I love nonduality.

Let’s be clear about that: I love nonduality.

The exploration of nonduality has been perhaps the most liberating adventure of my life.

Nondual freedom and nondual awakening are basically my ~favorite topics at this stage of life. There’s ~nothing I am more passionate about communicating and sharing with people. I seem to be becoming more and more of a ‘nondual teacher’ all the time. This is the natural movement of life for me, it seems.

And yet…

As with any approach to wisdom…

There are (subtle) traps and shadows!

I explored this in great detail in this 9-hour course I freely gave to the world three months ago:

If you value what I create and freely give to the world, please consider sharing my work, buying my books and music, and/or contributing an occasional or ongoing donation through Wise, Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, Bitcoin, Substack, or Buy Me A Coffee. Your support is deeply appreciated, my friend. God bless you. <3

Today’s video dives deeper into this topic of the potential traps of nonduality.

These traps tend to arise from mental fixations, concretizations, or misunderstandings of what nonduality is pointing to.

What are the biggest problems with non-duality?

If you prefer to read rather than watch the video, here is a lightly edited transcript:

(I recommend also reading the diary entry after the transcript for the full experience.)

What are the biggest problems with non-duality, especially neo-advaita and radical non-duality?

Well, if I was going to be very succinct, I would say a lot of radical non-duality can end up leading into solipsism, nihilism, moral relativism, spiritual bypassing, spiritual indifference, passivity, spiritual elitism, disembodiment, no sense of moral clarity, no sense of a universal standard by which wise, skillful, good, true, loving behavior can be measured.

Further traps are: the negation of relationship, the negation of personhood, the negation of meaning and value and purpose in life, the negation of individuality and family.

These are some of the biggest shadows and traps and failure modes that are tricky to entirely avoid if you’re wading into the waters of radical non-duality and neo-advaita.

And so I would really, really put out a word of caution to be careful in those waters.

You know, for some people that space of negation can be deeply liberating, at least temporarily. It can be kind of an anesthetic against a lot of the pain of the world. You can just tell yourself, “There is no world. There is no body. There is no self. There’s no one here. This is all emptiness. This is all empty space.”

(This can be an important and legitimate stage / season / part of ongoing cycles.)

And like ~anything that you deeply tell yourself and deeply internalize, those perspectives can become experiential for you.

And I’ve gone deep into that on my own path. And I did find liberating value there.

But at the same time, I also found myself being disconnected from personhood, from groundedness, from Earth, from incarnation, from family, from fatherhood, husbandhood, family life, service to Earth, the actual callings of the Earth at this time, the way in which countless children and innocent beings, women and men, animals are being mistreated, abused, and worse—much worse—on the planet at this time.

Radical non-duality can become very solipsistic, very navel-gazy, where you’re just only endlessly focused on your own immediate experience, and you’re kind of denying the existence of God’s creation, God’s Earth, and God’s other children who are suffering and who are calling out for assistance.

Again, it can become very solipsistic, very nihilistic. You’re denying meaning and purpose, which can feel good on one level because it can feel like it’s a relinquishment of all responsibility, like, “Oh, there is no objective purpose or meaning, so I’m off the hook. I don’t have to do anything. I can just flow with whatever’s arising and let myself be free. And this is all already free and already perfection now, so there’s nothing to do and no one to be.”

You know, that’s a soothing spiritual lullaby that can feel pretty good to the mind to abdicate all responsibility.

The problem with it is that it’s not (fully) true.

It’s not true that everything is perfect. It is true on one level, yet untrue on another level.

God is perfect. There’s perfection in God, and God is with us in our heart of hearts, and that all-pervading perfection is always available to tune into, to rest as that grace and that completion.

But we are also—it’s kind of like we’re in two worlds simultaneously.

Jesus Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Christ’s kingdom is pointing us toward that all-pervading world of God that’s always with us, and that is completion, wholeness, perfection, endless grace, and revelation.

And we are simultaneously in that world, in some sense, in our deepest spirit and essence, and we are in this world of God’s creation, of Earth, which is a world that has deviated, that has fallen significantly from aligning with the true pattern, the true way of love and grace.

We have deviated immensely.

When you really feel the gap of how far we are from true, divine, all-encompassing, universal love on this planet, it’s heartbreaking. It’s heart-shattering. It’s devastating.

And so it’s no wonder that many people will utilize any number of spiritual anesthetics to try to avoid feeling that grief. Love often feels like grief in a world like ours.

Also common nowadays are these New Age views that, “Oh, anything that feels bad is untrue, and what feels good is what is true. So just, yeah, forget any thoughts or feelings that make you feel bad and just go toward what makes you feel good.”

Or, “Oh, you’re just creating your reality anyway. This is all a projection. So just create what feels good. Just create what feels epic and ignore the rest.”

You know, again, it’s understandable why people go for that stuff. Again, it’s a spiritual anesthetic, spiritual bypassing.

The issue with it, again, is that it’s not true.

It’s not true.

This world is real. We’re here. We have bodies. We are embodied beings, and beings are suffering here.

Children are suffering. Animals are suffering. Women are suffering. Men are suffering.

There’s immense suffering here, and there’s an immensity of suffering calling out to be met by love and care and integrity and honor and honesty and dignity and truth and service.

And, yeah, attempting to spiritually bypass that or deny that or negate that is, I would say, a form of ‘devilry’ or a ‘demonic hypnosis.’

You know, not to be overly condemning, because again, I understand why people are lured into these types of snares and ways of thinking, and I myself spent a lot of time in some of these more subtle traps. And probably I still do. It all is as it is.

But, yeah, just plain and simple, I do think that there are nefarious forces that essentially want to preserve the status quo and that feed upon humanity’s fear and suffering.

And those forces want you to believe that, “Oh yeah, there’s no world, there’s no body, there’s no one here, there’s nothing to do, there’s no one to be. This is all perfection. I can just project my perfect epic reality and I don’t have to live in anyone else’s reality. I don’t know what’s going on in their reality. Oh, they shouldn’t have manifested that if they’re experiencing difficulty.”

You know, once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

You start to see how a lot of these spiritual ideas are basically narcissistic fantasies.

And so essentially, the biggest problems with non-duality relate to these ways in which it can lead to this spiritual bypassing and this dissociation, derealization.

And even though it can feel liberating or anesthetizing for many people, it also leads many people into a lot of suffering itself.

Because again, it’s not true.

People get into these solipsistic, nihilistic pigeonholes where they feel like, “I don’t even know if my own family is real. I don’t know if anything exists outside myself. Everything is meaningless. Everything is purposeless. Everything is valueless. Everything is completely relativized, so all perspectives are equal. There’s no up or down. There’s no higher or lower. There’s no more true or less true.”

And then you just end up—you know, a lot of people end up in a swampland of nihilism and solipsism and relativism that’s not really helping them, not helping anyone else, and can be quite terrifying.

You can just feel like you’re in a lonely void.

And thankfully, again, that’s not the truth. That’s not the truth of our condition. That’s not the truth of our reality as revealed through Jesus Christ and through other prophets, saints, theologians, great Fathers and Mothers of the Church, and also true saints and prophets and sages of other traditions and other streams of wisdom.

The truth is that God’s creation is real.

This is real.

We’re really here.

And perhaps in a profound sense, God is even more real than this world.

This world is real, and God is ultimate reality and is also always with us and all-pervading and is here and can be felt through the heart and can increasingly pervade this world and absorb this world and transfigure and sanctify this world.

And that is what we’re truly called to do by the true Lord of Love: to become transparent to His love, to His grace, and to allow that universal love to shine forth; to love thy enemies—to “forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do”—to show true love, grace, and mercy to all beings. And to be upright men of honor, women of honor, good people who are human, who are people, who acknowledge that we are people, we are persons, and we have honorable, sacred duties to be of service and to be loving, to be good people.

And of course, again, we’re human.

