Almost Awakened

Today Bill dissects a 10 minute audio clip of Alan Watts. The video can be watched HERE and it is recommended you watch the video first before listening to the commentary. The truths being shared here are crucial to the awakened life. Learning to quiet your mind chatter. Learning to see the constructs of your life as something other than reality. Learning to be present rather than lost in past and future. And lastly learning that EGO isn’t really an eternal part of you. youtube.com/watch?v=dYSQ1NF1hvw (Alan Watts on the Illusion of Time, Money, & Ego

Today Bill dives into tribalism. Why do we humans choose to be in tribes? What are the benefits and drawbacks of tribalism? What makes us humans unique and what facets of tribalism have we humans taken advantage of and at what expense? Where did tribalism come from? Can we cling to the benefits while minimizing and eliminating the drawbacks? All this and more is the jumping off point for today’s conversation, a conversation meant to simply get us started. RESOURCES:https://kevindelaplante.com/the-dangers-of-tribalism/https://sensitiveevolution.com/the-limits-of-tribalism/https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/The-Good-and-Bad-of-Tribalismhttps://www.theatlantic.com/membership/archive/2018/10/trouble-tribalism/573307/https://medium.com/@zaiderrr/why-toxic-tribalism-is-destroying-our-society-what-to-do-about-it-e05c3391d143

Today I sit down with a friend who spent roughly a year in prison. What is prison life like? How does an Almost Awakened person perceive and negotiate their time and thoughts and behavior and what observations are made about the system and people around them?RESOURCES:https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/sara-bennett-looking-inside-women-prison-incarceration https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/07/12/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-prisoner

Today on the Almost Awakened Podcast we talk about how we judge ourselves and judge others and our behaviors as good or bad. But there is a challenge to step back and to see others in their humanity. To comprehend the trauma that is handed down to each one of us and to sit with what that says about us humans collectively and individually. To recognize the kinds of behaviors we humans show up with and to see that no matter how healthy and responsible or how harmful and traumatic we show up is in fact human. That we are each pieces of shit (And we mean that in the nicest way) That we each have had Hundreds of thousands of years of trauma imposed on us and generations of trauma handed to us. And this should move us from judgement of good and bad to acceptance of things as they are an effort to even see the worst of behaviors among us as HUMAN. Rather than to love yourself, what if we could simply accept ourselves and accept others?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Je_vOpolGc Ram Dass Loving Yourselfhttps://www.netflix.com/title/81078802 – Sam Jay – Netflixhttps://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190326-what-is-epigenetics – Trauma in our DNA 1https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/122740-dna-can-carry-memories-of-traumatic-stress-down-the-generations – Trauma in our DNA 2https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/trauma-inherited-generations/573055/ – Trauma in our DNA 3

Today Bill talks about 4 observations about human behavior1.) That we need to be protectors of others Stories rather than one who hijacks the narratives of others. 2.) That we need to work on being present and not getting lost in the mind chatter that can overwhelm us and prevent us from showing up for others.3.) That we need to learn that when in an argument we move from tangent to tangent such is likely a deflection mechanism that want to shift accountability.4.) Understanding Sunken Cost vs Investment and pursuing the relationships where it feels like you are investing.RESOURCES:https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/books/review/who-gets-to-tell-other-peoples-stories.htmlhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/02/28/8-science-based-tricks-for-quieting-the-monkey-mind/#4b8f22211af6https://tealswan.com/resources/articles/deflection-the-coping-mechanism-from-hell-r234/https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/why-do-we-stay-in-unhappy-relationships-sunk-cost-fallacy/

Today we talk about the move from fitting in to showing up as your authentic self. We often show up in the world the way the world needs us to which has us withholding important parts of ourselves that feel unacceptable. We pretend to be things we are not. And yet as the awakening process occurs we feel pulled to show up as our authentic selves. Today we talk about the pain that such causes and how there is an inherent tension and hurt when authenticity shows up.

Today I examine the issue of abortion. Not to decide the right or wrong of the issue but as a way to see into how we can think critically about a conversation where we are passionate and often not thinking as rationally. Abortion is a topic that often has us arguing from emotional passion and which runs so close to our sacred beliefs that we often struggle to think rationally and logically about the issue. Today I go over the pros and cons of pro-life and pro-choice and try to help us see how a person navigates such a debate logically and with an effort to value the evidence and data.RESOURCES:https://abortion.procon.org/https://unplannedpregnancy.com/abortion/making-your-abortion-decision/pros-and-cons-of-abortion/https://va.org/stance-on-abortion-pro-life-or-pro-choice/https://www.kialo.com/pro-life-vs-pro-choice-should-abortion-be-legal-5637https://helpwithadoption.com/steps-to-adoption/pregnant-and-considering-adoption/unplanned-pregnancy-options-abortion-pros-cons/https://adoption.org/pros-cons-adoption-vs-abortionhttps://www.womenshealthmatters.ca/health-centres/sexual-health/abortion/https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/pdf/Richie%20Abortion%20.pdf

In this episode we piggy back on last weeks episode on myth and help the Almost Awakened listener deconstruct one of our judeo/ christian myths… namely the Adam & Eve story around the Fall. We talk about what Adam and Eve could represent and more importantly what the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil could imply and point us to. RESOURCES:https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/stoned-ape-returnhttps://newatlas.com/mdma-ptsd-successful-trial-results/57074/https://freedomandfulfilment.com/psychedelics-garden-eden/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j0_glRnJxIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOfFixoxP8

Today we dip our toes into MYTH and how pervasive it is in our cultural and social structures. Any time we label or tell a story about the way things are and what they mean we are likely in the sphere of myth. Money, relationships, nationality and patriotism, family history, who people are…. all myth. Some myths are just inside our head and others are collectively agreed upon by entire societies. Myths are one of the crucial ways we make meaning. But once we enter the “Almost Awakened” space and see myths for what they are, we will feel the call to be present and simply enjoy this moment as it is with less need to tell a story about it.RESOURCES:https://faculty.gcsu.edu/custom-website/mary-magoulick/defmyth.htmhttps://folkstory.com/articles/calgary.htmlhttps://medium.com/@ChrisHerd/why-everything-you-know-is-a-myth-how-understanding-this-fact-lets-you-change-the-world-1fcf401b70d3https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/https://www.rocketmill.co.uk/video-everything-believe-myth

Today we dive into how to handle conflict differently. The conversation centers around what is needed to help people get out of lizard brain and to help another to feel heard creating the space needed to keep a conflict from devolving. The conversation helps us understand how fear affected us hundreds of thousands of years ago and how we evolved to create new mechanisms of fear when we created language, gossip, and myth. The conversation helps us see that if we really want a different result that we need to enter the conflict doing it differently.Resources:The Imago Method to handle conflictGetting the Love You Want: A Guide for CouplesImago Relationship TherapyEvolutionary psychology explains how humans evolved to become gossipsInside the science of bitchiness and how it helped humans thriveOn the Origin of Shame