Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
What are you willing
to throw your life away on? With
Andrew Reed and The Liberation.It's a serious question, one
worth pondering. Am I living thelife I want, an intelligent
life, or something else? How canI have a better experience of
life?
These are some of the questionsexplored in this series of
(00:34):
messages without the brag andthe advertisement, getting
beyond even human institutionsand society into the wilderness,
nature, the reality of how lifeactually operates on this
planet. These messages rangefrom intimate recordings from
the awakened forest to concerts,national conferences, and
(00:56):
broadcasts on a wide array ofphilosophical topics.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I know that a lot of
you have listened to my
messages, and you know Iemphasize, of course,
organization, making writtenlists on clipboards and yellow
pads and all that. And of coursethis is a factor of those that
achieve great worldly success. Imean, it's all over the place.
(01:28):
Why? Because we need somethingto help us focus because there's
so many things happening allaround us that it takes away our
focus, our intention, our loveeven.
But there's also value of beinglistless. And of course, that's
a word and it means literallythat, listless. That is maybe
(01:51):
some days you get up and you'rea bit aimless. You don't have a
specific direction. That you'rejust experiencing life.
That you're just enjoyingordinary things. It doesn't have
to be the big things of buildingthe business or the building or
(02:13):
the church or making a hit songor worrying about where you are
regarding society and status andall that. But in fact, you're
just enjoying ordinary thingslike washing the dishes, running
the water, smelling the lemonscented joy and the feeling of
(02:36):
your hands going into that warmcleaning something up. I always
find the act of cleaning to be awonderful thing. I would be a
fantastic man servant.
Or just tidying things up oreven this idea of luxuriating
(02:58):
and walking around all yourpossessions admiring all the
photos, the pieces of art thatyou surround yourself with,
luxurating in a nice leatherchair, reading a book, sipping
your coffee, observing all theentertainment that nature
(03:21):
provides if you're in a settinglike this, listening to the
wind. Yeah. Luxurating, givingyourself a break, a gap, and
stepping out from the hustle andbustle of society and pleasing
(03:43):
others. Now with this said, thismessage is about what? Giving
yourself a break.
I think the ideas aroundproductivity, efficiency,
production, success are oftenoveremphasized. They're
(04:07):
important, they're part of life,but they're not the whole deal.
Because the bottom side of theoscillation of life is the lower
ebb where we learn to take abreak, to rest, to luxuriate as
I like to say. And I love thepower of words. That word
(04:28):
luxuriate resonates with mebecause there's this B movie,
science fiction of course, aboutthe Martians and here the
Martians were invisible,cohabitating with the humans and
suddenly they get to interact,yet they had been coexisting.
The Martians, of course, hadbeen there much longer and they
(04:50):
talk about these ideas. Asimovevolved species of coexisting,
of making common cause withnature, understanding the
natural process of life, andlearning to luxuriate with
nature. And I think there's alot of wisdom in this be science
(05:14):
fiction movie. But yes, giveyourself a break. Slow down
life.
There's no point in rushingthrough life as my uncle Earl
always pointed out. I mean, wasa man that was very methodical
about what he did. He was not afast doer of things. But
anything he touched was going tobe of high quality, whether he
(05:37):
was building a boat, whether hewas building a cabin, a
structure, a chair, anything hewould touch was going to be
quality. And he said, There's nopoint in rushing through life.
Slow life consumed about beingproductive, that we hurry around
(06:04):
life, we don't really live, wedon't taste our food, we don't
smell the air, we're notsensitive to our bodies, or if
we just learn to relax a littlebit more, Take the time to
(06:27):
reflect because thinking is whathuman beings do and reflection
is an aspect of that. Reconsiderour lives, to ask ourselves the
important questions of life.With the central one again, what
am I throwing my life away on?Where am I taking my life? Am I
living an intelligent life?