We’re going to miss the mark. We’re going to deviate.

But Christianity gives us this capacity to repent, to repeatedly return to God and say, “Have mercy on me, Father. Help me straighten my path. I offer everything up to you.”

I’m embracing that lifelong journey. I’m certainly far from perfect. I’m a sinner, and yeah, I’m just speaking honestly about my experience, and I repent regularly, and I find it very, very meaningful and very powerful to lay it all down at the feet of the Lord and say, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

It’s when we approach God with that contrite heart, with that contrite heart and that true humility, that we can feel true grace and true mercy raining down upon us and washing us clean, washing us clean.

So, yeah, I just felt inspired to make a short video clarifying the biggest problems with a lot of radical non-duality and neo-advaita teachings.

And I hope this is a valuable invitation for you, my friend, to follow the true way of love, the way of love, of truth, of grace, of honor, of wisdom.

And to understand that there really is a true way. There is a Logos. There is a through-line in this world, a Love that we are called toward.

This life is not random. It’s not meaningless. It’s not purposeless. It’s not valueless.

It is God.

God is the ultimate value, the ultimate purpose, the ultimate meaning in an absolute sense, and we are literally invited to participate in that and to bring that forth.

And we have free will, so we’re free to deviate and explore other possibilities. But that exploration is always going to teach us that nothing truly fulfills our hearts like God’s Love, because that’s our true birthright and true home.

And that—that is the truth of reality.

So you can search. You can look for other things. But when you find the truth—from my humble perspective—you’re going to find God’s Love. You’re going to realize that’s the truth.

So thank you for listening, my friends.

Much love to you.

Amen. Peace. Hallelujah. Be well. God loves you. I love you.

Peace be with you.

Dear Diary: Getting Fresh and Real About This Video ~Months After Recording It

Thanks for reading, everybody.

This video and the one I published a couple days ago on the truth of Christianity were both recorded some ~months ago.

It was fascinating to revisit them this week to remember what I was seeing at that time.

I feel there is a lot of important truth and wisdom expressed in these videos.

And with that said, revisiting them freshly now, I’m also strongly struck by the recognition that the truth simply cannot be put into words.

Any time you feel you have put the truth into words, you can be sure you have not. You cannot capture the un-capture-able.

So with these and any words I share, hold them lightly. Don’t grasp onto the words. Don’t view the words as truth. They are symbols. View them as invitations to explore your own direct experience.

What I can feel in these two videos is the earnest heart of a good Christian man.

And simultaneously, I can also feel some of the heaviness and solemnity that can drive people away from Christianity. That heaviness, graveness, and solemnity can be a very powerful and beautiful medicine, don’t get me wrong.

Yet it can also be, well, unnecessarily heavy. I’m glad it comes through my voice sometimes though, as it probably serve as a good counterweight to a lot of my signals which are super light, weightless, playful, and free.

Upon revisiting those two videos, I’d just simply say: Find your own way. Trust your own heart. Your path is your path. And your path is perfect as it is. Perfectly imperfect. You are always on the path. You cannot be off the path. In a way, there is no path because right now is whole and complete and full and free as it is. And you are that free wholeness.

There can also be a trap of judging one season or stage of the spiraling path from the view of a different season or stage. If one is in a deeply incarnational stage, then those who are transcending and completely letting the world go may appear to be ‘irresponsibly spiritually bypassing.’ Yet from the perspective of those in the deeply transcendent stage, they may feel vast freedom and like they’re right where they need to be, and those who are in a more incarnational/immanent stage might appear boringly stuck in the swamp of ‘grounded worldly consensus reality.’

And meanwhile, people in both of those stages/seasons simply are as they are. They’re where they need to be. The conditions are always perfectly appropriate. It’s all okay.

So, yeah, let it flow.

There’s a time for grieving. A time for serving. A time for transcending. A time for being no one. A time for falling in love. A time for having kids. A time for relinquishing everything. A time for dissolving into nothingness.

It all fits. It all belongs. There’s room for all of it.

Let it flow.

I love you.

Grace be with you,Jordan

If you feel called to go deeper, feel welcome to join us for Christ Fire or reach out to me about a one-on-one Simple Freedom journey.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Family,

For me deep truth can be discovered across all world wisdom traditions.

This includes Christianity!

Many neo-spiritual westerners understandably abandoned Christianity in recent decades due to its saddening shadows as a manmade institution…

Yet the mystic (center-less) center of Christianity is truly a luminous ruby.

A jewel which beautifully evokes nondual and relational and all-inclusive truth, inviting a deeply devotional, sacred, and intimate relationship with all that is.

If this resonates, consider joining us for the Christ Fire ayahuasca retreat in Mexico at Kumankaya in December.

Today’s video explores this further.

Why is Christianity true?

If you prefer to read along rather than watching the video, here is a lightly edited transcript:

Why is Christianity true?

Well, if we were going to boil it down to its simplest form, I would say that God is Love.

God is real. God is Love. God is real beyond all hope or imagining.

This is revealed through the heart. It’s revealed most profoundly in my experience through weeping.

Through weeping. Heart revelation.

You shall know the truth when you weep before it, when your heart truly cracks open and you just weep tears of pure love and pure grace. You know this is the truth. There really is the way, the truth, and the life, and that is the way of love and the way of Christ—the way of self-giving love.

This is an objective reality, an objective through-line, an objective Logos or meta-pattern that is recurrent throughout all of human experience. When you align with the way of love, you will know that you’re coming into alignment with the truth.

You will radiate that love.

Kneeling down with a contrite heart and saying, “Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, I’m not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Humbly acknowledging that we have sinned, that we’ve missed the mark, that we’ve deviated from the center of the cross, from the true Logos of self-giving love—which we all do. We’re all human. We’re in a human condition where deviating from perfect loving wisdom is very common.

And so it’s absolutely essential to be able to say, “Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

And when you do that from a true place of contrite-hearted devotion and humility, you will feel grace and mercy washing down upon you.

You will feel yourself being brought increasingly into devotion and surrender to the true Logos.

You will be invited to participate and to experience union more and more with God and with love, and to become an expression of that.

And you will see more and more clearly just how far we’ve truly deviated from Love.

So you will see your own residual sinfulness and the ways that you miss the mark more and more clearly as you’re drawn into this process. We are perfectly imperfect.

But at the same time, you’ll also feel yourself being sanctified in the light of Christ, in the love of Christ, in the love of God.

And it’s worth saying that there are many non-Christians who, in a sense, I would say, are better Christians than a lot of nominal Christians.

Many people call themselves Christians, but they are basically just going through the motions. Their religion is like a ritualistic husk of true faith.

There’s no real, deep, powerful, living, devotional connection there.

And that’s not to judge those people. They are as they are, life is as it is, it all fits. There’s still value in going through the motions of tradition and going to church.

But a lot of people are not actually endeavoring to be transformed through Christ—to truly, every day, show up and say, “How can I be further sanctified and purified to walk the path of love and to bring forth the Kingdom to this world?”

I do believe that that Kingdom Love is all-pervading. It’s with all of us already in our heart of hearts.

And if a person is sincerely calling for God, calling for the true One Creator by whatever name, with deep earnestness, then I believe that God will be with that person.

And at the same time, for me, returning to my ancestral tradition of Christianity, there’s a sense of finding something that I didn’t find anywhere else.

Some say that your ancestral tradition is your native language spiritually and religiously. So it’s something like that.

It feels so right. It fits.

And so I would generally encourage people to explore the tradition of their ancestors. I think there’s very often gold there.

And most religions do—to varying degrees—have this clarity that God is Love, that love is the center of reality, that the true reality of life is a reality of love and grace at the heart of everything, and that we are endeavoring to move closer to actually embodying and incarnating and becoming transparent to that already-present Love.

So I would look for that in your ancestral tradition.

And at the same time, I would invite people to explore Christianity because I do believe there’s tremendous wisdom there.

