Kindness

Adam Wes Everybody, namaste.

Well, let's wait for a few more people to join us.

Thank you.

Namaste, everybody.

Well, the theme of this month is gratitude. That's the principle of the month I wanted to share with everybody. I'm doing my best to be grateful, despite the fact that there are so few of us here. I'm not sure where everybody is. That's okay. We'll have a wonderful time.

Hi, Mom. Kira, how was your trip?

Kira It was wonderful. I got to teach in Puerto Rico to people I've never met before, and it was very beautiful.

Adam Wes Wonderful. And how's your practice going, Praveen?

Praveen froze, I think.

Colleen Did you say Colleen or Praveen?

Adam Wes Praveen.

Colleen That's what I thought.

Praveen S Good, Adam. Good.

Adam Wes Yeah? Good. Good is not enough. I want to hear more. How's your practice going? Are you meditating every day?

Praveen S Struggling to, but looking forward very much.

Adam Wes Okay. Well, the routine, the practice, starts in the now. Ariella! Ariella's back! Wonderful.

Start today. Part of what we are doing here as sangha is meditating every day, so 15 minutes a day is quite minimal. I'm not picking on you, Praveen. I'm just saying this for everybody. This is a challenge for everybody, but it's very important.

Why do we meditate every day? Well, if we don't meditate every day, we get lost in the currents of the past. We walk around with a residue of the past. Why do we do anything, right? You might say, "Well, I don't feel... I'm so busy." But if you're so busy, what matters in our life is that we meet life with clarity, with an accurateness about what we're here to do, and meditation provides us with that. It's something you have to do consistently to realize what you're missing out on.

It's like somebody who never exercises, right? "I'm too busy to exercise. I'm too lazy to exercise." One of the things that consistent meditation does is it really changes who we are in very fundamental ways. It's a very practical investment of time.

Fifteen minutes is minuscule. It's like saying, "I don't have five minutes to brush my teeth every day." Well, okay, that's your call, but if you don't brush your teeth every day, you're going to face issues. Meditation is a universal practice. It's relevant to every human being because we gain an accumulation of the past, and it obscures the present.

We all have this reservoir of absolute ecstasy and bliss within us that remains largely untapped without meditation. I mean, not just largely. Even when you've been meditating for 20 years, you realize, "Wow, I could go that much further into knowledge and wisdom and love and power."

Hi, Naina. Namaste. Welcome. Where are you joining from?

Naina B I'm joining you from India.

Adam Wes Oh!

Naina B Rajasthan, India.

Adam Wes Well, welcome, welcome. Praveen's in India as well.

All right, let's see. Let me just double-check and see if anybody else is on their way, and then we'll get started. David and Andrea might join us in a moment.

I wanted to share with everybody, while we wait for just one more moment, something on the agenda for today. Every month we have a book of the month, a principle of the month, and a routine element of the month.

As a sangha, as a community, when we read the same thing, we build momentum in the wisdom that the book provides, and we attune our mind to the mentalities of enlightenment that are within this book. So it's not just a random book. The books that are suggested are always related to somebody who's in the state, and by reading them, you entrain your own energy to their energy.

I've chosen a book that will be, I think, very, very enjoyable to everybody this week. It's called Think on These Things by Krishnamurti. It's a collection of his talks given to schoolchildren. He literally is talking to, like, six-year-olds, but adults get so much out of it. I mean, everybody gets everything out of it. It's a very profound way that he relates to the human condition and talks to six-year-olds. It's not just six-year-olds. It's teachers and everything.

Let me show you. Practice room. So if you go to the practice room, the practice hall, here it is: Krishnamurti, Think on These Things. You can click here and get the text. This is one of my favorite books of his.

Another thing, we have a principle of the month. A principle is the way you relate to life, a rule that you live by, for example. For this month, it is gratitude, and that was the talk that we did last week. If you weren't here last week, I recommend maybe listening to the audio.

Gratitude, right here, is the principle of the month. That means you can go around and have some fun with this, right? Last time was mindfulness. So go around and just go all out with gratitude.

If you'd seen me over the last 10 years, Kira's seen me. "Adam, why are you bowing?" "Because I'm crossing the street, and I'm so grateful to be on this side, and then I'm going to be on that side." That's literally the length of gratitude that I went to. It's a constant blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, grateful, grateful. It changes you.

Kira, do you want to say something about that?

Kira I think I've had to wait at least an hour or more, cumulatively, when Adam has gone to express gratitude after a restaurant or visiting a grocery store. I wait for him to finish being grateful. Yeah, I've said something. It's real.

