Essay Edition
This essay is a near-verbatim adaptation of the live spoken teaching, edited only for continuity and readability.
As I look out at our group, I feel a deep appreciation for the consistency with which we gather. Each of us brings the clarity and mutual understanding that comes from many previous meetings, and our discussions are beautifully interrelated. This foundation allows us to build upon what has come before, drawing from a shared well of insight. I am grateful for this, and I thank everyone for being here so consistently.
Today I want to share something wonderful—one of the most powerful ways you can change your life. Perhaps some of you are already practicing it to some degree. It is an indispensable and integral spiritual principle, reflected across millennia of traditions from around the world. It is time-tested, cosmically approved, and very important: simplicity.
Simplicity is a profoundly effective and essential spiritual principle. There are many nuances to it, and exploring these can help us implement simplicity deeply in our lives, in our minds, and in ourselves, both inwardly and outwardly.
I must admit, I could not think of what I wanted to talk about today until just 45 minutes ago, when it became clear. I wrote a five-page document, dictated quickly in a burst of inspiration. I am excited to share its essence with you, and I will share the document itself afterward.
In seeking to become more conscious—which is really the goal of spirituality—we want to abide in spirit at all times. Whether computer programming, having a conversation, or exercising, to yoke your awareness with eternity is to be free while in the world. Not ensnared or enmeshed in the world like a net, but liberated from it.
When we do this, we remain connected to spirit, staying in a state of purity and clarity. Simplicity helps us do that because it prevents us from becoming too involved in ways that are not efficient. When you simplify your life, you provide yourself with the conditions to minimize complexity and the requirements to attend to that complexity.
Simplicity happens both within and without. Practicing it within means simplifying the way we think—our opinions, judgments, attachments, and concern with how others interpret us. All of these create perturbations in the mind. A mind that is aloof and empty does not move as much; it does not have to attend so much to the complexities of one's humanity. In transcending our humanity and moving into a superhuman kind of simplicity within, we create stillness.
This allows us to live with extreme efficiency. Everything we do becomes intentional and effective. We may use words more carefully; each word is purposeful. You may notice that an enlightened being, or someone very spiritual, says less but says more with what they say. This comes from the simplification of the inward state—they have simplified their mind.
People often ask me, what does math have to do with spirituality? Math is exactly this: utter simplicity. A fractal, with all its beautiful parts, comes from a single seed of recursive definition. There are five Platonic solids, each with perfect symmetry, existing eternally through time. That is God keeping His room clean. It is like keeping your room clean—your space.
Have you seen a Zen monastery or the Zen aesthetic? It is utterly simple: a few rocks stacked on top of each other, tatami mats, and that is all. These sentiments are woven throughout spiritual practice.
So today, I want to discuss simplicity and consider how we can apply it in our lives. Where are we wasting energy? Where are we dissipating energy, getting unnecessarily ensnared in life? The goal is to make life a walking meditation.
Mathematics as a practice structures our mind to become highly refined and simple. We may understand very complicated things, but really, they are not complicated. People usually think of mathematics as this complicated discipline, but it is not. Einstein’s most renowned equation, E equals MC squared, uses math learned before fifth grade—multiplication. Simplicity.
Mathematics is utterly simple, but it requires discernment and perception. Can you see the mathematical truth clearly and simply as self-evident? That is where our practice of mathematics comes in. It structures our mind and intellect to be refined, streamlined, and simple. That is enough about mathematics, but you can see how it connects.
One can be simple in life in many ways. For example, you could change your oil every quarter, every 3,000 miles—a single rule, done with consistency. That simplicity brings peace of mind and streamlines your life. My dad’s rule is to change it every quarter or every 3,000 miles. If you live by that, you live like a computer program. This is another reason I appreciate computer programming—programmatic perfection. That rule could be put directly into code, and you could live by it. Then it is set aside; you never have to redesign your principles. The principles you live by become part of your guiding collection.
Integrity is living by principles. Each moment, you are empty, but your actions are governed by a set of rules, a set of principles. This principled living produces simplicity as well. Defining your principles—if you sit down and ask, "What are the principles I live by?"—let those govern your life. Then you do not have to be the chooser in every moment. If you are the chooser in every moment, you cannot be in a meditative state. You need to act spontaneously as an expression of your principles.
That is a different way of living. If you imagine the great sage or the great spiritual being as an archetype, you probably imagine them living that way. They live by principles—not by head-turning indulgences. They are not pulled in every direction by their attachments and aversions. That is not spiritual. Spiritual is single-minded focus, directed attention surrendered to destiny. You live out that destiny in accordance with a set of principles that will evolve and grow over time, becoming more refined and streamlined as you mature.
Let us consider some more mundane examples. You can simplify the number of things in your house. If you have a house with lots of things, try to clear it—clear out the stagnation of your drawers, your closets, your extra things you do not need. There is a kind of tech aesthetic I like: all we need is one robe, one bowl, and one laptop. The one robe, one bowl is a Zen thing. With a Mac, all we need is one laptop; with an iPhone, one laptop, one pocket computer. You can get one Tesla, one electric car, everything is electric, everything is in the software, and it keeps it clean. There is less, and we revel in less, because less feels like freedom. One robe, one bowl, one laptop—the modern monk.
Simplicity also happens in relationships. If you have a relationship that is not streamlined—too much misunderstanding, too much judgment, too much attachment—these make relationships a source of dissipation of energy. The complexity in a relationship is not healthy. A relationship can be very streamlined, and there are many ways to make your relationships that way.
Often, we need to streamline our inner state. Attachments, aversions, opinions, and judgments all create complexity in our relationships. Not only inwardly, but if you have a relationship and say, "I do not have an opinion to call my own," that is powerful. Everyone has a political opinion these days, especially in the United States. What if you just let it go? What if you just say, "I do not have an opinion"? People have preferences, fighting over what they want the world to look like, but what if you just treasure your dispassion?
