May 10, 2025 • 39 mins
What would Jesus ask us today if he returned to a world divided by hatred, judgment, and religious dogma? Regina B. Cates, author of "The Real Conversation Jesus Wants Us to Have: A Call to Bravery, Peace, and Love," joins the Gentle Yoga Warrior to explore this profound question through her personal journey from religious persecution to spiritual awakening.
Regina shares her experience growing up gay in a fundamentalist Christian environment in the American South during the 1960s—a background that led her to question religious teachings while maintaining deep respect for Christ's essential message of love. Now describing herself as a "fan of Christ" rather than Christian, Regina offers a perspective that transcends religious boundaries to focus on universal principles of compassion, inclusion, and integrity.
The conversation delves into why we must confront uncomfortable beliefs, heal through feeling our emotions fully, and recognize that "love has excellent vision" rather than being blind. Regina challenges listeners to consider how religious institutions have promoted the idea that humans are inherently sinful or worthless—creating psychological wounds that make it difficult to love ourselves or others authentically.
Perhaps most provocatively, Regina questions why many Christians passively wait for Jesus to return and "save" the world, rather than actively creating the heaven on earth his teachings promote. This perspective shifts responsibility back to humanity—challenging us to become our own saviors by overcoming personal wounds, treating others with dignity, and being stewards of our planet.
Though her book centers on Jesus, Regina emphasizes that her work speaks to universal principles that transcend specific religious identities. One reviewer even called it "a blueprint to repair humanity," addressing fundamental issues like women's rights, environmental stewardship, economic justice, and treating each person with dignity regardless of differences.
Join this transformative conversation about what it truly means to embody love in action. Whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, or none of the above, this episode offers wisdom for anyone seeking to create more compassion in their life and in our world.
Regina's contact details:https://www.reginavcates.com
Regina's book can be find on Amazon and also in most book stores.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, I'm your host, the Gentle Yoga Warrior, and
this is Awakened ConsciousConversation Podcast and joining
us very shortly.
I have a very special guest onthe show, regina B Cates, and I
actually approached herpublishers because I read her
book and I really wanted to haveRegina on the show.
Regina describes herself as aauthor, activist, advisor and
(00:26):
several college degrees,including a Masters in
Leadership, which she has been aspecialist in for over four
decades, and she says on thewebsite I could share my resume
(00:50):
with you, but it doesn't showwhat I consider my greatest and
most rewarding achievementsOvercoming the physical and
psychological abuse that left mefeeling unworthy.
Journey, I think, will helpinspire you, dear listeners
today, of how one can turn one'slife around and what challenges
(01:10):
we have.
I feel we can use it as soil togrow into the amazing people
that we are meant to be, and shealso puts on her website we can
choose to get the other side oflife's challenges.
We can learn what true strengthreally is by discovering how to
(01:31):
love and respect ourselves.
When we get that, ourrelationships become better, our
communication clearer and ourchallenges fewer.
Everything I offer is designedto help you create your best
life, regina.
Everything I offer is designedto help you create your best
life.
Regina and Regina's book, theReal Conversation Jesus Wants Us
to have, a Call to Bravery,peace and Love, is a refreshing
(02:05):
book, all about conversations.
Or rather I feel, having readit from front to back, that it
inspires us to go beyond thelens of the labels that we call
ourselves or other people and tosee that love and kindness is
the ultimate thing.
And she highlights how, incertain religious groups, that
they can be very judgmental andcruel and awful to people and
(02:28):
that truly Jesus would not wantpeople to be this way.
And she describes herself as afan of Christ, which I can
relate to.
I love Jesus, I love nature, Ilove trees, I have a great love
of many things and I wouldsuggest that if you a don't feel
(02:49):
a deep connection with religion, I would say still listen.
And if you do, still listen aswell.
So, ladies and gentlemen,without further ado, please
welcome Regina B Kate, all theway from the USA.
Welcome Regina.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure to be with youtoday.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh, it's a pleasure to have you here.
Dear listeners, we had a fewtechnical issues before, but
we've managed to overcome it, sowe're going to have this
amazing interview, which I'vebeen very excited about.
So firstly, regina, we're goingto talk about conversations
that Jesus would want us to have, and I know that you recently
(03:31):
published a book called the RealConversation.
Jesus wants us to have, a callto bravery, peace and love.
Would you mind sharing yourjourney so far and what inspired
you to write this book?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, my goodness, I hope we have a couple of days or
weeks we can pull up a chair ina snug somewhere in the United
Kingdom and all over the worldand just talk about this.
I was, and still am, jane Gay,and so when you are an outlier
in an institution such asorganized religion and you are
(04:07):
indoctrinated into a beliefsystem and you are different and
you're outside the rules whichI think most of us are because
today we want to be put in oneparticular box male, white,
heterosexual, whatever we canget into that.
But I think when you're lookingthrough the world and through
your experience, through someonewho has been persecuted as
(04:28):
other whether a black, brown,woman doesn't matter, just
really doesn't matter then youhave a desire to think about
this, because I was told I wasgoing to hell from a very early
age, and when you tell childrenthat told I was going to hell
from a very early age and whenyou tell children that, then
that becomes a wounding and Ithink all of us are being
(04:49):
wounded to some degree oranother by organized religion.
So the reason I wrote the bookis because I wanted to put my
story on paper and the story ofother people that I have spoken
with and who have provided theirwisdom to me about what it
means to be black, what it meansto be to me, about what it
means to be black, what it meansto be a man, what it means to
be a woman.
But I've asked people to addressquestions that I imagine a
(05:12):
radically inclusive Jesus wouldask Very hard questions.
Jane, it's not just forChristians, it's for the entire
world.
In fact, recently, book reviewcalled it A Blueprint to Repair
Humanity.
So, even though the title isthe real conversation Jesus
wants us to have, it's about theenlightenment of Christ,
(05:35):
consciousness, which never leftthe planet.
But how do we get to thatparticular point?
We ask ourselves hard questionsand this book is filled with
those.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I'm so grateful that you asked those hard questions
because I think people can haveblind sides to.
They can go to church or anyreligion and completely treat
people in a terrible way.
I've seen it in yoga studioswhere people will kind of being
all they're, all spiritual andscream at someone in the juice
(06:11):
bar because the juice wasn'tmade right, and it's just like
this kindness and love is whatmakes the world go around, in my
opinion.
Why do you think it's soimportant to share your book
with the world and who do youthink is going to benefit from
it?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, I say this with deep humility, jane, I really
do, because I am not in thisbusiness to become rich.
You know people that writebooks unless you're Harry Potter
or somebody like that writebooks like that Because I
believe that this is now is atime in the whole world for us
to have a conversation.
I have a lot of Jewish peoplethat are reading this book and
(06:50):
thinking, wow, this is anincredible thing because of the
questions that I asked and theperspective that I bring.
One of the things that Iaddress is that if you have a
God that has always been putinto the box of male, then that
sets men up to believethemselves to be better than
women.
Let's look at that.
Let's look at that historically.
(07:11):
So I believe that there issomething in this book for
everyone and I know you're notsupposed to say that, you're not
supposed to target that, buteverybody that has read this
book so far has been moved inone way or another by it,
because it is my story isuniversal just because I'm a gay
woman that was persecuted bythe church.
