Do Try This At Home

Enjoy this uplifting, at times comedic, and heartwarming talk on practices that we can do at home(or anywhere!) to live the most joyful, free, creative, harmonious lives possible! Recorded at the Unity Center of Cedar Rapids, IA in August of 2019 as the fourth week of his 4-week program.

Transcript

Hi.

The fourth Sunday,

We've made it.

I've made it.

I've made it.

And I was really sweating this last Sunday,

This today.

I came up with a title,

I like the title,

Is,

Do we have it?

Yes.

Do try this at home.

And then my mind just went blank and I couldn't think of a thing that I would recommend.

So to kill time,

I'll just tell you a little story here with Sandy going out right when I was speaking.

Sandy posts these very inspiring things on Facebook and some beautiful,

Beautiful photos that really,

And by the way,

That choir was magnificent.

Thank you.

That was just wonderful.

Just wonderful.

Thank you.

I was going to tell my joke about only a fool would follow an act like that,

But I've told this so many times.

Anyway,

Sandy posted this very beautiful thing,

As I said,

And it was a wisdom quote and it said,

No matter how long you've been walking in the wrong direction,

You can always change.

And I immediately thought,

Uh-oh.

But that wasn't what she was talking about,

Fortunately.

Anyway,

So there were a few questions.

Remember I asked at the end of the first Sunday,

Are there some things you'd like me to talk about?

And there were,

I'm going to,

In addition to covering this topic,

I'm going to just touch on a couple of those things.

And one of them was,

How did the world get to be the way it is?

A pretty profound question.

I haven't been here the whole time,

So I'm not exactly qualified.

But according to Vedic wisdom,

And as all of you know,

I refer to that quite a bit,

There are these four periods,

They're called yugas,

Long periods of creation.

And they vary both in their length and in their quality.

So the first yuga is Sat Yuga,

And it's the yuga of supreme virtue.

And then the second,

And at that time,

It's a hundred,

No,

It's 75% or 100% in Sat Yuga.

In Sat Yuga,

It's 100% virtuous,

No sin.

And then in the next yuga,

Trita Yuga,

It becomes 75% virtue and 25% sin.

And then the next one is called Dvarpa Yuga,

And it is 50-50,

50% virtue and 50% sin.

And then the last one is Kali Yuga.

You've heard Kali,

The goddess of destruction.

You've heard of her.

So this last yuga,

Which we happen to be in,

Is called Kali Yuga.

And in the Kali Yuga,

It's 75% sin and 25% virtue.

So there's some good news and some bad news.

The good news is we've already been in this period of creation called Kali Yuga for 5000 years.

The bad news is that we have another 427,

000 years to go.

So with respect to the quality of Kali Yuga,

25% virtue,

75% sin,

Sandy says that I am doing my part.

And that's because Sandy sees good.

If Sandy wasn't,

And this is a virtue we're going to practice at home,

The virtue of finding good in whatever is.

You know,

We actually,

Maybe earlier this year or last year,

I gave a talk,

Or maybe a few years,

Who knows,

Time flies when you're in Kali Yuga.

But anyway,

I gave a talk about,

You know,

The Bible says something about,

In all things,

Be grateful.

Remember that?

We talked about even destructive things that happen in our lives and sad things.

And it doesn't mean that we're grateful for that bad thing,

But it means to find something in that to be grateful for.

And I believe I did not tell this story to the entire congregation last week,

But I do believe I talked to someone about it after the service.

But if I told you the story before,

Just say,

Jonas,

You told us that already.

Oh,

By the way,

We have to interrupt today's lesson for public service announcement.

My beloved who locked the key in the car.

So I need to know if there are any car thieves here that could help us break into the car afterwards.

I don't see any hands.

Okay.

I wouldn't really expect that in this audience.

So what was I talking?

Oh,

Yes,

The story.

So there's a story.

And this is the first thing we're going to talk about to practice at home.

Finding good,

Finding good.

Remember last week or the week before?

Who knows?

I said that all of this creation comes from consciousness,

Divine consciousness.

So everything that's created,

Everything that is created comes from this essence of creation,

Consciousness.

