Worst-case Scenarios | Parts Work | Intentions and Goal Setting

Worst-case Scenarios | Parts Work | Intentions and Goal Setting

[00:45] Q – Should We Prepare for Worst-Case Scenarios?

I’ve been meditating consistently for more than a decade now. I enjoy it and the growth it has brought me so much. I lead a wonderful nonprofit organization. This is a year when we face a milestone, getting our government funding renewed, I’m confident it will be renewed. In fact, I get the sense that it will be increased.

However, I must prepare remarks about a worst-case scenario if it does not. How does one navigate this tension of expecting the renewal, but also needing to discuss it with core stakeholders about preparing if the renewal does not come through? How do we use the power of speech in this scenario? And why is preparing for the worst case considered one of the tasks of a responsible leader?

[01:33] A – Collectives Create the Governance That Surrounds Them

Well, I think that you’ve answered the question in the latter part of your commentary on your question. The most important thing, I think, is to have that attitude that you are an agent of the process of evolution and that you’re not actually working for a government, you’re working for a collective.

The collective is that which is supposedly represented by the government. You cannot give a collective a government that is greater than what that collective has created. Collectives create the governance that surrounds them by their degrees of suggestibility or their degrees of knowingness.

And so, it sounds to me as though a government has been reflecting a very evolutionary consciousness collective, and that should continue.

However, you have your own format you’ve created from within yourself, the absolute organizing power that can upgrade the lives of and enhance the experiences of tens of thousands of people in a way that will completely uplift the economy, and government is lucky to be able to fund you.

Government has an opportunity to be in the credit role when the funding comes, and increases, and brings about an even greater capability for you to provide what it is you provide to the need of the time.

However, if for some reason there is another source of funding which is bigger than government, another source of funding that is capable of doing a better job, it may well be that that source of funding is going to become a candidate for being in that credit role of who it is that provided you with the funding mechanisms to get the job done.

[04:07] Government is in a Dependency Role

And though it’s likely that government will be the prime candidate to be able to help you, government is only a candidate. Government is not the only source of funding, particularly in this phase of the way society functions. There are individuals and other funding collectives that are more capable of funding than even certain governments are.

And so we consider these amounts of money, you know, the billions and so on that government needs to raise to attribute to and appropriate to various projects. We don’t consider these numbers to be all that terribly deep or impressive. To change the world will take trillions and trillions of dollars, and even that makes us yawn a little bit because we have our basis in the Unified Field of Consciousness.

One glance at the starry world, when you walk outside and you look at even the most broad vista of the night sky, you’re only looking at one 10th of a section of the Milky Way galaxy. 10 to 12 billion stars in it. And many of those things that you think are stars are actually distant galaxies that have clustered together and looked like a star from the Earth.

We know of more galaxies than there are stars in our own Milky Way. This is the level of numbers on which Unified Field operates. These millions and billions and trillions that kind of make us yawn a little bit. So we don’t cast ourselves in a dependency role. Government is in a dependency role.

[06:11] Continue to Provide, No Matter Where the Funding Comes From

Government has to be seen to be doing something progressive, helpful, economically viable, and hopefully they’ll continue to have the good sense to support our meditator and the entire group whose activities you’ve honed to provide a wonderful evolutionary activity for the country.

But if government misses out on its opportunity to be the prime funder of that, then there are many others. We would prefer the government to get the job, but we’re not entirely reliant on them.

Like that, we take this attitude, we’re going to continue with, as you put it very well, you put it beautifully. We’ll continue to provide, no matter where the funding comes from.

I learned all of this by working with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who would have amazing projects that he would execute that sounded impossible, but ended up eventuating and manifesting.

I remember in one case in particular, we went to a field north of New Delhi in an area called NOIDA. NOIDA stands for North Okhla Industrial Development Agency, but the acronym has become the name of a suburb now. But in those days, that suburb was not extant. Maharishi chose a block of land that was one square mile of desolate country, completely desolate, no trees, and just piles of dirt and mounds and everything.

[07:55] “Here We’ll Build Our Next Ashram”

Nobody seemed to want anything to do with this chunk of land or anything around it, and he said, “Here, we’ll build our next ashram.” And I said, “How many rooms do you want in the ashram?” The previous one had, at most it could hold, of Westerners it could hold about a hundred. If you packed Indian people who love being squashed in together and you might be able to get two or 300 in that place in Rishikesh.

