Episode 93

Embrace Nature’s Wisdom: Overcoming Stress, Anxiety, and Consumption

Introduction: In this episode, Steven Webb explores the concept of consumption in our modern world and how it often leads to stress and anxiety. Drawing wisdom from nature and Zen teachings, he discusses the importance of consuming less and embracing the idea that we are enough just as we are.

Album: Jack Savoretti - Between The Minds

Call to Action: Support the show or download Steven's "5 Simple Practices for Inner Peace" at thankyousteven.com. Also, please leave a review. Your feedback is deeply appreciated and helps us improve the show.

Timestamps:

  • [00:00:00] Introduction
  • [00:03:57] Discussion on the concept of consumption and its impact on our lives
  • [00:08:22] The importance of letting go of control and embracing the idea of being enough
  • [00:09:12] The story of the Zen Master and the overflowing cup
  • [00:12:39] A brief meditation practice to connect with our better nature
  • [00:16:51] Conclusion and final thoughts

Key Points:

  • Consumption, especially in our modern world, often leads to stress and anxiety.
  • Embracing the idea that we are enough just as we are can lead to a more peaceful life.
  • The story of the Zen Master and the overflowing cup illustrates the importance of emptying ourselves of preconceived notions and constant consumption.

Quotes:

  • "Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. So too is our lives. Sometimes they become a little clearer, they become a little more peaceful when we reduce the noise and just reducing that constant consumption." - Steven Webb
  • "You are enough. You have enough. Then fine, we're going to consume more. But just in each given moment, just take a step back and enjoy what we have in each moment." - Steven Webb

Contact Information: Visit stevenwebb.com to get in touch.

Credits: Hosted by Steven Webb

Additional Podcast: Check out Steven's other podcast, Inner Peace Meditations, at InnerPeaceMeditations.com.

Transcript
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Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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One of my favorite quotes of all time, Alan Watts.

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So on today's podcast, we're talking about embracing nature's

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wisdom, overcoming stress, anxiety, and consuming less.

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One of those things that I'm trying to learn to do, and I think the

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world as a whole needs to do that.

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However, before we get there, for the last like two weeks, I've been

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working really hard on sorting out my website, sorting out the

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stillness in the Storms website, the Inner Peace Meditations website,

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and bringing them all together.

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So all of my podcasts and all of my things are more easily accessible,

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and I had to update the link in every single one of my podcast.

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And.

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I often think that I'm not delivering, I'm not doing a very good job, and

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I miss weeks and things like that.

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And I think I'm doing a terrible, terrible job.

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And I was going through them last night and I've done 92 of

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them, and I was going through, I was thinking, Hey, some of

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these aren't bad actually, some of these are pretty good.

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And going, just going through the titles and things like that.

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Boy, it took the, I was listening to one of my favorite albums,

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Jack Savoretti and I went through the whole album, which

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is a brilliant album, by the way.

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I'll put the album title in the show notes.

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One of my favorite all time albums.

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It really is, it's one of those albums that you just return

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to again and again and again.

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And I put on the album and it took the whole album for me

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to just go and copy and paste.

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, I was really hating the job at the beginning, but by the

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end I was loving doing it.

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It's one of those things that you just don't wanna do, and I thought,

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I'll tell you what, I'll be really productive and I'll just do 10 each

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day for the next 10 days or so.

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But I got into it after about doing 40.

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I was like, I'm really not liking this.

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And then 50, I was like, okay, I'll keep going 60, I'll keep going.

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And by the end I was like, this has really given me some clarity.

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And it made me, it was almost like I needed to see what I had achieved.

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And I think how often do we really go back and look at what we've achieved?

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I might do a podcast on that.

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That'd be a good idea, but I wanna say thank you to many of

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you that have bought me a coffee, although I've changed it slightly.

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I'm always changing things.

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Us humans, they're always doing that, aren't we?

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So I've changed it to virtual hugs.

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I don't really drink a lot of coffee, so it didn't make sense to me.

