the goal. You see, we keep slipping in to try and comfort our mind and its patterns.
Speaker: And yoga means to pull back into that eagle position, singularity, to pull out of your mind and your things and view everything from that position of,
Speaker: evolution of where beings are in evolution, and where you need to navigate yourself through because you are born into this plane of matter, and what you need to deal through it.
Speaker: So keep coming back to try and bring this back into a reasonable concept. And what I teach is not reasonable. It's totally unreasonable. I don't want you do i don't want you to be reasonable. That's your mind.
Speaker: I want you to learn how to get to be a master of your mind, to be able to be Garuda Advaja, above it and viewing what it's doing.
Speaker: And to learn in life. You don't have to sit down and say, oh my God, this is happening, I better meditate. You take a minute and you just pull your consciousness back, elevate yourself and then...
Speaker: Okay, I'm kind of, had to flap a little like an eagle to lift up again to catch the the the the wind pattern. I mean, yes, you're you're right. It's not normal at all what you're asking people to do when you when you meditate. Because from a neuroscientific point of view, I mean, it's it's kind of crazy. The brain is this prediction machine that's there to keep you alive. And and I mean, it does it really well. And meditation is just closing all that down. And when you do that, it kind of panics a little bit in the beginning. But, you know, it's kind of like a puppy. You know, you you kind of train it, train it, and eventually, you know, it goes more quiet and, you know, starts to understand what's happening.
Speaker: and But to get to that point you're talking about, it it takes time. It takes, and you have to really put in the work. It's really the same thing. we were talking about friends and friendships and, you know, it's the same thing there. it mean, you in social events, like you have to public speaking practice helps you to get better at this. and And you have to work on relationships and, you know, how to communicate and how to understand other people's points of view. And, you know, it it is work. It's like a muscle.
Speaker: The more you do it, the better you get at it. Or do you, though? Like, what if you don't feel like that at all? Like, because that's, you know, you have to work at being social suggests that you should be out there being social.
Speaker: Yeah, to a certain extent, you kind of have to, to be able to sharpen those skills to a certain degree. I mean, but... To do that, i mean, that can feel scared to a lot of people and feel very hard to do, to just throw yourself out there, just just do it. It's like, okay, well, that's easier said than done for some people. I mean, if you're an extrovert, yeah, fine, that that's it's not usually that hard. But if you're an introvert, it might be a lot harder. And just as an example, take the New Year's resolution.
Speaker: We know today that New Year's resolutions are really kept But not because people don't have motivation. It's not about laziness or motivation. It's because usually the goal in itself is just too high and too extreme. So you're working, you say you're going to work out four days a week.
Speaker: And after the first week when you only did three or two, which is still good, you kind of feel like you failed and you give up. We know today that the best way you can actually do it is to do incremental small goals that you start with very, very little bar. Okay, I'm going to work at once a month. And when you do that, you get a little boost and like, okay, i actually did that. And then you...
Speaker: higher, you know, the bar gradually as you get as you go along and it doesn't become this massive, huge wall you're going to climb over. But instead it's rather, you know, all these small steps become, you know, like a ladder and all of a sudden you can scale any kind of wall.
Speaker: but then you, I was at a dinner party last night and there was somebody there who was really sycophantic. Like it felt to me. So, oh my God, this food is wonderful. Oh my God. Like, and I just like, ah honestly, like i want to just...
Speaker: It doesn't feel authentic to me. And I actually find that it's really annoying and draining. And um you kind of like sitting there, the inauthenticity is painful. And also I find the dinner party vibe just so agonizing. But equally, sometimes I can find that, you know, it's it's all about the people. have to find your tribe. And then you think, okay, well, these aren't my people, really. But then, like, I'm kind of worried that nobody is my people. I do have a few people who are my people. No, you've got people. You're getting there. You're finally getting there. Your last statement, been thank God.
Speaker: Look, guys, I go to some of these things occasionally. I don't like to because it's not a nonsense. But occasionally I've been and i watch, I see the people behave like this and I'm like, well, interesting where people are.