We are all persecuted byorganized religion in some
(07:35):
fashion throughout the entireworld, and so the questions that
I ask, even though it isimagining.
You know the real conversationjesus wants us to have.
It's about all world religionsin the way that we are to treat
one another as we want to betreated, and if we don't ask
ourselves hard questions, how dowe know how to treat other
(07:55):
people?
How do we know how to treatourselves?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
yeah, it's so true and and it's very important that
we do ask ourselves these hardquestions why do you think we
need to confront our beliefsthat cause us to be
uncomfortable?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Because history has proven time and time again that
when you just jump on the boatof what someone else wants you
to believe, and yet it goesagainst what you believe to be
true and right, it's never goingto end well.
We do not have to have war, wedo not have to have hunger and
starvation and greed andcorruption.
We do not have to have thesethings.
And until we actually askourselves some hard questions,
(08:33):
then we were not going to beable to change human
civilization for the better.
And that's the whole reason forour existence, at least in my
belief system is to awakenconsciousness to a new level.
We don't awaken ourconsciousness to the spiritual
being that we are within bystatus quo.
We have to ask ourselves hardquestions why do we have
(08:55):
misogyny?
Why do we have rampant sexualabuse?
Why are women treated as less?
Why in the United States do wehave the stuff that's going on
now?
So for all of your listenersthroughout the world, believe me
, the majority of us are nothappy about what's going on over
here.
This guy does not represent us.
(09:16):
This party does not representus.
We are absolutely, you know,just beyond belief.
You know just beyond belief andyet, at the same time, jane, I
am one of those people thatbelieves that we are about to
have an awakening,transformation in consciousness,
and that also is a reason thatI wrote this book, because these
questions that I ask, thetopics that I discuss, are
(09:40):
things that will help grow humancivilization as a whole, and I
believe if the enlightenedmessenger, jesus came back today
, he would ask these questions.
It's not going to be justlovey-lovey, you know, kumbaya,
let's sit around and forgive ourneighbor for being a total ass.
No, it's about how we preventthat in the first place.
(10:02):
How do we love one another ashe would love us or ask us to do
, or any enlightened messengerfrom any religious faith?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
No, I completely agree with everything you're
saying.
I can really relate to it andhow people can treat each other,
even today.
You'd think people would, butthere's all these kind of blind
spots that people have or Idon't know.
Maybe they're indoctrinatedinto their religion and they um
it was very um sad.
But also when I read the bitwhen you were in the lift and it
(10:34):
was a Christian group that werein the lift and they were
making these horrible commentsabout gay people and you decided
in that instant to choose notto fight a battle because it you
came to.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Maybe you explain why to our listeners well, yeah,
because I think that we it, thatis, in the chapter of when we
turn our cheek and when we don't.
And I was surrounded by thesechristian kids on these kids,
these college age kids on achrist retreat, and I got in
just in time to listen to thembash gay people and immigrants.
And so where are they learningthis from?
(11:11):
What is it?
What is it about organizedreligion, and certainly in the
United States at this particulartime, where you're blaming some
other for your problem insteadof actually being aligned with
what Christ consciousness wouldbe?
You know, the seven clobberverses in the Bible have been
disproven over and over again,and yet they're taken today to
(11:31):
persecute people like me.
We're less than 5% of the wholeworld's population, and yet it
seems this you know, everybodyin this religion and many others
are focused on me.
Why I'm not that exciting, youknow.
So I didn't say anything inthat moment, jane, because we
have to pick the battles that wecan, where we can influence
(11:53):
change, and I have learned thatreasoning, trying to reason with
unreasonable people is just notgoing to happen.
And so that's another reasonthat I wrote the book, because
you know what, when you go intothe privacy of your home.
With this book, you can askyourself those questions and you
don't have to be confrontedwith anybody else until you want
(12:16):
to join other people.
People around the world areusing this book for book
discussion groups, but firstthey read it in private.
Like you did, go out into theworld and say, oh, let's talk
about this all at once.
You know you need to go out atfirst, before you go out and
have a picnic.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I feel people reason, it's going to kind of open
their eyes, like where I am.
To me it's common sense totreat people like this, but not
I've understood that noteveryone thinks like me and then
and not to kind of judge peoplebut also it's to me it feels
very obvious to treat peoplethis way, but I think people
(12:58):
sometimes don't have that.
I remember once I had aChristian landlady many years
ago and she was dressed in afinery on her way to go to
church and she was makinghorrible comments about gay
people on her way to go tochurch and she was making
horrible comments about gaypeople and I just thought how
can you stand there like anddressed up and then to go to
church and think that you're somuch better than everyone and to
to act this way and I?
(13:20):
It sits in my mind and I thinkit's just so wrong in so many
ways.
As I was reading your book, Ilike the way you say that you're
a fan of Christ, because I feelthat's a category that I fall
into.
How did you come up with thatto be a fan of Christ?
I know you come from aChristian background, don't you?
And how did you come to feelthat?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I do.
But when I was really young,when you realize you're four,
about four years old, and thatyou're gay and different, but
you don't know the word for it,at that point you know you don't
want to be married, you don'twant to have it, it's just a
biological thing, and around agefour it started kicking in for
me.
And so I heard all of thishypocrisy and hate and I thought
wait a minute.
And I talk about in the bookextensively, the hypocrisy of
(14:08):
how can you believe this aboutJesus and then twist it so
everything has been twisted foran agenda.
Did you know, jane, that untilthe 1500s it was illegal and
punishable by death to have yourown copy of the Bible?
No, yes, wow.
That way people can interpretwhat they want to interpret you
(14:32):
know, and feed you information.
So in my particular experience,I started hearing and I just
came in as a weird kid.
You know, just a weird kid.
I'm going to ask every questionthat you can possibly think of
and I'm going to make you asuncomfortable as possible
because I genuinely want to knowthe answers.
And I thought I am a fan ofChrist.
(14:53):
I am not comfortable certainlynot now in the United States
calling myself a Christian,because so many people have
usurped that term to meanChristian, nationalist, white
supremacist and all these otherthings that Jesus who was, by
the way, not white, blonde, blueor Christian you know he was
(15:14):
Jewish and dark skin.
You know they just twisted thisstuff but they've done it from
the beginning of time into bookgroups is actually to unravel a
whole lot of these things thatwe have been taught that were
wrong from the beginning as faras what Jesus remember, what
(15:37):
Jesus would tell us remember.
Jesus didn't write the Bible,and so I'm not comfortable
calling myself a Christian.
However, I am a fan of what Ibelieve this man stood for, and
that is impeccability, love andintegrity.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yes, absolutely, and inclusion, and he wouldn't see
things from the limited lens ofprejudice.
I feel like it's all abouteveryone getting on, but the
world needs people like you tokind of help remind people of
such matters.
(16:14):
And why do you?
Why do we need to feel to healand why do you think so many of
us avoid this?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
oh, my goodness.
Yes, we need to feel, becausewe're feeling beings.
We are emotional beings.
We we're intellectual,spiritual, emotional and
physical.
And I believe that the mostimportant part of this to live
as a spiritual being is ouremotions, to have empathy, to
have compassion.
