While his words were filled with wisdom, it's honestly how he lived that taught me the most. Watching him move through the world was like witnessing someone in constant prayer, through presence, through humility, and through joy. You can only truly touch someone's heart if you live in full integrity. And integrity means your thoughts, your words, and your actions are all in alignment. I'm Radi Wukiah and on my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy and the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn, connect and find comfort together. Hey everyone, and welcome back to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry. Now, this week, I'm going to do something a little bit different because for the past two weeks, we have had our spiritual teacher, his Holiness, rather than Swami, living with us, and I feel so incredibly blessed and so deeply fortunate that I got to spend this time with him, and so I wanted to share some of the lessons that I learned from him, his his words, his wisdom, and honestly just the reflections that I've had from being in his presence, and I feel like sharing these things is part of my reciprocation and my way of showing gratitude to him by sharing his words, his wisdom and everything that I've learned with other people in hopes that it helps to connect them to their own spiritual path. And I really think that the things that I will share will hopefully help you do that. So let me give you a little bit of background about rather Thanaswami, because I know I've spoken about him a lot, but if this is the first time you're hearing about him, he has been among for over fifty years. He is a spiritual teacher, an author, a philanthropist and a humanitarian. He has a food distribution initiative called Anamorta that serves a million meals every single day to people in India. His social initiative Godvid and Eco Village. This is actually the Ushrom that me and Jay visit every single year. We go there to start our new year and it is just one of the most beautiful places ever. It's what I imagine India used to be in like back in thousands and thousands of years ago. It is in the middle of a forest, there is a beautiful ushroom where you can meditate with monks, where you can learn from them. But there's also a beautiful Arababic spa where you can get physical treatments done. But on top of that, the United Nations have actually recognized the eco village as a model of sustainable living. So what they do is they create all these amazing processes, and they create all these systems because a lot of the monks there are actually from it, which is the equivalent of MIT in the US. So they are so smart, so accomplished, and they use all of their skills in service to others. So whether it's turning sewage water into drinkable water and teaching villages around the area how to utilize that, or whether there's different sustainable farming systems that farmers in different villages can use to make money for their family. They kind of use this as the hub of creating that technology and creating those systems, which is actually amazing. But honestly, beyond all these accolades and all these accomplishments, what makes him truly extraordinary is just the way that he lives. He lives with such deep compassion, radical humility, and unwavering service to other people. So rather Than Aswami is also the author of A Journey Home, and he tells his story about being born Jewish in Chicago during the counterculture and deciding to go on a journey of self discovery all across the world from Chicago, traveling to Europe, through Iran, through Pakistan. He's been through so many places and all the way to India where he was mainly hitchhiking his way across and really with the desire to explore and dive into different religions and practices and paths, with the deep desire to just find himself, to understand the divine, to understand what his spiritual connection was, and what his purpose in life is. And I won't give too many spoilers, but rather Than Aswami and his book have significantly changed and impacted my life in a way that nothing or nobody else has. It really changed the trajectory of my life once I read that book. But while he was living here, every single night we'd walk together or sometimes we'd just sit, sometimes in silence, sometimes in deep conversation for hours, and while his words were filled with wisdom, it's honestly how he lived that taught me the most. Watching him move through the world was like witnessing someone in constant prayer, through presence, through humility, and through joy. I remember one time in a class years ago, when I first started listening to him speak, he said, you can only truly touch someone's heart if you live in full integrity, and integrity means your thoughts, your words, and your actions are all in alignment. At that time, I understood that intellectually and theoretically, but it was only when I got to observe him that I realized that it is actually possible, Like it's actually possible to connect your thoughts to your words and then have actions that represent both. And sometimes for myself when I reflected on that, many times where my actions don't meet my thoughts or the thoughts that I'm having, even if I have a deep intention to do something, my actions will show something different. And actually, when all those three have been in alignment, you know, in ebbs and flows. In my life, I've noticed such a shift in energy, so such a shift in focus and a shift in the ability to truly connect to people. But imagine living with that day in day out, having that true integrity every single day. How deeply you can live your life, but then also how deeply you can impact other people's lives too. And the one thing that I absolutely love, and I think is what attracted me to his way of living from the beginning, was that he's never preached. He doesn't tell people how to behave He just embodies it, and in doing so, he makes you want to be better. He makes you want to live a better life, to be better to other people, not out of guilt or pressure, but from pure inspiration. And so his entire life has been devoted to sharing God and goodness in every single breath and every day that he lives, in every moment when he's interacting with people. And I don't know about you, but I've never seen that around me, and so when I experienced that, it was like a breath of fresh air, but also felt like a glimpse into what the possibilities are when you truly deeply connect to God, to nature and devote yourself to practices that allow for that. And so on one of our walks we start talking about the true meaning of religion and spirituality and how a lot of the time, unfortunately religion ends up separating people and causing turbulence between people rather than uniting them, and sometimes when being part of something like that, you end up losing sight of what true divinity