But everybody has to follow the path of their own heart.

I believe there are as many ways home to God as there are individuals, and so you’ve got to walk the path that’s right for you.

But I would invite you to deeply consider that love and grace really are the truth of our existence.

And we are—we are invited to participate, to embody that love, to incarnate that love.

There are so many traps on the spiritual path: traps of solipsism and nihilism and moral relativism and spiritual bypassing and disembodiment.

And Christianity offers an incredible clarifying answer to all of those traps. It avoids all of those traps.

It invites us into profound relationship, profound meaning, profound purpose, profound love, profound service, profound grace, profound freedom.

It’s really an unbelievably beautiful gift to this earth.

So thank you for listening and considering that.

That is my current sense.

God bless you. Be well. Amen.

Much love.

If you feel called to go deeper, feel welcome to join us for Christ Fire or reach out to me about a one-on-one Simple Freedom journey.

I love you.

You are free,Jordan

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

Note: Simple Free Solutions is happening tomorrow! Free and open to all. If you want to discuss any challenge with me — related to life, relationships, spirituality, career, psychedelic integration, holistic well-being, and so on — this is an awesome chance to do so.

Dear Friends,

In today’s video, I explore what success means to me. If you prefer to read rather than watch, here is a lightly-edited transcript:

What does success mean to me?

Plain and simple, success is pure being. Success is life itself. Life, to me, is already fully successful as it is. Life holds an intrinsic wholeness and intrinsic completion as it is.

If you looked at yourself as a newborn baby, you would never think to say, “Oh yeah, you’re quite unsuccessful at this stage. Maybe someday when you check a bunch of things off a to-do list, you will then be successful.”

No. It’s just very clear that the newborn baby version of you, or of anyone, is an expression of primordial purity, innocence, wholeness, completion. And we never stop being that. That’s still there for all of us.

We all are intrinsically successful beyond our wildest dreams just by existing. We are a never-before-seen artwork, each one of us, from the hand of infinite creative mystery.

So to me, success is innate, simply what we are, and we can relax into that. We can relax into the profound sense in which there is nothing to do, no one to be, nowhere to go, nothing to know. Let yourself rest. Let things be as they are.

And when you do that, surprisingly, you find that it’s not that you stagnate into a puddle of goo and don’t do anything. Rather, you come into a deeper relaxation and alignment with life, where you can learn to live from that wholeness and let that wholeness live you and breathe you in the way that is innate and natural to you.

Instead of always pushing and shoving and grasping and striving to reach this ever-receding carrot-on-a-stick of ‘success’ and enough-ness—this holy grail of “maybe someday I will achieve or accomplish enough to be successful”—you discover a different way of living and being.

A way where you relax into letting yourself feel that newborn baby-ness within—that intrinsic innocence, wholeness, purity, at-homeness, fullness, successfulness—here and now. And you just let yourself live from that.

You let that breathe you. You let life itself sing through you in the way that is natural to you—not as a means to an end, not as a means to maybe someday reach some external success—but simply as a natural overflow, a natural expression.

Like a bird’s song. Like an acorn growing into a mighty sequoia, simply out of its nature, out of the pure celebration of living, of blossoming, blooming, flowering, unfolding. It’s natural. It’s natural to us.

We sing, we dance, “we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams,” as Willy Wonka put it. It’s innate.

So feel into that. If it feels good, let yourself rest in that. Let yourself feel that you are already fully successful now.

With that understood, what wants to flow naturally through you? How do you want to naturally flow through/as this precious life?

Peace, much love.

Love,Jordan

P.S. If this resonated and you’d like to go deeper, join us for Simple Free Solutions tomorrow and consider reading my book, simple freedom.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s video I explore some of the (unexpected) long-lasting shifts that took place for me in my first few ayahuasca ceremonies about 8 years ago:🌿 80-90% decrease in levels of chronic guilt/shame🌿 80% reduction of anxiety🌿 70% decrease in intake of alcohol🌿 80% decrease in intake of cannabis

🌿 90% decrease in viewing of adult films All of these shifts have been more or less permanent so far. While there may be occasional flare-ups, baseline levels have never returned to anywhere near the pre-ayahuasca levels and overall there is a much more balanced relationship to vices/indulgences, as well as a lot more inner peace.

There was also a huge release of fear/resistance to life, resulting in far more trust in the flow of life.

Deep healing, forgiveness, and love also rippled into most all of my relationships with family and friends.

As I continued sitting with ayahuasca in the years that would follow, it initiated me into profoundly deep mysteries of life and consciousness. It also taught me a great deal about humility, grounding, surrender, commitment, devotion, service, love, creativity, courage, and leadership.

Ayahuasca was also deeply connected to my journey of becoming a father and husband, as I spontaneously proposed to my wife at Kumankaya after an ayahuasca ceremony and we were married in an ayahuasca ceremony at Kumankaya.

Does your heart feel called to this medicine?

A group of soulful men and women is coming together for the Christ Fire ayahuasca retreat happening December 6th-12th of this year.

We’re about 3 months away and are aiming to finalize the group soon. So if your heart feels a spark to be there, drop us a note.

You don’t need to be a Christian to attend this retreat. The intention is for the retreat to be open and non-dogmatic, with no beliefs being pushed on anyone. Christ is related to here as a deep mystery, and is being called upon as a healer-friend and protective presence of infinite love and grace. Each person is fully encouraged to relate to the mysteries of ayahuasca, life, and Christ in the ways that feel good and native to them.

At this stage I seem to be some kind of nondual/zen Catholic who is also happy to call himself nothing at all. ‘Katholikos’ means “universal.”

I’m deeply looking forward to everything coming together for this retreat: wonderful people, ayahuasca ceremonies, rich dialogue, meditation, breathwork, dance, sound healing, bonfire nights, hammock-lounging, nature immersion, and the healing jungle oasis of Kumankaya holding all of us in a field of healing peace.

Blessings and Love,Jordan

Simple Free Solutions: Free Event This Saturday

On another note: I’m going to be hosting a free one-hour event this Saturday called Simple Free Solutions. All are welcome.

I’m excited for this.

This is an opportunity to receive precise laser guidance on your current largest challenges or questions in life.

This will be somewhat similar to ‘hot-seat coaching,’ in which one person at a time can present their challenge and I will efficiently and compassionately help them resolve it, to whatever degree is possible in the moment.

I’ve been immersed in thousands of hours of transformational work and contemplative practice for the past 15 years and I’m eager to distill all of this experience to rapidly assist you.

This session will be recorded and (portions of it) may be shared publicly, so please attend with the understanding that you are consenting to this.

If you are struggling with anything, you really have nothing to lose by attending this event. This is a great opportunity to work with me at no cost, in a highly focused way, to experience the unique ways I’m able to help people.

Spaciousness & Peace,Jordan

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

Dear friends,

I recorded this video today after having some deep intimations around the upcoming Christ Fire retreat in December.

Here’s a lightly edited transcript if you prefer to read:

Hey everybody, I’m feeling a call to share that something very deep and mysterious is about to happen in Mexico for the Christ Fire Retreat in December.

I had a couple calls today about the retreat and had chills coming, goosebumps, tears, a deep sense of some kind of collective, ancestral, karmic, or dharmic purpose being fulfilled, assisted, or brought about through this retreat.

It feels like deep mysteries of Christ and mysteries of ayahuasca converging for this. And it feels like something beyond individual healing. It feels like there’s a deep purpose of being of service to the collective and helping to heal the collective unconscious and heal deep, ancient wounds within the soul of Earth and the soul of humanity. I offer that humbly, I’m not trying to be grandiose. That’s just what feels like it’s coming through.

It feels like it’s gonna be something very deep, mysterious, profound, and sacred. If you feel the call to be there for Christ Fire at Kumankaya, December 6th to 12th, feel welcome to reach out to me.

