Reason for Hope Amidst Upheaval: A Three Principles Discussion

Hello there, this is Mary Schiller. I'm just about to start this webinar today, so if you are already logged on and can hear me okay, I'd love to greet you via the chat box. So if you could just type a little note in there and let me know if you can hear me all right, I would really appreciate it. I am just waiting a couple of minutes maximum before I get started, maybe about a minute. Hi, Mitsui, good to see you. And just to give people a chance to sign in. So thank you so much for being here. And I'm just adjusting my camera a little bit. There we go. Hi, Susanna, nice to see you. Thanks for being here. So I'm going to start in about 30 seconds, give people time to log in. Hi, Jeff. Jeff is my hubby and he's in the other room. So he hasn't ventured too far to watch this webinar. So let's see, I'm going to count down here a little bit, 15 seconds more, and see who joins us. I see we have Judy, Rebecca, Joel, Ewan. Nice to see you here. Thanks so much for joining. And I think I'm going to go ahead and get started since you all were kind enough to, to be here. I really, really appreciate it. My name is Mary Schiller. I am the author of several 3 Principles-based books. And hi, Joel. And I also work as a Three Principles Coach, primarily helping people who want to gain a deeper understanding of the principles and how that understanding can have a positive impact on their lives. And I'm really hosting this webinar— hi, Rebecca— which I have called A Reason for Hope in the Midst of Upheaval. Not because I see myself as any sort of expert. I want to make that really clear. Hi Susan, thanks for being here. I want to make it clear that this is really a conversation. I may be leading the conversation, but I certainly don't see myself as someone who knows more than anyone else in this regard. And I just want to be clear about that, that this is an equal opportunity conversation. I also want to be clear that despite everything that's happened this past week here in the United States, this is not a political discussion. As I put in the subtitle, it's a three principles discussion, so I'm not going to be venturing into politics at all, and I would appreciate it as well if you would refrain from doing that in the chat because We're really looking at something that goes far beyond politics, and yet it can have a tremendous impact on the way people interact with each other. So I wanted to be clear about that. And lastly, I'm not here to sell you anything. So this is not one of those marketing webinars that eventually leads to a sales pitch. That's not what's going on here. So you can feel free to relax and not be looking around every corner for a sales pitch. So as I'm talking, I would really encourage you to post your thoughts and comments in the chat area, and I'll keep one eye over there the entire time we're online today and see how often I can address those points. And you can also feel free to answer each other's questions if you're so moved. I would really appreciate that. So I have to tell you that With all of the upheaval that has been going on in recent months in, in the political arena, I have personally felt a tremendous surge of hope from all of that. I have felt in the last few days in particular, like a real fire has been lit underneath me, but not in the way that what I might call traditional society would recognize. It's really been a time for me to look at how I can effect change via an understanding of these principles. So that's really what we're talking about here today. And when I was considering the title, A Reason for Hope, I actually came up with 4 big reasons for hope. And I'm sure that more will emerge over time, maybe even during this call, we'll come up with more. But I have 4 to start us with today. So I'll go ahead and jump into the first one. And the first reason I have for hope is the fact, the fact that there are actual principles to explain how human beings experience life. Now, I could probably just stop right there because for me personally, that is a total game changer. You know, if we look at how people's experience has been explained over the centuries, you know, it's really evolved in all kinds of strange ways, you know, culminating in what we now perceive as traditional psychology. But if we're in a conversation about the 3 principles, which if you're on this call with me live or you're watching the replay, I'm assuming you have some familiarity with, we all know that this understanding of these principles behind the human experience really can transform the way we see ourselves. The way we see ourselves functioning individually, the way we see ourselves functioning in a larger societal context. And I started thinking about, you know, principles in general and what the discovery of certain principles has meant in other arenas. And so if you wouldn't mind, I would love to pose sort of a fun question, which is, if you look at other kinds of principles, such as, you know, the principle of gravity, or the fact that the Earth is not actually the center of the universe, with the sun going around it, but it's actually something different. Or, you know, other principles. Lots of people in this discussion bring up the discovery of germs, you