Purpose Highway®

HIGHLIGHTS

• The concept of sin as a legitimate driver of human behavior
• Jon’s view on cultural sin
• Jesus making the biggest deal on sin
• How postmodernism benefits and falls apart
• Jon’s personal journey of uncertainty
• Jon’s personal journey of suffering
• Managing suffering and grief
• The concept of abundance

QUOTES

Jon: “So again, I come from this, this Christian worldview, and, and sin has become, I think, almost a central topic in this world view that I come from. And I think it's really an old story. I think we're fixated on the brokenness and depravity of man.”

Scott: “There has been I think people would argue this and extreme obsession. With the sinfulness of people like me, meanwhile, being perfectly fine with trashing the entire planet, or eating animals that have been tortured, you know.”

Jon: “I think we make sin, I have to speak from within my worldview, at least initially, I think we make sin far too big of a deal. And so it's it, he's made the biggest deal of it, he can, so we don't need to anymore.”

Jon: “Tolerance is a beautiful concept, but I think it went too far as to mean, tolerance means acceptance of every single worldview is equally valid. And pretty quickly, you and I could come up with some worldviews that we'd say no, that's morally evil, and should be opposed.”

Jon: “Again, I think some of my current worldviews to some of my goal is to live as humanly as possible. Part of that humanity, humanity means I will suffer, it is a given I will die someday I will get sick someday. So suffering is a given.”

Jon: “Grief is one of those moments where we just need someone to sit with us. There will come a time to give answers or to talk or to give perspective. But usually, the power we have is in the power of our presence, not in our words.”

Jon: “I don't want to miss a moment of it. I want to fully experience the sadness, the loss, the suffering, the saying goodbye because death is a part of life.”

Jon: “The concept of abundance starts to push my thinking back into that kind of negativity versus positivity mindset. Because we don't believe there's a an abundance, we're out there taking everything we can as quickly as I can, and to hell with the people who are going to drown and die.”

To find out more about Jon, please see the links below.

• Website: http://www.jondillowcounseling.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-dillow-a3618b161/

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose HighwayⓇ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sisyphus, Pandora's Box, and hope
• Hope is a double-edged sword
• False hope can trivialize pain and suffering
• Our big brains allow us to ask "What if?"
• At the root of most anxiety is uncertainty
• Our relationship with uncertainty and truth has changed drastically
• Religions are rigid in their modernist truths and cannot adapt
• Suffering is a fact of life
• People waste their gifts because they avoid risk

QUOTES

Jon: "It is hard for us creatures to function without some sense of hope, some sense that tomorrow could be better. And yet at the same time, hope is a really dangerous commodity because it raises our expectations and sets us up for disappointment."

Jon: "If we think evolutionarily, we've been given a negativity bias. We have this bias towards the negative that is we encounter uncertainty, we don't see it as a wonderful surprise that is waiting to occur. We instead look at it and say something bad is going to occur because that kept us alive. It was a survival adaptation to think towards the negative."

Jon: "Much of our struggles as humans can be traced back to an attempt to resolve uncertainty. Of course we can think of lots of negative ways to resolve uncertainty. We try to minimize it, we try to avoid it, we medicate it. And these are ways that don't free us to live in a fully and robust human way. Instead, our world kind of shrinks in, as we deal with uncertainty in that way."

Jon: "Science did away with much of our mystery and then I think religion started to adopt that and became smaller and started to be more rigid. You mentioned that the institutions of religion may have set themselves up for a fall. I think one of the challenges in our religious rigidity is we're not able to grow and adapt."

Jon: "I think our Christianity as it existed when I grew up will be dead 10 years from now. They won't exist anymore because we had a rigidity around the way we've practiced our faith that has not allowed it to adapt to  changing culture."

Jon: "There is really suffering in America. But as a culture, I think the message is a little bit along the lines of 'we can overcome suffering'. We can make disease, illness, sadness, whatever it is, we can make it go away. So the goal is to make suffering stop. I don't think that's congruent with reality. Suffering is a given reality. And if we don't accept that, embrace that, then we're living in a somewhat delusional way."

To find out more about Jon, please see the links below.

