Selective Exposure

Adam Wes It is another word for spiritual community.

When we focus on something, we tend to align with the values, desires, and mentality of that tribe, person, community, or country—even a TV series, whatever it may be. We begin to resonate with that particular set of values, and different sets of values offer different benefits.

When we focus on truth, or spirituality, or the sentiments of the highest—enlightenment, yoga, Buddhism, Taoism—it does not matter what denomination, as long as it is the true essence of that religion or spiritual practice. We begin to resonate on a higher frequency. It is difficult to practice spirituality without being selective about your exposure.

Which means limiting exposure to things that are perhaps violent movies, or things that do not align with how you want to feel. Ultimately, it comes down to asking: how do I want to feel? What paradigm do I want to live in?

Especially in today's age of instantaneous communication and ubiquitous exposure to all kinds of content, it is very easy to overlook the fact that we are quite sensitive. What we focus on, we feel, and we begin to believe in that way.

I think some of us may have a greater sensitivity. For example, if I watch a movie—James Bond or something similar—I will feel like the character for a good hour after the movie. And if I write, I will write from that state of being. So, if I ever want to feel like James Bond, it is quite easy. I just put the movie on for a bit, and then I feel that masculine energy.

Actually, James Bond has some qualities that are virtuous, so sometimes we can draw from that, though certainly mixed with other aspects.

So, satsang. Sat means truth, and sang means association. This is all part of what I like to call selective exposure—avoiding certain things, and also intentionally exposing yourself to others. That could be coming to an event like this, where we are focusing on truth, meditation, humility, kindness, love, intelligence, and refinement in various forms.

Or simply putting on a YouTube video of Osho speaking—although Osho has a somewhat mixed interpretation, if you listen to his words, they are really beautiful. Krishnamurti is another example. Or a documentary on Ramana Maharshi.

These are truly beautiful things, and if you took a sabbatical for a weekend, for example, and only allowed yourself to be exposed to those things, I would imagine you would experience quite a significant shift in your paradigm.

Another aspect—there is the negative, there is the positive, and then there is also the effect of being in solitude. Solitude is another factor that helps you to feel the expanse of the universe, the eternality of the moment, the beauty of silence, to slow down. That is another part of this.

So, selective exposure, but also erasing all activities and being in the stillness. All of this is an indispensable part of the practice.

I think it is not usually discussed, although it is very much intrinsic in the word satsang. It is usually not talked about as much, overtly, in spiritual practice—the importance of it. You can either raise yourself through your associations, or you can lower yourself through your associations.

I think when we are good people, we sometimes say, well, we have a lot of compassion, right? So we say, I am not going to avoid anybody. And it is not about avoiding people; it is about really being aware of how you are affected by whatever you focus on, and how you want to feel.

There are so many ways we can direct our attention. If you direct it in a number of very taxing ways, you will simply become very taxed. Maybe that is, for some people, their power. I have a friend who is essentially running an NGO, and he is constantly in some of the poorest parts of the world. I think it is one of his superpowers to remain himself in those places, but I see it taxing him as well, actually.

And my sister, Jenna, right here, she has done a lot of that, and I think she would probably agree that you can experience the taxing energy of that.

But let us stay a little more focused—focused on the positive. So, who are some people? Well, I almost considered giving the talk today on an individual, which is a fun thing to do. Maybe we will have a bit of a hybrid.

If I were to pick an individual, it would be this lovely man. By the way, this is my number one recommended book by him: On Love and Loneliness by Krishnamurti. I have read it so many times. Every time I want to touch the paradigm, you see what I mean?

I want the paradigm to be like the water that comes out of my shower, so I can just bask in it—a life with meanings that inspires me and makes me feel true to myself.

So, on love and loneliness, let us do a divination. That means I will just open the book and read a paragraph. A divination is a way of accessing subtle intentions, somewhat like tarot cards, and you can do it by simply opening a book.

Would you say love has no awareness? So, this is a dialogue—let us see if this makes sense out of context here. Would you say love has no awareness? It is love. It is not that love is aware that we are all one.

It is like a perfume. You cannot dissect or analyze the perfume. It is marvelous perfume, and the moment you analyze it, you dissipate it.

