Episode Transcript
My name is Ken Hannaman and I've been practicing Raja Yoga meditation for over 40 years. In these episodes, I will share the experiences and insights I've gained from meditation and how I've integrated them into my everyday life and all my relationships. Welcome to the Spiritual Relationship Podcast. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Spiritual Relationship Podcast. My name is Ken Hannaman and this is my wonderful and amazing wife, Dr. Anne O'Hare. She has her own podcast, the Spiritual Americans. So please, um, look that up. There's some amazing, uh, information there. This is our, this is a new series and it's called the Spiritual Prepping. In these difficult times, we, we don't only prepare or we shall not only prepare physically, but for possibly, um, even more difficult problems and, you know, shortages and so on. I think we need also to take care of our mind and to. To understand that that is also a resource that we could, we could, uh, strengthen and help us to, um, to not be a victim to situation. This second episode, the title is God as Your Ally. And what I wanna say is that when you feel lonely, you feel no one has your back. That people are very limited in how they could help you if they're around and what they can do for you. It is really not a good feeling to feel you have no options. God is your ally or friend, and I will share in my experience what that means and how I use it in meditation. And I would like to. To say, and maybe ask Anne also how can you use a relationship that is dependable, available always to you, and that will help you internally if you understand who this higher being is and how I could develop a relationship that empowers. So what is your feeling about building that relationship? For me growing up, I know that I'm not alone in this. There was so much energy going towards my external life. Doing well in school, getting my education, doing a job, having my body be a certain way, having the right relationship, having the right marriage, having like, there's so much like life things, physical life, things that required so much energy and the, the emphasis, the cultural emphasis. Was on all of those things. So you can say, to be fair, that I spent like 99% of my energy my whole life on that. So if one day you say, okay, who is God? You know, everybody has an idea in their mind like who God is. We learn who God is in the scriptures. We learn who God. There's all kinds of information about who God is. And I guess each one of us come up with our own. Kind of way of dealing with it. Some people say he doesn't exist. Some people say, I don't care, care about God anymore, I'm against God. Some people say I love God, and some people are more into like scriptures and Bibles and that kind of thing. Or going to church or doing missions or whatever. There's all kinds of, uh, contexts that you can use for God. We're talking about an internal context here. That can help us break through some of the suffering that we have, which goes along with the spiritual prepping, right? So we wanna break through some of that suffering. Some of the suffering we have is loneliness. Some of the suffering we have is confusion. Some of the suffering we have is based on low self-respect or, or lack of dignity, or feeling disempowered in our life. And maybe nowadays, I could say that with the good intentions, good intentions is not enough. Is that fair? Right? That good intentions is not enough that before, maybe it was and before maybe the world cooperated with my good intentions, but it doesn't seem to be working now. So what I wanna say about God, what I learned, well first, let me say what it was before. What I kind of came up with before understanding what I knew now, is that if I. Do whatever I'm supposed to do, then God will give me whatever I want. It was kind of like a transactional relationship, I thought, and that was fair enough. At least it kept me from going nuts. At least I was like, okay, if I do the right thing, it'll be, you know, God will take care of me. I, there was a sense of that if I did the, if I did my part, God would do his part. That was the sense. But when I came to this knowledge, I understood more that God exists in my mind. God exists in my memory. God exists in my heart. That is a big shift energetically, from all the external things to connecting with someone in my own mind or in my own heart, what is in my heart? I wasn't paying attention to it. What's in my mind? Chaos, pain, confusion, whatever, right? So if all of that is in there, so the name of this thing is making God your ally. And Ken is very good at describing this part, but I'm gonna say what it means to me When I understood who God actually is, that God is a living consciousness, just like me, God is a point of light, meaning he's a unique consciousness. God is a unique living being. We call him the Supreme because he's so subtle that that's, I say he, it's not a he or she, but that soul is so subtle that it. That soul's mark is on every other soul. So we say we're God's children, are we his children? Meaning, physical