Tao Te Ching Reflection: More Alone in a City

[00:00:01]Good morning everyone. Are we live? I'm trying out a new software today.

[00:00:11]Hopefully we're live. Are you guys able to hear me? Okay.

[00:00:19]Testing.

[00:00:21]Testing. One, two, three.

[00:00:40]Oh yes. Okay. I mean with with new uh with new streaming software low but yeah.

[00:00:51]Okay. Uh able to hear. Okay.

[00:00:54]Interesting.

[00:00:56]Testing one, two, three.

[00:01:02]Okay, perfect. Oh, good. Oh, man. H what a relief.

[00:01:09]I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend ahead. Seems like uh everybody's already here. Dallas Peace, welcome.

[00:01:20]Rabin, good to see you again.

[00:01:24]Texas, welcome. Fuel and driven, Adrianiano.

[00:01:29]Oh, awesome. Yes.

[00:01:33]Ah, fantastic. So, HD, I know. No more of the blurry.

[00:01:39]That's uh I was spending I was spending like an hour before this finangling with uh the software and the camera and the mic and the everything. And so, you know, this is uh it it's this reminds me of the first time I've I ever did the live stream with you guys. It was kind of like flying by the seat of my pants, right? Um this time was like trying to find decent Wi-Fi and uh being out and about. Uh I actually camped out right outside of San Francisco uh across Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County the last night. Uh, and that was kind of my little experiment in vagabonding where driving back uh an hour to where my parents live just was not really an option. I was like, you know, pretty late already and I was like, I have a rooftop tent. Can I just like go across a bridge, find like a spot in in the park and just like, you know, in a green space or whatever it is and then and then see what happens.

[00:02:42]So, fortunately, there's this uh National Park Service uh managed area.

[00:02:47]It's just really beautiful. It's like right by the coast and everything. Um actually, I wish I wish I could show you guys. I got to I just got to I have to like prepare to videos beforehand just to kind of show you guys the updates. Uh because every week, just like how it is in every one of our lives, it brings like new moments, new memories, new adventures.

[00:03:09]uh as long and we are able to enjoy it as long as we are well rested. That's that's really been the uh the ultimate uh lesson for the past week and a half I would say.

[00:03:22]Spill the beans. What's the new setup?

[00:03:25]Uh yeah, so I'm using OBS uh which is a open-source like streaming software and connecting it to my iPhone uh and you know having the mic and stuff, but really it's the it's it's the I've been trying to get YouTube live stream to use my iPhone at the webcam and it just refuses to do it. So I I finally got fed up with that and I was like, "Okay, screw it. Let's let's try let's try a new uh a new thing." Um, I'm kind of I'm relatively slow with technology adoption of sorts, but once I get into it, I'll I'll get into it pretty pretty deep.

[00:04:00]Yeah. Yes. It took me I don't know why it took me so long to to get around to it. I mean, you just watch a seven minute YouTube tutorial like university YouTube and then like off to races you go, right? So, I apologize that you guys had to put up with the the potato quality over the past like two two and a half months.

[00:04:24]Oh man. Uh yeah, let's let's get settled in. I mean, uh I'm still I'm still waking up a little bit. Um I got up at 5:00 a.m. so that the rangers don't uh you know, get on my case of of sleeping like you know, basically popping my tent in essentially their parking lot right by the bathroom.

[00:04:51]I probably could have been a little bit more stealthy. And this morning, um, after waking up at 5, I just kind of like drove around the area, scoped out a few other spots that look more private, so it's not like on the main road on like the park entrance parking lot.

[00:05:07]That's just being lazy to be honest.

[00:05:11]Oh man. Uh, I had a very wonderful time last night uh in San Francisco actually.

[00:05:18]just uh it was um I've been wanting to build more community here mainly because my I split my time what the envision the way I envision going forward is split splitting my time between Austin and and the San Francisco Bay area California uh mainly because my father is 80 years old my mom is 76 so they're not getting any younger um and uh you know the older they get the more likely I'm going to spend more time in California. Um, and I grew up here, but uh, at the same time, I also have moved away for the last like, you know, two and a half, three years. And in many respects, I feel more at home in Austin than in California where I grew up. And has nothing to do has less to do with the city, but much more to do with just the people. I've been able to build a really solid community there. A lot of my friends are musicians, creatives, artists, um people who are really living a post scarcity lifestyle where they're trying to figure out kind of like what is, you know, what what happens? What do we pursue? How do we live after we get Maslo's, you know, lower hierarchy of needs, right? shelter, thirst, um safety, food, and beyond that it's like, you know, social self-esteem, self-actualization.

[00:06:43]Um, and there's a lot of it's just got a really good balance of, you know, creativity, arts, music, wellness, spirituality, and technology.

