Essay Edition
This essay is a near-verbatim adaptation of the live spoken teaching, edited only for continuity and readability.
I love our weekly gatherings, coming together here and focusing on the teachings. To share in the energy, to do energy work. To have a transformation of our energy field. Today, I am excited to be talking about humility, which is a surprisingly deep and esoteric topic. It is a lot more esoteric than I think it is usually taken at face value.
Let us talk about humility and its relationship to energy. The way we are energetically is greatly informed by our thoughts, our paradigm, and the way we relate to life. And by our karma, which is our actions, and the way those actions inform our experiences.
So what is humility? Well, let us start with something else. What is it to love oneself? If you love yourself because of some attribute, some quality—is that love? When we love anything or anyone because of attributes or qualities, is that really love? Certainly, it is conditional, and we are loving because of some sort of benefit. But there is an entirely different orientation, which is to say that is, in fact, a form of mutual exploitation.
I love so-and-so because I get this from them. I want them to love me, so I try to get big biceps, or whatever it is—get a good job, or wear these cool lion sweatshirts. I do that because I want them to love me. We are entering into a field of mutual exploitation. Think about that. Our society lives in the field of mutual exploitation. This is the status quo. This is what is expected, this is respectable. And this is what we live in. That is not love.
There is a dimension of form in it. There is collaboration, right? So the flower and the bee—the bee comes for the pollen, and the flower gives the pollen, and they mutually benefit each other. But that is collaboration, and that is an expression of complementary intrinsic nature. When we act with the spontaneity of the self, on behalf of the totality, allowing complementary spiritual natures, that is love. But when we do it as a means of, "I am separate, and I need to get something. I have to fulfill a desire. I am not in an action on behalf of the totality," that is exploitation.
So how does this connect with humility? Well, if you love yourself for a reason, that is not humility, right? If I am feeling, "Okay, I am worthy," I am entering into the field of worthiness. If I am entering into the field of worthiness for a reason, that is not humility. In humility, I have two parts. I have my formless perfection—I am a child of the universe.
In humility, we recognize what we are with complete acceptance. You know, Einstein can say, "I am the best in the world at this," but he is not doing it from a place of ego, he just does it from a place of truth.
To evaluate yourself, to apply self-worth based on some particular attribute, is to enter into the marketplace of mutual exploitation. It is to say that I have something to offer that makes me valuable as a means of exchange for something I want. Implicit in this is that I, too, am exploiting the other and allowing myself to be exploited.
This is essential because in humility, we are accepting ourselves as we are—entirely. And we have to let go of this marketplace of mutual exploitation. I am as I am. I may be meant to be CEO of this company or not. And we see in our intrinsic nature the truth of where we belong, the collaboration, and the integration into life that is natural and correct. And in that, we can let go of our sense of self-importance and just recognize the truth of what we are.
Humility comes from meditation, because in meditation, we dissolve and dissolve into the unknown. We let go of self-reflection. When we let go of self-reflection, there is a sense of spontaneous action that is humble, like a child who plays. We may be very good at what we do, but we still have the humility of a child who is simply playing, simply enjoying our experiences.
In humility, there is a great deal of sincerity. If you are an artist, you engage in your art, in your creativity and mastery, because you love what you do. However, if an artist is focused on the results, they lose that je ne sais quoi—that quality of beauty that is pure humility. So, there is this aspect: I am not engaging in self-reflection; I am simply acting with spontaneity, with love, with humility. This arises from meditation, because in meditation, we actually dissolve. It is not just an intellectual epiphany—we become a feeling of freedom. We become a sense of being completely absorbed, without any element of ego.
Humility brings sincerity. Humility means the direct apprehension of truth. It means accepting and knowing the truth without any level of self-importance, either in affirmation or in the negative. Whether you are great or not, humility is a state in which you know what you are, without evaluation or judgment. A rose is not better than jasmine. A mango is not better than passion fruit. A man is not better than a woman. The sky is not better than the sea. One sees things as they are. A child who is just learning is not better than an adult.
And yet, humility may recognize the fact that this individual is better suited to be CEO of a company, or that a physicist is the leader in their field at a particular time. So, humility has a lot to do with seeing the facts. You can know yourself as you are, but there is no sense of evaluation, because you have moved out of that continuum of mutual exploitation.
With sincerity, in humility, you simply love what you do. You are like a duck in a happy pond. You are where you are meant to be. For one person, that is cancer research. For another, it is physics equations. For another, it is starting a new business in engineering and education.
In humility, how can we have the inward freedom to enjoy our lives? With that blessing of humility, like a child, and let go of all those layers of sedimentation that make us feel so ensnared in the social aspect. There are many dimensions to this. First, we need to have a great deal of trust that we are enough. That being true to ourselves and doing what we love is the right thing, and that it is enough to sustain us, to realize our heart’s wishes and dreams.
Now, how can we actually feel that? We may think, “Okay, that is a nice thought, but how can you feel that?” Well, when we meditate and make contact with the light—the light of consciousness, which we are going to do today—that light is the formlessness, the essence of consciousness. It is the part of us that is beyond form. It is like a beautiful golden statue. If we evaluate that statue based on its form, certainly, someone made it look beautiful in gold, but the gold itself is valuable. The light is the gold from which we arise. It is the substance of what we are.
By spending time with our essence, we naturally become more humble. And it awakens intelligence. It is a wonderful way to become skilled at math. It is a wonderful way to make people feel at ease, because when you are humble, you are holding space for others to be themselves. People sense that. This is a deeply interdimensional concept, and I recommend you spend the week writing about it. You can also watch the 1982 Gandhi movie. Do things that make humility the theme of the week. If you watch that film, you will say, “Wow, that is a humble person.” Gandhi truly seems to embody humility.
It is a very important aspect of life, especially in a world where we are so bombarded. If you encounter someone who lacks humility, it pulls you—there is a gravity that draws you away from your center of humility. You might wonder, “Do I need to respond to this? Do I need to prove my worth?” You may feel them pushing you down, imposing upon you the idea that you are not worthy simply because you are as you are.
Is a second grader any less—like, you see a beautiful child. Is she any less wonderful than a person with a graduate degree? Of course not. That would be absurd. Or is the graduate any less wonderful than she is because he is not five? That is equally absurd.
