Essay Edition
Motivation and Uncaused Happiness
I have been contemplating what makes somebody do something. Why do ten thousand people show up to see Tony Robbins? Why does somebody practice something? Why does somebody study something?
I think that is a necessary factor, not only to promote the teaching, but as a part of the teaching. Why do we spend the time we spend on the things that we do? Ultimately, there is something we want that we think we will get through the way that we engage our time. We need to find within ourselves what the thing is that we want, and whether the things we are doing are getting us the things we want.
Love and light bring a happiness, an uncaused happiness, that is hard to understand or relate to unless you are actually doing it. There is no more direct path that I can think of than heart, light, and love to true happiness and a fulfilling life. Everybody is trying to find their way. They try this and that. They try all kinds of things. But this is the direct cultivation, or even the final reason for happiness, anyway.
When we are happy, there is that quality of inner, subjective vibrancy that seems to be related to a particular instance or circumstance. And yet, we are also happy sometimes without those circumstances. Sometimes, with the circumstances, we are not happy anyway. So this inner dimension of happiness is the primary movement.
Most people are dealing with more rudimentary issues: I do not know what to do with my time. I feel confused. I feel lonely. I feel anxious. I feel depressed. I feel all kinds of things.
I do not think it is correct, the whole idea that we should just focus on the result. I think that prevents people from connecting with it. If you do not meditate every day, I would argue that you probably have not experienced the benefits of meditation in a deep enough capacity to choose it.
Ironically, this is a big part of sales. I tend to think sales is manipulation, but it is not, actually. It is helping people get what they really want, if it is done with a love of persuasion, to help guide people. We have to be salesmen to ourselves sometimes.
Happiness is uncaused. It comes from our essence. Maybe that is a profound thing to say. Happiness comes from us. We are happiness, like an absolute, reverberating, eternal ecstasy. We come to know that in meditation.
I do not care. I do not want anything. I do not care if anybody respects me. I do not care if I understand anything. I just want to be feeling like this.
There is nothing that matters, really. Humility comes from that, love comes from that, and freedom comes from that. Then what will you do if you feel that way? You will probably do a lot of very productive, beautiful things. You will have enough money. You will have friends. You will have food. You will have meaning in your life, because that fundamental thing is taken care of.
I think this is the heart of every spiritual practice and religion, because it is the cosmology of self. It does not belong to any religion. It belongs to existence. I do not even think it belongs to human beings. I think this is the nature of consciousness and sentience, and the universe as a manifestation and as a non-manifestation of the beyond source of the universe. This is just what is.
It is almost like physics, but it is a physics that goes beyond the limitations of the empirical scientific method. It is the physics. It is the ontology. That is why I like that word. It is the study of existence. It is a little bit broader than physics.
Consecration and Spiritual Renewal
There is this word I wanted to share: consecration. Perhaps you have heard this word. It means to commit yourself to something, and it usually has a spiritual, devotional connotation to it.
A lot of times people are not consecrated to anything until we perhaps gain a degree of clarity and say, that is everything to me. I live for that.
I have been doing a lot of meditation, and there is a sense that there is nowhere to go. There is nothing to become. I feel very consecrated to the light and the love.
Responsibilities say, you just got up. You need to get things done. What happens when we push that all out? Renounce it all. There is an interesting feeling of pushing out the entanglement with the world.
This is actually a part of spirituality because we want to push out the forms of influence. Ultimately, when we are meditating, we forget ourselves and become beyond influence. There is a quality of aloofness where you do not care at all, and you are not holding anything in your mind.
In terms of responsibility, can we have a moment of freedom from responsibility? How can we choose that if we are saying, I am meditating now, and I am doing it because I have time? There is still the I. There is still the manager of one’s responsibilities operating.
How can we become completely absorbed in that precarious vulnerability of irresponsibility? It feels precarious. Is it irresponsible, or is it the most responsible thing we can do? Become nothing for a time.
It is a challenging thing for our culture to embrace and wrap our minds around. I am going to become completely irresponsible. But that is a very responsible thing because I am erasing the fundamental cause of conflict. If everybody was washed of selfhood, it would be difficult for there to be conflict.
It is a feeling of acceptance and aloofness and integrity, but they arise from that renewal.