Adam Wes In gratitude, we become aware. We expand our heart to become the blessing. We become aware of our blessings, and when we live with that, the heart chakra, anahata, actually opens and transforms, and we get this beautiful feeling of blissfulness. Obviously, the things that we are grateful for are recognized and appreciated.

It's a very core principle to Bhakti. Actually, bhakti yoga, the yoga of love, the spiritual path of love, has gratitude as one of the key principles. Mindfulness is a little bit more intrinsic to Zen, although it also applies to every spiritual practice.

Okay, and then the routine element of the month, let me find it. A formal mindfulness activity. Colleen, you're already doing that. Every time you go to yoga, and you practice yoga six days a week like you do, you're engaging in a formal mindfulness activity.

You don't have to do it as much as Colleen. She goes for an hour. You can do just 15 minutes a day. For me, that would look like doing mathematics for 15 minutes a day, although I do much more than that. Do something that you can develop mastery in.

I'm giving everybody here permission to indulge in what you love to do in such a way that you just get better and better and better. Say the guitar's been sitting there for three years, and it's all dusty, and you've been meaning to play it. Well, this is the month for you to pick up the guitar, practice your scales, and develop mastery.

It has to be something that, one, is very playful for you. Do it just for the pure joy of doing it. Don't think of the results. And two, something where you can develop a degree of refinement. Don't just play the same song every time. Learn. Try to become a connoisseur of that art, whatever that might be.

Those are the three things: the book of the month, the principle of the month, and the formal mindfulness activity. The whole idea is that every month you add something to your routine until you have a three or four-hour routine that makes you just a very powerful energy field.

Now, if you haven't been doing 15 minutes a day of meditation, that's the very first one. You should do 15 minutes a day of meditation in addition to this.

Any questions? By the way, I recommend you just hang out here at the sangha hall. You can look at the Sanskrit words we have, listen to the guided meditations, contemplate the quote of the day, or listen to the playlist.

All right, let me stop sharing. Any questions? Is anybody inspired? Did I inspire you, Naina? You had such a nice smile.

Naina B Thank you. You've definitely inspired me. I have been picking up my painting brush, which I had not done in many years. You've given me a turbo boost to go full in into it.

Adam Wes Lovely, wonderful. I remember when my teacher, 10 years ago or so, said, "You can do math every day." I said, "Really? That feels wonderful. It's fun. I'm so glad I can do math every day." The whole time, I'd been resisting it because, you know, what's math? It's a pure contemplation. It doesn't seem very practical, right? Although it is very practical because it structures the mind.

I do math, and then I go and meet the world, and I'm very productive because I have a very crystal-like mind. Naina, if you go and paint for 15 minutes, you go into the world and your mind is structured with all the geometry in the painting, or the colors. Maybe you're doing it with a lot of feeling, so you get in touch with your heart and flow state, and then everything is more beautiful. Your whole life is, like, twice as productive for 15 minutes, right?

Wonderful, wonderful. That's a perfect example of a dharmic practice right there, painting. Love it.

Hi, Andrea!

Andrea P Hi. Sorry I was late. I was thinking it was an hour later. Did we change the time?

Adam Wes Yeah, that's why I messaged you. Because the time zone changed, I figured you would have, perhaps.

Andrea P Okay, yes. David also apologizes. He had to take his son to the doctor.

Adam Wes Okay, okay.

Andrea P He asked me to apologize.

Adam Wes I'm glad to hear from David. Wonderful.

Andrea's in Mexico, for everybody who may not realize. We literally have a global sangha here. It's very futuristic, right? We have no national borders. We're one big family, as Ariella always says, and we're practicing to become a futuristic human being: more conscious, more beautiful, integrated in intellect, in heart, and in the capacity to make contact with light and mystical states of awareness.

It's very futuristic, even though it's very ancient. But to bring it into the mainstream, to do it as people living and working in the world, that's futuristic.

The sermon I want to give today is on kindness. Kindness is actually another one of the most important Bhakti principles. Gratitude and kindness really build out a nice collection of principles that are heart-centered and love-centered.

I have a whole bunch I would like to share about kindness, and it's not that simple, actually. I recommend everybody go and contemplate what's shared here. There'll be a transcript available. Dive into kindness. What is kindness this week? How can you practice it? How can you grow in kindness?

I'm sure many of us are extremely kind already. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't be here. But there's a lot of nuance to it, and it's actually quite an esoteric topic. So let's go through it.

What is kindness? Maybe just take a second. What do you think kindness is, just for yourself?

In kindness, we experience an enormous goodwill for another. We care about their well-being. There's kindness, and there are acts of kindness. We may take action on that, too, and do something for somebody.

