March 17, 2025 • 27 mins
Episode 62: Using Focus, Optimism, Hope and Positivity as a form of Rebellion
In this episode, the speaker reflects on the turbulent events in the United States and the fear permeating through communities. Emphasizing the power of positivity and peaceful defiance, they draw inspiration from Mother Teresa and Buddhist teachings, advocating for a rebellious spirit fueled by optimism, community support, and proactive engagement. Listeners are encouraged to focus on being candles of light and to support their communities through positive actions and mindfulness, rather than succumbing to fear and anger. 00:00 Reflecting on Recent Events in America
01:15 The Power of Positivity and Light
02:00 Mother Teresa's Philosophy
03:19 The Impact of Resistance
05:00 Finding Solutions and Reassurance
08:06 Community and Individual Actions
19:08 Lessons from Buddhism and Karma
25:12 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
26:55 Outro and Podcast Information
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
I've been thinking a lot about recentevents in America and there are a few
people who I see regularly who arefrom the States who are, you know, in
academia and really, really afraid.
Um, there's some majorchanges going on down there.
(00:30):
And I mean, from my point of view,it really doesn't look great.
We're taking money away from alot of really important places
like research and healthcare and,
you know.
(00:52):
I thought that
if I were in this situation,
what would I want to be?
So if, if I had more stake in the game,if this was my home and this was coming.
(01:15):
I mean, the first thing I'd want to be
is a candle in dark times.
Have you ever heard the quote that eventhe darkness of the darkest night cannot
snuff out the light of one small candle?
(01:37):
You know, in times like this, wewant to get up and fight and like
go head on and fight, fight, fight.
And yeah, I guess it, it is needed.
But that's not who I am, in a sense.
I don't fight against.
I mean, and there's a good reason whyI'm not going to fight against something.
(02:00):
I think Mother Teresa said it best.
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun whospent her whole life, um, pretty much
in the slums of Calcutta in India,taking care of homeless and poor people.
And she probably could havechosen a different place to be.
Um, but that's where shechose to spend her life.
(02:24):
And there, this story goes that, um, thisgroup was holding a march against a war.
And they thought, oh, wouldn'tit be great to have Mother Teresa
in our march against the war.
So they went up to her and said,Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa, please,
will you, will you come and be apart of our march against the war.
(02:47):
And they were shocked with her answer.
She said, no, dear, I'll nevermarch in a march against the war.
And they're like, what do you mean?
Are you, are you for war?
I don't understand.
This is not who I know you to be.
And she said, no, I will notmarch in a march against the war.
(03:09):
But if you hold a marchfor peace, I will lead it.
And this is the idea, right?
I've said it before.
Resistance causes persistence.
Every time you resistsomething, it persists.
Literally resisting something directhead on that you don't want is putting
(03:32):
your focus and your energy all into that
and darkness cannot cast out darkness.
You cannot violently fight violence.
The only thing that cancast out Darkness is light,
(03:58):
and light means bringingawareness to what's going on.
Like, I see a lot of peoplesharing information of what's
going on down in the States.
Like, making sure that everybody can see.
Like, everything down there seemsto be trying to be done in this
darkness, and people are bringinglight to it and sharing it.
(04:18):
This is one of the good sidesof social media, in my opinion.
And yet, some people are superangry, and they just want to
fight against these things.
And I honestly believe that that's notthe way you don't fight against things,
just like Mother Teresa said, like she'sagainst war, but she will only give her,
(04:43):
her energy, her presence towards peace.
And I feel like in times likethese, there's a few things that
you could really do to help.
First off,
understand and share the messagewith everyone because this, this,
(05:07):
like everybody's building up.
This, this fear and negativity and I mean,it's okay to communicate what's going on.
You need to like communicate and talk,but inside that communication, you
like, if you could remind everyonethat we have been through so much, the
(05:29):
human existence on this planet, right?
We've made, made it throughincredibly tough times.
So no matter what happens, we'regoing to make it through this too.
And that's the firstthing people need to know.