bodies and nobody gives birth, right? But the sense that we are connected in terms of qualities, in terms of the fact that we're souls, we're connected, we are related in that way because we are similar. That helped me a lot because I didn't feel like God is some far away thing that I couldn't relate to. That was one thing. Second thing is Godly knowledge. To understand things from a perspective of, let's say, the laws of karma or understanding how the soul sheds the body and takes the next, and that's nature. That's how things work. To be able to stand here and say, this body is part of the earth and the body is going back to the earth. But I, the soul go on, my life continues. That is something that I wasn't able to say before. I was afraid of death. I'm afraid of this, I'm afraid of that. So that's what we call like body consciousness. So when I say God is my ally, it's three things. One, when I understood who God was and I understand who I was, all of a sudden it wasn't so far away. That's one Second thing is the knowledge. All of a sudden I understand everything. So now I'm not confused. That's huge, especially for someone like me who was super intellectual. And then the third thing, which I'm working on now, so full disclosure, this is what I'm working on now, is letting God into my heart, like remembering God in my heart, like my feelings and in my mind, like I'm not alone. I'm not alone. I'm not carrying the burden of life alone. And that's what I am looking at expanding on now and deepening my understanding and experience now. So that's my experience. So maybe you could start Yeah, yeah. I'll share a little on my, my, my experience is that, um, this, in this world, let's say like there are a lot of wars going on. Um, there a lot of things going on that we will see as injustice or the strong seems to be dictating. What is right or wrong or, you know, nobody cares. All they care about is profit. Um, also too, if you look at relationships, it seems that there was a time that people can depend on their family or the village, or, you know, you can get some help at this community, but now that is reducing and you're you're feeling more. Uh, confined or that isolated. Yeah. And that you have to do this whole on your own and within the family, if there's pressures of financial pressures and all other things, you have a problem. You know, you, you go to bed feeling like, you know, what else can I do? In meditation, the way I define and I relate with God, I will explain it in terms it's an internal experience. I really don't think God is on the outside or physical. When I go inside, I, for me to feel healthy and to feel strong, I define myself as a spiritual being of peace, love, happiness, power, strength. Hope mercy, compassion. These are some of the qualities that when I think of them deeply in meditation, it makes me feel good. But if I think of a problem or think I'm weak or think that God hates me or that he's looking down at me or he's gonna punish me, or I sh I didn't do the Puja in time, therefore, you know I'm gonna suffer those thoughts, bring me down. So this is an internal, on this, a realization and understanding that I'm actually causing sorrow to myself when I think of myself in a negative way. Or I think of myself in terms of what I perceive other people think of me. Even God. Yeah. And even God, even God thinking of you. Right? And a lot of times if you had a chance to talk to God and ask him and he says, you know, and you know, you wonder, you know, are you seeing me as not, as not, um, worthy, like I'm not worthy or whatever. He will see what you're talking about. I have a pure vision and I see you as a child with a potential for peace and love and care. And to be able to use that power to help other people. If I examine that more deeply in my meditation and contemplation, it makes a lot of sense to think that he loves and he cares. The other thing is that when I think of Him, I don't now think of him like he can supply me with a car and a house and physical stuff. I think more in terms of peace and love and happiness and knowledge and wisdom and light. You know, protection and I can surrender to someone who loves me, and that is what is lacking in human relationship. I can't trust any human being completely, but I could trust this being Now, this is an internal thing in meditation, but it's an amazing process of using your intellect and using spiritual knowledge to develop a relationship that you are in charge of, and there is a wonderful response. In, in that relationship where I say, God, you're wonderful, and he says, I am. I have an, if I have a problem and an issue, I can, I can sort of open my heart out and just explain it fully to, to him without any reservation, without any fear, without feeling of they're gonna be judgment or punishment. He's a friend. I see him more like as a friend, the best, and that he would listen. The amazing thing about that, the psychology of it, is that as I, as I am making things, without emotion, I'm making it clear to myself and my intellect what the problem is. And the thing