A key mechanism at play in kindness is empathy. We make others happy, and we become happy. There's a joy in kindness. It's not just giving something away. It's creating abundance of energy, of love.

When you make another happy and you experience happiness yourself, there's an empathic recurrence there that also changes you energetically. Your heart expands. You stop living in the shell of separativity, of that selfhood.

To live a life constantly attending to yourself, "Me first, me first, me first, everybody second," is actually a morbid state. We don't generate much joy out of that. Giving, on the other hand, is a very joyful experience, and it changes us inwardly.

You may go and be kind and heal something that you've been carrying for a decade. You may be kind and just walk around on air, having a beautiful feeling for days or weeks later, or even just for a minute later, until you are unkind. The karma of kindness has, a lot of times, instantaneous repercussions.

You might be mean for a second, then, "Oh, wow, I feel selfish." That feeling is not very enjoyable.

But how does one really get into kindness? Because it's one thing to say, "Be kind." You can always engage in kindness and do kind things, but you may not feel, deep in your heart, moved by it, right? You may go and feed the homeless and feel, "Oh, wow, but I feel egotistic," or, "I don't care," or, "I'm just going through the motions."

There's a deeper transformation of consciousness involved. Can you see that? It's not just, "Did you do it?" It's, "How did you feel? Did you genuinely feel compassion? Did you genuinely feel goodwill? Did you see the other's spirit and merge with them through knowledge, the knowledge of knowing the other by becoming the other?"

How does that happen? Well, another way to define kindness is to say that I am the totality. I am the plant. I am the neighbor. I am the car. I am the rock. I am acting not on behalf of myself, but on behalf of the totality.

It's a very different orientation. Most people say, "What am I going to do?" But in an enlightened state of consciousness, we do the righteous thing, the right thing, the dharmic thing. That is not a matter of personal agenda, but it is a matter of clearly seeing what is in service to the whole. It's a very honorable orientation.

To act on behalf of the whole, as the whole, the totality, as the totality, is very much a part of kindness.

In kindness, we have to feel an abundance within. Through meditation, here's a reason to meditate. I think everybody values kindness. Well, the more you feel that you need nothing from another, that, "I am so full on my own ecstasy, on my own blissfulness, on the light within. I am just divine. I am godliness. I'm so full. How could I exploit another? I don't want anything from another. I am full. I want for another. I want them to find the absolute riches of spirituality and meditation and love within themselves."

When we all become a source of the divine, it's easier to be kind. We no longer look upon another with exploitative intent because we're not trying to fill an emptiness.

Another part of our fullness is to live in integrity. Our actions are not about what we get, but they're principled. I do things because that's the way I respond to the circumstances.

Circumstances may come. I will always act with the constant of my integrity. I do what is right. It may benefit me. It may not benefit me. But it will always benefit my integrity. I get to live in the constant of integrity, and there's peace in that. There's a dignity in that.

When we live in integrity and we live in our blissfulness, our being, those two constants, being is a constant, a constant of eternity, the background. Integrity is a constant, kind of like calculus. It's the constant of change.

If you know calculus, one of the things we learn about in calculus is rates of change. Imagine the rate of change is defined. How does destiny unfold in that consistency? That is defined not by what things are, but how they transform, how they transmute. That's integrity, just through the mathematical lens there.

It's not just a mathematical lens, but a very accurate description of it, right? There's a set of rules by which we meet the myriad of circumstances. So it's the finite meeting the infinite. See that?

Meditation helps us to connect with that blissfulness. Integrity, which is something you can contemplate, like, "What is your integrity?" helps you. Then actions become spontaneous.

The heart says, "This is the right thing to do." This is how we can follow that righteous action. Listen to your heart. What does the heart say to do?

If you get really good at it, if you meditate on your heart enough, another reason to meditate every day, you can feel your heart, and your heart will say, "No, don't do that." It may be something quite mundane, like red bell peppers versus green bell peppers. The heart knows which one on which day.

There is an intuition in the heart. The heart is a knower beyond the fragmented conditioning of the mind, of the intellect. In kindness, we act with a spontaneity that is really heart-directed.

The heart always says, "Who is involved, and what can I do for the totality?" That's the way the heart thinks. The heart knows. It doesn't say, "Me first," because, I don't know if this is that obvious to people, but maybe it is. The heart obviously does what feels right, and what feels right is always concerned with everybody's well-being, right?

I'm going to look at my outline here.

Another thing about kindness is we get into that state where we're giving everything away. Giving actually seems, perhaps, like, "How can you gain happiness by giving things?" But when we give, especially the things that we're attached to, the things inside of us, give away your pride. Don't be the best. Let somebody else be the best, right? Don't be self-important. Give away your jacket to the homeless person.

