Selective Exposure

Adam Wes It's another word for spiritual community. When we focus on something, we tend to align with the values, the desires, the paradigmatic mentality of that tribe, person, community, country, certain individual TV series, whatever it is. We start to reverberate with that set of values, and different sets of values have different benefits.

When we focus on truth, spirituality, or the sentiments of the highest, enlightenment, yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, it doesn't matter what denomination, as long as it's the true essence of that religion or spiritual practice, we start to reverberate on a higher frequency level. It's difficult to practice spirituality without being selective about your exposure, which means limiting exposure to things that are perhaps violent movies, things that are not the way you want to feel.

This is really what it comes down to: 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's very easy to overlook the fact that we're very sensitive. What we focus on, we feel, and we start to believe that way. I think some of us have perhaps a greater sensitivity. For example, if I watch a movie, a James Bond or something, I will feel like the character for a good hour after the movie. If I write, I will write from that state of being. So if I ever want to feel like James Bond, it's quite easy. Just pop the movie on for a bit, then I feel that masculine energy.

Actually, James Bond has some qualities in it that are virtuous, so sometimes we can draw from that, but they're certainly mixed up with some other things.

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

I want to give you guys a big list today. This is going to be fun. I'll give you a list of a whole bunch of things you can expose yourself to, more focused on the positive list than the negative list.

You can put on a YouTube video of Osho speaking. Although Osho has a little bit of a mixed interpretation, if you listen to his words, his words are really beautiful. Krishnamurti is another person. A documentary on Ramana Maharshi. These are really beautiful things. If you took a sabbatical for a weekend, for example, and simply only allowed yourself to be exposed to those things, I would imagine that you'd have quite a big shift in your paradigm.

There's the negative, there's the positive, and then there's 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, and the beauty of silence, to slow down. That's 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's not usually talked about, although it's very much intrinsic in the word satsang. It's usually not talked about as overtly in a 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're good people, we sometimes say, well, we have a lot of compassion, right? So we say, "Oh, I'm not going to avoid anybody." It's not about avoiding people. It's about really being cognizant of the way you're affected by whatever you focus on, and how you want to feel.

There are so many ways we can direct our attention. If you were to direct it in a number of very taxing ways, you'll simply become very taxed. Maybe, for some people, that's their power. I have a friend who is essentially running an NGO, and he's constantly in some of the poorest parts of the world. I think it's one of his superpowers to sustain him in those places, but I see it taxing him too, actually. My sister Jenna, right here, has done a lot of that, and I think she probably can agree that you can experience the taxing energy of that.

But let's stay a little more focused on the positive. What are some people? Well, I almost was going to do the talk today on an individual, which is a fun thing to do, and maybe we'll have a little bit of a hybrid. If I were to pick an individual, it would be this lovely man.

This man, and by the way, this is my kind of number-one recommended book by him, On Love and Loneliness by Krishnamurti. I've read it so many times. Every time I want to touch the paradigm, you see what I mean? I want the paradigm to be the water that comes out of my shower, and then I can bask in a life with meanings that inspire me and make me feel true to myself.

So, On Love and Loneliness. Let's do a divination. That means I'll just pick it, open it up, and read a paragraph. A divination is a way of accessing the subtle intentions. It's like tarot cards, and you can do it by simply opening a book.

"Would you say love has no awareness?"

This is a dialogue. Let's see if this makes sense out of context here.

"Would you say love has no awareness?"

"It is love. It isn't that love is aware that we are all one. It's like a perfume. You can't dissect the perfume or analyze the perfume. It is marvelous perfume, and the moment you analyze it, you dissipate it."

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

So that's just a little page there. Another book by him that I really love is this book for people who have children around, or want to feel the energy of being a child. These talks were to schools, and a lot of them include questions from, like, a five-year-old asking him something, and him coming back with a really direct answer. It's actually kind of funny sometimes, but really powerful, because he'll say to a five-year-old, "Do you love your mother?"

It's really interesting the way he says it, because he says, "Well, if you love your mother but not your father, is that love at all?" He really brings these beautiful things into attention.

So, Think on These Things. This one has greatly informed my pedagogy, which is a teaching method, part of what I use as a teacher and in my classes. For people like Jacob, I've even suggested certain things here, because he's a teacher and took my mentorship program to become a mentor.