is that's, it seems as if I will come up with the solution and we can say, God bless us for that. The pro, the thing is what God just did. Is the love and the connection that you feel allows your mind to become calmer. Mm-hmm. And allows your intellect a chance to actually make a decision and to maybe make a good choice. Also, in that feeling of, uh, detachment from the world and from the problem, you now are able to send some good intentions about what your, in your outlook is. You can also examine to see if you have any selfishness in, in that, or whether there is something that I need to change on my own. Maybe I'm desiring too much or maybe I'm expecting too much. Maybe I am, I'm competing with people outside. I wanna get more and more and more. And then I'm realizing, do I really need it? You know, in this quiet reflection, maybe I don't, maybe I could step away. Maybe I could see what it is like to do without that particular thing. Or, um, even a relationship you might realize in relationship a a lot of times there are things that we can change in the way we act and our body language and the words we use. And if you're guided by the Law of Karma, you. Your intellect actually awakens and there, then you realize you're not cut off and that, and that you, you have the ability to, to you have choices and therefore it puts you back in control. Hmm. So isn't that a good relationship to have with a being, especially when you can't go to any human being maybe outside here who will probably be, they don't take sides. They're not judgmental, but they can give you a good advice, you know? Um, it's very rare to to have that. So this is one good example of using God as your ally, as your friend, as one you can trust. You know, I just wanna underline this thing. So there are, there are people out there who may be listening to this. That may have had like, uh, some pain about God, like some disappointment in the past. Like mm-hmm. Maybe they felt like they believed in it and now something happened and it just shattered their belief, like whatever structure they had around God or what God should be doing or how God should be, and they've been disappointed. What we are talking about right now is you are actively participating in how God shows up in your mind and heart. You are actively participating. One of the, there are two things. One thing is the feeling of being cut off from God or God is so far away that I can't reach the other is feeling not worthy of God. Like God is somehow looking at me, judging me, whatever. And I'm just a, you know, a, a, a failed whatever human being, you know, sinner, whatever language is used. That's not to say that I don't wanna be responsible for myself, obviously I do and we always need to be careful. We were talking about that this morning. This is not the time to be careless either. Having said that, isn't there room for love too and an open heart? Isn't there room to feel safe somewhere? Isn't there room to feel like held and not alone? We are saying yes. And you just heard two people, now two souls talk about their unique relationship. There are some principles here, right? Because we did talk a little bit about knowledge and we talked a little bit about the, the reality of how souls are and how God is, I wanna say, loving enough, egoless enough, pure enough, and subtle enough to show up how you need him. It's not like human beings where you have to deal with the fact that they can't be there. You know, you have, you have to like hold your, hold yourself together and realize that the, I, this happened to me the other day. I asked somebody a que, I said, can I ask you a question? They're like, well, can you hold off till later? Blah, I gotta do something else. And I'm like, that's a subtle thing, but it's, it hurts. It just hurts. It's like you're opening yourself up to say something and the person is, it's not, they're not wrong, okay? They're not wrong, but that moment of feeling like opening up and then the someone's not there, God can always be there in your heart, in your mind, in your intellect, in your understanding, always there. And we can create that. That context for which God is always there, and not just the context, but a home, like a home for God in your heart and a relationship. This is what's meant by a relationship with God. You know, sometimes we, we say a relationship with God, oh, I have a relationship with God. Well, what does that mean? Like practically speaking, how do you use that relationship with God? What does God provide for you? What do you use God for? Like Ken was saying, you can kind of contemplate. And in that contemplation, it, it, it makes sense. Like, and also somebody might say, well, maybe you're, it's just in your mind. Okay. It's just in my mind, but it's working. And that's, it's a good point. And that's the other piece. That's a good point. Yeah, that each of us is a unique consciousness. This is also part of the knowledge is that each of us has a unique, our own universe, our own unique perspective of consciousness. So if I'm having this experience in my mind, then I'm