Q and A on Enlightenment, Spiritual Awakening, Astrology and More (ft Koi Fresco)

Welcome back to another video. My name is Aaron and I help people expand their consciousness. Today I'm here with my good friend Koi Fresco.

Hello everybody.

And what we decided we would do is film a Q&A video for you guys, uh, some questions that we actually just asked you about. So on social media, on both Snapchat and Instagram, we just asked our audience, uh, some questions that you guys might have.

So what we're going to do now is go ahead and answer some of those questions and we're doing a second video on my channel where me and Aaron talk about a lot attraction and whether or not it's actually real.

Yeah, go ahead and check. I'm going to link that up in the video below, so go ahead and check out that video by just clicking that link and you'll see some of the content over there as well. So the first question we have is, does astrology impact one's life in any way? What are your guys' thoughts on astrology? Ooh, what do you want to go start this one off?

Yeah, I actually, uh, it's a video on astrology once, um, that was kind of divided My kind of thoughts with astrology, I try to really mix a lot of spiritual practice and scientific understanding. And on a fundamental level, there's a lot of lack when it comes to astrology from a scientific standpoint. So for me, I've always said that astrology has as much impact as you allow it to have.

I totally agree.

It's kind of just like crystals, just like tarot card readings, all these new age practices, they can help us and they can assist us and they can give us insight. But that all depends and is determined by how much, you know, you put your heart into it. You take those words as facts versus fiction, right? That to me is the biggest indicator on how much astrology is going to impact your daily life. Yeah, is, you know, a lot of people have never heard of astrology around the world and, you know, they live perfectly functional lives. Exactly. I totally agree.

As I say a lot on the channel, I believe that everything in life is fundamentally neutral, but that we tag the meaning as to what things mean. So if we use astrology as a symbol then we can derive certain meaning from that. And maybe even from like a consciousness point of view, we've all teamed up together and been like, hey, Mercury retrograde means this and all this stuff. And we may collectively agree that this is what some of the things mean. But at the fundamental base level, I think we have the power over what we believe to be true and that it's dependent upon the meaning we give it.

Yes, exactly.

So it can be a powerful tool, but it's not the end-all be-all.

Yes, it's not a necessity. Exactly. In any kind of life, spiritual life, regular material life. It's not, you know, like I said, there are tons of people people who throw astrology out the window and have completely healthy, happy, enjoyable lives. And there's others who, you know, read about it and practice it every single day who have the same results. It's just exactly where your mind is and what you're utilizing that astrology for.

Totally agree. Yeah, it just really depends on the person. It depends on you, depends on what the person believes. And there's nothing wrong with it, but it's just a powerful tool if we see the power in that. So I'd say that's the main one. So, all right, do you want to go to the next question? Yeah, that was a good one. I like that one.

I like that question. All right, here's another question that, um, so here's a good question that I got. It's one I get kind of often. How do we remain positive and spiritual, or positive or spiritual, either or, when you're stuck in a household of people that are stuck in society's system?

I get that question all the time as well. It's the same thing. You want me to go first on this?

Yeah, for sure.

Okay, so the first thing I'd say that's the most important with this is what we define the situation to be. Many times when we get into a house, we're automatically subconsciously labeling people as negative And even if sometimes they don't do something negative, we might think and interpret things they're doing as negative when they're actually not. And maybe they really are, but the point is to know that we need to kind of like let go of the labels. I know there's been people that I've been around that did have more of what we could call a negative attitude, but what I did is I noticed that the moment I stopped focusing on that so much, it was like it kind of started to go away because I wasn't looking for it as much. So it kind of became like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I, I'd say the most important thing to know is the most powerful, like the most powerful ability that you have is the ability to choose how you respond to situations. And if our definitions say that this has power over me, then it will have power over me. But it's kind of get in tune with what the definitions are because if we believe it has power over us, then it does, but that's our choice. So yeah, I think it's all about that awareness of what you define to be positive or negative and dropping the labels as to what that is.