Recognizing that a rose is a rose, jasmine is jasmine, a mango, a passion fruit—they are all unique. Look at us: we are a collage of wildflowers arising from the substratum of formlessness. These recognitions are all part of humility.
An absence of ego—yes, to put it succinctly, this is an absence of ego. And what does that mean? It means to move through life without the baggage of self-reflection. It is baggage. It is a burden. Constantly trying to be polite, or leading with whatever is normal or good enough, or keeping checks on whether you are being evaluated by everyone else—do not be yourself! Did Michael Jackson act as himself? I think he was being himself. Great artists do this. Innocent children do this.
This concept, taken to its extreme, converges to uniformity, to selflessness, to the universe experiencing itself. We are all the universe experiencing itself. We are atoms observing atoms and experiencing thermodynamics at some level. There is an ontological—a philosophy of being—overtone there. Or perhaps undertone is more accurate, which is that each thing is brought into existence unto its own value. Every moment is complete. This is perfect as it is. It experiences itself as it is.
Things are as they are. There is no need for the ego, no need for self-reflection, no need for evaluation. That is where I return to this whole marketplace of mutual exploitation. Evaluation happens there because I might say, "I want so-and-so to like me," especially on romantic levels, where it is really pronounced. I want so-and-so to like me, so I am going to get big biceps—because she likes big biceps, right? All of this is so corrupt. Do we not want people to love us for who we are?
And is love not a subjective capacity? If I love somebody because of something, that is just exploitation. But if I love all unconditionally, because I am love, that is a completely different field. That does not mean I am going to hire anyone for my business, because not everyone is qualified, but that has nothing to do with loving them. Nor does it mean that I am going to be hired as the top gardener—I do not know enough about gardening, right?
The etymology of humility is "low," as in low to the ground, close to the earth. It refers to lowliness or being humble, which derives from humus—meaning earth. When talking about egolessness, it is a both-and situation, because in order to be in the world, we need to have a set, personified self. In yoga, they call that an ahamkara. You have to have the created self. If you do not have any sense of orientation in the universe, that is insanity. You need a paradigm; you need to know how to orient yourself in the universe. But where evaluation comes in, and worthiness—that is where it becomes complicated.
The reason I start with, "what does it mean to love yourself?" is because there is so much confusion around that. You hear people say, "love yourself, love yourself." But why? Why should I love myself? People say, "because I am good at this, or I have this quality." No—love yourself unconditionally. That is a different matter. People are trying to balance judging themselves with recognizing their good qualities. But to enter into that unconditional state and know yourself as you are is something else entirely.
Self-love really merges with the love of others when one stops evaluating. Worthiness. Even the word humility is somewhat tainted by a misunderstanding of what humility means. It means earth. It means to be low, not high, not above everyone else. But truly, humility means that everyone is what they are. Know what you are, be what you are. And that should be enough.
Speaking of artists and self-love, Michael Jackson comes to mind. Did he love who he was, or did he change to be somebody else so people would like him? I do not think that is why he had plastic surgery. I think he did it for the same reason girls dress dolls. I think he liked how it looked. He did have a skin condition, and he had a lot of money. I think he genuinely liked the way it looked. I do not think he really cared what people thought. Not if I consider it in isolation, but if you look at him as a whole, I see an artist who is free. Yes, he had some distorted views about body image, perhaps some body dysmorphia, but I do not see that as the essence of his energy. I do not think he cared if people liked him. There was one time he said that he eventually read the tabloids and saw that everyone thought he was really weird, and he had no idea, because he was not even thinking about that. I think he was very sincere about his music.
We had a conversation a few weeks ago about Dharma—Dharma, mastery, your art. In Dharma, we enter into humility. If you find something you love to do, whatever that may be, something in which you continually challenge yourself. Say you are a writer, and you just want to get better and better. You might think, "I am reaching an Emersonian level here," right? Emerson is such a fantastic writer, and when you read his work, you wonder, "How did he do that?" It is truly remarkable. Or Shakespeare, or whomever inspires you—not as a comparison, but as a source of inspiration for how you can fully express yourself at the highest level.
Constantly challenging yourself—that autotelic activity, meaning an activity you do for its own sake—is a way of practicing humility. Meditation is also a way of practicing humility, because in meditation, I become nothing. This is another aspect of humility: to become nothing. Dare I say it, to have no self-worth. Let go of the burden—you do not need self-worth. You are what you are. You are infinitely valuable. You are as valuable as anyone else.
The burden of self-worth—this is a very spiritual realization—to say, "I know that I have no worth, that I will come and go, my life in this form is finite, these are my experiences." They are sacred because they are my experiences. It does not matter what anyone else thinks. I can love another, I can help another, I can do what is described—wish the best for another, help them find freedom, help them find humility through compassion, empathy, and love—but I can also stand free from the entire trap of selfhood. It is a trap. And just to say, I have no self-worth.
Sometimes you see some of those deeply spiritual people just bowing down to the flower, to the tree, to everyone they encounter. Not because they are saying, "I am lower," but because they are simply beyond that spectrum of evaluation.
The self-love concept is something that many people struggle with—not necessarily in the sense of struggling with it personally, but in trying to understand what the need for it really is—why it matters. Part of where that struggle comes from is the desire to have standards for one's own behavior. To remove valuation entirely then opens up the possibility of not having standards for behavior. That is where the difficulty has always been for some, because there is an aspiration to have high standards for one's own behavior—not just in an ethical or moral sense, but also in wanting to do good and be a good partner, a good parent, a good friend, all those things.
When you remove valuation, you can remove ego, but there can still be a strong instinct toward valuing behavior and states of being at some level. Many of these things are so ineffable that it is hard to pin them down. Things are so close to each other, right? So we may be talking about different things while thinking we are discussing the same thing. What is evaluation? Well, it is different…
To be in absolute humility, but to recognize, "Okay, I could be better in this way," as part of a sincere, humble effort. Maybe you are into bodybuilding, and you think, "My bicep is pretty good, but I really want to improve it in this way." That can be a humble action if it comes from sincerity rather than exploitation. The spontaneity of love also brings thoughts of evaluation.
Many people evaluate because they want to play it safe and conform. But humility—your actions tend to be more on that end-in-itself side of the motivation spectrum. The exploitation concept is always very much about means to an end. That is not to say that if you are running a business, you should not have a vision statement. That does not mean you should not have direction. That is in the present moment, right? It is more like an inspiration statement. "I am doing this because of this inspiration, because I am living in the now."
