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It's inevitable that we'll encounter difficult people in life whether it's that really snarky barista, or an inconsiderate friend or sibling or a passive aggressive co worker, dealing with these kinds of people can be totally exhausting and leave us feeling irritated and angry. And if you add on top of that the holiday season, all of the excitement and joy that you'd expect to feel can be quite overshadowed and even ruined. So in this episode of the karmic warrior, I'm going to look at a very powerful teaching from a text that's nearly 2000 years old that can help you to stay centered and calm when dealing with difficult people, anytime, anywhere, so stay tuned.
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Hi, there Yogi's and karmic warriors, welcome to the karmic warrior podcast where we talk about living an extraordinary life by practicing time proven and tested teachings of yoga wisdom, traditions. I am your host, Lisa Engles Witter. And the goal of this podcast is very, very simple. It's really just to make it easier than ever before for anyone to find happiness and fulfillment in their everyday life by using wisdom teachings that have already been passed down for millennia. Before we get into our topic for today, I want to be sure that you take a moment to grab a free report that I created called karma demystified. In this report, I cover one of the foundational principles in yoga, which is the law of karma. And hidden in this principle is the secret to living a freer and fuller life, you can download the report for free at www dot karmic dash warrior.com. The link is below in the description here. And in this report, I explained what karma is how it's created, and the process for clearing your karma so that you can step into the life that you were born to live. So the topic for this podcast came about, because this week, I've had several interactions with people that have caused me to feel really frustrated and irritated really triggered really, it's we are moving into the holiday season. But I think that this happens, you know, for us, no matter what season it is, we've we come across people that trigger us or that are just hard to deal with. In my case. This past week, we had a big storm here in Northern California. And the area that I lived live in, had a power outage had internet outage. And during the course of this storm, in the middle of the storm, a friend was texting me and she was being quite demanding, and that I give her attention. And it was attention that I really couldn't give her at the time and I really met her strong demand with a strong boundary. But nonetheless, it was one of those interactions that shouldn't be had over taxed and created some friction and, and irritation. So that was one thing that happened earlier this week for me another was again during the midst of this storm that we were in, I went to the coffee shop the local coffee shop because there was no power like I said at our house and I had work to do. So I went to the coffee shop and of course is to be expected the coffee shop was packed with people getting their work done because everybody was out of power. And so I sat down and literally the last seat that was left in the coffee shop and is you're aware of I'm sure in coffee shops, there are outlets every so often for people to plug in. And the woman who was sitting next to had both her phone plugged in and a battery pack plugged into one outlet was literally the only outlet I was looking around that was left in the coffee shop and I politely asked her Ken Would you mind sharing this outlet with me and she refused? You know in making this the story short, she refused to share the outlet and saying oh I need I don't have any power at home. The The thing is that everybody again was in the coffee shop because nobody had power at home. So that left me feeling quite irritated as well. And then a little bit later in the week had an interaction with a friend around because conspiracy theories, and I don't, it doesn't matter whether you believe in conspiracy theories or not.
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That's not what this episode is about. But it is a topic that can bring up a lot of tension between people. And it did between the two of us because I have a thing about being discerning. And that is part of being a yogi. And on the yogic path is discernment having what's called Vega. So, in any case, the point of these examples is that all of these types of interactions happen to all of us every day. And oftentimes, these types of interactions leave what I call an aftertaste, that can consume our mental and emotional space. And, you know, you have an interaction like this. And then the rest of your day, you're thinking about, Oh, my gosh, I could have said this, or I should have said this, or we start diagnosing the person, oh, my God, that person, they're just living in fear, I don't even know how their their husband or their wife can put up with them on a day to day basis, right? Or what happens is, we go to the next, the next person that we interact with, maybe it's a friend or our spouse or whatever, we vent, we just let it go on them. And we tell them about the incident, we're looking for validation from them that what we're thinking is right, right, or that what we're, we're feeling about that interaction, we're validated in it, we're justified in it, we're looking for that validation. Or we just steep in anger or irritation or contempt for that person, thinking to ourselves, oh, my God, they're so out of line, how could How could someone even think like that or be like that, or we do a combination of all of these things, right? We're all guilty of it, we've all done it. And so in a very, very beautiful text called the recognition sutras, which was written nearly 2000 years ago, by a philosopher and sage called chez mirage. What he writes, is a very fundamental teaching. And so it's revealed in the recognition sutras, this fundamental teaching is essentially that everything is what you are appearing as that.