And what I love to go off of is, you know, Alan Watts had a great way of speaking and Alan Watts would always talk about, you know, seeing life as a game. You know, that game doesn't have to inherently be good or bad, it's just a game. So because of that, if we are players in this game, if we are humans humaning, as you like to say, in this experience, we have to see things as we would see it in the game, which is a challenge, right? An obstacle, something to overcome. So if I'm in a situation where I'm at home or I'm at school or I'm somewhere where I perceive it to be a negative area, negative place of being, negative mind, negative energy, I need to stop seeing it as inherently negative or inherently, you know, against me and start seeing it as a challenge for me to overcome. So if I'm going home to an —been a negative household.

That negative car.

Yeah, the negative noise.

I can't believe that just happened.

But so if I'm going home to like, say, I consider a negative household, or I'm going to a negative school, I need to start looking at it as I would in a game, which is a challenging household or a challenge at school. And if I can see it as a challenge, I can sit down and think about ways to overcome it. How can I grow through this? How can I use this as an opportunity to learn? Because if I can learn to combat my thoughts in the sense of wanting this to be something against me and me to be the pity party, and I can learn to overcome it instead and be the victor in this challenge, I stop seeing my family as negative. I instead see myself as this powerful individual who has the ability to overcome my issues and my problems, which is what we see in successful people around the world. It's never a problem to them. It's just, okay, this is a roadblock. How do I get around it? Exactly.

It's never something that's stopping them from moving forward. That is so true.

Yeah. And that goes for all of us. And that just takes that little flip of the switch and He said, you know, I agree. If you see it as a game, it's less serious. I totally—

I love that analogy because it's so true. We, we have the ability to decide what power it has over us. And if we decide we're going to be at the cause and not the effect, then we will be. So exactly, if it's a challenge, then it's a challenge because we define it as a challenge. But a challenge is better than a problem. And we have the power to get through that challenge. So I think it's about also knowing that. And I like the way you said that. Yeah, a game. Yeah, that's so true. That's such a good point. Yeah, exactly. And that makes it actually kind of fun too. I remember I used to have— it makes it all playful. It really brings a new energy to the table. I remember my— I used to have a sales commission job, and I used to tell people, kind of treat it as a game. Like, you know, we help people, we get commission, but if you treat it as a game, it's so much lighter. And I find that then it's like things smooth. It's such a smooth process.

The lighter it is, the less we overthink it, and the more we can focus on how to deal with it, right?

And I like that metaphor too, because a game is fun.

Yeah, right? A game is fun. Whereas challenges are supposed to be fun. They're exactly workouts for the brain. Yeah, for the body. So yeah, seeing it as a challenge makes it something we look forward to eventually versus you see it as a problem, which is something that we just dread.

Exactly. Yeah, I totally agree. All right, next question. Okay, this is a good question. I get this every now and then. Can we manifest an awakening in someone else? Should we try or should we not try to do so?

Ooh, that's a good question.

I get asked this a lot too.

So, um, from my— you might have a different view on this actually than me. From my perspective, and a lot of what I follow is a lot of philosophy through Buddhist Buddhism and Hindu philosophy. It's called Advaita Vedanta. It's kind of a non-dual philosophy. And the way they like to express it has to do with karma. Karma is kind of the causality of what's going on in life. Everything happening in every moment is our karma. In the case of awakening, awakening is a product of our karma. It is our karma. The steps we take lead to awakening. But the thing with that is, and the thing with trying to awaken other people, is that it's one of those things where you aren't supposed to force your will upon others. Yeah. So it's kind of like, If you're a teacher in this aspect, you shouldn't be going around preaching to everybody randomly all over the place. What you're going to do is upset them, annoy them, maybe drive them farther away from the truth. Instead, what we're supposed to do is assist those who need the assistance first. Help those who are asking for help. So, if we are thinking about or wanting to initiate an awakening in somebody else, whether it be a family member or a friend, it should only be those who are looking for that awakening or are looking for our advice or our help. For us to try to push an awakening on somebody, it's a paradox. It can never happen. Mm-hmm. It's like trying to push the earth down. It's just— yeah, it's physically impossible. It's mentally impossible. It's you trying to create a non-reality, right? And it's, it's, it's just regressive to your own progress because you're trying to again lead a horse to water that doesn't want to drink. Exactly. Trying to force the situation instead of focusing the energy you do have to help someone else awaken who's already open to it.