know, related to illness. Can you think of some examples of things that have come from the discovery of a basic principle? Sometimes it might be hard to even see this because, for example, since we know that the Earth and the other planets go around the sun, there may be a lot of things that we just accept as normal now that we don't realize didn't exist before that truth was discovered, or even the fact that the earth wasn't flat. You know, what things have happened as a result of principles. So I just thought it might be fun to consider that for a minute, because if we look at, you know, one of the ones that comes to mind for me, and please feel free to jump in, is of course understanding the principle of gravity has had a tremendous effect on how human beings travel. You know, before we understood gravity and what it did, there was no way for us to invent the airplane. There was no way for us to even consider space travel. I mean, those things were like out of the question, probably not even someone's, in someone's consciousness really, except as a sort of imaginary dream. So I'd love for you to just type a couple of examples into the chat box, and I'll give you a minute to, to think about that. What things have come along as a result of an understanding of a basic principle such as gravity or germs or, you know, the shape of the planet or where the planet fits into the universe? So I'll give you just a moment to consider that while I get a sip of water. It's awfully quiet. That's all right. I'll trudge along. So the point that I'm getting at here is that when we have the discovery or the revelation of, or an articulation of a basic principle, a lot of things that are accepted as the norm suddenly shift radically, open— opening up tremendous possibility that wasn't even thought of before. If you think first of all about something like the discovery of germs as a principle behind many diseases, I mean, I can't even imagine how many people's lives that simple discovery and articulation made. If you think about what has come since then, it's pretty hard to fathom where we would be without that. And Jeff says, from the scientific theory of evolution, I suppose we learn tolerance of the differences of others. Very good point. Very good point. You know, we can look at things like evolution and evolutionary biology as principles, understanding how species have survived and what that has done for our understanding for ourselves as human beings even. I mean, it's hard to almost distinguish these now because they seem so normal to us in many ways. And where I see a lot of hope here is that the way that the three principles explain the human experience could very easily, just, just as much as gravity, become so normal that people don't even consider them outside the realm of normal. They're not even— they have the potential to not even be seen anymore, if that makes sense. You know, I know that gravity exists intellectually. I know that that's true, and I see evidence of it everywhere, but it's not something that I'm consciously thinking about every time I take a step or something. And I really feel tremendous hope that the 3 principles can be seen in that same way, meaning they can sort of fade into our consciousness and just be part of how we live, you know, where we don't have to think about them every time we take a step in a certain direction. So for me, that is the foundational hope, is that the principles themselves, thought, consciousness, mind, in that verbiage, they can take other forms as well, other verbiage, it doesn't really matter. It's what they're pointing to that has the potential to shift the foundations of how we interact with each other as human beings and what we see as our capabilities as human beings. So that's a big hope for me. The second reason I feel so much hope is the fact that people, because of our nature, because we are part of this intelligence that Sydney Banks, who originally expressed these principles, called mind. Because we are part of this intelligence of mind, we have the ability to act from there. We, we have the ability to set aside sort of the static of our personal thinking and act from this incredibly generative and creative space. And again, I was inspired when I was thinking about this to look at people throughout history who have, for whatever reason, been able to set aside any personal thinking and instead were inspired to act from a place of clarity. From a place of infinite potential and creativity. One of my dear friends, Sarah Murrah, made an audio recently where she asked people to think about those who have inspired them, and I'd love to spend just a couple of minutes asking you to name some people who have inspired you. So can you just take a moment to type a few names into the chat box? It can be somebody well-known, it can be somebody known only to you, it doesn't matter. And I can share a couple of mine as well, but I'd love for you to type some names into the chat box of people who have inspired you. And my guess is that when we start to look at these lists we will see that these are people who probably had some kind of thinking that was maybe telling them they, they couldn't do something or shouldn't do something, and yet they set it aside and acted from this place