• Website: http://www.jondillowcounseling.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-dillow-a3618b161/

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose HighwayⓇ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Deep dive into Buddhism
• Growing communities around stoicism 
• Most things in life happen by chance
• How the stoics viewed Indifferents
• The Discipline of Passion
• Rein in your passions and focus on rationality
• Stoics want be better, not just feel better
• The Discipline of Action
• Only the true sage is a good friend 
• The Disciple of Ascent
• Decline of Stoicism in favor of Christianity in the ancient world 
• The value of Stoicism in the modern world 
• Stoicism should not be used to exploit people

QUOTES

Gregory: "An indifferent  is something that is in your life that will not necessarily make it better and could make it worse. That's all it is. A lot of things consider good, such as health and wealth, are indiffirents to the stoics. And that seems shocking to a lot of people. Of course, I need to be healthy to be happy. Of course I need some amount of money to be happy and things like that. But if you understand the argument I think it makes a little more sense."

Gregory: "The stoic argument of these things being indifferent means that anything that comes into your life through luck  can only be put to good use if you have a good enough character. If you are brave enough, if you think about what's really good in the world, if you care enough about others and you care enough about yourself in certain ways, then you can put things into good use."

Gregory: "We are beyond any animal that's out there, being able to think abstractly and use language. And these passions push reason to the side. We cannot reason when we are in a passion, and so it makes us literally less human when we're doing these kinds of things." 

Gregory: "The goal of the discipline of desire is to temper these passions so that we can become better humans more generally. Not to feel better but to become better."

Gregory: "You're not ready at this first stage to desire what is desirable. If you don't have a hold to your passions to some degree, you're not ready to be ethical. Because these strong emotions will push reason to the side and turn us against each other."

Gregory: "Maybe Stoicism won't be picked up by a lot of people and it may die out again. And I think in terms of compromising some basic principles like between Stoicism dying out again and Stoicism being turned into a life hack that makes factory workers a little bit more happy in the eerie smiley sense but still living lives that are painful in a lot of other ways, then I'd rather Stoicism die out."

To find out more about Gregory, please see the links below.

• Website: https://greglopez.me/philosophy/
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-New-Stoics-Week-Week/dp/1615195335

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose HighwayⓇ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Is philosophy replacing religion?
• What is stoicism?
• The stoic way of looking at Medea 
• Always look at both the positive and negative aspects of life
• Stoicism can help introduce control and avoid snap judgments
• Not everyone wants to just 'feel better' 
• Looking at the global pandemic through a Stoic lens

QUOTES

Gregory: "People are looking for ways to guide their life and ways to form community in order to counteract the silent plague that you mentioned. I think philosophy can play a large part in helping some people out with that."

Gregory: "The goal of stoicism is to make the world a better space for your immediate sphere and the world in general."

Gregory: "A lot of stoic practice involves you thinking about what bad things supposedly can happen in order to anticipate them and not be as harmed by them if they do arise. So the stoicism mindset and stoic daily practice isn't really about being optimistic, but actually trying to be pessimistic about things that are outside of your control and the world at large, and in saying that even when things go wrong, I'm going to try to do the best I can."

To find out more about Gregory, please see the links below.

• Website: https://greglopez.me/philosophy/
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-New-Stoics-Week-Week/dp/1615195335

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• You need to be open to receive wisdom
• So much of life today is about unlearning 
• Have we lost our sense of our inner child? 
• Growing up in a conservative Irish Catholic family
• Tribes exist to perpetuate themselves 
• Everybody needs to be humbled sometimes
• Nonverbal communication speaks volumes 
• How an Irishman got interested in Chinese culture and methodologies 
• Everybody wears a mask
• Building exceptional relationships takes mutual respect
• Our whole body is an antenna
• The state of the body is the state of the mind and the heart
• Body language speaks volumes about a person

QUOTES

Joseph: "So much of the learning in life is actually from unlearning the conditioning we've grown up and the conditioning that was passed on to us through many generations. We're seeing in the world today just how dysfunctional so many societies have become. To me, so much of what's required now is an unlearning." 

Scott: "The only thing that COVID-19 has done, in my opinion, has been to exacerbate everything or maybe to speed it up, or make it undeniable. The alienation and separation that people have been feeling have been documented in studies of the workplace, trust in business, trust in institutions like government, involvement in a whole other host of civic organizations, even political involvement. That alienation leads to cynicism, it leads to division, it leads to separation from each other's heart and it goes to what you do fundamentally for a living." 

Joseph: “The church needs to become smaller. It needs to become more localized and it needs to allow, and I don't know that it will, but it needs to allow local priests and local nuns deal with the realities on the ground and properly be of service to the real needs of the people in their communities. Not what the church says the needs are, the great edifice of the church but the real needs of the people, and actually and genuinely and completely, and fully, serve.” 

