Going through hard times is actually a blessing if you can train yourself to see it. We tend to get caught in the negative mind but if we can push through to the other side we can uncover the blessings and hidden treasure in a hard situation.
Going through hard times is actually a blessing if you can train yourself to see it. It’s also probably the hardest thing you will ever do. Everything on this earth has an opposite. Up has down, hot has cold, in has out, and every cloud has a silver lining. If you are having a hard time and it’s bad, then it also has to have a good component. That's why there's the saying, "pressure makes diamonds." If you react to a bad situation and you all you perceive is a curse, then you will only realize the bad in that situation. If you can also train yourself to perceive it as a blessing, then you will find a hidden treasure buried within the negative event.
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Some Other Videos of interest on Youtube:
1) The power of the Torus and The Heart
2) The power of mantra and tuning in to higher dimensions
3) Explanation of the mantra Sat Nam, by The Master Yogi Bhajan
#theoneflow #satnam #kundaliniyoga #lifestyleblog #meditation #kundaini #kundalinimeditation #yogibhajan #newage #power #positivity #gratitude #love #spirituality #selfhelp #ekongkar #sikh
#difficulttimes #hardtimesmaketheman #pressuremakesdiamonds #attitudeofgratitude
jai gopal, jaigopal, kundalini yoga teacher, kundalini yoga and meditation, ek ong kar, sat nam, lifestyle, motivation, inspiration, self help, money, energy, energy flow, the one flow
Difficult Times are a Blessing
[00:00:00] All right. Welcome to the One Flow Podcast. My name is Jai Gopal Khalsa and I am your host for this journey through. The teachings of Kundalini yoga and meditation as well as, and any kind of interesting stuff that comes from Cosmos . So today's episode we're gonna talk about hard times and how hard times are actually a blessing.
[00:00:36] I've been having a challenging few months myself here. we had some family emergencies. My mom's been in the hospital exactly two months to the day, so 60 days ago, we had to rush out to Las Cruces, New Mexico because she was having emergency surgery. And, , she had a lot of intestinal problems when her whole colon was removed and, , part of her small intestine and it's been this sort of odyssey through the [00:01:00] medical system ever since.
[00:01:01] And my wife and I were out for 30 straight days for a month and we had to go home, get our orders and affairs in order, and then come back out here, um, to help her through this kind of trying time. , I'm an only child, so I'm the only one that can help her. So it's, , it's been an interesting time and, you know, being in these yoga teachings and practicing these teachings, it's, it's really cool because this is a time when you apply those teachings.
[00:01:28] So I've been reflecting on that, on having challenging times and what that means and, how to best get through them. So I've been exploring a few things that I'd like to share with you. The, the main idea of this is that the difficult times are actually a great blessing. Now, we tend to come upon something that's uncomfortable or difficult or a challenge and, you know, we don't want to, we don't want it, we want it out as soon as possible and that's totally fine.
[00:01:56] But, very few people I would [00:02:00] say, maybe not, maybe there's a lot more out there that know this, and I hope so, but, Few people recognize that everything's got another side to it. So every cloud is a silver lining. So if you come upon a challenging situation and, and it happens to go on for a little while, it's good to search for the benefits in that.
[00:02:24] So how's this making me better? How's this benefiting me? Because we live in a planet of dualities, polar opposites. Everything's got an opposite on this planet, up, down, hot, cold, in and out. There's an opposite everywhere, , but we tend to react to the negative. Um, You know, with a negative mind. And, and, and we oftentimes get stuck in that negative mind and don't get to the positive or even the neutral mind.
[00:02:50] So the mind has three gears, and the first mi, the first gear of the mind is negative. And, that's so that we can search for danger. So we can search for danger and things that are gonna harm [00:03:00] us. And then providing you have enough chronic energy or you have enough control of your mind,, then you can actually.
[00:03:08] So you don't even really control it. It's sort of automatic. You should shift from negative to positive automatically if you have enough. Energy and you're in a kind of a balanced, fairly balanced state. If there's imbalances, you can get stuck in the negative. That happens to a lot of people these days and, and even in some cases you can get stuck in the positive and not see the negatives, but there's three major gears or shifts to the mind.
