If one were to examine and study the core tenets of every major religion or spirituality around the world, they would most likely find a shared sense of compassion, caring for others, and love. Yet, even with these profound similarities, people tend to view those not from their religion as different from them. In this episode of The Missing Conversation, Robert talks about the importance and benefits of inclusive faiths that share international values.

What does that mean? Essentially, Robert points out how most religions are united in their principle teachings. The faith that the students and followers of individual religions share common pillars and some significantly aligned values, actions, and attitudes. However, over time, these religious practices, traditions, and beliefs have taken precedence over core, humanistic values and actions.

There is value and benefit to being inclusive of other religions and treating them with respect and acceptance, and finding common ground to bond with each other. After all, as Robert says, "No one group has a monopoly on world love or compassion." However, the dangers of exclusive religious teachings lead to blind spots that foster competition, breed mistrust and create divisions among us.

We need to do our best to embody honesty, integrity, kindness, generosity, and love towards humanity — values present in almost every religion. Indeed, Robert also shares how his father, despite not being strongly affiliated with any religious or spiritual group, embodied these values by virtue of his actions, thoughts, and ideals.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

The Missing Conversation explores the pressing issues in our world and the innovative solutions that support a greater chance of survival for our city, country, and planet. In this episode, on Psycho-Politics, Robert Strock is joined by LA Mayoral Candidate Craig Greiwe, who expands on his plans to help end homelessness, reduce affordability issues, and improve crime response in LA. Getting to the root of these problems is crucial to eradicating them. Instead of surface measures that act as bandaids, Craig takes us through his actual, transparent plans to achieve these goals. As he shares his background, one that's starkly different from most other institutionalists in government, Craig underscores his experience with problem-solving and the importance of taking responsibility for your role in the world. The idea is to lead with empathy — something Craig understands from his own personal experiences with poverty and abandonment. He talks about the awareness of trying to move from frustration and anger towards understanding and ambition to change. It's what helps him (and could help us) find common ground with others and meet them at their level.

For the first time in decades, there's an opportunity for common ground leadership within the government, something that can be taken advantage of to really and transparently help people. In fact, Craig is the only mayoral candidate to publish his concrete plans of action publicly.

Here's an overview of the platforms and goals Craig is running on:

1. Homelessness From reducing the cost of building housing to incorporating sheltered housing, permanent housing, transitionary housing, and more, Craig's POA has a robust array of solutions to end homelessness in LA. His goal is to make LA a zero functional homeless city. One unique aspect of his plan is to categorize housing and homeless needs — collaborative shared housing units, mental health beds, residential beds, substance abuse beds, etc. This will help solve individual and collective issues instead of treating everyone the same.

Craig's plan also wants to help those on the verge of homelessness stay housed with a 24/7 helpline that will direct folks in need to the right resources.

The end goal is to help the homeless stand on their feet again and help them contribute to society and move forward and upward in their lives. The plan also includes complete transparency about where the money is being utilized to accountability to reduce corruption/

2. Affordability According to McKinsey, 70% of LA folks struggle to make rent. Craig's goal is to ensure that no one needs to pay more than 30% of their income as rent. In addition, removing arcane regulations, updating zoning codes, and responsible building can help improve the affordable housing crisis.

3. Crime and public safetyCurrently, LA police spend 34% of their time on homelessness — the equivalent of 3000 officers off the streets. By reducing and then eliminating homelessness, Craig wants to create a more holistic way of dealing with crime and public safety. From bringing on mental health to medical experts and social workers, Craig recognizes that the police are stretched too thin and not equipped with the right skills and experience to truly help those in need.

Robert's conversation with Craig highlights the need for collective effort instead of an us vs them mentality that can hinder progress. Cooperation coupled with radical transparency is the way forward.

"People deserve to know who their leaders are…where the money is going and when it's coming back to them because the reality is that every dollar that we pay in taxes should be coming back to us in the form of services and a functioning city that works for us instead of breaking people down. That's the city that I want to build." —Craig Greiwe

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

In the last few episodes of The Missing Conversation, Robert has explored the nuances of having our religious leaders share their personal challenges with us and be more vulnerable with their congregation. It is difficulties, fears, and our grief that make us human, after all. When students and followers are able to view their teachers as human and relate better to them, it gives students more insight on how to tackle their own challenges.

Indeed, sometimes religious leaders allow their students to be human and help them work towards healing with advice, spiritual healing, and teaching. But when it comes to sharing their own personal challenges and how they're working on them, they often fall short. They give others a chance to show their humanness but very rarely share their own.

If religious leaders were to share their challenges and how they use religious and spiritual teachings to work towards healing and well-being, then students can also learn similar values and principles. This also allows them to gain a deeper understanding of how to work towards a solution or toward healing. It is you as students who might have to encourage your teachers and ask questions about their personal challenges.

