How to Master Your Mind in Challenging Times

Robert Maldonado  00:25

to Yeah, we’re so excited to do this program, because we’re going to get to talk about our favorite topic,

Debra Maldonado  00:32

our favorite topic, not not me. Not ourselves. But the topic of spiritual higher knowledge.

Robert Maldonado  00:41

Yeah, you know, we’ve used it so much in our personal life in growing ourselves personally, in developing a business and just keeping the relationship going and exciting and kind of a good platform for personal growth, spiritual development. So we want to share some of these tools with you guys, that if you find them useful, use them. And I just wanted to preface preface by saying, if you don’t agree with some of the stuff that we’re talking about, pushback, we enjoy that we encourage that. Because it’s important for you to to really grasp it, where it makes sense to you.

Debra Maldonado  01:28

Yes, the work what we’re going to share in this group, a lot of our the background of this is the Upanishads, which is thousand year old text, book set of texts,

Robert Maldonado  01:40

I would say more than 4005. It goes back at least a couple of thousand. Yes.

Debra Maldonado  01:46

And a lot of what we what it’s the foundation, a lot of a lot of the modern religion. So whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever, religion, you are a new age, all the, the the knowledge is distilled in these these core texts, and then it was basically interpreted in many different ways. But the core of it is solid. So I know I worked with a lot of people who are really religious in their specific religion. And when they hear the knowledge, they say, Oh, that sounds right. And I think over the over the course of there’s so much out there online and people teaching, and there’s so many teachers now. And I think that a lot of times the telephone game happens where people hear from someone else, and they’re getting only a piece of it. And so we want to bring the real core knowledge to you. So you can really, you’ll find that it’s it’s kind of refreshing, and it makes a lot of sense. And, and sometimes it’s a little mind twisting, but it really does work if you apply the principles of this, this knowledge.

Robert Maldonado  02:55

Yeah, just to clarify, we’re not talking about religion. You know, we understand religion to be important. But we’re talking about the philosophy and the philosophy of spirit, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of consciousness. And certainly a lot of spiritual religious traditions include elements of that. But the Upanishads essentially give you the, like, the the foundational understanding of what the mind is what consciousness is, and really what our human life is about, without kind of necessarily asking you to believe in anything. It’s simply asking you to consider Yeah, right to think about it to examine and part

Debra Maldonado  03:45

Yeah, so it’s about it really is the the the concepts make you ask questions for yourself, to clarify what is true in your life. And it really, for me, it’s given me such a sense of peace. And in especially right now, we have challenging times, well, we always have challenging times, it’s hard to be human. And to face the human problems that we have. It’s good to have some solid foundation of how to work with our mind, how to work with life, how to become more conscious of our own destiny and direct it in the way we want it to. So our purpose for the Soul Sessions is to really open your mind to new possibilities to be more peaceful, have better well being and more enlightenment.

Robert Maldonado  04:33

Yes, and besides the Upanishads, I would say that the work of Carl Jung has been seminal in our work. You know, his ideas. A lot of a lot of his work, of course was inspired by the Eastern philosophy and the Upanishads themselves. He read the Upanishads and, and he wanted to create a Western psychology That would address some of those same questions the East us through kind of a modern day psychological process. And so his work is really useful for thinking about how do we apply some of these incredible truths about consciousness and, and the meaning of our life in a practical way, the way we live today.

