TRANSCRIPT

We cannot be divided and conquered if our consciousness is high enough to transcend it. And so spiritual adaptation is important. And what I mean by that is, too much separation comes from the supposedly spiritual people, the religious people. They're actually not practicing the values and the teachings of their philosophy. They're not practicing it when they can't interassociate with someone else who believes something different from them.

“Nothing You Do Matters Unless What You Do Matters”
I’m Amadon DellErba and this is “Get Real or Die Trying”

How we doing tribe? Welcome back to my podcast. It's been a little bit since I've been on. I’ve been working on some other projects, going on. I will be back bi-weekly now with my Get Real or Die Trying podcast. If you like what you see and hear, be sure to subscribe to YouTube. Of course, that's the video version. The podcast is everywhere. Spotify, Anchor, Google, iTunes, et cetera. Do what you do. Tweet it out. Share it out. Like it. Subscribe. Help spread the word. Rock the social. Would really appreciate it.

So today I wanted to talk about the concept of flexibility without compromise, spiritual adaptation. It's what I, personally, like to call the concept of being spiritually adaptable.
You know, we all come from different walks of life, different cultures (or lack thereof in some people's case), different religious and political backgrounds. But mostly we are often separated by consciousness. More than all of these other, seemingly more obvious, factors. You know, we like to think, “Oh, I grew up in the ghetto or it's race or it's religion. And this person grew up in the country. This person grew up in a wealthy family. This person was poor.” These are all minor differences in comparison to consciousness differences, which we don't seem to put enough emphasis on in identifying things in interpersonal relationships with people. You know, it's are varying levels of consciousness and spiritual intelligence that connect us or separate us.
You see, without consciousness you separate. With consciousness, you connect.

The more conscious you become, the less you actually judge, compete, and create separations from your fellow brothers and sisters, strangers, or anybody around you. The more spiritually aware and mature you become the more adaptable you do become. you can have strong beliefs and commitments yet be adaptable to the moment, environment, and most importantly to the soul in front of you.

Now, more than ever, we are seeing division and separation; politically, religiously, and of course, racially. Isn't it interesting that those who claim to be the most devout and ascended and prescribe, you know, to the supposed spiritual beliefs and religious beliefs and dogma, whatever it may be, they're often the most judgmental and self-righteous people. It's very sad, really. But I was thinking about this whole subject because I spent many hours in the last few weeks, having political conversations with my friends, colleagues, neighbors, and perfect strangers.
I challenge myself, though, to speak to people with a different viewpoint than mine. I think I was genuinely interested in wanting to hear their perspective and was curious on how it could differ so much from my own. I think because I decided ahead of time to enter into these conversations with a commitment to respect and connect with these people, regardless of my disagreements, we were able to thoroughly enjoy ourselves, learn about each other, and even celebrate our uniqueness and differences. I was free of judgment and I committed ahead of time to be adaptable, to be fluid, and to be real.

And while doing all this never compromised what I believed in. You see, if I would have failed to do this, I would have been a hypocrite and failed to live by my own ideals. Now, I believe me I have failed in this many times in the past and made a fool of myself. Thus I know the different feeling of failing to meet my standards of spiritual intelligence and maturity. One has to be adaptable. Arrogant and prideful people are often rigid. Narcissists literally can't comprehend someone else viewing something different from them. And I think the world is just absolutely full of narcissists. And it's not always a common recognizable trait or identification that we label people as, but when you start studying the psychology, narcissism is very prevalent in human nature. I'm seeing it in myself. I see it in others. You can't change some things until you, until you start identifying it.

But let's circle back to consciousness. When an individual is secure in their identity and their sense of self, purpose, and awareness, they don't really feel the need to project onto others, their feelings, and they certainly feel no need for others to believe and think the same things they do, to validate them. I feel insecurity and a lack of self-awareness are two of the largest enemies to being free of judgment. You know, the more spiritually conscious we become the less we need others around us to share our viewpoint. And that's an interesting point because it creates a type of spiritual independence. Now, of course, it is really wonderful to have kindred spirits around us. And in the long-term we all need people to be on the same page as us and believe what we do think, how we think, and share that. For longevity, you do have to have that. But I think the mistake people make is to think that everyone must believe and think the way they do. You know, the perfect stranger that you meet on the subway has to agree with you. The man mowing your lawn has to agree with you. You know, your mother-in-law has to agree with you. The guy taking your ticket at the concert has to agree with you. It's just not the case. Life doesn't work that way.