[00:03:31] The first is a negative, and that's natural. It's normal. You wanna, you wanna scan for danger, you wanna scan for things that are not good for you. We're supposed to do that because again, it's a dual world. In that dual world, you're looking for, um, both sides of the story. And my friend Remington Dono, and I always quote him, give him credit because, he's an amazing numerologist and he knows a lot of stuff about, many different art forms, including magic and, Kaballah and, [00:04:00] many different things.
[00:04:00] And he, we were doing a workshop at the same studio back to back, and I sat in his class and he described the, the negative mind or the number two. Because in the yoga teachings, two, three, and four are the three gears of the mind. Negative mind is the second, energy body, positive mind is the third, Number three, the third energy body, and the neutral mind is the fourth, number four out of 10 bodies.
[00:04:25] So he said when you get to the number two, which is the negative mind, um, It's actually a good thing and it's kind of like looking both ways. When you cross the street, you just wanna make sure that, you know, you're seeing both sides and that something's not gonna hit you or blindside you. Right. I love that explanation of the negative mind because especially in our, um, spiritual awakening world.
[00:04:50] People become spiritually awakened and they're like, Well, negative is no good. Positive is all good. That's not true. Negative is given to us for a reason so that we can [00:05:00] look both ways before we cross the street so that we can make sure that something's not gonna hit us, from behind or from the side that we don't know about.
[00:05:07] So the negative minds is, is, is a good thing, but what tends to happen is when we get into a hardship or something tough, we. We, we go to that first gear, the negative mind, and then the, you stay there and, and you, you don't really see the positives of it. So that's a real easy place to get. So in an example with, my mom, this thing, there's a lot of negatives in that came up in the beginning, like, Well, you know, we have our business at home in Los Angeles.
[00:05:35] We have all of these things that we have to do. My wife and I both have, I wanna call it careers. We have stuff, we do like the word career too much. It's, it's too mainstream, but we have stuff that we're doing and it's very challenging when something like this comes up and you have to put your whole life on hold and adjust.
[00:05:52] So the first thing is that was, was thinking. You know, how's this gonna impact us? This is a bad thing because, it's taking us [00:06:00] out of our world. It's costing us, money that we don't have. So, on things like that. But. We are, been in these teachings long enough to go to the positive side and, and realize that, there's so many positives to this.
[00:06:12] We're getting out of Los Angeles. We're in Los Cruces, which is a beautiful place. We've wanted to actually step outta Los Angeles for a a while. It actually turned out that it benefited us financially because to be away for so long, we had the sublet our place and that's actually benefit to us. Um, So there's a lot of positives there also.
[00:06:31] But most of all, the real positive on the the human level is that it's been a real opportunity to, , get to know my mom deeper for both my wife and myself, and also get deeper into the heart space. One of the biggest things I learned in this , in this challenging time is that you can't. Really, you can judge things and you should judge things, but you really just, you know, you really just don't know [00:07:00] what someone else is, is going through.
[00:07:02] And you can observe and you can definitely identify, well, you know, that person is this or that. Um, but it's important to like sort. Unsee those faults afterwards and be like, Well, I'm not gonna leave them in that box. I'm not gonna leave them in that box that they're bad because they did this. I mean, honestly, you know, my mom had problems with her intestines for a long time and we, we told her, Hey, get it fixed, get it checked out, That kind of stuff.
[00:07:30] So it's really easy to judge there and say, Well, she's in this position and she had this bad surgery because she caused it. I'm being very honest here. Most people wanna do that, right? Because your mom's in the hospital and stuff like that. But I'm being very honest here. Those things sort of came up. The fact is, she the best she could.
[00:07:48] She did the best she could. And that's, this is just sort of what happened. So the benefit here in this situation is it's really put us deeper into our hearts and be an understanding and like, okay, you know, forgiveness, that's fine. You know, [00:08:00] it's, it's, she did the best she could. How can we add more love to this situation?