Debra Maldonado  05:23

So with that said, I’d like to set the intention, since we’re setting intentions, that we, we all gain something new, even us, when we teach, we always have it’s a reinforcement or new insight comes that you get an insight today, that’s going to help you go through the rest of your day, feeling a little lighter, feeling more focused, and having some some kind of a sense of peace within yourself. So that’s my goal for this session today. So I wanted to start off today with the story. And a lot of you have heard my love story, but I’m going to say it for those of you who haven’t, there was this, you know, I love watching the survival movies or documentaries, where people have faced something really scary and life threatening, and then they came out alive. And I don’t know what it is about them. But I always feel like that’s what life is even small, little problems in our life, we’re faced with these challenges, and what they went through their mind and what with how they processed, you know, the possible death, you know, life and death circumstances. And so I always found them fascinating. And one of the stories that really stuck out to me was a man who was a little overweight, very kind of moderately overweight. And he fell off a cruise ship, he and this happens a lot. They fall off cruise ships, and he fell into the ocean, it was the middle of night. He I’m sure he had a couple drinks in him. I don’t know how that happened. And, and he will, you know, he was like frightened and looked up the moon, the moon was out. So at least he could see the moon. But it was really besides the moonlight It was dark, and the ship was sailing away. And he has no nothing to hold on to. And he’s there struggling. And we’ve all felt that way in life where we feel like we’ve been thrown off a ship. And he’s swimming for a while treading water. And he’s overweight. So he’s out of breath. And he’s just out of shape. And he’s thinking, jeez, I wish I would have gone to the gym more often I would have been able to survive, and he thought he was really going to die. And then all of a sudden, he sees this figure coming in the dark toward him. And it looked like a shark. He had a fin on it. And he said, Oh my god, this is it. I’m going to die. I’m going to be in by shark and it’s going to be all over. And so this thing started coming toward him and he braced for the shark to eat him. And it just bounced off of him. And he realized it was a log. So he was like, Oh my God, and He grabbed onto it. And it was really his lifesaver. It was a part of him that, you know, he was just like, oh, at least I don’t have to struggle anymore. I’m hanging on to this log. Yeah. And so he kind of almost, you know, Hong Kong to that log all night. It really was his new sense of security. And when the sun came up in the morning, he was amazed to see that he’s floating there, the log still there. And there’s there’s an island, just a couple like a baby a mile out that he could swim too. And he was so relieved. He was like, thank God, I’m saved. So he has his log on his arm, and he’s swimming toward the island. And he’s finding that every time he took, you know, went a little bit, it he’d be pulled out by the current again. And he realized that the log actually was causing the, like holding him back from actually getting to the island. So the thing that helped him survive initially, was actually impeding him and going for where he really wanted to go. But he said the the most important part of the story is that he had such struggle, letting go of that log, because it was the source of survival for him and kept him alive all night. And he was just thinking that he could not psychologically survive without that log, like he needed his his, his floaty, to keep him alive. And so he played back and forth for a while he would let go the log and then he’d swim and grab it. He’d let go the log, and then he’d swim and grab it. And he noticed that the more he held on to that log, the longer he held on, the more he floated away from his his his rescue is where he wanted to go. And then finally he just made that decision. It just it was scary. But he let go of that log, and he saw I flew away, and he was scared, but then he started pedaling toward the island. And the story ends is that the helicopter saw him pedaling, and actually rescued him. And I always think of the helicopter is symbolic of the higher self coming in letting go of the log and the higher self comes in and is taking care of you. It’s coming in from above. And so the really reason this story is so powerful is because Our ego likes is thrown into this world, like just tossed into the ocean of life. And we look for things to hang on to to survive versus really scary. So we, we find these ways to survive, and those survival strategies has really helped us survive. But in times of challenge, they actually hold us back. And that’s what I wanted to talk about today. Is that how, what is your log? What are you hanging on to or what has been disrupted in your life? Maybe big or small, that you’re hanging on to that’s actually keeping you from peace that’s keeping you from really creating something new and using this challenge as an opportunity. So yeah, isn’t a great story.

10:45

Yeah. And it’s a true story. It’s a true story, it actually happened.

Debra Maldonado  10:49

And actually, they have it on. It’s the show, I shouldn’t be alive. That’s the show. And it’s on Netflix. And what’s really annoying is that I look through, they have a bunch of them on replay, and that store that one episode is nowhere to be found. So I don’t know if I imagined it or what but they’re the images that are hanging on to the log. So if you’re on Netflix, I mean, a lot of people are staying home this weekend, you’ll see the guy on the log, but I can’t find that episode. So if I find it, I’ll let you guys know where it is

Robert Maldonado  11:15

on YouTube.