The intricacy here is important to know, not just intellectually, but to live it. The actions of spontaneity, of love—does thought really need to enter the field? To what degree is thought necessary? Thought has its place, but thought as ego, thought as self-worth, that is not necessary. Thought as, "I need to be at this appointment today, and I need to know how to get there," that has its place. So, it is about putting thought in its right place, and letting go of all the unhealthy thought.
If you are simply asking yourself, "How am I going to help my daughter be the best person she can be?"—that is a healthy thought, a healthy contemplation. All the actions of freedom, sincerity, spontaneity, and love can merge with that comprehension, that insight, and that faculty of abstraction. In a way, it is a very personal contemplation. You have to find a way—do I feel the freedom? Do I feel the love? Do I feel the sincerity? Because, as a whole, you are it.
Meditation on Humility
Let us stop talking about swimming. And let us get wet. Meditation is… becoming nothing. Becoming what you are. It is a direct encounter with essence. Formlessness.
Bring attention to the heart center, right in the center of the chest. Move toward presence. Just notice… baggage. It is self-reflection. We want to go into such presence that there is no space—like we are going through a very thin door. Leave everything behind. Essence. This is the sincerity of the moment.
In meditation, we can bring a positive focus. Instead of saying, "stop thinking," bring attention to the energy field. Feel the heart center, feeling its warmth, invoking an open heart. Attempt to meditate on humility—to become anonymous to ourselves, to let go of all the ways that we are trying to control, trying to be… Just perceiving them in stillness and letting them go.
I stand vulnerable. That is what we are practicing. So here I am, sitting before all of you. I am not going to try to be impressive. I am not going to try to be good enough. I am not going to try to be smart. I just am… You can do that, too. Just be what you are. That is self-love. And surrender to the destiny of being what you are. This opens the heart.
Becoming completely anonymous to ourselves, becoming aware of all our sense of control, identification, and ego, and standing vulnerable to destiny as it carries us. It is a true expression of value. Bring attention to the heart. Let the heart expand.
That seems difficult for the moment. And in humility, we accept our lack of humility. We accept ourselves as we are. And that is how we become. When we let go in this vulnerable way, you give up grasping and taking. We move into the field of accepting, of the benedictions that come of their own accord. Embrace humility, because we know it is the highest state—the highest outcome.
With this, let us really seek to become absorbed in the unknown. Let its waves carry you deeper, beyond the reach of the continuum of worthiness. Let yourself be washed. Deeper and deeper beyond the keeping, the aching. Sinking closer and closer. Centered. Coding to the heart. Selfhood is an illusion. Condition. Agreed. Art is the doorway to being unlocked. They hurt their humility. Freedom from self-page. One can only assert what they are not—never what they are. What we are needs no assertion. You can let everything go. We all—freedom.
It is okay to let part of your soul cry out. Perhaps decades of holding on to selfhood are rising off of you. Recognize your intrinsic nature as godliness. Trinity. Unassailable. Infection. Everlasting being. When did we all grow up? Allow yourself to be a child. In the privacy of your own meditation, in the meditation of your own mind.
For just a few minutes, really enjoy the feeling of heart. Gentleness. No longer having to fight for what you are not. Bask in the power of humility, the ground of a true self. This is the key to loving others, because we become an overflowing benediction of goodwill. Blissfulness. The essence of all of us is godliness, and the door is humility. Just remember that. It is simply a matter of self-forgetfulness. We are… so good.
Reflections and Closing
That was lovely. I hope you all had a good meditation. I had a good one. Sometimes, in meditation, you enter into the causal planes of reality beyond the astral and see the essence of consciousness, perceiving them as actual colors. Sometimes you see people, sometimes colors—red and green, love and love, two kinds of love. The red heart and the green center.
Sometimes, instead of going with the musical grandness, I let the destiny be the grandness, and I was small and just humble to it. That is a different viewpoint. From one perspective, you are small, from another, you are impersonal. You are everything. God is great. I am part and parcel of God.
Humility is shedding the sense of self that obscures the impersonal essence—the essence of self, the godliness, the self that we are when we are unburdened by the imposition of egoic identifications, images, and agendas.
I enjoy meditating with other people. I meditate most days alone, and it is nice to have that little sense of amplification that comes with other people being involved. We hold a wavelength. This is Sangha, or satsanga. Satsanga means association with truth, right? So, we come together, and through that association, we hold the wavelength. We expand it.
It is hard to be a solo practitioner in a world of people bent on all the things that are not ultimate truth. To sit down and make it our consecration, our focus for an hour a week—so I invite everybody, please come again. We do this every Tuesday, 6 p.m. Pacific time, same time. I have been doing this for many years now, actually.
My goal is to reach a point where I can truly reinvest. I would love to be able to spend $1,000 a week advertising this. That way, we could grow, spread the light, spread the love, and spread humility.
After many weeks of doing these meditations, I am now feeling more and more real. I am managing the energy, kundalini. I am experiencing different things. Sometimes it is with my hands, sometimes a feeling in my head. This is very new for me, but I know that it is making me healthier and stronger. I can feel it.
The transformation happens in the body. If you get your chakras activated, they really do things. It is not make-believe. You meditate on your navel center, you meditate on your third eye—your consciousness changes. If you do it for 10 years, it is an unrecognizable difference. It is like, “Whoa, I did not even know I had that. Am I human anymore? What is this thing that I am doing that is usually thought of as make-believe?” It becomes a very real part of your daily experience.
Today we focused on humility, and what you might have noticed is that humility is a part of energy. A lot of times you go to an energy class and they say, “Focus on your chakra.” But if you are not humble, you can only take it so far. That is why you see these powerful knight beings—who seem to have this simultaneous integration of energetic embodiment and the virtues. They are remarkable, because they are one.
You cannot be truly powerful if you are really mean. You can be powerful in a certain way—you can certainly have social power—but the power in your body and your heart radiates, and you feel like that music. That power comes from aligning yourself with the power, the ambient power of the universe—the goodness. You become a hand, a mechanism for good, a part of the mechanism of good. Hands of good.
Thank you. Namaste. Please, try to be on time next week if you can. But do not skip coming if you are late. We would rather see your face. Namaste. Woo! Humility! Spread it! Share it! Spread it!