It's so sweet. It's a really beautiful thing to give things away. Something will come. It'll come back to you, right? When we give things away, we're telling our subconscious that we're godliness, because we are the essence of the universe. Why would you give something away if it was you, right? You're saying, "I'm not this. I'm not that. I need nothing."

One thing that happens in kindness is we develop freedom. We get to be who we want to be.

What is an impediment to freedom? When we want something from another, it's difficult to be true to ourselves. Have you ever felt yourself biting your tongue because you want somebody to think of you some way, or you don't want them to know who you really are?

But when you just don't care, when you're in so much kindness you don't care what anybody thinks, "I care for people, but I don't care what anybody thinks," then I'm all of a sudden free. I can be quirky. I can be eccentric. I can be myself. That's priceless, to be yourself.

I'm thinking of you, Kira, right now. Everybody. Well, Kira does this very well, but we've discussed it before.

Kindness is quite advantageous because it opens freedom. We become more free.

If you've ever practiced art in its variety of forms, painting is an archetypal example, but also other forms of art, art is about self-honesty. You have to get onstage, whatever stage you are on, and express yourself honestly. Kindness helps you do that.

This is just profound. If you're deeply kind, you can just be yourself. Think about that. If I'm kind, I don't want anything from the audience. I'm not going to exploit them.

If they don't like me, I don't want them to be there. I don't want to pretend and trick them into being there by tricking them into thinking I'm something I'm not. That's a trick. That's not nice. It's not very kind, right?

Naina, do you want to say something? I felt like you were going to say something.

Naina B I've never been able to make this association. I used to think that I'm a very honest and outspoken being, and because I love myself, I don't bite my lip. But I've never made this connection: because I don't want anything from you, I feel so full within. That is also why I don't bite my lip, and I can be authentically expressive. It just connected something for me.

Adam Wes Beautiful, exactly. It's interesting. When we look at the truth, which is just how things work, the truth of physics, the truth of mathematics, the truth of the human condition, when we elucidate it, it's very empowering because then you can protect those things.

Maybe one day we're honest and we're kind, and then all of a sudden something's changing. Well, maybe somebody's manipulating us, and we can protect ourselves against that because the truth protects us. Seeing and knowing exactly what's happening is a form of protecting goodness.

That's why I like to talk about these things and do a topic every week, because where there's clarity, there's resilience. It's important to contemplate.

That'll be a new routine element down the road: contemplate every day. When you contemplate and maintain a degree of lucidity, of understanding, this is a part of enlightenment.

If you read the Bhagavad Gita, or Krishnamurti, or any of the Taoist books, or any of the philosophers, you'll recognize very clearly that these enormously conscious people are extremely lucid. Not in a convoluted way. It's simple.

That's why Krishnamurti's book, talking to children, is actually really great, because he says things simply. That takes a degree of mastery, to be simple.

Okay. Boom.

All right, artists. You want to be a great artist? Kindness is a part of that. How far can you take it? How far can you just be? "This is who I am. Love me or hate me, take it or leave it, this is what I'm going to be."

It takes kindness to do that, not courage. I would say I'm a little hesitant to say not courage. Okay, maybe some courage. But what is courage? Courage is kind of forced. Kindness doesn't feel forced.

If you don't like learning math and spirituality, you probably shouldn't come to that class that I'm holding on math and spirituality. I'm not going to try to trick people, right? Although I may try to help people see why it's relevant to them. But the whole idea is to allow people to act in their own freedom.

Kindness holds people in freedom. It says, "Act in your freedom." What brings us together, and this is a key here, is our complementary intrinsic natures, not manipulation, subversion, or force.

In kindness, we get what we need because we find the people who are meant to be working with us.

You may be interested in a lovely woman or a lovely man, right? Complementary natures bring you together, not manipulation. That's a very overt example.

This happens in business. A great business says, "Here are my beautiful products and services. Come and buy them, or don't buy them." It's not forcing anybody. You stand in spiritual independence, in freedom.

My spiritual independence allows everybody to stand in their freedom and act of their own volition. That's a kind orientation.

What brings people together? Well, the fact that it's obvious they should be together. This business offers that service. I'm looking for that service. Perfect.

This man or woman wants these experiences. This woman or man, or man or woman, wants these experiences, and they're complementary. Good. Complementary natures. This teacher, this student, this tree, and this bush.

Trees are very good. The plant kingdom's very good at this because the plant kingdom is in a complete state of integrity and acceptance. If a tree gets something cut off, it grows it back. If a tree has something obstructed, it grows around it. It finds the light, right? It's good to notice the principle applied in the plant kingdom.