Debra Maldonado  11:17

Isn’t. But it was it was really powerful. Because I think about how many times I hung on to the the career, the paycheck, that kept me from stepping into my own business, how we hang on to patterns and ways of being that feel comfortable for us. And, and then they actually keep us from what we really want, like stating our boundaries and, and letting over the log is really uncomfortable. And it’s that conditioning that keeps us from having peace. But it’s like almost like we settle for mediocre for like how much do you give up in life for just a little bit of peace? And so when we’re in a challenging time, it’s a perfect opportunity, it disrupts that that log it like basically forces the log out of our hands. And then what do we do? And that’s the question like, how do we act when that log is pulled away? And we’re in our life is disrupted?

Robert Maldonado  12:15

Yes. I think there’s also a deeper metaphor there. It’s that the log is our ego. Yes, the log is our sense of ourselves, the way we survive in the world, hmm. And if you notice, it’s about survival, the ego is all about survival, its mandate is to make sure you survive as an individual as a body as a biological being. But if you want to go into the fullness of humanity into really what, what the human life is capable of, you have to let go of that identity to the ego.

Debra Maldonado  13:02

Yeah, and I think that what most people are afraid of, especially now is this, we’re trying to protect our ego, we think we’re looking grasping at jobs and finances and all these other things. You know, like, kind of we’re in that survival mode. And we’re really looking at what is it about our ego that’s threatened right now. But when you’re going through a challenge, that’s a great question. Ask yourself, what, what about my ego is I am I hanging on to this actually making things worse, and making my mind go to fear?

Robert Maldonado  13:37

Yeah, and we know that the ego has a lot of defenses. And whenever we step outside our comfort zone and definitely spiritual growth, in the way we we defined it, is stepping outside your comfort zone, it’s gone into, definitely push your buttons, because you’re going into the unknown, right, you’re going into those uncharted waters between where you are, where you go, and where you want to be on solid ground on that island.

Debra Maldonado  14:13

It’s that gap. And we it’s like, I always think of it as like a trapped piece, you grasp one and you’re letting go of that one. So you can grasp the other and you have to let go of one to get to the other. And, and it’s in that middle place that we feel so uncomfortable. But in that middle places, all the possibilities, when we when we grasp onto the next thing that becomes our new comfort zone. And so we kind of in the in between, there’s, there’s an infinite possibility between those those two places,

Robert Maldonado  14:41

right. So in the Upanishads, the way they explain it is that when we’re born, we’re confused by the information that we get through our senses. Because our senses give us a false picture of what the world is. Now that false picture works well for survival, because it gives you immediate information about where you are, where to find food, where to find comfort, who helps you, and all those things will help you find toilet paper. Except that these are not miracles yet. But it will not take you to that transcendent element of what is spiritual in your life. Right? In order to get to that point, you need to be able to clarify, first of all, what is it that I’m perceiving, because if you go by what you’re perceiving through your senses, you’re always in the material interpretation of life. I’m a biological being. And it’s a it’s a physical world that I’m in Yeah, and that according to the Upanishads, as it’s a false perception, it’s a temporary perception that helps you survive. But it’s not the ultimate aim. The ultimate aim, of course, in this metaphor would be to get to the island in

