Fully Integrated Leadership

In order to live by the knowledge of nonduality, we have to prepare the mind so it is receptive to these counterintuitive ideas. Daily practices of "mental fitness" help to prepare the "soil" of the mind so we can successfully plant the garden of self-knowledge.

The practice of nonduality becomes even more important on the "hard" days, the days where frustration, sadness, etc. are present for the mind and body. These are the days when it's critical to remember that I am that which is aware of these things happening in the mind and the body.

When we construct fences around ourselves, we are agitated and struggle to function with the understanding that we are happy, free, whole and complete. We need to learn to meditate on the vastness that we are, rather than confining ourselves to the mind and the body. 

I cover a few topics in this episode: 1) the persistence of the system to make us believe that we are lacking, incomplete and in need of something to make us happy, 2) why quitting when it's hard is not a good idea, 3) why it's important to have unconditional love for our self and for each other.

Even in spirituality, we seek happiness/enlightenment as an experience, as an object. Enlightenment is the recognition that I am already happy, free, whole, complete. It is not a state experience that is dependent on some teaching or guru or retreat. 

Since we cannot directly experience awareness with the senses, we have to accept inference as a valid means of knowledge. We also have to move away from "wound-ology" where we get stuck in the stories of how we've been wounded in the past. 

There are so many things that can distract us from the one reason we are here on this plane of existence: to realize who we are. 

When we don't get the result that we expect, and when that result is difficult for us to deal with, this is a gift to show us the attachments we have. Karma yoga helps to clear the mind of these patterns of likes and dislikes, allowing the bliss of awareness to shine through unencumbered. 

Knowing that I am awareness is great, but the restless mind and the world make it difficult to maintain this knowledge in experience. Karma Yoga is the practice that helps to clear the mind so it is prepared to receive the knowledge and integrate it on a daily basis. 

Why do we search for happiness when we already are happy, free, whole and complete? What does it mean to remove ignorance vs. have an experience of the self?