Q: For some time I’ve been feeling that my purpose on earth is to help people heal, not as much physically as spiritually. What inside of me needs to open or develop to be able to do so? John: You’re wanting to help people…
Year: 2012
Anyone living with chronic pain, or supporting a loved one who does, knows how it can take over a person’s life, putting them into a state of total despair. In this dialogue, John describes how one can not only cope with such pain, but actually thrive in the midst of it.
Q: For some time now I’ve experienced strong bipolar episodes. I don’t want to be a victim and I do accept responsibility, but their impact is so intense and they throw me so far from my self, I feel that I don’t have my…
“Let not your heart nor your self be a port for negativity.” This questioner has experienced the deeper ground she really belongs to, but can be overtaken by negativity. John shows her how to care for what she knows in her heart, even under pressure.
This questioner feels frustrated in her wish to be of help to the world, to address the environmental problems and human suffering. John explains to her that frustration only makes matters worse – that the planet will thrive when we live and relate to it instead from our innermost being.
Becoming a parent is a joyous experience, but for many it can be quite overwhelming. Anxiety can quickly replace joy as we struggle with our own uncertainty and reactivity. How do we set boundaries and say ‘no’ in ways that don’t trigger a power struggle with our child? In this talk, John gives practical advice about how to give your child what your child really needs by coming from quiet clarity and warmth – the ‘juiciest’ kind of parenting.
How can we find joy in life? Isn’t that what life is all about? In this dialogue, John explains that when you believe the noise in your self, you’re fundamentally unhappy because you’re not being what you really are. Joy is actually the beingness of the real you, and the manifestation of that is as simple as falling asleep.
How to be free of past hurts and conditioning? Is there a method that can help, a spiritual practice? Can meditation help? John explains why methods and spiritual practices ultimately don’t work. Spiritual practices can help bring you to the door of your being, but they can’t take you through the door. It is only a shift of orientation that can take you through the door, into pure you and into freedom from past hurts and from the conditioning in your self.
What is our life for? What happens after we die? The questioner feels that he is making compromises in his life in order to function, work and make money. John explains that everything we do in life influences our life after death. Using practical examples, John guides us in how not to miss the wondrous opportunity of this life.
The questioner had an experience where the structure of himself dissolved and everything was love. But when the experience dissipated, old structures returned. John explains that the experience is a beloved messenger. Instead of wanting the messenger to return, we can abide in the message it brings. When the knowing in the experience is enough, we become the same as the message.
What to do when wonderful awakening experiences fade away, and resistance, fear and suffering return to our experience? John reminds us that we know something much deeper within, which is different than our self. Suffering is in the self, it comes from what is familiar. There is no suffering in knowing, in being in what knowing is in our heart; and there is no suffering in the purity of liking. Liking knowing the deep within removes the suffering. It’s easy, natural, direct and immediate.
John explains the nitty-gritty of loving without expectation, and what it is that nurtures real togetherness in a relationship.