Full Transcript
Informal Opening and Participant Greetings
Adam Wes Shit.
Elias Pack Look, a lot like that… that lion.
Adam Wes I look like the lion. Thank you.
Very hot.
Hi, Ellen!
It really feels bad, but I think—
Wait, wait, I cannot hear… What did you say, Kara?
Kara McGehee: I said she is getting ready to go to bed, but I wanted her to say hi.
Adam Wes Oh, hi Elliot, nice to see you!
Kara McGehee: See you too.
Adam Wes Aw, big hug.
Kara McGehee: I cannot really do it because you are on a screen.
That is true.
Good night!
I have got an admitted it, sir.
Adam Wes Namaste, everybody. Welcome! Hi, Sepanta. Nice to see you.
Sepanta Meibody Hello, Adam.
Adam Wes Oh… I love our weekly gatherings, coming together here and focusing on the teachings.
To share in the energy, to do energy work.
To have a transformation of our energy field.
And today, I am excited to be talking about humility, which is a surprisingly deep and esoteric topic.
It is a lot more esoteric than I think it is usually taken at face value.
So let us talk about humility and its relationship to energy. The way we are energetically is greatly informed by our thoughts, our paradigm, and the way we relate to life.
And by our karma, which is our actions, and the way those actions inform our experiences.
You know what, I am going to just quickly text some people I know who want to be here.
Let us see…
Okay.
So what is humility?
Well, let us start with something else. What is it to love oneself?
If you love yourself because of some attribute, some quality—is that love?
When we love anything or anyone because of attributes or qualities, is that really love?
Well, certainly it is conditional, and we are loving because of some sort of benefit.
But there is an entirely different orientation, which is to say that is, in fact, a form of mutual exploitation.
I love so-and-so because I get this from them. I want them to love me, so I try to get big biceps, or whatever it is—get a good job, or wear these cool lion sweatshirts, I do not know. And I do that because I want them to love me.
We are entering into a field of mutual exploitation. Think about that.
Our society lives in the field of mutual exploitation. This is the status quo. This is what is expected, this is respectable. And this is what we live in. That is not love.
There is a dimension of form in it. There is collaboration, right? So the flower and the bee—the bee comes for the pollen, and the flower gives the pollen, and they mutually benefit each other. But that is collaboration, and that is an expression of complementary intrinsic nature.
When we act with the spontaneity of the self, on behalf of the totality, allowing complementary spiritual natures, that is love.
But when we do it as a means of, "I am separate, and I need to get something. I have to fulfill a desire. I am not in an action on behalf of the totality," that is exploitation.
So how does this connect with humility? Well, if you love yourself for a reason, that is not humility, right?
If I am feeling, "Okay, I am worthy," I am entering into the field of worthiness.
One second, Sean is here.
If I am entering into the field of worthiness for a reason, that is not humility. In humility, I have two parts. I have my formless perfection—I am a child of the universe.
David is here.
People are arriving fashionably late. Hi, Sean. Hi, David.
Shawn Ewbank I am evaluating my health benefits right.
Adam Wes Thank you. I am evaluating myself based on worthiness, but in humility, we recognize what we are with complete acceptance.
You know, Einstein can say, "I am the best in the world at this," but he is not doing it from a place of ego, he just does it from a place of truth.
You know what, I would actually like to—I wrote a whole document on this, I am going to get it up, because I think it will be a little easier to discuss.
Just a second.
Alright.
So, here is the sermon—I actually wrote it out already. Let us see, maybe I will just go through this, because it is a little convoluted, and I want to connect everything properly.
To evaluate yourself, to apply self-worth based on some particular attribute, is to enter into the marketplace of mutual exploitation.
It is to say that I have something to offer that makes me valuable as a means of exchange for something I want. Implicit in this is that I, too, am exploiting the other and allowing myself to be exploited.
This is essential because in humility, we are accepting ourselves as we are—entirely. And we have to let go of this marketplace of mutual exploitation.
I am as I am. I may be meant to be CEO of this company or not.
And we see in our intrinsic nature the truth of where we belong, the collaboration, and the integration into life that is natural and correct. And in that, we can let go of our sense of self-importance and just recognize the truth of what we are.
So, humility comes from meditation, because in meditation, we dissolve and dissolve into the unknown. We let go of self-reflection. When we let go of self-reflection, there is a sense of spontaneous action that is humble, like a child who plays. We may be very good at what we do, but we still have the humility of a child who is simply playing, simply enjoying our experiences.
In humility, there is a great deal of sincerity. If you are an artist, you engage in your art, in your creativity and mastery, because you love what you do. However, if an artist is focused on the results, they lose that je ne sais quoi—that quality of beauty that is pure humility.
So, there is this aspect: I am not engaging in self-reflection; I am simply acting with spontaneity, with love, with humility. This arises from meditation, because in meditation, we actually dissolve. It is not just an intellectual epiphany—we become a feeling of freedom. We become a sense of being completely absorbed, without any element of ego.
So, humility brings sincerity. I would love to ask if anyone has questions or comments, and you are welcome to read some of what I have written here. I will be posting it in the private space we have—the digital ashram.
Maybe I will read a paragraph here. Humility means the direct apprehension of truth. It means accepting and knowing the truth without any level of self-importance, either in affirmation or in the negative. Whether you are great or not, humility is a state in which you know what you are, without evaluation or judgment. A rose is not better than jasmine. A mango is not better than passion fruit. A man is not better than a woman. The sky is not better than the sea. One sees things as they are. A child who is just learning is not better than an adult.
And yet, humility may recognize the fact that this individual is better suited to be CEO of a company, or that a physicist is the leader in their field at a particular time. So, humility has a lot to do with seeing the facts.
Right, so you can know yourself as you are, but there is no sense of evaluation, because you have moved out of that continuum of mutual exploitation. Any comments? Or questions, or does anyone want to say anything?
Group Discussion on Humility, Ego, and Selflessness
Joshua Rivera Yes, I am just always impressed by your ability to take these complex ideas and simplify them. Humility, on the surface, is a simple concept, but it becomes much deeper once you start to examine it, right?
Adam Wes Yes. What is it composed of? It becomes quite deep, and I am glad you are thinking about it. That is why I decided to come here today. I saw the topic and became even more interested.