[00:06:55]And uh in many respects it's always been even two years ago I was like you know San Francisco is really amazing as a city um yet at the same time there's so much emphasis on building technology uh I mean hell I mean they came up with like you know mainframes right the original chips and then the mobile then the internet era the dotcom booms the boom and bust the mobile era social media uh and now AI it's been able to reinvent itself on the technology side like every 5 to 10 years it's incredible yet when you are building the future constantly and being absorbed into your laptops and your computers um there is a sacrifice there's a cost to your presence and especially these days like I was just talking to one of my friends who works at Google uh DeepMind on their AI team and they are like stressed out all the time like the team is cool but people are really stressed out all the time because it's almost like an arms race at the moment between all the different companies, right? So, um there's something to be said about the pressure cooking environment that's constantly there with every boom. Um and uh and we're enter into some pretty interesting eras, right? Um, and regardless of whether or not people in the Silicon Valley hold the presence, um, versus performance, the impact of their creations is going to be felt around the world. I mean, we're literally being we're literally connecting right now over the internet on a on YouTube live stream on a platform that that Google created, right? like it is felt throughout our entire lives like you know the epicenter the impact kind of radiates outwards into the rest of the world. So in many ways it behooves people who create the technologies to understand the repercussions on the people that that it affects because with creation comes with power comes responsibility as well. Um, it's honestly one of the reasons why I eventually got disillusioned with tech industry and left it for good to create content a year into this like content journey because I started this channel March of 2020 right when the world shut down. Um, sharing my mapping as a way to organize the world's chaos both externally and internally.

[00:09:28]Um, but you know, the world has just gotten more chaotic and more uncertain since.

[00:09:34]Um, so this is a very long-winded way of saying that when I arrived in Austin two and a half years ago, I wrote an essay called The City of the Rising. Maybe I'll share it uh with you guys over Substack as a repost. But in there I noticed that Austin had the right balance of all these different components of spirituality, wellness, consciousness, you know, arts and technology that no one particular domain or industry takes over the entire city.

[00:10:05]Um and it's where one could do research and development you know around what I would consider spiritual technologies of sorts very different than hard technologies using silicon and steel um and in some respects um once it is developed can be exported to other parts of the world that really needs it in particular let's say the Silicon Valley in San Francisco and it's one of the reasons why I started did Sunset Stories, the open mic where we shared the stories, the human lived experiences behind our art, our creations, right? And I've been doing that for the fourth the fourth iteration now in Austin. And this time coming back to San Francisco, the thing that really struck me is that the city has changed massively over the last three years. It was still pretty dead and recovering from the pandemic three years ago, 2023.

[00:11:02]Um, but now it's like booming. It's like people are everywhere coming out of the woodworks every time. I I mean when I I've hit up like three parks now, right, on three separate occasions and is packed with picnics, birthday parties, gatherings and it's it's lively. Um and the the energy, you know, these days I don't really just like it's it's not just the words we listen to, right? It's the energy that we receive. I'm observing the energy rising and changing in the city and something told me that tells me that the city San Francisco now is ready to export some of export some of the Austin humanness and spirituality components over to it where it's actually needed. Right?

[00:11:50]Austin doesn't need more woo. It's so woo already. Austin doesn't need more wellness. It's it's like you got you got coal plunges, saunas, whatever it is like you know everywhere, but it's it's SF. It's places where the technology is being created and people are still really really plugged into the matrix but are starting to wake up that could really benefit from something, you know, the the the stuff that I'm experiencing in Austin.

[00:12:19]Um anyways, the art show that I went to yesterday was super like last minute and random. Um, and it was a local San Francisco artist um, had an ex exhibition of her collages and it's called unraveling.

[00:12:34]And the whole theme, I didn't realize this, but the whole theme is like a societal critique of what's happening in the world, right? And get this, everybody I was the only rando the only random person who showed up from a public like event page, right? Everybody else was like a friend of a friend or a family member of the artist. So I was like, "Holy crap." You know, just parachuting in completely. But I didn't I didn't realize that time. But like did the I found my like SF artist community overnight in this random event.

[00:13:11]Everybody is so freaking cool. Just in cool in the way that just so down to earth. There's like such a lack of pretentiousness that I freaking love. Um it almost felt like I was like where were you guys three years ago when I was in the city right but this is also what I mean is that um people change cities change right like the river of life changes as well so you know as long as we're open we as well as observant open and observant we are going to be able to detect these changes and not let the past snapshot uh dictate how we perceive the present and how we proceed into the future. Right? So when we're sensitive, when we haven't numbed ourselves by being jaded or being like, you know, whatever it is that that makes us numb to the touch of reality and the way that nature itself changes, we're able to ride the waves a lot better, right? And sometimes it's it's waiting and sometimes it's not waiting. Sometimes it's traveling the world, doing your own hero's journey, maybe three journeys, right? And then coming back home and realized, wow, it's really not the same river and I'm not the same man or I'm not the same, you know, person, right?

[00:14:33]So anyways, uh met a lot of cool people that I want to follow up with and um I might even do like host an open mic similar to what I do in Austin in San Francisco within the next month if uh everything lines up. But um honestly, the most important thing right now is sleep, right? I feel like the universe will deliver anything and everything to us if we have the basics right, the pillars right, right? Sleep, exercise, uh, meditation, and diet, right? It's nothing fancy, but these are the foundational things where you got these things covered. Not only do opportunities and new experiences come in, but you're actually able to be open enough to receive them, empty enough to receive them, as well as have a big enough cup to receive it.

