Episode Summary:In this episode, I explore a radical yet deeply liberating perspective on relationships: that every relationship—whether romantic, professional, or even adversarial—is ultimately a reflection of the self. Inspired by a conversation with my friend, (let’s call her “Laurie” for the sake of anonymity), who was experiencing a complicated situationship, we unravel the truth that there are no “others,” only aspects of ourselves mirrored back to us as “others”.

With the experiential contemplative prompts shared at the end of this episode, we may begin to see":

* How relationships reveal hidden aspects of our inner world

* Why the qualities we admire (or resist) in others are reflections of us

* How shifting our focus inward transforms the way we connect

Takeaways:

* Every connection is an opportunity to discover the mystery of our own being

* What frustrates you in others points to something needing love in you

* What you love in others exists within you, waiting to be recognized and/or expressed

* When you change your inner relationship, you may be changing your outer relationships

Listen now to uncover how all relationships are, at their core, a meeting with the Self.

Link to Byron Katie’s work called The Work, described as “This practice allows you to access the wisdom that always exists within you”.

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This is a commentary of a future Substack post with the same title. Ridding one’s self of themselves involves relinquishing past stories, projections of the future, a total surrendering to The Mystery. I also talk here about how this is a constant journey letting go, a constant state of allowing, a constant state of surrendering. We go further in this surrendering by dropping even the notion of a conceptual ‘God’ that we have mostly created in our own image. What happens in this letting go of the concept is we then find the ineffable. Our eyes become even more open to seeing that we had nothing to do with our lives all along. It’s weird! It’s unexplainable! But it is joyously what it is.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com

In finding ourselves in a place where we feel lost and cut off, we search for home. When we are dilligent enough and sincere in our search, we find that we never left home. The question 'who am I?' does feel like a passphrase that goes beyond an intellectual quest for answers. It goes so beyond the question that when we find the answer, we are shocked. Our shock may be because the clues were there all along. It may also be apparent that what's left revealed is the Mystery.

From Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum): Abba Poemen said to Abba Joseph: Tell me how I can become a monk. And he replied: If you want to find rest here and hereafter, say in every occasion, who am I? and do not judge anyone.

When in life's constant wave of distraction, I forget who I am, I find rememebrance through the exploration of this question.

Oh, the portion in the Christian scriptures I was trying to remember, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!"

We never left home. But can the proof really be in this question? You'd have to say for yourself.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com

When we can see the ‘impersonality’ in the display of the Universe, it becomes easily seen that nothing you could ever do(or are doing) is separate from what the Universe is doing. So much so there’s a great cracking of the mirror of that illusion of agency. Outrageous statements! Just purely outrageous! I know. Well, I intended for it to be— particularly the subtitle of this short essay(A trust in the universe is a distrust in your own ability). It becomes less outrageous if you truly come to terms with the realization that nothing of our own effort has ever been ours. Why? Well, maybe because you are not separate from the Universe. It’s so self-evident yet very elusive. I will quickly say here that “The Universe”, as I refer to it here is the All That Is. All That Is includes everything and excludes nothing.

This is essay #91!

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Despite the changing times, we cannot stay focused(except for rhetorical purposes) on whether they are good times or bad times, we cannot focus on whether they are challenging times or times of opportunity. A sweet sweet sweet spot to bring ourselves to is that spacious space that is witness to all of the changing times. It’s challenging at first to not be able to place one’s hands on an object. But with training, we can stay as the space of the room, we can stay as the life that animates the body. We can stay as the changless face that was never born and will never die. In this episode I guide you, the listener to the taste of that which is already here, that which is alright despite the moving parts.

Contemplative Currents is a free (bi-weekly) newsletter that aims to shed light into our daily experiences as opportunities for contemplation of this glorious Mystery. If you'd like to support my work, please consider subscribing and/or sharing this free Substack. If you’re looking to monetarily support, buying my book, This Glorious Dance: Thoughts & Contemplations About Who We Are, is enough. I'm grateful for your support in whatever capacity.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com

Dear Lover,

This is written on the fragile parchment paper of your heart. It’s a letter from me to you, written in ink that dreams of permanence but knows its fate is to dissolve into the fibers of what is already whole. What can the etching of ink ever do beside attempt to stain(in ignorance) the whiteness of what’s ever so pure, pristine, untouched and eternal? Please remember this for as long as you remember me.

Contemplative Currents is a free (bi-weekly) newsletter that aims to shed light into our daily experiences as opportunities for contemplation of this glorious Mystery. If you'd like to support my work, please consider subscribing and/or sharing this free Substack. If you’re looking to monetarily support, buying my book, This Glorious Dance: Thoughts & Contemplations About Who We Are, is enough. I'm grateful for your support in whatever capacity.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com

On this episode(a read out of the essay of the same article), we examine thinking, thoughts and the thinker through this contemplative piece.

This is the ultimate magic: the discovery that the thinker was never there, and that what remains—this infinite, silent awareness—was always waiting to be seen. Nothing to be achieved or grasped. It is the simple truth hidden in plain sight, as close as your next breath, as fleeting as your next thought.

Oh ye thinker, where’s your thought? Nowhere—and everywhere. For the absence of the thinker is the presence of the Infinite. In this absence, thoughts no longer belong to anyone. They are simply the music of life, playing freely in the silent theater of Being. What Mystery!To read the full article, please go to the link below. You can also find over 88 essays I write on this mysterious experience of living.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com

In this episode, we talk about the parable of the Blind Men and Elephant where a group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Somehow this ends up being a fight between the blind men.

Perhaps if the blind men stepped outside their own perspective to feel into others’ perspectives, they may notice something amusing. Perhaps if their eyes were totally open, they would suddenly see the elephant for what it truly is. All perspectives, I write, is made up of Wholeness. Let's explore this together!

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Is it the chicken, or is it the egg? The question itself dissolves as we step back and see the cycle for what it truly is: an infinite loop where neither is first nor last, where both are essential and interdependent. Perhaps the egg didn't come first, neither did the chicken. Let's explore this with a contemplative exercise at the end also!

Oh. My. Gosh! No wonder Jesus said, “The last shall be first, and the first shall be last”.

Oh, what beautiful mystery!

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com

This is not a typical pilot episode. However, I set the stage here for what’s to come. In this episode I introduce what the podcast will be about, it’s once-a-week frequency and who this podcast is for. So, of course, if you’re interested in exploring the completeness that we are at the core, we have a few interesting explorations for you. At this moment, I expect to bring attention to what’s clearly obvious in our experience but often overlooked about the nature of reality. Please feel free to also follow my substack, https://seyekuyinu.substack.com and all of my projects can be found on https://seyekuyinu.com.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seyekuyinu.substack.com