ASCENDED BUSINESS WEBINAR WITH DONNA BROWN & DAVIDE COVA 29:04

Telefonnummer. It's gonna take a second. I'll just start recording, and I'm just going to take a moment to share this into my group if I can manage, because that's always my biggest challenge. Okay. So welcome everybody. My name is Donna Brown, and for those of you who don't know me, I am a business mentor and strategist and an intuitive. And today I am here with Davide Cova, who is a former Buddhist monk and is a Dharma teacher and a counselor and a million other beautiful things. And everywhere he goes, he brings love and light. So here I'm trying to turn off my own audio so that I'm not bothering people. And the reason we've come together and we've started this webinar series that's open to everybody and that we're also opening something to dig deeper on our own, you know, in a small group, is that we both felt that there is something very different that's happening in the world as more and more people are coming out on their own and working for themselves and building business, especially online. And as such, you're generally— we tend to be sort of one-man bands where we're really just a one-person company, and maybe we start outsourcing and things like that. And what happens with that, or to me, what has become important is that from— because we have come out on our own and because we have taken this path let's say in some way of self-authoring and creating our own lives, it becomes even more important for us to connect with our deepest selves and who we are and the biggest work that we can bring to the world and have that emerge through our business in a way that is very unique to us, I find. And also you know, so that there is no longer that disconnect, I suppose, between business and what we call our personal lives. And so in my quest for that same thing for myself and for my clients, a lot of my personal path has taken me on the path of meditation and self-inquiry and on an inward journey. And I know from my own personal experience how much it has affected my business, my relationships, And just the way I see the world in general. And I thought, I feel that it's very important for all of us to include something very, very similar to this when we go about our own business of creating a business. And so the path of an ascended business is just that, digging deep into ourselves and connecting with our deepest self to bring that forward to the world and using all the techniques like we're using this amazing technology today to reach people all over the world. So to use what we have at our disposition so they could have sort of, let's say, formal structures, but what drives them and the motor behind that is something very, very different and very spiritual. And that is why I've also brought in Davide to help me with this project, just because of his immense background. I mean, I did say he was a Buddhist monk, but he also underwent some very rigorous Buddhist studies for I think 7 years or a little bit more than that, and a long individual retreat that was almost a year and a half. And his vast experience also of day-to-day life with a partner and 3 very small children. So he's very grounded into the reality of what our days look like and what it's like to have a family and try to be and do without— with all those constraints and opportunities that a small family brings. So Davide, would you like to say 2 words about yourself? And first of all, thank you so much for coming.

Yeah, first of all, thank you. Thank you, Donna. Thank you for having me and for inviting me. Well, basically, you, you already said so much about myself. As you said, I'm a former monk, and the last 25 years of my life were based on spirituality. So I met Buddhism 25 years ago, and since then this became my passion, my main passion, and the field of study and the field of application through meditation. And I would say meditation and spirituality changed my life so much. And towards it in a positive sense. And it's so, so fundamental for my life that basically, as you know, I opened a center, a small center in Italy where I live, where I usually hold courses in Italian, where I try to share, where I try to share what I have understood and what I have integrated in my life. From the spiritual path. So, and also through counseling, of course, also through counseling. I always try to unite a daily, I say, a daily conventional life and with a spiritual approach. This is what I try to do every day and what I try to share. So this is why I'm here.

Yes, and thank you for that little introduction and the people that I've been speaking about this project with, about ascended business and bringing this terminology really into the world, not just because I thought of it, but because I believe it really represents the way of the future and the way that everything we do is extremely intimately connected. Our spiritual path and our business path are really part and parcel of the same thing. They're really just forms of our self-expression, self-inquiry, and the way we show up in the world. And so In this Mastermind that we do have coming up and what we'd like to bring here today in the webinar. And we have several webinars going on all this week. Some of them are about— I think we have the pleasure of having Davide on 2 or 3 times to talk about different aspects of themes that we will be talking about in the Mastermind that are sort of core principles that once you bring them into your own space, your own personal space, interior space, or you decide to become more acquainted with them, because these are all terms and concepts that we know, self-love or loving-kindness, these are words that are familiar to us, but really taking the time to examine those and become familiar with maybe deeper meanings and the actual feeling of what that would feel like, to actually experience that for yourself, Inevitably brings a change in business. And so the whole Ascended Business Project will be dealing with meditation as its foundation. And that's one of the reasons why we're kicking off with David, because I would like him to tell us just a little bit about meditation in general, because I don't know how many people here do meditate. If you'd like to, feel free to put comments. I would love it if you could share, by the way. Share to invite your friends, share to wherever you feel is appropriate, and feel free to ask as many questions as you like because we are here for you. And as we're going, and I will try to keep tabs on where all the different questions can be. They're in my group, which is Big Bang Business Strategies, on my own business page, which is Donna Brown, and I'm— and those are the 2 places for now. But anyway, so And of course in the webinar chat. So feel free to post your comments, please feel free to share. And this really is our offering to you of— yes, our offering to you. And actually, I think I would like David to say just a couple of words, really just to bring us into this space. And since we are going to be focusing on the whole point of this merging of business and spiritual practices, is to find that place from which to grow things in a more authentic way. Would you mind doing just a very, very short little centering for us?

Oh yeah, I'd love to.

Before we go into our meditation practice.

Yes, please. So you mean, shall we do a short meditation?

No, well, just, I would say maybe setting the intention for this meeting, I suppose, for this meeting and then to start— and before you start talking to us a little bit about meditation in general and sort of the nitty-gritty.

Yeah, yeah. So basically, may it be— what we are going to do may be deeply beneficial for all of us. And in the sense that we come closer to our deepest self and we give up the separation between, say, what we usually— what we usually do is separate business or any conventional activity to spiritual activity.

Yeah.

And we want to understand that Any conventional activity whatsoever is founded on our centeredness and it's founded on an open, direct channel to our higher self. So in my vision and in our vision, first of all, the most important thing in life is to find yourself, to find a direct open channel to your higher self and understand where you are, who you are, and what you want to realize. What is the meaning of your manifestation in this life, in this planet, so to say? And then you can operate, um, let's say, with wisdom and with knowledge in the conventional realm, say. So this is, um, what I hope is going to be done through these at least 3 meetings.

Well, the 3 with you, and then we'll be doing some other—

And the 9.