And so thus enters in the beautiful concept of acceptance and grace, two things I can certainly lack tremendously at times. Just ask my wife. Ask my friends. Ask my family. But the beauty though is that I’m aware of those weak parts of my personality, and I can then design the necessary workout routines to strengthen those weak areas. You see, I'm aware, in thanks to my elders and my teachers pointing them out to me. And it's not easy getting these things pointed out. It's not easy having to accept that we have weaknesses and areas that we need to change. But the more awareness, self-awareness, we have, the more we know ourselves, the more confidence we have, the less we need others to validate the way we feel and think about things.

And most importantly, love and acceptance can transcend all differences. Now saying that sounds idealistic, of course, perhaps even naive and fluffy. But the simple fact is, it's the truth. Being open to adaptation means being loving. It means you seek to understand rather than to be understood. The more nonjudgmental you are, the more free your mind is. And I don't think people really associate being judgemental with being in bondage. But the more that you judge someone, the more bonded you are in. The less that you judge, the more free your mind is. Think about it. Because judging another keeps you in mental bondage more than you realize. The more self-confident the individual is the less they project judgment upon others. Self-confidence and a sense of knowing yourself is very related to acceptance of being able to listen and consider others. I believe pride and narcissism is not self-confidence. Real confidence is humility in your knowingness. Know thyself.

The interesting thing is when you are truly strong in your beliefs and viewpoints, you actually are independent of the trappings of popular thought or peer- and social-culture pressure to conform, to fit in and be a certain way, think a certain way, do things a certain way. We make the mistakes and thinking that people who are very fundamentalistic and narrow-minded have strong beliefs, but it’s actually rigid beliefs and I really think it's the opposite of strong beliefs. Because the psychology of their supposed “strong thinking” is too predicated upon the acceptance and need for others to think what they think. You know, and to validate it even more. They're weak if they can't associate with people who think differently than them. There's nothing strong about that. They are afraid of losing their convictions and ideals so they avoid the debate. They avoid inter-association with the opposing viewpoints. And again, in the long term you do, and need, and must have friends and family, and intimate partners who are on the same consciousness level as you and share the same viewpoints. But isn't most judgment in passing? Isn't most conflict transient in nature? Think about that.

Like I said, a truly strong soul can adapt. A strong Buddhist can befriend a Christian.
If he truly practices the fundamentals of love and compassion that his theological philosophy defines. And this is the truth with all religions. And it goes the same for differing political viewpoints. The interesting thing is, though, one must have spiritual principles that mean more to them than the political ideas that have. You see, one must override the political understandings they have with spiritual actions and values. As I mentioned earlier, I did this a few weeks ago while spending time with devout Trump supporters. Now obviously, I'm not a Trump supporter. My commitment to my spiritual philosophy easily took over my politics. Thus, I showed them respect, compassion, and even love. I was able to dismantle any potential elements of separation and connect with them; man to man, human to human. I did not compromise my beliefs or spiritual standards. I adapted to the moment and individuals before me. And this, to me, is wisdom and spiritual intelligence.

Now I can tell you, many times I have failed in this. But like I said, consciousness is what transcended the separation. Raise your consciousness and sharpen your spiritual intelligence. And again, these acts often need to take place in passing; in the meeting of people who are not a part of our regular circle. You see, there are times when we practice what we preach and it's easy to do this with, you know, the people we associate with all the time, because our viewpoints already align. That's why we hang out with them. That's why we associate with them. You know, they're in our circle of understanding. But it's the strangers and the new people that we meet in life that we must project this level of compassion to. We make the mistake of basing the strength of our beliefs, or our opinions, on the level of reception and adoption of these beliefs by others. “If they believe what I believe that my belief is stronger.” That is weak thinking. That is silly and unsustainable, in the long run. You know, being outspoken is a blessing.
You actually do not suffer the plight and pains of needing the approval of others to reify your thinking. For too long on this planet religion and beliefs have divided humanity. They've robbed many souls from fraternizing together; from true connection. We all must adopt a consciousness of true connection. Our worldview should not cause separation. And of course, particularly our political views should not. But we all too often decide in moments of passing, like I said, to judge, to negate, and to abandon common sense, love and compassion, with somebody who we pass by, because we feel like they think and see the world different from us.