You know.
If you are somebody who
(05:53):
can be reassuring, can be thoughtful,can, like, hear people out in what
they're saying and then remind them thatwe're going to make it through this too.
You know, one of my favorite sayings is ifyou think of every problem you've ever had
in your entire life is now in the past.
(06:16):
They all have one thing in common andthat's the fact that there was a solution.
And.
If you're really honest, the way you werethinking it was gonna be wor gonna work
out when you're sitting in the problem.
Way worse than it actually worked out.
It worked out better than you had thought.
(06:38):
So one of the things you can askyourself when we're sitting in this
problem is, what is the differencebetween this problem and every
other problem we've ever had?
And that's, there's not a difference.
This, there will be a solutionhere too, and it will probably
be much better than we thought.
When it's in the past.
(06:59):
These are the times when you need to
bring up your light, your inspiration.
What, what is your gift?
What is the thing that youare really good at for people?
Are you really good at listening?
Just listen without judgment.
And acknowledge where they are,like, No, I really understand
(07:21):
how you could feel that way.
You know, it makes sensethat you can feel that way
and yet still be a strong,
just a strong force foroptimism, acceptance, belief.
I, I feel like if we could takeon this one thing right now, like
(07:47):
choosing to be positive and optimistic.
As a form of rebellion againstthose who would have us lose hope.
Can you imagine that rebellion?
One of my patients who, um, who's anacademic told me the day that they
(08:12):
were holding a march for scienceright across the United States.
This is what I'm talking about.
You gotta make sure that you're workingwithin your community in this thing.
You can't go and assume some othercommunity needs you to do something.
If you want to do something foranother community, then meet with the
(08:34):
people in that community and ask them,
Do you, first, do you want help?
What can I do to help?
What is a good idea to do?
What should I not do?
Are you organizing something and you justwant resources from the outside to help?
(08:56):
Do you, do you want me to amassmy people to come and support
your people in a certain way?
Or do you want me to stand by whileyou do your thing so you feel safe?
Just don't assume what anothergroup needs in these times.
Ask.
(09:18):
Because there's so many well meant,uh, well intentioned people out there.
They will think, oh yeah,that's what they need.
And it's like, no,
ask,
start a rebellion, but a rebellion filledwith optimism filled with hope, choosing
(09:42):
positivity, you know, the people who arebehind what's going on down there right
now, they're going to be relentless.
They're just going to keepon going and going and going.
Because unfortunately, human beings havethis characteristics of like, we typically
(10:07):
Especially now because of social media,we have a short attention span and we
get tired of hearing the same thing.
And this is what they're trying to do.
They're trying to wear you down.
And
they're trying to keep youscattered because so many things
are going on at the same time.
You can't do it all, but what youcan do is you can pick the one
(10:31):
thing, your community, your belief.
Like I said, this academic, um, wassupporting the March for Science.
And if you're a scientist, then goand support the March for Science.
If, if you're a veteran, gettogether with veterans and have a
(10:53):
march for veterans, veterans rights.
If you believe in research,
a protest for research, to keep it going.
If you believe in democracy, thengrassroots program to encourage
(11:19):
people to understand democracyand understand what's going on.
And bring people together andstart building up a force for.
Democracy to share and tosupport and to get ready.
(11:41):
The next time you have a say that youget to vote, that you get people together
to vote in the direction you want to go.
Like I said, if you are somebody withoptimism, with inspiration, who's maybe
somebody even calm, whatever your candleis, your candle of peace, your candle
(12:06):
of calm, your candle of inspiration,your candle of listening, light it.
Have you ever heard the quotethat a candle loses nothing
by lighting another candle?
So you can take the thing that youare, that gift you have, and you can
(12:30):
start sharing it with others, and maybestart helping them light their candles.
Because darkness relies on one thing,that if we can get everybody into
darkness, then nothing will happen.
Like.
The darkness will win.
It also counts on the fact that if we keepon angering people that they can fight
(12:56):
against us which strengthens the darkness.