Education and the Significance of Life. A unique book, because I think it's one of the only ones that's not transcriptions of his talks. He actually wrote this one.

And Freedom from the Known. Even the title is empowering. Freedom from the known.

Maybe I'll 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 can't see the present because the past is the filter through which we see and interpret the moment. Everything becomes an image that's a reflection of the past, 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 free talks on YouTube 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 just like Jesus. If you're Jewish, you could read the Torah and really look into the power and purity and insight of what is spoken there. If you want to read the Quran, any of these things, this is selective exposure.

What else? You can go places. I live here in Venice Beach, California. Go to events where people who value truth congregate, temples, things like that.

While I don't 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're funny. Cat videos. Yeah, that's a nice one. I totally agree. Cats and little baby chicks can be lovely.

But exposing yourself to whatever can be very taxing. So, careful on Instagram. Careful on swiping. Swipe, swipe, swipe, random things. That's usually not good for the spiritual energy.

Any questions, everybody? Namaste. Any questions or suggestions? Maybe you can enrich this, because sometimes when I do these talks, I just need this right now. I need a little more selective exposure. So it's fun to come together and be like, "Oh, well, this is something that's important." I'm just going to reiterate that, share it, and deepen it for myself.

It's good to delete some of the apps off your phone that you've got in the habit of checking every time you get to a stoplight, because they're designed to program us that way.

Colleen Adam, when you started off, you said by watching certain movies and so on, and it's just interesting because of you and another member of your family, Jenna, I feel like I've been taught by the two of you. Now I cannot watch the movies that I used to watch. I can only watch certain things. I just can't do it anymore.

Basically, I've stepped back from anything that's violent, negative, or unpleasant. I just want to watch relaxing, calming, spiritual things, just things that make you feel good.

Adam Wes Love it. Lovely. Well, you always were pretty good about the movies you selected, I think, more than just about anybody I know. But yeah, Jen and I are hypersensitive and aware of these things. That's true. I love that you do that.

Ariella I think it's also really important what we expose our kids to, the movies and programs.

Adam Wes Oh yeah. I was studying sociology the other day because I have to have a better understanding of sociology too, to help people be open to these things. One of the things that I learned is people mimic values and desires. It's an interesting thing. One of the things that we mimic and learn is what to desire, what to value.

So when you watch a movie that's inherently competitive, for example, this 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 a recording of Krishnamurti talking the other day, and he was asking a girl. He said, "When you study mathematics, do you do it for yourself?"

Of course, the truth is she almost certainly doesn't, because most people study mathematics to get a grade, because they're supposed to. Even somebody who professes to like it, there's usually an element of ego involved. But if you do it just because it's perfection, it's enjoyable, it's beautiful, it feels good to your mind and your spirit, then that's the right attitude.

Most movies are imbued with Western principles of competitiveness, even if you watch a seemingly benign movie, right? So it's 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 just somebody in front of you, right? When we watch a movie, we're making our tribe in our mind. These people may be actors, but they feel to our subconscious like our world, right? Technology's made it like it's there, but it's not there.

There are a lot of great movies. Have you seen Christopher Robin with Winnie the Pooh? That's just something that's coming to mind right now. Winnie the Pooh has so much wisdom in that movie. It's actually really like, "Wow, that's perfect." There are a number of movies you can watch that are not overtly spiritual, and yet they have spiritual principles. Then there are ones that are overtly spiritual as well.

But Ariella, thank you. Yeah, children. This is important for us and for anybody who has friends, parents, children, students, or teachers that they want to share this with. I think this is all very important.

I'd like to offer a computer programming metaphor, which is that it's 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 it, it downloads automatically, and we start running that software. So run good software, man.

Sepanta M If you don't mind, I wanted to say something, Adam.

Adam Wes I'd love you to.

Sepanta M Yeah.

Adam Wes I'm getting Sepanta's beautiful energy just listening to the intonation of his voice. Thank you so much. Everybody, we're going to get two lessons at once: what you have to say, and the intonation and timbre of his voice. It carries a signal. It's like a hidden signal underneath as well. So yes, thank you, Sepanta.