having the experience in my mind and it's helping you, and it's helping me and it's real for me. Yeah. It becomes just self, self-evident, right? If something that you are, if an experience you can produce within your mind and which you're inte like. This connection, um, with a higher power, somebody that you have given so much authority to. Right. This word, God, look how much authority people Oh yeah. Give to that, that word that he can do anything and, and that he can make, you know, it's like that's taking it too far. What he, he the is good. Anytime you have an authority who you think can do good, bad, and the ugly, like he can do everything. You. Then what happen is that when good things happen, you'll feel great and when bad things happen, you will, you will blame yourself. Mm-hmm. For it or blame God and then lose faith, blame God, then it, then you lose faith, blame. Yeah. So in your internal experience is what or what is it that your body is sensing? One fear or happiness on the other side. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And if you are spending your time thinking you are hated or you're not wordy or you're not, the only thing your body understand is that you are under stress. You are not being loved, you're not being liked. And the other problem that people think, people think that if I get some success or I get what I want physically, that is a proof of love. But that's not really, so well ask yourself if that is really true. It's true. Right? Has that actually worked? Yeah. Did it, does it actually work? Like your example, you have to ask yourself. Yeah, there's some mothers, I would've prayed to God to get a child, and if the child, you know, dies, then they, they say something they did wrong. You know, the guru said, uh, you know, and if the guru, if. Guru told them that, and they, and the child is, and child is okay and fine. Then the guru gets the praise for it. It's so you, it's really, yeah. But you're not even participating. You're, you're like, you're, you're dependent on this outside force. The other thing is like even, um, like wealth and, and things that you get or degrees or education or relationships. So all external, you get them all. Is it a guarantee that you're gonna be happy all the time? The truth is no. Yeah. God is the one that's there, that reg, he's outside of that whole system. And because I am a soul like God and I am god's, I'm connected as a soul connected, not physically, but connected in terms of like energy, that that's always available to me. Yeah. I've, I've seen, um. Countries and you look at history, there are population countries that went through real, some really difficult economic times and a lot of poverty. And another thing, I dunno, whoever calls it, you know, we're not going into that. The thing is that they had fate and they had love. And eventually today's you will look at their economy today and they're all the way up to the top. And that's amazing, right? Um, but so it doesn't mean that if you attach your physical condition. Two, God failing you. There are two difficulties with that. One is that you are gonna lose, lose weight in yourself, and you're also gonna lose weight in, in, in God. The, the, the thing is that if we take away that and let's say. Whatever we have in life is based on our own action, our own karma. Right? Right. And we let internally don't break the relationship, the faith that there's someone who loves you, you're not alone. Right, right. And there's someone you can talk to and care and who's, uh, like I said before, you know, he's always a available and kind, loving and doesn't judge, can I just interject? Do I need God to help me write my resume? Right. Do I need God to help me do my job or to help me set my alarm? Or like, I don't need him for that. What do I actually need God for? I would assert that what we need God for is that Yeah. Your self-esteem, your self, the internal self, self confidence. Yeah. Your, you, you need to have a mind. A mind. That is, that is always, um. Critical of itself and always cursing itself and always, uh, confused. And having all these voices going on, it is very difficult for you to make the proper decision. And then you really do feel sad and alone because you don't have any connection with your higher self, with you, um, self and then also. Uh, you don't have a human being who can, who's gonna have the patience to be what human being, what human being can give us the kind of help that we need, like seriously what human being, especially. Now, one last thing I wanted to say. Talk to the people who have illness, people who have like situations that aren't resolving people who are in. Uh, maybe extreme circumstances like this also is important for them, right? Yeah. Because it's not, I mean, we are in a situation right now which may change, which is like, we're in a wealthy situation. Like our problems are like work and resumes and everything like I just said, but other people might have different kinds of problems. Okay. Yeah. So talk about that, like when you have a body illness, when it's like, when it's