[00:15:32]Anyways, that's that's my little update this week.

[00:15:38]Uh, in fact, I was um I want to let's let's read verse 10 um for a little bit, right? Just to just kind of ease ourselves into it.

[00:16:05]Verse 10.

[00:16:07]Can you keep your crescent soul from wondering?

[00:16:12]Can you make your breath as soft as a baby's?

[00:16:17]Can you wipe your dark mirror free of dust?

[00:16:21]Can you serve and govern without effort?

[00:16:25]Can you be female at heaven's gate?

[00:16:29]Can you light the world without knowledge?

[00:16:33]Can you give birth and nurture but give birth without possessing?

[00:16:40]Raise without controlling.

[00:16:44]Th this is dark virtue.

[00:17:07]I'm taking a few uh deep breaths and moments to amp down energy.

[00:17:17]It's interesting because uh you know I came into this live stream with the residual energy of San Francisco, the city, right? It's a I mean it's a world-class city. It's a major city in the world. Um, and every time I drive into the city, when I'm not living in the city, I feel like my nervous system needs to adapt to the heightened energy of all the human beings, like all the busyiness.

[00:17:51]Um, and then you're like in sync with it, right? And this is really important because um you know right before meeting uh meeting my friend for for coffee and a walk and a picnic yesterday, I got to the cafe where we were meeting up at 15 minutes early. Um and I just sat outside just closed my eyes, was very still and took in all the sounds of everything around me.

[00:18:25]And that was my way of adjusting my frequency essentially to my surroundings, right? Otherwise, it's like very jarring experience of sorts.

[00:18:42]Um, and this is where sensitivity is really it really interesting. It's kind of like a double-edged sword, right? I used to not be this sensitive.

[00:18:52]And it's interesting because in in modernity s being sensitive is is used like a in a negative connotation. Oh, you're so sensitive. You're so soft. You know, you're too soft. Right? When people say often say you're so you're you're sensitive, what they what they're implying is that you're too sensitive.

[00:19:13]Um, and I used to not be so sensitive being, you know, in in the working in the tech industry and in in corporate, right, where you're just like flying to different countries, closing deals, and you don't have even the room to be sensitive. The times in which I'm I'm sensitive is during my journaling sessions before the workday begins. And um you know even when I was working back then I I tried to carve out a bit of time to to have some stillness. Uh but honestly it wasn't until the pandemic started that I had a solid uh journaling practice. But before then it was just like no wonder the death of life was like so accumulated.

[00:19:59]Um but these days the sensitivity I see it as honestly a superpower.

[00:20:06]Again, it allows us to detect these changes, these very like sometimes subtle changes and sometimes not so subtle, right? Like how many how often is life like kicking down the kick trying to kick down our door, banging on the door, and we're still ignoring it.

[00:20:25]We're still putting our our faces in the pillow, our our heads in the sand and ignoring the signs, right? that life is the universe is sending us. Um yet when we're able to be still, when we're able to keep our crescent soul from wondering that that centerness, we're able to interface with the world, the appearent, the tangible world, with the kind of groundedness and centeredness. Not in a selfish way, right? But retaining within the seat of self, we're able to see and feel the river without being swept away by it.

[00:21:08]We're able to observe it, right? Um, so it's interesting because there's this fine balance between sensitivity and and being swept away as well. And I think part of this week's practice for me at least was inspired by the three lines of can you give birth and nurture but give birth without possessing raise without controlling.

[00:21:35]So just essentially you know um observing and then also Wampy's commentary of if we don't obstruct their source things come into existence on their own. If we don't suppress their nature things mature by themselves.

[00:21:56]So these two lines didn't really stick for me until after I turned off the camera, right? Like and then Readwise sometimes just send me sends me these like random like commentary and and uh uh highlights from the past and it was from Michael Singer like it will purify itself if you let it. And I was like, "Holy crap, this is this is all connected." Like, you know what's alive? What's alive requires energy.

[00:22:28]And sometimes our sankara is these these old energy packets that get stuck within us. Um these loops, looping thoughts, looping emotions, old traumas, uh future longings, they give we give birth to them because we give them energy and they come from our experiences.

[00:22:53]But yet can we give birth to our emotions, our thoughts, our experiences without possessing and let them just go about their way without controlling, right?

[00:23:07]Um and in my the imagery that I had really came up was just, you know, sitting on the river by by the Smoky Mountains during a backpacking trip and just observing the river p go past all around me. And that was the image that I that I shared in the substack.

[00:23:25]That was a practice this week of noticing one particular emotion of of loneliness.

[00:23:34]And it's kind of fascinating because uh this this week of loneliness practice, I actually made a a mind map. I don't know if you can see because I'm a mindmapper, right? Like you guys might have other ways to do it, but I've got a couple things. I have aversions. I've got cravings. I've got effects like what what the second order effects are, right? How do I react to these aversions and cravings? And then finally, in the stillness, on my rock of meditation, what emerged? What did I learn about myself when I remained in the seat of self? Remained on my rock without being swept away downstream by diversions trying to avoid loneliness, run away from loneliness or trying to, you know, crave company or whatever the solution is as well as what happened when I did cave in you know what when I did feel tempted or you know be in the river or whatever it is. So, um, wanted to share that map by a little bit. Um, but I I got to say, you know, one of the things that really popped up to me I noticed is that I felt more alone in the middle of a city than being alone in nature.