And if we cut that off which weare doing and that's the reason
(16:45):
you see so much stress andcraziness in the world today is
that we're not feeling.
Much stress and craziness inthe world today is that we're
not feeling.
And if we cannot feel, if weprevent ourselves from feeling,
we cannot love.
And if we cannot love, wecannot treat our neighbor as we
want to be treated.
The problem with trying to lovesomeone else if we don't love
ourselves is that we can neverbe successful.
(17:07):
We have to know what love iswithin us first before we can
give it to someone else, and sowe have to feel.
We have to feel the good, wehave to feel the bad, we have to
be okay with a range of ouremotions, and that's why it is
so important that we work on thespiritual aspect of ourselves,
asking ourselves hard questions,experiences my best friend is
(17:31):
an atheist, as you read in thebook.
yeah, that was an eye-opener,you know it was great.
But he is one of the mostfeeling, compassionate, lovely
human beings and comes fromScotland.
So that's exciting, just.
He's just an incredible man andhe taught me so much about how
important it is to hold oneanother's heart safe.
(17:51):
And that's what we do when wefeel we hold one another's heart
safe.
But, jane, we have to do thatfor ourselves first, and I think
I swear to whatever that poweris, that organized religion has
taught us that we're sinnersfrom birth, that we're no good,
that we're worms, that we'renothing.
How in the world can we evercreate the world that we're
(18:16):
supposed to create if, from thebeginning, we're taught that
we're nothing and we'reworthless?
That is a load of CRAP.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yes, I absolutely 100% agree with that.
It's like why would we want todo the work from a contracted
place when you know howwonderful if we all realized the
full spectrum of our feelingsand allowed ourselves to feel
(18:45):
that, and by doing that we canmagnify love, not contract it.
So that really relates to me alot.
So thank you for that, regina.
I love that.
I've got a question.
If you could speak to Jesusright now, is there anything?
What would it be that you'dlike to ask?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh, man, I tell you what.
To be honest with you, my bookis filled with questions that I
ask Jesus, and imagine what youknow, the entity that is Christ
consciousness would say to me.
I think one thing that I wouldwant to discuss with him is why
people believe that he is comingback to save the world, when
(19:26):
his pretty much directive waslove your neighbor as yourself
in order to save ourselves.
And so I think that I would askhim why do so many people
believe in this particular faiththat you are coming back one
day and everything's going to beOK?
Unless we create heaven onearth right here, how are we
(19:46):
deserving of that in any otherplace?
And I don't, I just don'tbelieve that.
So that would be my mainquestion why is it that this was
created, that you are going tocome back as the savior of the
world, when we are to be our ownsaviors, whether that's
overcoming abuse, overcoming ourchildhood wounding, overcoming
(20:08):
our wanting to stuff ouremotions with food, anything
that we do to abuse ourselvesand other people or other forms
of life or our planet we'resupposed to overcome that.
So I would ask him where didall of this start?
Where?
What was the origin.
Do you believe?
Because, again, he wasn'taround when the Bible was
written?
(20:28):
What is the origin of this?
You think and what kind of isthat that you're going to
descend someday from a cloud,and why is it that you think
that we wouldn't just blow youaway?
We already crucified you once.
Why would you come back and dothis?
See, it doesn't make any senseto me.
So that's the conversation Iwould have.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That would be a very wise conversation, because as I
was listening to you, regina, Iwas thinking oh actually, if
people believe that, then theytake away the responsibility of
working on themselves yes, yes,that's exactly it.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
That's exactly it, like I was told in.
I was raised in a veryconservative fundamentalist
church in the southern part ofthe United States in the 1960s,
jane, so that was like being hitfrom all sides.
But if I have to go toconfession and confess my sins,
why isn't that I'm not workingon stopping those?
(21:28):
See, I believe sin and mistakeis two different things.
I believe we all make mistakes,and sometimes we make mistakes
more than once, and we have tolearn from those.
But it's the learning thatcauses us to grow our spiritual
being.
If we continue to do the samething over and over, knowing
it's that it is going to hurt usand hurt someone else, that, to
(21:52):
me, is a sin.
So we've been told all of thesesins, when they're really
mistakes that we need to learnfrom and the sin is not learning
from them.
So, I unravel a whole bunch ofstuff in this book.
You know, I really am soradical that I say shut the
Bible, put it off over here.
Go over here, look at this, askyourself some questions and
(22:15):
then, if you want to pick thatback up and see.
But we have to remember theBible was translated so many
times.
There's so many differentversions, there's so many books
that have been left out.
King James version was writtenfor King James Hello With an
agenda.
King James Version was writtenfor King James Hello with an
agenda.
So we have to understand thatthe true teaching of Jesus love
(22:36):
your neighbor as yourself is.
It's huge.
It's a huge thing.
How do you deal with someonewho's abusing his wife?
You know, it's about teachinglove so that we feel love, so
that we don't do that.
It's about economic parity, sothat we don't have people that
are living in poverty or hunger.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's about equal rights for women, so that we
don't have men abusing thesystem that's what I address
them here and it's done in sucha way that I I sat and read it
like over an evening and I justthe pages.
I just wanted to kind of turn.
I just felt all these lightbulb moments going off in my my
head as I was reading it and Iliked the way that you you were
(23:21):
in Rome and you kind of firstcame up with the idea and you
said you were sitting with yourfriend who's atheist, one of
your friends Jewish, and theyall agreed that in in the
questions that you were, youwere bringing up and that's what
.
So that it's only by listenersare listening and um are still
thinking, oh, actually I'm notreligious at all.
(23:42):
Yeah, it doesn't matter, doesit?
Because it's about?
It's about love ultimately.
So I think it's still good forthem well that it is.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I know it might be hard to get past the, the title,
the real conversation Jesuswants us to have, but if people
look at this from an enlightened, conscious viewpoint and I'm
using him as an examplethroughout history of what we
believe the very best of us canbe yeah.
So if someone's turned off bythat title I hope that they're
not and they will dive into thepages of this, because one book
(24:15):
reviewer recently called it ablueprint to repair humanity.
These are things that we haveneeded to address for a very
long period of time, and I thinkthat these would be the things
that Jesus would talk about.
So it's about women's rights.
It's about saving our planet.
It's about why, in the UnitedStates, it's easier to have a
(24:36):
gun than I mean.
Why do we have that?
Well, it's terrifying to be acitizen in the United States.
It really is.
It's terrifying and itshouldn't be this way why money
and fame equals power.
That's not it.
It doesn't mean that you'resmart.
I asked so many differentquestions that I believe that he
(24:56):
would ask, but it's from anenlightened consciousness
standpoint, not necessarilyChrist.
Okay, so anybody can learn fromthis.
What is it that I actuallythink about women's rights.
Why would I think this?
Why should I think this?
What about God being male?
Why don't we just call God Godthroughout all the world,
through the world?
(25:17):
How far would that treat us?
How far would that go intreating women as equal citizens
?
Why was Eve made the scapegoatfor all the crap?
You know, I mean?
I ask that question because tome, this is common sense, but
it's not necessarily, jane,common sense that we sit down
(25:38):
and ask ourselves.