means. And so he said that true religion and true spirituality isn't about claiming superiority through your label. It's not I'm Hindu, or I'm Christian or I'm Muslim, and therefore I have love of God. It's about actually striving for that love and living a life that makes you worthy of that love, not by perfection but through sincere effort. And you know what, I feel like that makes so much sense because if you decide to hang around with a whole bunch of accountants, it doesn't make you an accountant. You have to do the work to actually become one. And so in the same way, when you belong to a religion, it doesn't mean that you've arrived spiritually. It doesn't mean that you've become enlightened once you join that community. But sometimes our spiritual identity can actually distance us from the essence of the teachings because we end up confusing group belonging with personal transformation. And so the question isn't do I belong to a community? It is this community helping me to transform, and that can be applied into a religious community, a spiritual community, a friendship group. But I think that's really important when it comes to practicing a religion. I think if there's a community or group that's constantly telling you you're better because of this designation, it's not necessarily sharing the word of God in that way. Because you know, one thing I also really appreciate about rather Naswami is he always quotes and shares from different religions, not ever to criticize them, but in a total sense of adoration and love and understanding of that practice and actually wanting to take on those teachings and imbibe them in his life. And he was sharing about how the number one kind of principle of Christianity is to love God and the second one is to love your neighbor, and one cannot be true without the other. And so if you are not loving to the people around you, no matter what religion, past, or race they are, then how are you able to love God? Because through loving your community is the opportunity you're being given to actually show your love for God. And so I thought that was really interesting because a lot of the time when you look in the world, a lot of things are done in the name of God, but sometimes it's because there's been mistranslation of what loving God actually looks like, and it's been taken and put into a sense of superiority rather than connection how to actually love everybody around us. And so I think that's a really important lesson to learn and something I always reflect on whether my community is creating connection with people or whether it's taking me away from people or creating anger or aggression or negative emotions towards another group of people. And if it is, then it's a place for me to reflect and think, maybe this is not actually doing what I want it to be doing, and maybe this community isn't the community for me. Maybe the path is, but maybe the community isn't. And so I think that's a vital part of when you're trying to find your people, or the religion or the spiritual path that you are going down, or a spiritual teacher. Is this person helping me to love others more or to dislike other people more? And I think that's a really simple way of being able to tell whether it's something that is for you or not for you. I'm that's saying, well, rather than Sam started speaking about the word spiritual and that the word spiritual is obviously spirit and ritual. And he said that these days many people focus only on the spirit, the intention, and the feeling, and they dismiss ritual. Many people are turning away from going to churches, going to places of worships, doing the process it required to actually build commitment and love for gods. But both are actually essential. Ritual is actually what grounds our spirit and it anchors us in practice. Without it, intention can just float away. Sometimes. You know, you can have the intention for a lot of things, but how can you take intention and create action. Well, taking intention and creating action is in the ritual. And he stopped in front of a set of solar panels and he started smiling, and we were just looking out these solar panels and he says, you see those solar panels over there, and we all said, yeah, we see them. He said, they just sit there, open and exposed to the sun. They absorb its energy and then they distribute it as power in the form of heat or light. He said, that's what sadna is. Sadna is our spiritual practices or our ritual that we do daily, he goes these spiritual practices are how we absorb divine energy and our character and our service. That is how we distribute it. He reminded us that even in the simple act of saying a prayer before eating, no matter what tradition your part of, it's actually not just a ritual. It's a conscious way to set the heart to enter into devotion before we receive anything. And I've really gotten into the habit of praying or trying to pray, or remembering to pray before I receive anything. So whether I'm receiving an award or whether it's on a daily basis where I'm receiving the food that I'm about to eat, or waking up in the morning and taking a breath and before you receive the air that goes into your lungs, remembering that it is a gift from nature, from God, from the plants around us. If we are present and if we're able to see it, and we take a moment of prayer before receiving anything, we realize how much we're actually getting in our life. And so this practice of prayer, it's not just let me just say it really quickly before I eat, because it's something I've been told to do. No, it's how it sets the consciousness of our heart. It sets the intention in our mind to actually receive it with gratitude and with devotion and appreciate it in the right way. One thing that was actually so incredible to witness was the way he associated every single thing with God. In some way. It was a much needed reminder that what you surround yourself with becomes you. He has immersed himself fully, so deeply in service and into the Divine that his mind naturally links everything back to God. Whether it's a tree, whether it's a solar panel, whether it's a song, His heart seems to find meaning, reflection and connection to the Divine in some way. It's like when you love someone so much, every little thing reminds you of them. His love for God is like that. He's fully immersed and so he's fully in a God conscious mindset every single moment of the day. So whether it's relating back to a story that he read in scripture, whether it's relating back to a lesson that he's learnt through his practices, every single thing, even when we're driving, there'd be a billboard and somehow what's written on the billboard, he'd connect back to the scriptures in some way, And so it made me reflect, what is my consciousness, where is my head at most of the time, what is my mind link things to? What kind of conversations