The last thing they want is people tostart lighting candles and bringing
light and getting together andinspiring and becoming a community.
If you take a look up in my countryin Canada Um, there's this wave
(13:21):
of nationalism that's going on.
And, I mean, honestly, it's notagainst the American people.
Not even, not even a little bit.
It's just against the attacks.
The, uh, this idea that Canadashould become a part of America.
(13:42):
Um, and it may be annexed.
And or maybe we'll do it.
They'll do it financiallythrough tariffs and
see it's interesting that Canada's isan interesting country because we're
very polite and kind until you push usand I keep on hearing this and if you
(14:05):
push us too far we're going to comeout we're going to clear the bench
and we're going to be throwing elbows.
We're a kind people.
But what I really love that'sgoing on, it's like people aren't
getting up in, in droves and angryand want to fight against America.
(14:33):
They're coming together as a country.
That's, that's real power.
You know, have you ever seen in yourlife, say there's a problem in your life?
Like for myself, um, Icarry a few extra pounds
and
(14:54):
You know, at times it's, it's frustratingand I really want to lose weight and
I know that I am holding that in placeby resisting, that's what's so rather
than just focusing on everything Ineed to do, eat healthy, exercise,
sleep well, keep my stress levels down.
(15:18):
If you want to change anythingin this life, you can't fight.
against it.
You have to fight for everything thatwould bring that to fruition, right?
It's like, don't focus on the goal.
Focus on the person you need tobecome who would achieve that goal
(15:41):
or who will achieve that goal.
This, it's interesting howthese things can be so divisive.
And yet they can also unite like,you know, a lot of time really
(16:04):
good news comes as really bad newsor it appears as really bad news.
It shows up.
I remember hearing this storyabout this young person.
And they were just terrified.
They came across this horrific accidentscene where people are hurt everywhere.
(16:24):
And the kid said to his grandparents,Oh, look at, look at all the hurt people.
Look at all the hurt people.
And yeah, it's like this is one of thesecases where what you focus on expands.
You can look at how bad everything's goingout there and you can dive deeper and you
can like watch the news and just keep onfocusing and digging deeper and deeper and
(16:45):
deeper because what you focus on expands.
And that grandparent turned to the littlechild and said, look for all the helpers.
And this child took another look.
And she saw people holding people'shands, and attending to wounds, and
people lifting debris off people,and people putting out fires,
(17:06):
and people calling the police.
And she could see the police,the amulets, the fire coming.
And she said, oh, look at all the helpers.
So in this moment, you might needto like, change your focus a bit.
Rather than looking on all the stuffthat's bad happening, take a look at
all the people that are standing up.
(17:29):
Take a look at all the people whoare standing up for their rights,
who are, you know, making sure peopleare okay, who are, like, down in the
states right now, there's massiveorganizations of, of, like, protests,
marches for things, there's, like,legal, legal committees have come
(17:51):
together to, you know, To go after allthe things that are not quite lawful
that are being attempted down there.
Like, you could look aroundand see, see who out there,
um, what organizations, what thingsare being organized, who's helping who.
(18:14):
Like, what, what are, whatare people doing to help?
And then you could find one that youbelieve in, that you are a part of.
It's like part of your community,and you can get involved, too.
It's like, unfortunately,too many people stand out.
Like, I believe down there in that lastelection that too many people stood out.
(18:38):
And that's why this iswhere we are right now.
And that's okay, because like, if you canlearn from mistakes of the past, then you
don't have to repeat the same mistake.
You know, it's like this interestingthing about life is cycles will repeat
(18:59):
themselves until we learn the lesson.
And then once we learnthe lesson, we move on.
Um, reminds me of this story.
Uh, I did a Buddhist meditation.
They talk about SiddharthaGautama, the Buddha.
Um,
(19:19):
Probably the first in this lineto be enlightened at this moment,
in time, brought, basicallybrought enlightenment back.
And he talks about, so theBuddhists believe in reincarnation.
And whether or not that's true or not,that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm just like, this is this idea.