Oh, that is quite potent, right? That is actually very potent for us math people. There is a tendency to be a little too cerebral. We want a well-structured mind, but we also want to avoid analyzing everything, because some things are a little more mysterious and not meant to be analyzed in the moment, but rather felt.

So that is just a little page there. Another book by him that I really love—this book is great for people who have children around, or who want to feel the energy of being a child. These talks were given to schools, and many of them include questions from, for example, a five-year-old asking him something, and he responds with a really direct answer. It is actually quite funny sometimes, but also very powerful, because he will say to a five-year-old, "Do you love your mother?"

Adam Wes It is really interesting the way he puts it, because he asks, "Well, if you love your mother but not your father, is that love at all?" He brings these beautiful questions to our attention.

So, "Think on These Things." This book has greatly informed my pedagogy, which is the teaching method I use both as a teacher and in my classes. For people like Jacob, I have even suggested certain ideas from here, since he is a teacher and took my mentorship program to become a mentor.

"Education and the Significance of Life" is a unique book, because I believe it is one of the only ones that is not just a transcription of his talks. He actually wrote this one.

And "Freedom from the Known"—even the title is empowering. Freedom from the known. Perhaps I will give that a little explanation. The known is bondage. The known is the past. This is very much his philosophy: direct perception of the nature of consciousness.

We are immersed in the past, and we cannot see the present because the past is the filter through which we see and interpret the moment. Everything becomes an image that is a reflection or a filter of the past. We seek freedom from that—freedom from our past with all its impressions, freedom from our trauma, from our ideas of things, from our judgments and opinions—so that we may see life as it is, in its suchness.

So, Krishnamurti—reading is one way. You can watch talks; there are so many available on YouTube. Free talks by a myriad of people who were in enlightened states of awareness. Listen to their words, focus on their words.

If you are Christian, you could read Jesus' words, or if you simply appreciate Jesus, or if you are Jewish, you could read the Torah and really look into the power, purity, and insight of what is spoken there. If you want to read the Quran, any of these texts—this is selective exposure.

What else? Let us see. You can go places. I live here in Venice Beach, California. Attending events where people who value truth congregate—temples, things like that.

And while I do not want to focus too much on the negative, I think the negative is perhaps the more significant part, which is to be very careful about what you expose yourself to.

Yes, Sam, you are funny. Cat videos—yes, that is a good one. I completely agree. Cats and little baby chicks can be lovely. But just exposing yourself to whatever is out there can be very taxing.

Be careful on Instagram, careful with swiping. Swipe, swipe, swipe—random things. That is usually not good for your spiritual energy.

So, any questions, everyone? Namaste. Or any questions or suggestions? Maybe you can enrich this, because sometimes when I do these talks, I need this right now. I need a little more selective exposure, and so it is enjoyable to come together and say, "Oh, well, this is something that is important," and I am just going to reiterate that, share it, and deepen it for myself.

It is good to delete some of the apps from your phone that you have gotten in the habit of checking every time you reach a stoplight, because they are designed to program us that way.

Colleen Adam? When you started off, you mentioned watching certain movies and so on, and it is interesting because of you and another member of your family, Jenna. I feel like I have been taught by the two of you, and so now I cannot watch the movies that I used to watch. I can only watch certain things.

I just cannot do it anymore. So, basically, I have stepped back from anything that is violent or negative and unpleasant. I just want to thank you, Jed. I just want to watch relaxing, calming things.

Adam Wes Love it.

Colleen Spiritual things, just things that make you feel good.

Adam Wes Lovely. Well, you always were pretty good about the movies you selected, I think, more than just about anyone I know. Maybe that is why.

Yeah, Jen and I are hypersensitive and aware of these things, that is true. I love that you do that.

Ariella I think it is also really important what we expose our kids to—the movies and programs.

Adam Wes Oh yes, absolutely. You know, I was studying sociology the other day. I need to have a better understanding of sociology, too, to help people be open to these things.

One of the things that I learned is that people mimic values and desires. It is interesting—one of the things we mimic and learn is what to desire, what to value.