So anybody can benefit fromthis book if they want to expand
their idea of what it means totreat other people as you want
to be treated, and how they canlearn to love themselves more
fully so that they can loveother people absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
And that goes on to think um, by you saying that
love is an excellent visionwithin in in your book.
So maybe you want to elaboratea bit more on why you think that
is oh yeah, love has excellentvision.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
You, a lot of people think love is blind.
It's not blind.
I even quote Shakespeare inthere about no, it's not blind,
love sees.
Because for me, love isintegrity, love is caring and an
affection that is alwaysdisplayed as positive action,
(26:28):
even if someone who is subjectedto a boundary doesn't see it
that way, because love is alwayspositive.
But if you think about it, loveis behaving with integrity, and
that's what we think Jesus did.
You know, I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the stories
(26:48):
that we get about him are ofsomeone who behaved at the
height of their integrity.
They cared for the sick, theycared for the poor, they cared
for women, they cared forwhatever he did.
And so if we did all thesethings, that's behaving with
integrity and that's what Ibelieve that is lacking.
(27:10):
It's this what is the ultimateof what we can achieve as a
human being on this planet?
It's not money, fame and all ofthese other things.
It's behaving aligned withintegrity, because when you do
that, whatever else you leave isfine, as long as it's good and
profitable for everybody on theplanet but, if you behave with
(27:31):
integrity, there is no greaterachievement than any human being
can have.
So that's what that means lovehas excellent vision because
love behaves with integrity atall times absolutely, absolutely
, and it's it's love.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I think I see, love is, like you know, like a cloth
to clean your windows.
It kind of cleans the windowsof like how we are, perception
and and see, see things and andit's a case of like taking the
theory of all religions andactually practicing it and
they're kind of looking to be abig blind spot.
(28:07):
Um, with regards to that,people might read, um, some of
the theory and some of it mightbe good, some of it might not be
, but then they don't practiceit.
They'll kind of go out and justthink they're kind of good and
act really cruelly to people whodon't deserve it.
And why should they?
So is there something that youwish that every person knew in
(28:30):
the world?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
they are absolutely worthy of being loved and of
loving, when they know exactlywhat that means.
It's not control, it's notabuse, it's not forcing someone
to be like you, it's not forcingsomeone to believe as you
believe, but it's behaving withintegrity, to treat everyone in
(28:56):
all life as you want to betreated, and that's very
difficult to do at times.
However, unless we are inphysical danger, I believe it is
always doable if we choose todo that.
So that's what I would like foreverybody on the planet to know
Be responsible stewards of theearth.
Be responsible stewards of oneanother's hearts.
(29:17):
Hold them safe.
Put yourself in the position ofsomeone else instead of judging
and being a bigot againstsomeone.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Actually get to know that person yes, yes, do the
work on the work on oneself andand then, rather than pointing
the finger because that can be away to escape, I think is when
we're feeling bad aboutourselves.
It's quite easy to then kind ofstart pointing other people.
Then that lifts one up andthat's not the way to kind of go
(29:45):
about doing it.
So if I'm a reader and I wantto get hold of your wonderful
book I'm guessing it's on Amazonworldwide and other book and
other book platforms- yeah, it'savailable wherever books are
sold.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's on amazon in india and in the united states
and throughout the entire world.
It's on barnes and noble also,but you can go to your local
bookseller and ask them, and ifthey don't have it, they can
certainly order it for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, brilliant, and I'll put links in in the show
notes as well.
So we've got to the point inthe podcast.
Is there something that youwish we covered today and what
you'd like to speak about?
Because I know you'll answerquestions, but then there might
be something that you reallywant to share and I can ask you
about.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well, I am a work in progress.
I think we're all a work inprogress.
No-transcript.
(31:04):
Could I have been nice tosomeone nicer?
I've gotten to the point nowwhere I don't have to ask myself
about that a lot, but I thinkthat when we really focus on
ourselves I think that when wereally focus on ourselves
instead of focusing on someoneelse, like you said, then we
grow, and when we grow, theworld will grow.
So I believe that this book waswritten so that we could each
(31:27):
focus on ourselves and theprivacy of our home, and then we
go out and we talk with otherpeople about it, and we talk
about these questions and weseek the help that we need in
order to evolve.
So I'm still doing that everyday.
I believe life is a journey andI'm blessed to be here and I'm
blessed to share it withwonderful people.
I also want the world to knowthere are a whole lot more good
(31:50):
people on this planet that dochoose to behave with integrity,
and it's time that we took over.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I love that.
I love that absolutely.
Yes, because there's so muchfocus on what's wrong but there
is.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
I think most people are generally good and you know,
and kind and and yeah, maybe weshould try and notice that a
bit more on each other and aswell absolutely, because right
now, certainly in my country,everybody's addicted to the
negative, and if you focus whatyou focus on, you create, and so
I want folks to know let's turnoff all of the noise.
(32:26):
Let's turn that off and let'sjust look around, because every
day I am greeted by wonderful,happy, content, kind people, and
there are more of us.
So let's bring our voicesforward.
Let's stop doing this abuse.
Let's stop comparing ourselvesto one another.
Let's stop gossiping.
Our children bully one anotherbecause we bully.
(32:48):
They learn it from us.
Let's stop that immediately andsee what kind of world we can
create.
This book will help you do that.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Perfect.
Okay, so, listeners, I'll putdetails in the show notes, but I
felt really inspired and it'sreminded me of a few things, and
I want a wonderful world wheremy nieces grow up and they feel
they can be who they want andaccepted.
So I'm sure, dear listeners,that you feel the same about
your relatives and abouteveryone else on this planet.
(33:18):
So let's all do be kind to dobetter, but also send compassion
to ourselves as we go alongthis journey.
So, Regina Vickates, thank youso much for joining us today
from the USA and your wonderfulbook, the Real Conversation.
Jesus wants us to have a callto bravery.
Jesus Wants Us to have A Callto Bravery, Peace and Love.
(33:40):
Thank you, Regina.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
This is a section of the podcast where we do a
meditation.
I always say this, but, likewith all forms of meditation,
obviously do it somewhere whereyou're sitting, peaceful, so
obviously not in the middle ofdoing operating machinery or
driving.
Just pause it and just waittill you get home.
So I thought let's find ameditation that we can do today
(34:06):
that will help us bring somestillness.
And I thought, why not today,do a staring meditation?
So quite often I say to domeditation with the eyes closed,
but let's have a go at thestaring meditation.
So maybe you don't have a rose,maybe there's some sort of
object in your house that youwould like to focus on today and
(34:29):
what you can do is sit up supertall and just hold the object
in front of you so in my case,I've got a beautiful rose and
take some slow, calm, deepbreaths as we embody this
five-minute meditation.
So take some slow, calm, deepbreaths.
(34:50):
So just allow your eyes to betotally focused on the object in
front of you, using the breathas you inhale, as you exhale,
(35:16):
can you just allow the moment tobe, can you allow the breath to
be long, calm, deep and even,and can you allow your focus, to
be completely onto that objecta flower, or maybe it's a book,
something that really feels likeit inspires you to be right
(35:39):
here, in this present moment.
And as you stare at that object, can you connect with the
divinity within it, can youallow the possibility of just
being here right now, right thismoment, no place to go, no way
to go back into the past orproject into the future.
