[00:00] Speaker 1: (jazzy music) . Hello, this is Errol Strider, welcoming you to The Laughing Heart: For People On The Grow, where we take a deep and metaphorical and sometimes humorous look at what is most essential in the human experience and how to make the most out of it. Tonight's experience is gonna focus on the flow: being in the flow, resisting the flow, understanding the flow. And we're gonna feature a couple poems and some discussion about it, and also accompanying that, which follows right out of the flow is the place where we can most tap into the flow, and that's going within. So if you're ready to go on this journey, let's get started. Before you hear this, just notice where you are right now. What's moving in your mind? What you're holding onto. What you may be trying to figure out or fix. We spend much of our time trying to manage life, to shape it, control it, get it to go the way we think it should. Sometimes that works, but sometimes it doesn't.

[01:47] Speaker 1: And in those moments, something tightens. We may push harder, try to regain control. We resist what's actually happening. But what if there is something else at play? Something already moving, already unfolding, already carrying us whether we notice it or not? Not something we create, something we enter. As you listen to this piece, don't try to analyze it. Just let it move through you and notice what happens when you stop pushing. And especially notice any images or metaphors that speak to you.

[02:45] Speaker 2: There is a flow. (instrumental music plays) It meanders for a while, seems aimless till you're in it. Curving round impenetrable bends, slithers in valleys, searching for outlets. "Cast off." "Keep her steady." "Careful now." "Leave, go the lines." Sub-connections for our flow, intertwined connectors wrapped in cords of purposeful directions. Rotating and the paddle wheel churns upstream, downstream. It coasts and waits. "Ease into the current, lads." "She's a bit choppy, eh?" "Never you mind. You want to get to port, do you not?" (instrumental music plays) At one moment it draws, another pulls, lures and yearns. Often it beckons. "Quiet down downstream there. Hush. Keep alive, lads. Listen for the drift." "I hear a ripple." "Ah, do you now? Where?" Listen. (instrumental music plays) Only the tension. It's looking for a home, a circuit to connect the flow. "Ah. (laughs) She's alive and brisk and grand.

[04:45] Speaker 2: See how she moves, a real lady." It bends and gallops, and sometimes nuzzles up to you but so tender. And fall in stride, the flowing live tension solid and invisible, in motion contactable whispers, "Yes." Reiterates, "Yes, yes, yes. It's here. Ride in style. Contact in circuit. Plug in." It bends. "Steer to leeward. We're catching up. Pull in, pull in." "But she's hard to harness." "You cannot harness her. She rides free. You must move with her, lads." It beckons, the flow, like a wind without a sail wanders seemingly aimless. Moving leaves, grass ripples, birds duck her strong hands but one sail is hoisted and she's fulfilled. Someone to move with her.Ah, (laughs) she's a woman satisfied, ey, lads? Filled full, both you and she, the flow has intercourse with the soul. (thunder claps) Let the sail out, too much wind! Sometimes she's hot and fast, not a good time to, to tap her unless you're experienced in the flow. "Here, give me the helm," shouts the experienced flow rider.

[06:34] Speaker 2: She won't bend with you, you have to give yourself to her. "Well, where's she coming from?" "The source. Where'd you think? You'll learn, laddy. You'll learn." "Well, what do I do?" Sometimes she can mystify, leaves you mouth open on deck, but palms open and she pours through fingers. (thunder claps) "Only so much tension now, she'll tear you apart if you're not careful." There is a flow. "Well, how can I move with her?" "Ah, her balmy thrust will lift you up. It's all in the will, lads, and the wanting. Just let go and she'll have you in the richest bosom you have ever supped on, I tell ye, lads." It's in the will that we connect. We stand female and must open our ducks and she carries us on, our sails outstretched like wings. But the flow knows where it's going, the one we want, it moves with a purpose, from the source. "Relax, laddy, she'll not be got by force. Give with her." "Give." She gives her power, but only to those who know the dynamics of her motion.