of inspiration and clarity. Your grandfather, that's wonderful, Rebecca. Marianne Williamson, very inspirational person. Georgia Lind— oh, Joel, that's so nice to say me. Thank you. Mara Gleason, Georgia Linda Pransky. Magic Johnson, Stephen Hawking, yep, for sure, for sure. I mean, let's look at someone like Stephen Hawking. There is someone who by all appearances had limitations, and yet those limitations, quote unquote, were nothing to him. He was able to, has been able to for years, express what he sees and what he knows from his connection to this intelligence in an amazing and beautiful way. Bruce Springsteen, lovely, Joel, love that, love that. Phil Jackson, I don't know who Ikeda is. Is that the author, Joel? I'm drawing a blank. I'd love to know who that is. And for me, Someone like Anne Frank, she was the first person who came to mind when Sarah Mora asked me, asked the question. You know, she was somebody who was in circumstances that looked pretty dire, and yet she was able to speak from such a beautiful place of clarity within herself. Oh, Joel, very nice. Oh yes, okay, I think I remember you mentioning him to me. Author, philosopher, and Buddhist teacher. Yeah, wonderful. Wonderful. You know, and so for me, like I was saying, Anne Frank, because she, despite her circumstances and despite whatever thinking she might have had about her circumstances, was able to channel the beautiful intelligence and spark of life with a capital L that's available to all of us no matter what we may be going through. So if we can start to realize more and more that anyone and everyone is capable of acting from that place, that to me brings tremendous hope. Nelson Mandela, for sure. Maya Angelou, wonderful, wonderful, absolutely beautiful. You know, just, I love looking in this direction because it's not the aberration, it's the norm that these beautiful people that we are mentioning, these inspirational people who have taken action and done things from within themselves, no matter what they were thinking, no matter what situation they were in, That is available to every single human being, myself and you included. Oh, Jeff said our daughter Rachel. She's definitely an inspiration to me. You know, she is someone who has come through a lot in her life and has often, almost always in fact, acted from a place of clarity. In fact, I've told her that, that she's a very good example to me of someone who lives much of their life from that space of mind, setting aside personal thinking and acting from a space of creativity instead. Let's see what Joel has posted, a quote from Ikeda. Am I saying that right? A great human revolution is just a single individual will help achieve— in just a single individual, sorry, will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and further can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind. What a beautiful quote, Joel. It plays right into what we're talking about because the point that I've been making in this second one is seeing that every human being has the potential to see beyond their personal thinking and to instead act from a different place within themselves that's already there. You know, I think it's really easy to get caught up in the swirling, chaotic conversations that many of us are hearing right now. But what makes it easy to sort of step back from that is to see it for what it is, which is repetitive personal thought. Repetitive personal thought. And we can look at anyone who is caught up in that thought, and I have been there too, believe me. I've had my share of ups and downs in the last few days in particular. We can look at anyone who is in that state, and we can see them with a measure of compassion because we know that what is underneath all of that is so much more than what their personal thinking and even what their actions might be revealing. So that's the direction that, that we're looking in here. So thank you so much for sharing those inspirational people. If you have more, please continue typing them because I just, I get very excited by, you know, seeing people's names of, you know, who have done wonderful things in the world and who have been beacons of light and hope, because I know that we're all capable of that. Every single one of us, whether we become world famous for it or not, really makes absolutely no difference. It's that each one of us possesses every single thing that those people have. Have or had, and we can, we can be that light as well. The third reason I have in my notes here relates to what I just said, which is that every single human being has this capacity to act from a state of calm and composure, because that is, as the principles point to, our natural state. Um, oh, hi Patty, thank you. Hi Rebecca. Oh, that's a nice comment. Michelle Obama shines her light every day. Yes, exactly. And the thing is, um, you know I think many of us don't see that we have the same light. That light is not confined to certain people on certain stages, you know, in the world, or through certain media, you know, that, that light is really present and lighting all of us all the time. The only reason that it sometimes looks kind of gauzy is because we get caught up in that whirling drama of our personal thinking. But the moment we see that that's where