more. Maybe existential. Mm-hmm. Like you're, you're not living at that level up here. You're actually at a different level. But what do you, how can you still maintain that kind of security and faith? Yeah. Yeah. That's a, yeah, you're right. That's many people. They might have money and whatever it is, but their health is not well, and, um, and then you wonder what you did wrong. Right. And we get confused and sad. Right? And the thing about, I mean, we all know we're gonna die, right? The body, and you have in this call, again, this Iron Age, the wrong, you never this on time, we call it on family death. Like you, you don't even know when and how. Right? We don't know when. And the, the most difficult part is to see someone who, through a disease process, that slowly and painfully maybe. Taking, you know, they're, they're going through that process and then leaving body and, and it really takes a toll. But even then, it is possible, even if you are very religious and whatever, it doesn't, we've seen a lot of examples of these things happen. So if you know that these are some of the realities of our existence during this time. And then with wars and all of that and, and the, you know, uh, you can say like our most senseless dying, that with natural disaster also, it's, it, you have to separate out something is happening to the body, but I, the soul, I'm separate. Meaning that even while the body's going through something, remember your mind can still be healthy. In your mind, you can have some peace and you can also have some gratitude and compassion towards your own body. Um, try to, and to keep your dignity around your family, to keep your dignity during this time. Be positive, less complaining more, giving more smile maybe even though it's difficult, what it does. Is that it helps, even those who are looking at you, going through that process, they feel maybe inspired or whatever, and you look courageous. Um, you are, you, you have to see health of the mind as something that is possible to keep. Keep it up and make it stronger and be victorious over the pain. Be victorious. And you sometimes that's what the body need to actually build up it. Immunity to, to heal maybe, uh, butt. But even if the body's leaving you, if it doesn't, yeah. If it doesn't, at least you will live with, with some kind of inspiration and with a, with, uh. With a good feeling towards life and, and our existence and, um, what it means like to be human. To always use whatever resource you have to help, to give, to care that is better than suffering, complaining, thinking you are the worst thing that happened. You don't deserve to live. Yeah. You don't need to have those thoughts and those feelings. They're self-defeating and you are more restless in that. Can I say, can I say we should practice that all the time? Like we should really try to practice that all the time. Just one last thought I wanted to say. No matter what, having God inside is always available. We may not always remember. He's just a thought away, so he goes, he's just a thought away. But I would say that if the mind is full of emotions and full of reactions. It's probably pretty much impossible to feel connected, so it's very important. This is why meditation is important, and also understanding not just sitting, doing the meditation as a discipline, but understanding what we're trying to do, which is trying to get into the, into the experience and habit of calming the mind, becoming less emotional, and creating an environment where I can have that kind of connection with myself as a peaceful being who's not going insane. Right, right. Think about that. That's important. When things change, don't we start going crazy? Right. So I'm not going crazy and I'm not alone. No one can be with me in my own mind except God. Yep. Yeah. Your mind needs a good friend. Yeah. And you are the one actually never think that I, I think it's a strong opposition for you to have that faith that there is this possible to. Have God make God a friend and to know for you're absolutely sure he's incapable of giving sorrow. It's just peace and light, and love, peace, love, light, wisdom, and presence and availability. He's the best listener there is, and, and if your mind is quiet enough, he will give you touchings. Yes. And we've experienced this experience more and more. Yes, more and more. But he needs a quiet mind to talk to. You need to have a quiet mind. If you have a busy line, it's hard to to hear anything. Right? Good point. So with that, we will close and, um, remember that in the description we have links for free meditation classes, uh, on Zoom and also, um. There's also commentaries that are available, unreleased streams, and the link is there. Also. Everything that is offered through uh, thera Yoga Meditation aka is free. Mm-hmm. There might even be, there might even be a center close to you, so all of that information can be fun. Okay. Then with that, we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening, and I hope it was helpful. Bye-Bye everyone. Bye. When you walk into a room, life gets little, you. You.