Sepanta M 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 and our friends, and we go through a connection to each other. Then suddenly, the interaction between your mom and you was a very beautiful example of dancing, this mutual selective exposure that you have toward each other.

I know that you're her son, but the connection that you built could be a very good example of this selective exposure, I believe. When you were talking about these things, I was thinking about how people can affect each other in their path by choosing each other. Then suddenly, the interaction between your mom and you just made it so deep. I just wanted to say that that was really beautiful. That was so beautiful.

Adam Wes I love it. I am truly blessed by the divine to have the perfect parents. They are. They're the perfect parents. My dad's here too, by the way. That guy Colin right there, hiding behind the camera, that's my dad.

What an honor to have my parents show up, value what I have to say, and be supportive. For people who don't have the perfect parents, there's also somebody else perfect coming for you. We're 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're excited because of the alignment.

I can't believe I almost forgot to talk about this: curating your friendships. Family's a little more difficult. You may or may not have aligned family, and you don't get to choose who your family is. But 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's also an honest reflection and an honest understanding of where one is at in their life.

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're basically the things that matter to us that cause us to be resonant.

So 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's nothing wrong with fast cars. They're great. But it's good to find the commonalities between people.

My mom and I share a lot, and she's like my first teacher. My dad too. Sometimes we end up, cosmically, with the right family who really shows our values. I think that actually can happen a lot, because I think there's a metaphysical gravity that happens between people who are meant to be with each other.

Thank you, Sepanta. My time is at 6:30. Anybody want to share anything? Then we'll do a meditation.

I was actually feeling pretty depleted right before this, energetically, for some reason, physically. I almost canceled the class. But I come and sit with everybody, and there's a new energy. That's 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'm okay. Anybody want to say anything? Andrea! I like you, Andrea! I don't think we've ever...

Andrea P Hi!

Adam Wes Hi!

Andrea P I had been in one of your sessions, but with a friend, so you didn't see me.

Adam Wes Oh.

Andrea P I follow you since then, but on Tuesdays I go to my dojo, so it's at the same time. That's why I cannot join. But today I said, "Okay, I'm not going to go. I will go on Sunday, and I will connect."

Adam Wes Thanks for choosing. Karate, or some other martial art?

Andrea P No, Zen Buddhism, but they call it a dojo. I don't know why.

Adam Wes Yeah, I love Zen Buddhism. I guess you could call it a dojo. I think that's appropriate. Nice. Lovely.

Andrea P I'm from Mexico. Just to add to what you were saying, I don't know if it's the same, but for me it happened with feminism. Once you start to get very deep into it, it's not only that you want to select some things. When music or movies are not in tune with your ideology or what you think, it clashes. So I always say that feminism ruined Mexican music for me, because it's very... Well, not all Mexican music, but yeah, it ruins a lot of things. But I love it.

So I think it's the same when you get into a spiritual path. It's not only that you select some things, but you reject things. Not that you want to, but when it crosses your path, you feel like you want to move away.

Adam Wes Love it. Thank you for sharing. Yes, you made me realize that there's a very mathematical structure here. There's a topic in mathematics called discrete mathematics. It's all got to do with this, but not this.

Have you ever seen the two circles, and then they have this part that intersects in the middle? This is like the foundation of discrete mathematics. So we're kind of doing a discrete mathematics structure. If anybody wants to really feel into attracting some things and pushing away other things, or avoiding exposure to other things, that's one way you can connect your mathematical contemplation to it.

Thank you, Andrea. Is it Andrea or Andrea?

Andrea P It's the same, yeah.

Adam Wes Andrea. Music is another very important way to have selective exposure. You could put on some vibing Indian music with tabla playing. You could put on some African choir music. All of these things, it may be in the words, but it also may not be in the words, but in the energy of it. So it's good to feel into these things.

Perhaps a couple more subtle things that I should also say: What grocery store do you shop at? Does the grocery store have the energy? What businesses do you associate with? Nike or Adidas? Which one feels more like it's in alignment? Maybe neither.

You can use your intuition to say, "Okay, I'm not going into Walgreens anymore. I'm going to shop somewhere else, because every time I go there, I feel the energy of the building, the company, the people." There's a particular energy in each business. So, where you eat, where you shop.