[00:24:50]Like, isn't that kind of ironic where in the city, if you think about it, you're surrounded by like millions of people, right? Hundreds of thousands of people.

[00:25:00]Yet, I feel more alone in the middle of that park than if I were camping by myself, backpacking by myself, and and like truly alone in nature.

[00:25:12]Um, and it's interesting because I know I'm not the only one. I've had friends who told me that like they feel lonely in cities especially where you know you're just you're surrounded by so much action but then it it's I don't know it it kind of begs the question you know like were humans evolved to live in such dense populations in the first place like or are we supposed to be like our our body and our mind, our spirit needs something smaller, like a village, you know, and maybe that's why it's so important to have a village within a city, like a community within a city.

[00:25:58]Otherwise, you'd be surrounded by millions of people, but still feel alone, more alone than being truly by yourself in the middle of the wilderness.

[00:26:08]Anyways, just one one little observation, but I would love to hear your guys' experience, you know, this this week reading verse 10. Verse 10 was a lot because it was like so many different so many segments, right? Like Lazu asked some pretty freaking deep questions. How many how many questions? One, there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

[00:26:30]There's seven. There's seven these like rhetorical statements even. There's not a question but statements. And each one of these you can you can sit with for for a very long time and live into. So I'm curious which of these resonated with you um or whether you decided to you know pick up uh and try out the practice that I had outlined uh in the video as well as a substack and how did it turn out for you this week? Curious.

[00:27:03]I'll go through the comments.

[00:27:09]Lemon Waves. Oh, the first time that uh we're we're seeing you. Levven Waves, welcome.

[00:27:16]The law of unintended consequences.

[00:27:20]Curious what that is actually. What what that uh what that law uh implies for you.

[00:27:32]Okay. Then we have uh techno technofudalism.

[00:27:39]Yeah, I definitely see that 100%.

[00:27:44]In fact, there's even a bit of a, you know, feudalism. You think about it, it's it's bit it's a it's a hierarchy, right? There's nobles and then there's like, you know, there's nobles and then there's peasants.

[00:27:54]Uh in some respects, like every every major technology founder has does have a bit of an ego even if it's to save the world of sorts and there's there's a kind of projected nobility in that which if you let that get to your head um it will manifest as pride and and hubris.

[00:28:19]So speaking of nobility earth ship yeah 100% feeling driven says weird question perhaps but with cultivation of your inner world have you perceived people lacking in that energy being drawn to your energy spiritual vampire style probably probably.

[00:29:04]But um at the same time I'm kind of I'm these days I'm I'm I'm pretty cognizant of it. Um this is actually related to the nobility part uh as well as like the savior complex that I've traditionally had. Right. And I think part of it is uh in my Chinese upbringing. Chinese parents don't show their love. There's there it's it's kind of like a running joke. Like Chinese parents show their love through cut fruit. Okay? Like like like cut fruit like an apple or a pear or whatever it is. And what that means is they after an argument like a fight they won't apologize. They won't say I love you.

[00:29:47]I'm sorry. Whatever. They will apologize using by using acts of service like here's some cut fruit. Let me let me like you know cook for you. Whatever it is, right? So uh you know the the love languages like physical touch, quality time, uh words of affirmation and uh and acts of service for a lot of Asian cultures acts of service is very very top very top. Okay. Um and words of affirmation very low.

[00:30:16]If anything it's like it's like the opposite. There's like it's interesting because I I know there's unconditional love from my parents and I have amazing parents. like I'm I'm just so lucky with that yet it feels highly conditional especially growing up right um so that energy imprint got onto me as well and it manifests in in the past is almost kind of like a savior complex where you know I I almost like overextend my help and it took um some relation very healthy relationships as well as healthy friendships that reflected back this aspect of me and and help heal me as well. Right? So these days I get along best with people who are pretty independent like very self-sufficient in their own right in their own respects um and don't need my help. I get I get along most with people who don't need my help. Right? So speaking of energy vampires um and through those healthy relationships which are honestly both healthy and toxic relationships are excellent mirrors of ourselves if we choose again to have the sensitivity as well as sometimes the courage to turn that mirror around to ourselves. Okay. So, I think, you know, over time, I've just gotten better at detecting what is good for me and what's bad for me. And these days, I'm I'm able to to feel to detect, you know, whenever I feel energy vampirism and and uh steer clear of that, right?

[00:32:00]Like water, just flow around an obstacle. You don't have to you don't have to like, you know, go head uh first into it or to get dragged into it.

[00:32:11]Great question and I'm curious like if you guys experience that as well.

[00:32:19]Texas says one of my favorite quotes is be still and know.

[00:32:28]Do you know where where where it comes from? I'm I'm actually very curious of of where its origins and I agree.