Yeah, and that's honestly, that's something I kind of went through when I first went through my awakening back in 2012. I was so excited and so passionate about all of these things I was learning and I went out and I shared it with my family. I shared it with my friends and a lot of the people thought that like it was, they just couldn't resonate with it and then I looked like the weirdo. But this is what I realized is the best thing you can do is lead by example. Be a shining light that just is so bright that other people want to be similar and you don't have to sell yourself. These videos that like we create on YouTube, we're not trying to get you to believe what we're saying. We're just sharing our perspective and if you resonate it, then that's great. But we were actually talking about this before we did this Q&A because when it comes to what we're sharing, we're really not selling anything. So, you know, when someone comes up to you and they're telling you what to believe, you naturally kind of have a rebel instinct. Like, I know that that's how I am. If someone's like, do this, do this, do this, I'm like, no, you kind of feel that vibe.

I see that a lot with activism. That's why a lot of militant activism doesn't work as well. For sure. We're both vegan, so being vegan, the best thing you can do is lead by example. People see how healthy you are, how upbeat you are, how in shape you are, and that makes makes them curious. When you go to restaurants and shout at people, it just makes them dislike you even more.

Exactly, because then they associate that negative emotion with the identity of being vegan. So the best way to change or to— is to change the world is to first change yourself and to just be that example.

It creates a ripple. It's like throwing a stone in the pond, you know, those ripples eventually reach the shores.

Yep, it's just to trust the process. Trust that that ripple will reach the shore because eventually it will.

Exactly, so never try to force an awakening on somebody else. It's just not going to happen. Allow yourself to assist others who are already seeking. In awakening. Yeah, to awaken first. Well, that's where all your energy should go. I totally agree.

That's awesome. Are you okay? Your turn.

Oh, I got a good one.

Yeah. Oh, all right, this is a good one.

A little personal. What do you think would have happened if you never turned your life around? Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, if you never had an awakening, if you never had a change. What do you want to go first?

You want me to go first? You go first. Okay. Um, well, before I had my awakening, I, uh, I was labeled, and I labeled myself, I guess, of having ADHD. Um, I was taking Adderall before that. Were you? Yeah. Damn, small world, dude. Right? So yeah, taking Adderall and then I was drinking a lot, was partying a lot more. I felt a lot of, I've always had a lot of energy. Like that's one thing about me. I've always had a lot of energy. I think that I would have channeled that into doing more activities that were further away from my path. The moment I started meditating, the first or second day of meditating, my life changed because I started to feel more different than I've ever felt before and I became very present to the moment and it changed everything about me. I remember I went to work, people were like, you're so different than you were before. Not in a bad way, but just like something happened. And if that didn't happen, my guess is I would have gone down more of the path of partying a lot more. I wouldn't be as focused with my YouTube, you know, what I do on YouTube. Um, I would definitely be doing things that weren't as, you know, constructive. And I would be— I don't even know where I would be, to be honest with you. But I do know that because I started meditating and because I had, you know, what is called an awakening, that has led to such a different path. Like, I'm so much more disciplined now. I have such— I meditate every day right when I wake up for 20 minutes. This right before I go to bed for 20 minutes. That's changed my life more than anything, and I don't even know where I would be if I was still doing that.

So what about you? Totally agree. Well, if anybody goes to my channel, you'll see this, but I actually spent a year in jail. I saw that. I saw that because I got a DUI when I was 18, and that was the same kind of situation, just partying 24/7. A whole year? Whole year. Damn. Completely lost to my ego, gone. You know, my only focus was the material world, and I didn't really even have that much information.

So that would spawn the awakening?

Exactly, spawn the awakening. So for me, I think I would have just continued to do what my plan was before any of this happened, which was to, you know, go to college, get a regular business degree or something, go work for my father. You know, classic story that a lot of us follow, right? Maybe a lot of viewers understand because we usually just do what our parents insist on us doing. You know, part of our, in some sense, brainwashing we're raised with is conditioning.

Yeah, the conditioning.