All right, not to go too long, because we should have a good meditation here. I think I've covered most of it.

The meditation that we do here is centered on Shakti. Jyoti is another name for it. It means brightness in Sanskrit. Shakti is the essential substance of the universe.

The whole universe exists in the subjective point of consciousness. I am a dreamer. The universe is in my dream. All the laws of physics, all the galaxies, cannot exist without the witness to behold them.

That transdimensional point of awareness is the dreamer, and the fabric of the dreamer is light. You can have a direct encounter with this light in meditation. We go into the source, the substratum of our own being, and dissolve, like a metal statue dissolving back into metal.

It renews us and purifies us, and we become quite ecstatic because, uneclipsed by form, the formless substrate is ecstatic by its very nature. That ecstasy, that blissfulness, that shanti, another Sanskrit word, is an expression of merging into the light, making contact with the light.

Meditation and absorption in the light help us to experience kindness as well. If you spend 15 minutes a day, if you're good at meditation to the point where you can just go into the light, that's very, very special.

Colleen? Colleen's my mom. Mom, if you're good at going into the light, that is a very valuable opportunity. To spend 15 minutes a day in light, what could that do for you?

If you feel like it's hard to do it by yourself, I have a guided meditation on light. You can just sit and be supported, and then you don't have to watch the clock or feel uncomfortable.

Kindness is a very spiritual, or a very mature spiritual orientation. It's very mature to become kind. You may be young, older, or in between, but it's a very mature state. It erases the center of self so that you can act as and with the totality.

One more thing I should say: in order to act on kindness, there has to be clarity so that you know what to do. Kindness requires that we're aware of the needs of the other, and we're aware of the response that is necessary.

Without clarity, without stillness in the mind through which we can see clearly, we can't see. In a still pond, we can see to the bottom if there are no ripples, sand, or mud. That clarity allows us to see through.

When the mind becomes very still, it allows us to see. The apprehension of truth is a part of kindness. It allows kindness to act clearly. Otherwise, we act in fragmentation. We may not be able to love the person we love because we can't see what they need.

You have to see beyond the self and see the other as they are, beyond words, beyond interpretation. Truth is the seeing of what is. It's the suchness. It's the capacity to know something in the moment, not from conditioning or accumulation or idea, but through perception. It's a great thing to do in mathematics.

All right, I think I've covered everything. One more thing.

If you suffer from anxiety, depression, fear of public speaking, all kinds of things, kindness is a remedy for the pathological human psychological conditions. It's very much a remedy because it opens the heart and you become simple again.

Those pathologies are complexities imposed upon your beautiful perfection. They're not really intrinsic to who you are. They're perturbations on the surface of perfection, little knots, little obscurations. Kindness undoes those. It undoes the knots. It purifies you because you're washing yourself of self in kindness, so that you reveal the Self with a big S.

Most of all, I would say the meaning of life is love. What matters in life are those moments where we live with, and as one with, everybody.

I want to recommend a movie, Groundhog Day. It's one of my favorite films from, like, 30 years ago. In Groundhog Day, he basically goes through this exact journey. He's a selfish jerk, and he even says that.

By the end, he learns love and kindness. He gets stuck on February 2nd, which is Groundhog Day, and he repeats it over and over and over and over and over again until he learns his lesson.

It's a really brilliant movie. It's one of my favorites. In fact, it's so much one of my favorites, and so relevant to this, that I put three movies on the practice hall. It's the third one. If you go into the practice hall, the third movie is there. That's Groundhog Day.

Kindness is free. It's available all the time. We can always independently access kindness. It's like going on a diet. It's free. How much does it cost to not eat as much today? Not very much.

Certain things are free. Silence is free. How much does it cost to access these most valuable things in life, right? Silence, kindness. It's completely within your own command.

You can be in a difficult situation, and kindness can be your shield. It can be your support.

Practice kindness this week. Try it for a week. Go all out. Get weird with it.

Ariella, make your husband wonder, "What cracked in my wife's mind this week?" I want him to just be so confused. "Why is she being so nice to everybody? Why is she being kind to that little blade of grass growing out of the sidewalk?"

Be kind, practice it, and explore it. Write about it. Listen to the people in your life. Perform acts of kindness. You're a steward of the field. Act on behalf of the totality, as the totality.

Colleen I think that's Ariella's normal way of being. I think she was born kind, and she only knows it.

Ariella Thanks.

Adam Wes Yeah, Ariella is extraordinarily kind. That's true.

Ariella Sure.

Adam Wes But maybe have some fun with it. I'm giving you extra permission to be over the top, if you want.