But he looked and he said “40,000, 50,000 rooms.” And of course, you know, that bowled me over. And he said, “The first thing we have to start is a wall. We have to build a wall around one square mile. That means a mile from east to west, a mile from north to south, times two in each direction. So four miles of wall.

And I said, “How high do you want the wall?” He said, “We’re going to have very big trees, so we need to have the wall 18 feet high.” I said, “18 feet. That’s like a fortress.” He said, “Yes, 18. 18 would be a good number. Let’s have an 18 foot wall and it should be built from masonry. It’s not a fence. And then we need to have 50,000 eucalyptus trees”.

[09:21] “The Money Will Come From Where it is Now”

And I thought, all right. And I said, “Maharishi, where’s the money going to come from?” And then came his answer, “The money will come from where it is.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “The money is somewhere now. The money will come from where it is now. Don’t worry about the money. Let’s start the building.”

And so we managed to get a construction team together and we began building the wall. And within about four years, there were structures there that could house 10,000 people with an 18 foot wall around the one square mile.

It turned out that nobody knew this, but the 40,000 eucalyptus trees, which were donated by the Australian government, because Australian government had a reforestation plan that they wanted to use for gifting trees to India, and our project fit the bill, and it also acted as a nursery for other eucalyptus trees that could be planted.

And the eucalyptus trees, as all Australians know, send their root structures right down deep into the ground, they find the water. Right underneath this one square mile was a subterranean river that nobody knew about until the roots of those trees struck it.

Those trees today stand, on average, 80 feet to 150 feet in height, and there are 40,000 of them growing inside that 18 foot wall. And there is accommodation for 40,000 people in that place. So I watched all this unfold just from one thought that he had.

We have to have this kind of Knowingness, this kind of Knowingness, and we don’t base it on just speaking affirmations or whatever. We just have it deeply on the level of Knowingness. And we just don’t wait. We just go ahead. Don’t wait. We just go ahead.

[11:27] Seagull Parable from the Upanishad

Now, I have to tell you a little parable that comes from the Upanishad. Once upon a time there was a seagull, a mother seagull went down to the sand at a beach and she laid her eggs in the sand as seagulls are want to do.

And sometime in the night, some storm surge came and some waves came and washed away the eggs. And when the husband seagull came, she said, “Father”, not her father, but father of the eggs. “Look, our children are gone.” And he said, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. I’ll go get them back.”

And he hopped down to the ocean and he said to the ocean, “Ocean, Greetings I’m Seagull. It looks as though a mistake has happened and it’d be good for you to bring the eggs back. I look forward to seeing those eggs sometime this afternoon.” And then he hopped back up to the wife and said, “I think everything will be fine. You know, I’ve had a word with the ocean.” And the ocean was just sitting there quietly being the ocean, not responding in any way.

Afternoon came and went, and he hopped down to the ocean. And he said, “Ocean, I’ve noticed that the eggs aren’t back yet. And it’d be good for those eggs to come back. So I’m giving you 24 hours notice. If the eggs aren’t back by this time tomorrow, I’ll have to start something drastic. And you don’t want problems and I don’t want problems. But, it’d be good for those eggs to come back.”

[13:06] Millions of Birds Drying out the Ocean

24 hours went by, no eggs. So he goes down to the ocean, hops down seagull, and says, “Now I’m going to dry you out until you bring the eggs back.” And he hopped down to the ocean and filled his beak with water and hopped back up the beach and threw the water on the sand. Back down to the ocean, filled his beak with water, hop back up, threw the water onto the sand, like that.

Drying out the ocean it was starting. The process, beak by beak. Beak full by beak full, and ocean doesn’t seem to mind anything. After a while, some other seagulls came flying by and they flew down and then said, “Hey brother, what’s happening? He said, you know, told them the whole story. They said, “Can we join in?” Now a thousand seagulls were down there putting their beaks in the water and throwing it on the sand, beaks in the water.

And then the seagulls’ competitors, the pigeons came and they said, “Hey, is this a private fight or can anyone join in? What’s happening?” They got inspired by the whole message, and now a hundred thousand pigeons are down there, putting their beaks in the water and throwing it on the sand, beaks in the water, throwing on the sand like that.