Most religious and spiritual people identify with each other because of their shared faith or understanding. However, in this episode, Robert talks about the benefits of having a sense of healthy doubt, of questioning, so we don't take our faith and beliefs as the absolute, certain truth. Indeed, there are some things we truly Know, while others, we believe in due to our faith. Without any space for doubts or questions, a black and white belief is likely a way to disidentify and isolate yourself from others and even from yourself. But if we look inward and accept our feelings and doubts along with our essential spiritual values, truths, and attitudes, we can move toward a more complete healing. We can also learn how to face these feelings and how to care for them.

If we don't take care of ourselves and these feelings, it will turn into a kind of complex with feelings that root themselves in our subconscious. We will then begin to experience these feelings as undesirable enemies. Whereas, if we place it in our awareness, faith, or belief, we can use our wisdom to develop a relationship to care for ourselves in difficult situations. That is what makes us innately human — our doubts and difficulties surrounded by our faith and beliefs.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

No one feels totally comfortable being vulnerable — it's scary, and we might often think others might take advantage of what we're sharing from a place of trust. It's likely the same for even those in our communities who appear secure in their beliefs and selves — our religious leaders and ministers of faith.

In this episode of The Missing Conversation, Robert explores how sharing our insecurities, grief and anger can actually help us bond better with each other. When our religious leaders don't share their humanness from us, it prevents us from learning how they use a combination of divine values and human qualities as part of their wisdom, which guides them to take better care of themselves during challenging situations.

As humans, there are many, many things we still don't know. From not knowing what's in the depths of the ocean to what happens after death, the faith we have in God or the Universe keeps us grounded and helps us deal with the 'not-knowing'.

Indeed, sometimes our faith transforms into a staunch belief, one we begin to force upon others — despite their different thoughts, values, and attitudes. Most of us want to 'know' — we need assurance or understanding of what might happen to us. But this belief, especially with some religious leaders, robs them of their experience of humanness especially out in the open.

Being receptive to 'not knowing' brings us together more than we can imagine. Accepting our feelings and reactions of 'not knowing' helps us have our best chance to move toward healing — the first step is awareness and wanting to find our sense of wellbeing. This understanding of our shared uncertainty and not knowing helps us better identify with other humans around us.

There is strength and clarity in admitting that you may not know what will happen — whether it's tomorrow or after death. And it takes courage too. Robert talks about how it could help us loosen the rigidity around the need to have a clear understanding or enlightened view that might make us think we're above being human. After all, our humanness is a major part of what keeps us connected to each other.

For religious leaders, this humanness has great potential value to help their congregations and followers live according to spiritual values, to embody the values and attitudes that serve not just ourselves but also other humans and the planet we're blessed with.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

In this episode of The Missing Conversation, Robert is joined by his friend and co-founder at The Global Bridge Foundation, and Mark Spiro from Trash Prophets, a recycling initiative that gives purpose and job opportunities to the homeless. The two of them join him as he continues to explore how a more transparent relationship with money could lead us to help each other and humanity at large — this time with a focus on the Christian faith.

Like Buddhist teachers, most Christian ministers and leaders of faith have not revealed to their congregation their development or thought about their specific relationship with money, and how that would help our world that so badly needs it. Without the example from their teachers, pastors, and priests, Christian followers have been unable to reconcile with what the Bible teaches — that their true wealth awaits them in heaven, and that money on earth is here to be used for balance. But instead of being grateful and sharing, as Jesus taught us to, almost all of us that have had the opportunity have been collecting our wealth for our future, while those in our community still need help.

Robert and Mark also share how the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon — a narrative about the life of St Francis of Assisi, encourages us, especially the leaders of true Christians to introspect about their relationship with money and the transparency around their individual attachments.

Jesus's example inspires the call for a renewed sense of understanding and a change in our attitudes, actions, and values when it comes to money. If Christian teachers and religious leaders took the first step and were more open, honest, and vulnerable, it would likely lead to more transparency and understanding. We also need to talk about and understand how Jesus would have wanted us to deal with money and wealth — would he not have wanted us to help our fellow humans, and the planet on which we live? If he were the CEO of a million-dollar company, how would he run his business, and how much would he give to the less fortunate?

There is a growing canyon of discrepancy in the richest and poorest in our world. Yet, once you gain even a fleeting awareness of this distance, it may lead to a deeper, more fulfilling kind of awareness and understanding. It may well foster a longing to give , moving toward healing and helping others heal. It could encourage you to share your good fortunes and empower those who need it with not just money but opportunities to work and develop their lives and harness their potential. This could open doors towards blessings and feeling reconnected with humanity as a whole.