Debra Maldonado  16:05

Paradise Island, the plane, and and that’s really, yeah, the, it’s the Oasis of the spirit that we that we are looking for the solid ground, but we have this, as you can see, this man had this strong desire to survive. And when we’re in that survival mode, and we talked about this earlier, in one of our other videos here, is that we don’t think rationally. He was struggling with this hanging on and his conscious mind, his rational intellect was saying, Oh, you should let go of that lug because you’re, it’s pulling you away from where you want to go. But the emotional part of him was saying, I’m gonna die if I let go of the log. And so we’re constantly in that struggle all the time of we intellectually know what to do, but emotionally are programmed to do the same thing or to automatically react. And when we’re in reactionary mode is a lot of times that intellect just doesn’t, doesn’t even check in. It doesn’t even question we just react and and so we have to look at how can we get out of that reaction mode, and it’s from the higher the higher knowledge of what you said is that we’re not looking at a material hard world, we’re looking at a perception and a projection of our own mind. And our mind is deciding what is good and bad. Our mind is deciding what is safe and unsafe. And we we we bring that into our experience. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, we think we’re looking at an objective reality. But we’re not we’re seeing a subjective reality.

Robert Maldonado  17:44

Yes, there’s a beautiful verse that sums it up in the Upanishads. It says, The basic principle is that we mistake, the real for the Unreal, and the Unreal for the real. Hmm. So we think the log is real, because it’s, it’s helping us survive. Yes. And we think well, that the island might be a mirage, I don’t know it’s far away. But it’s the opposite. Mm. Our, our sense of ego, although it’s based on survival, because it’s giving us a false sense of the world and ourselves. It’s unreal, it’s not an absolute reality. Like you, we can test this by thinking about how each one of us experiences the same event in a completely different way. Because it’s a it’s a subjective interpretation of life. So the question is, what is the real right, what is the solid ground that we’re on, and the Upanishads simply stated very clearly, they say, the solid ground is consciousness. It is the the pure awareness that’s at the heart of who you are. That is the solid

Debra Maldonado  19:06

ground, and that can never be destroyed, can never be harmed can’t be taken away from you. And we remember that whatever happens, we see in our perception shows us we can know and that knowledge that the true self can never be harmed. Yes. And there’s a great quote in the Upanishads that I love and it’s two birds are sitting in a tree. Wondering bird is eating the sweet and sour fruits of life, while the other bird is watching in non attachment. And that true self that witness is who we really are and the bird and we want to have both parts of ourselves, the the changing self, and then the non changing self and at night changing self is always there, always solid, pure consciousness, and then the changing self is the world of change and transition and Good and bad, right and wrong and that duality, and we need both because we want to experience the world, we can’t really experience the world without the duality. But we have to remember that the duality is not all that’s there, that there is this other self. And so if we could separate it a little bit in our mind of realizing, what am I looking at, I’m understanding what I’m afraid of, or what I’m perceiving is a result of my mind, not what’s really out there. And I know that’s hard for people, because how can you say death is bad, or illness is bad, or breaking up with someone is bad, you know, good or bad, you know it, they have their like, set assumptions of what something means. And here’s the thing we really don’t know. We don’t know if something is good or bad because we, we haven’t seen the whole picture yet. we’ve only seen like a glimpse. And so we’re making a judgement of something that’s happening in this moment, we can’t see the trajectory or the unfolding of what happens. One time I was people know this, when I was 36. I was engaged to be married, I had a great job. And I had, you know, just bought a condo with my man, we had a mountain view was great. And then he decided he didn’t want kids. And I said, Well, I can’t marry you. So we broke up. With that same week, I lost my job. And then we had to sell the condo. And it was like everything was changed talking about me now. And, and everyone else said, Wow, Debbie, you are really going through a tough time. Uh, you know, I can’t believe you’re going through this like this. But I don’t know what it was. But I just knew that I was on the wrong track. And that I didn’t know what was going next. And I didn’t judge it as bad I judged it as God has something else in store for me like, there must be something different. There’s must be something here and I was just okay in that unknowing, and that uncertainty, and found peace in that. And I think that’s, that’s really what makes us powerful in life. If we could be okay with uncertainty. We can move mountains, we could change the world. Yeah, because the world is really uncertain. I mean, that’s the nature of reality is always changing.

