January 26, 2025

381: The Light in Us

35 minutes

What happens when we recognise something original in ourselves and each other that exists prior to our individual stories and fears? When we see past the nest of our anxieties to what Mark Nepo calls 'the clear bird' - our essential nature that connects us to the very beginning of things - we might discover a profound basis for meeting life's complexities with wisdom and courage.

When someone sees us fully enough to see beneath our fears to this essential nature, we wonder why we ever held our secrets so tightly. Witnessing the light in one another invites us to remember that we're not separate from each other or the world, but rather expressions of the same something bursting itself forward into the world, offering a path toward genuine connection and meaning, and also what we might need to call upon to respond courageously and lovingly to the complexities and difficult challenges of the world.

This week's Turning Towards Life is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

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Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify.

Episode Overview

00:00 Introduction and Gratitude for Mark Nepo

02:33 Exploring the Source: The Book of Awakening

07:05 The Connection Between Self-Love and the World

10:13 Understanding Originalness and Connection

15:01 The Power of Seeing Each Other's Originalness

18:46 Practicing Mutual Recognition and Light

22:51 The Importance of Seeing Beyond Stories

27:05 The Role of Conversation in Understanding

32:38 Closing Thoughts

I begin to realize that in inquiring about my own origin and goal, I am inquiring about something other than myself…. In this very realization I begin to recognize the origin and goal of the world.

Martin Buber

In loving ourselves, we love the world. For just as fire, rock, and water are all made up of molecules, everything, including you and me, is connected by a small piece of the beginning. Yet, how do we love ourselves? It is as difficult at times as seeing the back of your head ... like feeding a clear bird that no one else can see. You must be still and offer your palmful of secrets like delicate seed. As she eats your secrets, no longer secret, she glows and you lighten, and her voice, which only you can hear, is your voice bereft of plans. And the light through her body will bathe you till you wonder why the gems in your palm were ever fisted...

Once in a great while, if someone loves you enough, they might see her rise from the nest beneath your fear. In this way, I’ve learned that loving yourself requires a courage unlike any other. It requires us to believe in and stay loyal to something no one else can see that keeps us in the world—our own self-worth. All the great moments of conception—the birth of mountains, of trees, of fish, of prophets, and the truth of relationships that last—all begin where no one can see, and it is our job not to extinguish what is so beautifully begun. For once full of light, everything is safely on its way—not pain-free, but unencumbered—and the air beneath your wings is the same air that trills in my throat, and the empty benches in snow are as much a part of us as the empty figures who slouch on them in spring.

When we believe in what no one else can see, we find we are each other. And all moments of living, no matter how difficult, come back into some central point where self and world are one, where light pours in and out at once.

Mark Nepo, from ‘The Book of Awakening’

Photo by Mitya Ivanov on Unsplash

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