This episode is another solo show, featuring a talk Jeff gave at a Healing Circle in June of 2021. The full title is “Meditation is Not Therapy, Sanity is Not What You Think”.  Jeff chose this topic because in our materialistic society, everything gets filtered through the idea of winning, betterment, and constant improvement.  Which at its face makes sense - no one intentionally wants to lose or trend downward.  Except there is a flaw in that thinking which is an inability to bravely face the truth about ourselves in the present, always being driven by future benefits. 

This attitude completely misses the point when applied to meditation practice, which objectively acts as a mirror reflecting back our current state of mind to us, rather than one more self-improvement tool.  Lately, meditation is being appropriated by some corporations that bring meditation in-house. Ostensibly promoted as a way to help employees deal with stressors and anxiety, it’s often used by management to improve the productivity of their employees and enhance the bottom line. 

On a personal level, meditation can of course benefit us, but as a byproduct of being more present with our feelings and our thought process, rather than as the goal in itself.  Focusing on the goal or outcome of who’d we like to become in the future is simply materialism wrapped in satin brocade. 

The second part of Jeff’s talk asks, “What exactly is sanity?”  We are so dependent on our thought process for everything we do, that we assume it’s the source of sanity or wisdom.  But that type of conceptual sanity is a relative notion, dependent upon who is asking, how we were brought up, where we live in the world, local customs, etc., rather than an objective reality. Is there such a thing as sanity without a thinker, without a relative reference point? 

These are some of the questions tackled in this episode, where the question IS actually the answer.

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