In this special episode of the Mindrolling Podcast, Raghu is joined live on stage by Ram Dass, Trudy Goodman, Jack Kornfield, and Duncan Trussell to explore practices for waking up from the movie of “me”.
Links from this episode: Will Kabat-Zinn | Martha Beck, PhD | Trudy Goodman | Jack Kornfield | Duncan Trussell | Summit LA18
Waking from the Movie of Me (Opening) – How can we put an end to the endless cycle of fiction that we tell ourselves about the world and our lives? Duncan shares a valuable lesson that he learned about how our experience of suffering changes when we remove ourselves from the equation and see the situation for what it is – not what “the movie of me” tells us.
“My father was passing away in front of me, he was dying. In the midst of this I started freaking out and I texted Raghu here and I said that I just don’t want my dad to suffer. He wrote back,’Take yourself out of it.’ He knew what was really happening was that I didn’t want to feel the suffering that comes from watching my dad suffer. It was so precise and so the right thing to say, in that moment. I was able to become part of the now and really be with him in the moment of his passing.” – Duncan Trussell
No Easy Way Out, But In (17:50) – Trudy Goodman and Jack Kornfield share wisdom about objectively looking at our self-centered approach to life. When we begin to better understand what “me” really is, we can start to shift our perspective from “me” to “we”. As we sit with the mystery of what lies beyond our thoughts, and who we think we are, the qualities of love and compassion begin to arise naturally in our hearts.
“When I first learned to meditate, the whole meditation instruction from my first teacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn, was to look at ,’Who am I?” Who is this ‘me’ that I am so obsessed with – that I look at all of life through? ‘Is this good for me, is this bad for me?’ It is like looking at the sky through a straw.” – Trudy Goodman
Explore with Dr. Gabor Maté how compassionate self-inquiry can be used to heal trauma and addiction on Ep. 219 of the Mindrolling Podcast
Perfecting Your Love (31:35) – The group looks at how easy it can be to slip into our egos and close ourselves off inside the boundaries of all the stories we tell ourselves. They look at how contemplative practices, like meditation, erode our identification with ego and allows us to slip into a place of loving awareness.
“With the trainings of the heart, of meditation, you get to step back and go, ‘Oh yeah, here is the drama that I am caught in – the fears that the culture is telling – that’s not who we are.’ Who we are is love.” – Jack Kornfield
Just Be (43:05) – Ram Dass closes the conversation with a reflection on ways we can let go of our drama and begin to identify with our soul, instead of our ego. Ram Dass shares a mantra for reminding ourselves of our true nature, a practice that helps us shift our egocentric perspective.
“If you identify with your soul, then you will see others as soul and you will feel compassion with that. Just be – not do – just be; be love, be compassion, be peace, be joy, just be it. Just walk down the street and love everybody. Be who you are inside. You are a light that will radiate around you.” – Ram Dass
Images via Zachary Patino