As long as people are not being hurt, there is a sort of stepping back and letting truth speak for itself. There is a difference between opinion and truth. Opinion is self-serving. Truth is usually not very convenient. The truth is that we should honor everybody's freedom and have compassion; those are part of truth. There are self-evident truths. Truth is very simple. Opinions and judgments are things to work through.
One of my favorite enlightened beings says, "I have no opinion to call myself." Do not project onto me what you think I have opinions about. I have no opinions to call my own. That is beautiful, because an opinion is not a fact. It is an imposition on fact.
Simplifying our lives can also mean saying less. Saying less is powerful. If I had the wrong audience now, perhaps what I said would have just upset a whole bunch of people. But because I do not have an opinion one way or another, it is easier. If you say less in most situations, it keeps things clean. You are not opening yourself to misunderstanding. When we speak, say what is necessary. Many people just talk and talk, out of conditioning, because their mind is going so fast. But if you learn to meditate and still the mind, you say what you need to say, what is relevant, and no more—because you value the stillness.
Many people do not value stillness, and so they do not value simplicity as a principle to stillness. Simplicity, in a way, is its own value. When we meditate, we taste freedom. We experience that freedom beyond all the pulls of the mind inside, and all the pulls of culture and our responsibilities outside.
Another important aspect is to limit your responsibilities. In business, for example, you can run a business with your pinky finger if you do it right, or you can become ensnared in the business from morning until night, with it constantly running through your mind. In business, systems are key. For instance, someone fills out a form on your website and receives the right emails at the right times—complete system design. That is simplicity. You set it up, and you let it run. This is very different from someone who designs a business and then finds themselves constantly in the rat race.
Businesses that are designed well begin with a simple seed of direction. They have a mission statement, a vision statement that can guide perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. They have principles that guide the way their products are made, even after the founder has passed away—consider Steve Jobs as an example. They have values—the things that they, their community, and their customers find valuable in their products. We have our own set of values; for example, simplicity is one of our values. Or perhaps you do not appreciate simplicity, and maybe this is not the right place for you. It does not matter. We do not have to convince anyone to like what we like, because it truly does not matter, and that is part of simplicity. Let people live their lives. Do not try to control them or persuade them to do something simply because you like it. We appreciate simplicity because we value meditation, essentially.
A business has roles, responsibilities, values, principles, a value proposition—all of these elements are clear. You put them in one document, and that is the entire business. Everything arises from that foundation. This is what you might call manageable complexity. Manageable complexity arises from simplicity. For example, if you are a computer programmer, the half-million lines of code that make up your program are designed in a way that is manageable to navigate. There are modules of code, a hierarchy. If it were just lines and lines of spaghetti code, nobody would understand it, and it would not be possible to create something like the Mac operating system or Windows.
Plants and nature embody utter simplicity. The forest is simplicity itself because it is not imposed upon by human interpretation. It is as it is, and it maintains balance. The plant grows from the seed; every leaf is designed from the seed. One way to experience simplicity is to have many plants in your home and to spend time in nature.
Diet is another area to simplify. You can eat with greater austerity—perhaps just fruit, or the same foods at the same times every day for a season, and then change it with each season. This is very monastic, but you can live in the world and still live this way. It builds power. You feel empowered by this because you are not dissipating your energy. You are retaining it, cultivating it, building it.
You can also have simplicity in your attire. I have four pairs of these jeans. I like four pairs of white jeans, I wear all white, and I have many of the same white item. Then I wake up, put it on, and I do not have to manage the complexity, the subtle energetics, or all the considerations involved in choosing every type of clothing. I also have a selection of colored clothing that I choose from when needed. Sometimes I think, "I need a light blue shirt today because things are getting messy, and I feel tranquility in blue," or something like that. But the whole idea is to simplify your life by streamlining your possessions, your attire.
Your schedule can also be simplified. You can schedule appointments all over the place, or you can have blocks of time. For a long time, I tutored. I used to have blocks of time for tutoring. I would work with a student at this time, this time, or this time. Choose one of those. If you cannot fit into one of those slots, I cannot work with you. There is a sense that we simply do not match, because I am not going to bend my life out of shape to accommodate one person, miss my sunset meditation, and throw everything off. Simplicity and consistency enable simplicity.
This approach allows us to refine our lives so that we can attend to all the many things that are required. Your routine may have ten elements that keep you in the state of mind you want, but those ten things are nicely streamlined throughout your life, and it is not an effort—it is a joy.
Love is the greatest simplicity. When you love, there is an emptiness—a simplicity—in your being. Some people I know who are very loving describe themselves as plain. And plain—it is not that you are plain, it is that you are whole. You are content. There is a great deal of simplicity in love, because we do not foster the complexity of the self. We have negated the self—the abnegation of the self. That allows one to be their essence. Being is love, the essence of what we are. The simplicity, that substrate, that block of being—ontologically eternal—is love.
The one who needs nothing, who has compassion because they do not cling, is untouchable. They are not easily offended. Why? Because inwardly, they are beautifully simple. Love and simplicity go together.
I hope this helps you—that you are able to enrich your life, perhaps alleviate some suffering, and find inspiration through these principles we discuss each week.
Many of us are quite spiritual, so there is a good chance we have already been practicing this, probably since we were children. When I was five years old, I was doing this. Intuitively, we engage in these practices. We sense there is some power in them. It is good to understand them as well, so we can take them further.
That is simplicity: a half-hour talk, a half-hour meditation. One-to-one. One of the simplest ratios is the golden ratio. Imagine you take a stick and cut it somewhere. If you cut it in the middle, you have two equal parts. But each small part has a different relationship to the big part. The big part is twice as large, so we have a 1-to-1 and a 1-to-2 ratio. We have both. If you cut it so there is a small piece and a big piece, in such a way that the small is to the big as the big is to the whole, we have streamlined the consistency. There is only one ratio: the small to the medium, and the medium to the whole. That is one ratio, and it is approximately 0.618. The golden ratio is, specifically, simplicity expressed.
