Maintaining Our Cool When All Hell Is Breaking Loose

Enjoy this uplifting, at times comedic, and heartwarming talk on being able to access peace and wellbeing inside regardless of what is happening on the outside. Ultimately allowing us 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 second week of his 4-week program.

Transcript

This title this week is Maintaining Our Cool When All Hell Is Breaking Loose.

Welcome Jonas.

Hi.

I was looking at the Shelf of Honor where the past ministers' pictures were,

And I was surprised to see Goldie Cook Richardson,

Who was the minister from 1924 to 1940,

Because as it turns out I dated her in high school.

Just joking dear.

But blessings to all of those ministers who have served this wonderful family here.

Well,

Last week we talked about that the Lord,

The self,

Being who we are in our deepest nature.

Master Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is within.

It's not out there.

It's within.

So last night,

Last week rather,

I spoke about the value of us connecting our conscious mind with that deepest inner value of divine self.

Lots of wonderful good comes from that.

Unshakeable inner peace,

Alignment with that divine will that unfolds this magnificent creation.

Ease of living,

Right action,

Spontaneous right action.

Okay,

So we're working on that.

What do we do in the meantime?

My wife would say,

Jonas,

When I told her about the title she'd say,

Well Jonas,

You are a master of causing all hell to break loose,

So you ought to be able to speak to this.

Actually she's more qualified to speak to this.

By the way,

Sandy did say to send her love to everyone,

I stayed and I was with Sidney this weekend after having had some appointments in there,

And Sandy and Bruiser stayed home,

And Sandy texted me this morning and she said,

Please make sure to give everyone my love and Bruiser's.

And so I'm passing,

But we have a guest of,

A dog of honor here.

Where's Maddie?

She had to go.

Oh she had to go.

Yeah.

She had to go to the car.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Okay.

So anyway,

So what do we do in the meantime?

What do we do in the meantime?

You know I have,

I've told you before I have an autistic son,

Jake,

Who's just,

Jake is the manifestation of my heart outside my body.

I adore him beyond any words.

Jake unfortunately spends a lot of time reading news on the internet.

And every day he comes to,

He lives nearby,

Every day he comes to our house and he's just pretty much terrorized by the threat of nuclear war.

And nothing we can seem to have done so far.

Everybody's technique is to let him speak for a few minutes and then that's all.

Because if we simply tell him,

Jake,

You know,

You're just torturing yourself by putting your attention on that.

There's nothing you can do about it.

And it's most likely not going to happen.

So why make yourself suffer?

But if we tell him that,

He just gets upset.

So let's practice what we preach.

Yeah?

Most of our suffering,

Maybe all of our suffering is self-induced.

There is that expression you've heard,

What you put your attention on grows.

So not only,

Remember that consciousness,

Let's just go back to last week for a second,

If there's this infinite unbounded ocean of cosmic divine intelligence from which all of this creation has manifested,

Then consciousness is the stuff that creates everything.

So if,

How are we investing our consciousness?

And what is the mechanism by which we invest our consciousness?

It's the power of our attention.

Right?

The power of our attention.

So the most fundamental truth is that we are investing in whatever we put our attention on and helping to manifest that.

And if it's already manifest,

Then we're strengthening that reality with our consciousness.

So if we want to have good in life,

And all of us do,

Then a key principle is to put our attention on what we want,

Not on what we don't want.

That's why Sandy rarely puts her attention on me,

Because it's not what she,

It's what she doesn't want.

So and by the way,

Sandy said,

Tell everybody whatever self-deprecating jokes you're telling them,

It's true and more than that.

So,

Okay,

So number one,

What we put our attention on grows.

Okay?

So I think I told you this 10 years ago when I was honored to be here then,

Privileged to be here then.

I had never,

You know,

I ride my motorcycle and have been for many years,

There's a hundred and like 12,

000 miles on it.

And I had never hit a deer in any vehicle until once way back then,

Probably 12 years ago,

I was riding behind a friend of mine in October coming back from Iowa City and he hit a deer.

And all of a sudden,

All of my fear about deer came to the forefront.

And I was constantly,

Oh God,

I hope I don't hit a deer,

I hope I don't hit a deer.

In the next 18 months,

I hit three deer.

And I had never hit a deer before and I'm old and I've been driving a long time.

And so then someone,

Actually Sandy's closest friend from childhood,

She said,

She reminded me,

You know,

Put your,

Just put your attention on the roads are safe and the animals are safe.

Every,

We're safe,

The roads are clear.

And so when I would find my attention going to that fear place,

Which seems to have manifested exactly what I didn't want,

Then I would shift and I still do now.

The roads are clear,

The animals are safe and I'm safe.

And we don't want to bet the whole farm on this,

But I haven't hit a deer since.

And that,

You know,

So that was like 12 years ago.

So we could write it off as coincidence,

But it's still a good example.

So what else is there?

Think about the things that cause you distress,

Maybe the condition of the world,

You know,

Maybe the animosity among Americans now in the division and the anger,

The deep anger.

So when we put our attention on what we don't like,

Then we are encouraging that reality for ourselves and for the whole nation and for the world.