(36:01):
Instead, whatever you have todo before or whatever you have
to do after doesn't matter.
Right now, we are in the present, here and now.
Let the breath be, let the joycome, let yourself be.
Allow, allow, allow, openyourself to the divinity within.
(36:24):
Don't run from the presentmoment and our thoughts may try
to entice us, but instead,instead, just come back to that
object, just come back and backand back and back and back to
(36:46):
that object.
Just be, be, be, allow yourselfto be free, free, free, full of
joy, full of happiness, full ofpresence.
And if any external noises,just allow them to be.
Your vision is staringcompletely on that object.
Allow, allow, allow Throughsilence, through being, through
(37:12):
that dedication, dedication.
Allow the space, allow thespace A nice deep inhalation, a
(37:46):
nice deep exhalation, and thenjust start to gently move the
eyes around the room, take anice, deep, big breath, come
back into the present, come backinto the now.
See, just a few moments ofpresence.
Hello, I'm your host, the Gentle Yoga Warrior, and
this is Awakened ConsciousConversation Podcast and joining
us very shortly.
I have a very special guest onthe show, regina B Cates, and I
actually approached herpublishers because I read her
book and I really wanted to haveRegina on the show.
Regina describes herself as aauthor, activist, advisor and
(00:26):
several college degrees,including a Masters in
Leadership, which she has been aspecialist in for over four
decades, and she says on thewebsite I could share my resume
(00:50):
with you, but it doesn't showwhat I consider my greatest and
most rewarding achievementsOvercoming the physical and
psychological abuse that left mefeeling unworthy.
Journey, I think, will helpinspire you, dear listeners
today, of how one can turn one'slife around and what challenges
(01:10):
we have.
I feel we can use it as soil togrow into the amazing people
that we are meant to be, and shealso puts on her website we can
choose to get the other side oflife's challenges.
We can learn what true strengthreally is by discovering how to
(01:31):
love and respect ourselves.
When we get that, ourrelationships become better, our
communication clearer and ourchallenges fewer.
Everything I offer is designedto help you create your best
life, regina.
Everything I offer is designedto help you create your best
life.
Regina and Regina's book, theReal Conversation Jesus Wants Us
to have, a Call to Bravery,peace and Love, is a refreshing
(02:05):
book, all about conversations.
Or rather I feel, having readit from front to back, that it
inspires us to go beyond thelens of the labels that we call
ourselves or other people and tosee that love and kindness is
the ultimate thing.
And she highlights how, incertain religious groups, that
they can be very judgmental andcruel and awful to people and
(02:28):
that truly Jesus would not wantpeople to be this way.
And she describes herself as afan of Christ, which I can
relate to.
I love Jesus, I love nature, Ilove trees, I have a great love
of many things and I wouldsuggest that if you a don't feel
(02:49):
a deep connection with religion, I would say still listen.
And if you do, still listen aswell.
So, ladies and gentlemen,without further ado, please
welcome Regina B Kate, all theway from the USA.
Welcome Regina.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure to be with youtoday.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh, it's a pleasure to have you here.
Dear listeners, we had a fewtechnical issues before, but
we've managed to overcome it, sowe're going to have this
amazing interview, which I'vebeen very excited about.
So firstly, regina, we're goingto talk about conversations
that Jesus would want us to have, and I know that you recently
(03:31):
published a book called the RealConversation.
Jesus wants us to have, a callto bravery, peace and love.
Would you mind sharing yourjourney so far and what inspired
you to write this book?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, my goodness, I hope we have a couple of days or
weeks we can pull up a chair ina snug somewhere in the United
Kingdom and all over the worldand just talk about this.
I was, and still am, jane Gay,and so when you are an outlier
in an institution such asorganized religion and you are
(04:07):
indoctrinated into a beliefsystem and you are different and
you're outside the rules whichI think most of us are because
today we want to be put in oneparticular box male, white,
heterosexual, whatever we canget into that.
But I think when you're lookingthrough the world and through
your experience, through someonewho has been persecuted as
(04:28):
other whether a black, brown,woman doesn't matter, just
really doesn't matter then youhave a desire to think about
this, because I was told I wasgoing to hell from a very early
age, and when you tell childrenthat told I was going to hell
from a very early age and whenyou tell children that, then
that becomes a wounding and Ithink all of us are being
(04:49):
wounded to some degree oranother by organized religion.
So the reason I wrote the bookis because I wanted to put my
story on paper and the story ofother people that I have spoken
with and who have provided theirwisdom to me about what it
means to be black, what it meansto be to me, about what it
means to be black, what it meansto be a man, what it means to
be a woman.
But I've asked people to addressquestions that I imagine a
(05:12):
radically inclusive Jesus wouldask Very hard questions.
Jane, it's not just forChristians, it's for the entire
world.
In fact, recently, book reviewcalled it A Blueprint to Repair
Humanity.
So, even though the title isthe real conversation Jesus
wants us to have, it's about theenlightenment of Christ,
(05:35):
consciousness, which never leftthe planet.
But how do we get to thatparticular point?
We ask ourselves hard questionsand this book is filled with
those.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I'm so grateful that you asked those hard questions
because I think people can haveblind sides to.
They can go to church or anyreligion and completely treat
people in a terrible way.
I've seen it in yoga studioswhere people will kind of being
all they're, all spiritual andscream at someone in the juice
(06:11):
bar because the juice wasn'tmade right, and it's just like
this kindness and love is whatmakes the world go around, in my
opinion.
Why do you think it's soimportant to share your book
with the world and who do youthink is going to benefit from
it?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, I say this with deep humility, jane, I really
do, because I am not in thisbusiness to become rich.
You know people that writebooks unless you're Harry Potter
or somebody like that writebooks like that Because I
believe that this is now is atime in the whole world for us
to have a conversation.
I have a lot of Jewish peoplethat are reading this book and
(06:50):
thinking, wow, this is anincredible thing because of the
questions that I asked and theperspective that I bring.
One of the things that Iaddress is that if you have a
God that has always been putinto the box of male, then that
sets men up to believethemselves to be better than
women.
Let's look at that.
Let's look at that historically.
(07:11):
So I believe that there issomething in this book for
everyone and I know you're notsupposed to say that, you're not
supposed to target that, buteverybody that has read this
book so far has been moved inone way or another by it,
because it is my story isuniversal just because I'm a gay
woman that was persecuted bythe church.
We are all persecuted byorganized religion in some
(07:35):
fashion throughout the entireworld, and so the questions that
I ask, even though it isimagining.
You know the real conversationjesus wants us to have.
It's about all world religionsin the way that we are to treat
one another as we want to betreated, and if we don't ask
ourselves hard questions, how dowe know how to treat other
(07:55):
people?
How do we know how to treatourselves?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
yeah, it's so true and and it's very important that
we do ask ourselves these hardquestions why do you think we
need to confront our beliefsthat cause us to be
uncomfortable?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Because history has proven time and time again that
when you just jump on the boatof what someone else wants you
to believe, and yet it goesagainst what you believe to be
true and right, it's never goingto end well.
We do not have to have war, wedo not have to have hunger and
starvation and greed andcorruption.
We do not have to have thesethings.
And until we actually askourselves some hard questions,
(08:33):
then we were not going to beable to change human
civilization for the better.