am I having? What am I reading? What am I listening to? Who am I spending time with? And weighing that up the positives and the negative influences on me. And that was the other thing. Every morning when he would wake up, we would hear as soon as he woke up, he'd be listening to a class on scripture while he was in the shower, while he was getting ready, setting his intention for the day, absorbing himself in scripture and practice throughout the day, being so mindful about how much he eats, what he's eating to fuel his body, eating for fuel, not for a desire or sense of gratification, and not because he has to, not because he feels like he's forced to, but because that is how he wants to live. And it was incredible to be able to see someone who isn't doing the meditation practice or reading or doing all the things that I'm trying to do because I know it's good for me. But watching someone do it because they've got this full taste, this full excitement and joy for doing it. And obviously that comes from consistency, It comes from showing up every single day, It comes from making all the conscious choices every single day towards living that life's choosing the things that support that practice, support that ritual, supports that way of living, versus going against it. But honestly, just seeing that joy in practice is possible and that it doesn't just always feel like this slug against something, this resistance, that it doesn't just feel like a ritual, but it becomes a joyous part of your day that is actually desired. Was everything. I feel like sometimes we need to see what's possible and see someone at the end of the tunnel or the light at the end of the tunnel to help encourage us to keep doing that. And we all need role models in different parts of our life, whether it's in work, whether it's in family, whether it's in spirituality. Finding somebody who bodies those qualities but also who gives us that glimpse of what's possible by doing what we're doing, doing the practices and rituals that we're doing, and you know, if you're saying there thinking I don't know any monks, I don't know any Swamis, I don't know anybody who's religious or spiritual like that. I don't have any connection to somebody like that. Or if you're trying to increase your association with people like that, people who have an elevated mindset, it really doesn't have to be a physical connection. I think that's where sometimes we go wrong. I can't access this person, so how will I learn from them? But association doesn't have to be physical. If you think about how much you might adore a singer that you've been listening to. All you've done is hear their words, hear their songs in your car at home, you've just been listening to them. Or if there's a book that you've read, if you're a huge fan of let's say Harry Potter, you've read all the Harry Potter books. You've had created a connection to Harry Potter or the author just by reading, and so association doesn't have to be physical. That is such a myth. You really can learn from people just by hearing their words, listening to classes, reading their books, and creates such a deep connection with them, I remember rather Notaswami was telling a story about his spiritual teacher, Shilaproapad, and he said that he only really interacted with his spiritual teacher in person a couple of times, but he stayed connected purely through listening to his classes and reading his books. So even watching someone online, you can start off by watching classes, listen to their words, reflect on them, journal about them. It can influence you so deeply. And that's when I see how I stay connected to him even when he's not here physically. I feel like I get even a deeper connection to him when I'm listening to him every single day online or when he's having classes in different places, because he travels a lot as part of being a monk. He's a traveling monk, so on top of everything that he does, he goes where he's needed and he supports the community there, and so he'll give classes there or share words of wisdom there and they record them and we're able to listen to them online. When Ratheransami described meeting his spiritual teacher for the first time, he actually says, I'm just going to read this because it's so beautiful and it really represents how I felt when I met him, which is a lovely affirmation, or it really affirmed the way that I connected to him and that he was the right person to connect to. He said, when I first saw schilaproa Pad, he was sitting on a simple cushion, speaking so humbly, yet his words pierced through all my doubts and fears. It was the first time I saw someone live what they preach with such purity. I wept without knowing why. He described, feeling overwhelmed by Schulerpropad's humility, clarity, and love, qualities that he hadn't seen in any other spiritual figure. And that is honestly how I felt with rather than Asami when I met him. It really, really deeply affirmed how I felt about him and showed me that I was on the right path. You know, one thing I've struggled with quite a bit has been this ability to be truly present with people in the moment. It's something that I've really been working on. But I can be in a place really trying to look into someone's eyes, trying to deeply connect and listen to what they're saying, but sometimes my mind just finds it really hard to stay focused and be attentive. It can just be all over the place physically here, but mentally somewhere completely different. But when anyone, any single person, meets rather Naswami, it's like he is looking deep into your soul, so intensely present in the moment with whoever he interacts with, And each person that I've spoken to has had the same feeling from the moment they meet him. He doesn't rush to fill silences. He's not uncomfortable with stillness, and that in itself taught me something that silence is a form of trust. You can only be quiet with someone you're truly comfortable with. And for him, he is so deeply comfortable in himself but also comfortable in the connection of soul to soul, heart to heart, not with all the layers that cover us up. But he's not meeting you as a human or as a physical body, where there's so many things that create invisible barriers between us before we even speak words. He just sees the soul to soul connection, and so I feel like he's just so comfortable because he sees God in the other person and the God in him, and the God and the other person are connecting. He also wastes no words, and somehow, in that quiet, whether he says words or doesn't, his presence says more than most people say in hours. And on the day before he left, we actually gathered a group of friends to meet him, and I remember reflecting on how different everyone received his words. He spoke, you know, for about half an hour, and it was amazing because when I spoke to everybody afterwards, the