Simplicity gives rise to manageable complexity. I want to thank my teacher, who always talks about manageable complexity arising from simplicity.
Let us meditate. Meditation is the greatest simplicity. In meditation, we erase the self. We abide in a transdimensional state—a state that is so simple. It holds intentional manifestation in form. Go somewhere where there is no self-reflection. Let us try to do that today.
It is always good to begin these meditations by bringing our attention to the heart center. I really want to feel the heart, to awaken energy in the heart. You can simply give it your attention. You can place your hands on it as I am doing, or put your finger on the heart center. I want to get it active, vital.
As we sit here, try to let go of all your responsibilities, of all your sense of doership. Let go of the roles you play in your relationships and in the world. Become utterly simple. Primordial. Dissolve into the space. Let go of the sense of self. Submerge in humility, in impersonal existence.
Continue to feel the heart. Let it accumulate a substance of love. When we feel the heart, we are engaging in a positive focus. We are letting all the complexity fall away. Let it work itself out in this simple...
Continue to feel the heart, letting it accumulate a substance—warmth, wholeness, completeness. That is love. Giving it our attention is all that is needed. This accumulation, too, evolves according to its own possibility.
While we abide in the heart, invite the light and luminosity. That is the essence of the mind. Turn your attention to that luminosity. Astrally, we are staying centered in the heart, but we are placing our attention in the planes of light—the causal dimension, which is more essential than the astral. You can see this luminosity with your eyes closed, or you can simply wait for it, allowing everything to dissolve. Allow that luminosity to wash you away. You purify the aura in the body.
We are moving to the parallax, the center, which, at times, universes pivot around—a pivot point, the center of the wheel. Order that light. Bring that light. Let your body merge with that mother, into the Lord. Let it wash through you.
A useful chakra meditation, for simplicity, is the crown chakra. Metaphysically, it is self-transcendence. The crown chakra is right on top of the head. Let us bring our attention there while we keep the heart open and maintain our connection to the light. Simply feel and awaken the energetic—bioelectrical, biomagnetic, or visual—right on top of the head, just a little bit outside the head. It is above the head. You can feel the tingle in the scalp, but it goes even higher than that.
Continue to feel the crown opening, and simply bring your attention to that location. Self-transcendence. From this stillness, very gently take a moment and look at the paradox of time. You are always now, and yet, through the riverbanks of that now, flows the river of time with its currents, movements, and change. Let us just say that you are the now. Bring attention to the heart center. Notice your freedom. Stillness.
And when you are ready, come out of the meditation.
The most important thing, and the main reason we share, is to share the subtle, mystical experiences that we have. It helps us map them back to our conscious experience right after our meditative experience. Did you see any light? Did you feel relaxed, comfortable, see colors—red, purple, green, yellow, waves of light, textures? Sometimes, there is just nothingness, no light, just nothingness. That may be the clear light, which looks like outer space and is the deepest light. It is a glimpse of reality—a spontaneous nirvana experience, where you go into the quintessential light of reality, which appears as clear outer space light, where there is no self-reflection or sense of self.
Sometimes, in meditation, you may see colors influenced by your surroundings, or you may find yourself struggling, trying to bring simplicity into parts of your life. There is an old self with its own way of doing things, and you are trying to break that and install a new way. We do not change overnight. Karma is like a giant ship—it has momentum and inertia. Through refinement of our routine, continually over time, we can transform ourselves. We want to renew our karma, essentially.
You can add little things. It is hard for the human mind to just change. As much as people feel they are in control, you can only change little things. For example, start talking completely differently—it is hard. But you can eventually retrain yourself. Start with the little things. When you brush your teeth, pick up your toothbrush with the same hand. Things that may seem almost silly or inconsequential, but you can become conscious of how you really want to live your life, and build in things that are consistent. If your morning routine becomes a bit longer—perhaps you meditate, then read for 15 minutes, then do Tai Chi for 15 minutes, or you meditate and then do mathematics for 15 minutes or even an hour—just allow it to become longer and more consistent.
Consistency brings us back into a particular state. Just keep working on it. It takes time. For twelve years—one Jupiter cycle—you can overhaul your entire karma for this incarnation. One year is a good amount, too. Scopes of the cycle.
Sometimes, as you listen, you may feel that you were meant to be here because of things happening in your life. Things sometimes synchronize beautifully. Everything is really politically connected. Meditation may spark ideas, and you may find yourself writing many things you wanted to say during the week but could not. Let that flow.
Some of us may not have grown up with simplicity inside, but come to feel the concept later in life. It is never too late to enjoy and understand it deeply.
When we meditate together, one of the mechanisms at play is entrainment. If you have a group of springs connected to a piece of wood, all moving in different directions, they will eventually entrain each other and start oscillating at the same frequency. When we meditate, one of the mechanisms of Darshan is entrainment. I am providing a Darshan, but the group is also providing a Darshan. Each of us is in a particular state of mind. What you focus on, you become. Your inner state entrains to the inner state of the other.
Art is a transmission of entrainment. In art, we perceive something someone created from their heart, from their state of mind. They manifested a piece of art. That piece of art contains the stored power of their state. When we look at it, it invokes that state within us. In yoga, a darshan means sitting with the teacher, who has energy. The more time we all spend in light, in love, in heart, in kindness, in metaphysical energy, the more that energy is transmitted. You can even meet with someone who is really unwell, and sometimes, if I meditate with someone who is not feeling well, they will see and feel immensely better if I am truly in an open, expressive state of that energy.
This is what my teacher did for me, and still does, and what his teacher did for him. We are spreading the light. Practice your meditation. Study the Bhagavad Gita. Focus on the greatest things. When you do all of these things, you spread the light, because you become an embodiment of it. You tend to your own garden, which is something every individual in humanity must do in order to shift the consciousness of humanity.
Namaste. Thank you for being here. We do this every Tuesday at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and I hope to see you all next time.
Full Transcript
Opening Remarks and Group Continuity
Adam Wes Oh, what a nice script.
David That is true.
