Continuing the discussion on differing circumstances from the last episode, today we go deeper into our Kabbalistic contemplation of the common life force present in all people, things, and circumstances.

• Review of the 4 levels of reality through the metaphor of the Torah scroll
• The true nature of esoteric teachings and why they're secretive
• How perceiving and relating with the shared life force (the ink) makes it impossible to hate
• The difference between electric light and starlight
• What is natural?
• Seeing the same ink in both a tyrant and their victim(s)
• What we're doing here: Awareness becoming aware of itself
• Integrating dual and non-dual
• Chinese landscape paintings, and exercising restraint with the expressions of our ink

Coming in in a very weird mood, this episode is a real time process of living in a world of inequality and astronomically different situations. I also share an unplanned Kabbalistic teaching on 4 levels of interpreting the Torah Scroll and reality, which I learned from my teacher Zvi Ish-Shalom. It's not about finding a neat answer to inequality and living with differences, but about feeling our way through the complexity and multidimensionality at play in all our circumstances.

In this episode:

- The weirdness of all of us living together, all with different circumstances

- The 4 Layers of the Torah: Words, Letters, Ink, and Parchment

- The heartbreaking gift of Life in all circumstances

In this first episode of Season 2, I share my key insights from studying and practicing the KonMari method of tidying up a physical home as a spiritual practice.

Covered in this episode:

- A thanks to listeners and a technical note on my recording technique

- Overview of Marie Kondo and the KonMari method of tidying up your life

- Marie Kondo as a role model for living one's life authentically

- How to decide how much stuff you need, what to keep and what to throw away

- Possession as an honoring practice

- Sparking Joy, and living a life aligned with your personal and intuitive sense of Joy, aligned with your unique nature and life purpose

- Acknowledging and appreciating when things have served their purpose and are complete for you

- Discarding papers

- The dangers of too much good storeage

- How and where to store things you want to keep

- Living spaciously

- The Animism of living intentionally with freer energy in the material world

- The difference between daily cleaning and the tidying marathon

- The Click Point - what you need to be happy

Footnote: one thing I'd like to emphasize is that the point of tidying up is not to live with the least amount of things. The point is to live only with things that you love, to live a life of greater and greater Love, physically and beyond. And in that sense it's okay to keep sentimental things and other stuff; this process helps clarify what you really love now, in the current version of yourself.

In our 18th Episode Spectacular (!), join me in a living meditation. You don't have to be sitting still, but to get the full effect, you are warmly invited to listen, not just to me, but to the full energy of Life as it moves through you throughout this episode. Preceded by a short left-brain (rational) talk, we then drop into a direct right-brain (experiential) relationship with Life itself. Including some guidance and spontaneous teachings throughout, this episode speaks to:

• The Hebrew word for life (chai) and its relationship to the number 18.

• The typical podcast (and modern living) left-brain orientation and an invitation into a right-brain experience of living. (This is referencing the left and right hemispheres of the brain and their general functions.)

• Songs versus musical improvisation.

• Labeling what you're doing in categories (i.e. worrying, judging, reliving, planning... Appreciating, breathing, listening, etc.).

• Forgiveness - what it really is and does.

• Gratitude.

Thanks for listening to this show.

With infinite Love,

Dan

Listening to the radio sparked a contemplation on the side effects of having so many choices of on-demand experiences, namely the difficulty of staying present with what's happening.

• Sifting through and discarding genius
• The difficulty of being just fine
• Financial wealth and spiritual poverty
• True fulfillment will never come from an external impermanent thing
• Eternal satisfaction in the complete process of never-ending nows
• The addiction to seeking the perfect high
• Appreciating the normal any day

This episode is an invitation to take time throughout your life to pause your habitual activity and open to something else—the mystery of what's beyond our personal fixations. In pausing and listening, you can enter into a personal relationship with Life itself. In my experience, and in that of countless streams of wisdom, Life is unceasingly generous and intelligent; so give her a chance. Put down your phone, pick up the silence, and listen.

• Pausing
• How self-obsession plays out through our plans and agendas
• Not-doing and at first hearing the echoes of our recent inputs and ourselves
• Opening to something greater than yourself
• Living in relationship with Life itself
• Intellectually knowing about vs experientially knowing what actually is
• Connecting with Eternity, the Eternal Now.

This episode is a continuation of the threads explored in episodes 14 and 13.

• How recognizing the safety of Death enables greater trust with Life
• How Life's needs moved through me at a recent concert
• Dancing and standing still at general admission shows
• Dancing with the variety of life's needs expressed through different people at different times
• A prayer and a blessing for your Trusting this moment

From a narrow and constricted view of reality, death can be a scary end.

From a wider openness to all of existence, death is safe.

• Death will not kill us
• A song of birth and death

Beyond the techniques of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) (explored in the last episode), I find a deep spiritual connection to life that NVC can bring us into greater contact with. When we connect with our needs, we are connecting with the dynamic edge of life's evolution. In this episode, I contemplate some of the juiciest and most interesting aspects of the philosophy underpinning NVC.

• How blaming others disempowers us
• Reclaiming power and responsibility for our emotional states no matter the circumstances
• Recognizing alignment - working with right/wrong in a way that doesn't violently divide life
• How Spirit speaks through needs - yours and every other individuation of life

Nonviolent Communication (NVC), developed by Marshall Rosenberg, has been used to foster peace, reconciliation, understanding, empathy, and collaboration in settings from warzones to personal relationships. It's also an incredibly helpful framework to develop self-understanding when you're feeling disturbed by an inner or outer conflict. In this episode, I explain the simple 4-step process of NVC so you can begin using it to create more inner and outer peace in your life.

• How to build a stronger connection with someone when you're upset with them, rather than a larger divide
• How to speak in a conflict without making the other person defensive
• How to tune into and take responsibility for what's really happening under the surface for you in a challenging situation