So we have consciousness and we create by the means of focusing our awareness.

That's how we focus our consciousness.

And that is what we nurture.

That is what we create in our lives.

What we and the simple lesson is what we put our attention on grows.

So it's very important if we and by the way,

The whole purpose of this.

And as a matter of fact,

The whole purpose of everything I try to share is to create more love,

More peace in our lives so that we can be instruments of those virtues,

Virtuous qualities so that we can be a force for good in the world,

Even in this darker time of creation.

So by putting our attention on good,

We are.

What is that?

What happens to our hearts when we put our attention on something that is good?

It softens.

Wonderful,

Tom.

It softens our hearts.

And with a softer heart,

We are more capable of loving,

Right?

So here's the story.

There was a saint in India known to find good in everything.

And these mischievous boys decided to play a trick on him,

And they invited him to dinner and specifically took him down an alley where they knew there had been a dead dog laying there for weeks.

I won't go into detail,

But you can imagine.

And they take him down this alley,

And when they near the dog,

They go to him.

They say to him,

Oh,

Look,

Look at that disgusting,

Rotting dog.

And the saint looks at the dog and he says,

Yes,

But what beautiful white teeth he has.

The value of this habit certainly benefits others,

But it benefits us most.

Finding the good in what is.

Which leads us to the second suggestion of do this at home.

Turn off the news.

Why would we choose to constantly poison our hearts with the most horrific reporting that we can do nothing about?

We can do absolutely nothing about a lot of it already happened.

Somebody did something to someone or to more than one person.

It's tragic.

But what good does it do for us to watch that story over and over and over again?

We talked last week about we're not victims,

And when someone has done something and we repeat that story to ourselves over and over and over and over,

We are creating that suffering for ourselves.

We are making that conscious choice to inflict suffering on ourselves.

Now it's true,

Or at least I've heard it said that it's true that we take on this human body in part to enjoy the range of emotions that this nervous system is capable of enjoying.

You know,

Some drama,

Some tears,

Some joy.

Although joy,

We hope,

Will be the predominant experience in our lives.

And that's why we go to see Shakespearean tragedies.

That's why they're still being performed 400 years after Shakespeare wrote them.

But there's a difference between going to a Shakespeare tragedy once a month and watching the news for 10 hours a day.

Technology has warped what is available to us.

And let's face it,

Remember that Robert Palmer song,

You might as well face it,

You're Addicted to Love?

You know,

Some of my favorite music videos,

As a matter of fact,

He did.

But we might as well face it,

We're addicted to drama.

And drama does not nurture the heart.

It does not nurture love.

It does not nurture peace.

Those experiences,

Those qualities,

Those states of being that we want most,

And that we were put on this earth to experience,

To realize.

Watching all this news just is the antithesis of that.

If you,

And this actually applies to something we call satsang,

Which means seek being in the company of spiritual beings.

And that's why you come together every Sunday to nurture one another and to uplift one another and to help one another refocus on the good and love and on peace and on the qualities that all of us want to enjoy in our lives.

So you are engaged in satsang today and every Sunday.

But be careful because there are other people in your lives that are toxic.

And that if you allow them,

They will poison your consciousness and your heart.

And I know this becomes very delicate if they're a member of your family,

Your mother,

For instance,

Your dad or.

But we have to be judicious because if on the one hand we want to give someone our attention,

We want to make them feel loved and validated.

On the other hand,

If we consistently,

If we repeatedly or continuously open ourselves to this negative,

Fearful,

Angry energy,

Then we are taking that in.

I mentioned last week that we have an autistic son and who's very fearful about the news.

And there's nothing I can do.

We've talked to him about the same thing I've said to you today.

Ad infinitum,

Ad nauseum or whatever the word is.

And I don't really enjoy Jake coming into our house and dumping all of his anger and fear that he is creating because he puts his attention on all this negativity.

On the other hand,

He has an affliction.

And maybe we could say the same as all of us.

We have an affliction.