same sentence landed differently for each person, depending on their heart, depending on what they were going through, how much work they had done previously internally, how much therapy they'd been in, and what they were ready to actually hear. And I think it's because spiritual truth doesn't scream, It just meets you gently where you're at. And that's really what the whole situation showed me. When I heard everybody's different reflections on the same class that they heard, the same words that they were all hearing, the amount of people that came to me and said, you have no idea, how much I needed that, how much clarity I got, or I really felt like he was speaking to me after everything that I've been through, And I was like, Wow, every person's experience has been so different. Not one person has been through the same thing, but they feel like he is talking directly to them, that it's literally affected their hearts so deeply. And that's so magical, isn't it. I just I loved hearing that. It just it was really special. Actually, So, if we really had to summ up what I've learned from being around him in one short phrase, it would be this, when you're deeply connected to the divine, to love, to patience, and to the right energy, you overflow. You are overflowing with the capacity the ability to just give to others. And there's never a point in time where he says he's tired of being around people helping people. You know, usually you go to a social environment and you're like, oh God, I need like two days to recover. No, he will talk to one hundred people and give them just the same amount of attention. He will talk to one hundred people and care deeply. You see the compassion in his eyes. And I would always say, how is he doing this? How does he have this patience to listen to people over and over again? How does he have the tolerance to accept all the things that people say at him? Or to him or around him? How does he have that capacity? And I realize it's not what he's eating, it's not what that amount of sleep he's getting, it's not all those basic human needs. It's actually this deep connection to a divine power. It's almost like he's got a he's plugged in. You know, he's plugged in. He's got this unlimited energy that's being that's flowing through him. So it's not actually him, He's just an instrument. He is a divine, pure instrument of God's message and he's choosing to open himself and be a vessel for that. And when I thought about that, I was like, Okay, so what does that require? Yes, you can be plugged in, but have you opened up all your channels, all your heart? Are you an open book to be able to actually be a full, open, clear vessel for God to send his message through? And what does that look like? And so think about that yourself. What does that look like for you? And I think that's really important because it's it's almost like when they say you could be receiving all the blessings in your life, but do you have the hand your hands open to be catching them? And in the same way God may be ready to make you, God, the universe, whatever you want to call the bigger energy that is the force of life. It's all available, ready for you to receive. But how are you preparing your body? How are you preparing your mind to be a vessel of that and to be able to actually handle that energy, to be able to handle that message and share it in the right mindset with the right people, in the right mood. Because what is inside of you will come out of you. It's literally, just like simple biology, what you've eaten will come out at the other end, what you've absorbed in your mind, through your body, through every single sense that you have, what will eventually collect in you and also overflow through you and out of you. And so really it made me think, I've got a lot of work to do. We're not in a scared way, in like an excited way of Wow. If I do the right things, if I channel the right things, if I read the right things, if I surround myself with the right people, of course, there are going to be so many things that come in the way. But with the right intention and the desire, He's given me a beautiful insight into what that can look like to be a constant, flowing instrument of God's love, grace, energy, vitality, energy like you've never seen it before. I can't even explain it to you, but I've never seen someone with that much energy. He's seventy five years old, and he has more energy than I've seen most like eighteen year olds have, you know, more capacity than I've seen anybody have, and more compassion than the whole of America. But together, you know, that's just what I continue to strive for to pray for. It's like when you don't have it, pray for it, kind of like fake it till you make it, but don't fake it, practice it, practice it till you make it, and pray for it till you get it, and pray for the intention to receive it in the right way. There's so much we can pray for. I've stopped praying for things. I've started praying for, like the vision to see the right things, or the intention to be pure when I do things. So not just to talk about spiritual life, we could talk about things all day, but to live one that is so sincere that one day, maybe like him, we can become quiet. Invitations for others to remember their own spiritual path, and that's really what it's about, right, How can I help others see the goodness in themselves? How can I help others see their own spiritual path, whatever that may be different to mine, the same as mine. But how can I help them connect to the divine? How can I help them love themselves more and others more? How can I help them see the world with wonder because every single part of the world is so wonderful? And how can I just constantly be a vessel of grace and compassion for others, what beautiful desire and intention to have? And then trying to align our life to support that sounds so easy, much easier than it actually is, I'm sure, But we can always hope and try, And I think that's the point, Always have hope and always keep trying. So I could go on about rather Naswami for days and days and hours, but I think these lessons are I'm sure, giving you so much to think about, and I really recommend going through each point and reflecting in your life how it applies. Thank you so much for listening and sending your so much love. If you want to, you know, find rather Notaswami. He is obviously not on his own social media, he has a team that looks after it, but he has classes on YouTube. He has given talks in so many different places, luckily they've been recorded, and his team shares a lot of his wisdom on Instagram. And there's also this beautiful app called Rise where a lot of his teachings live. Try and connect to him and I would love to hear your reflections on this as well. Send me a DM. I love to receive them. Thanks so much guys, and sending you so much love. Have a great week.