[00:08:04] Be kind and that sort of stuff. And the other side of that, right? Cause everything's got the flip side. How do we take care of ourselves and this stuff that we've gotta do? We found ourselves like we feeling obligated. We gotta go to the hospital, you know, a couple times a day and this and that. And my wife both.
[00:08:18] Both going over there and then we realized we had to do like, she's like 60 straight days in the hospital and it's just not practical. We have stuff to do. We can't go over there and be there all the time. So we've started going like I. And, and, and, and only go for like an hour or so. And my mom, my, my wife will go, Excuse me, and she'll, she'll go on on another day.
[00:08:38] And we've had to do that because it benefits us and there's, you know, nothing wrong with that. It's actually a good thing for everybody. And my mom doesn't feel short change from that or anything like that. So, negative assessment is a good. But it can, You can get stuck there if you don't get to [00:09:00] the positive.
[00:09:00] Now, the positive mind is there. Just like we said, I was finding the positives in this situation. The positive mind is there to, um, to show you the benefits and you know what's good for you. And then we have the neutral mind. And the neutral mind is, is where you go into your intuition and then you can take the action.
[00:09:20] So if you have a good balanced practice of pion, breath work and yoga, physical yoga and meditation, you, you can develop your mind just like you develop a muscle. And the mind can become very balanced to where. You hit those gears real quick. When an event comes up like super quick, like at the speed of light, and I remember one instance where I, was starting out doing yoga and there was this, old yogi.
[00:09:49] He since passed away, but he, Was with Yogi wasn't sort of early on. And, this teacher that I was taking teachings from in Los Angeles at the local [00:10:00] studio, and he was her teacher, and so he put on a gong workshop and I had never been to a gong before. And, so it sounded really kini. I got, I got the kini bug, I got bit, and I, I just loved it.
[00:10:13] It was the most amazing kind of yoga Marshall art to me. I couldn't hardly believe how you could go into a class and feel so high and so different walking out and, and I'd been through a lot of fitness stuff in, in. Through from West Point through the Army and so on, and I was in tremendous shape and, and what Lin Yoga did in an hour and a half.
[00:10:35] I just couldn't believe the. The feeling of it. So, when she said, Hey, he's doing this gong workshop, I said, Yeah, I want something new. What's this gong thing? So we went over to this studio in Hollywood and I was sitting right up front and he's playing the gong. And I had never experienced anything like that in my life.
[00:10:50] That gong. I was so high that go, the sound of that gong did all hit all the glands in the brain. And I literally, I'd been, you know, and. Tested out drugs [00:11:00] and alcohol and all that kind of stuff, and I was higher from that gong than I had ever experimented with any physical substances. And so we're all sitting in the foyer afterwards sitting on a couch and you know, like some of these studios you hang out afterwards, chat, chat out in the lobby.
[00:11:15] And so I'm sitting there and I'm still looking like military guy, nothing like this. I got a short haircut and I got. West Point sweatshirt on, which actually says U S M A and which stands for United States Military Academy. And I'm sitting there, Olive dra green sweatshirt, and I'm so high from the class.
[00:11:33] And the guy, the old yogi Dr. All dressed in white, Bana white turban, long beard like this, and sitting right across from these big smile on his face. And he, he says to me, Ah, USMA, What does that stand for? And so my negative mind immediately grabs on it because, in, in the Army and I grew up in the seventies and so on, so I grew up in the Vietnam era.
[00:11:55] I was a little kid, but I knew that whole thing. And so there was this kind of [00:12:00] feeling amongst soldiers even in the eighties, which when I served that, you know, that the. Some people are very much against, the military and that kind of stuff, and, and it's usually like kind of hippie-ish people, right? So in an instant, right?
[00:12:14] He said that to me. He said oh, what is that? And I, and my negative mind immediately went to, this guy is an old hippie and he's gonna give me shit about, um, the military cuz I looked the part and everything, but. This is the beauty of Kco yoga and that class because that what it did was it balanced everything in me cuz it was such a powerful, strong class.