Speaker: i mean, why take it personally? it's I see how they behave. I see where their evolution is taking them. yeah And I'm like, hmm, very interesting. Yeah.
Speaker: Do I want to go and hang out in that a lot? No, I don't. So you make choices of where you want to put your energy and how you want to go through your evolutionary process, your karma in this life.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. But if you're not able to observe it and know to pull out of it, then you get into all this nitty-gritty of discussion and should I do this or should I do that or this one's like this and that one's like that.
Speaker: That psychology helps you a little bit to see a bit better. If you put it in Ayurvedic terms of the doshas or in to the concepts of the gunas, then you can see how people are behaving because of what they are and where their evolutionary process is.
Speaker: But Very few people who are into those partying situations are into evolution.
Speaker: They're just sort of plodding through it. They're not into, into they're not evolved to or to be able to see what it is they're doing. They're just doing it. I mean, I think I disagree with that a little bit. I i ah do like to go to dinner parties and I do think if you find the right people and have good friends, I think you can very much find great people and have have great parties and stuff like that and and have...
Speaker: you know, genuine conversations with people and and really still be into evolution and be evolved. But I find it interesting also that that you grew up in South Africa and in South Africa, you your family had this huge ah home, like this ashram. It became an ashram. And you had people coming and going all the time in and out. And there was, you know, babas and different kind of teachers and and students and all kinds of people coming and going. And even today, you love to have people over all the time. I've never seen anybody that has, you know, so rotation of people coming and going and, you know, hanging out and staying a little bit and leaving.
Speaker: And but you you kind of love that you still love to have people over all the time. And Yeah, it's kind of interesting because you also say that you don't really need friends, but you are someone that has a lot of people around yourself all the time.
Speaker: and Well, i do I mean, I am in this plane of consciousness doing my thing and people feel it. And it's it's always the service of uplifting someone else's consciousness.
Speaker: Always uplifts you too.
Speaker: So to me, and it's not always through a lesson or sitting and talking, sometimes it's just giving someone love.
Speaker: And you see them come alive. Gardener was doing the garden just now. And you guys were talking and he walked up to the window with his blower.
Speaker: And ah waved to him and he saw me. And he lit up and did a little kind of show for me with his little a blower. Yeah. It was all whilst we were doing this.
Speaker: And I kind of smiled and gave him a good, you know, namaste. And he kind of did a little namaste and went off blowing the garden. So his conscious is that little buzz, that little radiance. He got it.
Speaker: He felt it and he like went off with a whole different aura doing what he's doing. You do realize this is making you sound like you're perfect, and we know you are. No, it's not. No, everyone has the possibility. It's God complex.
Speaker: We all have the possibility to be perfect. perfect means Perfect means we don't have distraction. So when our consciousness is not distracted, it is perfect, and it's unlimited,
Speaker: And it's infinite. It's the quantum consciousness. We're part of it. So when it's perfect, you're not trying to fu fulfill.
Speaker: You're not trying to rationalize. You're not dependent on other people. You're just happy going through life and you see yourself going through the evolution of where things are.
Speaker: and you dream And you realize that none of it is real. It's only for a split second real. And the rest in your own brain. Yeah.
Speaker: But, I mean, Trina, you can probably testify to this too. I mean, I've known you for a long time. And, I mean, I've seen you get really stinking mad. Like anybody else. Like, you kind of have to. Because you have to be able to use your voice to, you know...
Speaker: to be able to get your point across sometimes. But I will say that one thing you do differently from anybody else I know is that you do bring it back quite fast after that. You calm down very quickly and bring it back to a point of that you're not attached to it, that you're not mad, like you can let go of that.
Speaker: last in You remember the saying, you can use your emotions. Yeah. but don't lose yourself in them. And the best one is what you said.
Speaker: You can use your temper, but don't lose your temper. When you lose your temper, you've lost yourself in the temper. True. But if if you're using heat to get something across, that's a very good tool because all you got is your senses to try and express through.