[00:32:38]Be still and know well actually today because it's Sunday I am very uh I'm today's going to be a bit of a recovery day when I go back to the city. I'm gonna find a patch of grass and hopefully the sun comes out and uh take a nap in the park. I think that's a that's going to be a great way to just like slow down a bit. Um and by the way this is the the second week of emptying my cup practice if you guys recall what what I did for that which is um well the aspiration is like you know um no uh emptying my cup of all the stuff that that normally is distracting which is like you know sugar streaming, shopping, sex, right? as well as um the three-day fast that I kicked this practice off.

[00:33:43]And in the second week now of this uh some interesting observations have have come up, right? Because this whole practice comes out not from uh this desire to you know self-discipline or to or a challenge really it's a it's an exercise in self-awareness and see what emotions or feelings rise up when these cravings rise up and what happens when I don't immediately give into it. Um, and so far I've been still on the uh I've lapsed twice on the no sugar part and I know exactly when that has happened.

[00:34:23]Um, I haven't watched any shows whatsoever.

[00:34:28]No, um, no porn, no uh, uh, shopping, no online shopping either, right? And the two times that I lapsed on the sugar part is after going on these two dates.

[00:34:49]And what I'm discovering about this is that uh I freaking hate dating.

[00:34:55]This is this is going to sound interesting, but like modern dating is so crushing and especially through the apps you it just feels like you're being interviewed and it's very like artificial.

[00:35:09]And after those two dates, I went home and I freaking like chowed on on brownies, on cookies, on like I don't know, like chips.

[00:35:19]And that's a very surefire sign. Do you know what I mean? where there's something like that is so draining that that you almost go for these things to fill your cup back up in this like dopamine hit. And this is precisely why this practice, this emptying the cup practice is so powerful because it makes you mindful and aware of what when these triggers happen, right? when these either the loneliness hits or when something happens to you that drains your cup in a very like quick way and you almost need to like replenish yourself and you or you feel this like craving to. So after that experience, and I think this was like last Friday or Saturday or something or Sunday, um I basically was like, "Yeah, I don't I don't want to go on any more dates."

[00:36:08]Like I want to do things that create value for people, for myself and other people. That's why I went to the art show with this intention of going of of just scoping out and getting a pulse check on what is the state of art and culture and humanity really in San Francisco, this place I had left for three years before. And do I want to be part of that and grow that community here? Um was the question I was living into. Right. And I my cup was so filled last night. It was like the opposite of like the dating apps or whatever it is, you know. Um, and again, these are like the little indicators that I really pay attention to. And this is also part of mindfulness. As we go through life, life and the universe is going to keep on sending us signals. If we are able to be sensitive enough and our cup is empty enough to to receive it and ultimately to drink from that cup and let it nourish us if we so choose.

[00:37:16]All right, Rabbin, we got our shooule.

[00:37:19]We got uh communication is more than an exchange of words. It is the art of shaping relationships.

[00:37:29]Communication is more than Yes. It is the art of shaping relationships. I never thought of that. You know, it's interesting. I always I always like kind of translated it as communication or language. Language is this like this this ability to to convey intent to transmit intent between one human mind to to to another. Um but you know what's the purpose of communicate or or conveying intent? The shaping of relationships. I think that's kind of the value. That's like the second order effect of that. That's really that's really cool. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:38:03]It is the art of shaping relationships.

[00:38:07]True depths arises when people feel safe enough to share what is on their minds and in their hearts and in that is safety.

[00:38:24]In that is safety the shaping of relationships. So which also means that the opposite because I I like to invert certain things to see what other insights or whether or not they hold true if the opposite occurs.

[00:38:44]What if people are unsafe? What if people feel unsafe?

[00:38:49]Um what kind of relationships are fa are shaped when our communication comes from a place that lacks safety?

[00:38:59]Right. And I think, you know, all of us have experienced this before where if we don't feel safe, we're going to wear masks. We're going to have our guards up. We're going to not be vulnerable. Um, and we're not going to actually get to know each other in the truest in the true sense, right?

[00:39:21]Um, and I think these days, you know, and speaking back to what Fuel and Driven was asking about energy energy or spiritual vampirism, one of the things I'm really allergic to is pretentiousness.

[00:39:37]Uh, when I feel like somebody is wearing a mask or doing something for show, I feel like I can't I mean, why spend time with that? I'm not even talking to the real human being. I'm playing a game that I don't even want to play.

[00:39:55]Right? So, um, and these days, like if you, this is this is where it's interesting because sometimes we're forced to play games in order to like, you know, let's say jobs, a job that you don't like, but it does provide the monetary means to pursue the life that you do like. So, you know, in in the in the games that we get to choose, we should choose games that we actually like to play, right? And this means like going to an art show, getting to know people, having real conversations rather than sitting through like an hour and a half like interview. That's just that's just painful. That's not a game I want to play. So, and this is where um you know post scarcity for me means um having this ability to choose now.