[00:12:39] So my three minds, native mind, positive mind and neutral Mind were all balanced as were, you know, my chakras and all that kind of stuff. And the 10 bodies. So I was in a really good balanced state. So what happened, and I noticed this, and this is a great example, I like to give of, of the functions of the three minds and.
[00:12:57] So I immediately went to negative and I was like, [00:13:00] Oh, this guy, he's gonna jump on me. And then I watched it happen in my own mind. It literally said to myself in my mind, Oh, who cares? It's where I went to school, is who I am. Just tell the guy. So I said, Oh, actually it stands for the United States Military Academy.
[00:13:19] It's, it's West Point. It's where I went to school. And he smiles like really big. He goes, Me too. And I was like, Jaw drop. What? I go, What? He goes, Yeah. He goes, I'm a little older than you. When I was, I was in my, he says my, my dad was a general, and so I was an army brat. And, um, of course I went to West Point.
[00:13:37] He goes, I, I couldn't stand it though. I, I hated it. I quit after the second year, but I was there through my yearly year, my second year. Um, and then he goes, Oh, I was over in Germany and so on with my dad afterwards, and I met my wife and blah, blah, blah. But then he, he, um, went on to explain to me how Yogi Budge was a military officer, and he was a career military [00:14:00] officer before he left, came over to the United States in 1969 and started teaching.
[00:14:05] And so this was a great benefit to me because I was like, Wow, okay. That's why I'm here because I had showed up in Los Angeles, started taking these class yoga classes and I was like, Hmm, which one doesn't belong with the other? This isn't, this shouldn't really be my game. I'm a workout guy, I'm a fitness guy.
[00:14:21] Yoga's, you know, woman's sport, you know, people are leotards in some of these hathe classes, you know, so I've these class all the time, like I loved it, but you know, it was kinda like a secret junkie where I was like trying to hide, hide the drugs and I'd go to these classes and I was like, I was like, What am I doing here?
[00:14:38] I'm not like these people. What am I doing here? And then all of a sudden, so I come to this thing and. He's like, Oh, Yogi Budge. And the master was a military man, and not only that, but seeks our whole Marshall culture. They picked up the sword and they fought because, you know, they were, they were saints and they were, you know, people of God, but you know, shit was [00:15:00] happening in the country and then decided that.
[00:15:01] You know, they raised armies and started fighting back because they were being persecuted. And also the, they went to the aid of the Hindus who were being persecuted. So I was like, it all kind of fell into place, but this was all because my mind was balanced and, and that's what K yoga did for me that day.
[00:15:18] And. And that's another example of the neutral mind. So the negative mind, it was like, this guy's gonna attack me. The positive mind was, who cares, doesn't mean anything. You're, you just, you know, let your freak flag fly. And then the neutral mind, right? Which gives you the intuition, it gives you the intuition, the ability to kind of, see the lens, to see, and then to end act.
[00:15:42] So it allows you to just kind of flow with the spirit. So your, your spirit is what makes you act. And, And then what? And then when that happens, then the best things happen for you. So in that instance, I was able to. Get something I needed from the universe, which was in that moment, this guy [00:16:00] telling me, Oh, you, you ab you belong here.
[00:16:02] Here's the history of the thing. Um, and so that's how it's supposed to work. Negative, positive, and neutral. So, but when you're in hard times, you can get into a sort of a, a, a loop, which is, you know, if you're hitting challenges every day and those things, and that situation's not going anywhere, then your subconscious is feeding you memories that, you know, other times that were tough and you're, you're, you can stay in kind of a loop and you can get depressed and you can get negative.
[00:16:31] So if you get you getting punched in the face a bunch, you know, you can get negative and, and so it's hard to get to. The positive mind, so that's why it's really important, especially if you're going through hard times to keep up, to keep your practice up and keep it strong. Because that'll keep all of your human elements.
[00:16:52] Balance those three minds. The three years of my negative, positive, and neutral mind will all balance. And then just like I give that example, the negative [00:17:00] will come up, but then you'll, you'll be so expanded that it'll immediately without your even having to do anything, go to the positive and feed you like, Well, you know there's a benefit here too.