And that's the whole reason forour existence, at least in my
belief system is to awakenconsciousness to a new level.
We don't awaken ourconsciousness to the spiritual
being that we are within bystatus quo.
We have to ask ourselves hardquestions why do we have
(08:55):
misogyny?
Why do we have rampant sexualabuse?
Why are women treated as less?
Why in the United States do wehave the stuff that's going on
now?
So for all of your listenersthroughout the world, believe me
, the majority of us are nothappy about what's going on over
here.
This guy does not represent us.
(09:16):
This party does not representus.
We are absolutely, you know,just beyond belief.
You know just beyond belief andyet, at the same time, jane, I
am one of those people thatbelieves that we are about to
have an awakening,transformation in consciousness,
and that also is a reason thatI wrote this book, because these
questions that I ask, thetopics that I discuss, are
(09:40):
things that will help grow humancivilization as a whole, and I
believe if the enlightenedmessenger, jesus came back today
, he would ask these questions.
It's not going to be justlovey-lovey, you know, kumbaya,
let's sit around and forgive ourneighbor for being a total ass.
No, it's about how we preventthat in the first place.
(10:02):
How do we love one another ashe would love us or ask us to do
, or any enlightened messengerfrom any religious faith?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
No, I completely agree with everything you're
saying.
I can really relate to it andhow people can treat each other,
even today.
You'd think people would, butthere's all these kind of blind
spots that people have or Idon't know.
Maybe they're indoctrinatedinto their religion and they um
it was very um sad.
But also when I read the bitwhen you were in the lift and it
(10:34):
was a Christian group that werein the lift and they were
making these horrible commentsabout gay people and you decided
in that instant to choose notto fight a battle because it you
came to.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Maybe you explain why to our listeners well, yeah,
because I think that we it, thatis, in the chapter of when we
turn our cheek and when we don't.
And I was surrounded by thesechristian kids on these kids,
these college age kids on achrist retreat, and I got in
just in time to listen to thembash gay people and immigrants.
And so where are they learningthis from?
(11:11):
What is it?
What is it about organizedreligion, and certainly in the
United States at this particulartime, where you're blaming some
other for your problem insteadof actually being aligned with
what Christ consciousness wouldbe?
You know, the seven clobberverses in the Bible have been
disproven over and over again,and yet they're taken today to
(11:31):
persecute people like me.
We're less than 5% of the wholeworld's population, and yet it
seems this you know, everybodyin this religion and many others
are focused on me.
Why I'm not that exciting, youknow.
So I didn't say anything inthat moment, jane, because we
have to pick the battles that wecan, where we can influence
(11:53):
change, and I have learned thatreasoning, trying to reason with
unreasonable people is just notgoing to happen.
And so that's another reasonthat I wrote the book, because
you know what, when you go intothe privacy of your home.
With this book, you can askyourself those questions and you
don't have to be confrontedwith anybody else until you want
(12:16):
to join other people.
People around the world areusing this book for book
discussion groups, but firstthey read it in private.
Like you did, go out into theworld and say, oh, let's talk
about this all at once.
You know you need to go out atfirst, before you go out and
have a picnic.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I feel people reason, it's going to kind of open
their eyes, like where I am.
To me it's common sense totreat people like this, but not
I've understood that noteveryone thinks like me and then
and not to kind of judge peoplebut also it's to me it feels
very obvious to treat peoplethis way, but I think people
(12:58):
sometimes don't have that.
I remember once I had aChristian landlady many years
ago and she was dressed in afinery on her way to go to
church and she was makinghorrible comments about gay
people on her way to go tochurch and she was making
horrible comments about gaypeople and I just thought how
can you stand there like anddressed up and then to go to
church and think that you're somuch better than everyone and to
to act this way and I?
(13:20):
It sits in my mind and I thinkit's just so wrong in so many
ways.
As I was reading your book, Ilike the way you say that you're
a fan of Christ, because I feelthat's a category that I fall
into.
How did you come up with thatto be a fan of Christ?
I know you come from aChristian background, don't you?
And how did you come to feelthat?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I do.
But when I was really young,when you realize you're four,
about four years old, and thatyou're gay and different, but
you don't know the word for it,at that point you know you don't
want to be married, you don'twant to have it, it's just a
biological thing, and around agefour it started kicking in for
me.
And so I heard all of thishypocrisy and hate and I thought
wait a minute.
And I talk about in the bookextensively, the hypocrisy of
(14:08):
how can you believe this aboutJesus and then twist it so
everything has been twisted foran agenda.
Did you know, jane, that untilthe 1500s it was illegal and
punishable by death to have yourown copy of the Bible?
No, yes, wow.
That way people can interpretwhat they want to interpret you
(14:32):
know, and feed you information.
So in my particular experience,I started hearing and I just
came in as a weird kid.
You know, just a weird kid.
I'm going to ask every questionthat you can possibly think of
and I'm going to make you asuncomfortable as possible
because I genuinely want to knowthe answers.
And I thought I am a fan ofChrist.
(14:53):
I am not comfortable certainlynot now in the United States
calling myself a Christian,because so many people have
usurped that term to meanChristian, nationalist, white
supremacist and all these otherthings that Jesus who was, by
the way, not white, blonde, blueor Christian you know he was
(15:14):
Jewish and dark skin.
You know they just twisted thisstuff but they've done it from
the beginning of time into bookgroups is actually to unravel a
whole lot of these things thatwe have been taught that were
wrong from the beginning as faras what Jesus remember, what
(15:37):
Jesus would tell us remember.
Jesus didn't write the Bible,and so I'm not comfortable
calling myself a Christian.
However, I am a fan of what Ibelieve this man stood for, and
that is impeccability, love andintegrity.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yes, absolutely, and inclusion, and he wouldn't see
things from the limited lens ofprejudice.
I feel like it's all abouteveryone getting on, but the
world needs people like you tokind of help remind people of
such matters.
(16:14):
And why do you?
Why do we need to feel to healand why do you think so many of
us avoid this?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
oh, my goodness.
Yes, we need to feel, becausewe're feeling beings.
We are emotional beings.
We we're intellectual,spiritual, emotional and
physical.
And I believe that the mostimportant part of this to live
as a spiritual being is ouremotions, to have empathy, to
have compassion.
And if we cut that off which weare doing and that's the reason
(16:45):
you see so much stress andcraziness in the world today is
that we're not feeling.
Much stress and craziness inthe world today is that we're
not feeling.
And if we cannot feel, if weprevent ourselves from feeling,
we cannot love.
And if we cannot love, wecannot treat our neighbor as we
want to be treated.
The problem with trying to lovesomeone else if we don't love
ourselves is that we can neverbe successful.
(17:07):
We have to know what love iswithin us first before we can
give it to someone else, and sowe have to feel.
We have to feel the good, wehave to feel the bad, we have to
be okay with a range of ouremotions, and that's why it is
so important that we work on thespiritual aspect of ourselves,
asking ourselves hard questions,experiences my best friend is
(17:31):
an atheist, as you read in thebook.
yeah, that was an eye-opener,you know it was great.
But he is one of the mostfeeling, compassionate, lovely
human beings and comes fromScotland.