Or fill out the form to send word to us. To be clear this retreat is open to all people: men, women, and anyone who identifies differently.

Thank you, God. Thank you, Love. May we be of service to Love and to all through this co-creation. Amen. Peace be with you. Peace be with all.

Deep mysteries here, weaving secrets of the ancient Amazon with the revelations of the Logos.

Thank you, God, for this inspiration. May we be of service to the Earth. 🙏🏼❤️‍🔥

Love,Jordan

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

Aloha familia,

I felt an inspiration to record a video version of my recent essay, Nonduality, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ. You can read the original essay here if you like:

In the video I also elaborate quite a bit more on the essay and my current relationship to Christ, Christianity, nonduality, and entheogenic plant medicine.

If you prefer to read those elaborations rather than watch, here are most of them, lightly edited:

Note: This article is deeply relevant to this year’s Christ Fire retreat that I’m co-creating at Kumankaya, Mexico, the healing center where I got married, a place dear to my heart. If you feel the call to sit with ayahuasca in a Christ-celebrating context, this experience is handcrafted for you. Learn more and consider joining us.

Christ as Mystery

Someone might ask, “So how does Christ fit into all this? What is Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus to you?”

And I would say Christ is a mystery, a mystery of love. I feel that the mystery inherent in Christ, God, and Christianity is something that can be under-emphasized by Christians — but if you go deep into the Christian mystical tradition there is an unbelievable reverence for the unknowability of God, the inexhaustibility of God, the transcendent dimension of God who is Christ, who is Spirit.

Really the Christian story, the Christian mythopoetic emanation of the literal incarnation of the Logos — of the inherent intelligence of all that is — in and as Jesus Christ, being crucified and resurrected — the way in which these mysteries contain and point to and are suggestive of and poetically evoke unbelievably deep mysteries within the spiritual life, within the life of the spirit — is profoundly rich and mysterious.

And not as a mere metaphor, not as a mere myth. From the Christian view, creation is real. This is really God’s creation — although it is contingent upon the being of God. God is seen as the first mover, the great mystery, the great primordial mystery prior to all else. Creation is seen as a real emanation, a real song of God, and therefore Jesus Christ is seen as having really and truly walked this earth.

The Living Presence of Christ

And I’ve experienced weeping revelations, inexplicable weeping revelations — where I felt like my heart was just breaking open — of the spirit of Jesus Christ, the living presence of Jesus Christ, the profound sense that he truly did walk this earth, walked among us, and is still with us now. And in a profound and deep, mysterious, inexpressible sense that he truly did die for our sins — in a sense he died because of our ignorance, because of our tendency to miss the mark, out of our own free will, to forget the true loving Logos.

We literally greeted the living Logos with a crucifixion, with a torture device. And that illuminates the deep ignorance of humanity. But that crucifixion, his willingness to surrender on that depth, and to then be resurrected, is seen as having sent a shockwave of love through human history that altered the course of our evolution and emanated new spiritual possibilities, or made it easier for people to access the deepest spiritual revelations.

That’s one mystical way of understanding the Christ mystery, the mystery of the incarnation.

Christ as Ever-Present Mystery of Love

And again, though, I want to keep emphasizing the word mystery. For me, I experience Christ as an all-pervading mystery of love, and ever-present liberating power of love, and ever-present personal relational friend of love, as well as a suprapersonal presence of love beyond all categories, beyond all descriptions.

I experience Christ as a sense of innate wholeness and completion and perfection and harmony within this cosmic dance, this radiant creation of the mystery of divinity, the mystery of whatever the source — the waterfall from which all of this springs into being — is.

I call that God. I call that Christ.

And it feels to me like it is simple. It is ever-present. It is freedom. It is completion now. There can be a profound sense of: this is wholeness now. This is it right now. I don’t have to wait to receive God and Christ. I can receive God and Christ through my heart now, through the simple freedom of just listening to the sound of the rain and welcoming this moment as it is, as it is.

Catholicism, Universality, and Non-Dual Resonance

So Christ to me is a profoundly, profoundly deep mystery. And yeah, that’s where I currently find myself.

I find myself a lover of Christ and a Catholic. Catholikos means universal. Actually, interestingly, when you go deeper into the more mystical meaning and understanding of Christianity, you can discover this universal resonance pointing to something present in all times and places, which other traditions have also pointed to — the true light of pure wholeness.

So for me there’s not a contradiction between loving Jesus Christ, being a Catholic, and also appreciating nonduality — being some kind of nondual Christian, and also being a shamanic individual who utilizes plant medicine. I find Christ within plant medicine, within that world. His presence seems to be like that of the greatest shaman, in a sense.

When you call upon Christ in medicine ceremony, his presence seems to confer profound protection. His name seems to bind unclean spirits or demonic entities, parasitic entities, in a way that I haven’t experienced with any other name or presence.

I often visualize myself holding forth a crucifix which is shining white or golden light when I’m in those subtle shamanic realms, interfacing with those dimensions of reality. Christ is with me. Christ is who I call upon and who I relate to as my truest lineage holder in those spaces.

And in the healing work that I do, healing work is so relational, and so it’s incredibly, incredibly valuable to have that personal emanation of God, God as a personal friend to be related to, while also still realizing that the mystery is far beyond what can be encompassed or contained by any form or any living language, any real expression.

Living Myth and Ultimate Mystery

From this view, all of creation is seen as a kind of living language, a real and living mythopoetic emanation sung forth from the heart of God, where everything is both real and everything also points beyond itself toward a mystery beyond all comprehension that is beckoning us home, that is beckoning us to remember the truth that it is trustworthy, that it is inherently whole and loving and unified — and that we are that, while also being a child of that, while also being a child of that.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Giving the glory unto the heavenly mother, the heavenly father, the heavenly spirit. Deep wisdom in Christianity to do that, to give the glory to God — this prevents egoic inflation of the human being, especially the Western psyche. Western man often seems really built to have that relational bhakti-devotional relationship to the greater All-Father, to use a term from J.R.R. Tolkien’s world building — the All-Father, Ilúvatar, the one who sings the world into being.

The father, the great mystery, the profound, indivisible, and relational mystery — transcendent and incarnational, immanent.

So, these are deep mysteries to contemplate. That gives a sense of where I presently find myself. So thank you for listening, and much love in all directions.

Closing Prayer

Peace everybody. May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall softly on your fields, and until we meet again, may you keep safe in the gentle loving arms of God.

Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Aho. Namaste. Hallelujah. Amen.

Peace everybody. Peace and love.

With Care,JB

Council of Kings is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Related reading:

* Freedom and the Spirit by Nikolai Berdyaev

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

“You can go on retreat in any moment of life by opening to now, emptying your cup, and opening to spaciousness.”

“Become no one. Become nothing. No thing.”

“The sense that I already know what the world is, I already know what life is—that’s one of the biggest blockages.”

Today’s video is another one I recorded on the Gondor retreat in Italy a couple weeks ago.

This one felt like one of my best communications on the pure joy of vastness, weightlessness, and becoming no one for a while. As well as why retreat is essential and how to go on retreat anytime.

I recommend the video for the full experience, though I’ll also include a transcript below if you prefer to read.

First: A Note on Why I Share This Type of Stuff

One might ask, “JB, why do you share so endlessly and enthusiastically about these kinds of ‘awakening’ subjects?”

“Why do you seem irresistibly drawn back into sharing about the simple freedom of the now-moment?”

I pondered on this today and I guess it’s just simply one of my very greatest passions, fascinations, and curiosities. I love exploring and celebrating the aliveness of now.

For me the subject is so omni-relevant and all-encompassing because it literally applies to every single moment of life, in every area of life.

To simply look directly and freshly at life…

To see it through a child’s eyes…

To find out what we may newly discover on this winding adventure…

This is perhaps the great and central animating impulse of my entire existence.

I simply love it! In my heart I’m some sort of poet, fool, child, hermit mystic.