[08:04] Speaker 2: "Well, she's got a will of her own, it seems." "Indeed, she is will, the will." "But we don't want to go that way, now do we, sir?" "Do not worry, she'll come round. Trust her. She takes you to different places before she'll take you home. That way, you'll have more stories to tell your lads, hmm." How dull if she took us where we wanted to go at her speed. She's the mother of adventure, the flow. "Hold on now, she's speeding us apart." Contact, in circuit, plug in. "She'll have you, but she'll be gentle." She knows you, the flow, the will. Contact, hoist, decide, bend, stretch palms, give. Flow, spread to the heart, and let it, let it, oh, let it flow.

[09:23] Speaker 1: What you've just experienced isn't just a poem, it's a journey through three currents: personal, spiritual, and cosmic. First, on the most personal level, the flow is life itself. Unpredictable, at times choppy, at times gentle. The sailors in the piece are us. We try to harness it, steer it, bend it. We discover, as Alan Watts would say, that our real wisdom is not in grasping, but in trusting. We stop grasping at the water and float. Second, second on the personal level, the flow reveals herself as will. Indeed, she is will, the will. This is what the Urantia Book calls the heart of life, doing the will of God, which I always think of as following the evolutionary imperative.

[10:43] Speaker 1: It says doing the will of God is nothing more or less than a willingness to share our inner life with God, with universal consciousness, with, as Paul Tillich says, "The ground of being, which we find, fortunately, within ourselves." So, it is incumbent upon us to fully allow that inner connection to become co-participants in the divine current. Yeshua, Jesus, expressed it simply as, "I will do your will." Indeed, your will is my will, as Joel Goldsmith would say. Third, on the cosmic level, the flow is what I now call, as I said, the evolutionary imperative. Teilhard de Chardin saw that, too. He showed that evolution isn't random or aimless, it's being drawn from within toward greater complexity, greater consciousness, and ultimately toward union with the source, what he called the omega point. In that sense, the will of source is not a static command, but a living movement carrying everything forward.

[12:15] Speaker 3: So when we let go into the flow, we're resigning ourselves to fate. We're aligning with the deepest drive of the universe, the personal current of our own lives, the divine current of God's w- will, the movement, the motion, the driving force that underlies and drives everything, the cosmic current of evolution itself. Now that you've heard the piece once and touched these three layers, at some point, you might wanna come back to this podcast and listen to it again. Or, if you'd let me hear from you, to read it. That will open up a whole other aspect to the piece. And when you do that go-around, again, however you do it, just watch your mind as it attempts to come in and interpret it, but listen to it with your whole being. Let the flow carry you as will, as presence, as the very movement of creation drawing you home.

[13:34] Speaker 3: Since we're dealing with the flow, I have to share with you, I went to a seminar on the ranch of John Mackey, who was the previous owner of Whole Foods down in Austin, Texas. He sponsored an event down there that was called The Flow, and it was all about getting people together who, uh, had businesses of one sort or another, like the guy who runs Yogi Tea, he was there, and other people. And it was about, uh, developing ways to assist people in the third world to develop businesses, and I was fortunate enough to be part of that experience. I also was, uh, fortunate to spend some time with John Mackey. Uh, we took a walk together, and what we had in common were two things. One is our interest in integral philosophy, integral, uh, the major proponent of integral philosophy was Ken Wilber, and we also had a shared interest in A Course in Miracles, uh, two very different approaches to reality, but in many ways, they're complementary.

[14:58] Speaker 3: What I learned from A Course in Miracles about flowing... helped me explore the idea of being in the flow a little further. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have, uh, some of my friends, uh, come share with me. Uh, my first, uh, friend to be a guest on this show is, uh, Barney from the neighborhood. Hi, Barney. Welcome aboard. Oh, hi, Errol. It's great to be here. I always love having these conversations with you, and today, you know, I don't know about the flow. You know, life is not, uh, flowing very much for me and a lot of people I know. If you think about it, all the people that are in- incurring, uh, trauma and tragedy and pain and suffering, mm, you try and tell these people about the flow, I'm not so sure they would be open to it. Well, you got a point, uh, being in the flow, but let's take a look at that. Let's take a look at, uh, uh, calamity and how can you flow with that? Well, I think the first thing you have to do is don't resist it.