Yeah, I think, well, there are 3 this week. I think we have 6 different live events, 3 of which Davide will be doing with us. 2 more will be with, another one will be with a channel, Aishwarya Lunar Lakshmi.

Oh yeah.

And who made the beautiful grid that some of you will have seen in the posts And in the ads, and it's an invitation. It's a grid that was made with the intention of inviting the people who are meant to participate in this mastermind. Amazing.

So beautiful. Wow. So precise and loving. Wow.

Yeah. And also, I'll be doing several, a few on my own as well, really just on trying to always bring these back. We're taking a very spiritual deep dive today. But it always— and part of my purpose through this call today and through the week is to bring it always back to helping you understand how this can be helpful to you, is supremely helpful to you and your business and your clients, and to understand that really this is probably the best business practice you could ever have in your life. Anyways, I'd love to dive in right now. There's a lot of talk about meditation and mindfulness. And, uh, 2 days ago I was having a talk about, I was telling somebody about this project about the Ascended Business Mastermind and just Ascended Business in general. And they were saying, oh, that's just mindfulness. That's mindfulness. Just call it mindfulness. It's just mindfulness, number one. And yeah, but oh yeah, yeah. The NHS does that and use that word because people will be more comfortable with it. But I think that, um, mindfulness is just a part of it. So would you mind sort of, um, walking us through the different types of meditation that there are and what the benefits of each are, if you don't mind.

I'd love to. Yeah, thank you. Yes, so basically we have several types of different meditations. It is nowadays in the West, it's very well known what we call, as you said, mindfulness, which— and we mean mindfulness of breath. Consider that this kind of style of meditation is based on the cultivation of attention, cultivation of intention, and acceptance, cultivation of acceptance. How do we do that? As many of you probably know, we do cultivate Attention, intention, and acceptance through, as the title go, mindfulness of breath. This is also known as shamatha. Shamatha is in Sanskrit and shiné in Tibetan, and it means calm abiding. So basically, when we are practicing mindfulness, which is just—it's one. It's one sort, it's one type of meditation. We are working on the art of presence, our ability to be present in this very moment, in the here and now, without judging, possibly without judging, and simply being aware of what is happening. Recognizing what is happening, which means also labeling what is happening, and either letting go, letting go the thought or the emotion that has been traversing, how do I say, has been coming through us. Or also, when we speak about emotions, we also have the possibility of embracing emotions. Taking emotion within our arms, which means we start to breathe within the present emotion. So what is well known as mindfulness, mindfulness of breath, is something that was, say, presented at least 2,600 years ago from the Buddha Shakyamuni in a sutra. I don't know if people are— I'll just give the title just in case someone is interested. The sutra is It's called Satipatthana Sutta. Satipatthana Sutta. And in this sutra you will find all the very details of how to meditate on the breath and how to meditate on, not just on the breath, how to meditate all the forms of mindfulness. Okay? So, and that's what we call shamatha, calm abiding. And shamatha is the, Shamatha in itself is the ability to keep focused, which is present and focused, attentive, intentive, and accept— in acceptance towards yourself and towards others for at least 4 hours. Can you imagine? For at least 4 hours. I mean—

With no interruptions.

With no interruption. So, so don't worry. Yeah. It takes some time, but even if you just have 1 minute of full focused mind, it's— you will enjoy it. Okay? Yeah. So don't bother, don't worry with reaching, oh, I will never reach 4 hours in this life. Don't worry. Even if we just have 1 minute or 2 minutes of pure presence, you will really enjoy it in any level with body, speech, and mind. You will enjoy it in your life. you will see the result. So this is what we call— sorry, you wanted to say something?

Yeah, I was just going to say that this, the problem of focus is something that especially I was telling David a bit before, but most of the people here do have virtual businesses. This is a problem that afflicts many of us, and we call it that, you know, that we either get lost in scrolling through Facebook and all of a sudden an hour has gone by and we haven't even noticed, Or, you know, we're trying to get things done and we're using like Pomodoros or we're using, you know, whatever sort of app that there is to time us. But what meditation— and that's sort of like the external container in some way, right? This 25-minute container. Yeah. And the meditation practice itself, this building of focus is what actually allows you to produce something within that container because you can still have the 25 minutes go by and still have not really produced that much.

Yeah.

Because even if you don't go off topic or off task, let's put it that way, off task, it doesn't necessarily mean that your mind isn't still wandering. You could be constantly pulling it back. It's like you start to think about, oh, I need to go grocery shopping. Oh, I need to do, I need to, oh, I should go do my laundry. Or let's, oh, I should make myself a cup of tea. Like all these things that are always pulling at us. pulling at our attention and our focus away from what the task that we, that we're doing, right? So in being present is I'm, my 100% of my focus is on writing this Facebook post to my audience. And that's all you're doing. That's all you think of. And you don't allow yourself, and we don't really even notice we have notifications going and we have things popping up and our phones have things that showing. So we usually have like at least 2 or 3 devices going. And that, and although we do that, I think we're really unaware of how little focus, true focus we have. And this is why I feel it's really important for people who do wish to be productive in their business to develop this, some sort of a meditation practice, because the side effects, like what might hook you into trying is the productivity. What will get you to stay there is how you feel when you do it. But it is the, The increased focus and productivity is an incredible side effect. I mean, from personal experience, the times when I was meditating a lot, and David and I, we knew each other at the time, when I was doing a lot, it was so easy just to hone in on things and get so much done because my mind didn't wander. And now it's wandering a lot more. So time to pick up my practice again, maybe not quite to those levels, but— You know, it's— I just find that it has— it's supremely practical. And I think this is sort of a misconception that people have, is that the spiritual path has no practical applications. But instead, I find it, you know, eminently practical.

Absolutely. It is highly, highly practical. And the story about mindfulness is simply that you want to, as you mentioned, as you said, you want to develop awareness of full-time. Of course, which means coming out of duality, the duality of, you know, here I'm meditating with the candlelights on and I'm centered, and then as I go out, I lose myself. So this doesn't work. So what we are cultivating through mindfulness is exactly that, the capacity, the ability of being aware in this very moment, even suppose I'm doing a soup and I'm cutting vegetables, and when I cut vegetable, all I want to do is cutting vegetable. I don't start thinking about this, about that. I'm just completely focused on what I'm doing. It's very simple. So, so the real result of meditation is is normally something very practical, extremely practical in your daily life. And of course it's something you need. So the result is you are centered, aware, attentive, and intentive full-time. This is where we are heading to. Okay, this is one format, but I wanted to present just as main titles.