Robert Maldonado  22:15

Yeah, my own personal experience was similar. I was in grad school, and I was getting pretty close to accomplishing all the things that I I thought would make me happy Hmm. But it was having the opposite effect. I was more and more miserable. Hmm. The more success I had, the more miserable I was. Mm hmm. And it seemed to be like I was digging my own home, in essence, just falling deeper and deeper into it. And so I had heard a lot of this, this information and like, spiritual truths or principles in the Upanishads. And but it was an intellectual understanding. It wasn’t I, you know, how can I? How can I put this into living action. And that experience kind of took me to a breaking point where I had to make a decision, am I going to continue to try to feel my life, with meaning from external events and situations and success and, you know, kind of the appearance of things because, again, the senses are telling us, that’s what’s going to make you happy. When you get that position. When you get the money, when you get the relationship something, something out there is going to make you happy. And I was I going to pursue that or was I really going to delve inward and find those, that spiritual ground, that solid ground that is the absolute within you? Because that’s what the Upanishads say that it’s, it’s you, it’s already within you. It’s not something you’re acquiring.

24:07

Mm hmm.

Robert Maldonado  24:08

It’s the realization that counts, and realization means it’s not just an intellectual understanding, like a lot of people say, oh, I’ve read that. I’m done. I understand that. But reading, it is only the beginning. It says you hear it, then you have to contemplate it. Meaning you have to ask yourself, how does this fit into my life, the way I live my life? Then you get to the realization after contemplating it after really kind of

Debra Maldonado  24:40

so what are they contemplating right now based on what we taught?

Robert Maldonado  24:44

I think right now, it’s simply the this question. If the senses are giving us a false, a false interpretation of life, not in the sense that it’s lying to us. But simply because it’s geared towards biological survival? If if that picture of the world is not the absolute reality, Mm hmm. Then the question is, what is the absolute reality? And how can I realize it?

Debra Maldonado  25:18

Hmm. And so in a practical way, though, I think that that’s the big picture that we ask ourselves. But in a practical way, I think the question that you can all ask yourself is, what what am I attached to? That, that has been disrupted? And why, you know, why is my ego? What is my ego hanging on to that’s giving, making me upset, it’s the things out there are not making you upset? It’s what your mind is telling you about the things out there. And so the question would be what is what is my ego attached to what is my ego afraid to lose? Because that the bit sweet and bitter fruit fruits happen in life, we have been swept be in sweater, I can’t even talk bitter and sweet. And I think that a lot of times, we only want the sweet. And when we eat the bitter where now I don’t like the bitter I want to move away from the bitter. I want to go for the sweet and that’s basically how we get conditioned, our ego gets conditioned. And so how do we stay in a state of non judgment, non attachment and equity. That’s what you were saying is what’s the deeper sense of me, but in a practical way, how to you basically process whatever challenge you’re going through right now? Is you ask yourself, What am I attached to? What is my mind telling me I’m attacked, that I need to have in order to feel at peace? And then you contemplate that? you contemplate that? Right? Is that does that sound right to you?

Robert Maldonado  26:50

Yeah, exactly. The there are, if you think about the philosophies that grew out of the Upanishads, certainly yoga, not the not the physical yoga, or Well, I mean, that’s part of it. But really the the yoga of the mind, how to work with a mine how to work with perception. Some of the other philosophies, Buddhism, grew out of the Upanishads, Vedanta, Jainism, all these ideas that have really developed techniques for letting go the not not pushing it away, not trying to destroy it. But letting go of that false idea that over identification that we have, with the body and the persona, the ego. So those techniques, like you were saying, non attachment, equanimity, those are actual techniques that can help us let go of that. And to realize the true essence of our, our absolute soul.