One time my teacher even suggested to me that I buy certain stocks to stay on a certain wavelength. If you bought, say, one stock of X, whatever your company is, owning that stock makes you a part of it. These are subtle, metaphysical, occult methods of pivoting your mind in the infinite possibilities of mind.

We want to stay with enlightenment. It's a gift when you get hold of enlightenment and feel the sentiments of one who has consecrated their life to something greater. It's hard to feel that, and that's what these books do for me. You want to feel that. You want to feel that what matters is enlightenment.

Now, maybe you're like, "Adam, it doesn't matter to me." When you feel it, you recognize, "Oh, that's a high state."

Could I feel like the Prophet? Well, I don't feel like the Prophet, but I would like to feel what the Prophet feels like, right? So how can you feel like the Prophet and be open to something different? Of course, we could just stay the same our whole lives, but it's not very adventurous.

All right. So now we can feel like the Prophet in meditation. That'll be a nice T-shirt: "Feel like the Prophet."

Well, yeah, that was a nice topic, one of my favorites. All right, let's meditate. Maybe just a pretty still meditation. Put on some nice music.

Okay, I'm putting on music. If you ever don't hear the music, it probably means I forgot, like last week. I forgot to share it. Can everybody hear it?

You know, clothing is a powerful way to gravitate toward people. It signals something. You see, I'm wearing this tunic right now, and it's white. When you walk around, it's easier to find people. It's not a superficial thing. It's more like, "This is the energy." That energy is conveyed, and you can easily find it. You can wear black. The whole idea is intentionality.

Hear your thoughts and go beyond thought. Touch something more real than an idea, a thing, a phenomenon.

We're just taking a moment, feeling out to all the many people in the world who resonate with what you love, with whom perhaps you share a commitment to something greater. Just feel their presence. Spiritual community.

Meditation can be more than stillness. It's a feeling. It's an energetic force. Feel the energy of the body, around the body. 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, love, and community feel like? It doesn't have to be the old world, but your world. Let that be your energy right now.

Let that kindness, consideration, and gentleness dissolve you into your existential source, into the love that is your nature, a bliss that is your being.

We are somewhere in time, somewhere in space. There is a brightness within your mind. If you give it your attention, don't resist its brilliance. That is the light that I speak of. Allow it to wash you into eternity. Let 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.

Feel the expansion of the heart surrounding us. Bask in the warmth of your own heart. Create that metaphysical spirit. You are a magical being of radiant love.

It's as if we're generating love, a substance. It accumulates. It permeates.

This will be the final song of this meditation. Revel in the love that you have generated, that we have generated together. We made it to the now.

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're going to think I'm crazy.

Adam Wes Yeah, nice.

Colleen Andrea, is that how you say your name? I saw an image of Andrea on the sidewalk, and I couldn't hear what she was saying.

Andrea P Yeah, you could say Andrea or Andrea.

Colleen You were on the sidewalk. I couldn't hear what you were saying, but you were very passionate about something that you were saying. That's what I saw, that image. Isn't that crazy?

Adam Wes Wow.

Andrea P It is!

Colleen I've just seen you!

Adam Wes You're picking up something very connected to her.

Andrea P Whoa, that's crazy. Great.

Colleen I definitely saw different colors with different music, which I just realized. The one piece of music with piano was really dancing with me. It was yellow and pink, and they were combining, then going away, combining, and going away. When the next piece of music came along, it was different. It was purple.

Adam Wes That's Mozart-level genius right there. Keep going.

Colleen I'll pay more attention and see if it happens again.

Adam Wes Well, I didn't mean to cut you off. You were saying there was another song.

Colleen I had another image of waving to helicopters. I don't know where that came from.

Adam Wes Waving to them?

Colleen Yeah, two helicopters were taking off, and I was waving to them. That's when I saw Andrea on the sidewalk. I'm going cuckoo!

Adam Wes Well, you know...

Colleen Yeah, man.

Adam Wes Thank you. Namaste, Mom.

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

It sounds like you're having an energetic interpretation. Your mind is interpreting certain energies. Two helicopters, that's interesting. Andrea, passionate, which I think we can all imagine, passionate about something. So it sounds like you connected with that. Thank you, Mom. Namaste.

Good job with the light. The light is obviously a very, very, very significant mystical experience. Hi, Ariella!