Whether it's encouraging followers to give a percentage of what they earn and contemplate where it would be most meaningful to them, or it's openly exploring how attached we have become to our wealth and money, Christian ministers could genuinely make a difference through their sermons and practice — using part of the wisdom that Jesus would have done if he were still here on Earth.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

In the previous episode of The Missing Conversation, Robert Strock explored the relationship between Buddhist spiritual teachings, their impact on students' and teachers' relationships, and the impact of a lack of personal transparency with money.

Most of the current Buddhist teachers tend to live simply and frugally, in relative simplicity, with a low income to moderate lifestyle. More often than not, they depend on donations or Dāna (alms) from their students or those who attend their spiritual services. In this episode, Robert talks about his conversations with several teachers who had mixed emotions about the degree of simplicity required to live according to the current donation system. This meant that the teachers often lived in different neighborhoods than their students. This ambivalence with the students was significantly uncomfortable for some of the teachers. There was concern that it might provoke resistance if the students were asked to evaluate their own relationship with money or the teacher's desire to live in a more moderale way. Privately, most of these teachers agreed that it would be a good idea to deal with the great attachment towards money prevalent among their students in America. But there was also concern about the impact of this and that it might lessen the need for a role model in some students.

Sometimes we may feel the need to look up to or learn from teachers who appear as though they aren't attached to money. Buddhist teachers often appear detached from money, which doesn't encourage them to share any learnings from their own life or experience.

But money is a neutral asset, devoid of any religious connotation. Therefore, there is an open opportunity for Buddhist teachers to share more about their relationship with money to share learning and beneficial examples for their students.

Those blessed with money might benefit from a better understanding of their relationship to their wealth. This, in turn, may help transform the sensation of blessing into a feeling of generosity — the desire to give back and help humanity and those in need. After all, the core tenets of Buddhism and most other religions are to help others and live a life full of caring and understanding.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

It's no secret that we all need money to live. This is true even for religious and spiritual leaders as well as their students. That's why, in this episode of The Missing Conversation, Robert explores Buddhism within the lens of money and monetary attachment. Buddhist teachers rarely deal with the importance, and excessive emphasis on money or how attached their students and society are to it. One of the ways they often miss an opportunity is by detaching themselves from communication and by not carefully addressing what it means from the original Buddhist teachings to be balanced.

Buddha himself did not outright denounce money and material possessions. He simply cautioned against letting such worldly things control, change, and possess us. When greed and hungry desire become us, we lose sight of how we could use these material riches to help the world and humanity at large. That's when resources like money become evil and destructive.

Buddhist monks, teachers, and followers are encouraged to reduce or, indeed, remove their connections to materialistic things in our world. This is especially true for money. Buddhist teachers often act as if they want to appear as being detached from money and similar worldly, material needs. They implicitly depict themselves as being one step more 'removed' from and mostly in control of these human needs. But there's a question to be asked — how much of this detachment is voluntary and internal? How much of it is to avoid facing rejection or ostracization from your community?

Like other humans, including you and me, Buddhist teachers also depend on money to survive and share their teachings with their disciples. So there's an opportunity here for Buddhist leaders to share their understanding and values about detaching from money and simply reframing their thinking of money as an essential tool for life. Something that is necessary for survival in balance and moderation.

As followers and students, we need to ask our teachers to explore the topic of money and our collective attachment through the lens of their teachings. Similarly, if teachers took some time to share how they manage their own relationships with money, it might help us all model it in our lives. This would help us focus on a balanced relationship to money itself and help us reduce our attachment to it over time, allowing us to see money as a tool for balance and generosity.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

If you think about it, we're all drawn to people most like us. Call it in-group bias or being 'hard-wired' for like-minded people — the fact remains that we can connect best with those we think are similar to us. That's why, when a celebrity, superstar, or sports person comes forward with a challenge they've been facing, we begin seeing them in a different light. Their candor and the fact that they're also dealing with something you or someone you love have made them more human and relatable.

This also applies to religious leaders and spiritual teachers. In fact, it also works for any of your teachers — anyone you think has the capability to make an impact on you. When teachers come forward with their own challenges and how they deal with them, it has a transformational effect on students. Not only do the students gain a deeper understanding of 'who' their teacher is as a human, but they or someone they love might be in a similar situation. Instead of idealizing the teacher, the students can ask questions. How has the teacher been taking care of themselves? What are they going to do to get through whatever they are finding most challenging? Do they need any help? All of this is extremely important. More often than not, when we see our leaders and our teachers, they appear dominantly as fully self-sufficient. We might even believe they've arrived — they're not overtly moving toward healing and awareness like those of us that are. This is also partly because most teachers don't share their challenges to make themselves be the leader in faith, trust or understanding for their congregation, and how they deal with the part of life that is most difficult.