Colleen Adam, could you explain when you said, if you have anxiety when you speak or are onstage? I still didn't get it about kindness and anxiety as a speaker.

Adam Wes Kindness produces an energetic transformation of the kundalini. The way we are is not just in the brain cells. It's in the body. It's in the energy field. It's in the aura. It's in the paradigm, and it's in the brain cells. It's all connected.

Most of these things are rooted in the heart. When the heart feels really full, and you're just buzzing with warmth and fullness, you don't have anxiety. When the heart feels other things, I don't even want to focus on it, you get anxiety.

Kindness is this feeling of being at home in yourself. When you're so at home in yourself, it's a remedy for many of those psychological issues that people face: depression, anxiety, and all the various things. Maybe not all of them. Some of them are from other reasons. But generally, they're very much an issue around the heart chakra, anahata.

Does that answer your question?

Colleen It sounds more like confidence that you're talking about.

Adam Wes Well, okay, that's a good question. Speaking onstage, for example, if I'm feeling kind, there's the egoic confidence of somebody who just thinks they're so great, right? They love everybody to give them attention, and it's actually not very healthy.

That's coming from, "I'm great. I'm confident. I know what I'm doing is good enough. I've refined myself. I walk a certain way. I believe I'm great, so I'm going to stand up onstage and take, and be enough because I'm enough." That's one thing. That's confidence in one way.

Another kind of confidence is just, "I don't need anything. I want the best for everybody. I am who I am. I love myself as I am. I love you as you are. So why would I be nervous?"

Why do we care what people think? That's a good question. Why do we want somebody to feel a certain way?

It's interesting because I know that you're very kind, and at the same time, you do care what people think a little bit sometimes. I think there's an opportunity to open that up even more. Sometimes we can be very kind in so many ways, and there's a little part that can be attended to.

Colleen Okay, thank you. I'll think about it.

Adam Wes Yeah, thank you for the question.

Colleen I love your description about the tree.

Adam Wes About the tree? Thank you. I have many, many plants in my place, as you can see. I've got little plants literally growing across the floor. That's a part of the practice. I recommend plants.

All right, I hope that wasn't too long for anybody. Naina, was that too long for you? That wasn't too long? Okay, good. Are you okay? All right.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's 6:52. I'm sorry. Let's get meditating. This is supposed to be meditation. Usually the goal is 30 minutes of meditation, 30 minutes of sermon, and 15 minutes to share about our experience in the meditation.

Today we'll meditate on the heart and feel a great deal of sufficiency, wholeness. Perhaps we should go into light. Let's do that. The light and the heart go together.

How do you go into light? We'll do an eye-gazing meditation. Let me make it a little softer.

This works incredibly well over the internet, actually. I just had an amazing session with Harrison the other day, and we were both in so much light.

In gazing, gaze at the screen, gaze at me, gaze at yourself, or just gaze at the computer. If you gaze at me, there'll be a little bit more of an empathic attunement that occurs. But it's not staring. It's not looking at the physical. We're expanding and watching everything at once.

When we do this, we allow everything to dissolve. You see, physicality is collapsed into a state of actuality, denseness. When we let go of it, it will become fluid again. That fluidity reveals a brightness everywhere. Everything is made of light.

Light is everywhere, and you can see that. I'd like to help people actually feel that today. Sometimes we just close our eyes and do the heart, and you can go into light with your eyes closed, too. But gazing is a very powerful way to invoke the light.

I'm going to gaze with all of you. Look at everything at once. Be patient. It accumulates. It could happen instantaneously, but it can also take a few minutes to accumulate.

When you start to see a white mistiness, or colors, or any sort of visual perturbation, let it brighten. Let the brightness, the luminosity, open and ideally wash through you and purify you.

Let's do it. Stay centered in your heart while you do this, too. If anybody wants to close their eyes, that's totally fine.

I'm just going to take turns with people. Kira, let's meditate. Keep meditating with me, but I'll do a couple of minutes with each of you.

Bring your attention very broadly to the periphery of your vision. It's not up to us. It's up to the light. You're allowing yourself to soften your whole habitual hold on the universe.

You can play with your vision. Just let it blur ever so slightly.

Another thing you can do is try to feel that you're holographic. Let your body become transparent. It's a gentleness and dissolution that allows the light to emerge.

Namaste, Kira.

Praveen, let's meditate.

All right, we'll just do a few minutes together. Everybody else can keep meditating with me.

Look at everything at once. Some of the ways that we hold ourselves in a rigid manner, let those soften. Let it all melt.

Make sure to reach out with your field. It's easier to access the light when you feel expansive. Let your heart expand. Let your head expand. Become aware of the whole space without exclusion. Look at everything at once.