While his words were filled with wisdom, it's honestly how he lived that taught me the most. Watching him move through the world was like witnessing someone in constant prayer, through presence, through humility, and through joy. You can only truly touch someone's heart if you live in full integrity. And integrity means your thoughts, your words, and your actions are all in alignment. I'm Radi Wukiah and on my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy and the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn, connect and find comfort together. Hey everyone, and welcome back to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry. Now, this week, I'm going to do something a little bit different because for the past two weeks, we have had our spiritual teacher, his Holiness, rather than Swami, living with us, and I feel so incredibly blessed and so deeply fortunate that I got to spend this time with him, and so I wanted to share some of the lessons that I learned from him, his his words, his wisdom, and honestly just the reflections that I've had from being in his presence, and I feel like sharing these things is part of my reciprocation and my way of showing gratitude to him by sharing his words, his wisdom and everything that I've learned with other people in hopes that it helps to connect them to their own spiritual path. And I really think that the things that I will share will hopefully help you do that. So let me give you a little bit of background about rather Thanaswami, because I know I've spoken about him a lot, but if this is the first time you're hearing about him, he has been among for over fifty years. He is a spiritual teacher, an author, a philanthropist and a humanitarian. He has a food distribution initiative called Anamorta that serves a million meals every single day to people in India. His social initiative Godvid and Eco Village. This is actually the Ushrom that me and Jay visit every single year. We go there to start our new year and it is just one of the most beautiful places ever. It's what I imagine India used to be in like back in thousands and thousands of years ago. It is in the middle of a forest, there is a beautiful ushroom where you can meditate with monks, where you can learn from them. But there's also a beautiful Arababic spa where you can get physical treatments done. But on top of that, the United Nations have actually recognized the eco village as a model of sustainable living. So what they do is they create all these amazing processes, and they create all these systems because a lot of the monks there are actually from it, which is the equivalent of MIT in the US. So they are so smart, so accomplished, and they use all of their skills in service to others. So whether it's turning sewage water into drinkable water and teaching villages around the area how to utilize that, or whether there's different sustainable farming systems that farmers in different villages can use to make money for their family. They kind of use this as the hub of creating that technology and creating those systems, which is actually amazing. But honestly, beyond all these accolades and all these accomplishments, what makes him truly extraordinary is just the way that he lives. He lives with such deep compassion, radical humility, and unwavering service to other people. So rather Than Aswami is also the author of A Journey Home, and he tells his story about being born Jewish in Chicago during the counterculture and deciding to go on a journey of self discovery all across the world from Chicago, traveling to Europe, through Iran, through Pakistan. He's been through so many places and all the way to India where he was mainly hitchhiking his way across and really with the desire to explore and dive into different religions and practices and paths, with the deep desire to just find himself, to understand the divine, to understand what his spiritual connection was, and what his purpose in life is. And I won't give too many spoilers, but rather Than Aswami and his book have significantly changed and impacted my life in a way that nothing or nobody else has. It really changed the trajectory of my life once I read that book. But while he was living here, every single night we'd walk together or sometimes we'd just sit, sometimes in silence, sometimes in deep conversation for hours, and while his words were filled with wisdom, it's honestly how he lived that taught me the most. Watching him move through the world was like witnessing someone in constant prayer, through presence, through humility, and through joy. I remember one time in a class years ago, when I first started listening to him speak, he said, you can only truly touch someone's heart if you live in full integrity, and integrity means your thoughts, your words, and your actions are all in alignment. At that time, I understood that intellectually and theoretically, but it was only when I got to observe him that I realized that it is actually possible, Like it's actually possible to connect your thoughts to your words and then have actions that represent both. And sometimes for myself when I reflected on that, many times where my actions don't meet my thoughts or the thoughts that I'm having, even if I have a deep intention to do something, my actions will show something different. And actually, when all those three have been in alignment, you know, in ebbs and flows. In my life, I've noticed such a shift in energy, so such a shift in focus and a shift in the ability to truly connect to people. But imagine living with that day in day out, having that true integrity every single day. How deeply you can live your life, but then also how deeply you can impact other people's lives too. And the one thing that I absolutely love, and I think is what attracted me to his way of living from the beginning, was that he's never preached. He doesn't tell people how to behave He just embodies it, and in doing so, he makes you want to be better. He makes you want to live a better life, to be better to other people, not out of guilt or pressure, but from pure inspiration. And so his entire life has been devoted to sharing God and goodness in every single breath and every day that he lives, in every moment when he's interacting with people. And I don't know about you, but I've never seen that around me, and so when I experienced that, it was like a breath of fresh air, but also felt like a glimpse into what the possibilities are when you truly deeply connect to God, to nature and devote yourself to practices that allow for that. And so on one of our walks we start talking about the true meaning of religion and spirituality and how a lot of the time, unfortunately religion ends up separating people and causing turbulence between people rather than uniting them, and sometimes when being part of something like that, you end up losing sight of what true