Think about if it's an idea.
(19:39):
Maybe it is the truth.
Maybe you believe in this.
And like, honestly, I dobelieve that we come back.
That's just, but that's part of my belief.
Anyway, so Siddhartha Gautama was this,was locked in a karmic battle and kind of
the idea of karma, um, there's a lot ofdifferent versions of it, but think of it
(20:01):
this way is something is done and then wehave to make up for it in the next life.
So it was, uh, Siddhartha Gautama wascaught in this, this karmic battle
with another entity in, in one life.
Siddhartha Gautama would, wouldbe incarnated as the hunter
(20:23):
and the other entity was a cat.
And in this moment, the hunter wouldstrike down the cat and kill the cat.
But then in order to balance the karmain the next life, the roles were reversed
and now the entity that was a cat isnow the hunter and Siddhartha Gautama
is now the cat and the hunter strikesdown the cat to balance the karma.
(20:49):
But do you see the, the fallacyin this, that then we got to go
and balance it again and again.
So for millennia, back and forth, backand forth, back and forth, back and
forth, until one moment of insight, justas Siddhartha Gautama is the hunter.
He's about to strike down the cat.
(21:12):
And he realized in that moment,this will never balance the karma.
Violence only begets violence.
Darkness cannot cast out darkness.
Hate cannot cast out hate.
Only light can do that.
And in that moment, he put down the sword.
Or the spear, of course.
(21:36):
And he moved on after that life.
You see, if you go and, like, fight,sometimes, okay, so if somebody's coming
to attack or somebody is attackingsomebody, like, immediately right here,
attacking somebody who's not as strong,yes, you have to, like, you have to defend
(22:04):
yourself or them strongly and quickly.
But if you can possibly look inyour heart, make sure there's
love when you do that, not hate.
And then find that thing you believe inso dearly, something that's really yours.
(22:27):
And organize, like somethingthat's in your community, not in
another community, your community.
If you want to work with anothercommunity, you go and ask them.
We don't just push ourselvesinto somebody else's community
and assume what they need.
Ask.
But find it within your community.
Maybe, maybe there is nothing.
Maybe there's nothing there for you.
(22:50):
So, what you can do is, how canyou support people day to day?
Or even,
or even just like watch your mindand remind yourself when you're
afraid that this will work out.
Keep your, keep your spirits up, right?
(23:11):
Do small, kind acts for people.
In Mother Teresa, we alsosaid you don't need, you don't
necessarily have to do big things.
She said just, if you really want tochange the world, all you have to do
is small acts of good where you are.
(23:35):
And if everyone was to do that,all those small acts of good
would overwhelm the world.
Just, just be kind tothe person beside you.
Listen to the people who are afraid.
Reassure them.
Remind them that we've been through a lot.
(23:57):
We'll make it through this too.
Listen to people.
Let them speak.
And acknowledge that, yeah, thatmakes sense that you'd be afraid now.
(24:17):
But also remind them that,and, and I understand the fear.
And we'll make it through this too.
You know, there's a quotethat's just, I love,
um, because I used to be paralyzedby fear when I was younger.
(24:38):
And the quote goes, fear is a milewide, but it's only an inch deep.
And that inspired this thought in me, like
when you're standing on the edgeof fear, it seems unbelievably
overwhelming and terrifying.
(25:00):
But as soon as you step into fear,
you see how shallow it is.
So, of course, in conclusion,
fight for what you want, notagainst what you don't want.
(25:24):
Put all your energy towards what you want.
Find something in your community thatyou can do for your community, with your
community, to fight for what you want.
And what they want.
If you want to help another community,don't just go and assume what they need.
(25:46):
Ask.
If you're not a part of a community,then be a solo candle in the world.
Raise up your positivity, optimism,and hope as a form of rebellion.
(26:08):
Be a rebel.
And in doing so, light your candle.
And do everything you can to help otherpeople to light their candles, to remind
them that it's okay, that we got this.
(26:28):
We're going to make through this.
We really will.