we are, that light is right there. It's just right there and waiting for us to, to bring it forth in whatever way we've been gifted. To bring it forth. I think it can be sort of easy to imagine that we can't do anything. You know, we look around at the world and all of this stuff that looks like chaos, and we think, you know, what can we do? What can we possibly do to change this? Well, I'm here to tell you, and this is really the main point of this whole conversation, is that we can do everything. We can do everything. We have the capacity to almost literally move mountains. Oh, right, Rebecca, are you talking about the Marianne Williamson quote about power? And we don't, basically we don't realize how much power we have. And really, the idea of power is so interesting in our culture. And I'm using that word in a very different way, I think, from the current societal conversation about power, where I see hope in the fact that human beings are actually made of that power, that we have the power that we see. You know, I'm looking outside right now and there's beautiful trees. The power that we have is the same as what that tree has. You know, it has the power to grow. It has the power to, to affect its environment in the ways that it's meant to. Well, we have the same power. Rebecca quotes, "By letting our own light shine, we give others permission to do the same." That's a beautiful quote. That's a beautiful quote. It reminds me of You know, when you go to a rock concert or something and suddenly everybody's turning on their lighters. I really see human beings in that way all the time. Patty says, sometimes it's hard to shine the light for fear of not fitting in. Oh, I'm so glad you mentioned that, Patty, because that's gonna be my last and sort of biggest finale point on this webinar. So hold that thought and I will get back to it. So, so far, I've talked about the fact that there is hope in the mere existence of A, what these principles point to, which is pretty darn big, and B, that there are principles to help us explain them. You know, the principles point to the fact that we are part of a greater intelligence. You know, I, in my own mind, I often equate that to the word Life with a capital L, that what the principles have helped me to see more and more is that I am part of life, that it isn't my life, it is life that I am in and you are in. We are all in life together. And that to me is the essence of what the principles are pointing to. Yes, we have a human experience that is made possible through the power of thought and consciousness kind of working in tandem together. They give us this beautiful human experience that has all these incredible emotional highs and lows. It allows us to have this conversation and, and talk to one another and connect with one another. So for me, there is just tremendous hope in understanding that system, that ecosystem, if you will, and knowing that it is the explanation for what is happening here. And I'll talk more about that in my last point. I also was talking about the fact that people can act from this place of intelligence and clarity, and we talked about some inspirational people. We also mentioned just now that each one of us has this incredibly powerful capacity to act from the intelligence of life with a capital L. I mean, if we just stopped there, look at what we've just been saying. I mean, it's almost hard to look at that picture. It is so big. It reminds me of when I was a little kid and I went to the Grand Canyon for the first time, and my parents pulled up in the car next to the Grand Canyon, and I got out of the car and looked, and it was so vast I almost couldn't look at it. It was just like, wow, I had no idea that this existed. I had no idea that there was something in nature that was this powerful and big and had so much life packed into it. I remember having that sensation as I looked out at the Grand Canyon, and that's a lot of what I experience when I'm considering what is available to us as human beings. It is like the Grand Canyon times infinity. It has infinite potential and possibility for us. It has infinite love and understanding. And the beautiful thing is that that is available to us all the time. It's not something we have to go out and find like I used to think. It's not something we even have to, um, to do anything about. You know, the principles show us that that is us. It's not even part of us, it is us. And for me, that's been a life-changing revelation, and I believe more than ever before that an understanding of these principles can absolutely change the world and bring people together in a way that has never been seen before. So, um, I'd like to pause there for just a moment before I go into my fourth and probably biggest reason for hope in the midst of upheaval. But I'd like to pause for your comments and thoughts. Jeff says, fear only dims our light. When we— thank you for saying that, Jeff. You know, when we listen to fearful thinking, what it seems to me that it does is it pulls us away from this realization that we are this infinitely powerful creative force. You know, it just, there's nothing, I don't wanna say this and have it come across wrong, but I'll try to say what I mean a little bit more clearly if it doesn't sound this way. Fear