dr. James house

hey hey hey everybody out there good afternoon everyone wherever you are in the world at this time welcome to reclaiming authenticity helping you find the courage to reclaim that which has always been in you very excited to be with you here today each and every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time noon Pacific Standard Time and any other time in between each and every week these broadcast focus on the integration of spirituality and our mental health and needs to be replaced all the time in the context of our relationships relationship that we have with ourselves that relationships that we have with others and the relationship with God or the Divine I'm dr. James how can if you would like more information about me or to leave me your comments about today she'll just invite you to visit the website it's www.pbs radio.com reclaiming authenticity

www.bcbs.com reclaiming authenticity and if you would like to be part of today show me to call then you can do that's toll-free it's 888-627-6008 that's 880-627-6008 and I'll be taking your calls at the after the break about 30 minutes into the show today just in case you can't stick around for the whole show today or maybe you want to go back and listen to the other shows that are in the archives you can go back and listen to them all you have to do is just go back into the with the website and you'll see. Scroll down a little bit and you'll see the previous shows the dates and the titles for them and everything and you do not want to do that the shows are also available now for download on Audible and iTunes and app

Amazon music and just want to mention before we get into today show that if you've thought about subscribing to these broadcasts just invite you to do so again. These are not required you don't need a subscription to in order to access any of these podcast but again it is greatly appreciated so you may do so just Again by visiting the website and I believe it's in the upper left-hand corner you can click on the subscription link and it'll it'll share with you all the information that you need to sell certainly no pressure but certainly grateful for those who provide this is a welcome there's always new people turning tuning into the show and so I just want to begin by just saying that with all the chaos and the uncertainty and the confusion that's

Play Gone these days this call to live a more authentic life is becoming just increasingly urgent and poignant and tracked it seems that everywhere we turned genuineness and authenticity are rare characteristics among people who are searching for I would call it a tangible substance in relationships we want to know who we can trust what we want to know who we can be authentic with and how can we be more authentic with ourselves but nowadays Society is is just constantly conditioning all the generations to question the motives and desires of others really like never before been for instance you know this is striving for the best polished Personal Image is at an all-time fever pitch as it seems that but one reality show

after another presents us with anything but reality daily we're being sold the message that to be the most socially acceptable Persona money can buy in fact it seems as though that wherever there is more drama or more tears or more pain or suffering the better the front page story and read these articles or as we watched These reality shows it just seems as though you know it these themes just keep coming up again like you know such as who can out shock who who has more drama who can provide more tears who can generate more chaos who can accumulate more toys and points than anybody else who has more guy all or trickery and really who is more cunning either by hook or by crook

and unfortunately instead of taking people at face value so to speak we're now a custom to always asking okay so what's the catch

what are you not telling us

well perhaps as result of a number of humiliating and painful experiences that we tend to avoid any further investing of physical or emotional or even spiritual parts of ourselves in relationships I mean furthermore out of our own Brokenness we may feel that we just cannot risk being a victim to yet another example of fraud or trickery and or just flat-out dishonesty because the past physical and psychological and spiritual wounding has really taken too much out of him leaving us to believe that others simply conspire to take advantage of our vulnerability

and yet this this is the Dilemma we face isn't it may we on one hand we strive for genuineness and authenticity in our relationships and yet we also realize at some point that this demands our level of vulnerability from us

and therefore I place this integration of spirituality and our mental health in relationships because true when you think about it you know we received our deepest physical emotional psychological and in our spiritual wounds in relationships we can discover also our greatest healing and our strength and peace and forgiveness and love through healthier relationships we may be able to see it right away but it's there okay so this is the great irony of life we are we are social creatures we are social beings we live in relationships we just cannot avoid it and yet this is where often our pain comes from and yet it's also in the same context where are healing can come from

are these relationships just might be within our own families it might be among our co-workers might be among our friends but it's interesting that because whenever we

start the transform we start to heal from the wounds that we picked up in previous relationships we also transform others by just how we are sometimes we could transform others by our presence in our Grace and our understanding but first forgiveness and kindness and compassion the kid was how we treat ourselves no because whenever we are compassionate with ourselves we find that we can then be more compassionate with others and when we are forgiving with ourselves we then discover that we can be more forgiving with others and when were able to live in gratitude with ourselves we then discover how does opens up our hearts to see and live in gratitude with others