Yeah, okay, big titles.

Big titles. Okay, big titles are— the second big title is visualized meditation, meditation through visualizations. And this is rather well known nowadays, it's rather widespread. And in the tradition where I come from, which is the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, we do work a lot with archetypes. So let's say archetypes are models of perfection. so to say. And so models of perfection archetypes. And, and what we try to do is to visualize first in front of us, and then in the second phase, which is an advanced phase, in this second phase we do work with the personification of the archetype. But I mean, this is very— it's kind of, kind of very advanced. There are many other transformative mindfulness exercises which hold through, which work through visualization. And visualization, as many of us already know, work. Why does it work? Because it speaks directly to our unconscious mind. You know, our unconscious mind is very powerful. As you know, unconscious mind is extremely powerful. And And the unconscious mind doesn't particularly appreciate words or logos, but unconscious mind do appreciate images. So it's working through images. And when we do have very sharp images, when we are able to visualize sharp images, with coherent emotions and coherent sensations, the visualized meditation is going to work. Why does it work? Because it's giving a new feed or it's giving new information or a new definition of ourself to what? To our unconscious mind. This is how it is. Okay.

So what kind of, so what kind of, well, that's also like, um, It's also based in neuroscience. I think this is also creating neural pathways around.

And

there's a, there's a very popular pastime in, in this online space that David doesn't know that much about. So we're giving him the indoctrination here. So he's teaching us about meditation. We're teaching him about the online business world.

Cool.

A lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, even though he does have his own virtual Dharma center. So he does conduct virtual in Italian though, so far. In English. For us, he'll be doing it in English as well, but his normal activities are in Italian. But what I was gonna say is that there's something that's really, really popular, and maybe you'd like to say something about this. Sort of, I think this might be where it comes from, is people are always doing vision boards. I don't know if you've ever heard of these vision boards where people cut out images and they'll create a board of what they would like their life to look like. And they do spend time actually meditating on that vision board.

I see. Wow.

So it's kind of like a shaken up version of visualization meditation in some way.

Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. Yeah. I can imagine. Yeah. I want to have my vision board now. How can I picture it? I mean, it's this—

People just like, okay, so here people get a little bit materialistic and they're always putting like houses and beaches and things like that. But, Instead, I would say that maybe the internal vision board is a little bit more like, what would— so what would we be visualizing about ourselves in your— in sort of a visualized meditation? What would we be working on? What kinds of things would we be putting our focus on? So they're cutting out pictures of magazines and putting them on a board.

Yeah.

In a visualized meditation, what kinds of things about ourselves would we be actually trying to bring forward or concentrating on or putting our attention to, to imagine? What is

that? Well, let's say, for example, today we are going to speak about loving kindness, just a little bit. So I could visualize myself in a situation where I usually— I am usually confronted with excitement or aversion, even worse. Let's say I have a problem with my colleague at work, and I usually meet him or her with aversion. And before going to work, I can visualize the situation where I'm meeting my colleague at work, and we are having a discussion, and suddenly I see that the activation of my heart plexus or heart chakra And I'm overwhelmed with loving kindness. And I see, how can I say, loving kindness which is radiating in every direction, in any direction. And suddenly me and my colleague are, so to say, transformed into a loving kindness experience. Okay, that's just one example. You can basically visualize—

Anything.

Anything. And usually we work on situations which are actual, relevant nowadays and up to date. So it's not— we can also work with situations that happened, say, 30 years ago. Yeah. When I was born or when I was a child. You can— we say we can reprogram, so to say, many different situations that happen to us, but very often we work with actual present situations that we are facing.

Yeah, to get over certain challenges. So, and I know that you know a little bit about— neither of us are neuroscientists, but, and I do, I do know somebody in this, in this space. It's a lovely girl, a woman, who is. So maybe one day she'll grace us with her presence. But there is a lot of scientific proof that these things actually do change your brain, and they do talk a lot about Neuroplasticity. Would you— do you— I mean, I'm kind of— I didn't ask you to prepare yourself for the science part, but I don't know if you have a couple of words to say about how these kinds of activities modify the brain and the way we perceive our lives.

It's definitely not my specialty.

It's not your thing either?

It's definitely not my thing. It's not mine either. Yeah, but it is— there is, as you know, John Kapazin, has been from Amherst University, UMass, University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been studying the topic for the last 25 years, and he has been observing 15,000, 15,000 case studies, okay, where he has been mapping with neuro— how you say— neuroimaging?

Yeah, neuroimaging.

Neuroimaging, exactly. So he has been observing scientifically so that there is nowadays scientific evidence that when we do meditate in a proper way, our brain changes. And our— really, the structure of the brain changes in a— how can I say— in a virtuous way, in a positive way. And our pattern of behavior changes. And this is now supported with very solid, um, scientific evidence, and there are 25 years of, of, of studies about that. So I never, I never went deep in that because, because I know it from firsthand experience. Mm-hmm. I'm basing myself from first person, how you say, first-person experience. And as you know, science bases itself on third-person experience. Which I appreciate very much, I appreciate very much. But I'm so happy with my first personal experience that I didn't bother checking

the

third

person.

But there are really plenty of— starting from Jon Kabat-Zinn, you will find plenty of literature about it.

Yeah, so we've done— we've talked a little bit about focusing on the breath and how that sort of allows us to, you know, increases that capacity, that sort of exercises that muscle of concentration and focus, right? That we can then direct towards other things. Right. So it's kind of like exercising and exercising. And then now that you're all in shape, where do you go? What do you do with all that? So one of them is visualization meditation and the other, and I think, and how many other forms are there?

Well, we say roughly, roughly we speak about, Meditation on breath, visual meditation, and analytic meditation.

Okay.

So with analytic meditation, which is also very widespread in the Tibetan milieu, in the Tibetan Buddhist milieu, but not only, we usually follow a line of reasoning, a line of reasoning at an analytical level. And then, once we reach the outcome of this analytical reasoning, we keep focused on this outcome. We just keep very stable. We stabilize our mind on the outcome. So we say technically we say we abide in meditative equipoise. We abide in meditative equipoise on this result. And this result, as I say, is the result of a reasoning process, of an inferential process. Yeah.