[00:17:08] You know, who cares? Whatever. Just do it. And then the neutral mind will be, Yeah, go for it. Tell 'em, tell 'em where you're from, who gives a shit. And, and then you, you act. And then because that neutral mind that gives youre gives you creative infinity. Creative infinity comes from that neutral mind. So in any situation, right, you can assess the negative, assess the positive, and then go into creative infinity and.
[00:17:31] This is where it's mind blowing because yeah, it seems like this linear time, it was in the class. The guy was sitting there and this whole interaction happened from TikTok, A, B, C, D, E. But really everything is in that moment, right? And time is not actually linear. So because I was balanced and, and that the negative, positive, neutral all happened at once, boom, boom, boom, that Creative Infinity delivered me something.
[00:17:55] It delivered me, it, it delivered me a gift, which was, , Um, [00:18:00] here's, here's what you've been looking for. You're actually on the right path, you get what I'm saying here. This is a real big one, right? It's so, so time is not actually linear. It's, it's kind of like a, it's a pulsation of the. Infinite moment.
[00:18:14] And so that's what happens in the neutral mind. This is the, this is the beauty of the human being in that neutral mind. The neutral mind is sort of a constant meditative state or to able to be in that. And so we have this pulsation of the negative, positive, and neutral in every moment, so we can be in the duality and then reach into the one.
[00:18:32] Right, which is that through the neutral mind, the one flow is coming through the neutral mind. That's the spirit, the soul that the, the, the one created force going through everything. E own car. So that's what we got, um, with negative, positive and neutral mind. So again, that's, that's one of the main things that get balanced.
[00:18:49] But all those are three of the 10 bodies. All 10 bodies get balanced. We won't go into what all the 10 bodies are. They're easy to find, but then all the, the five tuas tuas are the [00:19:00] elements we're made up of the five elements, Earth, fire, air, water, and ether. Those get balanced. By the glandular system and, and the breath and so on in K yoga.
[00:19:09] And then there's these qualities of the mind, the three gona, Thomas Rogers and Sattva, and those, the, the three different colorations that the thoughts get when they come through. So all of the, all of these things get balanced. And, and then you're able to, in the moment, be in the, in, in the world operating in the field of time, catching the negative and the positive, being in the duality and the opposites, but also, but you're being fed, You're being moved by, You're intuitively, And you're intuitive, intuitively moving through the field of time with your infinity, and that's, that's the neutral mind.
[00:19:48] So, but sometimes we need some help. So when you're in hard times, when you're in difficult, challenging times, it's actually a huge gift. It's actually a huge blessing. And it's a blessing because [00:20:00] those hard times they crystallize. They crystallize you, you have to push back harder. So when you have events that are pushing on you, they literally are pushing in from the outside.
[00:20:10] Your, your, your ORIC field. You, you get, you get pressurized, Right? That's what we call it. I'm under pressure. Why, why am I under pressure? Well, this projection that I'm living in, that, that this challenge that we're here with my mom, what this is going on, it's presenting me with challenges. And those challenges are creating pressure and that pressure.
[00:20:28] Can be a depression of my energy field because the mind is producing these sort of negative thoughts and I'm reacting to them emotionally and chemically. It's happening in my body and I get pressurized. I get punched down, right? So what do I have to do? I have to push back. I have to push back. And how do you push back?
[00:20:46] Deeper breath, very powerful breath. Exercise is called pranayam where I do breath of fire or I do any one of a number of really cool pons that were given by the master that will take me, and, and [00:21:00] expand me and, and bring the soul to bear through the breath. . Another thing is you wanna do yoga. You wanna do physical yoga, which is gonna stimulate the gland system through physical postures and pushing against the body and so on.
[00:21:13] And then meditation, particularly with mantra usually, but meditation, where you repeating words, sacred words, primal words that then create neuron patterns that that will. Cause the glands to secrete and change your blood chemistry, expand your aura, and that's a push back. So all of those things which are aspects of Coley yoga, help you to push back.