is not a bad thing. Now let me explain what I mean. We can have any feeling at all. We can have fear, we can have grief, we can have any feeling that is possible. In the spectrum of human experience if we understand that we don't have to act from that place. I myself have had a lot of fearful thinking in recent days and weeks. I've had a lot of all kinds of thinking like that. But because of this understanding, because I realize that my circumstances or situations or whatever are not creating that fear, that it's coming from momentary thinking, I know that I don't have to give it all the attention that I probably did in the past. It doesn't have to dictate how I behave or what I choose to do at all. Joel says, I hear you, Jeff. I'm also now wondering if it might help to create a new way of expressing things. If we can realize that, if we realize that nothing can ever dim our light, perhaps fear and other thinking only temporary blocks our light. Now that's an interesting way of saying that, Joel. Because it seems to me that, you know, when I look at people who are expressing their fears, through, you know, means like demonstrations and things like that. What I see when I look at them is people who are really confused about, you know, things like where their security comes from. You know, they, they feel fearful and the response is to act on that in some way. Instead of recognizing that they have this light, they have this freedom, they have the security, that all of that is innate. And that looking toward fearful thinking for the next step to take, like you said, you know, dims or kind of blocks out that light instead of doing what I think people want. Which is shedding light on things. In a way, it's having the opposite of their intended effect, if that makes sense. So that's a really interesting, really interesting point to bring up. So let me pause again and see what else you have to say. I think one important thing for me to interject here— oh, thanks, Joel. Um, you want to convey that we never can lose our freestanding light, right? Um, and I think that that's where so many of us get confused. I certainly was in that state of confusion before I came into this conversation about the principles. I thought my light had been taken from me by the actions of another person who chose to do harm to my physical self. I thought that because of those activities and things that had happened to me, that the light that I had before had been completely snuffed out and that I had to somehow create a new one. And I didn't really know how to do that and it wasn't really working. And and on and on. And what the principles have shown me personally is that that light was there and shining and bright the whole time. And it was there before all of that happened, it was there after it happened, and it'll be there in some way, shape, or form, seems to me, after I'm no longer in this physical body. Because if we are truly part of the infinite, then we are part of the infinite. And we're not going anywhere. So if there's a way, and this gets into my fourth reason for hope, that we can explain that to people via these principles, just imagine what would change. Jeff says, maybe think of it like a pilot light, always on at the ready to fire up the rest of our mind-body. I love that, Jeff. That's great. That's really cool. Yeah, and that's really honestly how I feel right now. You know, I really do feel like my pilot light has been really fired up to share these principles. So I'll get into this fourth point, is that there's hope in the fact that there is something new for people to see via these simple principles that Sydney Banks put together so beautifully, beautifully and effortlessly. I'm going to say that again. There's hope in the fact that there is something new for people to see via this simple explanation of the principles. Now, it's, it's something new in that many people, most people, have not heard it put this way to them before. It's not new because of the fact that it is them. I often, when I'm working with people, constantly come across the fact that I'm not teaching people anything they don't already know, because this is how human beings work. And it's amazing how once you explain these principles within a few minutes, people almost always say, oh, right, that makes perfect sense. I have thought, it gives me an experience, consciousness brings that to life. That makes sense. There's really no way that a feeling could come at me somehow. So it makes sense that it's coming from thought. And it also makes sense to people that they are part of something larger than themselves. So for me, the, the, the, it's hard for me to even put into words the magnitude of hope that I feel right now is really boundless because we have a way of sharing this with people that they will understand quickly. The fact that we have that, to me, is just the purest form of hope that I feel for humanity right now. I was talking with Jeff before I started, and Joel, you'll recognize this because you and I were, were talking about this a few weeks ago, that the principles help people to see the bigger picture. They help people to experience what the astronauts and those scientists have called the overview effect. You know, when astronauts go out into