Okay.

That's what we call analytical. Yeah. But before going there, then with the very— let's say, let's say going with the bicycle, riding a bicycle, which is a very basic The essential is having a stable breath meditation practice. Once you have a stable breath meditation practice, you open up to visualization and analytical. That's what we do usually. I don't know about your experience, but I guess more or less we are on the same, on the same line, on a similar line.

Yeah, and What is the advantage of doing this kind of analytical meditation, and how can people— in what circumstances would they be able to use that? And on their own, or is this— can they use this on their own once they learn sort of how it works, or is this something that they always need somebody else to guide them? What can people do with that?

Oh yeah, of course. Yep, of course. Meditation is A philosophy or a practice of autonomy and independence. Okay, so you will, you will find spiritual friends, what we call spiritual friends, which are masters. But a real master will teach you how to practice alone. So also in the case of analytical meditation and in the case of visualized meditation and in the case of mindfulness of breath meditation, you are bound to practice it on your own. And then of course, of course you can do it in groups, you can do it in centers. This is why I have a center. It's beautiful to work, to meditate together. It's really meaningful. It supports your practice very much. That's what we call the sangha. Having a sangha or a group of practice is very, very beneficial, is extremely beneficial. But yeah, as I say, analytical meditation, it's something you do practice on your own, mainly on your own, or in a group. But our daily meditation practice is usually on our

own.

Yeah. And—

What kind of subjects? What kind of things could people think about, or what kinds of things would you— can they bring to that? Can they bring like problems, or can they bring how they should be? Not, you know, should I be doing this or that? Not sort of should I be teaching a 3-week course or a 2-week course, but is it appropriate for them to also just think about, just sort of very quietly sit with what it is they're supposed to be what it is that they feel that they should be offering or something like, what is, I don't know. I mean, we all have different approaches to things. So I was just wondering how you feel about how they can apply that to the world that they, that is, that they're, you know, they're sort of in right now.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Just to mention, yeah, as I say, back 2,600 years ago, there were very classical topics, like for example, the precious human rebirth, say. So you had a line of reasoning that took you slowly, slowly to the outcome that your life is very precious, human life is very precious, and make the best use of it. Okay, so this was one, one of the possible old-time subjects. Subjects. Yeah, of course nowadays you can apply it. to your real life. So if your mind is sharp, and it becomes sharper and sharper through breath meditation, through shamatha meditation, it will become sharper and sharper. Once your mind is sharp, then you are able to have— it's like a laser. A laser, which is, you have a one-pointed concentration. And with this one point of concentration, you can go into your subjects, into what is real and actual in your very life, in this very moment. So also facing— maybe you have— many of us have open questions every day. We have thousands of questions to be answered. And yeah, when we have such questions to be met, analytical meditation can be of great help, definitely. Through, of course, through a subtle analysis.

Okay, Alexis, hi, finally, I lost the page with all the comments. Thanks, Alexis. So Alexis Quayle is with us and he was saying about visualizing, he's saying we would see ourselves being happy. He knows he's in the zone when I consciously remember to stick with the task at hand. 'Cause I apologize, Alexis, for taking so long to find these comments. But I closed the wrong page, so it took me a little bit to get back. And yes, he was saying that the other day as well. So this goes back to that being focused. So learning that focus and staying present in the moment. He's saying, I know I'm in the zone when I consciously remember to stick with the task in hand. And his idea of visualization meditation is— sorry, is to visualize himself being happy. So that's what he would do with his visualization. Alexis, do you have a meditation practice? I don't know. I mean, I know you a little bit, but I don't know you well enough to know if you have a meditation practice. So maybe you'd like to put that in the comments. And if you have any other, if anybody else has any other questions for Davide about meditation before we move on to a little bit into another topic, because we have— I'd like to be mindful of everybody's time. We do have a little bit more to talk. So one of the other things that I asked, I'm just waiting. If I see any more questions about meditation, I'll tell you, Dovid. One of the things that we were also talking about, about creating this Ascended Business, almost like a— I don't even want to call it a protocol, but this What would you put in it? What are sort of the basis? So the basis is this sort of meditative, the meditation practice, but so that you can use it. It's always these, it's very functional. One thing I love about Buddhist philosophy, even though, you know, behind Dabdi you'll see these sort of beautiful, very ornate things, and a lot of it is very ornate, but the principles are so simple and eminently practical. Everything is so practical and logical and reasonable. Absolutely. It's just really, logical, logic, logic, logic, logic. And so there's no, you did, there's none of this leap of faith stuff that you have to do. It's really just trying things out and seeing that they actually work and, and how they, and how they transform your life. Like I know how much it's been, how helpful it has been for me. Then for the people that I know that do, that do that. And if you've ever seen anybody who's come out of a retreat, they always have very, very, different quality about them. But as I was saying, when going through this, uh, the Ascended Business, uh, the Ascended Business Mastermind, what we, one of the other things that we wanted to bring into it is some of the core principles that are, we're calling them Buddhist, but they're actually universal and talking about them in a very sort of secular way. Yeah. Because they do play such a fundamental role in, um, in our world and in our lives. And, We decided on 3 sort of macro areas for the Mastermind. And the first one, and I think David is going to say a little bit about that today, is self— what in this sort of, in this world, in the online world, people tend to call self-love and can be quite often reduced to getting yourself a massage, which isn't to be spat upon, but it's— Right? But it's something a lot deeper than that. So this concept of self-loving kindness for self and others, I would love it if you could share with the people here a little bit about that.

Yeah, I would love to.

Yeah.

So, yeah. Yeah, as you know, in this tradition, loving kindness is fundamental. It's fundamental. As an ingredient of our spiritual growth and growth as a person altogether, spiritual and mental growth. The birth of loving kindness comes from awareness of our own suffering. I know it might sound kind of hard, but that's where we usually start from, which means acknowledging, recognizing our own suffering.

Hmm.

Recognizing how we get hooked by anger, how we get hooked by Prejudice, how we get moved by passion. Okay, so we call them mental defilements or call them disturbing emotion. So through the process of mindfulness of breath meditation or shamatha, Slowly, slowly, we become aware of our own suffering, of our own mental defilement, of— called also mental afflictions. We also call them mental afflictions. Yeah. And that's where the starting point is developing loving kindness towards ourselves. Because it happens, it often happens to meet people who are loving and kind towards others, but they tend to be less loving and kind towards themselves. And yeah, that's a common

problem.