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So this is a very, very profound teaching that can help us in these instances, especially when we're dealing with difficult people. And if you really understand this teaching, as a lived felt experience, it will be the change that changes everything for you. Now, I do want to say that there are a lot of people, if you've listened to me for any length of time, you've heard me say this before, there are a lot of people in the New Age spirituality circles, who say things like, Oh, we're all one. Yet their actions don't really reflect this truth. They they claim to be on the path, yet they despise the other political party, or they don't trust the government, or they've cut off their evil mother in law from their life. Right. So if that's the case, then they're not really walking their talk, they have a conceptual experience of what it means that we are all one. But they're not really living it as a felt love lived experience. They're not grounded in it yet, right? We're all on the path. And I see this happening all the time with my own friends and colleagues and peers, and even spiritual leaders. And of course, I'm not counting myself out of this, because I'm continually working on this myself in my own spiritual practice. So if everything is what I am, the question that we have to be asking ourselves is, what am I right? If that's the question, if everything is what I am, then what am I? And it's a very, very good question. But before we look at how the recognition sutra answers that question, we also need to look at first what is the goal here? What is the goal of our spiritual path of our spiritual life and the goal of the spiritual path is twofold. First, there's awakening and then there's little liberation. So those are the two goals of the spiritual path awakening and liberation. Awakening is simply the process of awakening to the truth of who you are, which is what I would refer to as a process of revelation. Because who and what you are, is unchanging, it's ever present, ever present, excuse me. And it's just that you don't see that yet. So when we awaken, what happens is that our true self, our true nature, essence, nature becomes revealed to us, instead of concealed from us. So this is a slightly different view, but a very, very an important distinction. I think, that's different from the popular concept, that we're separate from our true self, and that our spiritual and personal growth is about connecting or finding our true self or connecting to our true self. Because that implies that our true self, our essence, nature is something to be attained. It's something to be gotten it something to be discovered. But in the recognition sutras, it tells us that we are already that. So you don't need to find it, you can't find something that you already are. It's just that your true self, the nature of who you are, has been concealed from you. And it's time to reveal or to have your true self revealed to you. So this brings us to the second goal of our spiritual path, which is liberation and liberation simply means being liberated from the mental constructs, the stories, that conditioning that obstruct our ability to see our true nature, that obstruct our ability to have revealed to us our essence, nature. So liberation itself is a deconstruction process. It's a process of dissolution, dissolving all of those mental constructs that keep us bound to ways of seeing that are concealing from us, our true nature. So we really need both of these practices, if we truly want to answer that question. What am I or who am I? Because who am I am? What am I? It are synonymous really, it's, of course, a question that humans have been asking themselves for millennia, and the ancient Yogi's and rashis of India, not only have the answer to this question, have given us the answer to this question. They've developed these time proven and tested practices to help anyone including you and me, who truly desires to answer this question. So that they can do that for themselves. So the answer that the recognition sutras gives us to that question, is that what you are, and what I am, and what everything is, is awareness. And awareness is another word for consciousness. So you and I are this unified field of consciousness from which all things emerge in which all things subside. Now, don't worry if this doesn't make sense to you. Because what I'm giving you our concepts here, and if this is the first time you've ever heard this, it might not make a lot of sense. But if you really listen to this podcast, and perhaps you do some practices for awakening and liberation, this will become abundantly clear to you. So you might think of it as this infinitely vast and seamless field of consciousness from which all shapes and forms arise. All plants, all animals, all shapes and forms emerge from this vast field of consciousness. And eventually, they all subside back into this seamless field, in due time. So humans of course, all of us as humans, we are shapes and forms that we are of naming form actually not just shape and form but of name and form. We emerge from this vast field of consciousness and eventually we There's a body subsides back into this vast, seamless field in due time, and we call that death. But in reality, what we call death is simply the dissolution of form back into this infinite field of consciousness into this infinite field of awareness. And the same goes as well, for insect d'un things, the chair that I'm sitting on the computer that I'm looking at right now, my water bottle right here, all of these things, the books on my bookshelf behind me, all these are forms, shapes and forms that emerge from this vast field of consciousness and eventually subside back into that field in due time. So you are that consciousness you are that awareness from which all things emerge and subside. Consciousness, it's expresses itself, though uniquely, as an infinite number of forms, we know that no two snowflakes are the same, we know that no two things are the same. No two flowers are the same. No two trees are the same. No two.