We're expected to impress our parents by doing what they ask. Mm-hmm. So I would have continued continue to probably do the same thing, you know, work a regular day job, do lots of drugs, probably get in more trouble, never discover what it feels like to dive inside, to, you know, admit my emotions, to transcend my ego on some levels, to understand my faults. Those things would have all just continued to sit under the surface, and I would have continued to repress them, as we see many, many people, especially in Western cultures, do 24/7. For sure. So I'm blessed to have the situation that did happen to me. You know, it was an interesting and harrowing experience, but it led me to the space where I could dive within and self-discover. And that's a path that goes on forever, you know. That's awesome. It's a never-ending journey of education and potential enlightenment. So it's—

isn't it hard? I find this— it's hard to— when I think about how I used to be, it is hard to relate to it. That's the good— it feels like a different life.

Yeah, it feels like— it's something like your past incarnation in a sense.

It does. I totally resonate.

I think I even see older pictures of me, I don't like even think it looks like me or is me. It's just that alien to my mind at this point. And it's because, you know, that isn't your true self. I think that's why. I think so. Yeah, you're aware once you do start to have that awakening process, to what empowers you and what really helps you help the world, right? And you're a more progressive person, you know that what you were was nothing but a facade. It was a complete facade. And that's why it was like a mask that we—

it's just Halloween's coming up.

It's like a mask you wear on Halloween.

Exactly.

So once you realize that, it's one of those things you can never go back.

Yeah, that's so true. Once you— you can't ever go back. Everything looks different.

Even if you want to, you can't. The gates have been opened. Yeah.

I have a question that I think both of us get sometimes. Yeah. And I kind of want to answer it because I think it's the funniest question ever. Uh, sometimes people ask if I'm enlightened. Oh yeah, I think that's the funniest thing ever. And I don't mean that in a mean way. Yeah, ask that question. But are we enlightened? What do you think?

We're not enlightened. Yeah, not even anytime I see that, I'm like, no, that's the paradox too. People don't understand. Chogyam Trungpa, who we were talking about earlier, would always say ego or enlightenment is the ego's biggest disappointment. Yeah, see, people think of enlightenment as some kind of, some kind of trophy, some kind of achievement. Yeah, enlightenment's just a return to our natural state, which is a place beyond perception and beyond identification. That's all it is. It's as simple as sitting, you know what I mean? A stone is enlightened because a stone just is.

It is being. It just is.

That's where enlightenment is. It's not some feeling. It's not some euphoria. People think that they have a meditative state and they have that crazy, that kind of kundalini feeling and they think, "Oh, that was an enlightened moment." It's like, "No, it was just a really big body high." Completely different. That's the paradox.

As nice as it sounds and as much as my ego might want to be enlightened— Exactly.

The ego would love to be enlightened, but that's part of spiritual practice is you transcend even that. No joke.

To so many people talk about enlightenment, whether it be like Eckhart Tolle or Osho. Osho, they all said kind of the same thing. When you, when they did become enlightened, they laughed. They laughed hysterically because it is such a funny concept to try to attain something that you've already had from a certain perspective. That's why Osho, I believe, says that you cannot attain enlightenment. You can only realize enlightenment.

That's the thing is you have the enlightened experience and then you come back into your ego and to your perspective and you go, oh my gosh, yeah, there was no me there. The only experience you have on life is a reflection of it. Mm-hmm. That's all it is. Yeah, kind of like a dream, you know what I mean? Unless you're lucid. But if you're just having a dream, which most people have, you're just lost in the dream. Yeah. And once you wake up, you go, oh, that was great.

Maybe that's what life is like, but we don't know because we're not enlightened.

Yeah, and that's the paradox too, is an enlightened being can't say that they're enlightened in that moment.

Exactly, because who is the enlightened person? Who is enlightened? Because you don't have an ego. I just wanted to answer that because I guess that—

There's a saying, again, Alan Watts would say, "Who is the knower who knows that he is known?" Exactly, that's the point. How far back does our identification go? How many layers of self?

Of that onion can you peel back? Oh, there it is, you know what I mean? So it's just kind of funny. I just wanted to clarify that because I get that question a lot, and I do not believe that I'm enlightened. I don't claim to be enlightened. I just think that's kind of the way we wanted to answer that.