so transformation first and foremost begins with us and because we were in relationships with others it just expands out it just ripples out into any and all relationships that we are in so in other words you know before we can expect and appreciate authenticity from another we are first are compelled to confront our own consistencies and our own inauthentic ways one of my favorite family psychotherapist Virginia's a tear she lived she was born in 1916 and then she died in nineteen eighty-eight definitely one who is ahead of her time you know when she was growing up Victoria error and you know anything about that time. Is definitely what we would call a man's world and Virginia came along and turned psychotherapy

on his head and so I always appreciate it just her way of being with just individuals but also and she really brought her work into relationships and she took it very very deep and thought she was one of the first psychotherapist to combine Eastern philosophies with Western shall we say psychology the psychological Concepts well she has a way of summing up this offseason authenticity quite nicely she says I want to love you without clutching

I want to appreciate you without judging

I want to join you without invading

invite you without demanding leave you without guilt

criticize you without blaming and help you without insulting and if I can have the same from you then we can truly meet each other

and I've always appreciated you know those words from Virginia said tear again she just had a way of just pulling out of people the very best parts of themselves and just saying okay what are we truly talking about hear what does it mean to be vulnerable with each other but it's his Cry of the heart that you have and what are these wounds that are keeping you from being and I'm just you know living in relationships with

really leading I would say with the greatest parts of ourselves simply really who we are and just letting that shine instead of shirking back and being guarded or defensive and then go for it because you know when we become aware of our own internal logging to be more authentic in relationships and actually to be truer to ourselves this will compel us to begin the process of reclaiming who we are our voice our uniqueness are this hness

and in his book The Return of the Prodigal Son Henri nouwen he writes that people discover that there is tremendous strength in healthy relationships are people who heal each other's wounds forgive each other's offenses share their possessions Foster the spirit of community and celebrate the gifts they have received and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God

so how do we do this how do we engage in an inner spiritual transformational aspect that is ongoing and more aligned with our authenticity

well let's consider this joke a shoe a spoon and a rope walk into a bar and sit down now the bartender never having seen this before goes over down to Bar where they are waiting there with his typical so what do you have and the shoe the spoon and the Rope reply that's okay don't mind us we're not really here

about this joke seems like it makes no sense you know from a logical standpoint but when we understand what's really going on here it does have something to teach us regarding living in Illusions and distortions as well as living in the fear of not wanting to discover the deeper truth about ourselves

cuz you see the cognitive distortions and the anxiety that they produce three ways that our minds convince us of something that isn't really true you know these inaccurate thoughts or are usually used to reinforce our negative thinking or our negative emotions and telling ourselves that things sound rational and accurate but really only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves and perceiving ourselves as victims but give me a quick example here there's one in which we often look at ourselves you know that you're like victimization okay and good example of this is less a year in one room and you're just minding your own business and there's a lot of other people in adjust to another room adjacent to where you are and you hear a bunch of laughing and carrying on some music is playing that it sounds like they're having a good time okay and I can't quite make out what

you're talking about but you just going to go see what's going on here so you get up and you walk across you know the room and you poke your head in the other room used walk-in like everybody

and then there's silence the Music Stops

the talking stops

The Laughing stocks and so forth I mean just silenced even a crickets or silent okay and you automatically assume that they must have been talking about me

what did I do wrong

why are they picking on me what did I do to them and so on and so on we just you know all these misperceptions come from our negative assumptions that well if something's wrong it must be my fault and again we just run with those assumptions instead of saying I bought everybody stop talking and go again we may not be even bother to check this out to see if there's any truth to it like well were you talking about me or you know what's really going on here or something or like I have to be quiet on my account go ahead go back to what you were doing I just came over to see you know how everybody is doing okay but you see how these cognitive distortions and the anxiety that it produces yeah there's just something that in our minds are just simply ways that the kind of convince us of something that isn't really true again wait we think you know there is some truth

cuz everything sounds good in her head but when it leaves our lips and we say something when we hear it like I shouldn't have said that or what was I thinking I just assumed the works okay but you know we tell her things we tell ourselves things I should say that sound rational and accurate but really they only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves and perceiving ourselves as victims