Ariella Hi. Wow, I completely got lost. I don't know. I just use the word "spaced out." I don't know where I was. It's like I was asleep.

Adam Wes Like deep sleep?

Ariella Yes.

Adam Wes Very good. Nice. You may be having kensho experiences every week.

Ariella Kensho?

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

Ariella True.

Adam Wes Dissolution of the ego.

Ariella Wow.

Adam Wes Perhaps you're 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's what it is, it sounds like that's the case.

How about you, Sam? Thanks for being here every week, Sam. It's wonderful to see your face so consistently, or most weeks. It's lovely.

Eslam O Really interesting. This week's topic is amazing. It's rather fitting, because selective exposure and selective engagement. In my meditation, I resonate with Colleen, because you're going to think I'm 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'm sorry for destroying it.

But I remembered selective exposure and selective engagement. I don't have to worry about who's running the world. All I have to worry about is running mine. So I went back to a relaxing lake, a clear blue sky, and I'm at peace again.

Adam Wes Beautiful. Lovely. Thank you.

Andrea, since you're the special guest today, it seems.

Andrea P I'm not very good at this yet. I keep going in and out. But at one point, I pictured one of my friends. His mother is in the hospital. She's sick. I felt that he was calling me, and I was going to the hospital. It felt pretty real. That was nice.

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

Andrea P I'm sorry.

Adam Wes Don't judge yourself.

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.

When you do this, it actually is what matters, because to love is not to love what we should be, but to love what we are. Do you feel that?

Don't love what you should be. Jenna, Daniel, Mark, love what you are by understanding. You don't go to the child and say, "I don't love you because you didn't do XYZ." You look at the child. You understand the child. So let yourself be the child. Understand.

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

So don't judge it. I think we can all agree that we feel your radiant presence, and that's a skill right there. Thank you for being here. Namaste.

How about Daniel?

Daniel V Well, today I'm still thinking about what you were talking about before. I'm just very thoughtful. Today, I don't feel like sharing.

Adam Wes Yeah. By the way, you guys, nobody has to share. It's nice to share. One of the main reasons is that it's like when you wake up from a good dream. If you write it down, it maps to your memory. When we share, that helps us remember these subtle energies that we experience. It's also a little fun, so we don't feel isolated and separate.

Thank you, Daniel, and namaste. How about you, Sepanta? Nice artwork.

Sepanta M Yeah, this is a very beautiful artwork. It was created by Adam.

Adam Wes I love that you have that up there.

Sepanta M I was meditating and scanning my body from top to toe. I was 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.

Adam Wes Beautiful. 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," right?

Sepanta M Of course you can do it. Yeah, of course.

Adam Wes Wonderful. How do you feel?

Sepanta M How do I feel? I think that I need to do meditation every day. During meditation, we shouldn't think that much, but I was thinking that you're doing a great job, Adam, bringing these people here. You are getting affected by each other, and I could feel the energy, especially when you said, "Let's feel the energy." I could feel people's energy.

That led to the point that I was telling myself that I should do meditation more and more, like the time I was in Vipassana. It was deep, it was pure, it was connected. It was a great experience, a very calming experience. Thank you.

It was some sort of connection with people whose bodies or names don't matter. You just feel them as a source of energy. It doesn't matter where they are. I don't know who is where, but it was a source of energy that I could feel.

Adam Wes I love that you connected with it. That's exactly what I meant when I said that. If you've ever watched X-Men, it's kind of like Cerebro, the guy who can see all the X-Men around the world, right?

You can feel that you don't have to know them in detail, but you're not alone. There are people who don't have to try to make it work. They love what you love, and they embody it. There's resonance and complementary intrinsic natures there. Wonderful. Namaste.

Sepanta M Thank you so much. Namaste.

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

Jenna W I'll share.

Adam Wes Yay!

Jenna W 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's so hard for me to be in this world. There's no intention. There's no sacred ritual or ceremony, whereas in so many of the beautiful indigenous cultures, it's a part of everything.

I was feeling like that's why I don't belong and why it's hard to get through the days. Being here reminds me, kind of like Sam said, that I don't 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.

Adam Wes Beautiful, Jen. Thank you. How lovely that she's studying. That's a beautiful topic to be focusing on, right? And selective exposure.