So, when you watch a movie that is inherently competitive, for example, that is not a spiritual principle or sentiment. To be competitive—in spirituality, life is a very personal experience. We live for ourselves.

In fact, I saw Krishnamurti speaking the other day, a recording, and he was asking a girl, "When you study mathematics, do you do it for yourself?" And of course, the truth is, she almost certainly does not. Most people study mathematics to get a grade, because they are supposed to—even professors, to enjoy it, there is usually an element of ego involved. But if you do it just because it is perfection, it is enjoyable, it is beautiful, it feels good to your mind and your spirit, then that is the right attitude.

But if you watch a movie, most movies are imbued with Western principles of competitiveness. Even if you watch a seemingly benign movie, right? So, it is great to be selective. Movies are a great way to be selective in your exposure.

Just think, a few hundred years ago, if you were to see a face talking, it was simply someone in front of you. When we watch a movie, we are forming our tribe in our mind. These people may be actors, but to our subconscious, they feel like our world. Technology has made it so it is there, but it is not really there.

So, there are a lot of great movies. Have you seen Christopher Robin with Winnie the Pooh? That is just something that comes to mind right now. Winnie the Pooh has so much wisdom in that movie—it is actually really, it is like, wow, that is perfect.

So, there are a number of movies you can watch that are not overtly spiritual, and yet they have spiritual principles. And then there are ones that are overtly spiritual as well.

Adam Wes But Ariella, thank you. Yes, children—this is important for us, and for anyone who has friends, parents, or children they want to share this with, or students, or teachers. I think this is all very important.

I would like to offer a computer programming metaphor: it is almost as if we are hardware, and we can run any software we like. What you focus on is the download process. When you focus on something, it downloads automatically, and we start running that software. So… run good software.

Sepanta Meibody If you do not mind, I wanted to say something to Adam.

Adam Wes I would love to.

Sepanta Meibody Yes.

Adam Wes Here, see.

Sepanta Meibody Dad.

Adam Wes I am getting Spence's beautiful energy just listening to the intonation of his voice. Thank you so much. Everyone, we are going to get two lessons at once—what you have to say, and also the intonation, the timbre of his voice. It carries a signal, like a hidden signal underneath as well. So, yes, thank you, Savannah.

Sepanta Meibody I appreciate it. When you were talking about selective exposure, the idea came to my mind that people are a part of our relationships—our partners, our friends—and we connect to each other. The interaction between your mom and you was a very beautiful example of dancing, this mutual selective exposure that you have towards each other.

I know that you are here, son, I know, but the connection that you built could be a very good example of this selective exposure.

Adam Wes I believe.

Sepanta Meibody When you were talking about these things, I was thinking about how people can affect each other in their path by choosing each other. Suddenly, your mom and the interaction between your mom and you just made it so deep. I just wanted to say that was really beautiful. That was so beautiful.

Adam Wes I love it. You know, I am truly blessed by the divine to have the perfect parents. No, they are. They are the perfect parents. And my dad is here too, by the way. That guy, Colin, right there, hiding behind the camera? I see. That is my dad.

So, what an honor to have my parents show up and value what I have to say, be supportive, and—

It is—

And for people who do not have the perfect parents, it is also true that there is somebody else perfect coming for you. We are here to love, lifetime after lifetime. The people we love—ultimately, that becomes many, many people across the universe.

Shared values are a big factor, right? When people feel that they facilitate in each other a flowering of their truth, those are the friends you want. Friends who light up when they see you, because they are excited by the alignment.

I cannot believe I almost forgot to talk about this—curating your friendships. Family is a little more difficult. You may or may not have aligned family, and you do not get to choose who your family is.

Curating your friendships can be a painful process sometimes. Sometimes, when people really get on the path, they realize they have to have some space from some of their long-term dear friends, and that can be a difficult thing. But it is also an honest reflection of an honest understanding of where one is at in their life.

So, I actually put together a document, which I think is shared on the ashram in the main area, which delineates nine values that I would suspect most of us share. I call them the Nine Jewels. They are basically the things that matter to us, that cause us to be resonant.