Speaker: But based on what you're saying, because yes you're okay you are a human being, like I think we can acknowledge that. and of course Sometimes you might come to ah a situation from a place of...
Speaker: not the ego of reacting, because I don't think you can be the eagle all the time. But you do strive, like not, you don't strive, because that's implying, but you, you are the eagle a lot of the time. But so do you feel that based on that, when you come to something, you're not always...
Speaker: nobody is always using their anger correctly. Or sometimes you might be a human being with, you know, pants that you put on one leg at a time, like everybody else. And then you can kind of come back because of your ability to meditate, which is, ah kind of think like how I think about it, but yeah, you move through life. and Yeah. So Katrina, just, just to clarify that you can,
Speaker: You're in this world of mine. And I, if I get, but i have a point and I'm putting something across and I get, and I use heat or anger to put it across,
Speaker: And then I see, oh, I wasn't correct in this mental game that was going on situation. I'm very quick to pull back and say oh my God, I'm so sorry. I heard that wrong.
Speaker: You are good at that. Yeah, you are good at that. Annoyingly good. But what I'm saying is that it'll happen and then you pull back and see it. But you still are a human being. If see it, you can be wrong. Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not saying I'm always perfect right. You can be right and wrong is in your life, in your brain. If you, you can be right all the time. If I were right all the time, I would be dead. Need to be here. Yeah. yeah I think that's the point, right? like you you It's like optimizing how you move through the world, but you're never going to be perfect.
Speaker: You like the eagle. The eagle goes down to hunt misses its prey, but now it's got a flap to come back up to look again where it is.
Speaker: So you sort of, from that point, yeah, you go into life, but you've got to know, all right, I've got to pull myself back out of this. and If you can train yourself, when you've trained yourself after years of practice of it, of meditation, of getting still, it's so easy to do. It's like, oh, I was wrong, sorry.
Speaker: I love you Don't worry. he Sorry. i mean, ah there's a story you i've told a couple of times that was about your cat when you lived up, I think it was in Rochester, New York. Westchester. Oh, sorry. Westchester. Yeah. And it illustrates very well how humans think and act. And I kind of like that story because it's very... Because there's three kinds of buddhi.
Speaker: Budhi is the intellectual function of your manas, of your brain. where it puts things together from what you're seeing in your five senses, what's there from memory, what's there from identifying to the circumstance. You're going to take the long way to the cat story, aren't you? So the three the three times, well, the three times kinds of buddhi are one which is kind of reptilian. It's just our nature to react to things.
Speaker: Two, the we can be human where we got a lot of reason to everything. And three, inspirational from spirit.
Speaker: So there are these three kinds of buddhi. And I used the story once of how these functioned. in seeing my cat, which I used to have, Sutra, in Westchester. And when we went out to the back garden, she would run out and there was always an area like a little sort of berm in the garden and there was some big trees and the seeds fell.
Speaker: And so there was always birds eating the underneath that. And she would stalk them and then try and dive and then fly off the birds.
Speaker: And she'd sit down and cross a little pause and start purring. And what that how that refers to the different kinds of consciousness is that the initial instinct was there to go and do it.
Speaker: Then she did her thing to try and catch a bird. It was instinctual. But then a cat doesn't have that much of what a human being has, of what we all have, how we try to reason about friends and this and other people, what we've been talking about all morning.
Speaker: But the cat doesn't have that kind of part of its brain as much as a human being. So it sat down after Mr. Birds and just sp purred and looked around.
Speaker: What would a human being have done? If they went and they stalked and they tried to catch the bird, they would sit back and say, my God, was my step off? I'm such an idiot. I hope nobody saw me. Yeah, how did I mess up like that? should stop being a catch. yeah I should go to a workshop to try and improve this.
Speaker: Yeah, i need i need ah i think I think I definitely need a retreat. Yeah. Silence retreat for three weeks. Catch a treat. So, guys, that's what it's about.
Speaker: So the buddhi, the ability, you've got to develop that part that connects you to the soul consciousness, to the part that's the inspirational, because that's the part.