It's a common problem. And this is, let's say, let me say, this is the start Of the path. And I'm not saying that it's easy. I'm not saying that it's easy. It might cost time, it might take time, and we go through it again and again because it's a deep process. It's like an onion with many layers. Okay, so you have to peel many layers until you have developed an authentic, real, deep nourishing loving kindness towards yourself. Now, so the point is, the whole point of the practice, of meditation practice, which might— which is useful, as I say, as we already said, in any kind of conventional activity or worldly activity, Is opening the heart chakra. Opening the heart chakra means, first of all, activating loving kindness towards yourself. Then we will leave. We will have empathy towards yourself, joy towards yourself, and equanimity towards yourself. But we want to start from loving kindness. So, in the tradition, let's take the whole tradition, the old tradition, because in fact the tradition, we're not so different from 2,600 years ago. We basically want the same things. We human beings, we are living in a different way, of course, especially in technological societies. But human beings are basically the same, and so maybe it might well be that what worked 2,600 years ago is still working for us nowadays. So consider that the Buddha, Buddha Shakyamuni, told us 2,600 years ago, gave us some sayings, how can I say, some aspirations and to contemplate such aspirations, such affirmations. One is, may I be filled with loving-kindness. For example, when, when I wake up in the morning and I start my meditation practice, I make sure that that every, every day, every day of my life, I start with motivation, with, you know, setting the motivation. And one of the aspirations of this motivation is, may I be filled with loving kindness, filled with loving kindness towards myself and towards others. But look, there's no way to have Authentic loving kindness. Unless you have authentic— I mean, authentic loving kindness towards others, unless you have it towards yourself. So that's the very starting point. And it will accompany us, it will come with us throughout our lives. So the first thing I do in the morning, either before meditating and after the session of meditation, I end up the session with such affirmation, even nowadays, 25 years later. So I like to— Go ahead, sorry, I know you're gonna— There are others, let me just finish this because there are 4 aspirations which I would like people—

Oh yes, please.

Our participants to at least to hear for the first time, if it's the first time, maybe they know it already. May I be safe from inner And outer danger. Aha. We don't have to analyze it that much. Just let it, let it go slowly, slowly into your heart. May I be free from inner and outer danger. It is true, our daily life is full of danger, especially if we live in big towns. There are many dangers, and either I have already realized the emptiness of true existence, or or the emptiness of the lack of true existence of the self, or I will be I will be experiencing fear. So may I be safe from inner. And outer danger. This is also a base for our loving kindness toward us.

Hmm.

A third one, then there is a third one and a fourth one, and then, and then you have the floor. May I be well in body and mind. You see, it's very simple. May I be well in body and mind. We mean it word by word. Well in my body, well in my mind. So simple and so rich if it becomes real. Because when I'm really rooted in this sincere, authentic wellness of body-mind, I have good chances to act in full presence, in full awareness, and to do the best I can for myself and others, guided from loving kindness. The fourth one— this is just a short presentation, I don't, I don't want to go deeper— but may I be At ease and happy. May I be at ease and happy. And by happiness, we mean serenity. Serenity. That's yeah. It's it's English, right? Yeah. Serenity. Yeah. So maybe. I'm saying— I'm speaking Italian. Okay, serenity. So at ease with myself, which is not being embarrassed, being constantly— and I mean really, I mean it constantly— in a state of serenity. And the fact that I wish it to myself Means that of course I wish it to others, and means that I'm trying to cultivate day by day such qualities. And the mere fact of putting this seed in my mind and in my heart every day, every single day when I open my eyes, every single day when I do my meditation session in the morning, and every single night when I do meditation at night is going to change my mind, is going to change my heart. And I mean it, it works. Okay, there's a lot to say, but first you wanted to say something, right?

No, I was just reading back some of the comments. So it looks like, I think Wendy also— there's Wendy Cohen here, and Wendy, she does beautiful work on She is a nutritionist and I think she's also a registered nurse, but she studied a lot of Eastern traditions as far as health and wellness from the inside out. She does work on a very profound level with that. So I'm sure she has some kind of medicine. There's a yes, but I didn't see when she wrote the yes because I keep losing the page. I'm not that tech savvy. I'm more tech savvy than Davide, but that doesn't take much. Really doesn't take much. Yeah, it takes almost nothing. Like I think almost 4-year-old is, yeah, 5-year-old is more than anyways. But Alexis was talking about meditation. He has a minute. Oh, this is very nice, Alexis. He says, I try to meditate as much as possible and yay for that. Yay for that. That's already amazing. That's already amazing. Little and often when I can find 10 minutes here and there, but almost every day, like people do physical exercise. He's a big fan of the works of, what is his name? Wayne Dyer? Wayne Dyer and Alan Watts. I don't know if you know that. And was taught at Brahma Kumaris Center. And I don't know where that is. The Brahma Kumaris, where is that, Alexis, where that center is? And Wendy, I don't know if you were saying yes to, do you meditate? I guess I should pay more attention to the comments. I'm not that savvy about this stuff. No. So, and if you do have a meditation practice, what do you do? And is it really just mindfulness of the breath, or do you do other stuff as well? And, you know, kind of what's your spin on this kind of stuff? And then there's also Joanne here, who is a very special person as well with all kinds of interesting gifts. And so it's nice to have you here too. So that's what Alexis has to say about his thing. I don't know where that Brahmakumara Center is, Alexis. Maybe you'd like to throw that in the comments. And it's really, really nice that you do. Really nice. A little— I started off the same way. I started off with, somebody said 7 intervals. I read somewhere 7-minute intervals, and I started off really just doing 7 minutes, 7 minutes, 7 minutes, 7 minutes. And I would take, you know, different, you know, I would take little breaks during the day and do another 7 minutes. So. Just that constant. And I actually really, really like that because the 2 big sessions in the morning and the night, they're nice if you can do them. And they're important to sort of open and close the day. In an ideal world, that's beautiful. Yes. But I also love that sort of grabbing, you know, grabbing, taking that, taking that time and opening that space in the middle of the day. Because we're always saying, I don't have time, I don't have time. But we scroll on Facebook for literally for hours and we watch Netflix or we'll just like literally we'll scroll on our phones and then we'll say we don't have time to meditate. So it's, I don't know, there's some kind of weird resistance to that. People are funny. We always hang on to the things that we're comfortable with. And I don't know. I don't know. Do you have any theories about why people are so resistant to sit on the cushion? Like I'll literally walk around the cushion like a shark, right? And not sit down even though there's no reason for me to not sit down. What happens? Because this is maybe something that happens. I'm like, I'm, you know, David is much better at all this than I am. So I am, you know, and I've had like, I've had periods where I could not wait to do it, could not wait, could not wait to be able to sit down. And other periods where it's like, oh no. And then I just, I would avoid it. Why do people avoid it? Do you have any insight as to why people avoid it? Because that's a big thing, I think, for people. Yeah. I was told once it was laziness.