divinity means. And so he said that true religion and true spirituality isn't about claiming superiority through your label. It's not I'm Hindu, or I'm Christian or I'm Muslim, and therefore I have love of God. It's about actually striving for that love and living a life that makes you worthy of that love, not by perfection but through sincere effort. And you know what, I feel like that makes so much sense because if you decide to hang around with a whole bunch of accountants, it doesn't make you an accountant. You have to do the work to actually become one. And so in the same way, when you belong to a religion, it doesn't mean that you've arrived spiritually. It doesn't mean that you've become enlightened once you join that community. But sometimes our spiritual identity can actually distance us from the essence of the teachings because we end up confusing group belonging with personal transformation. And so the question isn't do I belong to a community? It is this community helping me to transform, and that can be applied into a religious community, a spiritual community, a friendship group. But I think that's really important when it comes to practicing a religion. I think if there's a community or group that's constantly telling you you're better because of this designation, it's not necessarily sharing the word of God in that way. Because you know, one thing I also really appreciate about rather Naswami is he always quotes and shares from different religions, not ever to criticize them, but in a total sense of adoration and love and understanding of that practice and actually wanting to take on those teachings and imbibe them in his life. And he was sharing about how the number one kind of principle of Christianity is to love God and the second one is to love your neighbor, and one cannot be true without the other. And so if you are not loving to the people around you, no matter what religion, past, or race they are, then how are you able to love God? Because through loving your community is the opportunity you're being given to actually show your love for God. And so I thought that was really interesting because a lot of the time when you look in the world, a lot of things are done in the name of God, but sometimes it's because there's been mistranslation of what loving God actually looks like, and it's been taken and put into a sense of superiority rather than connection how to actually love everybody around us. And so I think that's a really important lesson to learn and something I always reflect on whether my community is creating connection with people or whether it's taking me away from people or creating anger or aggression or negative emotions towards another group of people. And if it is, then it's a place for me to reflect and think, maybe this is not actually doing what I want it to be doing, and maybe this community isn't the community for me. Maybe the path is, but maybe the community isn't. And so I think that's a vital part of when you're trying to find your people, or the religion or the spiritual path that you are going down, or a spiritual teacher. Is this person helping me to love others more or to dislike other people more? And I think that's a really simple way of being able to tell whether it's something that is for you or not for you. I'm that's saying, well, rather than Sam started speaking about the word spiritual and that the word spiritual is obviously spirit and ritual. And he said that these days many people focus only on the spirit, the intention, and the feeling, and they dismiss ritual. Many people are turning away from going to churches, going to places of worships, doing the process it required to actually build commitment and love for gods. But both are actually essential. Ritual is actually what grounds our spirit and it anchors us in practice. Without it, intention can just float away. Sometimes. You know, you can have the intention for a lot of things, but how can you take intention and create action. Well, taking intention and creating action is in the ritual. And he stopped in front of a set of solar panels and he started smiling, and we were just looking out these solar panels and he says, you see those solar panels over there, and we all said, yeah, we see them. He said, they just sit there, open and exposed to the sun. They absorb its energy and then they distribute it as power in the form of heat or light. He said, that's what sadna is. Sadna is our spiritual practices or our ritual that we do daily, he goes these spiritual practices are how we absorb divine energy and our character and our service. That is how we distribute it. He reminded us that even in the simple act of saying a prayer before eating, no matter what tradition your part of, it's actually not just a ritual. It's a conscious way to set the heart to enter into devotion before we receive anything. And I've really gotten into the habit of praying or trying to pray, or remembering to pray before I receive anything. So whether I'm receiving an award or whether it's on a daily basis where I'm receiving the food that I'm about to eat, or waking up in the morning and taking a breath and before you receive the air that goes into your lungs, remembering that it is a gift from nature, from God, from the plants around us. If we are present and if we're able to see it, and we take a moment of prayer before receiving anything, we realize how much we're actually getting in our life. And so this practice of prayer, it's not just let me just say it really quickly before I eat, because it's something I've been told to do. No, it's how it sets the consciousness of our heart. It sets the intention in our mind to actually receive it with gratitude and with devotion and appreciate it in the right way. One thing that was actually so incredible to witness was the way he associated every single thing with God. In some way. It was a much needed reminder that what you surround yourself with becomes you. He has immersed himself fully, so deeply in service and into the Divine that his mind naturally links everything back to God. Whether it's a tree, whether it's a solar panel, whether it's a song, His heart seems to find meaning, reflection and connection to the Divine in some way. It's like when you love someone so much, every little thing reminds you of them. His love for God is like that. He's fully immersed and so he's fully in a God conscious mindset every single moment of the day. So whether it's relating back to a story that he read in scripture, whether it's relating back to a lesson that he's learnt through his practices, every single thing, even when we're driving, there'd be a billboard and somehow what's written on the billboard, he'd connect back to the scriptures in some way, And so it made me reflect, what is my consciousness, where is my head at most of the time, what is my mind link things to? What kind of conversations