Robert Strock shares a few examples of how the teachers in his life have fared when it comes to sharing their personal challenges with their students. He explores how compartmentalization of challenges and who we share our difficulties with can be limiting. It stops teachers from being vulnerable with their students, which could forge stronger connections. It prevents students from seeing their teacher in a human way; there's a lost opportunity for learning and deeper gratitude here. This is because students can take the trust shared by their teacher to express their own biggest challenges, something that they need help with too.

De-idealize your teachers and bring them down from the pedestal you've likely unwittingly placed them on. Take a moment to ask them sincerely and humbly about their personal challenges and encourage them to share. This will bring you and your teacher closer and give you insight into how to apply what they're teaching to your life's challenging situations. This may be difficult for you, but it is very likely to be beneficial to you, the teacher and the congregation at large.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

No matter who you are, you will have to confront some challenging concepts like death, disease, and suffering at some point in life. To understand and get through these difficult moments, many of us will turn to religious or spiritual teachings, hoping for (spiritual) help or support. Others will turn towards psychology and science, hoping to regain their awareness through medicine or counseling. Some will even do both.

Because the truth is that we will all have to deal with the inevitable challenges that life throws at us, in moments of uncertainty, fear, anger, or grief, we will seek direction, support, and understanding. Even though most religions encourage some form of community outreach and work, there is an element of appearing to transcend prematurely at play most of the time. As Robert explains, "It means that we have a sense of wellbeing, from our beliefs that often prematurely suppress our human sides. We think we understand." But when it's our turn to face challenging situations, we may realize that we cannot get through it without asking for more love, care, and support. And that's extremely important. It's only natural. The key is to ask yourself how best to care for yourself through this or how you can apply religious teachings or extrapolate what your therapist suggested to reduce your emotional turmoil. It would also be highly beneficial to look toward when your spiritual or religious guides shared how they experienced similar problems. Then, you can learn how they used their traditions and teachings that ultimately helped themselves and others, including you.

It would be extremely beneficial if you could ask your spiritual or religious guides to share experiencing how they used their tradition to help both themselves and ultimately you too.

This is why leaders and teachers across religion, spirituality, and psychology need to model self-care for the mind and body. This can include sharing similar challenges and how they've gotten through them or offering direction and support through counseling or resources. Therapy is often values-neutral, so religious or even non-religiously humanitarian individuals can incorporate most of their learnings to amplify their potential across different spheres. For folks who are fundamentally healthy, therapy might not be fulfilling enough. Sometimes, there's a need to contribute more toward loved ones, the community, or the world at large, which is when spiritual needs become primary.

The core takeaway across the best of psychology and religion is about maximizing your potential. That's how we'll be able to find ourselves and then help others along the way. It simply means that fusing the two will help you make a greater connection to humanity and human issues.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.

When we look up to someone, often, we tend to place them on a pedestal. We may do this unknowingly, or we may do it because that person behaves in a way that is far from us. Today, as spiritual teachers embody and share tenets of the original teachings, there's a need for them to go beyond simply listening and responding to their followers.

Whether it's medication, meditation, or anything else, we all depend on more than divinity and enlightenment to take care of ourselves. Robert and Dave point out that when leaders are open, honest, and vulnerable, it gives others a glimpse into their humanness. It allows students to relate better to their teachers and understand how to approach similar problems in their lives. This act of vulnerability also allows others to see how to intertwine personal spiritual guidance and external help to get through difficult moments.

If you're a leader or teacher, take a moment to think about how you let your congregation identify with you? Do you include them, or do you not give them a chance to share their support and help? How do you express your challenges to yourself before you share them with the world? What are the steps you're taking to help yourself through it? The answers to these questions will help you understand how much your congregation has the potential to relate to you. You will connect with them better when they relate to you on your core emotional level.

At the same time, as followers and believers, we must ask for what we need from our leaders and teachers. Being direct in our values and asking questions that encourage our teachers or ministers to share their human experience can help us in our greatest time of need. It also could help us gain self esteem that we could help those teachers and guides who are helping us. At the same time we can stay true to our authentic beliefs no matter what they are while seeking help or insights. Instead of being passive listeners, we would likely benefit enormously by being active participants so that we can share our true selves through our actions and our attitudes.

Over time, your authentic beliefs, your understanding and connection to your teachers, and your ways of taking care of yourself in difficult moments will help you naturally expand your quality of life. This, in turn, might encourage you to be more supportive of humanity and the world at large — which, after all, also includes you and your loved ones.

Read the transcription and listen to this episode on The Global Bridge Foundation website.