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Buy me a coffee, buy me a coffee and treat me to a coffee.

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So I've changed it at virtual hugs.

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So I wanna say thank you to Lucy and Carol, and Dawn, Sarah Sanger, gin,

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and someone, someone, and v all of you for treating me to a virtual hug.

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You guys, massive big hug.

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I hope you can feed it.

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I'm like squeezing you tight right now.

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You can feel my arms around you.

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Thank you guys.

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It really makes a difference.

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My podcast has just gone to another level, so I, it does cost

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a lot more now to host it and all that, but that's good news.

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That's wonderful news because more and more people are, listen into it.

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More and more people are getting benefits from it.

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And I get emails, people that I really make sense and I'm not sure

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I make sense in my head, but I'm just getting my thoughts out there

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and if it makes sense to you.

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Brilliant.

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That's awesome.

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So.

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I've sorted the website, so I've told you about that.

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I've told you about my virtual hugs.

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I'm just going through some of my show notes a minute, and now I'm

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gonna get on with today's podcast.

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It's about consuming less, just learning from nature really.

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So let's go through to today's podcast.

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So in our modern world, consumption is often seen as a necessity.

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We consume food, we consume material, goods, information, even nature.

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We're consuming.

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And I'm f I'm finding my time now, literally when I'm reading and

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YouTube and I'm just like, I want it.

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Oh, I want more and more and more.

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I want to learn more.

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I'm learning to speak Cornish at the moment.

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I'm learning.

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The Cornish history, and I just want more and more of it.

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But where do we strike a balance?

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Am I becoming more stressful because I'm trying to get more and more?

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and but this constant cycle of consumption, it brings about

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so much stress and anxiety.

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And as the philosopher Alan Wa once said, muddy water is best

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cleared by leaving it alone.

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So two is our lives.

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Sometimes they become a little clearer.

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They become a little more peaceful when we reduce the noise and just

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reducing that constant consumption.

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And you I love this analogy of the muddy water.

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The simple fact, you imagine a great big pond and you imagine we're just

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throwing stuff in it all the time.

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How about we just let it settle what we know now, the knowledge

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that we know, the wisdom we got, the food is in our belly.

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Everything in our, just, just for a moment, just go, that's enough.

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What if we have everything in this moment?

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What if it's just enough?

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A wonderful thought.

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And beneath the surface of this hectic consumption, below all our stresses

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and anxieties and fears, there lies a deeper truth, a more profound,

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peaceful reality, often referred to in Buddhism as Budd Nature.

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This is our true self.

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And unclouded by worldly distractions and illusions.

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It's a sense of being just enough just as we are just in this moment.

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Oh, what relief doesn't it just like, oh, I don't have to do anything.

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I can just be now here.

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I don't have to consume anything.

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I don't have to push back on anything.

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Oh, you just wanna take a deep breath and just let it all out, don't you?

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That's just that huge sigh of relief.

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You know, nature provides us with countless examples of living in

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harmony without need to constant consumption is an ageless

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wisdom that we often forget.

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You know, just look, look at the parable of the Chinese farmer.

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That's one of my favorite ones.

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I'm just gonna have to look it up a minute because I kind of know it,

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but I, I kind of often forget it.

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The Chinese farmer, this is the famous zen story often

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recounted, and a Chinese farmer had a horse that ran away.

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And when his neighbors learned of it, they came to the

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farmer saying Such bad luck.

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The farmer replied, maybe the next day the horse returned

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with three wild horses.

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How wonderful the neighbors explained.

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Maybe the farmer applied the following day.

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The farmer's son tried to ride one of the wild horses.

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He was thrown off and he broke his leg.

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The neighbors, once again came, came to offer their

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sympathy for the farmer's.

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Misfortune maybe answered the farmer.

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A day after the military officials came to the village and drafted

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the young men into the army, seeing that the son's leg has

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been broken, they pass him by.

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Neighbors congratulated the farmer and on his good luck this time.