[00:21:33] And so when you're under pressure, you, you push back. And when you push back, you're pushing back with what? You're raising the kini, which is the soul, the light of the soul. So you're pushing back with your soul. The breath. The breath is the soul has the soul is in the breath. It's yogi boys, and said, It's the soul that breathes in you and soul that breathes in you because the soul creates the product force.
[00:21:57] That is your life force. When you take an [00:22:00] incarnation, when you come to the body, when you come to the earth, and then when you leave, that breath is gone. It breaks the product, body breaks, it goes, and you, you soul and the subtle body take off. So the souls what comes in and the souls what? Leave. So it's the, so while you're here, it's the soul that's breathing in you, right?
[00:22:15] And you think about the autonomic nervous system where you're. Automatically, that's consciousness. That's the one flow breathing in you. So, um, so hard times, challenging times are actually huge gift because that pressure crystallizes your soul because you, you have to use your soul to push back. So you're crystallizing your soul, you're crystallizing your spirit into your physical aura.
[00:22:41] And we can see that people who've been through tough experience, we could see them. They got, there's a light in them. People who have been through challenging times and um, And come through. If they haven't been beat up by those times so bad that they're into drugs and things like that, that lessen them, you know, somebody who's had a lot of life experience, [00:23:00] has met the challenges and, and stayed on kind of a healthy path.
[00:23:03] You see those, You can see it in those people. You can see their life experience. It comes out of them like a light. And that's, that's the radiant body. That's the, that's the, the crystallization of the soul in the aura from through your experiences. So these are good. Um, challenging times were a good. And that's why we have to, we have to work hard in challenging times to stay expanded.
[00:23:28] First of all, you gotta keep your mind expanded, but you need help. You need leverage. And that's why we, that's why we teach this practice of coing yoga because it gives you that leverage. Um, and the, the, and the, and then of course, that what comes from the neutral mind is that the lens, which you're, you can see intuitively, Very split second can see intuitively, if I act this way, this is gonna go for me and this is gonna cause me to flow.
[00:23:51] So the lens and the lever gives you the ability to move, um, through time and space when things are tough. So [00:24:00] start to look at your challenges in life instead of complaining about them or bitching about them, which is what we like to do with our friends and so on. Instead of doing that, See if you can find the gratitude for it.
[00:24:11] Now, gratitude is, is an attitude that will activate the blessings in any particular situation. You have a good situation. If you're grateful for it, it'll activate the blessings. Now, there's some people who are cynical and, and, and very negative, right? And I have you seen these people? Um, I've looked in the mirror a few times and seen one
[00:24:31] I used to be so negative that good shit would happen and I'd be like, Ah, yeah, well, but blah, blah, blah. And I would come up with some negative answer to what good stuff was happening. That's how negative I I learned to be over the years. Thank God this practice has since beat that outta me, but, There was a time when even good shit would happen and I'd be like, Yeah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:24:53] And then what happens though? So anything that you're not grateful for automatically becomes, its opposite. It becomes, instead of a blessing, [00:25:00] becomes a curse. So, so it, attitude of gratitude is a fantastic thing to develop for everything. And that's tho that becomes, that becomes one of those secret keys to.
[00:25:14] To, to that flow of life, to that one flow, to that spirit, to that soul. The, the gratitude is a tremendous universal master key and it can help you be happy in any situation, no matter what comes along. And so that's you. It's so, attitude is everything. And if you can develop an attitude where you can find the good in a situation and then be grateful for that.
[00:25:40] Good. And you, you can tr you can open up serious blessings in every situation. And then what starts to happen is that it, it works for you. And, oftentimes that bad situ, seemingly bad situation will start to open up and dissolve because [00:26:00] it's, you know, you're not sitting there multiplying the negatives by time and space, by complaining.
[00:26:06] And, bitching about it. And a lot of times we have tough times. We want to talk to our friends about it. And so we'll call up somebody and we'll start going through all the negatives and, and this and that, which is natural talk helps relieve the pressure. And that's okay, but we gotta be very careful with the word and how we use the word.