Joshua Rivera Yes. What is it composed of? It becomes quite deep, and I am glad you are thinking about it. That is why I decided to come here today. I saw the topic and became even more interested.
Adam Wes Oh, I love that, I really do. So, Joshua, by the way, is a remarkable researcher at Harvard, and you are researching brain stem cells?
Joshua Rivera No, I study hematological cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in the Department of Data Science. So, cancer research.
Adam Wes Okay, wonderful. Thank you for that important work. Now, let us use Joshua as an example. With his sincerity—let us assume the best here—he is doing his work with humility, which means he loves what he does, right? In humility, you simply love what you do. You are like a duck in a happy pond. You are where you are meant to be, right? For him, that is cancer research. For Jacob, it is physics equations. For David, it is starting a new business in engineering and education.
So, in humility, how can we—this is where it becomes very personal and relevant to our day-to-day lives—how can we have the inward freedom to enjoy our lives? With that blessing of humility, like a child, and let go of all those layers of sedimentation that make us feel so ensnared in the social aspect.
There are many dimensions to this. First, we need to have a great deal of trust that we are enough. That being true to ourselves and doing what we love is the right thing, and that it is enough to sustain us, to realize our heart’s wishes and dreams.
There is a lot here. Now, how can we actually feel that? We may think, “Okay, that is a nice thought, but how can you feel that?” Well, when we meditate and make contact with the light—the light of consciousness, which we are going to do today—that light is the formlessness, the essence of consciousness. It is the part of us that is beyond form.
It is like a beautiful golden statue. If we evaluate that statue based on its form, certainly, someone made it look beautiful in gold, but the gold itself is valuable. The light is the gold from which we arise. It is the substance of what we are.
So, by spending time with our essence, we naturally become more humble. And it awakens intelligence. It is a wonderful way to become skilled at math. It is a wonderful way to make people feel at ease, because when you are humble...
You are holding space for others to be themselves. People sense that. This is a deeply interdimensional concept, and I recommend you spend the week writing about it. I will share the document—you can read it, contemplate it, and add to it.
You can also watch the 1982 Gandhi movie. Do things that make humility the theme of the week. If you watch that film, you will say, “Wow, that is a humble person.” Gandhi truly seems to embody humility.
It is a very important aspect of life, especially in a world where we are so bombarded. If you encounter someone who lacks humility, it pulls you—there is a gravity that draws you away from your center of humility. You might wonder, “Do I need to respond to this? Do I need to prove my worth?” You may feel them pushing you down, imposing upon you the idea that you are not worthy simply because you are as you are.
Is a second grader any less—like, you saw this beautiful girl, Kara’s daughter. She is a wonderful child. Is she any less wonderful than Joshua because she does not have a graduate degree? Of course not. That would be absurd. Or is Joshua any less wonderful than she is because he is not seven? That is equally absurd. Or, I believe she is five, actually.
So, recognizing that a rose is a rose, jasmine is jasmine, a mango, a passion fruit—they are all unique. Look at us: we are a collage of wildflowers arising from the substratum of formlessness. These recognitions are all part of humility.
Oh! Thank you, Colin. An absence of ego—yes, to put it succinctly, this is an absence of ego. And what does that mean? It means to move through life without the baggage of self-reflection. It is baggage. It is a burden.
Constantly trying to be polite, or leading with whatever is normal or good enough, or keeping checks on whether you are being evaluated by everyone else—do not be yourself! Did Michael Jackson act as himself? I think he was being himself. Great artists do this. Innocent children do this.
Would anyone else like to share something?
Joshua Rivera I think this concept, taken to its extreme, converges to uniformity, right? It becomes this idea of selflessness, of the universe experiencing itself. We are all the universe experiencing itself. We are atoms observing atoms and experiencing thermodynamics at some level, correct?
Adam Wes I understand.
Joshua Rivera I appreciate the metaphor. To me, that is the limit of what you are describing. I am listening to what you are saying—I always listen when you speak, Adam.
Adam Wes Thank you.
Joshua Rivera The limit of what you are saying is this form of selflessness—this uniformity is the limit of a universal level of selflessness, in the sense that we are all the universe experiencing itself.
Adam Wes And there is an ontological—a philosophy of being—overtone there. Or perhaps undertone is more accurate, which is that each thing is brought into existence unto its own value. Every moment is complete. This is perfect as it is. It experiences itself as it is.
Things are as they are. There is no need for the ego, no need for self-reflection, no need for evaluation. That is where I return to this whole marketplace of mutual exploitation. Evaluation happens there because I might say, "I want so-and-so to like me," especially on romantic levels, where it is really pronounced. I want so-and-so to like me, so I am going to get big biceps—because she likes big biceps, right? All of this is so corrupt. Do we not want people to love us for who we are?
And is love not a subjective capacity? If I love somebody because of something, that is just exploitation. But if I love all unconditionally, because I am love, that is a completely different field. That does not mean I am going to hire anyone for my business, because not everyone is qualified, but that has nothing to do with loving them.
Nor does it mean that I am going to be hired as the top gardener—I do not know enough about gardening, right? So, hello!
Mandy Wes Oops, can you hear me?
Adam Wes Thank you for asking. Yes, I can hear you.
Mandy Wes Well, I wanted to say, first, I like the etymology I found for humility, which is "low," as in low to the ground, close to the earth. It refers to lowliness or being humble, which derives from humus—H-U-M-U-S—meaning earth.
Adam Wes Oh, wow!
Mandy Wes So, when you were talking about egolessness—I think it is a both-and situation, because in order to be in the world, we need to have a set, personified self, you know?
Adam Wes In yoga, they call that an ahamkara. You have to have the created self.
Mandy Wes Right, so we have to—many people call that ego. And we can also be humble, and not have inflated egos, so to speak.
Adam Wes Yes, and this is where it gets a little tricky. We need to make the distinction here.
Mandy Wes We need…
Adam Wes If you do not have any sense of orientation in the universe, that is insanity. You need a paradigm; you need to know how to orient yourself in the universe. But where evaluation comes in, and worthiness—that is where it becomes complicated.
I suppose the reason I start with, "what does it mean to love yourself?" is because there is so much confusion around that. You hear people say, "love yourself, love yourself." But why? Why should I love myself? People say, "because I am good at this, or I have this quality." No—love yourself unconditionally.