am I having? What am I reading? What am I listening to? Who am I spending time with? And weighing that up the positives and the negative influences on me. And that was the other thing. Every morning when he would wake up, we would hear as soon as he woke up, he'd be listening to a class on scripture while he was in the shower, while he was getting ready, setting his intention for the day, absorbing himself in scripture and practice throughout the day, being so mindful about how much he eats, what he's eating to fuel his body, eating for fuel, not for a desire or sense of gratification, and not because he has to, not because he feels like he's forced to, but because that is how he wants to live. And it was incredible to be able to see someone who isn't doing the meditation practice or reading or doing all the things that I'm trying to do because I know it's good for me. But watching someone do it because they've got this full taste, this full excitement and joy for doing it. And obviously that comes from consistency, It comes from showing up every single day, It comes from making all the conscious choices every single day towards living that life's choosing the things that support that practice, support that ritual, supports that way of living, versus going against it. But honestly, just seeing that joy in practice is possible and that it doesn't just always feel like this slug against something, this resistance, that it doesn't just feel like a ritual, but it becomes a joyous part of your day that is actually desired. Was everything. I feel like sometimes we need to see what's possible and see someone at the end of the tunnel or the light at the end of the tunnel to help encourage us to keep doing that. And we all need role models in different parts of our life, whether it's in work, whether it's in family, whether it's in spirituality. Finding somebody who bodies those qualities but also who gives us that glimpse of what's possible by doing what we're doing, doing the practices and rituals that we're doing, and you know, if you're saying there thinking I don't know any monks, I don't know any Swamis, I don't know anybody who's religious or spiritual like that. I don't have any connection to somebody like that. Or if you're trying to increase your association with people like that, people who have an elevated mindset, it really doesn't have to be a physical connection. I think that's where sometimes we go wrong. I can't access this person, so how will I learn from them? But association doesn't have to be physical. If you think about how much you might adore a singer that you've been listening to. All you've done is hear their words, hear their songs in your car at home, you've just been listening to them. Or if there's a book that you've read, if you're a huge fan of let's say Harry Potter, you've read all the Harry Potter books. You've had created a connection to Harry Potter or the author just by reading, and so association doesn't have to be physical. That is such a myth. You really can learn from people just by hearing their words, listening to classes, reading their books, and creates such a deep connection with them, I remember rather Notaswami was telling a story about his spiritual teacher, Shilaproapad, and he said that he only really interacted with his spiritual teacher in person a couple of times, but he stayed connected purely through listening to his classes and reading his books. So even watching someone online, you can start off by watching classes, listen to their words, reflect on them, journal about them. It can influence you so deeply. And that's when I see how I stay connected to him even when he's not here physically. I feel like I get even a deeper connection to him when I'm listening to him every single day online or when he's having classes in different places, because he travels a lot as part of being a monk. He's a traveling monk, so on top of everything that he does, he goes where he's needed and he supports the community there, and so he'll give classes there or share words of wisdom there and they record them and we're able to listen to them online. When Ratheransami described meeting his spiritual teacher for the first time, he actually says, I'm just going to read this because it's so beautiful and it really represents how I felt when I met him, which is a lovely affirmation, or it really affirmed the way that I connected to him and that he was the right person to connect to. He said, when I first saw schilaproa Pad, he was sitting on a simple cushion, speaking so humbly, yet his words pierced through all my doubts and fears. It was the first time I saw someone live what they preach with such purity. I wept without knowing why. He described, feeling overwhelmed by Schulerpropad's humility, clarity, and love, qualities that he hadn't seen in any other spiritual figure. And that is honestly how I felt with rather than Asami when I met him. It really, really deeply affirmed how I felt about him and showed me that I was on the right path. You know, one thing I've struggled with quite a bit has been this ability to be truly present with people in the moment. It's something that I've really been working on. But I can be in a place really trying to look into someone's eyes, trying to deeply connect and listen to what they're saying, but sometimes my mind just finds it really hard to stay focused and be attentive. It can just be all over the place physically here, but mentally somewhere completely different. But when anyone, any single person, meets rather Naswami, it's like he is looking deep into your soul, so intensely present in the moment with whoever he interacts with, And each person that I've spoken to has had the same feeling from the moment they meet him. He doesn't rush to fill silences. He's not uncomfortable with stillness, and that in itself taught me something that silence is a form of trust. You can only be quiet with someone you're truly comfortable with. And for him, he is so deeply comfortable in himself but also comfortable in the connection of soul to soul, heart to heart, not with all the layers that cover us up. But he's not meeting you as a human or as a physical body, where there's so many things that create invisible barriers between us before we even speak words. He just sees the soul to soul connection, and so I feel like he's just so comfortable because he sees God in the other person and the God in him, and the God and the other person are connecting. He also wastes no words, and somehow, in that quiet, whether he says words or doesn't, his presence says more than most people say in hours. And on the day before he left, we actually gathered a group of friends to meet him, and I remember reflecting on how different everyone received his words. He spoke, you know, for about half an hour, and it was amazing because when I spoke to everybody afterwards, the