The Ten Crutches Podcast

Liking and disliking feel like completely different experiences. And, of course, they are. As different as noon and midnight.

But it’s interesting to look at how liking and disliking are, in many ways, the same. 

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

We all have ways of proving who we are.

We use credentials literally (driver’s license, high school diploma) and figuratively (I am someone who is like this and not like that.)

What happens if you see that all credentials are essentially empty? Can you still “be someone” if you don’t have any credentials?

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

I went to a recent meditation retreat recently. There were many people who noted afterwards, “Wow! A lot of people seemed to go really deep.”

I knew exactly what they meant. I felt it as well. And yet: all we were doing was sitting on some meditation cushions. We literally did not go anywhere.

After we sat, we would stand up and do walking meditation. Even then, we were simply walking around in a big circle. (Again, not going anywhere.) Then we’d sit down, become still and meditate some more.

Where are we “going” when we go deep?

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

There are many people who search for unconditional love. I wanted to devote an episode to explaining this idea: finding unconditional love is as impossible as counting to infinity.

The world we live in is a world of forms, a world of conditions. You cannot have forms without conditions.

Where does the world of forms “come from?” Well, we can call it the “formless” or the “unconditional,” and that’s hopefully on the right track. But “The Unconditional” isn’t a “thing” that can “give” anything to “you.” If The Unconditional existed as a form, it would no longer be unconditional.

We aren’t going to find unconditional love just like we aren’t going to find a pot of gold at the bottom of a rainbow. What is it we are looking for?

I hope more clarity around why unconditional love is impossible will lead to more realistic cultivation of actual conditions where actual conditional love can grow.

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

It’s easy to learn a phrase like, “Everything is One.”

But what does this mean for someone who experiences life as a “separated” being? How did I get to be separated? How does a separate “I”  become “one with" everything?

Most people find it much easier to identify with what they consider the "good” aspects of reality. It is much harder to identify with what is considered "evil."

But evil is as much a part of “the one” as good is. How can we recognize we are "one with" all that is evil and wrong in the world?

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

This is the 50th episode of The Ten Crutches Podcast. I will be making one hundred of these episodes in total. So, in base-ten counting, I am at the half-way point to episode 100.

If you count in base-eight, this is episode 62 of 144.

In base-twelve: episode 42 of 84.

Does this mean 50 is a big deal?

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

Many people act as if there are actually such things as “cults” and that cults are dangerous. Many think they are not “in a cult.”

Me? I see cults everywhere I look.

To me, a cult is simply a group of people who believe in such-and-such and not in something else. Examples of cults? Groups anywhere on the political spectrum (left or right), groups practicing a religion, atheists, flat-earth societies, corporations requiring you dress in some particular way, football fans, stamp collectors, groups who feel money is worth pursuing no matter what harm it causes, etc etc.

Q: Who is in multiple cults?

A: Everyone.

We are all in cults. As I said, any group believing anything can be called a cult. Some cults have been around for millennia. Some cults have wide membership across almost all of our society.

But: if we all are in some cult or another, why talk about them? Because some cults can be quite dangerous. Like the cult of an oil company worshiping profits, choosing to deliberately confuse public discussion around global warming. I’ll take a small group with a charismatic leader any day.

We need to be able to see our groups and our beliefs for what they are, so we can assess the ones we belong to. We need to determine if any of the cults we belong to are dangerous. Sure, of course: some small, fringe groups are dangerous. But they are not nearly as destructive as a huge cult (like a nation) that protects the wealth of billionaires, starts wars and allows pollution to continue unchecked.

You may have heard of one cult I belong to. You might even be a member!

I belong to a cult where  people believe each day should get one of seven names. We are totally into these seven names! But you also have to know the order. The order is very important to us. And you may not believe this, but we simply keep using those seven names in that particular order over and over and over and over and over and over. Like for our whole lives! We learned it as children and we teach it to our children. Our cult has been doing this for millennia! We never get tired of those seven names and certainly not the order. (A few years ago, one guy suggested that Wednesday could come after Friday. He didn’t get one vote.)

Anyway, that’s one of the cults I personally belong to. I know we’re weird, but I try not to take us too seriously.

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

“Re-ligare” is the Latin root word of “religion.” It means “to bind together again.”

I find these questions a good way to begin assessing a religion:

Do the people who follow this religion become more generous? More loving?

How does this religion handle human desires to build up wealth and power  at the expense of others?

What practices are there to help me to see beyond my personal likes and dislikes?

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

What does it mean to “worship an idol?” I consider this something we all do. From wooden statues to our own beliefs, we all have worshiped one thing or another.

But I also consider it important to see the reality of whatever piece of wood we may be bowing to. Or (especially) of whatever beliefs we may be worshiping.

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.

The human mind is an amazing "thing."

Q: Can the human mind be an ever-changing trap of separateness that mistakenly creates ambitions to escape its own limitations?

A: Yes.

Q: Can the human mind perceive its own descriptions as so important that it keep us locked in our separateness?

A: Yes.

Q: Can the human mind also be a tool that helps us think through what is needed to transcend the illusion of our separateness?

A: Yes.

The human mind is both trap and tool, at the very same time.

Visit the podcast website at tencrutches.link to download the free ebook Ten Crutches For Walking In The Present.

Show notes are here.