That is a different matter. People are trying to balance judging themselves with recognizing their good qualities. But to enter into that unconditional state and know yourself as you are is something else entirely.
Self-love really merges with the love of others when one stops evaluating. Worthiness.
It is interesting, because even the word humility is somewhat tainted by a misunderstanding of what humility means. It means earth. Thank you for that, Mandy. I did not know that. It means earth, because it means to be low, not high, not above everyone else. But truly, humility means that everyone is what they are.
Know what you are, be what you are. And that should be enough.
Colleen And, may I just say—
Adam Wes Dad.
Colleen Michael Jackson—I do not think he loved who he was, because he changed to be somebody else so people would like him. If he had just stayed as who he was…
Adam Wes Do you know that he did that so people would like him? I do not think that is why he had plastic surgery.
Colleen You do not think so?
Adam Wes No, I think he did it for the same reason girls dress dolls. I think he liked how it looked. He did have a skin condition, and he had a lot of money. I think he genuinely liked the way it looked. I do not think he really cared what people thought. Not if I consider it in isolation, but if you look at him as a whole, I see an artist who is free.
And, yes, he had some distorted views about body image, perhaps some body dysmorphia, but I do not see that as the essence of his energy.
I do not think he cared if people liked him. There was one time he said that he eventually read the tabloids and saw that everyone thought he was really weird, and he had no idea, because he was not even thinking about that.
I think he was very sincere about his music.
We had a conversation a few weeks ago about Dharma—Dharma, mastery, your art. In Dharma, we enter into humility. So, Mom, I do not know, maybe you are right. I do not know for sure; that is just my sense of it. Is that the truth? I did not know him. Maybe you are right. That is a good question.
Colleen Well, I hope you are right, because I hope he did like himself, and just wanted to be who he wanted to be.
Adam Wes I love that, yes. The kindest person in the world you are talking about here—this is my mom. Surely, he is the kindest person.
So, yes—Dharma. If you find something you love to do, whatever that may be, something in which you continually challenge yourself.
Say you are a writer, and you just want to get better and better. You might think, "I am reaching an Emersonian level here," right? Emerson is such a fantastic writer, and when you read his work, you wonder, "How did he do that?" It is truly remarkable. Or Shakespeare, or whomever inspires you—not as a comparison, but as a source of inspiration for how you can fully express yourself at the highest level.
Constantly challenging yourself—that autotelic activity, meaning an activity you do for its own sake—is a way of practicing humility.
Meditation is also a way of practicing humility, because in meditation, I become nothing. This is another aspect of humility: to become nothing.
Dare I say it, to have no self-worth. Let go of the burden—you do not need self-worth. You are what you are. You are infinitely valuable. You are as valuable as anyone else.
The burden of self-worth—this is a very spiritual realization—to say, "I know that I have no worth, that I will come and go, my life in this form is finite, these are my experiences." They are sacred because they are my experiences. It does not matter what anyone else thinks.
I can love another, I can help another, I can do what Colleen just described—wish the best for another, help them find freedom, help them find humility through compassion, empathy, and love—but I can also stand free from the entire trap of selfhood. It is a trap.
And just to say, I have no self-worth.
And you can sometimes see some of those deeply spiritual people just…
Bowing down to the flower, to the tree, to everyone they encounter. Not because they are saying, "I am lower," but because they are simply beyond that spectrum of evaluation.
So, let us see. We are about 30 minutes in, so we should probably stop soon. But… does anyone want to add anything? How about you, Kara? I am so happy to see Kara here! Welcome, Kara!
Kara McGehee: Hi.
Adam Wes Hi!
Kara McGehee: So… the self-love concept is something that I have struggled with for a very long time. Not necessarily in the sense that I struggle with it personally, but in trying to understand what the need for it really is—why it matters.
But… I think because you have a lot of love for yourself, it just does not make sense to you, am I right? Maybe so. I am really good at loving other people, and motherhood has certainly put that into a different context in a way that has been really wonderful.
But I do think that part of where that struggle comes from is the desire to have standards for one's own behavior. And to remove valuation entirely then opens up the possibility of not having standards for behavior.
I think that is where the difficulty has always been for me, because I aspire to have high standards for my own behavior—not just in an ethical or moral sense, but also in wanting to do good and be a good wife, a good mother, a good friend, all those things.
So I think when you remove valuation, you can remove ego, but I personally still have a strong instinct toward valuing behavior and states of being at some level.
Adam Wes It is interesting, because many of these things are so ineffable that it is hard to pin them down. Things are so close to each other, right? So we may be talking about different things while thinking we are discussing the same thing. What is evaluation? Well, it is different…
Like, to be in absolute humility, but to recognize, "Okay, I could be better in this way," as part of a sincere, humble effort. Maybe you are into bodybuilding, and you think, "My bicep is pretty good, but I really want to improve it in this way." That can be a humble action if it comes from sincerity rather than exploitation.
I hear everything you are saying as sincere. You just want to know, "What can I do to be a better mother?" That is love. The spontaneity of love also brings thoughts of evaluation.
But I also heard something else there, which is perhaps—and I do not think this is exactly what you were talking about, although it brought it up for me—I think many people evaluate because they want to play it safe and conform. I am not sure if that is what you were saying.
Kara McGehee: No, I think… I mean, I think it goes back to the difference between doing something as a means to an end and doing something as an end in itself. I think that humility—your actions tend to be more on that end-in-itself side of the motivation spectrum.
Adam Wes And then, you know.
Kara McGehee: Because the exploitation concept for me is always very much about means to an end.
Adam Wes Right.
And that is not to say that if you are running a business, you should not have a vision statement. That does not mean you should not have direction. That is in the present moment, right? It is more like an inspiration statement. "I am doing this because of this inspiration, because I am living in the now."
I noticed David just perked up—he is like, yes—because he is such an entrepreneur, as is Dharma. So…
I mean, you can see the intricacy here, right? It is important to know this, not just intellectually, but to live it. And if I may add just one more thing—the actions of spontaneity, of love, are… does thought really need to enter the field? To what degree is thought necessary?
Thought has its place, but thought as ego, thought as self-worth, that is not necessary. Thought as, "I need to be at this appointment today, and I need to know how to get there," that has its place. So, it is about putting thought in its right place, and letting go of all the unhealthy thought.