It has been my experience that this whole exploration of ‘awakening’ is unbelievably fulfilling and nourishing.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it can reveal…

ever-present wholenessever-present alivenessever-present richnessever-present freedomever-present home

… and infuse all areas of life with far more lightness, flow, wonder, vibrancy, beauty, and poignancy.

That’s why I endlessly share about this stuff. It flows through me like a natural celebration of life.

For me awakening—contemplation, meditation, prayer, liberation—is the crown jewel of human life.

Everything from fatherhood and family life to vocation and wellness are greatly enriched by this ever-deepening discovery.

Discovery of what?

Openness! Spaciousness! Unity! Basking! Radiance! All-embracing-ness! Joy! Grace! Freedom! Poetry! The astounding miracle of existence!

In simple terms, awakening is the discovery of life. It is an ever-deepening opening to a living mystery beyond comprehension. It is simply life itself. Truly being life.

I hope today’s video gives you further inspiration in this respect. 💚

Video Transcript: How to Become No One & Go On Retreat Anytime

If you prefer to read instead of watch the video, here is a lightly edited transcript:

Peace and love from Italy.

What would it be like, my friends, to just become no one for a little while?

Just become no thing and no one for just a little while. Just a smidgen. Just a pinch of timeless time.

What if you just relinquished? What if you just dropped all identities, all identifications, all attachments?

You dropped the idea of your body and your name and the world of form. All your attachments. All the stories you tell yourself about what’s going on out there and what’s on the news. Your laundry list of grievances and complaints and to-dos and problems and challenges.

What if you just let all of that go?

Pop it like a bubble.

Drop it like it’s hot.

Let it blow away on the wind for even just a minute or two.

The crucial thing is that I’m not suggesting you actually burn down your life and end your relationships or anything like that. No, no.

Relationships are profound.

My dad always said family and friends are life’s greatest treasures, and he was speaking the truth.

These relationships shine like jewels in the tapestry of our lives.

So your life can stay exactly as it is.

And yet, if you can, find these moments to empty your cup, to become no one and no thing for even just a teensy little bit of time—just a teensy little bit of time.

You just go somewhere out in nature perhaps.

Nature can be very conducive to this.

You just go in nature.

You just sit still.

You just sit down.

You don’t do anything for a chunk of time.

You just go out in nature. You just sit still and you just look at the trees. You look at the rocks. You look at the dirt. You look at the sky, the clouds, the sun.

You listen to the sound of the birds, the sound of the wind.

And you let yourself start to feel like a hollow bone. Like the wind is just traveling through you. Like you’re kind of forgetting everything. You’re forgetting the world.

William Wordsworth said:

“Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in nature that is ours. We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon.”

“The world is too much with us.”

That was from his poem The World Is Too Much With Us.

And that’s the thing: The ‘world’ is weighing too heavily upon us.

When we become overly embedded, overly attached, overly rigidly crystallized within the domain of formfulness, within the domain of our gorgeous, wondrous human lives that are very real in a profound sense—totally real and here and part of God’s immaculate creation, or nameless immaculate creation, however you want to language that—

When we’re too much with the formfulness and we’ve forgotten formlessness, then it can be unbelievably rejuvenating and replenishing and immensely restorative to simply be no one.

Become no one.

Become nothing.

No thing.

Become nothing and no thing.

Again, even for just five minutes.

Five hours.

Five days.

Depending on what kind of retreat you happen to be in need of on a soul-and-heart level at any given time.

You just find these pockets.

These pockets.

Even five seconds.

You find these pockets of timeless time to be no one, to be no-thing.

And oh, how rejuvenating it can be to even release the grips on your most cherished spiritual identities.

Where you’re no longer a Christian.

You’re no longer a Buddhist.

You even release the names of Buddha and Christ and Lao Tzu and God and Mary and the Mother and Father and consciousness and infinity and awareness and emptiness.

Whatever your most cherished spiritual identities, concepts, and signifiers happen to be, you let those go as well.

You just really let it all go.

And you just simply be.

You just simply exist.

You do nothing at all.

And not only do you do no thing, you be no thing and no one.

And we all have such a yearning for this on a deep level.

It’s been forgotten as an immensely rejuvenating soul technology.

You empty yourself.

You become no one and no thing.

And then you let that be filled by freshness.

By newness.

It’s a misconception that nothingness or the void is a total absence, like an empty abyss.

No.

You go to that space of emptiness, being no one and being no thing, so that you can receive a more subtle fullness.

So that the cup can then be filled with a subtlety and a richness that you were not able to apprehend in your prior clamping-down, your over-identified mode, your excessively crystallized and frozen formfulness.

You let that go.

You empty.

You become no one and no thing so that suddenly the fullness, the juiciness, the weightless, clear, invisible fire of love, of all-embracing, all-pervading love, can reveal itself.

So that pure spirit can reveal itself and breathe through you.

Pure spirit is a very subtle dynamism to apprehend.

It’s a continuous creative breath of life flowing through all things.

And we are not able to apprehend that fathomless freedom of pure spirit in our overly-fixated consensus-reality conditions and identities.

This approach is very much akin to apophatic theology in Christianity.

Many Christians are not aware of this deep and ancient monastic and mystical practice of apophatic contemplation.

It is essentially what I’m speaking to.

It is the emptying of your cup.

It is the relinquishment of all concepts of God and world and life and yourself.

It’s the letting go of everything you think you know so that God beyond all concepts of God can come in and meet you there.

Meet you there in that space of being the empty cup, the empty vessel, the hollow bone.

So that God can come in.

So that pure spirit can come in.

And you can be illumined, illuminated, enlightened in a sense by the true light—the true and subtle light that is all-pervading and always with us.

And it’s not a final event.

It’s not like:

“Poof. Now I’m enlightened. I’m now some kind of rarefied perfected Buddha to be put on a pedestal and worshipped.”

No, it’s not like that.

It’s an ever-deepening journey.

An ever-deepening journey where you discover these moments.

And really every moment of life is an ever-fresh revelation and deepening.

If we are truly paying attention to life, life can be this ongoing revelation.

But there can be moments where thresholds are crossed, where quantum leaps occur, where bountiful vistas of newness and freshness and spirit that had not been apprehended before suddenly come rushing in.

And there can be a whole fresh and new wave of understanding and knowing and seeing and feeling and directly being.

“I’m getting it now.”

“I’m feeling it.”

“I’m being it.”

“I am pure spirit.”

“This is pure spirit.”

“Pure spirit is with me.”

“Pure spirit is with us.”

“All is pervaded by pure spirit.”

“All is an emanation, a creation of pure spirit.”

“The signature of pure spirit abides within all things.”

All around us.

We are in spirit and spirit is in us.

That is the treasure that can be uncovered through emptying your cup.

Through apophatic theology, if you want to call it that.

Or apophatic contemplative practice.

You can call it whatever you like.

It’s essentially just finding those moments.

Finding those pockets of time.

Making space for retreat.

Realizing that retreat is not simply a luxury in life.

Not something only for wealthy people who can fly to Bali and go on some expensive retreat.

No shade on those people.

It’s gorgeous to go to Bali and go on retreat if that’s on your path.

But you don’t need to do that.

You can go on retreat in any moment of life by opening to now.

Emptying your cup.

Opening to spaciousness.

Opening to freshness.

It can be very helpful to design intentional containers for this.

Set aside even a half day or a full day.

Go to a local sauna.

Go to a local bathhouse.

Go to a local forest.

Go to a local church or temple.

And just exist.

Just be.

Turn off the devices.

Turn off your usual everyday consciousness—or see through it.

Ignore it for a few hours.

Let it go.

Be no one.

And make room for freshness.

Make room for the light.

Make room for revelation.

This is not optional.

This is not a luxury.

This is something that our human spirit and soul deeply, deeply needs.

A huge part of the reason why so many people are depressed and despairing and anxious is because we as a culture have become overly in the grips of a program of busyness and worldliness.