Yeah, I dug it in, but it was just laziness. It's like, oh, thanks a lot. Yeah, which I know very well. I know laziness very well. I'm a specialist.

I know, it's like they should give me an honorary degree in laziness.

An honorary degree, yes. And, and also it's, it's classified as a form of attachment.

Oh,

really? Yeah, it's also, it's also considered, maybe it's not your case, but it might be a form of attachment to what? To our obstacles.

Oh, well, we love our suffering. We

just love our suffering.

Look how much we talk about our problems. And having it, I mean, I've been through some pretty tough times over the last few years and I would phone him and just literally just go for like 40 minutes and he would just sit there and listen. And it's like, you have to go. But it's true though. The first day, how are you? It's like, whoa, you bring out all this stuff, right? Yeah. So you guys, you should be lucky that you only met me now and not in the middle of that stuff. But it was not pretty. But it is true though. We are so attached to us. It's so easy. It's so, it's so much easier to identify with our suffering, right? And Poor me, victim, this horrible thing is happening, rather than, I don't know, almost anything, almost anything else. And that's really— And so you think that we're, when we're resisting the practice and saying it's kind of— because I think it's the same thing as maybe I shouldn't smoke the cigarette, or maybe I should not have that coffee, or maybe I shouldn't have that cookie. Like, it's again, these are all attachments to things we know we're attached to that stuff. that that brings. It's very strange, right? Like, I think there's a similarity to all these things. It's not just about meditation. And, you know, the people here, I think they do have meditation practice. But for anybody who's watching the replay that doesn't have one, I think it's also kind of like when you know you should make your bed, or you know you should brush your teeth, or you know you should clean your room, or you know you should, should something, or that it's good for you. There's a part of us that goes, I Yeah, but I really don't want to do that. Why? I don't get it. I just don't get it. Yeah, it's

a— yeah, procrastination. Yeah, it's— yeah, we call it procrastination. I know, also I'm a specialist. I know procrastination very well. I struggle. I've been struggling a lot. Yeah, don't worry, it's a good friend. It's a life companion. It can be a life companion. But yeah, basically it's a form of attachment to our suffering. So yeah, it's, I recognize it and I embrace it. I recognize my attachment to my suffering, I embrace it, and the more I embrace it and accept it, the more it changes. So transformation goes through recognizing, acknowledging, Mm-hmm. Nominating, so labeling, giving an appropriate name, and embracing, which is, okay, I recognize you and I take you in my arms and I share loving kindness with my attachment and with my object of attachment. And then suddenly, that's the miracle, suddenly things change. Yeah, suddenly things change. It's incredible. Suddenly things change within us and outside ourselves. Because as we all know, as many of us know, our experience, our outer experience, is the result of what we think and of our unconscious mind. So as we know, we co-create reality through our belief system and unconscious mind. So if I am restructuring my unconscious mind and my belief system, of course, my experience, my experience out there is going to change. So don't worry, we are all struggling with procrastination. Just go ahead. Just go ahead and start again, start again, start again. And, and we do our best.

Yeah. And that's that, the zone of this learning to not judge yourself, right? I love and accept myself. As I am, just as I am. And that's a huge thing. And it's kind of like the procrastination and the resistance is kind of like when somebody is trying to push you over and you push back. But the moment you stop, there's nothing to push, right? There's nothing. There's no reason to resist that, right? In the same way, this— I hope that makes sense. Anyway.

Yeah.

Yeah, go ahead.

Now, I was saying, also enjoying happiness. Also going back to loving kindness. Enjoy, may I, another way of transforming, going back to our affirmation. May I enjoy happiness in my body and in my mind?

Hmm.

It's also something that occurred to me. This is not a classical sentence, something more adapted, right? But it's something that works very much for me, and that's why I'm sharing. So, may I enjoy happiness in my body, in my mind?

Hmm.

It's not, this is not egotistic thought, as you say, egoistic thought, or self, This is not a self— yeah, it's not a self-cherishing thought.

Mm-hmm.

No, it's, may I be able to experience happiness with body and mind? If I do experience serenity and happiness, of course the quality of my performance in any field whatsoever and of course in business, will change.

Yeah.

Will come to the peak. It will be peak performance. Why? Because I'm experiencing centeredness, awareness, serenity in my body, in my mind. So please remind these 4 sentences, or also these 5 sentences, as an extra, in case you don't— in case, in case you are new to to loving-kindness meditation. So give it a chance, like give it a chance, try to say for 21 days, for example, for the next 21 days, try to repeat.

So what are the— okay, tell me the 4 and I'll just put them here in the chat.

Oh yes, may I be filled, may I be filled with loving-kindness.

Okay.

May I be safe from inner and outer danger. May I be well in body and mind. And may I be at ease and happy. And another, this, the 5th one, which is—

Your own spin on things.

Yes, yes, is, may I enjoy happiness with body and mind? And we can add, and be free of suffering. So with one sentence you're saying, may I enjoy And may I be free of suffering.

Oops, my typing is not so good.

Yes. The good news, the good news is that it works. It incredibly works. It works. It's incredible how much it works.

Yes, it is.

So simple, so simple. We had to be— I don't know why we didn't have this in elementary schools, right? We had to be taught such sentences in elementary school, we would be much happier. That's what the Alice Project in India is doing.

Well, there's a practice again, as I said, I'm into, you know, as he's teaching us, I'm teaching Davide. So in the online space, especially among female entrepreneurs, there is this whole morning, this whole sort of ritual or routines And that include, we talked a little bit about the vision board. Some people do those. A lot of people do journaling as a way of expressing. And it, and so journaling is again, really almost a meditative form of practicing because meditation can also be, you can also do it walking or there. Meditation isn't just sitting on a cushion. Yeah. So in a way, in that journal, when you're really connecting with your feelings and your desires and they try to write out the, The way things— they write in the present the way they would like things to be.

