Ritam Studio Podcast

The Beautiful Mess of Being Genuinely You

Jonni Pollard Season 1 Episode 12

Authenticity and enlightenment represent different points on the spiritual journey, with authenticity being the courageous expression of one's true nature while enlightenment transcends strategy altogether.

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Speaker 1:

I just wanted to know your perspective on like what is authenticity and what is enlightenment, and what is this uniqueness that we come with, all of us differently?

Speaker 2:

what is the correlation between those three things? What is the correlation between those?

Speaker 1:

three things. Yeah, so like if we really see authenticity, like someone is authentic to their uniqueness, they might not be enlightened. So just one perspective.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a great question. So did you all get that Great? I mean, the word authentic is a relative term, it's an English word, it's an arbitrary sound assigned to a phenomenon that we all can agree to some extent. That it is about yes, thank you is about being expressive of one's truest nature, but truth also is a relative thing in this world. There's no absolute truth in the relative.

Speaker 2:

When we're talking about a personality, there is, however, some characteristics and qualities that I think we can all objectifiably agree that make somebody what we would refer authentic willing to expose vulnerability to in the name of freeing themselves, be willing to potentially be judged for what others feel ashamed about within themselves, and to be courageous in sharing all of themselves in all circumstances, irrespective of how someone might view them. There is a great power in that. Now, someone might be doing that and still be quite, you know, flawed in their personality, but be willing to take responsibility for it whenever they can, and be constantly in a process of trying to better themselves, to become more of what it is that they know themselves to be, but are afflicted with a condition of involuntary behavior. That's the sum total of the effect of their childhood and all of that and they're just trying to work through it. I know some people that the stuff that they say and how they behave and they speak their minds, and sometimes it's very inappropriate, but there's just something so beautiful about them. They're loud, they can be arrogant, they can be dismissive, they can be judgmental, but they're themselves and they're unapologetic about it.

Speaker 2:

I find myself quite attracted to these kinds of people because they're just like you know what you get and then if you, you know if there's a moment where they've overstepped the line and you call them out on something they're, they're generally quite you know, they take it and particularly if you know you yourself are being authentic, because they generally just have a a low level tolerance for bullshit. These kinds of people. So you know, if you're not feeding that into the dynamic between them, then you know they're likely to take it and grow from it. But we wouldn't classify these individuals as being enlightened as such. But there's something very attractive about that People that just speak their mind and fumble through discovering the most appropriate way, the most artful way of doing that, because sometimes we can speak the truth, but it it can be very grisly and very painful to some people around us and it's important to develop and cultivate that sensitivity, you know, yeah, so enlightenment is the realization of one's true nature, in an unconflicted state where there is an easefulness and an effortlessness in simply allowing the intelligence that funnels through us to be innocently expressed, without strategy.

Speaker 2:

You know, what naturally and spontaneously emerges is life-nurturing, life-supporting, deeply wise, sensitive and aware and meeting the need of the moment in a very complex way for not just one person but a great many simultaneously, and a total embodiment of both their divine nature and the fullness of their humanity, the perfect emergence of all the qualities of being a human, you know, with a divine nature. You know, with no interest in trying to project any kind of illusion, nor to control anyone's perception of how they're seen, they're not concerned with that. They're not concerned with that. Any concern is just to ensure the sensitivity of the feelings of everybody around, but is also not afraid to challenge. And you know, challenge you. So that's a kind of very, you know, challenge you. So that's a kind of very nuts and bolts-y, digestible way of understanding the quality of an enlightened mind.