Thanks, Praveen. Namaste. Keep it going.

Naina, would you like to meditate? Let's look at everything. Yeah, you know what you're doing. I can feel it.

You can very subtly invoke that luminosity in the body. It's a little subtle pressure on the light. Unlock it, just very gently.

Beautiful. Keep that going. Your heart is so expansive. I love it. You can feel it across the space.

Ariella, let's go into light together. You know that thing you do when you bless your food, Ariella? Do that now.

Everybody, keep this going. It builds. It accumulates. You gain a kind of divine momentum, an absorption. Just give your attention to the luminosity. Feel the luminosity.

Namaste, Ariella. Thank you. Keep it going.

Ariella Thank you.

Adam Wes Colleen? Mom? Are you looking at me? Okay, gaze with me. Look at everything at once.

If you start to see me shift into different people, that's okay. Just allow it. See if you can see your colors with your eyes open. You're looking very broadly, very gently, with a slight blur.

Thanks, Mom. Keep it going.

Andrea, ready to gaze? You can bring a subtle attention to your third eye. It actually helps you invoke the light, the magnetism there.

Try to make sure you're aware of the periphery of your vision. Wonderful.

Okay, let's just do a couple more minutes as a group. If you want to close your eyes and just see the light with your eyes closed, or keep them open, bring attention to the heart center.

Just reach out and feel awareness. Feel the great moment and the great expanse of the universe, and your union with that expanse.

I'm feeling gratitude, of course. Namaste.

Would anybody like to share? How about you? Go ahead, Mom. Could you share a little bit about your experience? Alexa, turn on the corner light.

Colleen?

Colleen That was very nice. Thank you, Adam. I did see some light. It was all red today.

Adam Wes Wonderful, with your eyes open?

Colleen Unusual.

Adam Wes Wonderful!

Colleen Very peaceful with my eyes closed. It's harder for me with my eyes open, so I like to go into that. Thank you very much.

Adam Wes You're welcome. Good job. Way to see the Shakti.

Would anybody else like to share? I don't think we should all share because we're running a little low on time, but does anybody have a question or want to share anything?

Naina, I want to tell you, when I was meditating with you, I really felt that you obviously have a very deep practice already. The way your heart expanded was really soothing, and I could feel all of that. It was beautiful.

Your heart just goes really big, like a floodlight. Way to go. That was wonderful, very still and poised. It was very lovely. I'd love to hear how your experience was.

Naina B It was very heart-expanded, and I could also feel your light. It's always very lovely to see all these concepts that we read about and hear so much about. But when you really practice and you can see all of that, you can really experience it.

There are no borders, and it's all a very connected field. I didn't expect that, since you're not in my proximity, but I could feel that connection.

Adam Wes You know, the internet, there's a degree of entrainment just by video. It really comes through on video. Even though it's maybe not the magnetic field, or it might actually be. What are time and space anyway, right? How far are we really?

In Star Trek, they talk about subspace, right? You could have an instant transmission from light-years away. Who knows what the reality is? Because you really can feel everything.

"Hey, somebody's calling me." Okay, I can see they're calling me, very psychic. So what is that?

Wonderful. Thank you for being here and bringing your beautiful energy. Namaste. Beautiful meditation.

Ariella, you were going to share something.

Ariella Yes, I was able to connect more with the light when my eyes were closed. Today, for the first time, instead of just being light, it was pink.

Adam Wes Beautiful. That's a very gentle color. Pink has a lot to do with the heart and healing.

Ariella Oh, wow. Great.

Adam Wes Pink is the opposite on the color wheel from green, and green is the heart chakra, so they're actually...

Ariella Oh.

Adam Wes Duh. Naina's like, "I know that." The painters know this.

Wonderful, Ariella. We've been doing eyes closed a lot, so you're probably very conditioned to that technique. But it's good to do both.

Ariella Thank you so much.

Adam Wes You're welcome.

Ariella What could you feel, Adam, when you were doing that with me?

Adam Wes I did feel a very refined openness, cosmically, in you, a very sincere connection with the energy.

I really feel this when people meditate with me. I feel people very much when I'm meditating with them. Everybody's like a different flavor. It's like there's an infinite number of flavors.

You have this very, I could almost write a little poem about it, smooth, open, very grand, kind of mature connection with the divine, and an actual merging with it. You really went into the meditation with me very deeply, and we both went deeper together because of that.

Ariella Hmm.

Adam Wes I kind of go as far as you'll go with me. Let's see how far we can go. You were really going deep. It was lovely.

Ariella Thank you, thank you.

Adam Wes Thanks, Ariella.