and this is something that we have to have to constantly resist we have to fight about you no fight from you know being you know victims all over again cuz a lot of people are very good at going into victimization or blaming themselves are taking on too much responsibility or even responsibility that's not there's no way to look at it so to speak is to understand that everything we see everything we taste everything we touch everything that we here and everything that we smell this is all taken in by our senses which in turn are interpreted by our minds that attach meaning and significance to it but which in turn creates awareness which then in turn creates memories well let's say that we we see a red rose we pick it up we hold it we smell it then and buy this

quick experience we interpret it as being Pleasant or unpleasant and then are mine logs that experience under our memory so that the next time we see a red rose we will remember what we have experienced in the past and the same process goes on when we believe that once something bad has happened to us well then it's inevitable that it's going to occur over and over and over again okay cuz how many times in our lives do we find ourselves going through some emotional or physical painful experience and we tell ourselves that well you ain't seen nothing yet that this negative experience is just the tip of the iceberg you know if you think you're suffering now just wait there's more to come okay and in this sense we're often waiting for shall we say

the other shoe to drop you know it's an expectation of something that is inevitable to occur and and how we often hold our breath like we don't want to get our hopes up because why you know the other shoe is going to drop here okay and that's actually this the saying of you know the other shoe is going to drop has an interesting history to it this expression probably has its origin in the boarding schools are rooming houses of the early 1900's where residents were crowded into multiple tiny rooms and the walls were very thin or from let's say the multi floor apartment dwellings in cities like Chicago and New York where one's tenants bedroom was always directly underneath another

sound when somebody is taking off their shoes or their boots they tend to drop them on the floor then when once you drop's the other will inevitably follow

right now I just try to get that image in your mind imagine that the residents needs other rooms hear the shoe drop and they know exactly what it is that night wait or listen for the other shoe to drop

but how is this expression played out in our anxieties and our fears and do we we feel like another major crisis could occur at any given moment that we just don't want to get our hopes up too high because well we're going to be disappointed that other shoe is just bound to drop and if we feel like this you know we're certainly not alone and many people that I talk to are anticipating that more trouble is just around the corner so they're always waiting for the other shoe to drop

and and given the conditions of the nation and the world at this time it's it's difficult to convince ourselves otherwise I mean after all what else could happen we're just waiting for the other shoe to drop

but let's just say for the moment

that there is no other shoe

what do we do then

do we simply stop what we're doing and become consumed with the illusion of being victims

because basically a victim is one who suffers a direct or threatened physical psychological spiritual and emotional harm as a result of an act by somebody else and this is a simple definition but you get the point

yes we can be a victim of another person's harm done to us but how many times do we inflict harm on ourselves reinforcing the illusion that all we are ever going to be it's a victim

and this is what exactly is meant by waiting for the other shoe to drop to live in fear or to live with it or to live reactive instead of living in the freedom of knowing who we are as a living Souls I was thinking about this concept and flipping channels one night and the Matrix was on and I have to watch The Matrix again and one of my favorite scenes is when Neo is taken to go see the Oracle to find out whether or not he is the one who Morpheus believes he is and he arrives at the oracle's apartment and he's told to take a seat with the other Potentials in other words the Oracle will be right with you but just have a seat and as he is waiting he notices a little Buddhist boy seemingly bending a spoon with his mind

little boy sings me out trying to figure out how he's doing this and so he handsome the spoon and Neo tries and he tries and he tries but he's simply cannot attend the spoon finally gives up and you know because he has yet to understand the how of this let alone the why and the best little Buddhist boy tells him that this can be done easily simply by understanding that it's impossible to bend a spoon

he said try to understand the truth

there is no spoon only then you will find that the spoon does not Bend but it is your mind

in other words look beyond the literal ordinary object or situation

and yet how many times we often focus on the problem and not the solution

because when we focus our attention on let's say a problem or something that's literally all we only see with a limited perspective.