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But the farmer said maybe, and the lesson here is, you know,

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you don't know what is in store.

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You know, I don't know whether breaking my neck

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was a good or a bad thing.

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I don't know whether, you know, being stuck in that traffic

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jam is a good or a bad thing.

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It might have saved me from an accident.

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It might made me late for my appointment.

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Who knows?

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And I think when we have a slightly more balanced view on

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it, it's just like, oh, we can just relax a little stop rigidly

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trying to control everything.

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Does that make any sense?

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Just just that controlling a little bit less makes

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things just so much easier.

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I have a genuine belief that we do have everything

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inside of us that we need.

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Was it Marcus Aurelius?

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Very little is needed to make a happy life.

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It is all within yourself in a way of think, in your way of thinking.

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Very little is needed to make people happy.

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It's all within yourself.

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Okay.

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I butchered that.

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You, you know what I mean?

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You know, this perspective coupled with consuming less leads to

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a simpler, more peaceful life.

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You know, just another end story.

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The empty cup and teaches the same lesson.

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We must empty ourselves of preconceived notions and.

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And the story goes.

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A university professor went to visit Zen Master while the Zen

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Master quietly served his tea.

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The professor talked about zen.

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The master poured the visitors' cup to the brim and then kept pouring.

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The professor watched him overflowing the cup until he could no longer

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restrain himself, and he looked up and goes, the cup is full.

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No more would go in the professor blurted, you are like this cup.

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The master replied, how can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.

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And it's just a really good illustration of we, we go around with

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such a full cup, such a full mind, such a full everything we need and

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we are just trying to consume more.

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I was watching the TV program last night on tv, and they went

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into this house and they emptied the house and they put it into

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this huge hangar and they put it all in item order, color order.

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Ah, it's OCD person's dream.

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This is, I love seeing it all laid out that this, I just want

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my house laid out like that.

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I don't wanna put it back in the house.

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I just want all my socks laid out in color and size that's a dream for me.

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I'm learning to not battle that because not all my carers and

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not everybody I have look after me has the same o c D as me,

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so I'm learning to let that go.

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It's taken a long time, but yeah, I, when I grew up, I used to

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have all my tapes in color order.

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I used to have all my CDs numbered in colored order, which was great

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till I bought a new one and I had to take all the little stickers

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off and put them all in there.

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And yeah, if you look at my house now, you would think, I don't have

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O C D, but I, I think we all do.

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We like order, don't we?

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Because order makes us feel comfortable.

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It makes us feel that we're in control of things if we

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have some kind of order.

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And I think this is where we like to, we choose what to consume, we choose

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what to put in the cup, but very often we're at the point now where,

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Society's filling our cup for us.

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Society's bombarded us with everything.

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You must learn this.

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You must consume this, you must try this, you must have this.

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And it's just and I'm doing the same again.

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I'm filling your cup again with my thoughts and my beliefs.

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And you know what you need to do?

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You need to empty more.

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You need to do this.

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Oh, the irony.

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The, I the irony is not lost on me, and I hope it's not lost on you.

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Just, yeah.

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Turn off his podcast and just be, but the problem is

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we won't, we don't do it.

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I, you, the, the best thing is like meditation practices.

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Just taking out a little moment here and there.

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You know, let's do, let's do a little meditation practice right now.

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I just warn you, if you're driving along in a car and all

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that, do it, but don't close your eyes or anything like that

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and just, just take a breather.

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Let's connect with a better nature to feel a sense of being enough.

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And as you breathe in, just settle your mind.

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I say settle your mind.

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I mean, allow your mind to settle.

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And as you breathe out, let go of anything you need to

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consume, any stress or anxiety,

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and you could repeat the mantra in your head.

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I am enough.

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I am enough.

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I am at peace with myself and nature.

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And see how quickly we can go from consuming to I am enough.

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I have enough.

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I am at peace with myself and nature.

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What a wonderful calmness.

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And we could do that anywhere.