I'd say there's a very slight handful of people on Earth who who sit in that state at this current moment.

And they probably wouldn't tell you that they're enlightened.

And they're probably not teaching on YouTube or writing books or lecturing. They're probably past that.

Yeah, I'd say a lot of them probably just do their own thing, I mean, if I had to take a guess. Do you have any other questions? I think I might have another one.

Oh, we did a lot, 20 minutes. Damn! We both talk a lot. We do talk a lot. So the final question is, can you, because we were just talking about it, can you become attached to meditation, to your practice?

Can you be? I think, I think you can become attached to anything. I think you could become even, even meditation at a certain level. I look at it sometimes because I get up every day, I meditate the first 20 minutes and then 20 minutes before I go to bed. And sometimes I think it's a limitation because why can't this be a meditation? Why can't I meditate when I eat? What am I defining as meditation? So I think, I think certain practices can definitely become attachments. I think it's, I think the power is just knowing, oh, that is an attachment. And then switching it up. Yeah, and if you want to honor that, you can. You can honor that belief. You're like, I need to meditate every day. But I realized for myself, sometimes I'll push myself not to meditate right in the morning. Yeah, just to shake it up, because I'm like, am I that fragile that if I don't meditate, I'm just done for the day?

You know, you don't want to leech onto it as, you know, exactly. Yeah, what do you think? It's cool. Same thing, I agree. And Ron Bell would often talk about this, and he would say, you know, even with things such as meditation, uh, if the method of meditation you're using starts to become a drone and you're sitting there going, meditation, you know, you're just with it Well, switch it up. Try a new method, try a new technique, right? Go to a new space, sit for longer, sit for less, sit in a different position. Uh-huh. Try things out so you have to—

I can see that—

remember how to return yourself to that space of just being. Yeah. Because sometimes we do get familiar, and that is everything, you know. If we're learning about a certain philosophy, we might get comfortable with it and think we know everything, you know. We get confident in our practice and in our manifestation technique, and exactly, yes. So it goes with everything, you know. That's why it's always important to to question yourself with everything you're doing. Am I really getting what I need out of this? Am I overlooking this? Am I ignoring what I should be focusing on because it's becoming familiar? That's why mindfulness is so important in everyday life. It continuously keeps you on your toes, which in turn allows you to perfect your methods and actually realize when you are or aren't fully diving into them or whether or not you're becoming attached.

Because you bring that awareness in.

Exactly. Always aware. Yeah, you— we always know on a subconscious level whether or not we're attached to something. We always know. Yeah, whether it be drugs or our favorite food or our favorite shoes, you know, we know what we are attached to.

Is that— that's what the power is. Yeah, we do live in material society. There are things we need to do, but we are aware of why we want what we want or why we do what we want, and which aspects of what we do and what we want are things that we really are just—

our emotions are tied to, right? That attachment arises.

Exactly. Yep, the attachment arises with feeling as well. I think anytime we become too certain of anything, it's sometimes good to bring that uncertainty in. And in that uncertainty, there's a space for new experiences. And I think that's always important to remember.

So, and the paradox of too much certainty is that it starts to get dull. Exactly. You know, that feeling, that understanding. Yeah, it becomes something we sort of gloss over.

So I try new things. Exactly. You know, try new meditation practices, try different types of meditation.

Yeah, you know, whatever you have, you know, a philosophy you follow, read a book that's debating You know, right? I do that sometimes.

Yeah, I'll intentionally have something that I believe, and if it's an article that completely negates what I kind of believe, I'll read it. And a lot of times you read it and then you're like, whoa, like, that's real interesting. Alright guys, so that— yeah, camera died, camera died, but we're back now. So that's it for today's Q&A. I want to encourage all you guys, me and Koi have a couple more videos coming out. Click the link in the bio, the description box. The bio, like this Instagram in the description box and check out Koi's video. We're doing an awesome video on the law of attraction. Go over there and check that out. Subscribe to his channel. He's got amazing content over there as well. And then other than that, as always, we will see you guys on the next vid. Peace, much love, and namaste. Rum, rum.

All right, perfect.

That was good. Good to go. We did it, bruh.