Busy, busy, busy.

Worldly, worldly, worldly.

More to do.

More to do.

More to do.

Christ Jesus said:

“My kingdom is not of this world.”

He was pointing us beyond the world as we ordinarily take it to be.

And yet that ordinary world is utterly pervaded by spirit and can be revealed as an unimaginable tapestry and artistry created and re-created continuously by pure spirit.

But we’re not able to see it that way when we’re totally identified with it and we’ve forgotten the other world of pure spirit.

Jesus was instructing us to rediscover the kingdom that abides as the vastness here and now.

The vastness that can come into the heart when we empty ourselves.

When we let all of our ordinary concepts and ideas go.

One of the biggest blockages is the sense that:

“I already know what the world is.”

“I already know what life is.”

“It’s this stubborn thing and I just have to do all this stuff and complain about it.”

Those attitudes deeply prevent an emptying of the cup and an opening to pure spirit.

So empty yourself.

Forget what you think you know.

At least temporarily.

Open to another world that is here and all around us, though it often appears invisible.

And discover that retreat is not optional.

It is essential.

I say this coming off a four-day retreat here in Italy called Gondor that I created and experienced with a group of beautiful brothers from six different countries.

We came here and remembered together the essential importance of retreat.

But again, you don’t have to travel anywhere.

You can create spaces of retreat in your day-to-day life.

Discover what it means to create a space to become no one.

Become no-thing.

Let it all go.

So that something new can come in.

This process can be confronting.

It can be destabilizing at times.

If it becomes too much, take a step back.

Go back into normal life.

Be a normal dude or dudette for a while.

Just chill.

Then give it another try when you’re feeling more grounded.

Or ask for support if that feels useful.

But the crux of the message is simple:

Retreat is always available.

Retreat is not optional.

Make space for retreat.

Make space for emptying your cup.

Becoming no one.

No-thing.

And discovering the immense rejuvenation available there.

The immense possibility of letting something new come in.

Something transformational.

Something alchemical.

A new set of eyes.

A new way of seeing everything that occurs in your life.

This is essential for discovering true freedom and true happiness and wholeness here and now.

The wisest and happiest people, whether consciously or unconsciously, make that space for themselves.

They find that space to go for long walks in nature.

To get really good rest.

Really good sleep.

To unplug.

To disconnect.

To sit.

And simply be.

So give that gift to yourself.

If this resonates, give yourself that gift.

Make that space.

And let’s enjoy life.

Let’s be love.

Radiate love.

Be the mighty sequoias rooted deep to the earth, branches to the heavens, centered in the heart.

Ending all wars within and without.

Setting the kids free.

Setting all beings free.

And bringing the kingdom to earth.

Bringing the love to earth.

What else is there to do, baby?

What else is there to do?

Spread the love.

Let’s go.

Peace.

Joy.

Grace to you.

One love.

Much love.

Familia.

Gracias.

Wholeness,Jordan

If you’re feeling the call to retreat, I’ll be attending and guest facilitating in England for Soulstice Retreat, starting in three days. Jacob Kishere and Matthew Green of The Resonant Man have brought together an epic group of men for this, and I sense it will be a healing, liberating, and empowering experience. Learn more and grab a ticket.

A few final photos of a recent woodland adventure <3

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

“Life knows the way.”

“Home is now.”

“Love is the way, the truth, and the life.”

Hey Family,

Today’s video is another one I recorded in Italy a couple weeks ago during the Gondor retreat.

It is a reflection on love and on some of the deepest wisdom I have been fortunate to discover on my path of life.

I hope it gives you something.

Reminder that you can also watch and listen to many of my messages on Spotify and YouTube.

Here’s a lightly edited transcript if you prefer to read:

What is there to say?

Life knows the way.

Life is as it is.

Peace. Joy. Bliss. Simple kindness to all. Simple love for all. Faith. Grace. Thanksgiving. Charity. Service.

Simple principles that are pretty much all one really needs in life.

Jesus summed it up:

Love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love your enemies.

Love all.

Easy to summarize. Not so easy to live all the way through.

That’s why it’s an ongoing, ever-deepening journey—an ever-deepening invitation into love.

And what a gift.

It doesn’t have to be viewed as this laborious, never-ending drudge of trying to get somewhere that we’re never able to get to.

Because you can come from a place where increasingly you feel and know that you’re home now.

Home is now.

In your heart of hearts, you’re complete.

You’re whole.

You are enough as you are.

You are intrinsically worthy.

Just as if somebody looked at you as a newborn baby—or you saw yourself as a newborn baby—you would see the intrinsic wholeness and purity.

You would see the uncorruptible, ever-innocent heart of your own being.

Your childlike nature.

And that’s always here.

You can relax into and rest as that wholeness and discover the profound sense in which now is always the finish line.

This is it.

This is artistry.

This is profundity.

This is peace.

This is holiness.

This is the Holy Land.

Divinity, weightless and spaceless freedom, is all-pervading. Ever-present.

And simultaneously, we discover the necessity of humility.

For we are human.

We miss the mark all the time.

There is no end to the refinement, the cleansing, the purification, the sanctification.

I have never met a human being who embodied perfect loving wisdom at all times.

If you’ve met one, let me know.

So we remain humble about our humanity.

We remain open to the ongoing lessons that help us further integrate and embody the truth of love.

A love beyond description.

Beyond name and form.

An ever-fresh, ever-present, Tao-like wellspring of all-embracing love from the heart of hearts.

That is the truth we are invited to discover, embody, incarnate, and root into this earth.

Like mighty sequoias rooted to the earth, branches reaching toward the heavens, centered in the heart.

Ending all wars within and without.

Setting the children free.

Setting all beings free.

That’s the vision.

That’s the mission.

(At least over here.)

Nothing to do but be you.

Discover your own expression.

Discover your own North Star.

And I can tell you this:

Any North Star that is not aligned with the purest divine love—any North Star that is not some expression of the sacred—is likely to lead you astray in some way.

I offer that with humility.

That has simply been my experience.

If you want to discover truth, that’s what I would recommend.

If you want to move through this life with grace and joy, then as far as I can tell, that cannot be done outside of love.

Love is the center.

Love is the core.

Jesus said:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

And Jesus was an incarnation of self-giving love.

His primary instruction was love.

So love is the way, the truth, and the life.

The mysteries of love go far deeper than we may have observed in ordinary life and consensus reality.

Love is the heart of divinity.

Love is a precious jewel of freedom.

Weightless openness.

All-embracing openness.

Here and now.

Align with love.

That would be my recommendation.

And love is not one half of a polarity.

True love transcends all polarities while simultaneously embracing them.

To truly end war within ourselves and within our world, we must learn to embrace both sides of all polarities in an unconditional love that transcends and pervades them all.

That has been my experience.

Take from it what resonates.

Carry on.

Keep rocking in the free world.

Nothing to do but be you.

Much love and peace, everybody.

Grace be with you.

Love,Jordan

Bonus Movie Recommendation

Hook is a movie I loved as a kid that may be my favorite movie of all time

Truly a heart-moving story of rediscovering child-like aliveness, joy, and freedom

And a father rediscovering his depth of love for his children

All within a brilliantly crafted world that extends the Peter Pan universe into new territories and possibilities

I recently re-watched it with Trevor West in Germany and also re-watched it last year in America with Cory Altenhofen

I love you, Robin Williams

Deeply recommended ❤️

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

"Can you become a stranger in a strange land who forgot his name, forgot his identity? If only for a minute or two, just to let that bolt of lightning strike, to create enough openness to let the light in."— JB, Empty Thine Cup to Receive

"If you don't discover how to empty your cup, then it cannot be filled by grace, by light, by divinity."

— JB, Empty Thine Cup to Receive

"The mysteriousness of everything holds immense freedom if you can let yourself drop into unknowing, unknowing for even a minute or two."