[16:14] Speaker 3: Oh, you're talking about the old thing about non-resistance. Well, all right, all right. I'm with you so far. How does that work? Well, one thing I've discovered, for instance, if I have, uh, pain in my, uh, body, for example, uh, what I've learned is, first of all, take the word pain off it. That alone changes it. And then, uh, just notice the sensation rather than resist it. Right away, you will experience something different. It becomes less, well, painful, and then you can be with it, and in fact, maybe even flow with it and let that pain give you the message that is meant to be given, which is what pain's all about. Now, that may or may not be comfort to someone who is suffering, but it's a start, and I have found that it's very effective. Oh, I get it. So you, so you take the pain off. Ah, you take the word off. I see that now, how words can, can enhance, and, and I just, I don't use that word very often, but now I see it's appropriate.

[17:39] Speaker 3: You can enhance the experience, and hey, oh, I get it. You can set the stage for flowing. Oh, that's good. That's very good, Errol. Thank you. (laughs) Well, you're easy. Thank you. But I think you've raised a really important point. Uh, what did... And, and, and once it brings up for me, well, what is it to actually flow? Uh, and f- for that I'd like to invite, uh, another good friend of ours, uh, Professor Umbridge, who often has some wonderful insight based upon his experience. Welcome, uh, Professor. It's always great to have you here.

[18:24] Speaker 4: Well, good day, Errol. I'm so delighted that you actually get to spend some time at the, the new Whole Foods. There you are in, uh, Los Gatos, California. I've heard it's one of the warmest places in the world. Has the most temperate climate of anything, anywhere. That and some place in, oh, yes, Aswan, Egypt. You probably didn't know that those are the two most temperate climates in the world.

[18:55] Speaker 3: Well, they are. I, I, I guess it's good that you mentioned. I just hope people don't think they could just move to Los Gatos, uh, as a resident. And I have to tell you, it's, uh, uh, it's a challenging economically. It's not an inexpensive place to live.

[19:12] Speaker 4: Oh, of course. Expense and inexpense. Well, there's another opportunity and challenge to get into the flow when life becomes, hmm, expensive or, as they're fond of saying now in our current circumstances, affordable. Yes, it's hard to let it flow when you're backed up against financial limitations. Uh, how do you deal with that? That's what I've been going through. Uh, one of the things I've discovered is that a large part of financial limitation is the fact that, well, we all seem separate from each other. I know, I know. It's, it's not obvious, hmm, that we're not separate, but one thing that increases the opportunity for flow is when we make wonderful exchanges. Every time we make an authentic exchange with someone, it somehow puts us into the flow. By the way, another way of using that is reciprocity.

[20:25] Speaker 3: Ah, okay. Say more about that. Reciprocity.

[20:29] Speaker 4: Oh, yes. Before I do that, I have to tell you, uh, one time, I looked up in the dictionary the word reciprocity and it said mutuality, and then I looked up the word mutuality, and guess what it said? You've got it, reciprocity. So, I thought that was rather amusing. (laughs) And it's kinda funny.

[20:54] Speaker 3: Uh, okay. So, you're saying that there's a kind of a reciprocity, uh, or mutuality?

[21:03] Speaker 4: Yes. In fact, that is it. And when we can create some mutuality or mutual engagement, it creates a connection, and the flow is r- right on the connection.

[21:20] Speaker 3: Whoa. That is so profound. So, every time we make the connection, you're saying that there's a flow?

[21:32] Speaker 4: Exactly. The flow shows up when we connect, especially if we connect without any judgment or resistance.

[21:44] Speaker 3: Oh, I think you nailed it, Professor. Judgment. Boy, does that ever get in the way of flowing. Uh, and w- what I notice about judgment is, it's really a separator. No, no, no. We're not talking about discernment or like saying this thing is worthwhile or this is a better condition or that's better quality. We're, we're talking about judging something in a way where it feels like we're separate from that, especially when we judge other people, and even more especially when we judge ourselves.