Got to. Thank you for staying up, Scott.
P. Just…
Hmm.
Little N as usual. Take a few minutes, too.
Arrive.
I am actually going to grab my battery. Mom.
Are you all set for you?
Alright, Ellie.
You are good.
Bring attention to the ball.
Park Center. Namaste, everybody.
I am just looking out at our group and feeling—I really appreciate the consistency with which we are attending, and all of us have many previous meetings to draw from. I feel there is a great deal of clarity, consistency, and mutual understanding.
We can draw from many of our discussions and build upon them. They are very interrelated. I think that is wonderful. So, thank you for being here so consistently, everyone.
Today, I have something wonderful I would like to share. It is one of the most powerful ways you can change your life. Perhaps some of you are already doing this to some degree. It is one of the most indispensable and integral spiritual principles to live by, seen and reflected through millennia of traditions from different parts of the world. It is time-tested and, if you will, cosmically approved. It is very important. And that is simplicity.
Simplicity is a profoundly effective and essential spiritual principle to live by. There are many nuances to it that can be explored so that one can deeply implement it in their life, in their mind, and in themselves, both inwardly and outwardly.
I have actually—you may not believe this, but I truly could not think of what I wanted to talk about today, and just 45 minutes ago, I became clear on it. I wrote about a five-page document. Sometimes this comes quickly, so I am very excited. In fact, I am just going to share it with you. I dictated the entire thing, so it should be properly verbatim.
I will share my screen. Alright, so I am going to skim it and bring up key points, because there is a lot here, and I will be able to share this document with everyone as well.
In seeking to become more conscious—which is really the goal of spirituality—we want to be able to abide in spirit at all times. It does not matter if you are computer programming, having a conversation, or exercising. To be yoked—to yoke your awareness with eternity—is to be free while in the world.
Not ensnared in the world, not enmeshed in the world—these are good words for it. Enmeshed, perhaps, is the most appropriate word. Not enmeshed in the world like a net, as if it has trapped you, but to be liberated from the world.
When we do this, we are able to stay connected to spirit and remain in a state of purity and clarity. Simplicity helps us to do that, because simplicity prevents us from becoming too involved in ways that are not efficient.
Let me see—it is a little bit difficult for me to read through this while I am talking. When you simplify your life, you provide yourself with the conditions to minimize complexity, and the requirements to attend to that complexity. In fact, you know what? I have a bullet point list down at the bottom—perhaps I will use that.
Alright, I am just going to go through these, and yes, that is why I created these bullet points.
So, I am never really able to read this. I will just send this to everyone afterward and speak from what comes through, because otherwise it interferes with the flow.
Inner Simplicity and Spiritual Efficiency Simplicity happens both within and without. When we practice it within, we are simplifying the way we think—our opinions, judgments, attachments, concern with how others interpret us. All of these things create perturbations in the mind.
A mind that is aloof, empty, does not move as much. It does not have to attend so much to the complexities of one's humanity. In transcending our humanity and moving into a superhuman kind of simplicity within, we create stillness.
This allows us to live with extreme efficiency. Everything we do becomes very intentional and effective. We may use words more carefully; each word we use is intentional and purposeful.
Usually, you may notice an enlightened being, or someone who is very spiritual—they say less, but they say more with what they say. This has a lot to do with the simplification process of the inward state. They have simplified their mind.
Now, people often ask me, what does math have to do with spirituality? Well, math is exactly this. Math is utter simplicity. A fractal, with all its beautiful parts, comes from a single seed of recursive definition.
Haha, Sam—Sam is like, yes, right? There are five Platonic solids, each with perfect symmetry, existing eternally through time. That is God keeping His room clean.
Right? So, you know, this is like keeping your room clean. That is another thing—your space.
Have you seen a Zen monastery or the Zen aesthetic? The Zen aesthetic is utterly simple. A few rocks stacked on top of each other, right? Tatami mats, and that is all that is in the room. These sentiments are woven throughout spiritual practice.
So today, we will discuss simplicity and really consider how we can apply that in our lives. Where are we wasting energy? Where are we dissipating energy, getting unnecessarily ensnared in life? The goal is to make life a walking meditation.
Mathematics as a practice structures our mind to become highly refined and simple. We may understand very complicated things, but really, they are not complicated. People usually think of mathematics as this complicated discipline, but it is not.
Einstein, the most renowned physicist—his big equation is E equals MC squared. The math involved in that is learned before fifth grade, right? It is multiplication.
E equals M times C times C. You do not even need the exponent right there.
So, simplicity—mathematics is utterly simple. But it requires one to be discerning and perceptive. Can you see the mathematical truth clearly and simply as self-evident? That is where our practice of mathematics comes in.
It structures our mind and our intellect to be refined, streamlined, and simple. That is enough about mathematics, but you can see how it connects. I thought it was very appropriate for me to make that connection for us.
One can be simple in their life in a number of ways. For example, you could change your oil every—
Who did we lose? Oh, Scott has to go to sleep. We could change your oil every—
Quarter. Every 3,000 miles, and that is almost a rule—a single rule. You just do it with consistency. That simplicity brings peace of mind, and it streamlines your life.
That is my dad's rule: change it every quarter or every 3,000 miles. If you live by that, you live like a computer program. This is another reason why I appreciate computer programming—because computer programming is programmatic perfection.
That rule right there could be put directly into JavaScript or Java, and you could live by it. Then it is set aside. You never really have to redesign your principles. The principles you live by become part of that collection of guiding principles.
So, integrity is living by principles. Each moment, you are empty, but your actions are governed by a set of rules, a set of principles. This principled living produces simplicity as well.
So, defining your principles—Daniel, if you sit down this week and say, "Okay, what are the principles I live by?"—let those govern your life. Then you do not have to be the chooser in every moment. If you are the chooser in every moment, you cannot be in a meditative state. You need to act spontaneously as an expression of your principles.
