292. Our nature is freedom

This week’s episode begins in a conversation around the idea of pleasure. What the group notices is that the experience of pleasure can be purely joyful, but that when we become attached to good feelings, we (ironically) suffer. Another thing the inquiry group notices is this idea that pleasure is somehow wrong. This leads to a deepening of the contemplation and a popcorn-style inquiry on the deeply-ingrained beliefs we have about the polarities of right and wrong, good and bad, and acceptable and unacceptable. Enjoy this conversation that leaves everything out in the open, or as Tom might put it: coming up into the light to be released.

This week Tom offers this prompt: imagine that you have just arrived in the body you’re in, with exactly the same memories and name attached to it. What is it like imagining that none of the memories, images, or identities associated with this body-mind actually have any relevance to who you are? This little thought experiment leads to a profound group dialogue inquiring into our real nature. According to Tom, our nature is freedom. But it sure doesn’t feel like that sometimes…especially when we live out the conditioning we receive as children that life is serious and you can get it wrong. If you’ve gotten that message and responded by either becoming extremely obedient or rebelling (which isn’t freedom either), and are interested in a truer experience of who you are, this episode is for you!

This week’s episode is a group inquiry on the thought “I need my discontent” and in the exploration of what it’s like living from this belief, what surfaces is the real reason we hold onto it so tightly: feeling like we need justification. Notice: without the idea that you need to justify something (maybe ending a partnership, choosing a career path, making a big move…) do you still need to hold onto discontent? Or is discontent only necessary when it’s being used as proof that we have to do what we simply would like to do? Without the need for justification and discontent, what would be possible? What actions could you take for the simple reason that you want to take them?

This week’s episode looks at an old faithful belief: He/she/they took advantage of me. From having cab drivers hold back five bucks from your change to being hoodwinked in a business deal or transaction, we’ve all likely experienced something that caused us to pick up this belief that we can be taken advantage of. In some cases, like one of the brave and vulnerable shares in this episode, that belief is very well backed-up with some horrifying past images and experiences. In these cases, it’s pretty radical to open to the idea that what Byron Katie says might be true – if people could do better, they would. Whether this sounds like spiritual bypassing to you, or something in you is curious about what it might be like to live from this perspective, we invite you to follow along in this profound inquiry with a situation from your own life where you believed you were taken advantage of.

This week’s episode brings you a beautiful and profound group inquiry that begins with considering the possibility that who and what we are is actually good. Tom has brought up this line of inquiry many times before, but in this setting what comes up is one of the main fears that blocks us from experiencing ourselves as good: the fear of getting hurt. It seems logical, right? If we’re loving and open, we could theoretically get hurt more easily. For many of us, the solution we come up with is to close our hearts off from others. Interestingly, this contributes to our sense of ourselves as Not Good people. But what if there’s no need to close our hearts? What if the hurt we’ve experienced actually comes from a lack of openness to something? What if we don’t have to fear getting ‘hurt,’ and can allow ourselves to live our loving nature?

This week’s episode begins with an invitation from Tom to try on the statement “I’m ready to devote my life to serving what serves Love.” Notice what comes up with that sentence. Is there a willingness? Or is there some sticky fear that still takes precedence? In a group setting, this episode is an exploration of what thoughts still hold us back from serving Love in our lives (thoughts that insist we, others and reality should all be doing something better, for example), and what it might be like to let them go.

Welcome back, Love Is The Power listeners! This week’s episode is a lively and profound group inquiry beginning with questioning the thoughts, “It’s serious,” and, “What I do matters.” From there, the line of inquiry brings to consciousness the need to be special, and Tom points out that eventually…the body dies. So with that awareness, he asks, what becomes important now? If your answer falls somewhere in the zone of “I just want to enjoy life now,” you’re going to love this episode. If your mind went somewhere else, feel free to bring it to this inquiry and experience the joy and power of the present moment.

This week we're bringing you another old favourite episode from the vault (November 2021!) as the Love Is The Power retreat last week meant no new recordings. Enjoy! We'll see you next week with a brand new episode. Have you ever considered that desire, lack, and fear might go together? For example, you believe something’s missing from your life (like a romantic relationship) and then you desire to fill that gap. Or, you desire to be with a partner and simultaneously fear rejection. Many of us have bought into the idea that the formula for bringing something into our experience is to identify lack and to desire what is evidently missing. But if lack and fear bookend desire, wouldn’t you rather choose a more effortless and natural way to live? Rather than playing the desire, fear, and lack game, what if you let people and relationships come and go as they may? Who would you be in this moment if you were completely free of desire?

Hey Love Is The Power friends! This week we're coming to you with an old favourite episode from all the way back in 2020: The cost of careful living. When we know who and what we are is good, we want to see our blind spots. We stop living carefully and live more honestly. Which pretty much guarantees that someone will be offended. To the mind, the path of unconditional peace can look like silence or being a "doormat." But is it? Luckily, there is only one way to find out. Join in this inquiry with a situation from your own life, or just enjoy the shares from participants.

This week’s episode explores an experience that’s probably familiar to a lot of people who practice self-inquiry or another spiritual practice. On any kind of ‘spiritual’ path, it’s easy to experience a lack – a desire for what you might call ‘enlightenment.’ We can hear about and understand the idea of oneness, that in reality nothing is separate, and want to know that for ourselves… sometimes to the point of causing a lot of stress in our day-to-day experience. What would it be like to drop that desire for a moment? Or to drop the idea that since we’ve done The Work so much, we should be okay with everything by now. If you can relate to any of these experiences of self-beratement in the name of ‘enlightenment,’ this episode is for you!