[22:22] Speaker 4: Oh. Talk about interrupting the flow. Mm, there's not a chance you can get in the flow when there's s- self-judgment.

[22:32] Speaker 3: Yes.

[22:33] Speaker 4: It's something we have to be on the lookout for.

[22:36] Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Professor. You've been, uh, very, uh, informative and enlightening. Well, folks, I hope you, uh, appreciated this conversation, and to help you get more in the flow, uh, here's another piece that is about the flow, uh, and see if this, uh, makes it more easy. Uh, uh, at the very least, I hope your life can be more fluid. And the next time you have an opportunity to engage, just see if you can be mindful of the quality of the energy that's moving back and forth between you. And one more story. I was doing seminars at the Boulder County Jail for inmates there, and one of the times I went there, and I had gone there many times, and one of the things I learned, don't plan it. Just let it happen. So, I went there, and there was a guy in the front row and he looked mean and, uh, uh, kinda defiant, and I walked in, in my own kinda naive, innocent attitude, said, "Okay.

[24:00] Speaker 3: Who's got a question?" (laughs) And, uh, h- he looked at me with kinda snide look and said, "What's the truth?" And I thought, hmm, and I said, "Well, that's as good a question as any," and I knew nothing I could say to him, uh, would have any impact on him. But I looked next to me. There was a chair and I picked up the chair and let it crash to the ground.And I pointed to it and I said, "That's the truth." He couldn't argue with it. As the workshop progressed, I went on to share that, you know, while this is gravity, but wh- what most people don't realize or don't think about is that gravity is pulling in two directions. You know, we're so tiny compared to the earth that it seems like the earth is doing all the work, but in fact, uh, there is a, uh, mutual pull even though our part of it is relatively infinitesimal. And then I shared that with them, and a certain point during the seminar, I asked two, uh, uh, young men to come up and sit in front of the group.

[25:22] Speaker 3: And I guided them in this process where they were exchanging energy with each other. And in fact, as they were moving this, I know it sounds kind of, you know, woo-woo, but it actually was a palpable experience. And the reason I know it was a palpable experience, they were in this flow, uh, and there was a guy in the back of the row, back seat of the seminar, and he stood up and he yelled, "I feel it! I feel it!" (laughs) And we all laughed. It was such a validation of the power of, well, the flow. Anyway, I hope you found this useful and that you find the flow happening more often in your life. Now I'd like to share with you another approach to this same dimension of experience, where the flow is, where it takes us, what takes us into the flow itself, and that's the experience of going within. Let's listen to this piece about the within and allow it to take you on a deeper journey into your own consciousness.

[26:53] Speaker 5: Turn away from the world of sights and sounds. A dazzling display, a merry-go-round. Come in. Come in, in. In to the inner world, where blossoms rise from rocks, and miracles occur. Turn away from the world of luster and spark of vivid appeal. Come out of the dark. Come in. Come in. In to the inner world, where heaven and earth shake hands, and lion and lamb embrace. Turn away from the world of time and space. Listening bright, a hectic race. Come in. Come in. Come in to the inner world, where stars and thoughts collide, and pearls spring from pebbles. Turn away from the world that scintillates, a euphoric place that stimulates. Come in. Come in. Come in to the inner world, where bright spheres never set and roadways never end. Turn away from the world of moment's delight, charming and bold that seems to excite. Come in. Come in. Come in to the inner world, where flowers never wilt, and deserts become gardens.

[28:49] Speaker 5: Turn away from the world that glows and shines, the things to do so lovely and fine. Come in. Come in. In to the inner world, where snowflakes appear in colors, and raindrops rise up to the sky. Come in.

[29:24] Speaker 3: Well, there you have it, the flow going within, coming without, and it looks like we've run out of time speaking of without. Again, this is Errol Strider with The Laughing Heart for People on the Grow. You can f- find out more about who I am and what we're about by going to our website, thelaughingheart.org. And hopefully we'll see you next time. Be well.