If all you care about is fast cars, and all I care about is feeding the homeless, we may not really be meant to be friends. Now, there is nothing wrong with fast cars—they are great—but it is good to find what are the commonalities between people.

So, yes, my mom and I, we share a lot, and she is like my first teacher. And my dad, too.

Sometimes we end up, cosmically, with the right family, who really shows our values. I think that can actually happen a lot, because I think there is a metaphysical gravity that happens between people who are meant to be with each other.

So, thank you, Sepeta. My time is at 6:30. Does anybody want to share anything? And then we will do a meditation? Well, this was—

You see, I was actually feeling pretty depleted right before this, energetically, for some reason—physically. I almost canceled the class, but when I come and sit with everybody, there is a new energy. That is what association with truth and alignment can do. It can actually awaken new energy in you, because the heart says, okay, the direction is correct. Now I can run with it and have a good time.

Still feeling a little funny, but I am okay. Does anybody want to say anything? Andrea! I like you, Andrea! I do not think we have ever—

Andrea P Bye!

Adam Wes Hi!

Andrea P So, I had been in one of your sessions, but with a friend, so you did not see me.

Adam Wes Oh.

Andrea P I have followed you since then, but on Tuesdays, I go to my dojo, so I—it is at the same time. That is why I cannot join. But today, I said, okay, I am not going to go, I will go on Sunday, and I will connect to—

Adam Wes Thanks for choosing.

Andrea P Yes.

Adam Wes Karate, or some other martial art?

Andrea P No, same Buddhism? But they call it Dojo? I do not know why.

Adam Wes Yes, oh, I love Zen Buddhism. Yes, I guess you could call it a dojo. I think that is appropriate. Nice. Lovely.

Andrea P Yes, I am from Mexico, but just to add to what you were saying, I think it is—I do not know if it has happened, and if it is the same, but for me, it happened with feminism. Once you start to get very deep into it, it is not that you only want to select some things, but when music or movies are not in tune with your ideology or what you think, it clashes.

Andrea P I always say that feminism ruined Mexican music for me. Not all Mexican music, of course, but it does ruin a lot of things—though I still love it. I think it is similar when you embark on a spiritual path. It is not just about choosing certain things; you also begin to reject others, even if you do not necessarily want to. When something crosses your path, you feel inclined to move away from it.

Adam Wes Thank you for sharing that. You have made me realize there is a very mathematical structure to this. There is a topic in mathematics called discrete mathematics, which is all about inclusion and exclusion—this, but not that. Have you ever seen the two circles that intersect in the middle? That intersection is foundational to discrete mathematics.

So, in a way, we are engaging in a discrete mathematics structure ourselves. If anyone wants to really explore the experience of attracting some things while avoiding others, or limiting exposure to certain things, this is one way to connect your mathematical contemplation to it.

And thank you, Andrea. Is it Andrea, or Andrea? Either is fine? Okay.

Music is another very important way to practice selective exposure. You could put on some vibrant Indian music with tabla, or perhaps some African choir music. Sometimes it is the words that matter, but sometimes it is simply the energy of the music.

It is good to be aware of these things. There are a few more subtle aspects I should mention. For example, what grocery store do you shop at? Does the store have the right energy for you? What businesses do you choose to associate with?

Do you prefer Nike or Adidas? Perhaps neither feels quite in alignment, but you can use your intuition to decide. You might say, "I am not going into Walgreens anymore. I am going to shop somewhere else, because every time I go there, I feel..."—something is off.

It is the energy of the building, the company, the people—each business has its own particular energy. Where you eat, where you shop—it all matters. Once, my teacher even suggested that I buy certain stocks to stay on a particular wavelength. If you buy a share in a company, owning that stock makes you a part of it.

These are subtle, metaphysical, even occult methods of pivoting your mind within the infinite possibilities of consciousness. And we want to remain aligned with enlightenment.

It is a gift when you connect with enlightenment and feel the sentiments of someone who has consecrated their life to something greater. It is not easy to feel that. That is what these books do for me.

You want to feel that. You want to feel that what matters is enlightenment. Now, maybe you are thinking, "Adam, it does not matter to me." But when you do feel it, you recognize, "Oh, that is a high state," you know?