That is a different way of living, right? If you imagine the great sage or the great spiritual being as an archetype, you probably imagine them living that way. They live by principles—not by head-turning indulgences. They are not pulled in every direction by their attachments and aversions.
That is not spiritual. Spiritual is that single-minded focus, that directed attention you have surrendered to your destiny. You live out that destiny in accordance with a set of principles that you live by, which will evolve and grow over time, of course. They will become more refined, more streamlined as you mature.
Practical Simplification in Daily Life and Relationships So, let us go with some more mundane examples. You can simplify the number of things in your house. If you have a house with lots and lots of things, it is good to try to clear it. Clear out the stagnation of your drawers, your closets, your extra things that you do not need.
There is a kind of nice tech aesthetic I like. All we need is one robe, one bowl, and one laptop. Sam would love that. I do not know if you know—the one robe, one bowl is a Zen thing. It is like, all you need is one robe and one bowl. But, you know, with a Mac, all we need is one laptop, or with an iPhone, one laptop, one pocket computer.
iPhone—you know, we can really simplify our lives. You can get one Tesla, one electric car, everything is electric, everything is in the software, and it keeps it clean. There is less, and we revel in less, because less feels like freedom. Right?
I think that is really funny. One robe, one bowl, one laptop? That is good, right? It is the modern monk.
So, let us see…
Simplicity also happens in relationships. If you have a relationship that is not streamlined, there is too much misunderstanding, too much judgment, too much attachment. These make relationships a source of dissipation of energy. The complexity in a relationship is not healthy.
A relationship can be very streamlined, and there are a lot of ways you can make your relationships that way.
A lot of times, we need to streamline our inner state. When we have attachments and aversions, opinions and judgments, these all create complexity in our relationships.
So not only inwardly, but if you have a relationship and you say, "I do not have an opinion to call my own," that is powerful. Everybody has a political opinion these days, especially in the United States. What if you just let it go? What if you just say, "I do not have an opinion"?
People have preferences, they are fighting over what they want the world to look like, but what if you just treasure your dispassion?
As long as people are not being hurt—which sometimes happens in political situations—there is a sort of stepping back and letting truth speak for itself.
I am not saying do not let truth speak for itself. There is a difference between opinion and truth. Opinion is self-serving. Truth is usually not very convenient, right?
The truth is that we should honor everybody's freedom and have compassion, and those are a part of truth. There are self-evident truths. Truth is very simple. Opinions and judgments, a lot of times, are things to work through.
One of my favorite enlightened beings says, "I have no opinion to call myself." Do not project onto me what you think I have opinions about. I have no opinions to call my own, he says. I just think that is beautiful, because an opinion is not a fact. It is an imposition on fact.
What else can we say? Let us see. So, simplifying our lives…
One thing you can do is say less. Saying less is powerful. For example, if I had the wrong audience now, perhaps what I said would have just upset a whole bunch of people, right? But because I do not have an opinion one way or another, it is easier. If you say less in most situations, it keeps things clean.
You are not opening yourself to misunderstanding. Another thing is, when we speak, to say what is necessary.
A lot of times, people just talk and talk and talk, and there is no streamline to it. They are just talking out of conditioning, and it makes them feel good for some reason, because their mind is going so fast.
But if you learn to meditate and still the mind, you say what you need to say, what is relevant to say, and no more. Because you value the stillness. This is the thing—a lot of people do not value stillness.
And so they do not value simplicity as a principle to stillness. Simplicity, in a way, is its own value. A lot of people do not value that.
When we meditate, we taste freedom. We get to experience that freedom that is beyond all the pulls of the mind inside, and all the pulls of culture and our responsibilities outside.
Another important aspect is to limit your responsibilities. For example, in business—business is a particularly significant area in which to apply simplicity. You can run a business with your pinky finger if you do it right.
Or you can become ensnared in the business from morning until night, with it constantly running through your mind.
So, in business, systems are key. For instance, someone fills out a form on your website, and they receive an email. They get the right emails at the right times. Complete system design—that is simplicity. You set it up, and you let it run.
This is very different from someone who designs a business and then finds themselves constantly in the rat race, running on that hamster wheel.
Businesses that are designed well begin with a simple seed of direction. They have a mission statement, a vision statement that can guide perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. They have principles that guide the way their products are made, even after the founder has passed away—consider Steve Jobs as an example.
They have values—the things that they, their community, and their customers find valuable in their products. We have our own set of values; for example, simplicity is one of our values. Or perhaps you do not appreciate simplicity, and maybe this is not the right place for you.
Or, you know, it does not matter. We do not have to convince anyone to like what we like, because it truly does not matter, and that is part of simplicity. Let people live their lives. Do not try to control them or persuade them to do something simply because you like it. We appreciate simplicity because we value meditation, essentially.
Let me see…
So, a business has roles, responsibilities, values, principles, a value proposition—all of these elements are very clear. You put them in one document, and that is the entire business right there. Everything arises from that foundation.
This is what you might call manageable complexity. Manageable complexity arises from simplicity. For example, if you are a computer programmer, the half-million lines of code that make up your program are designed in a way that is manageable to navigate. There are modules of code. There is a hierarchy.
If it were just lines and lines of code—what some people call spaghetti code, jumping from here to there—nobody would understand it, and it would not be possible to create something like the Mac operating system, or Windows, or any such complex system.
Let me see if I am missing anything... There you go. I have covered quite a bit there.
Plants and nature embody utter simplicity. The forest is simplicity itself because it is not imposed upon by human interpretation. It is as it is, and it maintains balance.
The plant grows from the seed. Every leaf is designed from the seed.
So, one way to experience simplicity is to have many plants in your home and to spend time in nature.
Diet is another area where you can simplify. You can eat with a greater level of austerity—perhaps just fruit, or the same foods at the same times every day for a season, and then change it with each season.
Do you see what I mean? This is very monastic, but you can live in the world and still live this way. It builds power. You feel empowered by this—because you are not dissipating your energy. You are retaining it, cultivating it, building it.