Joseph: "Don't judge me by my words. Are my words and actions congruent and consistent? If they're not, call me out on it."

Joseph: "Everybody wears a mask. No matter who you are, no matter where you're from, no matter what level of success you've attained in your life has some level of insecurity about something earlier in their life. Everybody, no exceptions." 

To find out more about Joseph, please see the links below.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clearsightcommunications/
• Website: https://clearsightcommunications.com/

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Becoming a widow and losing a sense of community
• Your story helps others in their journey of healing
• The trauma connection leads to self-discovery
• Guilt: An emotion that strikes each a different way
• Kashaun loses her husband in a tragic car accident
• Spirituality and community begins with non judgment 

QUOTES

Kashaun: "I just really did not want to feel like I was in this space alone when everything in me was alone. I didn't want to feel alone. So it was, how can I help me? Well, I can reach out. I can start to advocate for myself and try to, while I'm doing that, see who I could help too."

Kashaun: "What I've learned is it does vary by age, (grief) does vary by length of relationship, but it also varies by the health of the relationship."

Kashaun: "How do I please me, which is really who it's about, whether you're 80 or 20 in this space. How do I maintain the level of peace for me that allows me to move forward in a way that I can live with? And, whatever that is, by all means do it."

Kashaun: "I'm not here to tell you what to believe. I'm here to hear your story and if us talking and sharing our stories lends way to what my beliefs are and you want to know more, then I'll share. But even in the sharing space, it is really from a sense of just that. I'm not to persuade you, I am not to convince you. You will make that choice for yourself."

To find out more about Kashaun, please see the links below.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashaunparkernextstepforwardcoaching/
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NextStepForwardLLC

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The dominance of males are at an end for the old institutions 
• A new form of spirituality may be on the rise 
• The transition from polytheism to monotheism diminished women
• If God is everywhere, there should have been no space for sin 
• Most people just want to be happy
• Everything is alive with energy
• I am God, and that is my spirituality
• Getting kicked out of religion and developing own spirituality
• Willingness is the keyword 
• Invest in your mindset

QUOTES

Rich: "You are here for a reason. That's not revolutionary. But it's now time to unmute yourself. This is the time to own the gift and the experiences and the expertise that you have and get off the couch of complacency and open your mouth, stick your face in front of a camera and say what you have to say so the people who are meant for you can hear you.

Rich: "There's wounding. For some of us, far more than others. And I believe that the innate human spirit is to thrive, not just to survive, but is to, want to, enjoy life to be prosperous, to be happy. Most people just want to be happy. 

Rich: “That's why I have hope. As long as humans have this desire to be happy, whether they know what it means for them or not, then there's this opportunity to figure that out for themselves and that is part of the work that I do.”

Rich: “There's an energetic force alive, whether you believe in calling it God or not, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you call it what you call it. There's an energetic creative force that is always evolving and unfolding and humans are a part of it, whether we want to believe it or not. Everything is energy. Even the rock outside your front door that you think is dead, is alive and vibrating with energy, it's just in a different frequency.”

Rich: “I don't believe in a God that sits in heaven or someplace. I believe that all this energy that I choose to call the universe, this universal spirit, the one mind, the thing that therefore, it flows through me, therefore I am it, too. That's a far better place for me to operate from than being subservient to something that I'm told controls or doesn't like me, or 'm not good enough, that I don't deserve."

Rich: “If I can get a person to believe that they're message is more important than their fears, doubt, and worries, then we can get them to the place that they need to be.”

Rich: “If you're willing to be bigger than your fears, doubts, worries, and preconceived notions about you and what other people think about you, just willing, not know how to figure out all this stuff out, just willing, then you can do everything.”

To find out more about Rich, please see the links below.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richoceguera/
• Website: https://www.richawakenings.com/
   

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Leaning on spirituality for police work 
• Can spirituality fill the gap between police officers and the community?
• Quitting the police force and ruminations on use of force 
• Surfing as a way to decompress for service personnel
• Bridging the gap between community and police through surfing
• Making waves and reaching more communities 

QUOTES

Robert: "Spirituality is just a thread you're constantly trying to reel, in to keep yourself grounded and whatever that might be, so that you can remain good, and you can remain of service and not look at the world through this kind of, jaded lens."

Robert: "You really need to lean in to your values and spirituality in order to hold on to that humanity. Far too often, people in that profession, and you often see that in veterans as well, just put up this wall where they just can't take anymore and they just become a robot. And, they have no emotion. They can't be empathetic to people. And that's when you get the bad outcome." 