So as spiritual aspirants,

We more than the average person has the responsibility to invest our attention on creating good love,

Harmony.

Even when the world doesn't reflect that,

It's our job to put our attention on what we want.

I was reading,

I actually learned something important this week.

Several months ago,

Our climate team spoke at a Catholic justice thing.

I think it was in,

Well,

I don't remember what it was.

I think it was in Iowa City or North Liberty out that way,

St.

Thomas More or something that place.

And they gave us this booklet that a bishop had prepared that Martin Luther King wrote.

And of course,

Martin Luther King is one of my two greatest heroes.

Well,

Three.

There's Martin Luther King,

There's Gandhi,

And there's Master Jesus.

So those are my three heroes,

Three greatest heroes.

And of course,

Gandhi and Martin Luther King modeled their action after the teachings of Jesus.

Of course,

Those teachings show up in other traditions,

Right?

And I was reading this by my bedside recently,

Having made a commitment that the cell phone is off at 930,

And that's it.

So I've gone back to reading printed material.

It's amazing.

I hadn't read a book in 20 years,

And now I'm reading again.

And so I was reading this booklet that the bishop had prepared,

The Baltimore bishop.

It was prepared quite a number of years ago,

I think 2007 or something.

And in it,

Martin Luther King said that in order to change the world,

We must operate from a place of love.

We've heard that before.

We've heard that before.

That anger does not serve.

It doesn't enroll others in our point of view.

Have you ever noticed that when you're screaming at somebody how stupid they are,

That they tend not to want to hear anything else we have to say?

We get defensive.

We retreat.

We dig in.

So what he said is we must engage not with coercion,

But with love.

And that's an important lesson for me because in my climate activism,

I often get a little animated.

Oh,

We can justify that all day long,

Can't we?

We can justify getting angry all day long.

But does it serve?

That's the question.

Does it serve us?

Does it serve the world?

No,

It doesn't.

So what do we do?

Well,

We already know one way of cultivating love I talked about last week.

Because in that field of infinite self,

Everything is connected.

Everything.

And as we grow in our integration of that deepest value of who we are,

We begin to see the self in all others.

And I can't hate you if you are me.

So we cultivate that inner silence.

We put our attention on what we want,

Not what we don't want.

We assume responsibility for being a chalice of love in the world.

There's plenty of disharmony out there.

There's plenty of it.

We don't need to contribute.

And when we find ourselves agitated,

What are some of the things we can do?

I already mentioned one,

We can put our attention on what we want,

Not what we don't want.

What else can we do?

What happens when we're really agitated?

Like I make Sandy sometimes.

What do we do with that?

Well,

Besides what I need to just,

I'll come back to that in just a second.

You know the old saying,

A stitch in time saves nine.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,

Right?

So when we take our spiritual practice and do it regularly,

Then we're cultivating that inner strength,

Stability,

And love upon which to encounter all of life's challenges.

If you wait to have a heart attack before you start exercising,

It just doesn't make sense,

Right?

So that's why we engage in that spiritual practice regularly.

Okay.

So we're trying to put our attention on what's positive,

But we're agitated.

Does anybody know,

Anybody not know what it means to be agitated?

We would say if you don't know what it is to be agitated,

You've never been married.

So what else can we do?

Well,

One thing we can do,

It's just intellectual,

But we can remember that all this too will pass.

This too will pass.

And that divine will that we sang about this morning,

And that was beautiful by the way,

Thank you so much,

Angela.

That divine will that was spoken about in the beautiful meditation to prayer that was read this morning,

It's always operating.

So all we can do is give our best and let go.

And let that divine will sort out the evolution of life.

We don't have control,

Darn it.

We don't.

And when we cling to our need for the outcomes to be a particular way in life,

We cause ourselves almost invariably to suffer.

The promise of divine intelligence operating is not that we'll always get what we want.

It's that all is well and wisely put.

That's the promise.

If humanity is supposed to be around here a couple hundred years from now,

We'll be around.

And if for whatever reasons we don't qualify,

Our souls will be looking for someplace else to sit.

I speak to that with respect to climate change,

Which is something that's very,

Very,

Very important to me.

And sometimes I see it seems hopeless some days.

It seems hopeless with people in power even rejecting that this scientifically established reality even is true.

So I feel hopeless some days.

And then I do a couple things.

I just put my attention back on the job that needs to be done,

Giving my best,

And recognizing that the outcome is beyond my control.

And suffering about something that hasn't happened yet and may not happen,

What good does that do?

How does that serve?

When you're unhappy and depressed and fearful,

Do you give your best to others?

Probably not.

Neither do I.

I don't think any of us does or do whatever the right syntax is there.

OK.

So recognizing that divine intelligence is operating in the world and that we're just doing our little part the best we can.

And by the way,

So is everyone else.

Everyone else is just doing her or his best.

So one more thing we can do.

And I've talked about this in the past.

Whenever the mind is agitated,

Because of the mind-body connection,

There is a corresponding physical agitation.

Oftentimes we might experience that in our solar plexus,

Sometimes our chest,

Our stomach,

Maybe our lower area.

But we'll feel tension.