This country right now is so divided. The rhetoric of our leadership for the last four years has aided to that division; has caused it, has sparked. It has given permission for people to drop in their consciousness. We have to rise into God-consciousness and to the principles of love and compassion. And I know it can sound just, cheesy. And everybody's saying that. What does it mean to rise into these principles of love and compassion? But you have to start trying. Because for me personally, I made a conscious act many, many times in my life to connect with people that I would usually perhaps judge, or discard, or not want to hang out with because they're so different than me. But when I made that conscious decision to go forward in compassion and love even, love, with a perfect stranger. The act of being loving. When I did that, connection happened. What happens when there's connection? Understanding and more tolerance. When there's not connection? No understanding, no tolerance. Thus, you have hatred, racism, acts of violence, and you have the humanity of people, disintegrating. Divide and conquer. It's been happening on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years.

We cannot be divided and conquered if our consciousness is high enough to transcend it. And so spiritual adaptation is important. And what I mean by that is, too much separation comes from the supposedly spiritual people, the religious people. They're actually not practicing the values and the teachings of their philosophy. They're not practicing it when they can't interassociate with someone else who believes something different from them, or doesn't believe anything at all. Like I've said many times on my podcast, I've associated with atheists who practice, and have more spiritual virtues and the fruits of the spirit, than many, many Christians and others who proclaim to have these things. Because they're just real and they're actually loving and compassionate in the moment and they don't have the constructs of their belief that create these separations.

So raise your consciousness, my friends, and have your spiritual values override your political, your opinions, and connect with people. That is the only way and really the absolute way to say it is God consciousness. Now, if you don't believe in God, you don't believe in God. Focus on the values of love, compassion, and understanding, et cetera. But you know what? God consciousness is really the only thing that's going to create global connection. And the concept of not compromising your beliefs and being flexible is one last thing I want to touch on.

People make the mistake of feeling like they can't listen or agree or bend their theological understanding because of their conviction and they believe it so strongly, and I can respect that. But there's a difference between being adaptable and then compromising. You see if you live a certain life and you live by these standards and you choose not to, whatever, do drugs, drink, and those are just very simple, basic things that many people can relate to. But if you choose those things because of spiritual reasons, and that's part of your belief system; to live a better life, and then you go and hang out with people who are drinking and you decide to drink to be adaptable and to connect with them, that's wrong. That's compromise. But being adaptable is not drinking with them, it's inter-associating with them, hanging out with them, trying to lift their consciousness, and not judging them. Not separating yourself from them. Not thinking you're better than them because you choose to do something differently. That's being spiritually adaptable. That's the adaptation that we need. Everybody can preach to the choir. Everybody's so used to the echo chambers. I don't want to be in an echo chamber. I don't want to speak these words out and have, you know, them come right back at me from people who have a bunch of nodding heads who agree with me. What's the fun in that? I love the challenge of speaking to someone who doesn't agree, who doesn't even know, trying to raise their consciousness. It's not about convincing them. It's not about converting them. It's about aiding them. It's about connecting with them. I can learn from them too. We can all learn from each other.

So go forth and try that right now. This country needs it, man. Because we're divided. Go talk to somebody who you think completely different from. Who looks completely differently. Who was raised differently. Who has a whole different reality and try and understand them and their point of view. At the same time, not compromising who you are inside. Some people don't even know who they are. They're discovering it. And that's okay too. Be graceful. I’m Amadon DellErba. Thanks for listening. I'll see you guys next time.

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