space, they get a view of Earth that none of us, I don't think, have ever had, where suddenly the Earth looks very vulnerable and small. And it looks like something that needs to be protected and, and cherished and nurtured. It doesn't look like a bunch of different kinds of people, you know, with all different kinds of concerns. Instead, it looks like one. And that's for me the most incredible gift of these principles is they help me to see and they help you to see and they help everyone to see. Thanks, Jeff, for sharing that link that we are looking at something that is universal instead of personal. Patty says, I was engaged a few times this week with people who don't understand their thinking is creating their experience. I just wanted to scream no. But then I realized how awful they really think these thoughts are real. So I was able to have more compassion. Patty, that's exactly what I'm suggesting here is that when we, like the astronauts, can zoom out and zoom out and zoom out, things stop looking personal and they start looking universal. Where people get into trouble is when they engage with personal thinking, when they don't understand that thought happens to everyone, when they don't understand that they are part of something larger than what their personal thinking is telling them. Joel says, the same is true for us too, Patty, when we feel upset that others don't understand this. I've been there, Joel. I've absolutely been there. And so if we, um, if we can start to ourselves, first of all, continue to look in the direction of what is universal instead of what is personal, the entire picture starts to change. You know, like, I'm a real, uh, admirer of Impressionist art, you know, Van Gogh, Monet, and that group. And I remember when I first learned about them in school, they— a teacher gave a demonstration where she had a slide projection of a picture, and it was zoomed way in on a single brushstroke. And we kind of were looking at this brushstroke and going, well, what's that? Like, I don't really get what that is. And she said, well, let me show you. And so I remember this slide somehow zoomed out, zoomed out, zoomed out until finally I could start to see a picture of something emerging. And more and more and more was emerging. And when she got all the way out, it was like we were standing back and looking at Van Gogh's Starry Night. And that's to me how this is. If we continue to zoom in and look at things on an individual basis, person to person to person to person basis, instead of zooming the camera out and looking at humanity and what we are part of as a whole, if we, if we, if we can't do that we will continue to repeat these same societal patterns over and over again. And, you know, even in the midst of all of this, over the centuries, we have made incredible gains, but we've also had incredible losses too. And so I know that in sort of traditional conversations, there's a tremendous focus on diversity Well, I'm going to say something that may come across controversial, but it's— that's the way it is. I appreciate diversity, but I see diversity in a very different way. I see diversity like a list of inspirational people that we were talking about. Diversity comes to me in what I have been given myself in this human form as a way to express the divine nature of all human beings? What can come through me? And the same is true for you. What can come through you? What expression of that innate well-being and, and our spiritual nature? What can come out through you and into form that can help all of us? To me, that's the only picture of diversity that makes any sense to me at all. If we continue to divide people according to thought-created forms like culture and race and sexuality and all these things, we will continue to go down this path of, of destruction, really. And the reason I am so hopeful is because the principles and what they point to is easy for people to grasp because it's our nature. It is who we are. And, you know, I, I was listening to a guy shortly before I came on here. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name. It was a dialogue, a TED-sponsored dialogue that Jeff actually shared with me. And he was showing— he was talking about a study that showed, and this has been not just one study, but many studies that show that the more people feel like they're in a group that's like them, the safer they feel. The more diverse it looks to them, the less safe they feel. Generally speaking, people like to be in a feeling of homogeneity. Well, at first glance, you might think, well, how is that even possible then for for the world to survive because we are diverse. However, if we are like the astronauts and we pull back and pull back and pull back, we can see that we are not this diverse group that we think— keyword— we are. And we can start to see diversity in the way that I just described, which is what gifts does each of us have to bring through the space of clarity, through the space of infinite possibility and infinite creativity? You know, I would love to start looking in that direction for diversity and start to move away from these thought-created groups that really only exist because we think they do. So I'm going to pause there and see what comments you have or questions. And