So that's exciting, just.
He's just an incredible man andhe taught me so much about how
important it is to hold oneanother's heart safe.
(17:51):
And that's what we do when wefeel we hold one another's heart
safe.
But, jane, we have to do thatfor ourselves first, and I think
I swear to whatever that poweris, that organized religion has
taught us that we're sinnersfrom birth, that we're no good,
that we're worms, that we'renothing.
How in the world can we evercreate the world that we're
(18:16):
supposed to create if, from thebeginning, we're taught that
we're nothing and we'reworthless?
That is a load of CRAP.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yes, I absolutely 100% agree with that.
It's like why would we want todo the work from a contracted
place when you know howwonderful if we all realized the
full spectrum of our feelingsand allowed ourselves to feel
(18:45):
that, and by doing that we canmagnify love, not contract it.
So that really relates to me alot.
So thank you for that, regina.
I love that.
I've got a question.
If you could speak to Jesusright now, is there anything?
What would it be that you'dlike to ask?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh, man, I tell you what.
To be honest with you, my bookis filled with questions that I
ask Jesus, and imagine what youknow, the entity that is Christ
consciousness would say to me.
I think one thing that I wouldwant to discuss with him is why
people believe that he is comingback to save the world, when
(19:26):
his pretty much directive waslove your neighbor as yourself
in order to save ourselves.
And so I think that I would askhim why do so many people
believe in this particular faiththat you are coming back one
day and everything's going to beOK?
Unless we create heaven onearth right here, how are we
(19:46):
deserving of that in any otherplace?
And I don't, I just don'tbelieve that.
So that would be my mainquestion why is it that this was
created, that you are going tocome back as the savior of the
world, when we are to be our ownsaviors, whether that's
overcoming abuse, overcoming ourchildhood wounding, overcoming
(20:08):
our wanting to stuff ouremotions with food, anything
that we do to abuse ourselvesand other people or other forms
of life or our planet we'resupposed to overcome that.
So I would ask him where didall of this start?
Where?
What was the origin.
Do you believe?
Because, again, he wasn'taround when the Bible was
written?
(20:28):
What is the origin of this?
You think and what kind of isthat that you're going to
descend someday from a cloud,and why is it that you think
that we wouldn't just blow youaway?
We already crucified you once.
Why would you come back and dothis?
See, it doesn't make any senseto me.
So that's the conversation Iwould have.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That would be a very wise conversation, because as I
was listening to you, regina, Iwas thinking oh actually, if
people believe that, then theytake away the responsibility of
working on themselves yes, yes,that's exactly it.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
That's exactly it, like I was told in.
I was raised in a veryconservative fundamentalist
church in the southern part ofthe United States in the 1960s,
jane, so that was like being hitfrom all sides.
But if I have to go toconfession and confess my sins,
why isn't that I'm not workingon stopping those?
(21:28):
See, I believe sin and mistakeis two different things.
I believe we all make mistakes,and sometimes we make mistakes
more than once, and we have tolearn from those.
But it's the learning thatcauses us to grow our spiritual
being.
If we continue to do the samething over and over, knowing
it's that it is going to hurt usand hurt someone else, that, to
(21:52):
me, is a sin.
So we've been told all of thesesins, when they're really
mistakes that we need to learnfrom and the sin is not learning
from them.
So, I unravel a whole bunch ofstuff in this book.
You know, I really am soradical that I say shut the
Bible, put it off over here.
Go over here, look at this, askyourself some questions and
(22:15):
then, if you want to pick thatback up and see.
But we have to remember theBible was translated so many
times.
There's so many differentversions, there's so many books
that have been left out.
King James version was writtenfor King James Hello With an
agenda.
King James Version was writtenfor King James Hello with an
agenda.
So we have to understand thatthe true teaching of Jesus love
(22:36):
your neighbor as yourself is.
It's huge.
It's a huge thing.
How do you deal with someonewho's abusing his wife?
You know, it's about teachinglove so that we feel love, so
that we don't do that.
It's about economic parity, sothat we don't have people that
are living in poverty or hunger.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's about equal rights for women, so that we
don't have men abusing thesystem that's what I address
them here and it's done in sucha way that I I sat and read it
like over an evening and I justthe pages.
I just wanted to kind of turn.
I just felt all these lightbulb moments going off in my my
head as I was reading it and Iliked the way that you you were
(23:21):
in Rome and you kind of firstcame up with the idea and you
said you were sitting with yourfriend who's atheist, one of
your friends Jewish, and theyall agreed that in in the
questions that you were, youwere bringing up and that's what
.
So that it's only by listenersare listening and um are still
thinking, oh, actually I'm notreligious at all.
(23:42):
Yeah, it doesn't matter, doesit?
Because it's about?
It's about love ultimately.
So I think it's still good forthem well that it is.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I know it might be hard to get past the, the title,
the real conversation Jesuswants us to have, but if people
look at this from an enlightened, conscious viewpoint and I'm
using him as an examplethroughout history of what we
believe the very best of us canbe yeah.
So if someone's turned off bythat title I hope that they're
not and they will dive into thepages of this, because one book
(24:15):
reviewer recently called it ablueprint to repair humanity.
These are things that we haveneeded to address for a very
long period of time, and I thinkthat these would be the things
that Jesus would talk about.
So it's about women's rights.
It's about saving our planet.
It's about why, in the UnitedStates, it's easier to have a
(24:36):
gun than I mean.
Why do we have that?
Well, it's terrifying to be acitizen in the United States.
It really is.
It's terrifying and itshouldn't be this way why money
and fame equals power.
That's not it.
It doesn't mean that you'resmart.
I asked so many differentquestions that I believe that he
(24:56):
would ask, but it's from anenlightened consciousness
standpoint, not necessarilyChrist.
Okay, so anybody can learn fromthis.
What is it that I actuallythink about women's rights.
Why would I think this?
Why should I think this?
What about God being male?
Why don't we just call God Godthroughout all the world,
through the world?
(25:17):
How far would that treat us?
How far would that go intreating women as equal citizens
?
Why was Eve made the scapegoatfor all the crap?
You know, I mean?
I ask that question because tome, this is common sense, but
it's not necessarily, jane,common sense that we sit down
(25:38):
and ask ourselves.
So anybody can benefit fromthis book if they want to expand
their idea of what it means totreat other people as you want
to be treated, and how they canlearn to love themselves more
fully so that they can loveother people absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
And that goes on to think um, by you saying that
love is an excellent visionwithin in in your book.
So maybe you want to elaboratea bit more on why you think that
is oh yeah, love has excellentvision.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
You, a lot of people think love is blind.
It's not blind.
I even quote Shakespeare inthere about no, it's not blind,
love sees.
Because for me, love isintegrity, love is caring and an
affection that is alwaysdisplayed as positive action,
(26:28):
even if someone who is subjectedto a boundary doesn't see it
that way, because love is alwayspositive.
But if you think about it, loveis behaving with integrity, and
that's what we think Jesus did.
You know, I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the stories
(26:48):
that we get about him are ofsomeone who behaved at the
height of their integrity.
They cared for the sick, theycared for the poor, they cared
for women, they cared forwhatever he did.
And so if we did all thesethings, that's behaving with
integrity and that's what Ibelieve that is lacking.
