Ep. 32 | Keep Coming Back and Cleaning Out The Dark Corners

Call and Response Ep. 32 Keep Coming Back and Cleaning Out The Dark Corners

“You don’t have to know anything. All you have to do is be happy. And think about other people once in a while instead of yourself. That’s all. It’s ridiculous how happy you can be when you don’t think about yourself. Ridiculous. Completely absurd. You wouldn’t think that would be the case but it is the case.“ – Krishna Das

So, these are the people who couldn’t get enough abuse last night, right? Very good. I can’t wait.  In India they call it “teasing.” Galli, it’s called. It’s when a teacher, not me, but when a Guru or somebody teases His devotees by, you know, like, abuse, flinging abuses at them.  Huh?

Q: It’s a sign of love. You love us.

KD: Oh, very much. It means you’re really; it means there’s no, you’re really close, you know? You’re really, there’s no distance or formality, you know? You miserable… How many, there’s no children here today, are there? Anybody under 30?

You see what I mean? It’s going to be a good night. There’s, well, I ‘m not going to go into the curses. I actually learned, you know, Maharajji used to do this all the time and the Indian people would kind of just look down like this, like… and we kept saying, “What’s he saying? What’s he saying?” “Oh, never mind.”

“You naked babies!”

I mean, if you really want to get somebody angry in India, call them a “naked baby.” Oh, my God. So, I had learned all these curse words and abuses that He used to offer to people, so to speak. I had to force myself to forget them because I was using them in the wrong situations.

So, what we’ve just been doing is called the repetition of the Names of God.  That’s what they call it. Personally, I don’t know about God. But that’s a Name that doesn’t appeal to me that much. But in India, all these Names have different qualities and different aspects and they understand there’s only One. All One. But it has many Names and can be approached from within each one of us, our own particular shape or form, insanity.  And it’s through all that, these Names will pull us through all our stuff into our Self.  Another Name for God is “Self” with a capital “S.” The sense of Being. It’s not a Thing. But it’s a, it’s a, the Presence. So, when we sing, we try to pay some attention to the sound of the Name, whichever Name we’re repeating and as soon as we notice that we haven’t been paying attention, we come back to the Name. At least for the next millionth of a second. And then after a while, of course, you notice that you haven’t been paying attention, so you come back again, but actually, the moment when you notice that you haven’t been paying attention, you’re already back. How did that happen? We didn’t do that. We were lost in our thoughts. How did we come back? How did that happen?

Well… first of all, that’s the fruit of practice that we ourselves have done before.  That’s the fruit of our own practice. Every time you come back, we’re planting a seed in our own consciousness that continues to grow and that seed keeps bringing us back.  The other aspect is that we’re always here, we just forget.  And so, when the energy of a particular thought runs out, we’re back because that’s where we were anyway, but we weren’t paying attention.  So, that’s why it’s not necessary to create anything or manipulate your emotions or try to feel any particular type of thing, like I don’t care about bliss or ecstasy. Screw it. I just want to be here. And if some of that comes, well, good, I’ll enjoy it. But if it doesn’t come, that’s ok, too. Don’t try to make anything happen. Why would you join a club that they’d actually let you join?  I wouldn’t.

So, anything I can create with my mind is going to pass sooner or later. What’s the sense? Just keep coming back and what’s within us will start to be uncovered, and we’ll start to have direct intuitive experience that’s beyond the thoughts and emotions.