Right? If you are simply asking yourself, "How am I going to help my daughter be the best person she can be?"—that is a healthy thought, a healthy contemplation. All the actions of freedom, sincerity, spontaneity, and love can merge with that comprehension, that insight, and that faculty of abstraction.
So I… I do not know if that resonates with you, Kara.
Kara McGehee: No, it definitely does. But yes, as you were talking about those things, those are the directions my mind went.
Adam Wes In a way, it is a very personal contemplation, right? You have to find a way—do I feel the freedom? Do I feel the love? Do I feel the sincerity? Because, as a whole, you are it.
Oh, we lost Joshua. He had to go. Thank you, PK. So, let us do our meditation. Let me see—I may need to plug my computer in.
Music is ready.
David Parra Adam?
Adam Wes Yes.
David Parra Last time, I know the audio was perhaps too loud. The music outside was too loud, and I could not hear your voice.
Adam Wes I will turn it down a bit, yes. Thank you for reminding me.
David Parra Microphone or something?
Adam Wes Yes, it was just that when the music is too loud on Spotify, it does not calculate the sound waves quite right. They need to work on that.
Alright. I am going to… Let me see, I think I have enough… Yes. Hopefully, I will not run out of batteries. I think I have enough.
Can everybody hear the music? Okay.
So, let us stop talking about swimming. And let us get wet.
Sepanta Meibody Sorry, Adam.
Adam Wes Because he said that if everyone listened to the music, I cannot.
Sepanta Meibody I cannot listen to the music, I do not know about others.
Mr. Jacob: I cannot hear it.
Kara McGehee: No.
Adam Wes You cannot listen to it, or you cannot hear it?
Shawn Ewbank Cannot hear it.
Adam Wes Oh, okay, thank you. I thought Panta was saying, "I am not going to listen to your music."
Sepanta Meibody Oh, no, sorry.
Adam Wes I cannot listen to this music while I meditate now. Okay, can you hear it now? Alright.
Alright, so as I was saying, let us stop talking about swimming, get wet, dive in the water, and actually do it.
Guided Meditation on Humility and Heart Centering
Adam Wes Meditation is… becoming nothing.
Becoming what you are.
It is a direct encounter with essence. Formlessness.
Oof! Can you hear me back? Right.
Is my voice coming through fine?
So let us bring attention to the heart center, right in the center of the chest. Let us go to our center.
In the center.
Move toward presence. Just notice… baggage. It is self-reflection.
We want to go into such presence that there is no space—like we are going through a very thin door.
We have to…
Leave everything behind. Essence. This is the sincerity of the moment.
In meditation, we can bring a positive focus. Instead of saying, "stop thinking," bring attention to the energy field.
You will be feeling the heart center, feeling its warmth.
Its railings.
Invoking an open heart. So let us attempt to meditate on humility—to become anonymous to ourselves, to let go of all the ways that we are trying to control, trying to be… Just perceiving them in stillness and letting them go.
I stand vulnerable. That is what we are practicing.
So here I am, sitting before all of you. I am not going to try to be impressive. I am not going to try to be good enough. I am not going to try to be smart. I just am…
5-year-old ad.
You can do that, too. Just be what you are. That is self-love. And surrender to the destiny of being what you are.
This opens the heart.
Kira just arrived. Kira, we are meditating on humility—becoming completely anonymous to ourselves, becoming aware of all our sense of control, identification, and ego, and standing vulnerable to destiny as it carries us.
It is a true expression of value. Bring attention to the heart. Let the heart expand.
That seems difficult for the moment. And in humility, we accept our lack of humility. We accept ourselves as we are. And that is how we become.
Excuse me.
When we let go in this vulnerable way, you give up grasping and taking. We move into the field of accepting, of the benedictions that come of their own accord. Embrace humility, because we know it is the highest state—the highest outcome.
And with this song, let us really seek to become absorbed in the unknown. Let its waves carry you deeper, beyond the reach of the continuum of worthiness.
Each wave of the music.
Let yourself be washed.
Deeper and deeper beyond the keeping, the aching.
You did not know.
Sinking closer and closer.
Centered.
Coding to the heart.
Mission. Selfhood is an illusion. Condition. Agreed. Right as fuck.
I did not…
Art is the doorway to being unlocked.
They hurt their humility.
Freedom from self-page.
One can only assert what they are not—never what they are.
What we are needs no assertion.
You can let everything go.
We all—freedom.
It is okay to let part of your soul cry out.
Perhaps decades of holding on to selfhood are rising off of you.
Recognize your intrinsic nature as godliness. Trinity. Unassailable.
Infection. Everlasting being.
When did we all grow up? Allow yourself to be a child.
In the privacy of your own meditation, in the meditation of your own mind.
This will be our last song.
For just a few minutes, really enjoy the feeling of heart. Gentleness.
No longer having to fight for what you are not.
Bask in the power of humility, the ground of a true self.
This is the key to loving others, because we become an overflowing benediction of goodwill.
Blissfulness.
The essence of all of us is godliness, and the door is humility. Just remember that.
It is simply a matter of self-forgetfulness.
We are… so good.
Oof.
Oh, that was lovely. I hope you all had a good meditation. I had a good one.
Wonderful. Bama, would you like to share?
Reflections After Meditation and Closing Announcements
Colleen I went into… oh, gosh, I guess I needed that. I am sure my head was bobbing a lot. I did see some colors, but then I just… just saw people.
Adam Wes People. Interesting.
So, when she says, "I just saw colors," what she means is she entered into the causal planes of reality beyond the astral and saw the essence of consciousness, and she perceives them as actual colors. Wonderful. But then you saw people, which is really interesting…
Colleen Dreaming people… I am kind of dreaming about people, so I do not know where I was at that stage, but I feel nice and relaxed, so thank you so much.
Adam Wes Wonderful. And what colors did you see?
Colleen That is all—red and green.
Adam Wes Red and green, okay. Love and love, two kinds of love. The red heart and the green center.
Colleen Thank you.
Adam Wes Have a nice day, Mom.
Colleen Understood.
Adam Wes How about you, Kira? Hi.
Kira Good to see you all. I do not have anything to share at the moment.
Adam Wes Okay, thank you. Would anybody like to share? How about Ariella? And we will be done in a couple of minutes.
Ariella Okay. It was very, very relaxing and expansive. Thank you so much, Adam.