(27:10):
It's this what is the ultimateof what we can achieve as a
human being on this planet?
It's not money, fame and all ofthese other things.
It's behaving aligned withintegrity, because when you do
that, whatever else you leave isfine, as long as it's good and
profitable for everybody on theplanet but, if you behave with
(27:31):
integrity, there is no greaterachievement than any human being
can have.
So that's what that means lovehas excellent vision because
love behaves with integrity atall times absolutely, absolutely
, and it's it's love.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I think I see, love is, like you know, like a cloth
to clean your windows.
It kind of cleans the windowsof like how we are, perception
and and see, see things and andit's a case of like taking the
theory of all religions andactually practicing it and
they're kind of looking to be abig blind spot.
(28:07):
Um, with regards to that,people might read, um, some of
the theory and some of it mightbe good, some of it might not be
, but then they don't practiceit.
They'll kind of go out and justthink they're kind of good and
act really cruelly to people whodon't deserve it.
And why should they?
So is there something that youwish that every person knew in
(28:30):
the world?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
they are absolutely worthy of being loved and of
loving, when they know exactlywhat that means.
It's not control, it's notabuse, it's not forcing someone
to be like you, it's not forcingsomeone to believe as you
believe, but it's behaving withintegrity, to treat everyone in
(28:56):
all life as you want to betreated, and that's very
difficult to do at times.
However, unless we are inphysical danger, I believe it is
always doable if we choose todo that.
So that's what I would like foreverybody on the planet to know
Be responsible stewards of theearth.
Be responsible stewards of oneanother's hearts.
(29:17):
Hold them safe.
Put yourself in the position ofsomeone else instead of judging
and being a bigot againstsomeone.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Actually get to know that person yes, yes, do the
work on the work on oneself andand then, rather than pointing
the finger because that can be away to escape, I think is when
we're feeling bad aboutourselves.
It's quite easy to then kind ofstart pointing other people.
Then that lifts one up andthat's not the way to kind of go
(29:45):
about doing it.
So if I'm a reader and I wantto get hold of your wonderful
book I'm guessing it's on Amazonworldwide and other book and
other book platforms- yeah, it'savailable wherever books are
sold.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's on amazon in india and in the united states
and throughout the entire world.
It's on barnes and noble also,but you can go to your local
bookseller and ask them, and ifthey don't have it, they can
certainly order it for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, brilliant, and I'll put links in in the show
notes as well.
So we've got to the point inthe podcast.
Is there something that youwish we covered today and what
you'd like to speak about?
Because I know you'll answerquestions, but then there might
be something that you reallywant to share and I can ask you
about.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well, I am a work in progress.
I think we're all a work inprogress.
No-transcript.
(31:04):
Could I have been nice tosomeone nicer?
I've gotten to the point nowwhere I don't have to ask myself
about that a lot, but I thinkthat when we really focus on
ourselves I think that when wereally focus on ourselves
instead of focusing on someoneelse, like you said, then we
grow, and when we grow, theworld will grow.
So I believe that this book waswritten so that we could each
(31:27):
focus on ourselves and theprivacy of our home, and then we
go out and we talk with otherpeople about it, and we talk
about these questions and weseek the help that we need in
order to evolve.
So I'm still doing that everyday.
I believe life is a journey andI'm blessed to be here and I'm
blessed to share it withwonderful people.
I also want the world to knowthere are a whole lot more good
(31:50):
people on this planet that dochoose to behave with integrity,
and it's time that we took over.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I love that.
I love that absolutely.
Yes, because there's so muchfocus on what's wrong but there
is.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
I think most people are generally good and you know,
and kind and and yeah, maybe weshould try and notice that a
bit more on each other and aswell absolutely, because right
now, certainly in my country,everybody's addicted to the
negative, and if you focus whatyou focus on, you create, and so
I want folks to know let's turnoff all of the noise.
(32:26):
Let's turn that off and let'sjust look around, because every
day I am greeted by wonderful,happy, content, kind people, and
there are more of us.
So let's bring our voicesforward.
Let's stop doing this abuse.
Let's stop comparing ourselvesto one another.
Let's stop gossiping.
Our children bully one anotherbecause we bully.
(32:48):
They learn it from us.
Let's stop that immediately andsee what kind of world we can
create.
This book will help you do that.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Perfect.
Okay, so, listeners, I'll putdetails in the show notes, but I
felt really inspired and it'sreminded me of a few things, and
I want a wonderful world wheremy nieces grow up and they feel
they can be who they want andaccepted.
So I'm sure, dear listeners,that you feel the same about
your relatives and abouteveryone else on this planet.
(33:18):
So let's all do be kind to dobetter, but also send compassion
to ourselves as we go alongthis journey.
So, Regina Vickates, thank youso much for joining us today
from the USA and your wonderfulbook, the Real Conversation.
Jesus wants us to have a callto bravery.
Jesus Wants Us to have A Callto Bravery, Peace and Love.
(33:40):
Thank you, Regina.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
This is a section of the podcast where we do a
meditation.
I always say this, but, likewith all forms of meditation,
obviously do it somewhere whereyou're sitting, peaceful, so
obviously not in the middle ofdoing operating machinery or
driving.
Just pause it and just waittill you get home.
So I thought let's find ameditation that we can do today
(34:06):
that will help us bring somestillness.
And I thought, why not today,do a staring meditation?
So quite often I say to domeditation with the eyes closed,
but let's have a go at thestaring meditation.
So maybe you don't have a rose,maybe there's some sort of
object in your house that youwould like to focus on today and
(34:29):
what you can do is sit up supertall and just hold the object
in front of you so in my case,I've got a beautiful rose and
take some slow, calm, deepbreaths as we embody this
five-minute meditation.
So take some slow, calm, deepbreaths.
(34:50):
So just allow your eyes to betotally focused on the object in
front of you, using the breathas you inhale, as you exhale,
(35:16):
can you just allow the moment tobe, can you allow the breath to
be long, calm, deep and even,and can you allow your focus, to
be completely onto that objecta flower, or maybe it's a book,
something that really feels likeit inspires you to be right
(35:39):
here, in this present moment.
And as you stare at that object, can you connect with the
divinity within it, can youallow the possibility of just
being here right now, right thismoment, no place to go, no way
to go back into the past orproject into the future.
(36:01):
Instead, whatever you have todo before or whatever you have
to do after doesn't matter.
Right now, we are in the present, here and now.
Let the breath be, let the joycome, let yourself be.
Allow, allow, allow, openyourself to the divinity within.
(36:24):
Don't run from the presentmoment and our thoughts may try
to entice us, but instead,instead, just come back to that
object, just come back and backand back and back and back to
(36:46):
that object.
Just be, be, be, allow yourselfto be free, free, free, full of
joy, full of happiness, full ofpresence.
And if any external noises,just allow them to be.
Your vision is staringcompletely on that object.
Allow, allow, allow Throughsilence, through being, through
(37:12):
that dedication, dedication.
Allow the space, allow thespace A nice deep inhalation, a
(37:46):
nice deep exhalation, and thenjust start to gently move the
eyes around the room, take anice, deep, big breath, come
back into the present, come backinto the now.
See, just a few moments ofpresence.
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