It is like—could I feel like the prophet? I do not feel like the Prophet, but I would like to know what the Prophet feels like. So, how can you feel like the Prophet and remain open to something different?

Of course, we could stay the same our entire lives, but that is not very adventurous. So now, we can feel like the prophet—in meditation. That would make a nice t-shirt: "Feel like the prophet." Alright.

Well, yes, that was a wonderful topic. One of my favorites. So, let us meditate. Perhaps just a simple, still meditation—put on some good music.

Yum, dum-dum. Zing…

Okay, I am putting on music. If you ever do not hear the music, it probably means I forgot, like last week. So, if I forget to share it—can everyone hear it?

You know, clothing is a powerful way to gravitate toward people. It signals something. You see I am wearing this tunic right now, and it is white. When you walk around, it is easier to find people. It is not a superficial thing.

Adam Wes It is more about the energy. That energy is conveyed, and you can easily find others. You can wear black—the same idea. But the key is intentionality.

I hear your thoughts, and… go beyond thought. Touch something more real than an idea.

A thing. Phenomenal.

We are just taking a moment, reaching out—to all the many people in the world who resonate with what you love. For whom, perhaps…

You share…

A commitment to something greater. Just feel their presence. Spiritual community.

Meditation can be more than stillness—it is a feeling. It is an energetic… fortune. Feel the energy.

The body… around the body.

Spy. Funny. Head. Play with the energy.

Awaken yourself metaphysically. Feel the energy of the group helping to clear the space. And simply the energy from within.

A layer of our biology is the qi, or the kundalini. Bring awareness to that life force energy that animates the physical body.

What would a world of total kindness, gentleness, and love feel like? Community.

It does not have to be the old world, but your world. Let that be your energy right now. And let that kindness, consideration, gentleness—let it dissolve you into your existential source, into the love.

It is your nature, a bliss. That is your being.

We are somewhere in time. Somewhere in space. Those are within the sun. There is a brightness within your mind. If you give it your attention, do not resist its brilliance. That is the light I speak of. Allow it to wash over you—to eternity. That is its brightness. Purify. Vitalize and enrich your energy. A method of absorption is to become. The method of meditation is to become more absorbed, so that meditation becomes a natural state of freedom. Through absorption and light, we bask in the bliss of our own existence.

We can build the expansion of the heart.

It is like a hearth, surrounding us. We bask in its warmth—these orbs of your own heart, created—that metaphysical spirit.

You are a magical being of radiant love.

You cannot be that—directing our attention—hardness.

It is expansive, a quality. It is as if we are generating love, a substance. It accumulates, permeates.

This will be the final song of this meditation. So, revel in the love that you have generated—that we have.

Get it together. Made it to the now.

And if it feels right, you can take a deep breath and mindfully turn your attention back to the world and its contents—time and its transformations.

Colleen.

Colleen Well… You are going to think I am crazy.

Adam Wes Yeah, nice.

Colleen So it was Andrea—is that how you say your name? I saw an image of Andrea on the sidewalk, and I could not hear what she was saying, but you were very passionate about something. That is what I saw, that image. Is that not crazy?

Adam Wes Wow.

Andrea P It is!

Colleen I have just seen you! Anyway…

Adam Wes You are picking up something very connected to her.

Andrea P Whoa. That is crazy. Great.

Colleen And, I definitely… the one piece of music with piano that I like—I definitely see different colors with different music, which I just realized. So, this one was really dancing with me. It was yellow and pink, and they were combining, and then going away, and combining, and going away. Then when the next piece of music came along, it was different. It was purple.

Adam Wes That is the Mozart love.

Colleen Yeah?

Adam Wes I was just saying, that is a Mozart-level genius right there. Keep going.

Colleen I will pay more attention and see if it happens again, but yes, so…

Adam Wes Well, I did not mean to cut you off, you were saying there was another song.

Colleen I had another image of waving to two helicopters—I do not know where that came from.

Adam Wes Waving to them?

Colleen Yes, two helicopters were taking off, and I was waving to them. That is when I saw Andrea on the sidewalk.