I want to see focus on what's beyond the spoon so to speak within tap into our ability to see with our minds the infinite the formless and the Limitless

yes there is a form that we call spoon but that's not the end-all-be-all of what can be seen or experienced if you were ever watched the movie Patch Adams similar scene happens that to I believe the scientist name is Arthur Mendelssohn and he's going around and he's holding up four fingers but he goes up to people randomly and just says what how many fingers do you see and when a person just kind of looks at it like really what's your problem you know I only see four and Arthur Mendelson is just like four is that it I'm surrounded by idiots and one-night Patch Adams just he has to know more so he you know he goes to Arthur medicines room and he says what is it what's the answer to show me

and you know Arthur put down his pain as he was working on who knows why but he he has

Patch Adams hold up four fingers and he goes okay what do you see and the course patch has he's looking at his fingers say for and in Arthur stops and he goes no no no no no no look beyond the fingers

look Beyond them

and what he does and he softens his gaze and he looks beyond the fingers he sees eight fingers okay we could we could spend all night and retaining ourselves with this one but it is true when we don't focus on what's right in front of us if we look Beyond it if we are able to see what it is that's a not there that's where we're going to find the truth

it's something that I've come to really appreciated my life though just being able to find God in the ordinariness of life cuz I'm convinced that God loves to show up and answer the most unlikely people through the most unlikely circumstances and certainly and cons timing and we miss so much simply because we are looking for God in all the wrong places and these lessons you know Arts are certainly true and they could be applied when we want to see ourselves and others as so

yes yeah we have bodies but this is only the form you know just like the spoon it's only a form

and too often we focus only on wanting to change the form the external the temporary and yet all the while this is not the issue

however if we can see beyond the form and focus on the infinite the Limitless and the formulas

the temporary four more issue transforms

even our spirituality there are forms that we call rituals that we had here to in on a precise manner or particular order and we then often miss the flexibility that's needed you know to experience what's really important and another classic example of this teaching is when you do in the Bible when Jesus constantly wanted people to to discredit God's laws but rather see beyond them in order to grasp it's transformational spirit so whenever you are tempted to wait for the other shoe to drop remind yourself there is no shoe and change your assumptions about what you can and cannot do change your perspective

realize your potential CB on the spoon CB on the shoe and truly see what you have yet to discover about living authentically and relationships

about the last part to neyow's spoon bending encounter with the little Buddhist boy that after he well after he's been talkin to the Oracle for sometimes he looks up over half of her kitchen you know what he reads a sign and the Oracle says do you know what that means and you know that the sign reads temet nosce and it's Latin for know by self

and the key to finding a purpose and fulfillment life begins with knowing and understanding yourself they reach born with this knowledge but finding a purpose and achieving fulfillment requires the sharing of this knowledge we share the wisdom and receipt the transformation but it is there but don't focus on the spoon don't focus on the shoe well after the break I'll share with you another story about how easy it is for us to believe that we are limited or restricted by what we think we see and hear so I would really love to hear what's on your heart about this subject so again if you would like to call in the numbers toll free 888-627-6008 and I'll be taking your calls after the break again you are listening to reclaiming authenticity and I'm your host

James Hogg be back with you in one minute

okay welcome back I'm Doctor James how can you are listening to reclaiming authenticity well earlier in the show I was talking about the limits of living in Illusions and I started off by telling this joke a shoe a spoon and a rope walk into a bar and sit down and the bartender never having seen this before goes down there and went with the typical so what do you have and the shoe the spoon and the Rope I'll reply I don't mind us we're not really here

now this joke because I said before seems like it makes no sense I mean like what what's going on here you know especially from a logical standpoint but it really does have something to teach us regarding living in Illusions and distortions as well as living in the fear of not wanting to discover the deeper truth about ourselves

and I started to talk a little bit about the cognitive distortions in the anxiety that's produced from them because you know whenever we engage in this behavior and trust me we have all have our cognitive distortions you know these are things that our minds you know convince us that you know something you know it sounds good but it isn't really true you know in these inaccurate thoughts are usually used to reinforce negative thinking or are negative emotions you know telling ourselves well it sounds pretty good and it is probably accurate but in reality it only really serves to keep us feeling bad about ourselves and for saving ourselves as victims and the same process Goes On by save for an example when we believe that once something bad has happened to us that it's inevitable that is going to occur over and over and over and over

again

because how many times in our lives do we find ourselves going through you know a lot of painful experience whether it's emotional or psychological physical even spiritual painful experiences and we tell ourselves that we deserve it