Jesus said, “You have to be reborn in the spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven.” I think he is speaking directly to this particular aspect of spirituality. What does it mean to be reborn? That is a pretty big undertaking. I am going to erase everything and start over. And not in your body, but in your spirit. In a way, that is deeper than a reincarnation kind of rebirth. That is a renewal of the spirit until you are clean of all personal impressions and agenda and responsibility. All those tethers fall away. They have nothing to hook onto anymore.
Then you enter the kingdom of heaven, which is within us. That is the other part of it.
When I say the uncaused happiness, the essence, our actual nature, our Buddha nature, the Buddha nature within us, Buddha was saying a lot of the same things. They all were really saying the same things in their own words. They gained different names. Some of them emphasize certain metaphorical aspects. One may be more discipline-based versus more love-based. There are different subtleties there, but ultimately, we are pointing to this one aspect of happiness.
What makes one cast off all their moorings and travel into the desert of silence and solitude? The desert is always the metaphor: forty days in the desert. The desert is vast and empty. What makes one renounce all of that? Sometimes people experience a kind of pain from not following that subtle call. But sometimes it is not so subtle.
I would argue that many of those conditions that people feel, depression, anxiety, confusion, a sense of loneliness, are remedied by the light and the heart and the love. It is hard to feel anxiety when you feel such full-on blissfulness. You just do not feel it.
But it is easy for society to pull us in directions away from a spiritual life. It is very rare to see somebody living a spiritual life. Why is somebody not doing the next thing on the list of things that are never-ending?
The beautiful thing is, when we get free, we do not stop doing things. What we do just becomes really loving and really blissful and, in a way, loses a sense of agency.
It is just like digestion. We do not have to say, now I have to move that into my small intestines, and now I have to move it down there. We do not have to make all those decisions, and life can become a little bit like that.
There is a guy I love to read. He makes a digestion metaphor. He says, “I’ve eaten the world up, and now I don’t have to pay much attention to it.” He says, “For you, the world is everything. For me, it’s just a thin layer on this eternal substance of eternity,” of what he calls the Supreme.
Guided Meditation in Light
Everything we have discussed, we can do now.
You are seeing the light. Make sure to bring the light. Bring yourself into light. Use the light to clear your space, to renew the spirit and energetic flow.
You should look like a glowing statue of light. See yourself as that through your own perception of the light.
Let the whole body become an effulgence of light, and in particular the spine and the sushumna, the astral spine, the brain and the chakras, but also your arms and legs and full body.
Invite the luminosity. Will the intensity of the light, simultaneously allowing its intensity.
Meditation, Mindfulness, and Contemplation
You can lie down when you meditate if you feel tired. You do not have to meditate sitting up, but lying down, it is easier to fall asleep. You can lie down on your back and meditate. If you are well-rested, you are less likely to fall asleep.
I generally sit up in a half-lotus position on the floor or ground, but I do lie down as well. Especially if I have already been sitting for an hour or two, I sometimes will do a lying-down meditation.
It is good to contemplate enlightenment and meditation. Then, when you start meditating, you are thinking about the higher thoughts. When they dissipate away, you are in your meditation. The higher thoughts are a good kind of thinking: contemplation. Remember the three pillars: meditation, mindfulness, and contemplation.
Full Transcript
Motivation and Uncaused Happiness
Adam Wes Namaste. Welcome, everybody.
I've been contemplating what makes somebody do something. Why do 10,000 people show up to see Tony Robbins? Why does somebody practice something? Why does somebody study something?
I think that's a necessary factor, not only to promote the teaching, but as a part of the teaching. Why do we spend the time we spend on the things that we do? Ultimately, there's something we want that we think we'll get through the way that we engage our time.
Love and light bring a happiness, an uncaused happiness, that is hard to understand or relate to unless you're actually doing it. I think that is a large part of the reason why we don't have a very large group yet. I haven't actually taken the time to connect this teaching to where people are, and I think I haven't even done it enough with where all of you are.
There's no more direct path that I can think of than heart, light, and love to true happiness and a fulfilling life. It's like everybody's trying to find their way, and they're like, "Let me try this and that," and they try all kinds of things. But it is the direct cultivation, or even the final reason for happiness, anyway.
