Speaker 1: 0:50

we want to talk about the deeper purpose. We keep bringing it up that you've got to connect to the deeper purpose of why you're doing these practices, to make them sustainable. So, beyond self-improvement, we want to talk about the ripple effects that this integrated approach we have at Ritam Studio, how it affects everything.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Everything and everyone around you. Well, I get the reframe here is that when we talk about self-improvement, it's kind of like a hedonistic pursuit for the alleviation of suffering and discomfort and the increase of comfort for ourself, without any real context for your role and responsibility as a participant in the human race, and although that sounds like a very big and grand thing and like, oh, so what about it? Also, what can I do about it?

Speaker 1: 1:58

Like all, the things that are happening in the world, like how am I going to change? That is what most people think.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Yeah, and irrespective of whether we change it or not, what's happening in the world. The reframe is a very interesting thing to reflect on and to experiment, integrating because one it yields a remarkable result in not only increasing your capacity to sustain your practice but have a profound effect on your immediate reality, your immediate relationships and your environment, and to yield something very deeply fulfilling, which is a sense of significance and importance.

Speaker 1: 2:43

So your relationships will become more authentic and less reactive.

Speaker 2: 2:49

And the spillover effect of that is that you become a source of reliability as somebody that we can go to anchor on to create some stability. So when you are the person that people can come to to be seen, to be heard, without being judged, this is an incredibly valuable thing for people in our immediate community and environment where we're living, whether it be our family, social settings or workplace. In order to be able to do that, we need to have a foundation of inner coherence. We need to be with ourself and be at peace with what's going on and, at the very least, have the capacity to ride the waves of our own processing and still have enough in the tank to give a quality of attention to others.

Speaker 1: 3:50

And this is what doing our practices helps sustain, to ride that internal wave and you used a great word there, johnny, it was your own inner coherence, and when you have that, you can be a source of coherence for other relationships.

Speaker 2: 4:11

Yeah. For other relationships, yeah. And when we're being that for others, I would argue that there's nothing more fulfilling than being a source of insight, of clarity, of support of encouragement, because this is actually the stuff of life.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Relationships are probably the most important thing to us. I suspect that if you're interested in this podcast, then relationships are going to be the most important thing to you, and even though you may be struggling with your relationships, they're the biggest pain point in your life because you desire to have resolved, coherent relationships, and in order to have this in your life, it requires that you are resolved and coherent within yourself. And so what we're doing here is talking about the deeper why of why we practice. It's not just about personal development and feeling good within ourselves. It's about being able to export that coherence, export that fulfillment, that joy and that enthusiasm for life and make it infectious.

Speaker 1: 5:22

And that doesn't mean to what you were saying before, johnny that you have to become therapist for everyone else's problems. It's your presence alone itself becomes a source of stability for those around you.

Speaker 2: 5:36

And when we're able to be a source of this coherence and create environments, actually establish an atmosphere of connection, attentiveness, compassion, kindness, patience, care, then it just has a spillover effect that anybody that comes into the sphere is immediately influenced and we as humans need to recognize the power that we have to cause change and in terms of the way change needs to be affected, this is it.

Speaker 2: 6:15

It is affecting the atmosphere by the quality of our consciousness, by the quality of the resolve within us. We have reconciled our existence with a deep sense of love and have awoken to the immense importance and significance of our being, our existence, and realized the power in our presence and that, in a state of kindness, loving, compassionate attention, I can influence the environment as such to cause somebody that feels very anxious, very disconnected, very defensive, very defensive, to actually melt into themselves and open up and establish a very rich, beautiful relationship. Dynamic and all of the world's problems are generated out of disconnect, stress, fear, terror and the instinct for survival in the face of scarcity. And if we can broadcast an abundance of attention and patience and willingness to be present with our time and our care, this is what lubricates the atmosphere to become conducive to a deep human connection.

Speaker 1: 7:44

Now there are a lot of sadhus, right, johnny, who are sitting up deep in the Himalayas doing just this. Yes, however, I'd argue that playing that role in real time, like in real life relationships and situations like they're having a great impact Maybe you could explain to people how they're impacting the environment as well and then how it in real time is. The integration of that is really important, because most of us aren't doing that. We're not sitting up in the Himalayas, we're in real-life situations every day where we have an opportunity in every moment, at home, at work, to elevate.

Speaker 2: 8:33

Yeah, to bring into contact with others our state of consciousness, and in the Vedic worldview this is referred to as dharma. Dharma is the way in which we bring ourselves in contact with the world, to experience the truth of our being as an embodied state in relationship. So two people in dharma connecting is an extraordinary thing, and what we want in this world is for dharma to reign. We want dharma to be the dominant force, and dharma is two or more humans interacting from the deep knowingness of the sacredness of life, the significance of their existence and the honoring of each other. The behavior, the actions and what is created is done. So with that at the foundation. Imagine a world like that.

Speaker 2: 9:32

So what you were referring to, carlo, is these very particular individuals that feel no desire to be in the world, on the quest for expanding themselves into the totality of the universe and dissolving their individuality so they can be free. And you were making reference to how they are doing something quite extraordinary for the collective. They're human beings imprinting into our collective consciousness experience a pathway for expansion. But you also made reference to the immense value of being in the world, integrating and putting our expansive, our ever-increasing expansiveness, into action in our relationships to cause an effect in a very immediate and pragmatic way in the atmosphere.

Speaker 2: 10:25

Right, yeah, and I would argue that it's a far more sophisticated and advanced path to be a householder in the world, doing all of this work while in relationships, while having jobs, while having challenges and demands every single day, because it causes you to integrate it in a more complex model. It becomes more robust, more resilient, more dynamic, more creative and less susceptible to being shaken and broken, whereas, you know, for somebody that lives up in the Himalayas for a long time, comes out into the world, it's an onslaught on their senses and they just do a quick U-turn straight back up the mountain. They don't want a bar of it because it's utterly overwhelming. And so we render ourselves to be very useful to the collective experience in a very immediate and pragmatic way when we reframe why we're doing what we're doing in the name of advancing the human experience.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Being of service.

Speaker 2: 11:29

Yep. And the question is how can we maximize the way in which we bring our individuality into the world to be of the greatest impact? And the answer always lies in the quality of your consciousness, your relationship with yourself, and how you export that relationship with yourself into relationships with others.