Yeah.

So as if it were now. So as if they write, as if things were a certain way, right? And it's a little bit, it's almost like a written visualization meditation in some way, right? They're imagining. So they're using all their imagination and trying to feel right now what it would feel like to feel fulfilled, to feel successful, but successful in a way that is that it's successful, not, you know, just money, money, money stuff, right? But this sort of the wealth of the whole human experience and their clients and what this looks like. I mean, some people still write down that they want a car or something, but, you know, but basically they are trying to recreate and trying to tap into those feelings of how would I feel if I did have the business that I say I want, if I did have You know, a 7-figure business, if I did have all my programs full, if I did, if I was able to offer things that I really love and only work with people that I really, really enjoy. And they do. So this is a practice that they do. Another practice. So I find it, so it's always really interesting. They're always attributing to somebody sort of who was born, you know, generally less than 50 years ago. this amazing stuff, right? But the roots of all this come back, that these are all sort of modern adaptations and versions of something that's very, very old. But why? Because they work. The other thing that they do are affirmations.

Yeah.

So, and there's a lot of work on affirmations.

Yeah.

And which is again, very powerful. So these affirmations that Dabida uses is one kind of an affirmation. They're using different. So I think it's also interesting. It's just interesting to see. You come from, let's say, a classical tradition in that sense, right? Sort of very traditional Tibetan Buddhist. It's very, very traditional.

Kind of baroque as well, right?

But in that beautiful, in all its beauty, right? But it's interesting to see how they've changed it and made it into something of their own. And they're using this word that they call mindset. And now it's kind of slippery slope here. And by mindset, they will talk about, again, they will journal to make their— what they're trying to do is change their mind. They're trying to change their mind so that they get different results. And because they're, you know, that their reality is a reflection, as you said, is a reflection of their inner world, they try to change their inner landscape. And they're trying to change their inner landscape through, through, as I said, these pro— these routines that will include journaling, affirmations, you know, vision boards, or, you know, writing themselves a check for $1 million or, you know, these practices. Right. And it's interesting to see how these, my, sort of my intuition and the reason I brought this whole Ascended Mastermind, Ascended Business Mastermind together is because I just really feel that what they're doing now, that there's a much deeper version and that they can, that's kind of like the pretty part on the top. Yeah. Um, but by that, it can go so much deeper than that. And that if they, if they can see, they already feel that these practices that they're doing change their business. And so my reasoning is if you were to be able to take those practices even more deeply and to understand them even more, even more so, and this self-love generally starts with self-care in those, you know, in, as I said, in this, yeah, in this world, in this sector. And so self-care, because it is true, especially women tend to sort of put everybody else first other than themselves. That's very typically feminine, right? That's a very, you know, moms generally do that. They'll always, you know, even if you want that something, if your kids want it, you'll give it to your kids. You won't say, no, I'll have that. Like you would, you wouldn't do that. Most moms wouldn't do that. Yeah. So we're so used to not allowing ourselves and not, so there's a bit of the, that just sort of tendency to sort of put others first, but not in a self-effacing way, not necessarily. So it sometimes can come around to bite you in the rear end, that part, because you can feel that you're unimportant, right? So you can feel unseen and uncared for because you don't take care of yourself. So a lot of their entry point into loving kindness for yourself is through self-care. That makes sense. Rather than— so I think it would be interesting. It will be interesting when we're in there to see people who are doing these practices on one level and then being sort of— we're taking the same result from 2 different paths to get to the same thing. So I think that the merging of these 2 paths is going to be really, really interesting.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

So I don't know if anybody has any questions. I want to be mindful of our time. It's a little bit, Past the hour.

Yeah.