When we're happy, there's that quality of inner, subjective vibrancy that seems to be related to a particular instance or circumstance. And yet, we're also happy sometimes without those circumstances. Sometimes, with the circumstances, we're not happy anyway. So this inner dimension of happiness is the primary movement.
Most people are dealing with a little bit more rudimentary issues: "I don't know what to do with my time. I feel confused. I feel lonely. I feel anxious. I feel depressed. I feel all kinds of things."
I don't think it's correct anymore, the whole idea that we should just focus on the result. I think that prevents people from connecting it. If you don't meditate every day, I would argue that you probably haven't experienced the benefits of meditation in a deep enough capacity to choose it.
We need to find within ourselves what the thing is that we want, and whether the things we're doing are getting us the things we want.
Ironically, this is a big part of sales. I tend to think, "Oh, sales is manipulation," but it's not, actually. It's helping people get what they really want, if it's done with a love of persuasion, to help guide people. We have to be salesmen to ourselves sometimes.
Happiness is uncaused. It comes from our essence. Maybe that's a profound thing to say. Happiness comes from us. We are happiness, like an absolute, reverberating, eternal ecstasy. We come to know that in meditation.
"I don't care. I don't want anything. I don't care if anybody respects me. I don't care if I understand anything. I just want to be feeling like this."
There's nothing that matters, really. The humility comes from that, love comes from that, and freedom comes from that. Then what will you do if you feel that way? Well, you'll probably do a lot of very productive, beautiful things. You'll have enough money. You'll have friends. You'll have food. You'll have meaning in your life, because that fundamental thing is taken care of.
I think this is the heart of every spiritual practice and religion, because it's the cosmology of self. It doesn't belong to any religion. It belongs to existence. I don't even think it belongs to human beings. I think this is the nature of consciousness and sentience, and the universe as a manifestation and as a non-manifestation of the beyond source of the universe. This is just what is.
It's almost like physics, but it's a physics that goes beyond the limitations of the empirical scientific method. It's the physics. It's the ontology. That's why I like that word. It's the study of existence. It's a little bit broader than physics.
I think perhaps the best thing I can do is ask. How are you, Andrea? What's going on? I need to talk to you guys.
Andrea P Good!
Adam Wes How's your practice? What are you dealing with?
Andrea P I have a lot of work, but it's going well. I'm doing acupuncture.
Adam Wes Nice.
Andrea P I feel like my chi is aligning, and I feel really good. But I do have so many things right now. It's calm, but my day is full. It's good.
I'm trying to meditate every day at seven. I'm doing it on Mondays with my friends, too. My internet is terrible.
Adam Wes No, it's actually sounding pretty good from my end. Seven p.m. or seven a.m.?
Andrea P P.M. I've tried in the mornings, but it's harder. I do it for a shorter period, like five minutes or just ten minutes, to try to connect. Then my mind starts, like, "Oh, you have to do this, and you have to do that." In the evenings, it's easier.
Consecration and Spiritual Renewal
Adam Wes There's this word I wanted to share today: consecration. Perhaps you have heard this word. It means to commit yourself to something, and it usually has a spiritual, devotional connotation to it.
I think a lot of times people aren't consecrated to anything until we perhaps gain a degree of clarity and say, "Oh, that's everything to me. I live for that."
In fact, I wasn't sure I was going to talk today because I felt like just more meditation. I've been doing a lot of meditation, and there's a sense that there's nowhere to go. There's nothing to become. I feel very consecrated to the light and the love.
Andrea is talking about those responsibilities that say, "You just got up. You need to get things done." Well, what happens when we push that all out? Renounce it all. There's an interesting feeling of pushing out the entanglement with the world.
This is actually a part of spirituality because we want to push out the forms of influence. Ultimately, when we're meditating, we forget ourselves and become beyond influence. There's a quality of aloofness where you don't care at all, and you're not holding anything in your mind.
In terms of responsibility, can we have a moment of freedom from responsibility? Can we have that moment? How can we choose that if we're saying, "Okay, well, I'm meditating now, and I'm doing it because I have time"? There's still the "I." There's still the manager of one's responsibilities operating.
How can we become completely absorbed in that precarious vulnerability of irresponsibility? It feels precarious. Is it irresponsible, or is it the most responsible thing we can do? Become nothing for a time.
