This Is Heartbeat; The Podcast
Landon
When one is emerging from this wilderness, there are some things that are, are so critical. And as we begin to, to put, put our world together and to make sense of it in a reasonable, articulated kind of way, I'd like to raise tonight four questions. That we think about that are important for us to think about as we try to walk this trail of a good human being
Announcer
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of heartbeat the podcast Featuring insights and teachings from 50 plus years of the work of Landon Saunders today We return to Miami, Florida for an excerpt from the final night of Landon's community workshop in our last episode You Landon had just raised the question, how do we keep from missing our life?
And that's where we pick up today.
Landon
Have you ever asked yourself, what's your view of this whole wide world is anyway? What is your view of the world? What do you think about it? I'm not asking what, what the philosophers think about it, or what the theologians think about it, or what the sociologists think about it, or what the anthropologists think about it, or what the psychologist thinks about it, but I'm asking what you think about it.
What is your view of the world? Do you believe that in the, in the outermost perimeters of the world, do you believe that there somehow is joyousness? Do you believe that there's music in the spheres, along with Plato and Aristotle and others? Do you believe that the stars can sing together, as an ancient writer of wisdom once put it?
Do you believe that somehow there's something right and good in the bubbling of the brook and the singing of the birds and the gentle breezes that pass through the trees? Do you think there's something right about the grass that grows green in the springtime? Do you think there's something right about your beautiful swaying palms and, and the beautiful ocean that's out here?
Do you think there's something marvelous about all the different things that grow? And have you opened your eyes and have you looked at that recently? Have you taken the time to see the sky with all the problems and all these wilderness types of things that we have to go through? Does, does, does our attention, is our attention somehow shrunken to include, include nothing but our own lives and our own, what is your, what is your view of the world?
What kind of world do you believe you live in? I'm not asking about all the orneriness and contrariness that's in the world right now, but just the universe itself. I've, I've made some opinions about that. You say, well, that's a good question, but can anybody ever answer it? You don't want a total answer.
Haven't you already learned how important it is just to get the questions? One of the things wrong with our society, in my opinion, is we've got too many answers. We have answers that don't even match up to questions. And so we're going to, we need to think about the right questions. And when I put it in the form of questions, and as Rilke put it, the marvelous poet, we have to learn to love the questions.
And so, what, what do you think? What you think about the world? What's your view of the world is? Has everything to do with the way you're treating your friends, and the way you work, and the way you deal with your spouse, and the way you deal with your children, and the way you deal with your parents. Just what's your, what is your view of the world itself?
And the second question is, do you expect to be happy? What's your view of happiness? Do you expect to be happy? Do you get up every day expecting to be unhappy, or do you get up every day expecting to be happy? What is your view of happiness? Dostoevsky, the famous Russian writer, once said the only reason people are not, do not know joy is because they do not know that they are joyful.
It's the only reason. The only reason you are not happy is because you do not know that you are happy. And Dostoevsky says, the moment you know that you are happy, in that same moment, you will be happy. You say, well, I don't know what to do with that. Well, I don't either, but it's a good line.
We've never, we may not have asked. I'm not asking, are you happy? I'm just asking right now. Do you expect? To be happy with all the important significant people in your life. Do you expect to be happy?
Landon
We'll get right back to Landon's four questions in just a moment. But right now, friends of heartbeat want to invite you to subscribe to the weekly email joyful jumpstart.
It's free and it arrives in your inbox every Monday and provides an encouraging perspective for the coming days to receive your free subscription. Simply sign up at this is heartbeat dot com. And now back to Landon.
Landon
A third question that's harder to talk about but but it's one that we all come to grips with even in a negative sense or a positive sense and that's what's your view of religion.
You know what the word religion means? Comes from an old Latin term which means to be careful. If a person is going to think through their inner life, if they're going to think through this whole question of religion that seems to be so much with us and so much throughout the world and that is so difficult because I usually just interpret it in terms of my own experience, whether it was a good experience or a bad experience.
But the word religion means to be careful.
And the word chaos comes down through the Greek language Which means yawning. The wilderness is, is a great yawn. And sometimes it feels like that life is, can be experienced as a yawning abyss. And, and so what, what the whole concept and idea of religion is to be careful. As we're moving through this world, there are so many marginal events.