(06:49):
Because most of us want to. Butthis idea of taking a break,
giving yourself a break,allowing yourself to have time
to get sensitive, sensitiveabout your true feelings about
the world, about therelationships you're in, the
work you're doing, the marriageyou're in. And that is just so
(07:15):
part of the journey and it'snatural. And I tend to think
that everything ultimately has apositive upward momentum. That
we're always moving forward andI think this is undeniable.
Why? Because we are movingforward. We are moving forward
in time. You cannot stop time.Right?
(07:37):
So, if it's going forward, thenit comes down to the will. What
is the attitude we're going tohave towards life? Are we going
to have the hostile attitude,it's out to get me, eat me up?
Or are we going to have a morefavorable, light hearted
attitude about life like, Thisis going to be interesting. What
is life trying to teach me?
(08:01):
Again, personally, I think thatall life is designed really for
our personal benefit and it doesa fine job at that. Even those
things we don't find verydelighting in the moment. When
you stub your toe, I know you'renot gonna have probably the best
attitude in the moment, butthere's still probably something
(08:24):
to that. But this idea ofallowing yourself this gap, this
space, this let down, where youdon't have to put on your
makeup, where you don't have todress a certain way. You can run
around in your old clothes orwhatever attire you want, where
(08:45):
you're not particularly thinkingabout society and what would
please the masses or anythinglike that, but you're really
getting sensitive aboutyourself, your feelings about
things, even your body.
I think about the German woman,and this was approximately one
hundred years ago, and herprognosis was cancer and that
(09:08):
she was going to die, so whatdid she do? Because there was no
medical hope, she went off intothe Black Forest in Germany,
isolated in her cabin hermitage,and just got sensitive, just got
sensitive about her body. Sheexplored her mind. She explored
(09:31):
what made her feel worse. Sheexplored what made her feel
better in a slow way, and sherecovered.
I think there's a lot of wisdomto getting in tune with
yourself. And I'm not saying youdon't find yourself in being
(09:53):
productive, right, in beingefficient, in accomplishment. I
mean, again, that is part oflife, so that should not be
demonized. But, boy, we needthat gap where we can reflect
and contemplate, ask theimportant questions, what would
satisfy me, what would make mecontent, and then maybe chart a
(10:18):
slightly different course ormaybe a completely new course.
And these gaps, these gaps, Ithink about Mother Teresa who
happened to calibrate at over700 on the scale of
consciousness, which is high, ifa thousand is at the top.
I remember she talked aboutthese periods of epic and dry.
(10:42):
And, of course, we make moviesabout the epic experiences of
building great businesses orthings or overcoming great
obstacles. I think of myself,I'm building this church now.
Well, that's an epic event,which would probably symbolize
progress or productivity. Butshe said, you're gonna have
(11:04):
these periods also of dry whereyou're in the desert, you don't
feel like very much is happeningin your life.
But make no mistake, you'remaking great progress in those
times. If you're in the job youdon't like, if you're in the
marriage you don't like, or inthe relationship, or whatever
(11:25):
position or status state thatyou find yourself, well, you're
making progress in that time. Atleast you're figuring out what
you don't like. And you'rebuilding the energy towards that
next breakthrough because somuch of life is about
breakthrough. Just like theplant coming through the ground,
(11:49):
being a seed and again you don'tknow when it's gonna happen, but
once it gets sufficient energy,boom, it happens and your life
is like this.
This is where it's beyondcommand. This is the idea of the
awakened forest or theawakenings that all of us have.
(12:09):
And they surprise us. And then Ithink that's part of the
excitement or entertainment oflife. We do not know when we're
going to become enlightened,when the illumination or
discovery is going to come, justlike learning.
So give yourself a break. Giveyourself some space. Just
(12:32):
recognize that you're gonna havedry times and maybe don't get so
panicked about it. Relax. You'remaking more progress than maybe
you suspect.
And I think that's good counsel.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Thank you for
listening. If you need anything
further, just go to m b life.