It's a challenging thing for our culture to embrace and wrap our minds around. "I'm going to become completely irresponsible." But that is a very responsible thing because I am erasing the fundamental cause of conflict. If everybody was washed of selfhood, it would be difficult for there to be conflict.
It's a feeling of acceptance and aloofness and integrity, but they arise from that renewal.
Jesus said, and I apologize for the Jesus quotes, "You have to be reborn in the spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven." I like what he's saying because I think he's speaking directly to this particular aspect of spirituality.
What does it mean to be reborn? That's a pretty big undertaking, right? "I'm going to erase everything and start over." And not in your body, but in your spirit. In a way, that's deeper than a reincarnation kind of rebirth. That's a renewal of the spirit until you're clean of all personal impressions and agenda and responsibility. All those tethers fall away. They have nothing to hook onto anymore.
Then you enter the kingdom of heaven, which is within us. That's the other part of it.
When I say the uncaused happiness, the essence, our actual nature, our Buddha nature, the Buddha nature within us, Buddha was saying a lot of the same things. They all were really saying the same things in their own words. They gained different names and things. Some of them emphasize certain metaphorical aspects. One may be more discipline-based versus more love-based. There are different subtleties there, but ultimately, we're pointing to this one aspect of happiness.
It's interesting to ask Andrea, "Okay, why is my life so busy?" Hopefully, for the right reasons. Maybe it is, maybe it's not. I'm not making any form of judgment, but it's an interesting thing to ask, because what makes one cast off all their moorings and travel into the desert of silence and solitude?
The desert is always the metaphor: 40 days in the desert, the whole Egypt thing. I think, actually, in Judaism, this is really talking about that, where the Jews went into the desert of spiritual consecration and renewal and entered that emptiness. The desert is vast and empty.
What makes one renounce all of that? I think sometimes people experience a kind of pain from not following that subtle call. But sometimes it's not so subtle.
I would argue that many of those conditions that people feel, depression, anxiety, confusion, a sense of loneliness, are remedied by the light and the heart and the love. It's hard to feel anxiety when you feel so full-on blissfulness. You just don't feel it.
But it's easy for society to pull us in directions away from a spiritual life. It's very rare to see somebody living a spiritual life.
I was sitting in my car for three or four minutes, and the lady next to me was very confused because I was really in a meditative state. I didn't want to get out. Who cares? Why do I need to get out?
She's like, "Do you need to get out?" She's trying to talk to me and see what I needed. I just put my finger up. She's like, "Oh." I didn't open my eyes. I just put my finger up so she knew, "Just mind your own business."
She was trying to be considerate. It just didn't compute for her. Why is somebody not doing the next thing on the list of things that are never-ending?
The beautiful thing is, when we get free, we don't stop doing things. What we do just becomes really loving and really blissful and, in a way, loses a sense of agency.
It's just like digestion. We don't have to say, "Okay, now I have to move that into my small intestines, and now I have to move it down there." We don't have to make all those decisions, and life can become a little bit like that.
There's a guy I love to read. He makes a digestion metaphor. He says, "I've eaten the world up, and now I don't have to pay much attention to it." He says, "For you, the world is everything. For me, it's just a thin layer on this eternal substance of eternity," of what he calls the Supreme.
I don't feel that I have connected this with your immediate issues. I don't feel I'm a good enough salesman. Perhaps I'll learn.
Practice Amid Daily Commitments
Andrea P No, I think you do. It's not just this talk. It's everything you have told us.
I don't like to be running, you know? I don't like chaos, but I have a lot of good things going on.
Adam Wes Andrea, I want to hear every single word, but it's cutting out a bit.
Andrea P My internet is really bad. I will send you a voice message.
Adam Wes Try again, because we're hearing you now, and I think it would be very valuable for everybody and the transcript.
Andrea P At the beginning of the year, when you were creating the website and redesigning everything, you were really excited. Right now, I have big projects, so I'm really invested in them. But I don't like to be rushing and in chaos.
Adam Wes Yeah.
Andrea P I like to take my time and enjoy it, sleep well, and take time for important things. But I do have some engagements.
Right now, one of my friends is teaching us. She's sharing her AI program that the company pays for. There are all these engagements that I have, and I try not to have too many, but it coincides with this. I should be there right now, but I decided to be here for a little while.
Adam Wes I'm glad.