The final and largest of those marginal events being death itself. And that's why I tell people if they're around when I die, I'm prepping people for what to do and what to say, because most people don't know what to do when they're around someone who's dying. And so I'm going to tell you, because you know, some of you may be around when I'm dying.
And so here's the script. When you come in and I'm there, I don't want you misbehaving and getting all terribly upset and steal the attention.
When I'm dying, I want all the attention on me. Don't you do anything to distract that. And then secondly, if I'm still breathing however faintly. Don't talk about me in the third person. Don't ask, is he gone yet? Because I may be listening. I may not be able to respond, but I may be listening. And then I want you simply to come down and say to me something like, and say it loud enough so I can hear you.
Get it right in my ear and say something like, Hey bud, I love you. That's what I did when my mother died.
I didn't want her to die the way she did. It was wrong. She shouldn't have had to have that much pain.
But I didn't have any say about that. All I had any say about was to do the best I could. I'm not much of a singer. I'm not much of a singer. But I had some really wonderful moments as I just sat by her bed, held her hand, as she was in an unconscious state, and I just tried to think of songs that she liked, and I tried to sing my songs.
Sometimes, as Joseph Campbell says, human beings have to make their way singing to their death. To sing the songs. And then as I watched the monitor go flat, and just before the line became straight, I got close to her ear, and told her who I was, and how much I loved her. And the last thing I saw on that noble, and strong, and wonderful woman's face, was her right eyebrow just did a big V.
Did she hear me? Oh yes, she heard me. Now, these experiences of life, these marginally, these yawning, these abysses that we, that we have to pass through. We have to be careful when we're putting together the framework of our world To think about the whole question, and not to solve the question, but just to think about the question.
The question hasn't gone away yet. If I'm trying to sort through everything that's ever happened to me or everything that I see on television or everything that I hear on radio, it sometimes can get very, very complicated, and so it's very critical for me not to confuse a spiritual relationship or the development of my inner life with institutional religion.
If I don't know the distinction there, that's not a critique against organized religion. I'm simply saying that this is a deeply personal thing, and it's your inner life. We're not asking you to decide all these doctrines and all these different things, but just to be certain that you don't miss your own life in the process.
And I would also add one other thing that I've learned in my own studies of the question. And that is that deity, in almost any form that deity has appeared in the world, has made one really powerful and supreme promise to human beings. And that promise that comes down through all the ages of wisdom is that I will never leave you or forsake you.
But this is your thinking through and knowing the ground on which you stand. About that which is the ultimate sort of meaning of the innermost depths of your life. And whatever that is, to be sure that that's a nourishing thing. The fourth question is, and this is an odd one in this list, is what is your view of money?
What is your view of money? Now, this is, this is a real important one, and I don't, I don't want you to get me wrong, that I like it. I'd a whole lot rather have some in my pocket than not. I love the color. You know, it's such a beautiful color and money to me is soft. You know, I like to rub it right up the side of my face.
That there's something, there's something nice about money. But I also know that there's almost nothing in the world that is as seductive as money can be. And I also know that sometimes I can get so green eyed for this that I lose my life in an attempt to get it. Only then to get down to the end of my life and leave it for somebody to squabble over.
And you know, in, in, uh, that, that the word money, you think about this, is the only word, so far as I know, that was ever put up on the same pedestal that the word God is. Only word. That the, here's God and, and here's money. That gives us an idea of how powerful all of this is. And so as I'm thinking about my life, I have to sort of think through that.
And in, in my, in my sense of values and in my scale of priorities, I have to decide where this fits in the scheme of thing, because it is so powerful and so important. And especially in this society.
Announcer
On behalf of the friends of Heartbeat who make this podcast possible, we're so grateful that you joined us today.
Here's a reminder that a new episode drops every couple of weeks. And if you appreciate Landon's content. We hope that you'll follow or subscribe rate and comment wherever you get your podcasts Interacting in this way helps broaden the reach of every episode Until next time when we'll pick up with this question of how do we keep from missing our life?
This is heartbeat the podcast