And then down the road, lookingback, we will see how this, that
sometimes the most amazing shiftscome disguised as the worst things.
(26:53):
But that's another episode.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of conversation with Kimen.
Please follow me on Instagramat conversations with Kimen
and feel free to direct message me.
(27:15):
Also, please share my podcast withanyone you may feel would benefit
from its content and let them know.
And you can find me atconversations with Kimen on Apple
podcasts, Spotify, and Podbean.
Have an amazing day.
I've been thinking a lot about recentevents in America and there are a few
people who I see regularly who arefrom the States who are, you know, in
academia and really, really afraid.
Um, there's some majorchanges going on down there.
(00:30):
And I mean, from my point of view,it really doesn't look great.
We're taking money away from alot of really important places
like research and healthcare and,
you know.
(00:52):
I thought that
if I were in this situation,
what would I want to be?
So if, if I had more stake in the game,if this was my home and this was coming.
(01:15):
I mean, the first thing I'd want to be
is a candle in dark times.
Have you ever heard the quote that eventhe darkness of the darkest night cannot
snuff out the light of one small candle?
(01:37):
You know, in times like this, wewant to get up and fight and like
go head on and fight, fight, fight.
And yeah, I guess it, it is needed.
But that's not who I am, in a sense.
I don't fight against.
I mean, and there's a good reason whyI'm not going to fight against something.
(02:00):
I think Mother Teresa said it best.
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun whospent her whole life, um, pretty much
in the slums of Calcutta in India,taking care of homeless and poor people.
And she probably could havechosen a different place to be.
Um, but that's where shechose to spend her life.
(02:24):
And there, this story goes that, um, thisgroup was holding a march against a war.
And they thought, oh, wouldn'tit be great to have Mother Teresa
in our march against the war.
So they went up to her and said,Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa, please,
will you, will you come and be apart of our march against the war.
(02:47):
And they were shocked with her answer.
She said, no, dear, I'll nevermarch in a march against the war.
And they're like, what do you mean?
Are you, are you for war?
I don't understand.
This is not who I know you to be.
And she said, no, I will notmarch in a march against the war.
(03:09):
But if you hold a marchfor peace, I will lead it.
And this is the idea, right?
I've said it before.
Resistance causes persistence.
Every time you resistsomething, it persists.
Literally resisting something directhead on that you don't want is putting
(03:32):
your focus and your energy all into that
and darkness cannot cast out darkness.
You cannot violently fight violence.
The only thing that cancast out Darkness is light,
(03:58):
and light means bringingawareness to what's going on.
Like, I see a lot of peoplesharing information of what's
going on down in the States.
Like, making sure that everybody can see.
Like, everything down there seemsto be trying to be done in this
darkness, and people are bringinglight to it and sharing it.
(04:18):
This is one of the good sidesof social media, in my opinion.
And yet, some people are superangry, and they just want to
fight against these things.
And I honestly believe that that's notthe way you don't fight against things,
just like Mother Teresa said, like she'sagainst war, but she will only give her,
(04:43):
her energy, her presence towards peace.
And I feel like in times likethese, there's a few things that
you could really do to help.
First off,
understand and share the messagewith everyone because this, this,
(05:07):
like everybody's building up.
This, this fear and negativity and I mean,it's okay to communicate what's going on.
You need to like communicate and talk,but inside that communication, you
like, if you could remind everyonethat we have been through so much, the
(05:29):
human existence on this planet, right?
We've made, made it throughincredibly tough times.
So no matter what happens, we'regoing to make it through this too.
And that's the firstthing people need to know.
You know.
If you are somebody who
(05:53):
can be reassuring, can be thoughtful,can, like, hear people out in what
they're saying and then remind them thatwe're going to make it through this too.
You know, one of my favorite sayings is ifyou think of every problem you've ever had
in your entire life is now in the past.
(06:16):
They all have one thing in common andthat's the fact that there was a solution.
And.
If you're really honest, the way you werethinking it was gonna be wor gonna work
out when you're sitting in the problem.