[00:40:50]All right. Friven says, "You will never catch me on one of those apps." No hate for others, but for me, it just sounds horribly dehumanizing, counterintuitive how connection works for me. Honestly, it's counterintuitive. It's counter to how human connection works, period. Like just it's unfortunate. I mean, we can go off on this for for a while, but like it's it is unfortunate that it is like the most popular. It's the the like the the the default way of meeting like romantic partners in the modern age for a certain age group. And it's just it's truly unfortunate. And it's probably one of the reasons why, you know, the younger generation is growing up kind of antisocial of of sorts in the real world. They're very social online in the matrix, but put them in a in a room and uh you're going to get a lot of awkwardness.

[00:41:43]Uh and it's interesting because I'm not saying silence is awkward. Silence is only awkward if you feel awkward in it, right? And um it's interesting because now that I've I've you know lived abroad, traveled quite a bit. I have to say that uh and and this is a general this is a a vast general generalization.

[00:42:03]Okay. And it's I'm probably stepping to stereotype here, but what I notice about American conversation cadence is like a game of ping pong. It's not even tennis.

[00:42:14]Tennis at least has to travel across the field and gets to the other person. Ping pong is like Papa.

[00:42:20]>> So there is like no silence. So when Americans encounter silence in the in a conversation, it's almost like it is awkward, right? It's like that's where the awkward silence comes in. And then when I travel to Europe, when I, you know, spend time in France, spend time in Croatia, spend time even in London, which is like close to America as you can get from a European standpoint, like the cadence slows and there's there's gaps and silences in between sentences.

[00:42:54]And I feel like there's breathing.

[00:42:56]There's like there's allowance to breathe in the cadence of speech.

[00:43:01]Um so anyways it's a long way way of saying there's like it's interesting that also a weird interesting correlation is that like you know America has this hustle culture that just you got to go go right and uh our way of speaking the cadence in which we we we uh use language is almost indicative of the energetic that we we live through daily life.

[00:43:32]I don't know if that's nature or nurture, right? But just an observation.

[00:43:42]Fen says Shoule uh thousand% you can't be fully authentic when you don't need to control the other person. The moment you feel the need to control the other person, you're managing danger.

[00:43:57]And yeah, I agree. your your English is perfect like truly truly perfect.

[00:44:05]So yeah uh again extending the question to all of you um anything arise for you going through verse 10 and also I I realize I I published a video on Wednesday today so maybe not enough time but if there's any thoughts or observations that came up for you this week or any anything really actually doesn't necessarily have to be be verse 10 Because I see our Sunday reflection session as just a space for us to share.

[00:45:59]Well, seems like Oh, Shan Driven says, "I've been trying to be in my nature and flow all year." So, this verse really hit. I hit reset on everything and unlearned a lot of survival mindset behaviors.

[00:46:19]Learn to stop trying to control.

[00:46:26]I've been trying to be in my nature and flow all year.

[00:46:34]Hit reset on everything. I unlearned a lot of survival mindset behaviors.

[00:46:40]I'm curious what hitting reset on everything is for you. what that looks like for you because it looks different for for everyone, right? Like it's um >> Oh, man. I have to show you guys this.

[00:46:56]You guys are This is so amazing. I've never seen so many like one-legged or Oh, two-legged dogs. That's so cool, man. So, anyways, just a little bit of daily life, by the way. Um and the three-legged dog. Oops. Of course I dropped that.

[00:47:20]Sorry about that.

[00:47:22]I had to show it to you guys because did you see how happy those uh those dogs were? Like they don't have their back legs, right? But they have these like crazy smiles on their face. I bring up the the story or dynamology of the three-legged dog all the time as a way to convey how present animals are. Like you you would probably not see more rarely see a human missing a limb or two limbs at that and be that freaking happy, you know. Um and I think part of it is again we our big brains, we remember a lot of things. We keep a lot of trauma within us and we don't more importantly we don't let we don't let it flow. This is that's literally that those dogs are those dogs are paid actors got guys like that's kind of what the verse verse 10's practice really is for me is letting whatever experience that we give birth to like without possessing and letting it go without controlling.

[00:48:34]Let it wash through us. Right.

[00:48:43]Do Olive says, "I had a disconnected kind of week. Literally nothing was sinking. Just ignored the world for a week.

[00:49:00]Literally nothing was sinking.

[00:49:04]just ignore the world for a week.

[00:49:08]Honestly, sometimes we need that. Like I sometimes just f off for a week. I mean, it depends also on your on your state, right? Um it really depends on your state. Like sometimes we just when depression comes in many different forms so I can't really generalize but um when I was going through my form of depression um when I realized it it I had to do the opposite what I typically do which is to like work through things to pump more energy into things because I'm just naturally very fiery.

[00:49:48]I literally needed to do the opposite and just float, right? And play 100 hours of video games, like do the most non-productive stuff ever to let go of productivity and and performance.

[00:50:05]So, um I'm kind of curious how you're feeling of an olive after being, you know, being disconnected for a week. Do you feel like your cup is more empty?

[00:50:18]Or is it does it feel more full? Curious feeling driven says I literally went no contact with people walked away from one-sided friendships and ended my 11 year old long 11year long relationship and walked away from corporate.

[00:50:35]Holy Okay. Yeah. When you say reset, you hit reset.