Debra Maldonado  28:01

So to make it just simple and easy, because we load a lot on you today and not a philosophy. So again, let’s just talk about what how can I look at the challenge that you have? and ask yourself the question, What am I attached to? Whereas What is my mind saying about survival? And and how do we move toward that non attachment? How do we let go that log? And think about it that this is a log I’m letting go of and in your mind, visualize it, say, this log? What is it represent to me? Okay, it represents I’m afraid that if I don’t get my steady paycheck, you know, I’m going to be homeless, whatever. Okay, I’m going to let go with that fear. I’m going to do it is that do I know for sure that this is really, you know, I’m making my mind’s making this terrible assumption. That is this terrible thing that’s going to happen. And so you’re letting go that attachment? Because you don’t know right now. And your mind is putting in all these assumptions that are fueling a story that isn’t even true yet. So we have to think about what is that? What is that story? And then how do we let go of that attachment? Because our pure consciousness, the truth of who we are, is unlimited. So if that’s who we really are, we don’t need that paycheck to feel secure. We will, if we are connected to the higher knowledge, it’s not that we don’t care about the paycheck, but we don’t have to worry about losing it. That will be taken care of if we understand. But if we’re worried about it, and we’re clinging on to fear, guess what’s going to happen, it’ll be a self fulfilling prophecy. So the less you feed the fear, the less chance you have of creating it. So we want to kind of remember the truth. And this isn’t just think positive and I’m going to create You know, focus on the positive. That’s the wrong attitude, because we’re still running away from the fear. We have to dismantle the fear and say, What is that log? Do I really need to hang on to this, and I let go of my paycheck, I let go of the relationship I thought was going to be forever, and the security of a home and was homeless, manless and jobless. And it was the best turning point in my life. It was really the moment where I could just be there and say, it’s I don’t know, the future, I don’t know the past. I’m just in this moment right now. And I trust in I had trust in my higher self, that I would be taken care of. And if that you can trust in God, Jesus, Mohammed, the Krishna, whoever you image in your mind, the universe, that is, you know, having that faith and trust in something higher, is really going to get you through whatever challenge you have.

Robert Maldonado  30:57

Yeah, and the Upanishads, let’s make a distinction between more knowledge and higher knowledge. Lower knowledge simply means the knowledge that we acquire based on our sensory perception. Now, if you think about physics, that’s all of science. Science is based on observation of the physical universe. And it gives us these laws of nature. Now, it says, there’s nothing wrong with you, you need to understand the world and the way it works, but you need to understand that that is one type of knowledge. Right? It’s information, essentially, it’s, it’s information about the way the universe functions and the way it’s structured. But higher knowledge says, anything that moves you towards the realization of who you really are the true self, like you mentioned, that’s higher knowledge. Right? It’s very distinct, it’s very different than the lower now. Yeah, then information about the biological workings of the universe and the physical workers,

Debra Maldonado  32:04

or their brainwaves and hormones and how they work and regulate your emotions. And yes, and also to to stay healthy, we need to stay out of stress. And to have this knowledge, it basically gives you a kind of a calm, of knowing that you can relax in the blanket of infinite potential, like that infinite consciousness that you are. For me, I remember when I was really, we moved to New York, and I was struggling with starting to build my coaching business, I had just had a very great practice in Denver, we moved to New York. And I was just starting over, basically, and I remember being really scared. And I remember just coming up with this image of myself, falling back into this golden white light of my true self and saying, she’s gonna catch me like, there’s nowhere to fall, there’s nowhere to fall, I will always be caught. And I think that idea that log hanging on like, we don’t have to hang on to the things in life with a vise grip, we can fall into the self, which will really carry us and it doesn’t mean we don’t take action, and we just let go, and we don’t take care of ourselves. But we let go of the fear around it, we let go the fear around what we’re doing. We want to take action, we want to do things, to move our life forward to say safe in times of trouble, and, you know, set boundaries, and all those things are great, but to do it without fear. And that’s really the higher self brings that to us. Yeah, and it’s part of us, you know, a lot of people think the universe is going to take care of everything. And, but it feels as though the universe is external. You know, it’s this other part of, you know, out there that’s kind of looking down on us. But we’re We are the true self. That’s our true nature. And that’s really, really to know that it’s already in us. It’s not something we have to go outside and pull in