[00:26:25] And so when, you know, notice, like when stuff happens, you know, who do you call and start talking about it. And oftentimes your, your friends will, um, To make you feel better, they'll be like, Yeah, yeah, you're totally justified. Yeah, let's be real negative about it. Not too many people will be, go, will go, Well, some will.
[00:26:43] You might have these kinds of friends and I hope you do. I, I, I hope you're blessed with that. But you call somebody up and you know, they're like, Well, but, you know, look at the positive side of it. I think people used to do that a lot more in the past, but now we're sort of programmed to be very, very negative.[00:27:00]
[00:27:00] At least that's my observation from what I see. Like tv, video games and that kind of stuff reinforces those things. But, um, what we do oftentimes is call somebody and they, and they're like, Yeah, yeah, that sucks, man. Yeah. Oh, it sucks. It becomes this like, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. I can't believe that. And so usually that they help you to stay stuck in the negative side of it.
[00:27:20] So, We should start helping each other. Look for the positive. If you have a friend that calls you up, and one of the best things you can do is just listen. There's an amazing thing that happens when you listen. When you just listen. You can o really open up. Your spirit, you kind of like, you wrap your spirit around a person when you just listen to them.
[00:27:41] And that's very difficult for a lot of people because a lot of people feel like they gotta say something. The ego wants say, Well, I gotta say something smart here. They're calling me. And so you stop listening to them and start thinking, What am I gonna say to sound smart to these people? What am I gonna say to sound, to look good to this person?
[00:27:58] And, and so the art [00:28:00] of listening is very, Very, lacking in a lot of people, but it's one of the most amazing things that you can develop, and it's actually miraculous and magical when you learn to listen. And there are a lot of people that know how to do this, but when you learn to listen and you just breathe when somebody's talking to you and you just breathe, and it's even better if you can match your breath to their breath, and if you can match their rate of breathing or your rate of breathing, what happens is your.
[00:28:23] Your, your aura sort of wraps around them. You kind of, you know, there's a relay there of the energy and you sort of, sort of intertwine. You can, can, can hold somebody with just listening. Your spirit actually wraps around them while you talk, while, while they're talking. And I've watched this, you know, the, you know, little bit of yoga counseling that I've done.
[00:28:43] The most important thing is you listen to the person, you listen for the cues and respond to those cues, intuitive. But one of the best things that you do is you listen to the person and you watch them solve their own problem. [00:29:00] Sometimes, or you watch them go from the negative that the positive simply because you're listening and sort of holding them with your attention, right?
[00:29:08] Your energy's going to them because your attention is on them, and it's a brilliant, brilliant thing that you can do. It's just somebody calls you with a problem that's going through a hardship is just listen. Don't say anything. Just listen. They ask you a question, answer the question, but why try it sometime?
[00:29:25] It's the most amazing thing, and you'll be hooked because. When somebody starts talking and you can just listen to them, that spirit comes through the both of you. And it's a pretty cool thing. So we call people when we're feeling, um, pressurized by the hard times. We wanna relieve that pressure. And the danger is that we start to multiply the hard times.
[00:29:45] We're multiplying the tough situation by the time and space, by just staying in that negative. So that's something you gotta be careful. Um, so, I'm gonna, I'm gonna cut it off here and, and, um, and leave you with this [00:30:00] one story, which is really cool. It's kind of, it's an example of the neutral mind. It's a Chinese parable and, um, it's often attributed to Alan Watts because, he told the story once and so it's all over the internet.
[00:30:12] I think it, I think it transcends Allen Watson. I love Allen Watson, by the way, and I love to listen to him. He's a brilliant mind. And, you should check him out if he, if sometime. But in this story, his relation of it is very good. And it goes like this. The Chinese farm, there's a Chinese farmer, and, all of a sudden he has a horse and the horse runs away, breaks out of the fence and runs away.
[00:30:34] So the neighbors come over and, ah, what a stroke of Bad luck. Your, your horse ran away. That's what a loss. And he goes, Oh, maybe, maybe. Is, is the farmer's response. Next day, the the horse comes back with seven wild horses follow the horse back. And so now he's got eight horses. And of course the busy body neighbors, they come over and they're like, Ah, what a stroke of luck.