we tell ourselves that wolf well I must have brought this on myself or we tell ourselves that oh my gosh this is this is just the beginning this is going to go on and on and on every time I visit this person every time I go here every time yeah and in a sense what we're doing is it we're waiting for the other shoe to drop you know this expectation of something that's just inevitable to occur and now we really have to hold our breath and okay it's true we can be the victim of you know another's harm done to us but how many times do we inflict harm on ourselves they and how many times do we reinforce this illusion that you know all we are ever going to be is a victim

that we don't deserve any happiness in our lives or that were worthless and unlovable and every time it happens we just go see see there it is again see I told you I told you there it is again see I just how that just reinforces these negative messages over and over again and this is exactly what we waiting for the other shoe to drop means to live in the sphere or to live wounded and and to be a victim and we tend to be reactive instead of living in the freedom of knowing of who we are as Souls

well now we've come to the last object in this joke that is the rope and let's see if we can truly experience the freedom that's contained within and there's a cute story I had to share this few months back and got some good responses from it because of it's just death of the teaching as well as I get it ties in nicely with you know truth isn't always what we see that it's called the donkey in the washer and one day when he was collecting the laundry in his village he was one who would take it down to the river to wash them and that's how we are just living so he just was always referred to as the washer been and you know what he would do this every day to take a day off you don't once a week but sure enough he'd go around and just okay who has washed today and I'll

be back later tonight with it and you know it makes his rounds one morning and then collects all the laundry that he has to do for that day and he gets down to the river and that's when he realized he had forgotten to bring the Rope to it she would tie the donkey to a tree so that it wouldn't run off while he was washing the laundry and he just he was so beside himself because you know he just stood there and he just like oh what am I going to do I'm going to lose a whole day's wage if I have to go back to home and get this rope and you just stood there just Frozen he didn't know what to do

and as he was standing there just contemplating that you know this dilemma a man walked by and asked him if he was okay you know is everything alright sir and the washer Men explain this situation to the man and I am about forgetting his rope so that he couldn't tie his donkey then as we would go back home he would be so far behind he would miss a whole day's wage and so for it and the other man who was listening to this Co just smiled and said officer you have nothing to worry about I have an idea you don't need the Rope just pretend to tie the donkey to this tree

okay what women what do you mean just pretend that's what I said just pretend to go through the motions of tying your donkey to the tree only make sure he sees you do this

well just as ridiculous as it sounded the washerman did just that he pretended to tie his doggie to the tree then he made sure that the donkey was watching him then he took his laundry down to the river and he began to wash it and every now and then the washer men would look back at the tree just to see what the donkey was doing and the donkey was still there it was eating grass and acting as if it is tied to this tree the donkey was perfectly content

well when the washer men finished his laundry for the day and everything was dry and folded and he loaded up his donkey and then he gave the command for the donkey to move

but the donkey didn't move

it acted as if it had been tied at the tree all along

and now the wash him and thought he was really in a bind because he can't get this donkey to move how am I going to return laundry to the people they're not going to want to pay me I don't know what I'm going to do it's going to be dark soon so on and so on so he leaves the donkey where it is and he runs any fines and you know the man who told him to pretend time the donkey to the tree in the first place while he searched and eventually found this man and explain the situation now to him that the donkey that refuses to move because it still thinks it's tied to the tree and the man listen then He said sir nothing to worry about this is easy you can you can fix this easily and he told him like just as you pretended to tie the donkey to the tree now you need to pretend to untie this Donkey from the trach only make sure the donkey watches you do this

well again the washer men so the Washington goes back to the donkey and he starts to pretend that he is untying this donkey and he made sure the donkey was watching him then with a Stern voice he commanded a donkey to move and he and the donkey started to walk back home

now again on the surface we might think of ourselves that the donkey in the story is just plain stupid you know being tricked into thinking it was time when I actually it was not I mean after all the only thing that the washer when did was simply go through the motions of tying and untying his donkey witch actually worked and my friends in India told me this story and we had a great laugh about it after I realized the true meaning of it it was a powerful indeed and they tell me that you know how they often use the story to demonstrate how the vade after scriptures say that this story exemplify exemplify spell Raquel classic human behavior