So we be loving,

We be patient,

And we can be,

Instead of making someone wrong,

Maybe we should try this more at home,

Instead of making Jake wrong for watching the news all the time because there's nothing we can do about what he's doing at home.

He lives in his own place.

But perhaps after,

You know,

We give him a minute or whatever to tell us his story,

Then we can gently steer the conversation to something that's more uplifting.

So we can do that with our loved ones too.

We can gently steer the conversation and this is something else we can practice at home.

Well,

You have homework if you choose,

Barb,

If you choose,

You have homework.

I am so humbled that you allow me to come and speak to you.

And in 70 years of living,

I tried to ask myself,

What could I possibly offer to this beautiful family here at U.

C.

Cedar,

At Unity of Cedar Rapids that would make a difference?

You know,

You don't need me to laugh.

You can turn on the comedy channel and get a lot more laughs than my jokes that bomb provide.

So what you come for in addition to the community,

We don't want to just come be uplifted and then the rest of the week goes,

And then we come back here for another hit and then drop our opportunity to cultivate love is in every moment of our lives,

Not just on Sunday.

You know that we know that.

So choosing what we put our attention on and cultivating love,

Asking ourselves,

Is this experience nurturing my life,

Nurturing my capacity to be at peace,

To be in love,

To be a vehicle for good in the world?

Or is it contracting my heart and causing me grief and anger?

What else can we do at home?

There is a technique that is called the centering technique.

It's something you can do in 30 seconds.

And I'm going to ask Sandy to stand up and she'll demonstrate as I describe it.

But the bottom line is whenever you feel out of kilter,

You can do this very simple centering technique and you'll find things settle down for you.

Instead of having to find a place to meditate or close your eyes,

It's not always practical to do that.

But you can do the centering technique.

It takes so little time.

So the first thing we do is we can start in this mudra.

And if you'd like you can stand up because it's easier to do this technique when you're standing.

Sandy,

Stand up please up on there so they can see you.

Thank you.

And as Sandy inhales,

One hand will come down.

The other hand will go straight up.

Selena you go over this way please and do this.

Now we have the two Magram girls.

And this hand is as straight up and down as possible as your wrist will do.

So you do that on the inhale.

And then on the exhale you slowly exhale and bring the hands together over the heart.

And then as you inhale again you switch hands.

The other hand goes down.

And again as low as you can go and keep it the bottom hand as vertical as possible.

And then as you exhale you slowly bring the hands together over the heart.

Okay.

It doesn't matter which hand you do first,

Does it?

So go ahead now we'll do it together.

Breathe in.

And slowly exhale.

Bring the hands together over the heart.

And it's good to do this through the nose.

So inhale,

Switch hands.

Slowly exhale.

Switch hands,

Inhale.

And exhale.

One more set.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Thank you ladies.

Josh is with the children,

With our child guest today.

So I want to of course extend,

Mary if you're watching,

Happy birthday.

Anyone else's birthday today?

Or this weekend?

Or this week?

Alright,

It is also Sandy's birthday today.

So I have a wish for,

That I'd like to give.

And I'm going to give it to my beautiful wife.

But I'm also going to give it to everyone here.

The same wish.

And here it is.

I wish for you that this day,

And this coming year,

Are the very best that you've ever had in this or any past lifetime,

In every way imaginable.

With overflowing love and joy,

And unshakable peace of heart,

Harmony in all of your relationships,

Forbearance,

Prosperity,

Abundance,

Unimaginable abundance,

And perfect health,

Perfect health.

And every other good imaginable.

And may each one of the many,

Many,

Many,

Many years left in this lifetime be better than the year before it in every way.

Happy birthday to you all.

So I'm going to just quickly look at my,

I actually made a list.

I said to the girls,

I said,

What in the heck am I going to talk about today?

So here are just a couple things.

We've learned that taking silence,

I talk about meditation all the time,

Right?

So find some technique of going inside and settling deeply that you enjoy.

And do it every day,

At least for a few minutes every day.

Taking that time to settle down to that infinite source of peace and joy and intelligence.

Sat chit ananda.

Sat chit ananda is joy.

Peace and joy.

So take time to do that.