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We could do it any time.

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Just keep your eyes open if you're doing something

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that needs your attention.

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I'm not suggesting that, you know, you go into a meditation state,

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and that's a really important point actually, because we often see

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meditation as you know, chilling out, finding a nice quiet area

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where you won't be disturbed.

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That's not real Meditation.

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Real meditation is when you're amongst people, when, when you've got negative

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people around you, when the world is going to pots, how can you stay in

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that meditative state at that point?

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How can you stay just above the true self?

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And this is the point just above.

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If you are the true self, nothing's gonna phase you, but you wanna

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be just above just where the compassion and the wisdom is.

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Where the material wisdom of the self starts to form an ego, but

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before the ego starts to consume more and want more, and have

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that ego, ego ness about it.

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Before that, you want to stay at that point where you're just a wise self.

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We've all seen that as Zen Masters at the end of the bar when there's

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that big bar fight going on, and they're probably not Zen masters.

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They're part, they're part of the movies, aren't they?

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They're told to act like this, but you've got that wise wisdom at the

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end of the bar and he's had drinking and everybody else is fighting.

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And right at the end he just stands up, gives the

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bowman a tip, and walks out.

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You want to be that calm person.

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Didn't get involved.

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He had enough.

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He enjoyed his drink.

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So yeah, that's today's podcast.

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Just, you know, enough's enough.

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Stop consuming for a moment.

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Stop doing, just take a breather.

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Just have this moment.

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And I started this podcast by telling you all the stuff I've

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been doing because we feel like we gotta get somewhere.

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My mind's just reminded me, you've got your new seat.

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It arrived today.

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It's been three months in the making.

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They lost it once.

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It come from Germany.

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Gotta get that put on at the weekend.

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Gotta do this.

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Don't the mind just, okay.

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I know.

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Thank you for the reminder.

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I've got this,

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so I'm going to leave you with the thought.

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You know, you are enough.

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You have enough.

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Then fine, we're going to consume more.

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But just in each given moment, just take a step back and enjoy

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what we have in each moment.

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And the more we do that, the more we go back to that moment, the more

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you'll find the happiness that you're searching for, the joy, the genuine

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nourishment, the genuine fulfillment that you'll find is already there.

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It's already right here.

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You cannot want to be happy and be happy.

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The fact that you go, I want to be happy means you're already unhappy.

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You've already missed the mark.

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You cannot have two ways.

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We already are in a state of happiness.

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We're already in a state of enough.

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We already have everything in this moment.

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And just take a deep breath on that thought.

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You know, this is a pretty deep journey.

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You know, if you've come along in this podcast with me a little bit,

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exploring the idea of reducing consumption to find our true selves,

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that'll help us to overcome stress and anxiety, and you can always head

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over to Inner Peace of Meditations, my other podcast that'll help

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you to reduce some of the stress and anxiety, always plugging.

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Always more always is.

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That's why.

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That's what life is, isn't it?

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It's a real difficult thing, but I'm gonna leave you with Zen Master Banky,

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not sure if I pronounce that right.

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Abiding with the unperturbed mind is the same as the peace

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and bliss of the Buddhas.

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Let's all strive to live with this unbe mind consuming less,

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embracing our own better nature.

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Thank you for joining me today, and thank you for the virtual hugs.

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You guys are absolutely awesome.

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Hope you can feel some of my love for you and love for all of you.

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I hope you apply some of these insights and I hope

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you find some stillness.

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That's all we need to do.

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Find those little bits and moments of stillness.

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Remember, you are enough, and in there there's a deep

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wisdom waiting to be embraced.

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Until next time, stay still, stay present and stay strong.

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you can head over to.

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thankyousteven.com to download the five simple practices and join

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my Inner Peace newsletter that I'm organizing myself to actually

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start sending every week rather than about every three weeks.

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Take care.

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Love you guys.

About the Podcast

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Stillness in the Storms
Finding inner peace in the hardest of times

About your host

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Steven Webb