Adam Wes So she has light, she has…

Colleen I am going cuckoo!

Adam Wes Well, you know…

Colleen Yes, man.

Adam Wes Thank you, namaste, Mom.

In some people's practice, they use imagery to interpret energy, so they will see certain archetypes. It is not something that I actually do, although I think I probably do it a little bit. People will feel into something and they will say, "I saw a cup, and the cup had a ruby on it," and these things are all expressions of energy.

It sounds like you are having an energetic interpretation—your mind is interpreting certain energies. I mean, two helicopters, that is interesting. Andrea, passionate, which I think we can all imagine—passionate about something. So, it sounds like you connected with that. Well, thank you, Mom. Namaste.

Good job with the light. And the light is obviously a very, very significant mystical experience. So, hi, Ariella!

Ariella Hi. Wow, I… I completely… lost. I do not know, I just use the word "spaced out." I do not know where I was, I was not… I do not know, it is like I was asleep, it was…

Adam Wes Like deep sleep.

Ariella Yes.

Adam Wes Yes. Very good. Nice.

You may be having Kensho experiences every week, which…

Ariella Brett Kinsha?

Adam Wes In Japanese, there is a word—K-E-N-S-H-O. It means a glimpse of ultimate truth. It means that you are seeing the impersonal aspect of existence.

Ariella True.

Adam Wes Dissolution of the ego.

Ariella Wow.

Adam Wes Perhaps you are having that.

Ariella Thank you.

Adam Wes Well, namaste, Ariella. Good job. Nice. I love it. Thanks for bringing that into the field here. Assuming that is what it is, it sounds like that is the case. How about you, Sam?

Thanks for being here every week, Sam.

It is wonderful to see your face so consistently, or at least most weeks. It is lovely.

Really interesting.

Eslam Omar This week's topic is amazing. It is rather fitting because, you know, selective exposure and selective engagement.

And by meditation… I resonate with Colleen, because you are going to think I am crazy, but I was actually chasing after Elon Musk and trying to fight him over the pollution of the environment. So the helicopters might have been my helicopter chasing his helicopter. I am sorry for destroying.

Adam Wes But…

Eslam Omar I remember it is about selective exposure and selective engagement, so I do not have to worry about who is running the world. All I have to worry about is running mine, so I go back to a relaxing lake, clear blue sky, and I am at peace again.

Adam Wes Beautiful. Lovely. Thank you.

Andrea, since you are the special guest today, it seems…

Andrea P I am not very good at this yet. I keep going in and out, but at one point, I pictured this. One of my friends—he is in the hospital, his mother is… it is thick, and so I felt that he was calling me, and I was going to the hospital. It felt pretty real. That was nice.

Adam Wes Wow, sounds like everybody is having quite… astral journeys. The astral plane is the plane of energy. It is kind of like a dream space, and you can navigate it. It is where you would do astral projection, or see interesting creatures and aliens and things like that. Or your friend, taking in connections—psychic, clairvoyance, things like that. Nice.

Andrea P I am sorry.

Adam Wes And do not judge yourself, you know.

Andrea P We all are where we are.

Adam Wes One of Krishnamurti's teachings is to observe yourself where you are. You may be in an abysmal state, but what can we do? We can observe. We can always observe ourselves without the response of thought, he says.

And when you do this, that is what matters. Because to love is not to love what we should be, but to love what we are. Do you feel that? Do not love what you should be. Jenna, Daniel, Mark—love what you are, through understanding. You do not go to a child and say, "I do not love you because you did not do XYZ." You look at the child. You understand the child. So let yourself be the child.

Understand. What matters is that you are coming into "know thyself." That is how the flowering happens. The rose blooms because it knows itself, I suppose. In that metaphor, it would have to.

So yes, do not judge it. I think we can all agree that we feel your radiant presence. And that is a skill in itself, so thank you for being here. Namaste.

How about Daniel?

Ouch.

Daniel Raphael Velasco: Well, today I am just… still thinking about what you were talking about before.

Nice.

Daniel Raphael Velasco: I am just very thoughtful about Igor. There is not… well, today, I do not feel like sharing.