— JB, Empty Thine Cup to Receive

Dear Family,

I recorded this video a few days ago in Sardinia, Italy during the Gondor retreat.

Gondor was an epic success and this video transmits some of the revelation that was dropping in for me during the journey.

I recommend to watch the video to receive the fullness of the transmission, but if you prefer to read it, here is a lightly edited transcript:

Now is open.

Now is free.

Coming from Italy, on the island of Sardinia—

now is open.

Now is free.

Now is space.

Now is spaciousness.

What happens if you simply experiment with dropping all identifications, all identities, all attachments, all beliefs, all relationships, all conceptions of what you think life is?

And you simply open to the now as if you had never seen it before.

As if this sparkling, glistening portal of openness—this astonishing space of weightless luminous God-play, this clear clearness, this weightless, spaceless, invisible fire—nonetheless radiates and shines forth as all of this colorful, formful poetry.

What if you let yourself see it like a newborn baby seeing it for the first time?

Simply regaled. Bowled over. Awestruck. Dumbstruck.

Joyful to discover that anything could be at all.

That any color could glisten.

That any sky could be so blue.

That a bird could float through it.

That the Mediterranean Sea behind me could simply unfold on the horizon as an appearance of glistening serenity.

Serenity and grace.

Just look at that sea back there.

Look at that peninsula.

We were on that peninsula yesterday and—oh man—the most astounding rock formations. Literally looking like God’s ice cream sundae melting with gargantuan, Narnia-like flavor.

Utterly enchanted.

Like being on an alien planet.

A foreign world.

On every other planet, we’re the aliens. We’re the extraterrestrials.

And Earth is the alien planet.

Can you let yourself see this place we call Earth as a foreign land?

Can you become a stranger in a strange land who forgot his name, forgot his identity?

If only for a minute or two.

Just to let that bolt of lightning strike.

To create enough openness to let the light in.

If you don’t discover how to empty your cup, then it cannot be filled by grace, by light, by divinity.

If your cup is so full with your stories and histories and relationships and attachments and life situations and to-do lists and your laundry list of grievances and complaints and problems—

then there’s no room.

No room for the thunderbolt of revelation to come in, to strike, to resound.

And that’s not to negate everything you’re going through.

That’s not to negate your problems and challenges.

Those are very real.

We are human.

We are people navigating a challenging world—a challenging layer within infinite creation.

And yet—

simple freedom is available here and now.

Home is now.

You are home.

Now is free.

Now is joy.

Now is an ever-present opportunity to completely hit the reset button.

To hit Control-Alt-Delete on your consciousness and simply open to newness and freshness.

Newness and freshness.

Newness and freshness.

The hugest and bestest.

Like an open tornado waiting to whoosh away all apparent problems, hangups, and sticky places.

An ever-present opportunity to let your entire house of consensus reality be whisked away by that Wizard-of-Oz-like tornado of spaciousness.

Joyful vortex.

Now.

And for this nowness to stand revealed as where you’ve always been.

Eternity.

Eternity here and now.

Have you ever experienced anything that didn’t occur right now?

In and as the immediacy of now.

This now-field.

This prayer-field.

This Buddha-field of texture and lusciousness.

This ever-changing tapestry.

This effulgence.

A completely unsayable riddle.

A paradox.

A poem.

Something these words cannot touch or graze.

As the cows meander in the prairie and look on, bemused at this funny passerby.

This funny ape-like humanoid, trickster bard, whatever I happen to be, sojourning and moseying along.

The nice thing is: I don’t need to know.

I don’t need to know what I am.

I play roles in this world.

I play the role of a dad.

A husband.

A family man.

A son.

A brother.

A friend.

A lover of Christ.

A Christian who is also a lover of Zen and the Tao and the Vedantic mysteries.

I play the role of writer, speaker, rapper, creator.

I play all these roles.

But can any of these roles truly and finally define me?

Pin me down?

Say what I am?

Or what any of this is?

No.

And that is great freedom.

The mysteriousness of everything holds immense freedom if you can let yourself drop into unknowing.

Unknowing for even a minute or two.

Forget everything you thought you knew about life and who you were.

Suddenly you find yourself a stranger in a strange land.

You can’t say what you are.

You can’t say what this tapestry of wonders is.

You can’t say what any of this is.

And you simply melt into all of it.

You are one with all of it.

You can’t be pulled apart from any of it.

It’s all moving together.

And you don’t need to say what it is.

Because it’s perfect contentment.

It simply is as it is.

And that’s about the truest thing anybody can say.

This is as it is.

You can call it a glorious emanation of unknown God-nectar from the Heavenly Father and Mother, shining forth as pure radiant juiciness with unbelievable precision, functionality, and artistry as we gallivant through this unfathomably rich world of wonders.

You can poetically evoke it.

Categorize it.

And yet it will always be more than that.

It’s inexhaustible.

As the Christians say.

Especially the Christian monks and mystics have deeply grokked this revelation of God’s inexhaustibility.

The total inexhaustibility of infinity.

There’s always more water in the well.

You’ve never experienced this moment before.

This moment is ever fresh.

Ever new.

A total revelation of newness and abundance.

The nature of abundance is that this moment has never been seen before.

And that’s true now.

And now.

And now.

Consider that on Earth alone there are eight billion people, each one having experiences that have never been experienced before.

Every nanosecond.

A single day of Earth-time contains an infinitude of novelty erupting from this super-volcanic dynamo of creative inspiration and intelligence.

Perpetually gurgitating newness.

Freshness.

These are ways I can poetically evoke fresh possibilities of looking directly here and now and noticing this openness and freedom.

But none of the words can encapsulate it.

It’s too free.

Too open.

Too simple.

Too direct.

It is all-pervading Spirit and the play of all-pervading Spirit as form.

It’s freedom.

It’s open.

So purely open and free.

Look at this pathway leading to the Mediterranean Sea.

It’s utterly astounding.

Utterly beyond fathoming that anything could be at all.

And that it happens to look like this.

This world of wonders.

This Willy Wonka chocolate factory of phantasmagorical fun and frankincense floating and fluttering through itself, as itself.

We are immeasurably fortunate to be alive.

Immeasurably fortunate.

This is an extravagant treasure chest of boundless bizarreness and bounty.

Bountiful beauty.

Radiant, numinous, luminous poetry.

God-poems splayed out nakedly revealed.

Nothing hidden.

Nothing revealed.

In a deep sense, it’s always been standing right before you.

Gobsmacking you in the forehead.

God-smacking you in the forehead.

The simplicity of the color green.

The flotation of a butterfly.

Every single thing testifies to infinity.

To the nameless.

To what cannot be said.

To limitless creative capacity and intelligence.

Beyond all mechanistic metaphors.

Way beyond mechanistic.

The nature of this functionality is so omni-jubilant and omni-dimensionally intricate that it’s utterly unfathomable.

Utterly unfathomable.

So this has been something of a meandering video diary from Sardinia, Italy.

Transmitting some impressions after being on retreat the last few days.

What a lovely experience that was.

Good brothers.

Good soul brothers.

Food for the soul.

Medicine for the heart.

I’m just so grateful.

Deeply in awe of the treasures of this island and the treasures all around us.

Every location holds the omnipresent open secret.

The omnipresent freedom.

The omnipresent openness.

There’s no place where God’s treasure chest is not.

It’s all-pervading.

So soak it in if you like.

Check it out.

It’s here for the grazing.

It’s here for the slurping through a straw.

Imagine your whole consciousness as a giant mouth drinking in this vastness from all angles.

Let yourself feel that.

It’s a lot about letting it in.

Opening the sensitivity to really receive the astonishing poetry perpetually all around us.

So—

that’s the message for today.

Thank you for listening.

Sending love and hugs from Italy.

Peace.

God bless.

Buddha bless.

Christ bless.

Be well.

Be well.

Peace infinity.