I just wanted to take just two minutes to talk about what this whole the whole point of this is, and I've kind of laced it through our comments and through the whole hour that we spent together. That to me, the merging of our spiritual practices and using using people like Davide or Aishwarya, who's a channel, or somebody else who knows how to do readings, or Akashic Record readings or whatever it is. These are all tools. It's really funny. We're very, we're really, we'll spend hours researching, I don't know, a platform like Zoom or BeLive or something like that. And we'll ask, there'll be these huge discussion threads of 200 comments about, you know, which teaching, which course platform to use, whether to use this one or Thinkific or what. I don't even remember all I can't remember all the names. So, but we're not, and we're constantly looking for those and we're constantly investing in what I call sort of really the structures and the processes. So that's, you know, your branding, your messaging, what it is you're offering at what price. But it's, but we don't, we rarely take the time to go a lot deeper into what it is, you know, to happiness, to What is it that will bring me happiness and serenity? And bringing ourselves to that space of equanimity and love towards ourselves. And from that space, you can create anything. You would never create from that space, from a space of love for yourself. I don't believe you will create something that you don't believe in or that doesn't fit you because there's a part of you that will say, don't do it. And right now there are a lot of people who are working very, very hard and spending a lot of money and a lot of time, a lot of energy to put out things that are mildly successful or not successful at all, but because I don't think that there's this deep alignment with the kind of work that they should be doing. So I brought in Davide on one side. We have our little team here. So there's Davide on the one side who will help us with this, build this meditative practice, build the focus. And then once we have this laser beam of focus, then we can decide whether to to direct it to on our business, on ourselves, really on different types of meditation, or to our relationships, or to even just driving, or even to just enjoying our walk in the park. On the other hand, he also mentioned archetypes. Aishwarya will be working with doing channeled readings for people about their purpose archetypes and their money archetypes. And again, there are different archetypes that stay with us throughout our lifetimes and that play Roles in what we— in how we show up and the things we do and how we react to the external world. And it's really interesting once you start understanding what the archetypes are that are sort of most active in you. What you thought was your personality really is a combination of these things. It's really, really interesting, and it allows you to sort of— again, so we're doing 2 types. One of them is the purpose, and so that allows you to tap into more what it is you should be bringing forth. And that makes your choices as to what kind of business to build for yourself easier and easier and easier. Because again, we also suffer a lot from decision fatigue. And on the other hand, there's the money archetype, which I decided to put on the table right away because money is a huge trigger for people. It's a trigger for everybody. It's a trigger for the the Buddhist monk, or who doesn't, or the former Buddhist monk who doesn't want to accept money, or doesn't want to even think about money. So, I'm gonna give you away there. But, so, thanks. Too much information, too much sharing here. But, you can go both ways, like, the person who's not concerned about money, but you still have a relationship with money, no matter what it is, you have a relationship with money. Yeah. And, a lot of people say that they have difficulty in receiving, so they have difficulty in creating clients and having money come in. Other people say, yeah, I have it all come in, But boy, does it go out fast and they don't, and they can't seem to hang onto it or they can't seem to charge their worth or they do something that's incredibly, they'll do something, some work or offer something that's so valuable and yet they'll sell it for a pittance. And that ends up being something that burns you out, not because you're greedy, but because the money is energy and the energy, the resonant value you receive for that isn't equal to what you're putting out. So the value that you can receive can be partially money, partially satisfaction. It's usually, it's never just money because some things, and we will say that I'm doing it just for the money, right? That's, that's a really important phrase. I'm doing it just for the money. What that means is, and we'll be doing, we'll talking a lot more about the archetypes with Aishwarya, uh, who'll be doing a call. I think it's on Wednesday. Um, It really means that, because normally in an optimal situation, you would also be satisfied, right? Oh, I'm doing it just for the money. It means you're sort of like, that's when you're kind of forced to do something.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of work here again in this area of money mindset and money blocks and how people feel about money. And again, understanding your money archetypes, how they work, you know, how these are working through you, it allows you to release certain issues that you feel that you have around money. And what I find so interesting about the online space is that because everybody's working by themselves or their businesses themselves, right? They are their business. So they call themselves entrepreneurs, but they're probably like freelance or consultants or something. But so they've chosen this word entrepreneur, which means that they're a company. They consider themselves a thing, like, right? And whereas a freelancer consultant, so they call themselves a business. But that business really, really slams you up against everything, everything, your relationship with money, your relationship with yourself, your relationship with other people, your, you know, whether you're willing to say who you stand up for, who you are, and whether, you know, whether you're feel empowered or whether you feel disempowered. I mean, it really is a huge spiritual gym having a business, a single, you know, as a solo entrepreneur, because you do everything. You're your own marketing person, your own salesperson. You know, Dov knows I've been working hard putting up the sales page and organizing, which isn't actually complete. So I didn't even hit the mark to have it finished by now. It's 98% complete anyways, but I'll put that up. link in below. But it's just, there's just so much. It's almost like this. Um, and you're always doing it by yourself. Whereas it's same thing as Abby said, that the meditation practice is done by yourself, analytical, uh, on your breath, uh, whatever it is. But what's really, really interesting is that we're in our homes building these businesses by ourselves. And so again, you, you really sort of come up against all your own Limits your own attachments to your own suffering or to your lack of concentration, or to I mean you really it's just these businesses really call you to do everything. So I just find it a powerful place to learn. A business is an amazing place to learn about a lot about yourself. It is really is. So the Ascended Business Mastermind, just to sort of wrap things up, we're starting on May 10th, and it's Davide will be doing a weekly guided meditation, and he will. We'll also be going much deeper into concepts such as loving kindness, ethics, wisdom, intention, the power of intention in what we do, motivation, and some other things that will work their way into the conversation. Aishwarya will be providing you with your own individual channeled messages about your own internal archetypes for your purpose, your life's purpose, and money. And I will be helping you bring it all together and bringing all these different aspects into your business and into your, into your business strategies and what kinds of offerings are the most suitable for you. Because now we have this absolute freedom to create something that, that fits us, that's really made to measure. So it's time to really ask ourselves what it is we really want. and what would make us happy and live in ease and without suffering. And then I've brought in also a couple of business experts to help us with sales, because again, sales is another sort of bugbear for a lot of people who don't want to sell their own things and sell their services and get out and talk about them. And she'll work with that because it actually does all come together. So the work with the money archetypes will come together with how you deal with sales. The meditation will come together, you know, will, will, will show itself in your productivity, will show itself in your clear-mindedness about your own business, and you'll be sort of less in your head. And we're all saying, oh, you're in your head, you're in your head, and you're sort of like spinning around and rethinking the same thing 75 times and constantly second-guessing yourself. That helps sort of loosen that grip, right, of confusion that we can have on our business. So. It's, as I said, 9 weeks. So we're starting May 10th. It's going to be a very small and intimate group. There has been— Aishwarya has prepared a crystal grid to open an energy vortex for the people who do decide to join, and that's already in the space. So the group was created. There was some rituals done about actually opening this energetic space to hold the people who will be, who feel called. And I would love it if somebody is listening right now or in the replay feels called to do that. And there's also, as I said, a grid that you will see on— and that one's private, and that's only for the people who are in the group because it is meant for them and the people who are involved in this project. And then there is an invitational grid out on the interweb there in Facebook land that you'll see, and that is an invitation that was a grid especially for you, so as an invitation to and to call the people who would benefit from this most to join. And if you would like to join, we are going to be talking about it all this week. And if you would like to join, you can either send me a— write a comment below or get in touch with me. I will be putting a link in the comments to, if you want to get on a quick discovery call to see if it's a really good fit and you'd like to know more about it. And I will also be putting the link to the sales page because it's almost ready. I just have to put in a few last-minute touches and that will be up after that. And so if nobody has any other questions, and I don't seem to see any here, or I'm just going to check a couple of other places. Okey-dokey. That looks like That looks like we're good. So if I'd just like to take a moment to say thank you to David, thank you to those who are— do you have anything else you want before we close off? David, is there anything else you wanted to say before I close this off?

I just wanted to remind, whichever practice you do, Hmm. Meditation practice to do, to allow some space, to allow some space at the end of the session. So that we don't, we don't finish the meditation session and then immediately grab to our telephone and we go on social media. Now, it is very good to enter gradually Enter gradually in everyday life, in our everyday activity. Okay, so we enter with awareness, with awareness, and slowly, slowly into our everyday activity. Yeah, that's the last thing I wanted to say.

Okay, thank you very much. Anyways, I just wanted to thank everybody who's here and thank Davide for joining, and hopefully this is a benefit for all those who will hear it. And all those who come into contact with us directly or indirectly. And of course, if this speaks to you, if this way of creating your business appeals to you and knowing more about yourself, we would be honored and thrilled to have you. So thank you very much.

Thank you very much and see you soon.

Bye.