you know they say One hand we think that we are the body we think that we are the mind we think that we are the intellect and all these things need to be nurtured or it is our duty to provide you know the desire and pampering of these things and we work jobs you know we work day and night to meet these needs to feed the body to rest it and so on and so forth and quite often we run after various Temptations thinking that those desires will meet are Limitless needs

and it's just the opposite

you know it is it is under the Lucian

because just like in the story the donkey believe he was tied to the tree we to believe that we are limited we to believe that we can't go anywhere we to this is all there is to us and this illusion is what can often be referred to as the ifs that enslave me and this was something that I do right now and again wrote about in his book The Return of the prodigal son and he wrote as long as I keep running about asking do you love me I mean do you really love me

I give all my power to the voices of the world and I put myself in bondage because the world is filled with IFS

the world says yes I love you if you are good looking and intelligent and wealthy and I love you if you have a good education a good job and good connections and I love you if you produce much so much and by much

you see there are endless it's hidden in the world's love

these ifs enslave me since it's impossible to respond adequately to all of them and the world's love is and always will be conditional

and as long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love I will remain hooked to the world trying failing and trying again

it is a world that Fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart

she liked the donkey in the story Humanity just doesn't understand its its own inner freedom

but other words she mentally doesn't know that we're not the body the mind the intellect in other words that's the form like I said we have a body that's the form but there is so much more to us that we don't see if I can look beyond that in order to see it to find it and we are independent there are no restrictions on us know no bondage is so even though if this body dies we are soul is eternal the soul will not die and the begin my India friends have to tell you that the vedanta their scriptures tell you who manage without the body and the Soul are not one they are different

and yet we're so limited in our understanding that we are bound by what we see and feel and hear and taste and touch that we think that's all there is

well we are just stuck

again day in and day out we like the donkey end up believing the illusion that

well we are limited or restricted simply because we were told by another that we are or shown unfortunately we we take that on as our identity and we act accordingly believing that this is good as it's going to get

and I see this quite a bit in counseling people who identify themselves with their problems or their illnesses you know they're at they're not aware of being more than what they have become so far in life so they often accept a distorted template that has been laid over top of their lives and as a result people tend to beat themselves up for making the same mistakes over and over again in the choices the relationships and the unhealthy patterns and their life

in the story the donkey that is free all the time thinks that he's tied

and some early Auto let's say a metaphysical level we who are souls believe we are tied to the body

our soul is captive and that it seems to be the concrete truth but out of physical level we are bound to an endless desire to acquire things than these things could be Beauty and spiritual experience is our knowledge or wealth or fame or success as well as finding the enjoyment of those acquired objects and avoid the negative things in our lives such as bad relationships and financial problems and so forth

and as a result we believe that we have to find the key to this prison that were in and ikey so to speak could be in the form of money or Freedom or passion or true love or or any other desire

but

what if there is no other shoe to drop what if there is no spoon what if we are already free

what if there's no rope no tree

what if the illusion of being in an inner prison is nothing more than an illusion

I don't want to come across as one who minimizes another person's pain or problems and struggles but just think about how you and I might be empowered if we saw ourselves as the solutions to our problems by removing the layers of conditioning you know the link isn't the cognitive distortions again or the imaginary ropes that keep us tied to our problems

tell me what keeps us bound to toxic relationships

what keeps us thinking that there is nothing more to us because we've been told this about ourselves all of our lives

and maybe by looking at ourselves more closely examining our motives and assumptions and limited perspectives we just might realize the first step towards lasting transformation is to acknowledge the illusion of Oppression is all in our minds

another words we might be in a physical prison but if we find our true nature that we are Eternal Souls then no amount of Earthly limitation can convince us that we are limited in adequate or restrictive

and again my Indian friends and I you know we've talked much much much about this thing and then they say that we understand that the people are already in a relationship with all things and all people including God but they just don't know it yet

now therefore it's a matter of realizing that we are souls that are vast And formless the fact I like I said I talked with my friends and Indian we have interesting conversations about CID and ignorance and so forth and whereas others see sin as people that you know they are there are bad or their evil they believe that people act out of ignorance of who they are and therefore they commit evil acts because they themselves have not realize themselves and others as Souls