So if we're so agitated,

We can't put our attention on what we want,

We can't recognize that divine will is operating,

Then we can put our attention on the body.

And it shouldn't take long for us,

Our awareness,

To be drawn to that place that's physically contracted.

And by gently,

And this is a key word,

By gently putting our attention on that physical contraction,

It will be,

Two things happen.

One is we allow,

We help it through the power of our attention to unwind,

To relax,

To ease up.

The second important thing is that we save our psychology from the horrible story that's running through our head.

So if the thoughts are so powerful that we can't break away from them,

Can't put our attention on something better,

Then we can turn our attention to the body.

And yet one other technique that I use is there's a,

And you can pick your own prayer or whatever it is,

But something that soothes you,

Like there's a famous healing mantra that I sometimes use,

Maybe I'll recite it for you a little later at the end of our meditation.

And just by these beautiful sounds,

They don't even mean anything,

I don't even know the significance of their translation,

But they're just very soothing.

And so I'll just gently do that.

And by the way,

When you're putting your attention on your body,

The mind will jump back into the story.

All of a sudden we're all there again and winding it around,

And I hate that person and that person's doing this.

And then,

Oh,

And then what we do,

When we realize that,

We go,

Oh,

I'll just gently bring my attention back to the physical sensation.

We don't fight with ourselves,

We don't get upset with ourselves because we're back onto the story.

All of this is just happening,

It's just energy,

We don't take it too seriously.

So we are,

You know there was a movie,

Wasn't it,

Masters of the Universe,

Was that it?

Was there a movie?

Did I just make that up?

I'll write the script tomorrow if I did.

No,

So we are the masters of our life and well-being.

We are the masters.

Nobody else is,

Nobody else is in control of our happiness.

Nobody else is in control of our peace.

Nobody.

So here's the million dollar question.

Given that this inner peace makes us most effective in operating in the world,

It is also the basis of happiness,

I would like to ask you this question.

Name that which is worth giving up our peace for.

Be bold.

You are absolutely right.

Nothing,

Nothing is worth giving up our peace for and we are the masters of our life and it is our duty to cultivate and maintain as best we can that state of equanimity and love so that we can be a force for good in the world.

That doesn't mean we ignore injustices,

Doesn't mean we don't go to rallies,

Doesn't mean we don't wear our climate t-shirt,

I'm not wearing it today.

It simply means that we,

As Martin Luther King suggested,

That we operate from that state of peace and love and recognizing that in our fellow human beings,

Each of us is doing the best we can and the best way to influence one another is through love and patience.

So why don't we close our eyes,

Please.

Take a deep breath,

Please,

Inhale and sigh.

One more time.

We're going to do a practice,

I think we may have done this a long,

Long time ago,

It's called Tong Lin,

It's a Buddhist practice.

So close the eyes and be aware of the challenges that we have that cause us distress,

The injustices of the world,

The fear,

The anger.

Just be aware of all of that energy that we sometimes experience ourselves.

And by the way,

This is another practice we can do.

So what this practice involves is as we inhale,

We're going to breathe in all of that suffering that humanity is experiencing.

And as we exhale,

We release it in love.

So we breathe in,

Not just way bigger than us,

We breathe in the collective distress of the world,

The people,

All the people that are afraid and angry and confused.

We breathe in their distress as we inhale and we exhale love.

We inhale the anger,

We exhale love.

We inhale the fear and we exhale love.

And notice as we do this that our own distress is quelled and our own internal peace increases.

Just continue with this practice of breathing in that which surrounds us,

That agitation and stress and exhaling love and filling the world with your love,

Every heart.

And notice as we do this that our own distress is quelled and our own internal peace increases.

So we breathe in the anger,

We exhale love.

And now just remain with the eyes closed and I'll share this healing mantra with you.

Om,

Trayambha gam yajamahe,

Sugandhim pushtivadanam,

Uvarukham eva bandhanat,

Mrityormukshi mamratatah.

Om,

Trayambha gam yajamahe,

Sugandhim pushtivadanam,

Uvarukham eva bandhanat,

Mrityormukshi mamratatah.

Om,

Trayambha gam yajamahe,

Sugandhim pushtivadanam,

Uvarukham eva bandhanat,

Mrityormukshi mamratatah.

Om,

Trayambha gam yajamahe,

Sugandhim pushtivadanam,

Uvarukham eva bandhanat,

Mrityormukshi mamratatah.

Om shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.

When you're ready just slowly open the eyes.

Reviews

Wonderful talk, compassionate & joyful. Namaste 🙏
Your peace rubs off on others.

Wonderful talk! I really enjoyed the meditation and chant at the end as well🙏🏼

Wow, This meditation and mantra was great. I love your course and inner peace already

Thank you for bringing some joy to my sleepless night, and helping us spread more love around this earth. 🙏🏼 namaste🙏🏼

Wonderful! I especially enjoyed the meditation and mantra at the end. With great love and gratitude! 💖💖💖

Deeply insightful with a beautiful, calming meditation. Thank you.

Namaste

Yes!!! May all be released from bondage, as the melon from the vine.

Thank you for the healing mantra reminder. I send these vibes to my mother and all suffering in the world. Om Shanti🙏🏽