Robert Maldonado  33:58

the implications of that higher knowledge that we’re talking about that that is expounded very clearly in the Upanishads. They’re incredible. Because what it means is that we, we were, we need to look inward, right? So Jung says, if you look out where you’re dreaming, you’re kind of projecting your own your own subjective interpretation as possible onto the world. But if you look inward, that is if you look at Wait, who is the one that is aware? Who is what is the mind that is interpreting that? And how does that mind arise? Now you’re you’re getting to the real question, because now you’re getting to the source. The external is always changing and and like you say, sweet and bitter, good and bad is always arising for us externally, but internally, the observed is always steady. It’s always one. And that true self, you’ve always depended on. And if you operate, let’s say if you feed live your life based on that higher principle, you’re always moving towards letting that higher self act through you.

Debra Maldonado  35:18

And you know, what I love about what you just said is that, you know, when I had that moment where I lost everything, and kind of like everyone’s going through this kind of upheaval and disruption in their lives, it’s it really when when the things out there that you’re the norms that we are, so cling to in our life, are taken away. It’s an amazing opportunity. I don’t know if I would have had that realization or a sense of everything was always going to work out like this. It’s a challenge. But it’s a way for us to start turning inward. Because everything I did that time our relationship went away, the the home I lived and the financial support, everything, I think that was healthy. But everything that I you cling to, in normal human beings cling to for feeling good about their life and feeling secure, was taken away, the only place we have to look in is inward. And this is kind of like I think why I like those survival stories, because they do have these really great realizations of, oh my god, this was my last day on earth. What did what did I give up? You know, what, what, how I would think about just the opportunity right now is what have I stopped with what is a slowing down of craziness in our life, giving us an opportunity to, you know, kind of remember what’s important. And, and, and go inward and find that rock within ourselves? That is really a beautiful thing.

Robert Maldonado  36:47

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely, one of the main principles to follow is this idea that everything is an opportunity. Mm hmm. Because, again, if if this higher knowledge is, is true, and it’s it’s kind of spelling it out for us that you need to let go of this idea that this over identification with the ego, the question then becomes, well, how do I do that? How do I go right? How do I trust that cannot see versus what I see. Because at the end of the day, that’s what’s so seductive among ego, that it gives you something to look at something to hold on to. And it’s something that it feels very real. Mm hmm. But it’s the opposite. Because it it’s appearing to us in the temporal world of change. It’s always changing, always moving. It’s precisely unreal. Mm hmm. It is a because the next moment it will be something else it will change and, and more. And so the way we we work with that principle, right? The external is showing us this, this incredible world of change, constant change, and the internal is always steady. Mm hmm. So we’re, we’re between these two opposing poles. Mm hmm. ever changing external, steady, non changing, non changing solid into the idea is to understand that although I’m perceiving all these changes in the world, my true self that true self never changes. And it’s indestructible. Hmm. So if you if you ask the simple question, right? What am I afraid of? Mm hmm. What is their fear? Mm hmm. And then you realize it’s the things that are fear of coming from that external, ever changing pattern of things.

Debra Maldonado  38:57

And what I decided was important and secure. You know, that not that it really is, it’s something I decided that this really means security for me. That’s right. And you can change that. You can say, you know what, I decided this doesn’t mean security for me, I decided security means my true self is security. Yes. And then everything will fall away, everything will start to that clinging will start to drop. And here’s I think one of the things that a lot of people misunderstand about non attachment is they think that it doesn’t mean you care anymore, that the world is an illusion and let everyone die and it’s going to be fought you know, it’s doesn’t mean anything. Now we want to you know, we want to be in the world we want to care, but it’s that added the egos extra, the egos perception of what’s happening and the clinging is extra. And so we do want to enjoy the bitter and sweet fruits of life, enjoy it and feel the sadness and grief and all the things that we happen in life that gives our life meaning that gives us the self in us the true self wants to have that experience. So it’s not bad. But when we realize that self realization, where we realize the self of who we really are, we can actually enjoy the UPS ups more, and get through the dark times more, you know, it’s just, we can have that both balance. So we it’s not about just pushing everything away in the physical world and saying, Well, I’m the true self, and that none of this matters. We’re in a delusion, we’re in a dream. But we want to play both. We want to have both sides and experience both.