All right, how about 30 seconds from Kira, and then we'll stop? Because I have to hear from the smile.

Kira Wow. Wow. So thankful. I just feel the sensation was major heart expansion, and it feels like the energy's flowing more freely. It just feels like, "Oh, that's how it should be."

Adam Wes Oh, yeah.

Kira It's strange, actually, to not be in that state.

Adam Wes Yeah. Well, be futuristic, you know? Just be like a magical being from another planet. "Oh, this is just what we do." I'm forgetting what the movie's called. There's a movie where they've got these magical beings, and that's just how they are.

Kira I do want to add, thank you, Adam, that being around you when you would go into these deep, very dedicated states of gratitude was so profound to experience.

Rather than just talking about gratitude, to actually experience another person emitting gratitude, embodying gratitude, made me realize how we all have that power to go into a state of kindness, an act of kindness, or the state of gratitude. That actually affects everyone around us in such a profound but subtle way.

Thank you for that beautiful transmission. So many transmissions I received from you of deep, beautiful gratitude. Now I'm able to experience those states and share them with others as well.

Adam Wes I love it, yes. You're welcome, and thank you. These states, you emanate them. Whether or not you're being kind, people are like, "Oh, that's a kind person," because they can feel where you're at. Or, "That's a grateful person." There's a frequency and energy that comes from it.

Namaste. Thank you.

Okay, it's 7:23. We have the orientation session now, which can go for five minutes or longer. If anybody's interested in learning more, some of you are good and you don't have to stay here. Namaste. Thank you for being here.

For everybody else who wants to stay, I'll be going over full enrollment, what's involved in full enrollment, how you can enroll, and some of the other offerings. Praveen's already enrolled. Yay, Praveen!

The School of Futuristic Intelligence includes mathematics, meditation, and coding as a form of art, creating art. It's a great thing to do if you're interested in structuring your mind with mathematics and learning it. It's designed to be accessible to beginners.

We can always do an assessment and see if it'll be the right level for you, because it is advanced. But in a way, because it's about direct perception, it's for beginners.

Namaste. Anyway, I'm going to log off. If you want to log back on, just to renew the recording and also to give everybody a non-awkward out, you can. If you want to log back on and ask any question, that's fine, but no expectations.

Namaste, everybody. Good job! Remember, be kind. Contemplate kindness. Watch the movie. Please watch the movie Groundhog Day. Also, do the themes of the month.

Bye. Namaste. Thank you.

Kira Adam's birthday's coming up.

Adam Wes Thank you, Kira, for saying that. I was going to say, in case you want to know, it's my birthday next Monday. You can say happy birthday if you want. Thanks, Kira.

All right, bye, everybody. Thank you. Namaste, Mom. Thank you, Dad.

Ariella Stay loving this.

Kindness is a heart-centered orientation grounded in meditation, clarity, empathy, integrity, and freedom. It allows us to move beyond self-interest and act in service to the whole.

• The practice starts in the now. Consistent daily meditation clears the residue of the past and supports meeting life with clarity.
• Gratitude expands the heart and brings awareness to the blessings already present.
• A formal mindfulness activity can be playful, joyful, and refined through practice.
• Kindness includes goodwill, care for another's well-being, empathy, and acts of kindness.
• Kindness creates an abundance of energy and love. It changes us inwardly and expands the heart.
• The deeper movement of kindness is not only what we do, but whether we genuinely feel compassion and see the other's spirit.
• To act in kindness is to act on behalf of the totality rather than from personal agenda.
• Integrity is a constant through changing circumstances. It brings peace and dignity.
• The heart is a knower. Heart-directed action is concerned with everybody's well-being.
• Kindness holds people in freedom. Complementary intrinsic natures, rather than manipulation or force, bring people together.
• Stillness and clarity allow us to see another as they are and recognize what response is needed.
• Meditation in light renews and purifies. Expansive awareness, softness, and attention to the heart allow luminosity to emerge.

Practice kindness for a week and explore it fully. Listen to the people in your life, perform acts of kindness, write about what you notice, and act on behalf of the totality as a steward of the field.

• Fifteen minutes of daily meditation.
• Going all out with gratitude and becoming aware of blessings.
• A playful formal mindfulness activity that allows for learning and refinement.
• Goodwill, empathy, and genuine care for another's well-being.
• Listening to the heart and noticing what serves the whole.
• Giving without seeking a return, including giving away pride and self-importance.
• Allowing others to act in their own freedom.
• Looking at everything at once, softening the habitual hold on the universe, and staying centered in the heart.

• What does kindness feel like in the heart?
• Where might the heart be asking for a clear and kind response?
• What changes when action is offered on behalf of the whole?