[00:30:59] Look at this. You now, you're rich. You now got eight horses. And the farmers replies, Eh, maybe, maybe not. And so then the next day, the son, his, the farmer's son, is out there trying to break one of these wild horses. He gets thrown and he breaks his leg really badly in a couple places. There's those neighbors, those pesky neighbors again, ah, we noticed your son has a broken leg.
[00:31:27] It looks like your bad luck is back. And of course, again, the farmer replies. Maybe so, maybe not. And then of course, the next day, another event comes up where, the conscription service of the army is coming door to door to grab able bodied young men. To serve in the army. It's how they did it back then.
[00:31:47] And they get to the door, they see the sun with a badly broken leg and they say, Ah, we can't use your useless. And they move on. And of course, once again, the farmer says, maybe, Right? Cause you
[00:32:00] know, the neighbors are there. And that's, that's an example. Of the neutral mind. We go through this life, good things, seemingly good things will happen, Seemingly bad things will happen.
[00:32:11] And it's, there's a saying, the yogi is one whom the pairs of opposites does not affect. So if, if you can stay neutral and make your best attempt to enjoy everything, and having an attitude of gratitude is one way that you. Can enjoy everything cuz you look for the good in, in it, you look for the good in it, and you just say, This is happening.
[00:32:37] This has been given to me from the one flow, the one flow of creative consciousness come coming through me, has delivered me this experience. Let me be grateful for it. Let me have, let me try to enjoy it. Let me have a good time. I, I can't resist, I gotta tell you another story because I just, I love this story.
[00:32:53] So my teacher, he gets a call from this, student one day and the student says to him, [00:33:00] Hey, I just wanna let you know my, my dad's dying. I'm going to New York, and so my teachers goes, Well, enjoy. Thank guys. I'm sorry, what'd you say? He said, I said, you know, enjoy yourself. And the guy goes, I'm sorry, you probably didn't hear me.
[00:33:15] I said, My dad's dying. He goes, Yeah, no, I heard you. He says, You gotta go to New York cuz your dad's dying, right? Yeah. But you have to go, right? Yeah. You don't have a choice, right? Says But when you do have two choices, when you get there, you can be miserable. Or you can try to find something in there to enjoy, find some way to enjoy it.
[00:33:37] And of course, I'm sure the guy was silent for a while, but I love that story. My teachers told it many times, and that was my first kind of inkling into this. Um, This attitude of gratitude and enjoy, try to enjoy everything. Um, so it's, it's, it's your choice because there's, there's always two sides to the coin.
[00:33:56] And whatever you're doing, whatever you're going through, try to enjoy it. [00:34:00] And like the Chinese farmer just don't react. Just don't react. And that's another one. That's a, that's a very famous quote from Yoi budge. Just don't react. And that's really where all of our problems come from, right? Because we do have this neutral mind, which when we're in a meditative state, delivers up us all that creative infinity.
[00:34:23] Creative infinity. So why do, why don't, Why aren't we like that all the time? Well, because we're busy reacting to the negative, reacting to the positive, and, and that takes us into one side or the other, and that's where you get kind of torn apart, and that's where the duality becomes painful. But, You can stay in that neutral space as much as possible and not react, just don't react.
[00:34:50] Then you can kind of navigate these things with a plum. You can navigate these things with, You can navigate these things with enjoyment and, that's,
[00:35:00] that's the, difficult times are a blessing. Well, thank you very much for joining me on this, Exploration of life and the teachings, and I hope you'll, follow us on all the social, social channels that you use.
[00:35:15] We're on all the good ones. We're gonna put this stuff on YouTube and Twitter and Instagram and all of these places, and very likely. Had them live. So follow us and for more of this, um, subscribe. You can subscribe by email on the website, jaigopalyoga.com and we'll let you know when we're doing classes and workshops and retreats and things like that, that we will eventually do and just generally send you out.
[00:35:42] Good stuff to keep motivated and keeping up. So thank you very much. I'm Jai Gopal and this is the One Flow Podcast. And, many blessings to you [00:36:00] in sat nam