Much joy.

One love.

Love,Jordan

P.S. Here’s a hint of what’s coming next.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Brother,

We need your voice.

We need your truth.

We need your story.

We need your pain.

Today’s podcast provides a massive permission slip for you to open the floodgates of public creativity.

This originated as a voice note that I sent to the Kingly Business Incubator within Council of Kings.

I felt to give all of you a deeper taste of the kinds of transmissions I’m sending to the brothers who are part of our alliance of builders.

Here is the full, lightly-edited transcript as well, for those who prefer to read it:

Hey brothers,

Creation and creativity can be very easy. It is very easy when it’s just flowing. You just let it flow.

We can get so many ideas that creativity is hard, that it all has to be meticulously planned out and meticulously edited, and that there are all these steps you have to go through.

A lot of that can just be burned down. You can throw away all those ideas.

Because the most important thing, initially, is to get into the zone of creating and publishing ongoingly.

If you don’t have that skill, if you haven’t opened the volcano of being able to create ongoingly, then it’s not going to matter how good your strategy is, if you are not able to be a firehose of creation.

If that’s your calling, then first and foremost, you need to open the firehose.

And that can be really liberating and really simple.

Literally, you can just press record on a video, stream of consciousness, talk about something, and immediately upload it exactly as it is. It’s that simple.

The vast majority of my videos have just been me doing that, with zero editing.

Similar with social media posts or blog posts. You can just sit down, write something — 100, 200, 500 words stream of consciousness — hit publish, and toss it out there.

The vast majority of my posts are written that way with very little editing. Maybe I read back through them once or twice before publishing, then just put them out there.

If it’s a longer essay, I might do some deeper revision or editing. But so much of my creativity occurs as a pure flow of inspiration: just letting it flow, letting it rip, putting it out there.

And I think a lot of you guys are actually creating a lot in your life, but there’s a gap between creating and publishing.

You’re creating tons of gold in your journals, in your poetry books, in the background, but you’re not hitting the publish button.

That’s a gap to overcome as well.

You want to become comfortable with open-sourcing your life, open-sourcing your process, if you’re called in that direction. Not everyone is authentically called to go there.

But I think a lot of us here have this authentic calling to open-source our lives, our process, and our creativity for the good of all.

That’s part of our medicine: to pulse and blast our signal into the field.

It’s a very noisy world, and your signal is valuable.

The signal that comes from your heart, your wisdom, your inner child, your true voice, your true pain.

Another common fallacy is:“Oh, I can’t create or record right now because I’m in pain. I’m struggling.”

But that’s the gold.

We need that.

That’s the juice.

We need to hear about your pain, your struggle.

You recording a stream-of-consciousness video about your real pain will probably be more powerful than a hundred videos of you having a peak experience and saying, “I’m so enlightened right now and life is easy.”

We need your pain.

There’s so much juice there. So much rawness, potency, power, and realness.

Another common fallacy in the spiritual community is,“Oh, I’m not enlightened enough yet, so who am I to share anything?”

Nobody’s actually enlightened.

Enlightenment is a fiction.

There is no destination of enlightenment.

No one is fully enlightened. Anyone claiming to be fully enlightened is full of s**t, and you should stop listening to that person because God is inexhaustible.

There’s a reason God is known as infinity.

Infinity goes on forever.

There’s no end to deepening with God and opening to God.

And thank heavens for that, because that is eternal fulfillment.

It fulfills on ever deeper levels. Further and further oceanic depths of mystery are revealed. Ever more profound love is revealed, embodied, and shared.

And when you realize that, it’s just like:“Oh, we’re all like children on our hands and knees, just getting started, and eternity’s going to be a long beautiful time.”

You have way more of value to share than you might realize.

So you’ve got to burn down those barriers and get that skill moving of volcanically putting it out there.

Eliminate that gap between creation and publishing.

Eliminate that gap between experiencing and creating.

All of life is art, and all of life can be translated into art at any time.

And the best way is when it’s easy.

The best way is when it’s pure inspiration.

It might feel like bleeding onto the page, but it’s still gushing out of you naturally because it’s real, it’s overflowing.

You’re having an insight, or you feel something hit you in the heart, and you’re like:“I feel a spontaneous overflow, a creative inspiration to translate this into art right now. Translate this into a video. Translate this into an audio.”

Like I’m doing right now.

Burn down the gap and get comfortable being that firehose of signal.

Then over time, you can shape your signal more.

For one, you can see who your organic signal is attracting. That’s extremely valuable because those people are going to be your true soul family.

If you are sharing your raw soul, the people who resonate with that are going to be the souls most closely linked with you and most similar to your template in this lifetime.

So that’s a huge upside of prolific creativity:You call in the soul fam.

And at the same time, over time, you can also get clearer on:“What are some of my most central messages?”

If I’m trying to create an ecosystem or a business around what I’m doing, what am I actually offering people?

What services am I offering?

And how can I start to shape my art and content to speak even more directly to the person I’m creating for, educating them about what I’m offering?

But you won’t be able to do that effectively if you haven’t already developed the skill of being the firehose of creativity, being the volcano, giving zero f***s what people may think about it.

And the way to do that is baptism by fire: Just putting the reps in.

You can’t think your way into not caring what people think.

You repeatedly subject yourself to the fire and realize that it doesn’t actually affect your deepest essence.

Connect to the part of you that is completely beyond any criticism or any other human ape’s opinion of what you’re doing.

Be open to feedback, for sure. Be open to reflections.

But don’t give a f**k what people think.

Just put your organic signal out there.

Know that if you’re really laying your heart and soul on the line and sharing what’s real for you, that echoes for eternity, and the opinion of no mortal can touch that.

So just put it out there.

And yeah, as you develop that skill, you can shape it more over time to become more dialed in around what you’re specifically offering.

But even then, for me, I still need to make plenty of space for organic inspiration and organic creativity.

It’s never worked for me to be overly rigid, formulaic, or overly planned out.

I’m sure some people can do that, but for me, sometimes I wake up thinking I’m going to work on one thing, and then suddenly I’m like:“I feel like I’m meant to make a song right now.”

Then I trust that, make the song, and listen to it a hundred times over the next days. It becomes a charge-up, a power-up that I needed.

So you want to leave open space for pure inspiration and honor that inspiration when it’s coming through.

Otherwise it can dry up. You can lose touch with it.

The well of inspiration is limitless. But if you’re not honoring your pure inspiration, it might vacate for a while. It might go speak to someone else and try to find another portal to manifest through because you’re not honoring it.

So honor that inspiration.

And don’t keep it to yourself.

Don’t keep it locked up in your journal where no one can see it.

Put it out there so other people can receive it, benefit from it, and find medicine in it.

Thanks for listening, brothers.

Much love.

Next Steps to Open the Volcano 🌋

I hope this was valuable for you, brother.

If you’re ready to go deeper into your true voice, creativity, conscious business, and spaceholding…

We’ve got something baking in the oven for you.

If you’d like to be the first to hear about it and receive a personal invitation, enter your name and email here.

When you do, we’ll also send you The King’s Blueprint, our comprehensive guide and workbook to clarify your vision and deepen your mastery of life, leadership, legacy, marriage, fatherhood, vocation, spirituality, wealth, and well-being as a modern man.

This is the first time we’ll be sharing The King’s Blueprint with anyone outside of Council of Kings.

And consider joining us for Gondor.

There’s still time to make a spontaneous leap and join us on an Italian island in 10 days for Gondor, our 4-day men’s medicine retreat. The amount of raw creativity among the men attending is off the charts. This will definitely be a great activation of your voice, creativity, leadership, vision, and kingly embodiment in all areas of life.

A couple spaces remain open, so we’re able to offer our subscribers two final-opportunity tickets at a 50% discount. Simply mention this newsletter when you apply.

Read the vision & join us. 🙏🏻

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jordanbates.substack.com/subscribe