Speaker: that really guides you through all this, and you're not attached to the other. You're not attached to the rational. You can have it, you can use it, you can say, oh my God, I was completely wrong, sorry.
Speaker: i did that many times with Katrina. Yeah, after you'd, like, chewed me out for no reason. Yeah, exactly. Oh, poor Katrina. Mr. Human. Oh, hang on, because you know.
Speaker: Yeah, you of course I'm human. Who's human? I mean, I'm very human. i got a big, heavy body. Things I've put up with. Oh, I can only imagine. But Al, could you just, because you you were talking about the Garuda Mangalam mantra before, so could you tell people a little bit more about the full mantra and kind of what it means? So we tie this thing all together.
Speaker: Well, that's a full mantra. mean, the mantra is Om Mangalam Bhagavan Vishnu, which is attuned to Vishnu is the force, the governor of the forces yeah in the atomic world.
Speaker: Of course, in Hinduism, it's kind of boiled down to a very different deity that supports that. But Vishnu is the energy that governs how atomic world works.
Speaker: Mangalam, if we bow to that, to give us Mangalam. If we tune to it, and hopefully it will lead us into Mangalam.
Speaker: And the Mangalam, we will uplift like an eagle that can see everything, and that's when you can experience Mangalam. So Mangalam Bhagavan Vishnu, Mangalam Garudad Vajra,
Speaker: And once you uplifted, mangalam pundarikaksha, through your chakras will flow the mangalam into your living. Mangalaya tanohari.
Speaker: And so the auspiciousness will just guide you through this mortal plane that you live in. The whole mantra, om mangalam bhagvan vishnu, mangalam garudad vajya,
Speaker: Awesome. That's the one. Al, do you have that written down and we could put it in the show notes so people can see it? Yeah, I have it. Do you?
Speaker: Yeah. we'll We'll publish it. and then Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes so people can see it and read it. That's great. On that dreaded Instagram. Yeah, don't get stuck. I'll publish it, but not before I go down a rabbit hole of influencers peddling monochromatic outfits.
Speaker: right it's almost like an alien abduction you're in bed and everything is nice and then wham eight hours later you're like waking up and you apparently know how to make your own toilet paper yeah an interior design and like 55 year old women who apparently like think you know aging is great i mean i don't know how it knows but it just like seems to it's listening man yeah Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of scared to talk around my computer now because it's picking up my conversations and give me weird ads that, you know, I didn't know I wanted or needed. But apparently I need that like a you know, beaver suit and garden tools.
Speaker: All right. Well, thanks, Al. That was really, I mean, I'm really pleased that you're human and divine. um that That works for me. um keep Keep moving it.
Speaker: yeah And hopefully we help someone at least to think differently about relationships and friendships and what they mean and how you... Yeah, just don't have any friends, basically. Yeah, just buy yourself a cave somewhere and, you know, go sit in it and you'll be happy as clam.
Speaker: Maybe we'll just workshop that a little bit more. Sounds like a great idea. Just be happy. Yeah, sometimes sit alone and be happy. do have to say that I do like to go out and people swim from time to time. Surf them.
Speaker: Yeah, surf them, be around them, hang out. and I need that. you know Then after that, after a while of that, I can go back into my solitude cave and hang out. Not even solitude.
Speaker: Just let your soul be glowing through you. So you can just sit, it's not solitude. You sit and you look and you're nice, you be nice to your doggy, you look at the trees a little, somebody comes into the plane, you enjoy, you play, and you move on.
Speaker: But you constantly remain in that glowing intelligence that you're born from. So just want to make sure that you actually understand that I don't actually own a cave or suggest that anybody would go and sit in a cave. That was actually just a bad joke on my part. Don't be solitude or I've got to go back. and i've No, I've just got to feel my radiance and let it go. let it glow.
Speaker: right. Well, thanks, guys. Thank you. And thanks also to everyone who listened. Wonderful. All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a super week or two and we'll talk soon. Namaste. Namaste. Namaste.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today and have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