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Of course, no two people are the same. But no two animals are the same. No two dogs are the same. No two cats say you could do it for anything, right. And of course, this is what so many people refer to as the unique self consciousness, which acts uniquely expresses itself in an infinite number of forms. So at the same time, however, you and I are the same essence, you and I are both this seamless field of consciousness of awareness. And we're each consciousness expressing itself or animating itself in these bodies.
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So another word for it might be God or universe. So when you hear people say, Oh, you are God, or I am God, this is really the true meaning of it. Right? So the key here, though, however, is that all of what I'm explaining to you, they're just words, they're not the truth. These words are pointing to the truth, but they're not the truth until you've had a felt lived experience of of it. Everything that I'm describing to you, is a pointer to the truth is a concept of the truth. It's not the truth itself. And this is why practice is so critical. It's so important. You have to have some sort of practice that allows you to experience this truth. Now, I don't want to leave you hanging here and thinking, Oh, great. Well, she's telling me all of this stuff, and it's conceptual, but how do I actually do it? So if you are watching on my YouTube channel, I will be putting a link in the description of the specific practice you can do to cultivate this experience for yourself. And you can also visit me over on Insight Timer. My profile is Lisa Engles Witter, and over on Insight Timer, I do lead regular live practice sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So do come visit me there. And I'll lead you through practices that do exactly this. Now, I want to bring everything full circle, because I opened this episode by sharing about a few interactions. And this episode is about dealing with difficult people in our life, right, whether it's a stranger or a loved one. And I started this episode by sharing some difficult interactions that I had earlier this week. So in each instance, and each interaction that I had, it could have been very easy for me to drop into my conditioned way of thinking and being that each of these people are different from me, that they're maybe they're less conscious than me or they're less spiritual than me. They're not as far along the path is I am or I'm better than them because I never would have done that to someone else. That could have been one option for me, but I had a choice and each of us has a choice in these types of instances. Again, whether you're dealing with that snarky barista whether you're dealing with a friend who's demanding or you're dealing with Whoever in your life, a sibling or a parent, that's just annoying you, right? Every time you have one of these types of interactions, you have a choice. And it's a choice that all of us have in the moment. And the choice is either to believe your conditioning, your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideas, all of these mental constructs. And these thoughts, truthfully, may or may not be useful in helping you see the situation as it truly is, oftentimes, our conditioning doesn't help us. When we see things through our conditioning, it doesn't help us. So that's one choice, we have the choice to drop into our conditioning and to believe our conditioning, or we have the choice to drop into the felt sense experience of ourselves, as consciousness as awareness expressing itself, uniquely in a multitude of forms at any moment in time. Consciousness is seeing and experiencing life, through my pair of eyes through your pair of eyes, through every single 7.9 billion pairs of eyes, on this planet, right? The the male person, again, the barista the person, who's the checker at the grocery store, everything, and everyone is what you are appearing as that. And when you can tap into that truth, when you've cultivated and done the practice enough to have that type of awareness every time you're interacting with people, which is a lot, because that's what life is about relating and being in relationship and interacting with people, when you can be grounded in that knowing that everything and everyone is what you are appearing is that you will be able to stay centered and grounded. No matter what a person says, no matter what they do, no matter what their actions are, you're going to be untouched, you will remain untouched, because the nature of awareness is that it's unchangeable. It can't be shaken, it can't be hurt, it can't be changed in any way. So this is my invitation to you. And again, I invite you to check out a couple of my other videos on YouTube that that work specifically with cultivating awareness in this way or join me over on Insight Timer on Tuesdays or Thursdays where I do lead live meditations to cultivate this type of awareness.
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So I do want to thank you so much for joining me in this episode of the karmic warrior podcast. I'd really love to hear what you think about this. So feel free to leave a comment if you're watching on YouTube. And remember to head on over to www karmic dash warrior.com to pick up your free report karma demystified. And until we meet again, in our next episode, thank you for joining me here. Stay safe. Stay well and Namaste
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
