Speaker 1: 0:49

You know there's so much hate around and, as meditators and spiritual people who practice, you know are spiritually inclined and relate to compassion and love. But how do you balance the two things when you know? If there's difference of opinions in a room like this, I'm sure we can navigate it in a way that is compassionate and sensitive and you know we see each other and understand more. Yeah, but there's so much hate in the world and like polarizing. You're here or you're there.

Speaker 1: 1:29

It doesn't seem like there's much space in the middle, yep, and so my question is more advice for us as people who maybe want to operate in the middle, and the nuance and compassion and sensitivity and love, how do you like? How, any tips for dealing with the world as it currently is, with so much hate and polarization around Yep?

Speaker 2: 1:56

sure, so a part of what I was referring to before when I said, you know, the next phase of human evolution is a spiritual sort of transformation of some sort. Spiritual sort of transformation of some sort. What that implies, what that is as an experience, is complexity, consciousness, and we are currently in a crisis, and the crisis is as a result of our inability to contain complexity and nuance and, in fear, what we tend to do is to either go that way or that way, and we've got hundreds, if not thousands, of that way and that way things going on. We are so splintered the divide, I think, is probably greater than we are able to have our opinions and to feel what we feel about a thing. It's very important because, we can't deny it, when we do that, we run the risk of getting swept up in somebody else's experience. Getting swept up in somebody else's experience. But there is a big responsibility that we each have as human beings and, unfortunately, the current collective state of consciousness makes it almost impossible to facilitate an experience of complexity nuanced, you know, conversation without being deeply reactive. An experience of complexity, nuanced conversation without being deeply reactive and offended or fearful, right, the only way that we can generate space for that to occur is to embody it, is to become it and is to be disciplined in cultivating it. And what it is is having clarity about what your position is and then loosening the grip on it. Because what we know we've done an enormous amount of research in this what we know is that while ever we are white-knuckling a position, whatever we are experiencing now is only going to be exacerbated.

Speaker 2: 4:57

We've done so much research in trying to annihilate the other. And I'm not just talking about what's happening in the Middle East right now. I'm talking about everything Politically. We've never seen politics so dirty. They're trying to throw each other in jail. I mean, it's as ugly as it gets and it's across every facet of our existence. It's polarized and the question is how much further do you think we can go before annihilation events start occurring? Because that's where it's heading rapidly. It's on the cards. Well, those cards are on the table. It's not too hard for us to think about the possibility of terrible, terrible things happening on a global scale because of the incredible divide that we're experiencing right now. Incredible divide that we're experiencing right now and do we go? Well, seems like it's the great inevitable. We humans, we tend to just spoil it for ourselves, don't we? You know there have been many civilizations that have wiped themselves off the face of the earth. We know that. Was it because of this? Have we been here before? Have we played out this story before? I suspect we have. What is the road out of this mess? What is the road out of this mess?

Speaker 2: 6:55

We have a responsibility to hold in our hearts the hope that is actualized every day through compassion and to the extent that we can. Now it's easy to say it from here in Mullumbimby, because you know no one's rocking up with guns or you know threatening to throw us in jail or you know whatever. We're not in any immediate danger, so we can have these kinds of conversations. And because we're not in immediate danger, we should be having these conversations. It's our responsibility because in other places in the world right now it's impossible for people to have those conversations. All they can think about is protecting themselves and destroying the other, because that's their reality. And we owe it to the people that are in conflict in other places in the world to hold the higher vision of humanity, our potential, and to generate what it is that they're unable to generate there at the moment. Generate it here, to create community that's based on love, that's based on compassion. And if we find ourselves in a dialogue with somebody that has a conflicting view, the question is do you want to live in peace or do you want to be right Now?

Speaker 2: 8:42

We in the West, right now, have the capacity to explore this. We have the capacity to explore it Because, if we take the position of one or the other somewhere in the world from here, we're just throwing petrol on the fire and pushing us ever closer to that annihilation event, whereas we're saying, hey, we might not be able to agree on something that's happening over there, but can we agree that it's important for you and I to love each other and care for each other in our community? Can we agree on that? Yes, okay, can we just put our attention on that While we're together, we may have differing opinions on things, but the thing that's not changing because opinions change all the time but the thing that's not changing is this universal, timeless responsibility that we have to care for one another, and things aren't so bad here where that can't be exercised. We might be upset that someone we know that we would consider a friend has a different opinion to us about things that are happening in the world.

Speaker 2: 10:11

I challenge you all to move past it to the extent that you can and try and have this conversation and then, once there's love, say, hey look, let's try and share our perspectives without it being I'm right, you're wrong. Can we just talk about it as content and explore it so I can understand your perspective and you might be able to understand mine? Can we do that? And once we start doing that, then we've created something new that is not existing very much anywhere. That something new is going to emerge out of it and we are becoming the embodiment of the solution. If two people with very strong opinions about things with deep conviction opposing can come together and do this, we have an example of how we get out of the mess.

Speaker 2: 11:21

What's stopping us from doing that? There's a huge amount of cultural and societal pressure for us to either be here or here, and to the extent that you feel like you want to dwell somewhere in the middle and explore the nuances of it all, then the simple answer to your question is you need to just do it. You need to just be that. If that's your sensibility, then honor that and don't be afraid that initially it might cause some upset. Sit quietly and go. It's not my intention to upset you. What I'm trying to do is create a space here for something new to emerge. Can we talk? And then we've created something, something that's very unique, that stands to be, something that is going to elevate us out of this Now will. It Seems unlikely to be completely honest with you, but we are living in accordance with our deepest sense of conscience and intelligence, and we are. We are doing it, we're doing it. We're doing it and we're not just aimlessly adding petrol to the fire.