Way worse than it actually worked out.
It worked out better than you had thought.
(06:38):
So one of the things you can askyourself when we're sitting in this
problem is, what is the differencebetween this problem and every
other problem we've ever had?
And that's, there's not a difference.
This, there will be a solutionhere too, and it will probably
be much better than we thought.
When it's in the past.
(06:59):
These are the times when you need to
bring up your light, your inspiration.
What, what is your gift?
What is the thing that youare really good at for people?
Are you really good at listening?
Just listen without judgment.
And acknowledge where they are,like, No, I really understand
(07:21):
how you could feel that way.
You know, it makes sensethat you can feel that way
and yet still be a strong,
just a strong force foroptimism, acceptance, belief.
I, I feel like if we could takeon this one thing right now, like
(07:47):
choosing to be positive and optimistic.
As a form of rebellion againstthose who would have us lose hope.
Can you imagine that rebellion?
One of my patients who, um, who's anacademic told me the day that they
(08:12):
were holding a march for scienceright across the United States.
This is what I'm talking about.
You gotta make sure that you're workingwithin your community in this thing.
You can't go and assume some othercommunity needs you to do something.
If you want to do something foranother community, then meet with the
(08:34):
people in that community and ask them,
Do you, first, do you want help?
What can I do to help?
What is a good idea to do?
What should I not do?
Are you organizing something and you justwant resources from the outside to help?
(08:56):
Do you, do you want me to amassmy people to come and support
your people in a certain way?
Or do you want me to stand by whileyou do your thing so you feel safe?
Just don't assume what anothergroup needs in these times.
Ask.
(09:18):
Because there's so many well meant,uh, well intentioned people out there.
They will think, oh yeah,that's what they need.
And it's like, no,
ask,
start a rebellion, but a rebellion filledwith optimism filled with hope, choosing
(09:42):
positivity, you know, the people who arebehind what's going on down there right
now, they're going to be relentless.
They're just going to keepon going and going and going.
Because unfortunately, human beings havethis characteristics of like, we typically
(10:07):
Especially now because of social media,we have a short attention span and we
get tired of hearing the same thing.
And this is what they're trying to do.
They're trying to wear you down.
And
they're trying to keep youscattered because so many things
are going on at the same time.
You can't do it all, but what youcan do is you can pick the one
(10:31):
thing, your community, your belief.
Like I said, this academic, um, wassupporting the March for Science.
And if you're a scientist, then goand support the March for Science.
If, if you're a veteran, gettogether with veterans and have a
(10:53):
march for veterans, veterans rights.
If you believe in research,
a protest for research, to keep it going.
If you believe in democracy, thengrassroots program to encourage
(11:19):
people to understand democracyand understand what's going on.
And bring people together andstart building up a force for.
Democracy to share and tosupport and to get ready.
(11:41):
The next time you have a say that youget to vote, that you get people together
to vote in the direction you want to go.
Like I said, if you are somebody withoptimism, with inspiration, who's maybe
somebody even calm, whatever your candleis, your candle of peace, your candle
(12:06):
of calm, your candle of inspiration,your candle of listening, light it.
Have you ever heard the quotethat a candle loses nothing
by lighting another candle?
So you can take the thing that youare, that gift you have, and you can
(12:30):
start sharing it with others, and maybestart helping them light their candles.
Because darkness relies on one thing,that if we can get everybody into
darkness, then nothing will happen.
Like.
The darkness will win.
It also counts on the fact that if we keepon angering people that they can fight
(12:56):
against us which strengthens the darkness.
The last thing they want is people tostart lighting candles and bringing
light and getting together andinspiring and becoming a community.
If you take a look up in my countryin Canada Um, there's this wave
(13:21):
of nationalism that's going on.
And, I mean, honestly, it's notagainst the American people.
Not even, not even a little bit.
It's just against the attacks.
The, uh, this idea that Canadashould become a part of America.
(13:42):
Um, and it may be annexed.
And or maybe we'll do it.