Robert Maldonado  40:30

Yeah, that’s a good point. And so towards the, let’s say, the higher teachings of the Upanishads, it gets to this point where it’s saying, Yes, in the beginning, you you want to definitely understand, they let go of the ego and understand the the nature, the temporary nature of the world, of the impermanent nature of the world. But it says at the end of the day, that that projection that you’re seeing of the world, that universe that you’re seeing, although it’s ever changing, and it appears to be dreamlike and unreal, it is the divine itself. There is no there is no separation. Yeah, exactly. There is no separation from what what is called the self,

Debra Maldonado  41:18

it’s like the the true self is the covering. I mean, and then the world is covering over it, but it’s still like a part of it. It’s just the, the surface covers it over and you can’t really see it. And that’s why when we do lose things, or we lose our the true self has a chance to emerge and be more prevalent in our life. Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing. I mean, we there’s never anything that’s completely bad.

Robert Maldonado  41:42

Not at all, it appears to be relatively good and bad to us. But it is an apparent reality. That’s how they describe it. So an apparent reality is very similar to the way we dream, hmm. You cannot separate the dream from the dreamer. So in this, in the waking says, we cannot separate the Divine Self, from the from its manifestation, meaning the temporary, impermanent world is the dream that the self is having essence. And that includes us, our human life, in essence.

Debra Maldonado  42:24

And so we, I always think to myself, if this was a dream, how would I interpret it? And think about the last dream you had, your mind has the capacity to create buildings and worlds and trees and oceans, and people and stories. And then when you wake up, where did all that content go? Where did all that material where that felt so real in that dream go? It’s the same thing with this world, it’s exactly the same. It’s just it feels more dense. Because it’s just a different level of consciousness that we experienced in the waking life. And so it feels more solid and dense, and it’s slowed down. And there’s more rules, where the dream world is like, there’s a suppression of rules. So we can walk through walls and fly and go from one place to another in a split second. And we were kind of out of character a lot of times in our dreams, and other people are at a character. And so there’s a little more fluidity to, to to that experience. But it’s both with the the ancients called bya, which is that illusory world. And again, it’s this isn’t about saying, well, the world is an illusion. And what I’m seeing isn’t real, so I don’t have to be, you know, afraid at all. But we want to if we not take care of ourselves and not be not be healthy and not go for our dreams and enjoy life, like a lot of people think well, why do I want to start a business? or Why do I want to find love If everything is just an illusion, it’s because that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to create, we’re creators. We are an extension of the Divine to create an experience here. So we want to understand what our purpose is, and, and understanding that we are in control of that, in that direction, in that flow to what we can create and move beyond just our conditioning is really an amazing process to go through. And it’s almost like we’re we fall asleep, so then we can wake up again. keys were our first soul session. We’ll see you next Saturday for another session around the same time. And also in another topic, but all on spirituality. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer, please share it in the group. I want to mention. We do have our lovely coach mentors in the group. Allie, Cindy, Laurie, Jane, Stacy, and and Aaron are all here to support you as well. So we there’s plenty of coaching support. If you’re having a tough time, reach out. If you need some inspiration, listen to this again. We’ll be checking in this group every day just to see Say hello to everyone quick tips on how to focus your mind and we hope to see you next Saturday. And in the group, please feel free to share with us what’s going on with you and how we can serve you.

45:14

Yeah, thanks for tuning in. And thanks for the great questions. Appreciate it.

Debra Maldonado  45:17

Yes. Thanks so much, everyone. Have a great Saturday. Stay safe. Bye Bye.

Robert Maldonado  45:22

Take care.