same sentence landed differently for each person, depending on their heart, depending on what they were going through, how much work they had done previously internally, how much therapy they'd been in, and what they were ready to actually hear. And I think it's because spiritual truth doesn't scream, It just meets you gently where you're at. And that's really what the whole situation showed me. When I heard everybody's different reflections on the same class that they heard, the same words that they were all hearing, the amount of people that came to me and said, you have no idea, how much I needed that, how much clarity I got, or I really felt like he was speaking to me after everything that I've been through, And I was like, Wow, every person's experience has been so different. Not one person has been through the same thing, but they feel like he is talking directly to them, that it's literally affected their hearts so deeply. And that's so magical, isn't it. I just I loved hearing that. It just it was really special. Actually, So, if we really had to summ up what I've learned from being around him in one short phrase, it would be this, when you're deeply connected to the divine, to love, to patience, and to the right energy, you overflow. You are overflowing with the capacity the ability to just give to others. And there's never a point in time where he says he's tired of being around people helping people. You know, usually you go to a social environment and you're like, oh God, I need like two days to recover. No, he will talk to one hundred people and give them just the same amount of attention. He will talk to one hundred people and care deeply. You see the compassion in his eyes. And I would always say, how is he doing this? How does he have this patience to listen to people over and over again? How does he have the tolerance to accept all the things that people say at him? Or to him or around him? How does he have that capacity? And I realize it's not what he's eating, it's not what that amount of sleep he's getting, it's not all those basic human needs. It's actually this deep connection to a divine power. It's almost like he's got a he's plugged in. You know, he's plugged in. He's got this unlimited energy that's being that's flowing through him. So it's not actually him, He's just an instrument. He is a divine, pure instrument of God's message and he's choosing to open himself and be a vessel for that. And when I thought about that, I was like, Okay, so what does that require? Yes, you can be plugged in, but have you opened up all your channels, all your heart? Are you an open book to be able to actually be a full, open, clear vessel for God to send his message through? And what does that look like? And so think about that yourself. What does that look like for you? And I think that's really important because it's it's almost like when they say you could be receiving all the blessings in your life, but do you have the hand your hands open to be catching them? And in the same way God may be ready to make you, God, the universe, whatever you want to call the bigger energy that is the force of life. It's all available, ready for you to receive. But how are you preparing your body? How are you preparing your mind to be a vessel of that and to be able to actually handle that energy, to be able to handle that message and share it in the right mindset with the right people, in the right mood. Because what is inside of you will come out of you. It's literally, just like simple biology, what you've eaten will come out at the other end, what you've absorbed in your mind, through your body, through every single sense that you have, what will eventually collect in you and also overflow through you and out of you. And so really it made me think, I've got a lot of work to do. We're not in a scared way, in like an excited way of Wow. If I do the right things, if I channel the right things, if I read the right things, if I surround myself with the right people, of course, there are going to be so many things that come in the way. But with the right intention and the desire, He's given me a beautiful insight into what that can look like to be a constant, flowing instrument of God's love, grace, energy, vitality, energy like you've never seen it before. I can't even explain it to you, but I've never seen someone with that much energy. He's seventy five years old, and he has more energy than I've seen most like eighteen year olds have, you know, more capacity than I've seen anybody have, and more compassion than the whole of America. But together, you know, that's just what I continue to strive for to pray for. It's like when you don't have it, pray for it, kind of like fake it till you make it, but don't fake it, practice it, practice it till you make it, and pray for it till you get it, and pray for the intention to receive it in the right way. There's so much we can pray for. I've stopped praying for things. I've started praying for, like the vision to see the right things, or the intention to be pure when I do things. So not just to talk about spiritual life, we could talk about things all day, but to live one that is so sincere that one day, maybe like him, we can become quiet. Invitations for others to remember their own spiritual path, and that's really what it's about, right, How can I help others see the goodness in themselves? How can I help others see their own spiritual path, whatever that may be different to mine, the same as mine. But how can I help them connect to the divine? How can I help them love themselves more and others more? How can I help them see the world with wonder because every single part of the world is so wonderful? And how can I just constantly be a vessel of grace and compassion for others, what beautiful desire and intention to have? And then trying to align our life to support that sounds so easy, much easier than it actually is, I'm sure, But we can always hope and try, And I think that's the point, Always have hope and always keep trying. So I could go on about rather Naswami for days and days and hours, but I think these lessons are I'm sure, giving you so much to think about, and I really recommend going through each point and reflecting in your life how it applies. Thank you so much for listening and sending your so much love. If you want to, you know, find rather Notaswami. He is obviously not on his own social media, he has a team that looks after it, but he has classes on YouTube. He has given talks in so many different places, luckily they've been recorded, and his team shares a lot of his wisdom on Instagram. And there's also this beautiful app called Rise where a lot of his teachings live. Try and connect to him and I would love to hear your reflections on this as well. Send me a DM. I love to receive them. Thanks so much guys, and sending you so much love. Have a great week.