They'll do it financiallythrough tariffs and
see it's interesting that Canada's isan interesting country because we're
very polite and kind until you push usand I keep on hearing this and if you
(14:05):
push us too far we're going to comeout we're going to clear the bench
and we're going to be throwing elbows.
We're a kind people.
But what I really love that'sgoing on, it's like people aren't
getting up in, in droves and angryand want to fight against America.
(14:33):
They're coming together as a country.
That's, that's real power.
You know, have you ever seen in yourlife, say there's a problem in your life?
Like for myself, um, Icarry a few extra pounds
and
(14:54):
You know, at times it's, it's frustratingand I really want to lose weight and
I know that I am holding that in placeby resisting, that's what's so rather
than just focusing on everything Ineed to do, eat healthy, exercise,
sleep well, keep my stress levels down.
(15:18):
If you want to change anythingin this life, you can't fight.
against it.
You have to fight for everything thatwould bring that to fruition, right?
It's like, don't focus on the goal.
Focus on the person you need tobecome who would achieve that goal
(15:41):
or who will achieve that goal.
This, it's interesting howthese things can be so divisive.
And yet they can also unite like,you know, a lot of time really
(16:04):
good news comes as really bad newsor it appears as really bad news.
It shows up.
I remember hearing this storyabout this young person.
And they were just terrified.
They came across this horrific accidentscene where people are hurt everywhere.
(16:24):
And the kid said to his grandparents,Oh, look at, look at all the hurt people.
Look at all the hurt people.
And yeah, it's like this is one of thesecases where what you focus on expands.
You can look at how bad everything's goingout there and you can dive deeper and you
can like watch the news and just keep onfocusing and digging deeper and deeper and
(16:45):
deeper because what you focus on expands.
And that grandparent turned to the littlechild and said, look for all the helpers.
And this child took another look.
And she saw people holding people'shands, and attending to wounds, and
people lifting debris off people,and people putting out fires,
(17:06):
and people calling the police.
And she could see the police,the amulets, the fire coming.
And she said, oh, look at all the helpers.
So in this moment, you might needto like, change your focus a bit.
Rather than looking on all the stuffthat's bad happening, take a look at
all the people that are standing up.
(17:29):
Take a look at all the people whoare standing up for their rights,
who are, you know, making sure peopleare okay, who are, like, down in the
states right now, there's massiveorganizations of, of, like, protests,
marches for things, there's, like,legal, legal committees have come
(17:51):
together to, you know, To go after allthe things that are not quite lawful
that are being attempted down there.
Like, you could look aroundand see, see who out there,
um, what organizations, what thingsare being organized, who's helping who.
(18:14):
Like, what, what are, whatare people doing to help?
And then you could find one that youbelieve in, that you are a part of.
It's like part of your community,and you can get involved, too.
It's like, unfortunately,too many people stand out.
Like, I believe down there in that lastelection that too many people stood out.
(18:38):
And that's why this iswhere we are right now.
And that's okay, because like, if you canlearn from mistakes of the past, then you
don't have to repeat the same mistake.
You know, it's like this interestingthing about life is cycles will repeat
(18:59):
themselves until we learn the lesson.
And then once we learnthe lesson, we move on.
Um, reminds me of this story.
Uh, I did a Buddhist meditation.
They talk about SiddharthaGautama, the Buddha.
Um,
(19:19):
Probably the first in this lineto be enlightened at this moment,
in time, brought, basicallybrought enlightenment back.
And he talks about, so theBuddhists believe in reincarnation.
And whether or not that's true or not,that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm just like, this is this idea.
Think about if it's an idea.
(19:39):
Maybe it is the truth.
Maybe you believe in this.
And like, honestly, I dobelieve that we come back.
That's just, but that's part of my belief.
Anyway, so Siddhartha Gautama was this,was locked in a karmic battle and kind of
the idea of karma, um, there's a lot ofdifferent versions of it, but think of it
(20:01):
this way is something is done and then wehave to make up for it in the next life.