feel free to disagree and tell me I'm off my rocker. It's quite all right. Patty, what do I do about my work on gender equity, a thought-created group gender? Well, that's really interesting, Patty, because I'm glad you asked that. I see anyone who works in something related to those types of issues, gender equity, or, you know, anything related to discrimination and things like that. I, it's hard for me to even put this into words, but I see such tremendous possibility in the principles to have a very, very quick impact there. Because if we look at what we've been doing traditionally, to address those kinds of societal problems, they haven't worked that well. I mean, I had to be honest with myself and look at this recently when I was working on another project. I was thinking, you know, a lot of progress seems to have gone very slowly, or it's stalled, or it seems to have gone in reverse. And I think it's because we keep going back to forms we are familiar with, and the principles shatter all those forms. It asks us to look into the formless, and that's not as hard as it sounds because people are formless. We live in a form But we ourselves are formless. So when you speak to people from this place of what these principles are pointing to, it connects quickly because it's connecting to who people actually are. When they drop down out of their personal thinking, it's very, very easy for people to connect here in this conversation. Because it's, it's our natural state. It's who we are. So if I could wave a magic wand somehow, I would love every single program in the world that attempts to right the wrongs against certain people to look in this direction of the principles, because to me it's the only answer. And it's something that we haven't tried on a large scale. So that's how I would answer that. Let me know if that didn't answer your question, Patty. What other thoughts and comments do you have? Do I sound like I'm cracked? If I do, that's okay. I also see tremendous— here's another reason for hope, number 5, that just came to me. I see tremendous hope because When I look at people who are struggling and who are really feeling a sense of upheaval, it shows me— thanks, Joe, I'm glad that was helpful— it shows me that they are looking for something. They are desperately looking for something to help them to feel better, to help them feel secure, to help them feel a sense of safety, to help them you know, have a better life and a better experience of life. And there is no better answer for them than what we're talking about related to the 3 principles. You know, we can continue to look to answers outside of that, and we will get the same results. You know, this cycle will continue and continue and continue. But we, in this conversation, anyone who understands the principles has the ability to start breaking those cycles by pointing people in a completely different direction. And beautifully and wonderfully, as I've been saying, that direction is a natural one. It's not something that's foreign to anyone because it explains to them very succinctly what's really happening inside themselves. And it's very easy for people to grasp. So for me, that's an incredible reason for hope right there. So what other, what other comments do you have or thoughts? I know that it can be very easy to get caught up in things ourselves. You know, it can be easy to say, well, if I, you know, don't follow the news or whatever. I'm just burying my head in the sand and I'm not looking at reality and, you know, I'm isolating myself from what's going on and I'm not being a productive member of society. I've had lots of thinking like that myself, especially in recent days. But then I realized that that thinking is not telling me the truth because truth is not found in my personal thinking. Truth exists in Three Principles language in mind, and it's there that I want to keep looking for possible remedies to what's going on in the world. If I keep looking back to my personal thinking, if I dive into anger, You know, it's very easy to feel sort of righteous anger and all these things. And, you know, in a way our society promulgates that and says that's a good thing. Well, it's not helpful to look there. That's where a lot of us have been looking and it hasn't gotten us very far. And luckily there's a new place to look for answers. And Joel quotes, "The world will not be healed by celebrating diversity. Rather, it will survive and thrive when diverse populations see their connected and common humanity. Lovely quote, absolutely true in my opinion. And for me, that is most easily seen, most easily grasped by people through this simple explanation that the principles give to us. I sometimes have a hard time grasping the gift that Sydney Banks gave to us in this explanation, because it is so pure and simple and easy for people to get. You know, it's obviously a lifelong journey to keep looking at what it all means and what is there for us. It's an infinite journey that will continue forever, but the essence of the principles are are so simple, is so simple that there's no reason why we can't begin to share that on a bigger scale and effect great change as a result. And Patty says, for those of us who are not practitioners, I'm still skeptical. I can't see