You can also have simplicity in your attire. I have four pairs of these jeans. I like four pairs of white jeans, I wear all white, and I have many of the same white item. Then I wake up, put it on, and I do not have to manage the complexity, the subtle energetics, or all the considerations involved in choosing every type of clothing.
I also have a selection of colored clothing that I choose from when needed. Sometimes I think, "I need a light blue shirt today because things are getting messy, and I feel tranquility in blue," or something like that. But the whole idea is to simplify your life by streamlining your possessions, your attire.
Let me see...
Your schedule can also be simplified. You can schedule appointments all over the place, or you can have blocks of time. For a long time, I tutored. One example is that I had—well, I do not have this at the moment, but I used to have—blocks of time for tutoring. I would work with a student at this time, this time, or this time. Choose one of those. If you cannot fit into one of those slots, I cannot work with you.
There is a sense that we simply do not match, because I am not going to bend my life out of shape to accommodate one person, miss my sunset meditation, and throw everything off. Simplicity and consistency enable simplicity.
This approach allows us to refine our lives so that we can attend to all the many things that are required. Your routine may have ten elements that keep you in the state of mind you want, but those ten things are nicely streamlined throughout your life, and it is not an effort—it is a joy.
Alright, we are almost done here. Let me end on one point. Love is the greatest simplicity. When you love, there is an emptiness—a simplicity—in your being.
Some people I know who are very loving describe themselves as plain. Thinking of you. And plain—it is not that you are plain, it is that you are whole. You are content. There is a great deal of simplicity in love, because we do not foster the complexity of the self.
We have negated the self—the abnegation of the self. That allows one to be their essence. Being is love, the essence of what we are. The simplicity, that substrate, that block of being—ontologically eternal—is love.
The one who needs nothing, who has compassion because they do not cling, is untouchable. They are not easily offended. Why? Because inwardly, they are beautifully simple.
So, love and simplicity go together. Namaste, and thank you, everyone, for being here with me to talk about this. It is not much fun contemplating this by myself. It is a little fun, but it is not as enjoyable as having a group of people to discuss it with.
I hope this helps you—that you are able to enrich your life, perhaps alleviate some suffering, and find inspiration through these principles we discuss each week.
Anybody have any questions? Ariella, I would love to hear from you. I feel like you... You do not have to speak if you do not want to, that is perfectly fine. After this, we will meditate on simplicity.
Ariella Simplicity sounds really good to me. There are definitely things I can make more simple in my life. Thank you, thank you.
Adam Wes I think many of us are quite spiritual, so there is a good chance we have already been practicing this, probably since we were children. When I was five years old, I was doing this. Intuitively, we engage in these practices. We sense there is some power in them. It is good to understand them as well, so we can take them further.
Oh, thanks, Ariella.
Alright, shall we meditate, or does anyone else want to share something?
Bye.
Let us see... Oh, that was exactly half an hour. Wonderful.
Because we started about six minutes late.
That is simplicity: a half-hour talk, a half-hour meditation. One-to-one.
You know what is one of the simplest ratios? The golden ratio.
That is what makes it special. Here is what the golden ratio is: imagine you take a stick and cut it somewhere. If you cut it in the middle, you have two equal parts.
But each small part has a different relationship to the big part. The big part is twice as large, so we have a 1-to-1 and a 1-to-2 ratio. We have both.
Yes, sir?
Eslam I love that you mentioned the Fibonacci sequence, because there is this spiral that keeps expanding from just simple rules. It is recursive, it is recurring, right? And I see love as one.
And thus, Leonardo da Vinci's "simplicity is the utmost form of sophistication." I see that one is love, and love is unity and oneness.
I see this as a recursive fractal—an entity or a being that recurs and fractalizes everywhere, manifesting itself in so many different shapes and forms. You see that in compassion, affection, and in relationships.
You see that in one planet, one solar system, one galaxy.
For me, this is the understanding of love. It is one—unity, wholeness, connectedness, interconnectedness.
And that is how it is—simple and complex at the same time.
Adam Wes I love it. It is simple, and it gives rise to manageable complexity.
And I just want to thank my teacher. Those are partially my teacher's words. He always talks about manageable complexity arising from simplicity.
So, for everyone, what is the golden ratio? Just think of it visually. We take a length—a string—and we can cut it anywhere we want. If we cut it in the middle, we have two equal parts, but the whole is twice as large as each part. So we have introduced two different ratios.
If we cut it so there is a small piece and a big piece, in such a way that the small is to the big as the big is to the whole, we have streamlined the consistency. There is only one ratio: the small to the medium, and the medium to the whole.
That is one ratio, and it is approximately 0.618...
So the golden ratio is, specifically, simplicity expressed.
Alright.
Let us meditate.
Experience the simplicity in music theory, simplicity in all kinds of wonderful things in this world.
Where is... Spotify? There it is.
Alright.
Can everyone hear it fine? Oh. Can you hear it at all? Oh, you can hear it.
Meditation is the greatest simplicity.
Adam Wes Because in meditation, we erase the self. We abide in a transdimensional state—a state that is so simple.
It holds intentional manifestation in form.
Adam Wes Go somewhere where there is no self-reflection. Let us try to do that today.
Hmm...
It is always good to begin these meditations by bringing our attention to the heart center. I really want to feel the heart, to awaken energy in the heart.
You can simply give it your attention. You can place your hands on it as I am doing, or put your finger on the heart center. I want to get it active, vital.
And as we sit here, try to let go of all your responsibilities, of all your sense of doership. Let go of the roles you play in your relationships and in the world.
Become utterly simple. Primordial. Dissolve into the space.
Where are you, King? Source.
Let go of the sense of self. Submerge in humility, in impersonal existence.
Continue to feel the heart. Let it accumulate a substance of love.
When we feel the heart, we are engaging in a positive focus. We are letting all the complexity fall away. Let it work itself out in this simple...
Continue to feel the heart, letting it accumulate a substance—warmth, wholeness, completeness. That is love.
Giving it our attention is all that is needed. This accumulation, too.