Yeah. By the way, everyone, nobody has to share. It is nice to share—one of the main reasons is, it is like when you wake up from a good dream. If you write it down, it maps to your memory. And when we share, that helps us remember these subtle energies that we experience. And it is a little fun, so we do not feel isolated and separate. Thank you, Daniel, and namaste.

How about you, Santa? Nice artwork.

Sepanta Meibody Yes, this is a very beautiful artwork. It was created by Adam.

I love that you have that up there.

Sepanta Meibody Yes, I was meditating, and I was scanning my body from top to toe. I was just there, making my mind as calm and empty as I could. Then I was trying to concentrate on the breath first, and then on scanning the body.

Beautiful. Yes, the body… to scan the body and remedy, right? When you scan it, you can say, "Oh, I can bring more energy there," or, "I can stop resisting there," correct?

Sepanta Meibody Of course you can do it, yes, of course.

Logistic.

Sepanta Meibody So this was the thing that I was doing today.

Wonderful. And how do you feel?

Sepanta Meibody How do I feel… I think that I need to do meditation every day. I was a part of it, and I was thinking that, you know, during meditation, we should not think that much, but I was thinking that you are doing a great job, Adam, for bringing these people here. We are being affected by each other, and I could feel the energy—especially at the time when you mentioned, "Let us feel the energy," and I could feel people's energy.

So that led to the point where I was telling myself that I should do meditation more and more, like the time I was in Vipassana. Then it was deep, it was pure, it was connected. So just this, yes, just there.

Beautiful.

It was a great experience, a very calming experience, thank you. It was some sort of connection with some people. Their body or the name does not matter; you just feel them as a source of energy. It does not matter where they are—I do not know who is where—but it was a source of energy that I could feel.

I love that you connected with it, and that is exactly what I meant when I said that.

If you have ever watched X-Men, it is kind of like Cerebro—the character who can see all the X-Men around the world, right? You do not have to know them in detail, but you can feel you are not alone. There are people who—

You do not have to try to make it work. They love what you love. They embody it, and there is resonance and complementary intrinsic natures there.

Sepanta Meibody Hmm.

Wonderful. Namaste.

Sepanta Meibody Kiss so much. I must say.

Would anybody else like to share? Jenna, Colin, Mark?

Jenna Wes I will share.

Yay!

Jenna Wes Hi, thank you for that. It was lovely to be here. Right before class, I was reading about indigenous ritual, and I was feeling like this is why it is so hard for me to be in this world. There is no intention, no sacred ritual or ceremony, whereas in so many beautiful indigenous cultures, it is a part of everything.

I was feeling like that is why I do not belong, and that is why it is hard to get through the days. So, being here reminds me—kind of like Sam said—that I do not necessarily need to go be in the mountains to find that. We can remember to do it within ourselves. So thank you for the space to remember.

Beautiful, Jen. Yes, thank you. How lovely is that—she is studying. She is doing exactly that, studying the—well, that is a beautiful topic to be focusing on, right? And the selective exposure. Yes, this is—

Jenna Wes Yes, good synchronicity.

Yes, exactly. Thanks, Jen.

Jenna Wes Thank you.

Let us see. So...

Andrea P Adam?

Yeah?

Andrea P Sorry, can I just—I would like to add to what Sapanta was saying.

Please, yes.

Andrea P I had joined, as I told you once, and I felt this energy, and that is why I wanted to join. But it is so interesting—I have been practicing meditation in different spaces, and there are like 10, 15 people, sometimes 5 people in one room.

But you do not feel it as much.

As you do here, so congratulations. What you do—I do not know what you do, but it is pretty amazing.

Oh, wonderful! I love that you are feeling it. Oh, we are doing it! We are doing it!

Andrea P Bring it, yes.

Oh, well, thank you, thank you. When I was talking about expanding the heart and feeling the warmth of the heart, I hope everybody was—maybe for your meditations this week, because you are going to do it every day like Sepanta, right? Just putting that out there, Sepanta—just a 15-minute meditation, or even 5 minutes.

He can do that, I know you can.

To feel your heart and generate the substance of love. Generate it.