[14:18] Garuda and Varuna

After a while, all the birds of the area began to gather round and gather round, and there was a huge, huge congregation of birds. Millions and millions of birds, all doing the same thing. And in this mythology, there is a king of the birds. The king of the birds is Garuda. They named the Indonesian airline after him, the Vedic king of the birds, Garuda.

And Garuda hears, “My subjects in this one particular area are all in an uproar. What’s that about?” And the chief minister to Garuda, told the whole story, what happened with the eggs and all that. And Garuda is in the mythology, considered so big, so vast, he could just alight on the ocean and the whole ocean will be sucked up into his wings.

And Garuda goes to the ocean God, Varuna and Garuda says to Varuna, “Look, this thing happened. My subjects, the eggs and all that. We don’t want problems. I don’t want problems. You don’t want problems, you know, how about these eggs, you know?” And next thing on that beach, the eggs came washing up onto the sand. And mother’s heart was so happy and all of that.

So, moral of the story is, we just don’t wait. We go ahead. We have an inspiration, we know we’re right and we just dive in and keep going. We consider ourselves to be an unstoppable force, and we take that process of evolution to be a given. And what we’re providing is something of absolute top notch provision of goods and services that’s going to lift the collective.

And if somebody has the great good fortune of funding us, that’s their great good fortune. If they miss out, there’s plenty of people waiting in the queue. This is our approach to things. Jai Guru Deva.

[16:23] Q – What is the Vedic World View of Parts Work?

Hi Thom, it’s Eve from Sydney. In 12-step recovery groups, we are starting to hear a lot about a type of therapy known as internal family systems or parts work. This is where, for example, you locate your inner child, or your wounded child, and find out what part it has to play in protecting you. I’m curious to know how the Vedic worldview would approach this concept of parts work.

[17:03] A – Reinspiring Consciousness

Thank you for your question. The Vedic worldview has a lot to say about being able to move back in consciousness, along the consciousness evolutionary timeline, and to reinspire that consciousness that found itself in a situation that was untenable.

This is a very advanced technique that is part of a body of knowledge that we have called Exploring the Veda. Exploring the Veda is a course of instruction that I give in 18 hour episodes, all together about 85 hours of episodes for people who’ve already learned Vedic Meditation, who can learn during one of these episodes of Exploring the Veda, specifically what we call Veda Three, the third of those episodes, exactly what the technique is for traveling back in the consciousness timeline and awakening the inner self inside the experiencer of that part of you, which is a current and extant less-evolved part of you.

The idea, basic idea here being. That your evolutionary timeline does not have a past, present, and future that are all distinct, that it’s one river of time. The time of our evolution from a less-evolved state to our currently-evolved state, to our state where our individuality is merging with Oceanic Consciousness.

[18:50] One Contiguous Flow

This is one contiguous flow, just like you could say about a river. If you’re watching a river go by, I mean you’re, say, halfway between the source of the river and the mouth of the river, where it is merging with ocean, you might say, “This river that’s flowing past me is on its way to the ocean,” but because the water of the river is contiguous, the fact is there’s a layer of this water, there’s a place of this water where it is already ocean. It’s gone oceanic.

There’s also, right now, because of the contiguity of the water, a place of this water where the water is bubbling up out of its source way up in the mountains. The river is continuously and simultaneously rising from its source, passing by its middle points and merging with the totality of Oceanic Consciousness.

It is in all these places at once. This is the capital N, Now, of Cosmic Consciousness. When we are not yet established fully in Cosmic Consciousness, we can nonetheless begin using some elements of the degree to which we’re established.

Supposing I’m 50% established in that enlightened state of Cosmic Consciousness, it’s still enough to work with, and I can find my way back along the evolutionary storyline to that level of me that is in the Now, in the Cosmic Now, it’s there Now, and change the experience of that less-evolved version of me, change the reaction to the circumstances, uplift and give succor to that level of me that is not yet as evolved as I am now.

[21:05] Inspiration From the Future

Likewise, I can also move down the river of Consciousness and experience that place from which, wherein my individuality and my Universality are merging. The place where I experience that “Aha Phenomenon,” I am Totality.

This advanced technique is part of, as I said, some advanced instruction that occurs after someone has learned Vedic Meditation.

