Jon Bernie: I just want to thank you for that question by the way.
And, I don't know if you want to put this in the thing or not, but ... because it's,
I realize that, I don't know if I can answer it. I don't know if I can actually talk about
this at this point. But I know that it's been the movement of my whole life, actually. So,
it's very deep. Very, very deep. I don't know if I can articulate it. But it's... anyway.
So, I want to thank you for that.
Um, ok. Actually, yeah, I will tell a story. Thanks. You know, I want to tell a story that
happened when I was very young. Can I do that? You know, I tell people that when I was 4
years old I wanted to become a brain surgeon. And the reason I wanted to become a brain
surgeon was because my mother had a very dear friend who died of a brain tumor when I was
4. And my mom was very sad. And I think I wanted to relieve -- to take away her sadness.
And I thought well, maybe if I'd been a brain surgeon I could have saved him. And I think
that we want to take away our suffering and the suffering of others because that's our
nature. That is our nature. And so, we deeply, deeply care about ourselves and others if
we're open. If we're available to our humanity. We are tuned into that. Now of course we get
so busy and we get so shut down and we get so compulsive, that we loose touch with our
feelings. And we're certainly ... if we're not in touch with our feelings, we're certainly
not in touch with anybody else's. So, we loose what might be called compassion. We loose
that. But once we start to open, once we start to cultivate that sensitivity of openness,
we begin to see that we aren't separate from others. And we may begin to have empathic
experience. We might be sitting with a friend and they are telling us of their difficulty
and we feel it. Maybe we cry while they cry. Do you know what I'm saying? That their tears
move us to tears. Of course. Even going to the movies people have this experience all
the time. Whereas the great actors can evoke true emotion out of somebody listening and
observing. Very powerful. That's proof that we're connected. And so, as we become more
sensitive and begin to realize as we open more and more we begin to see we're not separate
actually. We're really not separate. That's not a belief. That's an experience. And so
when we're with other people and we're open and we've been cultivating a kind of clearinghouse
of human experience in this kind of field here, you would say, or ... this becomes an
almost like a kind of recycling center. Right? This body becomes a recycling center. And
so, I often, when I'm working with people, I feel their emotion moving through me, and
it just channels through, and it discharges, and just becomes energy. It just becomes light.
And so we become these kinds of, you might say, vast healing mechanisms. The term ... I
think in Buddhism was bodhisattva. But it's not some identity. It's not an identity at
all. It's a description of a kind of interconnected ... it's like all these connected recycling
centers that are all functioning together. And so I think that's why now, today, there's
clearly a sense that there's an evolution of consciousness happening. That's why Eckhart
[Tolle] book, The Power of Now, has become a best-seller, was a best-seller. And so many
people, young people today, are actually arriving--very young people-- who've awakened already. They
still have their lives to live. They still have to figure out what to do this life. But,
they're already aware of awareness. It's incredible. So, I think there is an evolution of the human
species happening in consciousness. I mean, there is plenty of evidence of the opposite.
There is plenty of evidence of the dark side, you might say, that's still present, operating.
No question. But that's just unconsciousness. There is more and more consciousness happening.
So, as people begin to cultivate consciousness in themselves, they begin to facilitate it
in others automatically. We're all transmitting. That's why I say there are no teachers and
there are not students, really. That's not really it. It's really much more far out than
that. Much more far out than that. Yes, we have these little set-ups, called satsang
and teachers and retreats and all that. Those are just formal little environments. But the
truth is, it's 24/7. All the time. And so as we begin to cultivate ... as we become
the light, even the Buddha said "Be a light in the world." Why? Well, 'cause light engenders
light. It just does. And so, that's like, if you start yawning, other people start yawning,
right? Or, if you start laughing, other people start laughing. Well, if you become enlightened,
if you become awake, it's starts activating other people. Now, if they are not ready for
that they may run away because they don't want to face their stuff. And I tell people
only the ready show up. Because if you're not ready, you run out the door. Because if
you're not ready, you're still seeking comfort. And avoiding pain. That's just instinct operating.
But, once you're ready, then, as Rumi says, "You walk into the fire" because you know
that when you walk into the fire you end up in the sweet flowing water. And then you realize
we're not separate. And of course you want to hang out and be with other people and love
them and care about them. And that's why I often say we're in this together. We're all
in this together. And we see on these retreats, particularly the people who come back, how
people are evolving. It's amazing. You know what's it's like. And people are ... many,
many people are just like, "Wow, look what's happening to people." Right? It's not just
my little experience. It sure isn't. [laughs] "My little enlightenment. My groovy little
state of bliss. Now I'm happy." No. Sorry. We really are in this together. For real.
Anyway, it's quite wonderful. It's quite wonderful. When we realize what this human experience
really is.