Perhaps you can do this—feel it grow and fill your space. Allow yourself to be a magical, loving being. Move through your day with this as part of your subtle identity—not as ego, but as embodiment.

You are walking around, and you are love. You love every flower and every person who passes by. You forgive, you see their souls, their innocence; you have compassion for their confusion and their state, right? And you love everything. You feel gratitude for every moment, and your heart is radiating, metaphysically expanding—warm and full.

And when you do that, there is a natural expression in virtues. You will naturally be virtuous because you are whole. You are not in a state of insufficiency.

I am borrowing some language from Krishnamurti here. He uses words like "insufficiency" and similar terms. He is a good person to read.

And then I had a fun little programming metaphor. When we mine Bitcoin, we actually generate Bitcoins by mining. I do not know if everyone knows how Bitcoin works, but you run it on your computer and you create Bitcoins. So, it is as if we are generating love, just as we are mining it. Perhaps it is a silly metaphor, but I wanted to share it anyway.

All right, everyone, namaste. If you would like to donate, the recommended donation is $3 to $33, and it is much appreciated. I could actually use a little support financially if anyone is able, and you can do that on the website.

We also do this every Tuesday at 6 p.m. Pacific time. Please bring your friends—let us grow our community. We have been doing this for a long time, and I feel that the people who are here now form a strong seed of potential to really expand this community.

If it expanded—if we had, say, 50 people here—we could have breakout rooms, you could make friends, we could do a lot of fun things with it, and we would have a wonderful sanctuary of loving community to step into for an hour each week.

So, namaste, thank you. Thank you, everyone. I will see you next time.

Nice kimono, Jen.

Jenna Wes Oh, I did not mean to do that; I do not know how that happened.

Adam Wes Hello?

Jenna Wes I think it could.

Adam Wes Oh, no. That was for Andrea, because she is at the Buddhist temple. Hi, everyone.

Bye, Sam. Peace. Bye, Ariella.

Selective exposure as a spiritual practice: choosing associations, content, and environments that help you resonate with truth, love, and refinement (satsang), while being mindful of what taxes or lowers your energy.

• Satsang means truth-association: aligning through what you focus on and who/what you associate with.
• Attention is powerful: when you focus on something, you begin to resonate with its values, desires, and mentality.
• Spiritual practice includes being selective about exposure—limiting content that does not align with how you want to feel.
• Ask directly: “How do I want to feel?” and “What paradigm do I want to live in?”
• Selective exposure includes intentionally choosing uplifting inputs: events, talks, books, scriptures, and teachers that carry “truth” and refinement.
• Solitude matters too: erasing activities and being in stillness helps you slow down and feel the beauty of silence.
• Associations can raise or lower you; this is not about avoiding people, but about noticing how you are affected.
• Technology makes “tribes in the mind” easy to form; random swiping and constant content can be taxing.
• Friendship curation is part of the path: shared values and mutual “flowering of truth” are a real form of alignment.
• Meditation was framed as more than stillness: feeling energy, expanding the heart, and generating love as a lived state.

Let the week be an experiment in noticing what you “download” through attention: feel, in real time, how different inputs (people, media, places, music, solitude, spiritual words) shift your state, and gently orient toward what helps you feel aligned with truth, kindness, and love.

• Notice what happens in you after movies, music, and scrolling—how long the “state” lingers, and what it makes you feel like.
• Bring in intentional exposure: a talk (Krishnamurti, Osho, Ramana Maharshi), a spiritual text, or time with a community that values truth.
• Make room for solitude and stillness as part of the practice.
• Be mindful with Instagram and “swipe, swipe, swipe—random things.”
• Consider deleting an app you check automatically (especially in habitual moments like stoplights).
• Pay attention to the energy of places and businesses you choose (where you shop, eat, and spend time).
• Feel into friendship alignment: who lights up when they see you, and where shared values support your truth.
• In meditation, explore expanding the heart and generating love as a subtle “substance” that fills your space.

• What do I want to feel like this week, and what inputs naturally support that?
• Where do I feel raised through association, and where do I feel taxed?
• What happens when I stop analyzing for a moment and simply feel?