So learning Vedic Meditation will be a prerequisite learning that from a qualified teacher, someone who is a qualified teacher and in good standing with me, you can find them on my website and their websites are there. And then making your way to learn this technique and then making some inquiries from your local teacher about taking classes and Exploring the Veda.

And then when Veda Three comes, the answer comes very clearly to your question, Eve, about the role of consciousness in Vedic Meditation in what some 12-steps people are referring to as parts work.

A very effective and direct method of awakening inner strength in our so-called past. I say so-called past because actually the past is present.

The past is going on right now. That being the case, we can strengthen that inner level of Being in us and that will immediately play forward into, and instantaneously play forward into, the present.

This is very much worth contemplating and I’m very impressed that people who have originally received their inspiration from Bill W the founder of 12-steps programs are now beginning to dive into and look into this kind of inner work that is the specialty of Vedic science.

[23:22] Q – Does Intention and Goal Setting Contradict the Vedic Worldview?

Thom, you have mentioned the book Creating Affluence, and I noticed that Deepak Chopra repeatedly says that intention is necessary. Clear intention of a clear goal and awareness is necessary for any manifestation from unmanifest. I wonder where intention and attention fit in your view. You talk about non-thinking that is established in Being and following desires and action.

Doesn’t setting an intention as well as setting a goal, contradict with your view?

[23:55] A – I Am Totality

The thing is, the thinker that you think you are, is not the thinker that you need to be. If you are the Source of Thought, oneness with the Source of Thought, oneness with the Unified Field, oneness with That, “I am That, I am Totality,” then a thought that comes out of that field, any thought that comes out of that field of deep inner silence, this is the intention of the Totality Field, and it’s filled with charm, otherwise it wouldn’t arise.

And so rather than us trying to manufacture intention, but stay small, “I’ll stay the little knower. I’ll be the little knower who feels all needy and I will create an intention that I think is going to fulfill my need and then I will put attention on my intention but I’ll stay small and Nature, that is separate to me will do all the work.” This isn’t the way we look at things.

Aham Brahmasmi is Sanskrit for I am Totality. I am Totality. And when a charming thought bubbles up in my consciousness, it’s a thought that Totality is having and it’s naturally attention getting.

When I set my intention, what I’m doing is, I’m honoring the existing charm in the thought. A thought bubbles up and it’s a charming thought, and it’s natural that this is my intention.

I can feel myself leaning into charm. Who wouldn’t lean into charm? And then I just place my attention on that and move forward with the knowledge that Totality doesn’t create thoughts for no reason. And so let’s follow this thought through to its end and see what comes of it. It’s not that I am the needy one, and Nature has to respond to my neediness.

[26:27] Nature’s Bait and Switch

It’s that I am Nature, and when Nature thinks it thinks through me. And when my thoughts appear and they have natural charm in them, I lean into the thoughts, that’s the setting of the intention. And it’s natural for me to pay attention to how that charm is progressing. Sometimes when we lean in, the charm gets stronger.

Other times we lean in to the charm and we find that the charm and the thought over a period of time begins to decline. But we’ve moved from A to B in the meantime. And that movement from A to B might have been a very necessary move because it might be from position B. This is the unique position from which we can see position C, which is actually the position we needed to be in that we couldn’t have seen from position A.

And so sometimes Nature will bait and switch. We’ll be baited into moving in a particular direction and then from that unique perspective, we can see where we ultimately need to be. And there may be an A, B, C, D, E, and F bait and switch. It can all happen like that, but we just go along with it, we follow the charm and go along with it.

[27:50] This is Nature Itself Thinking

So having a thought that, “Oh, this really should happen. I’m thinking it on the basis of being a needy one. I need this to happen and so I want it to happen.” And who is the I? The little self, the small self. “And Nature,” which is the non-self in this model, “Nature is going to provide it for me if I set my intention.”

No, this isn’t what Deepak was talking about. In fact, Deepak openly says that this book was written by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was just his notes, Deepak’s notes that went into the writing of the book. We need to read the entire book from cover to cover, and then we’ll see this point. Identification with the big Consciousness, identification with That, and then honoring the charm that naturally bubbles up in the mind as the impulse of Nature itself.

This is Nature itself thinking, “I am Nature itself thinking.”

Jai Guru Deva.