Andrea P I try to eliminate as much as I can so I'm not rushing, and to do everything calmly and enjoy it. I totally get what you're saying. I would like to meditate more. That's always the goal, but I'm working on it.
Adam Wes Nice. Well, it's wonderful to hear that inspiring things are happening.
Guided Meditation in Light
Colleen Seeing that I really don't meditate, can we start meditating now so we can get half an hour?
Adam Wes Yeah, it's 12:27. Okay, let's do it. Perfect, thanks.
Andrea P Adam, Colleen, I have to leave, but it was really nice to see you. I will meditate after my class.
Adam Wes Okay.
Everything we discussed today, we can do it now.
Heads up. You're seeing the light. Make sure to bring the light. Bring yourself into light.
Use the light to clear your space, to renew the spirit and energetic flow.
You should look like a glowing statue of light. See yourself as that through your own perception of the light.
Let the whole body become an effulgence of light, and in particular the spine and the Sushumna, the astral spine, and the brain and the chakras, but also your arms and legs and full body.
Invite the luminosity. Will the intensity of the light, simultaneously allowing its intensity.
Heads up, please.
And when you're ready, you can come out of the meditation. That was a good 30 minutes.
Reflections on the Meditation
Hi, Mom. Are you wearing pink too, Ariella? That's us.
Colleen So funny.
Adam Wes All three of us. And the funny thing is, right before the session, I was compelled to put this on. Intuitively, I went to my closet. I was like, "I have to wear that right now for some reason." We're literally all wearing pink.
Colleen The weird thing with me is the color today was pink, a background with red spots, like measles, like a rash.
Adam Wes Okay, that was about your meditation?
Colleen Yeah. I'm saying it's funny that the colors fit in with what we're wearing. It was pink with red spots.
Adam Wes That's interesting.
Colleen I've never had that before, like a rash. And the other color was a little bit of orange, so we have all the mixture together.
Adam Wes Nice. Pink and orange. Nice colors to experience. Were there waves of light?
Colleen No, not this time.
Adam Wes Okay. Did you enjoy the meditation?
Colleen Yeah, I was really going into whatever. No waves.
Adam Wes Love you. Good job. Thanks for being here.
Colleen Thanks.
Adam Wes Namaste, Mom. And how about you, Ariella? How was your meditation?
AriellaShira L Thank you, Adam. It was really good. It took me a while. All the thoughts you had been discussing were flowing through my head, but eventually I was able to go into the light. I liked when you told us to put our heads up. That brought me more into the light.
Adam Wes Beautiful. Generally, the heart should feel more like this, right? This almost hurts energetically, I feel.
You can lie down when you meditate if you feel tired. You don't have to meditate sitting up, but lying down, it's easier to fall asleep.
AriellaShira L Yay!
Adam Wes But you can lie down on your back and meditate.
Colleen On a bolster, when you open your heart.
Adam Wes Oh, you could do that too. Or even just lie down on some pillows. If you're well-rested, you're less likely to fall asleep.
I do that quite a bit. I generally sit up in a half-lotus position on the floor or ground, but I do lie down as well. Especially if I've already been sitting for an hour or two, I sometimes will do a lying-down meditation.
What was that?
Colleen I'm unique.
Adam Wes Oh, Ariella said something I didn't hear.
AriellaShira L No, it was your mum.
Adam Wes Oh. Okay. Well, namaste, everybody. Good job.
Colleen Thank you.
AriellaShira L Thanks so much, Adam.
Adam Wes You're welcome. Did it resonate with you? Did you get what I was sharing?
AriellaShira L Yes, that's what I was thinking about so much.
Adam Wes Nice. It's good to contemplate enlightenment and meditation. Then, when you start meditating, you're thinking about the higher thoughts. When they dissipate away, you're in your meditation.
AriellaShira L Yay.
Adam Wes But the higher thoughts are a good kind of thinking: contemplation. Remember the three pillars? Meditation, mindfulness, and contemplation.
AriellaShira L Oh, okay.
Adam Wes Namaste, Dad. Nice to see you. Love you. Hope you had a good meditation. Bye, everybody. Thank you.
Colleen Thank you, Adam. Happy summer!
Adam Wes Happy first meditation of summer.
Colleen Thank you.
Adam Wes Bye, Mom.
Colleen Bye.