Scott: "Spirituality at least, arguably, connects us to something larger. But, I would be utterly remiss, particularly in this day and age, if I didn't point out that in many communities, there is a profound disconnect between the officers that are serving the communities, and the members of the communities themselves." 

Robert: "Police, fire, veterans, military, they are constantly in a state of hypervigilance, right? Always looking over their shoulder, whether it's for physical violence, or safety, or to help  somebody. They always wanna radio. Some of them carry a weapon. We're constantly scanning, and worrying and then guess what, your family is there and they're pinging you."

Robert: "I want to continue for SWEL to be, and it says in our strategic plan that we're stewards of the community. We're providing inclusive opportunities for other communities to experience this and maybe experience this with a service man or woman as well. Really, my vision is to scale and to continue to make trips and perhaps even have dedicated spot at the beach to where we have everything lined up."  

To find out more about Robert, please see the links below.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-sanderson-44419b1a9/
• Website: https://www.theswel.org/
• Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/TheSWELmission/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theswelmission/

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Navigating the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Finding purpose amidst the horrors of life 
• From six-figure salary to homeless before 30
• Emotional suppression can lead to a physical manifestation
• Dealing with imposter syndrome
• Reflections on Michael A. Singer's The Untethered Soul
• Bouncing back through speaking about one's truth

QUOTES

Lois: "I started questioning everything. I questioned everything about business, I questioned everything about religion. I questioned and started searching for the first time, at age 30. And it opened me up to a whole world of spirituality."

Lois: "I wanted to bring transformation to people's businesses, mental, physical, spiritual, but I was so scared of judgment. And being seen as an imposter."

Lois: "To see for me wasn't about religion. It's about love, acceptance, collective consciousness, and just truly, getting rid of any kind of doctrine or dogma or rules that really came from, in my opinion, a place of power, control, and different agendas than what, say, the Buddhists taught."

Lois: "I was so afraid to speak my truth, I manifested an autoimmune disease in my throat."

Lois: "I lied to myself for 13 years, because I thought success was work hard, play hard, never let them see you sweat, wear the mask, all of the things. So I was essentially lying to myself."

Lois: "I had more time to just unpack it and connect with myself. Not listening to the media, not listening to family, not listening to past mentors and other people who, you know, love them, but might have been manipulating me a little bit for their own personal gain." 

Lois: "The duality of the world is why I've had eight friends commit suicide. They didn't get to speak their truth. They were afraid because they were different. They were weird or they were lost because they didn't understand their truth."

To find out more about Lois, please see the links below.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loiskoffi/
• Website: https://loiskoffi.com/
• Manifest and Monetize Summit: https://manifestandmonetize.com/
• Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lois-koffis-healthy-n-wealthy-n-wise-podcast/id1523194158

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Morality is in the talking, Ethics are in the walking
• Old moral institutions need to adapt to modern-day challenges 
• People need a solid ground to make ethical choices
• Ethics of leadership in the United States 
• The issue with seeing the world in black and evil 
• Being aware of our higher and lower natures
• Are revolutions as a reaction to systematic problems still unethical?
• The myths and stories we tell ourselves 
• Building trust with others can only improve quality of life
• A conversation about moral progressivism
• Scouts, Pioneers, and Settlers
• We all want to advance civilization

QUOTES

Christopher: "The best way to think about morality is that it is the guidelines, the guideposts that tell us in our cultures, in our groups, in our families what's right and what's wrong. Ethics are the actions that we take after we evaluate that set of standards that we're using."

Christopher: "As our capacities as individuals and societies grow, we find that the old paradigms no longer answer the new questions."

Scott: "I was thinking we should never be relying on institutions at all to provide ethical guidance. After all, as you seem to point towards in the book, ethical decision making is an individual choice where we have to struggle with and take upon ourselves the challenge of wrestling with these situations that we face and coming up with decisions for our own."

Christopher: "It's all the little choices we make that build up to the largest offenses." 

Christopher: "If we put ethics in the perspective of good and evil, I think we miss out on the idea that all of us are in this continuum and sometimes I make higher nature choices, and sometimes I make lower nature choices."

Christopher: The idea of building trust with others goes to the most fundamental roots of the way that we work with one another even in a world where people don't believe in four-way stop signs.

To find out more about Christopher, please see the links below.

• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Noble-Edge-Reclaiming-Ethical-Choice/dp/1631954059
• Website: https://www.nobleedgeconsulting.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ckgilbert9/

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.