Jenna W Yeah, good synchronicity.

Adam Wes Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Jen.

Jenna W Thank you.

Andrea P Adam, can I just add to what Sepanta was saying?

Adam Wes Please, yeah.

Andrea P I had joined once, as I told you, and I felt this energy. That's why I wanted to join. It's so funny that I have been practicing meditation in different spaces, and there are 10, 15, or five people in the same room, but you don't feel it as much as you do here. So congratulations. What you do, I don't know what you do, but it's pretty amazing.

Adam Wes Oh, wonderful! I love that you're feeling it. We're doing it! We're doing it!

Andrea P Bring it, yeah.

Adam Wes Thank you. When I was talking about expanding the heart and feeling the hearth, the warmth of the heart, I hope everybody was feeling that.

Maybe for your meditations this week, because you're going to do it every day like Sepanta, right? Just putting that out there. Sepanta, just a 15-minute meditation, or even a five-minute meditation. You can do that. I know you can.

Feel your heart and generate the substance of love. Generate it. Feel it grow and fill your space. Let yourself be a magical, loving being. Walk around and have that be a part of your subtle identity, not as ego, but as embodiment.

You're walking around, and you're love. You love every flower and person that walks by you. You forgive. You see their souls, their innocence. You have compassion for their confusion, their state. You love everything. You feel gratitude for every moment, and your heart is radiating, metaphysically expanding, warm and full.

When you do that, there's the natural expression in virtues. You'll naturally be virtuous because you're whole. You're not in a state of insufficiency. I'm using some words from Krishnamurti here. He says "insufficiency" and things like that. So, a good person to read.

Then I had a very fun little programming metaphor. When we mine Bitcoin, we actually generate Bitcoins by mining it. I don't know if anybody knows how Bitcoin works, but you actually run it on your computer and create Bitcoins. So it's like we're generating love, just like we're mining it. That's maybe a silly metaphor, but I wanted to share it anyway.

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

We also do this every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Please bring your friends. Let's grow our community. We've been doing this for a long time, and I feel like the people who are here are now a strong seed of potential to really expand this community.

If it expanded, if we had about 50 people here, we could have breakout rooms. You could have friends. We could do a lot of fun with it. We would have a nice sanctuary of loving community that we can step into for an hour once a week.

Namaste. Thank you, everybody. I'll see you next time.

Nice kimono, Jen.

Jenna W Oh, I didn't mean to do that. I don't know how that happened.

Adam Wes Oh no, that was for Andrea because she's at the Buddhist temple. Bye, everybody. Bye, Sam. Peace. Bye, Ariella.

Becoming cognizant of how exposure and association affect consciousness, while choosing what supports truth, alignment, stillness, self understanding, and love.

• Satsang means association with truth and involves selective exposure.
• What we focus on, we feel, and we begin to align with its values, desires, and mentality.
• Selective exposure includes limiting what is taxing and spending time with teachings, media, places, and people that support truth.
• Solitude, stillness, and the erasing of activity help reveal silence, spaciousness, and the eternality of the moment.
• Media can shape what we desire and value, even when its influence is subtle.
• Shared values matter in friendship and spiritual community. Aligned relationships can facilitate a flowering of truth.
• Everyday choices involving music, films, places, businesses, and clothing can carry intentionality.
• Meditation can be stillness, absorption, energetic awareness, light, and the generation of love.
• Self observation does not require judgment. To love is to love what we are through understanding.
• Virtue is a natural expression of wholeness rather than a response to insufficiency.

Notice how what you focus on affects the way you feel, then allow your attention and associations to move toward truth, stillness, shared values, and the energy you want to embody.

• Awareness of how media, apps, films, and repeated content affect spiritual energy.
• Time with spiritual teachings, talks, sacred texts, or gatherings where people value truth.
• Space for solitude, silence, and the slowing down of activity.
• Attention to the values and energy present in friendships and community.
• Intentionality around music, places, businesses, and other everyday associations.
• Self observation without judgment or the response of thought.
• Awareness of the heart, the energy of the body, and the generation of kindness, gentleness, and love.

• How do I want to feel?
• What paradigm do I want to live in?
• What helps the flowering of truth in me?