[00:50:42]Oh man. Yeah, that is uh no contact with people, disconnected, right? Number one, that is like empty cup. Empty cup. No contact with people. Walked away from one-sided friendships. Yep. Ended 11 year long I mean decade long relationships. Oh my god. What? That that takes that takes guts, right? And walked away from corporate. Okay, so this is kind of crazy because you think about the pillars not like the daily pillars that support us but just in life in general.

[00:51:16]You have work, relationships, like you know and and and health, right?

[00:51:21]Um so in some respects like you kind of let go of pretty much all of it except for your own health hopefully. Um that's really massive. Like talk about this massive emptying of your cup. You freaking dumped it. Dumped it. Uh I am curious now how that's feeling for you and whether you're able to Well, first of all, have you We can only be aligned and be our natures if we know what our natures are. and and often that's a discovery process and we have to remove sometimes the people the relationships the the the job in order to touch even begin touching the texture of that nature so feeling driven I'm curious if you were you have been able to uh you think about the analogy of the cup right like how can you touch the the bottom of our cup, the texture of the cup itself without without um without emptying it first, right? Otherwise, you're just touching water. You can't actually feel what this thing is. That is your vessel.

[00:52:47]There's a quote among thousands of people, you'll meet the right one. Not a moment too soon, not a moment too late.

[00:52:54]Who knows what unexpected encounters are still waiting for you, Shank.

[00:52:59]We got aliens, we got volcanoes, and we got a tuk tuk. I agree.

[00:53:06]Honestly, I agree. I I really do. Um, this is one of the beautiful beautiful things when we do take the vulnerable path, guys. And and this is one of the reasons why I I always I I still continue to try my best. Not perfect, but take the path of vulnerability.

[00:53:27]Um and it's because like it it not opens me up, but it opens everyone else up.

[00:53:35]And honestly, I was so touched. I was really touched uh in the comments by people who who, you know, came out with their own experiences of of feeling lonely, of of loneliness.

[00:53:50]Um, and it's really cool, you know, and it's uh it's really cool to to see how we're all dealing with it in different ways.

[00:54:01]Um and I think you know Rabbine as well as another another uh viewer who commented said that you know we're we're truly not alone right and we have this beautiful beautiful world within us that we carry within us at all times uh and it's fascinating because this reminds me of this the inner citadel concept that Marcus Aurelius wrote in meditations which is that you You know people like to retreat to the mountains, the forests, the oceans. Yet at any time we can retreat in in ourselves and derive nourishment.

[00:54:44]Um and I think that's really fundamentally true.

[00:54:49]But at the same time, you know, when we exist in cities, it's interesting, right? It's goes back to my observation that uh I feel more alone in the middle of a city than being alone in nature.

[00:55:00]And I'm still sitting with why that is.

[00:55:03]And there's something to be said about the implicit pressure to be social and socialized in the middle of cities versus when I'm immersed in nature and there's no pressure. There's no expectations and I truly feel natural and relaxed. There's something to be said about that. And then the question is can we carry the relaxation and the naturalness of when we are in nature back to the village back to the cities where sometimes you know life is lived right not for everyone. I think for many of you you have chosen to move away from the cities to go in closer to nature. Um and that is also a lifestyle choice like we we do have the choice as well sometimes not all not every time it's not for everyone of course feeling driven says I needed to heal my need for control and staying in toxic situations for fear of the unknown for the sake of security now I'm super feel in absolute freeall Yeah. I mean, this is kind of what happens when we remove the the the floor that kind of like that we that we walk on all the time in life, like you know, be it jobs or relationships and and communities. Then when we remove that, you're kind of in freef fall of sorts, right? And it's a very different a very different experience. Absolute freef fall. Um yeah, at the same time it's like you know we can't really build found from the foundation until we actually land on the true ground on the true ground and start figuring out what that again that what that texture different undulations where you want to build the next beam and the foundations.

[00:57:04]You can't do that. We can't do that until you actually like take the fall um and let yourself fall sometimes.

[00:57:14]Yeah, super chill. Super chill. In absolute freef fall. Yeah, super chill.

[00:57:20]Just got to relax, right? Better shape than ever.

[00:57:25]I'm so happy. I'm so happy to hear that.

[00:57:27]And I can feel it. I can feel it from you from even though we're like we're communicating over text like over the the chats. I can I can feel that. First of all, you understand nuance so well, right? When someone's cup is really full, it's really difficult for someone to actually, you know, pick up nuance as well as pick up on energy. And this is one of the reasons why I try to keep my either my cup more empty or increase the capacity of my cup through like sleep, exercise, all the the other pillars is again it it it helps us retain that sensitivity to life without being overwhelmed.

[00:58:08]You're continuing. Yep. Yeah. I didn't know who I was or what I wanted. This whole year has been about finding out.

[00:58:16]Want to rebuild based on true stable foundations. Absolutely. Yep.

[00:58:21]Feeling less full now.

[00:58:24]Advanola says, "Feeling less full now."

[00:58:27]Yes. Had a good night's sleep after a couple nights of insomnia. That's tough.

