This week's podcast delves into matters of the inner self.
Here at Peak Prosperity, we follow a lot of the problems and challenges of the world around us and explore what can be done in response to them. And in seeking solutions, we have to remind ourselves that if we want the world to be different in some way, the only way to begin changing it with 100% certainty is by changing ourselves. In the end, we are responsible for how we perceive and relate to what's happening around us, and true change begins with taking ownership of what our reality is, and what we want it to be.
For such a heady topic, we've responded to previous requests from the PP.com community and invited our own philosopher-in-residence Andrew Graves — better known as Treebeard on the site — to expound on the topic:
In the West, we've done a great job of exploring the external world, but have done absolutely nothing about exploring the internal world. And if the internal self is disordered, even if you have the right facts and ideas and are doing the right things, you'll still just create more disorder around you. If you aren't in the right place and don't have the right awareness, then your actions will simply create more disorder. I'm sure we've all met people like that, where they are saying all the right things, but you just sort of feel like something is off.
So it's really about changing the way we perceive the world, and the way simple ideas are missed because they are so obvious, not because they are complex. It's about going back to base one, looking internally and seeing the world as it is, which — as simple as that statement sounds — is an amazing challenge.
I think the first step in being able to come in contact with reality is owning the ugliness within human beings. This can sound negative, but I think you have to go through the darkness to get to the light. Think of the atrocities throughout history, the things that human beings are capable of and what we have done over time. And, it's our avoidance, our desire to be good, to be nice, to reject that dark part of ourselves is what keeps us from being able to see reality directly. It's taking ownership of what we are and we are capable of, and owning that darkness, that allows us to come in direct contact with reality. And, when you, there is an overwhelming feeling of intense love: it's a state of being where you realize where the foundation of the world is. But, as long as we are trying to apologize and reject that dark part of ourselves, we are holding ourselves back from experiencing life as it is.
So the first step coming in contact with the dark side, which allows you to see it for what it is. Then the separation from the self and the observed disappears, and contact begins, and love just flows organically as a part of that experiential process. So, in fact, the thing we avoid, the thing we say "No, not that", is the very thing that we need the most. If we can have the courage just to own all of it, the darkness of being a human being and all that entails, once we own that, then all kinds of possibilities come into play.
Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Andrew Graves (59m:26s):
by pinecarr