Evolve according to its own possibility.
While we abide in the heart, invite the light and luminosity. That is the essence of the mind. Turn your attention to that luminosity.
Astrally, we are staying centered in the heart, but we are placing our attention in the planes of light—the causal dimension, which is more essential than the astral.
You can see this luminosity with your eyes closed, or you can simply wait for it, allowing everything to dissolve.
Empower. Universe. There is a brilliance. Seasons to resist its brightness. Allow that luminosity to wash you away. You purify the aura in the body.
We are moving to the parallax, the center—Hannah—which, at times, universes pivot around. A pivot point. The center of the wheel.
Order that light. Bring that light. Does the world merge with that mother? Your body into the Lord. Let it wash through you.
A useful chakra meditation, for simplicity, is the crown chakra. Metaphysically, it is self-transcendence. The crown chakra is right on top of the head.
Let us bring our attention there while we keep the heart open and maintain our connection to the light. Simply feel and awaken the energetic—bioelectrical, biomagnetic, or visual—right on top of the head. Just a little bit outside the head. It is above the head.
You can feel the tingle in the scalp, but it goes even higher than that. It is at the bottom. I think you will enjoy this one.
Continue to feel the crown opening, and simply bring your attention to that location. Self-transcendence.
From this stillness, very gently take a moment and look at the paradox of time. You are always now, and yet, through the riverbanks of that now, flows the river of time with its currents, movements, and change.
Let us just say that you are the now. Bring attention to the heart center. Notice your freedom. Stillness.
And when you are ready, coming out of the meditation. Namaste, Mom. Are you sure?
Post Meditation Reflections and Personal
Experiences Colleen Mr. Adam, thank you very much. I enjoyed your talk on simplicity. My middle name is Simple. And—
Adam Wes Calling simple requests.
Colleen And, yes, I would love to hear from other people.
Adam Wes Well, the most important thing, and the main reason we share, everyone, is to share the subtle, mystical experiences that we have. Because it helps us map them back to our conscious experience right after our meditative experience. So, did you see any light?
Colleen Well, yes I did, and I felt very relaxed, and—what is the word? Just comfortable. And, yes, the colors I saw are my usual red and purple, and then blotches of green and some yellow came in today.
Adam Wes Nice. Wonderful. And the waves of light?
Colleen And the green and yellow were sort of wavy.
Adam Wes Was there a texture?
Colleen No.
Adam Wes Pay attention to the texture next time.
Colleen Okay.
Adam Wes There are usually different qualities to each of those lights, like sparkly light, OPLS supply, different kinds.
Colleen No, just the green and yellow were sort of like—do you know what, not Play-Doh, but that goopy stuff? That is what it reminds me of.
Adam Wes Okay. Like, jello-like? Nice. Namaste, Mom, I am glad you liked that.
Colleen Thank you. Namaste, Adam.
Adam Wes Thank you for being here. Love you. Ariella?
Ariella My meditation was very simple, I just—there was nothing, no light, just nothingness.
Adam Wes Beautiful.
Ariella Yes.
Adam Wes You may have seen the clear light, actually.
Ariella Okay.
Adam Wes Which looks like outer space, and it is the deepest light.
Ariella Okay…
Adam Wes You might have actually connected with that. When you say this, I think, oh, maybe she had a—In Japanese, it is called a Kensho experience, it is a glimpse of reality.
Ariella Mmm.
Adam Wes And it is basically a spontaneous nirvana experience, where you go into the quintessential light of reality, which appears as clear outer space light, where there is no self-reflection or sense of self.
Ariella Yes, no, there was no sense of self.
Adam Wes Beautiful. Nice.
Ariella Thanks.
Adam Wes I am going to stay. Hey, VIN, would you like to share? VIN is in the autumn cohort, I would love to let him have a chance.
Vinh I opened my eyes a little bit, then closed them again, and I saw Ariella's jacket—the teal color. I started thinking, am I actually seeing color, or am I just being influenced by her jacket?
Because she is right in the middle of my screen, you know, on the little window, so…
Adam Wes No, I have to put Ariella in the middle. Nice, Ben, thank you. Nice to see you here. Namaste.
Adam Wes How about you, David? Good to see you. How is your practice going?
David Hey, Adam. Hi, everyone.
This was a good topic for me—simplicity. Wonderful. I figured you would resonate with it. Yes, I have been looking at it; it is very me.
But I struggle to bring simplicity into some parts of my life. I can see the benefit, but when I try to implement it, I just cannot control the other part of me, which is distractions.
For instance, managing my time—the example you gave of doing the same thing, that is something I have been trying to do. Right now, I am trying to transform myself.
I am working on bringing this state of meditation and simplicity into the rest of my day. I am trying, but it has not been easy. There is an old self that has its own way of doing things, and I am trying to break that and install a new way.
So that is where I am today, and my meditation was a bit like this. I was struggling.
Adam Wes Development.
So perhaps review the sermon on karma?
David Hmm.
Adam Wes And the Sermon on Routine. Both of these play a role. We do not change overnight. Karma is like a giant ship—it has momentum and inertia.
Through refinement of our routine, continually over time, we can transform ourselves. We want to renew our karma, essentially.
David Hmm.
Adam Wes What you can do is add little things. It is hard for the human mind to just change. We do not really do that. As much as people feel they are in control, you can only change little things.
For example, start talking completely differently—it is hard. If someone says "like" all the time, they cannot just stop. It is very difficult. But you can eventually retrain yourself.
So, start with the little things. When you brush your teeth, pick up your toothbrush with the same hand.
Things that may seem almost silly or inconsequential, but what you can do is become conscious of how you really want to live your life, and build in things that are consistent.
If your morning routine becomes a bit longer—perhaps you meditate, then read for 15 minutes, then do Tai Chi for 15 minutes, or you meditate and then do mathematics for 15 minutes or even an hour—just allow it to become longer and more consistent.