Adam Wes Thank you for being here and holding the wavelength with all of us. You hold it powerfully.
Ariella Oh, thank you. This is good. I just love it. Thank you, thank you.
Adam Wes How about you, Sean? Sean has been with me on a 10-week journey. This is week 10 of our summer cohort. Can you believe it? And he has been a very diligent student. Amazing. I love it. Would you like to share anything? You do not have to.
Shawn Ewbank I do not have any… I do not think I have anything to share.
Adam Wes Okay. Would anybody like to share? I want to congratulate Mandy for making it through the whole thing. Mandy usually drops off partway through because she is so sensitive to energy, which is a really wonderful quality, but I am glad she made it through. It is good that you are here.
Well, I think we should have at least one more person share. Kara.
Kira I will share something. Yes, it was interesting, because you… we were using that big, grand music at one point, and usually in the meditations, I will identify with that grand sound, and I will use it to expand and just enlarge and become everything.
Interestingly, this time, it was right after you were talking about something along the lines of surrendering to… I do not know, I was getting a feeling of surrender and letting go. You said something about letting the destiny carry you naturally—it was not those exact words, but something like that.
So this time, instead of going with the musical grandness, I actually let the destiny be the grandness, and I was small and just humble to it. So that was a different viewpoint.
Adam Wes I felt that with that part of the music. I felt something similar, although… it is like, from one perspective, you are small, from another, you are impersonal. You are everything. It is… God is great. I am part and parcel of God.
Kira Could you share, actually, a little bit more? You said something interesting about humility being kind of the entryway to God, or a divine experience. Oh, yes, because you were not here. I would love to hear you share a little bit more. Oh, sorry.
Adam Wes Out of the top.
Kira I missed your in-depth. Do not feel—if everybody else already knows, we can talk later.
Adam Wes Really, really briefly, humility is shedding the sense of self that obscures the impersonal essence—the essence of self, the godliness, the self that we are when we are unburdened by the imposition of egoic identifications, images, and agendas.
So, I will share the whole document. I wrote a whole piece on it, so… Thank you, Kara. Namaste.
And how about Kara?
Kara McGehee: I just want to say how much I enjoy meditating with other people. I meditate most days alone, and it is nice to have that little sense of amplification that comes with other people being involved. So thank you all for… big up.
Adam Wes Love that, I feel that too. Yes, it is like we hold a wavelength. This is Sangha, or satsanga.
The last thing I will say—satsanga means association with truth, right? So, we come together, and through that association, we hold the wavelength. We expand it.
It is hard to be a solo practitioner in a world of people bent on all the things that are not ultimate truth, right? And to sit down and make it our consecration, our focus for an hour a week—so I invite everybody, please come again. We do this every Tuesday, 6 p.m. Pacific time, same time. I have been doing this for many years now, actually.
I do not usually say this at the end—maybe that is why we have not grown—but come again! It will be next week. Recommended donation is $3 to $33, so it is totally accessible to probably most people in the world. You do not have to donate, but if you do, it is a nice energy balance.
It is also a nice subconscious anchor—there is a sense of, “Okay, I have invested in this,” and then it comes back in. So even if you just want to contribute $3, it still carries that energy and opportunity for you. And, of course, it also supports my work. Ultimately, I would love to be able to spend $1,000 a week advertising this on Meta. That way, we could grow, spread the light, spread the love, and spread humility.
My goal is to reach a point where I can truly reinvest.
And I just feel a bit funny not hearing David speak. David, could you say something? David has also been with me for 10 weeks—super sincere, absolutely amazing. I think he even translated the entire playlist.
David Parra To Apple Music? Did you literally search for everyone today? Thank you for that.
Adam Wes That is amazing.
David Parra I agree, yes.
Adam Wes And that is in our space—he made that available. So, David, if you would like to share anything, and then we will let everyone go to dinner, or to bed, or whatever it is you do at this time.
David Parra Yes, three things. The first one, and the most important—I love the shirt. I really enjoyed it.
Second, it is really good to see more people here. I really enjoyed seeing Kara again. Kara, you have great energy. It is nice seeing you again, and Sepanta, you too—great energy. Sean, I already know you, so… you are great, man.
And now, the third one is, after this—this is the 10th week of doing these meditations—and I am now feeling more and more… real. I do not—well, it is not exactly “real,” I am trying to—well, I am managing the energy, kundalini. I am experiencing different things. This time it was with my hands, and I had this feeling in my head.
So, this is very new for me, but I know that it is making me healthier and stronger. I can feel it.
Adam Wes I love it.
David Parra So you are going to see me next Tuesday, and the next one after that.
Adam Wes Yes, good, good. I love it, David. You want to start moving the energy. The transformation happens in the body. If you get your chakras activated, they really do things. And it is not make-believe.
You meditate on your navel center, you meditate on your third eye—your consciousness changes. If you do it for 10 years, it is an unrecognizable difference. It is like, “Whoa, I did not even know I had that. Am I human anymore? What is this thing that I am doing that is usually thought of as make-believe?” It becomes a very real part of your daily experience.
So, yes, today we focused on humility, and David, what you might have noticed is that humility is a part of energy. A lot of times you go to an energy class and they say, “Focus on your chakra.” But if you are not humble, you can only take it so far. That is why you see these powerful knight beings—or maybe you have heard of them—who seem to have this simultaneous integration of energetic embodiment and the virtues. They are remarkable, because they are one.
David Parra Hmm.
Adam Wes You cannot be truly powerful if you are really mean. You can be powerful in a certain way—you can certainly have social power—but the power in your body and your heart radiates, and you feel like that music. That power comes from aligning yourself with the power, the ambient power of the universe—the goodness. You become a hand, a mechanism for good, a part of the mechanism of good. Hands of good.
So, thank you, David. Namaste. Thank you, everyone. Thanks for staying a little longer, and maybe one request for next week—if you could try to be on time.
I know everyone has things going on, but if you can, we would speak to the universe with a slightly different energy. We would say, “Universe, we are impeccable.”
I am doing my best, so I invite you to do that too. But please, do not skip coming if you are late. It is okay. We would rather see your face.
So… Namaste. Woo! Humility! Spread it!
Share it! Spread it!
Alright, it is nice to see everyone.
Oh, thank you, Ariella. Goodbye, David.
Ariella liked the shirt. Cool.
Line… of the goddess.