If I,

Again,

If I had one thing,

Oh we have some other birthdays up there.

Karen,

Karen Knight was yesterday.

Richard McDowell is the 29th.

And Kevin,

Where are you Kevin?

Is that a different Kevin?

Different Kevin.

Well happy birthday to you anyway Kevin.

And Kevin Streeve,

Happy birthday to you all.

Be aware of your breath throughout your day.

When you're dealing with something that's contracting your energy,

What happens to your breath?

Just gets very shallow.

So your body is suffocating when we're in that fight,

That cortisol starts pumping through our veins when we're upset.

That fight or flight hormone.

So what we can do when we're dealing with stressful things is remember to breathe deeply.

Just one deep breath can make a huge difference.

Just one deep breath.

Let's try it right now.

Very deep breath.

And a nice sigh.

A nice sigh.

And one of the things you can do to breathe deeply is as you fill your abdomen,

Expand your stomach out.

I have a lot to work with here but.

Okay,

Good.

So breathe deeply.

Be aware of the breath throughout the day.

You want to hear another simple one?

This has to do as Selena,

Yes you in the back.

All right,

Breathe it in through the nose.

I like to suggest we exhale through the mouth.

We can sigh and let it.

Remember we did that tong-ling practice last week where we inhaled the world's stress and exhaled love.

Okay,

All right,

Very good.

Breathe in through the nose.

That's what Tom said.

Because science says that it's good for us.

It increases?

Oh,

Laughing gas.

Very good.

Very good.

I,

You know what?

I'm going to try that next time.

Before I start telling my jokes,

I'm going to spray laughing gas in the room and you'll have to laugh at them.

Okay,

All right.

So the last thing,

Well there were several other things on the list.

And the purpose of this breathing,

Of course,

There is an intimate relationship between mind and body,

Right?

And so how we treat this vessel of consciousness that we call the body,

Which is also made of consciousness,

Has a lot to do with how we feel and the quality of our mental state.

So as I said last week,

Take some time to be in nature.

That's something you can do at home.

Can we put the title back up?

That's something you can do at home.

Be in nature.

Take walks in nature without your cell phone though.

Don't be walking around in paradise staring at your cell phone.

Not only are you missing out on the beauty,

But you're likely to run into a tree or something.

So we don't want that to happen.

You know,

Say,

Well Jonah said to go walking in nature.

All right.

And finally,

Ah,

The first thing that I thought of only one thing before we got started on this list,

And I haven't mentioned it yet,

Begin and end each day with gratitude.

With thank you.

Yes.

And it'd be nice to have a little journal by your bed stand,

By your bedside,

And you could just write down a couple things that you're grateful for that day.

And when we wake in the morning to put our attention immediately on what we are grateful for.

I'm grateful that I woke up,

Truly grateful that I alive for another day,

Another,

You know,

That there's that great song by the,

It was Sly and the Family Stone,

If you remember them,

Way back when.

They actually were,

I grew up in Oakland,

As you know,

And they were,

Sly Stone was a disc jockey on K Soul Radio in Oakland,

And he came to my high school to perform,

When,

Which shows you how old I am.

But anyway,

So,

And they said,

Da da da da da da da da,

You know,

Thank you for another day of living.

Thank you for another day.

How did it go?

Thank you for loving me,

Be myself.

Yes,

Very good,

Very good,

Very good,

Very good.

Thank you.

And by the way,

You know,

I,

In theory,

I'm not going to be back for a while since you've had enough of me,

But I would like to give a special shout out to Nina for what she brings,

And to Tom for the joy that they bring to our community here,

To our family.

So thank you,

Nina,

We're so fortunate to have you.

Okay,

Let's close our eyes,

Please.

Nina's going to play the piano,

Make a little piano sound.

So just breathe through the nose as.

.

.

And something that you're grateful for today.

Gratitude for this beautiful family that comes each Sunday to support your growth as a spiritual being.

Reviews

Thank you for your wish to all of us.
And May you find peace in the world that you help to make so positive. I love your meditations. 🙏🏼namaste 🙏🏼

This is wonderful. I will listen to it often.

Thank you.