[00:58:32]Insomnia is like the equivalent of going from this, you know, a mug to a tiny teacup. You know what I mean? Uh like I can't I can't emphasize the importance of sleep. It's so important.

[00:58:49]That was P says not verse 10, but your substack hit so many issues for me. But first, I felt bad I was behind on reading and realized I was not ready to hear it until today. Yeah. I I I saw your comment come through that was piece like thank you so much for just conveying that. Um it's interesting right because with the substack I I almost I see it as a companion essay to the verses. Um and it's like picking it's almost like cherrypicking one particular line or two from the verse because again verse 10 has like at least seven different ways you can take it. um I decided to take it in one direction based on my lived experience in this current season of life uh and then go deeper into the practice uh in the substack. So I'm really glad that uh and it completes my artist circle of sorts that it's it's appreciated by its its intended audience. Thank you so much for letting me know um how how you received it.

[00:59:58]But also uh there is no and you guys already know this, but I'm going to say it a million times over and over again is that uh there is no falling behind on any of the verses. There's no falling behind on reading or showing up to these live streams.

[01:00:18]Um, I'm just I'm just happy you guys are here. And you know, there's going to be certain verses like the the Delta Ching is nonlinear even though it's it's like, you know, written with numbers. When we when the human mind sees numbers, especially in a sequence from 1 to 81, we almost automatically associate that with a particular order.

[01:00:43]And what's associated with order is sequence and cadence, right? Um, how many times have I broken the cadence of this series? Quite a few times.

[01:00:56]Literally after the first, like if you go on to like the very first intro video, right, that a lot of you guys have found the series on, it says like the daing is meant to be lived, not not uh read.

[01:01:10]And the thumbnail still says one book for months. That was my original goal, which is five verses every week, right?

[01:01:18]Monday to Friday, you know, filming, going through the verse, because that's kind of how I did it the first time I did it because I was going through a life crisis at the time. But immediately after filming the very first verse, I filmed a follow-up going, "Uh, actually, I think this is way too much." Right? I broke the cadence already then I and lengthened it to to you know to one verse a week which is drastic. It it goes from four months that thumbnail is outdated because if you extrapolate that out with all the different reflections and breaks we take take between it's actually one book two years two years right and uh already even last week we broke the cadence again right whereby it's like verse 9 but I felt after verse 9 I felt like my cup was pretty full and I needed to empty it guys I needed to empty it before I could do verse 10.

[01:02:17]So if I took my own medicine on that and and said uh that wow I'm falling behind I carry over the same energy that modernity has injected has infected me with which is Kronos Kronos time track time versus chyros time experiential and artist time. Things happen as they happen. Things unfold as they unfold. Um and that in itself is a practice of being water and letting go in writing whatever life comes our way.

[01:02:50]Um otherwise I would be disingenuous.

[01:02:54]I would be uh for a lack of better word I would be fake to myself. I would be artificial to myself. Not true to my own nature as well as what life circumstances bring us. Right. Uh and I think as you demonstrated Dao's piece is that the right article, the right video, the light, the right snippet will always find us in good time when we let go of whatever connotations, you know, preconceptions that we have, expectations.

[01:03:27]Devon Olive says, "We'll start my week with a cleaner slate. I'm happy." Yeah.

[01:03:34]and definitely got to prioritize sleep.

[01:03:37]That's that's kind of uh it's how we wipe our mirrors clean biologically.

[01:03:48]The Lota says every thought is an abstraction.

[01:03:55]Yes. Well, it's interesting because thoughts come from often our observations of the world. And right now I'm looking at the tree in front of me.

[01:04:04]I'm looking at my computer in front of me, right? But the the the leaves are green not because they're actually green. It's because chlorophyll does not absorb the green part of visible light.

[01:04:17]It absorbs all the other parts of light to create energy. But chlorophyll does not absorb green. So hence our eyes perceive it as green. But the leaves are not green. Right? that in itself in my head this thought of green is an abstraction. Um so if our perceptions are abstractions of reality then downstream thoughts are also abstractions. True.

[01:04:45]She says a good environment is one where respect comes naturally. Thank you Shane for sharing your time with us. I appreciate you guys too. Thank you for just being here. Yep. What an amazing two years uh this will be with you in the community. Yeah, we're we're only like 10 verses in, guys. Like, we finally hit digit double digits. Like, wow. Hooray.

[01:05:13]Uh I mean, it only took like almost three months to get here, right?

[01:05:21]Well, guys, I'm going to wrap us up today. Actually, I think this is a great this is a great stopping point. And uh and yes, speaking of labels, yeah, because humans call green. That's that's also a label. Words themselves are abstractions. They're symbols. And yet at the same time, words are so powerful, right? Like the human just like how human thoughts create words. Words create human thoughts and experiences and emotions.

[01:05:49]So we live, we are abstractions. We we live in a world of abstractions. So, all right guys, have a wonderful Sunday week ahead. I'm actually really looking forward to uh doing verse 11 tomorrow. I don't know what it holds. Uh but the fact that I'm I'm feeling, you know, I I look forward to it is a good sign that, you know, the cup is empty enough to receive it.

[01:06:22]All right, guys. Take care.