let's let's think about this yet another way hear you what if we know already I mean we we know that we know that we know what if we know already that we have the love of God from the beginning

would we still act like we have to earn it

would we still act like we're not worthy of it or that maybe God made a mistake

or would be would would be be able to rest in that love and live in the freedom and peace to live this out in the context of our relationships how different would our lives look

now in Western spirituality or I should say Western theology the concept of sin tells people that they know that they are wrong or you've done something wrong and therefore you need to laminate this in in order to be in a right relationship with God and others and now you know for us regardless of religion it's it's a matter of understanding how we live our lives with these superimposed Notions or distorted templates that all we are are just bodies and Minds that we live in this bondage that we are limited that we just not going to amount to anything that healing is beyond us and so on and so forth and yes we have bodies in mines but you know we believe this is all there is to us that someday maybe maybe we'll get to go to heaven

and I have seen us and Christianity that people are afraid to walk in the newness of life so to speak because they still believe they're tied to the tree

you know I'd I know I'm forgiving I know I'm in a right relationship with God but I don't know I want to be sure I really want to be sure I mean you know dis God really understand who I am does God really see me and of course but we fail to see ourselves the way God sees us therefore we again pick up the proverbial rope and we lash ourselves to the tree and thinking can't live this out I can't walk it out I need to stay right here bound to this illusion that I am all I'm ever going to be right now

did Jesus live in one say that the kingdom of God is in you

we just haven't realized it yet and maybe maybe we just don't know how to embrace it let alone walk in the newness of that life and relationships

but what a difference it would make in our lives and the lives of humanity in general if we see the Illusion for what it is and it we untie the limitations of this donkey mind we dissolved ignorance of who we are and we walk in the freedom that has always been within us

me on this level. There are illusions that I've been superimposed that we all are this particular body and you know what the set of feelings and thoughts and taking in the external world around us

thanks but in music recordings of recordings I should say this is called over Dunning is also known as late layering which is a technique used in which audio tracks and I've been a recorded another playback and incorporated into another track so when we believe that there is nothing more to us that about a year remind or were limited in some way and so forth or do we Define ourselves according to our wounds and scars and experiences

we are actually reinforcing this template or this superimposition of this illusion

now removing the Illusions and realizing the underlying reality is called D superimposition night and next time but I'll get into it a little bit here and this the end of this show that one of my favorite stories is looking for the butter and every bowl of milk and seems like a strange title for a story but don't you think about it next time you go to the grocery store do this I guarantee people just going to look at you like okay but there's a deep lesson behind this okay so when you go to the grocery store bus people have on their list to buy things like milk and butter and cheese okay. Course there's other dairy products such as yogurt and cottage cheese and so forth but have you ever stopped to take a closer look at a glass of milk

well as you're looking at that glass of milk are you able to see the butter and the cheese that's already in there

it's true butter and cheese do exist in milk but where is it it can't be perceived I can't be seen you know what just the naked eye but it's present everywhere in milk the potential to be turned into butter and cheese and each and every drop of milk and there is no particle of milk or butter or Gigi is not present and this is a great analogy for how worried about to see God at the potential in ourselves and others in everyday life

well little did I realize that after hearing this story for the first time just how important it is to understand that the presence of God or the Divine can be seen in everyone especially in ourselves in everyday life but as I said earlier we get caught up in the externals we get caught up on the in the temporal we are caught up in what we see or hear or touch or taste or smell and that's all there ever is going over going to be

turn on the surface we might find this teaching difficult because when we look at ourselves or when we look at others all we see is just so much physical pain or so many emotional wounds or psychological suffering or expressions of anger and violence and luster jealousy are broken this excetera

but can we also see the potential for God's presence to transform these wounds into a life-giving means of creating the healing we truly want to see in this world

in other words can we see the potential for the milk to be transformed into butter

on dr. James how can you have been listening to reclaiming authenticity and I should have tune in Next Friday afternoon 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Pacific Pacific Standard time for another hour that we could share together leave me your thoughts today about this message and I'll be glad to read them and respond to them but until we sit down and talk with one another again the next week everybody be safe behave yourselves and may God Hold Us in the palm of God's hands it take care bye-bye

4000 comments it's all there, and we'll see you next Friday at noon on PBS radio TV