I do not know if you remember from our classes, but we always began the same way with different forms of counting: essential counting, basic counting, counting sequence, and novel counting. That consistency brought us back into a particular state.
So, just keep working on it. It takes time.
David Thank you.
Adam Wes Truly, for 12 years—one Jupiter cycle. Twelve years is a good amount of time to overhaul your entire karma for this incarnation.
David I am not even joking. In India, they say it takes 12 years.
Adam Wes One year is a good amount, too. Scopes of the cycle.
Tum.
Daniel, thank you for being here. I see you really listening and taking notes beautifully. That is wonderful. I hope this is…
Daniel Well, I just want to say thank you, because, as I told you once, there are times I feel like I was supposed to be here because of things happening in my life.
You share such wisdom with us. Thanks, Chris. I do not know, it is even a bit strange how beautifully things sometimes synchronize.
Adam Wes Yes.
Daniel And we will…
Adam Wes Everything is really politically connected.
Yes.
Daniel It inspired my mind, so most of the meditation I was just thinking and thinking. I started writing many things—things I wanted to say during the week but could not. Then something just sparked as I heard you, and ideas kept flowing.
Beautiful.
Adam Wes Keep it up. Good job. I love it. And thank you for being here. Your sincerity, your energy, your love, and your purity—I think we all feel that, just with you in the corner over there. That is really lovely.
Thank you, Daniel. Daniel is in Mexico, and so is David. Wonderful. Sapanta…
Would you like to share briefly, and then Sam? And then we will all go after that?
Sepanta Hi. First, I would like to express my appreciation, as Daniel said, for sharing this wisdom. Perhaps if I had listened to Simplicity…
If I had attended this session two years ago, I could not have interpreted or understood it the way I do now. Unlike what you mentioned—growing up with that simplicity inside of you—for me it was different. I have been feeling the concept for the last two years, so I really enjoyed the topic, and I am deeply thankful.
Adam Wes You are such a sweet person. I love it. Look at my mom's smile. She is thinking, that is Sepanta, he is so great. And where are you located, by the way?
Sepanta At the moment, I live in Malaysia, so here it is Wednesday morning.
Adam Wes Oh.
Sepanta Yes.
Adam Wes Well, thanks, Sepanta. It is so nice to have you here. It is just wonderful.
Sepanta Thank you for providing the opportunity, Adam. Thank you so much.
Adam Wes You are welcome.
Sepanta Hi, Sam! Namaste! And namaste, Samantha.
Eslam Thank you, Adam. And yes, thank you for this wonderful space. I feel like my meditations here are a thousand-fold. They feel multiplied when I come here. Perhaps it is just a permission slip, because there is some intentionality that comes with showing up for ourselves, showing up for the community, showing up for the world.
I see the interactions. Earlier, when you said we do not have to get entangled, it is something that Ram Dass loved saying: when we see people complaining or struggling, we do not have to get entangled with their patterns. We can simply have an open heart, and we become anchored in awareness. We are anchored in the light of conscious awareness and who we truly are, not being caught in their mental chatter.
But then there is also the other side, where I see awe, joy, beauty, and wonder. There is wisdom and intelligence. The collective wisdom of the group contributes to love, to the enrichment of what love is and what love means.
And I would like to end with this: I have seen so much, I have felt so much. Again, because of that ten-thousand-fold multiplication of meditation. But my conclusion, or the outcome I arrived at from this session, is that when things are simple—such as, I have hundreds of books, but I have my favorite ten books that I love to revisit and reread, like the Kabbalah and the Bhagavad Gita—these works are dense and condensed with richness and meaning. They have vivid detail that allows you to improve and optimize on the second reading.
If you read something the first time, you are wise, you are intelligent. But you gain more wisdom and intelligence on the second reading. You are able to extract even more wisdom and intelligence from it, because the Kybalion says, "The lips of wisdom are closed to the ears of understanding." If you do not have the ears of understanding, you do not have the ability to comprehend the wisdom that is spoken.
So, I love the discipline that we all have, I love that consistency, and thank you, Adam, for creating this wonderful space.
Adam Wes Thank you, everyone. One of the reasons why meditation is stronger here is because of the word "entrainment." Are you familiar with this word, to entrain? It is somewhat unusual.
If you have a group of springs connected to a piece of wood, and they are all moving in different directions, but they are all centered on one spring at the bottom—they are all on a platform that is on a spring, and the springs are moving in different directions—they will eventually entrain each other. They will start oscillating at the same frequency, in the same way.
When we meditate, one of the mechanisms of Darshan is entrainment. I am providing a Darshan, but the group is also providing a Darshan. Each of us is in a particular state of mind. What you focus on, you become. Your inner state entrains to the inner state of the other.
Art is a transmission of entrainment. In art, we perceive something someone created from their heart, from their state of mind. They manifested a piece of art. That piece of art contains the stored power of their state. When we look at it, it invokes that state within us. So, I believe that is a very important word.
A darshan in yoga means that you go and sit with the teacher, and they have energy. There is also a metaphysical aspect to this. The more time we all spend in light, in love, in heart, in kindness, in metaphysical energy, the more that energy is transmitted. You can even meet with someone who is really unwell, not feeling well, and sometimes, if I meditate with someone who is not feeling well, they will see and feel immensely better if I am truly in an open, expressive state of that energy.
This is what my teacher did for me, and still does for me, and what his teacher did for him. We are spreading the light.
So, practice your meditation. Study the Bhagavad Gita. Focus on the greatest things. When you do all of these things, you spread the light, because you become an embodiment of it. You tend to your own garden, which is something every individual in humanity must do in order to shift the consciousness of humanity.
So, namaste, everyone. Thank you for being here. We do this every Tuesday at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and I hope to see you all next time. And Colin West, my dad, thank you for being here, Dadio. He does not like to share, so…
So, goodbye, Mom! Goodbye, Savannah, goodbye, Ariela, and hello to our friend who just showed up for a moment. Namaste.
Ariella Namaste. Thank you.
Adam Wes Thank you, Ariella. Namaste.