So it was, uh, Siddhartha Gautama wascaught in this, this karmic battle
with another entity in, in one life.
Siddhartha Gautama would, wouldbe incarnated as the hunter
(20:23):
and the other entity was a cat.
And in this moment, the hunter wouldstrike down the cat and kill the cat.
But then in order to balance the karmain the next life, the roles were reversed
and now the entity that was a cat isnow the hunter and Siddhartha Gautama
is now the cat and the hunter strikesdown the cat to balance the karma.
(20:49):
But do you see the, the fallacyin this, that then we got to go
and balance it again and again.
So for millennia, back and forth, backand forth, back and forth, back and
forth, until one moment of insight, justas Siddhartha Gautama is the hunter.
He's about to strike down the cat.
(21:12):
And he realized in that moment,this will never balance the karma.
Violence only begets violence.
Darkness cannot cast out darkness.
Hate cannot cast out hate.
Only light can do that.
And in that moment, he put down the sword.
Or the spear, of course.
(21:36):
And he moved on after that life.
You see, if you go and, like, fight,sometimes, okay, so if somebody's coming
to attack or somebody is attackingsomebody, like, immediately right here,
attacking somebody who's not as strong,yes, you have to, like, you have to defend
(22:04):
yourself or them strongly and quickly.
But if you can possibly look inyour heart, make sure there's
love when you do that, not hate.
And then find that thing you believe inso dearly, something that's really yours.
(22:27):
And organize, like somethingthat's in your community, not in
another community, your community.
If you want to work with anothercommunity, you go and ask them.
We don't just push ourselvesinto somebody else's community
and assume what they need.
Ask.
But find it within your community.
Maybe, maybe there is nothing.
Maybe there's nothing there for you.
(22:50):
So, what you can do is, how canyou support people day to day?
Or even,
or even just like watch your mindand remind yourself when you're
afraid that this will work out.
Keep your, keep your spirits up, right?
(23:11):
Do small, kind acts for people.
In Mother Teresa, we alsosaid you don't need, you don't
necessarily have to do big things.
She said just, if you really want tochange the world, all you have to do
is small acts of good where you are.
(23:35):
And if everyone was to do that,all those small acts of good
would overwhelm the world.
Just, just be kind tothe person beside you.
Listen to the people who are afraid.
Reassure them.
Remind them that we've been through a lot.
(23:57):
We'll make it through this too.
Listen to people.
Let them speak.
And acknowledge that, yeah, thatmakes sense that you'd be afraid now.
(24:17):
But also remind them that,and, and I understand the fear.
And we'll make it through this too.
You know, there's a quotethat's just, I love,
um, because I used to be paralyzedby fear when I was younger.
(24:38):
And the quote goes, fear is a milewide, but it's only an inch deep.
And that inspired this thought in me, like
when you're standing on the edgeof fear, it seems unbelievably
overwhelming and terrifying.
(25:00):
But as soon as you step into fear,
you see how shallow it is.
So, of course, in conclusion,
fight for what you want, notagainst what you don't want.
(25:24):
Put all your energy towards what you want.
Find something in your community thatyou can do for your community, with your
community, to fight for what you want.
And what they want.
If you want to help another community,don't just go and assume what they need.
(25:46):
Ask.
If you're not a part of a community,then be a solo candle in the world.
Raise up your positivity, optimism,and hope as a form of rebellion.
(26:08):
Be a rebel.
And in doing so, light your candle.
And do everything you can to help otherpeople to light their candles, to remind
them that it's okay, that we got this.
(26:28):
We're going to make through this.
We really will.
And then down the road, lookingback, we will see how this, that
sometimes the most amazing shiftscome disguised as the worst things.
(26:53):
But that's another episode.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of conversation with Kimen.
Please follow me on Instagramat conversations with Kimen
and feel free to direct message me.
(27:15):
Also, please share my podcast withanyone you may feel would benefit
from its content and let them know.
And you can find me atconversations with Kimen on Apple
podcasts, Spotify, and Podbean.
Have an amazing day.
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