how telling my colleagues we made all this stuff up will be helpful. Patty, I'm glad you said that. Thank you. I think we have to meet people where they are. Somebody asked me a little bit ago about, in my coaching, how do I introduce the principles to someone? And I didn't really have a good answer for that because for me, this is mostly, even though I've done a lot of talking in the last 52 minutes, this conversation is about listening. It's about, listening to what is inaudible. It's about listening to a person beyond what they are saying and beyond their behavior. It's about listening to truth that is in them. When you can listen to another person past what their appearance is, past what the story is that they're telling you, and you can really listen to them, that even if you never mention the principles can have more impact than anything else because you are connecting. Like, it's almost like an electrical connection between well-being, well-being. Innate health to innate health, innate creativity to innate creativity. It's no longer about the swirl of personal thinking that's going on in either person's head. It's about listening to the person, about listening to the infinite being that happens to be housed in that body. It's about looking at them in that way. More than any words I speak in my coaching practice, I believe that that is what makes the difference for people. So I wouldn't even concern yourself with talking about the principles unless you feel so moved. It's more about seeing people for who they are, which is infinite, uncontainable, you know, perfect in every single way, and that light, like we talked about earlier. Was that helpful, Patty? Maybe not since it wasn't so practical, but I really, I really believe that that's a big part of it. Rebecca says it's like the words we say in yoga at the end of each session, namaste. Oh, that's nice, Rebecca. Thank you. Oh, thanks, Rebecca. I'm glad that was helpful, Patty. Um, and so I think what I'd like to leave you with at the end of this hour— it's gone by so quickly, thank you so much for being part of this with me— is that no matter how chaotic things may look, you know, remember who you are. Remember where you are. Remember that you have the ability to view everything and everyone from that spaciousness that the astronauts experience, from a place of understanding that we are all part of something, and not just part of something, but that something is us. You know, I used to walk through nature and say things to myself like, wow, I'm so glad I'm a part of this. And now it's more like, I am this and you are this. And the more we can interact with one another from that place within ourselves, the more change can happen. And effortless change. It doesn't have to be fighting for things. That is not the answer in my view. That's looking toward old, stale personal thinking. We're talking about tapping into an endless supply of creative ideas that can really benefit everyone and makes, you know, and can make such a difference so quickly. Susan says, I struggle with the cruelty I see in here at the hands of humans who don't see or hear. You know, Susan, I'll answer that just from my own experience because it's the best I have to answer that. You know, as I mentioned earlier, you know, somebody when I was younger decided to try to do harm to me, to my physical self, and even tried to hurt my emotional self and For a long time, I felt very angry towards that person. I felt like he had harmed me irreparably. And I carried around a lot of hatred. I had a lot of hateful thinking towards him. And about a year or so into my exploration of these principles, I was— I'll never forget it. I was standing and waiting for the subway here in New York City. And I was at a station where there weren't many people in there, and I was kind of standing by myself on the platform in this one area. And I was suddenly just overcome with compassion for him, so much so that I started crying. And when the subway train arrived, I was still crying because I realized that just like me, he was acting on the thinking that he had at the time that looked right to him. He was confused about where security came from, and he didn't set out every day saying, I'm gonna hurt Mary today. That wasn't what he was doing. He wanted to feel good. He wanted to have a good experience of life, and he did what he thought he needed to do to have that experience. That's what every single human being does. That comes out in different ways, and I'm certainly not condoning harm, violence against another person. That's not what I mean. But we can view people from this universal awareness instead of trying to pick apart the reasons why people do things. They're not important. The important thing to see is that people are acting on whatever thinking they have at the time. And most people are very unaware of the fact that they are born with security and they don't have to try to get it from a law, a person, a border, or any of that. So that for me has provoked a tremendous amount of compassion, even in situations that we might brand as horrific. Oh, thanks, Rebecca. Susan, let me know if that was helpful to you. You know, the— I can't really diminish the impact of compassion either, and the kind of compassion that comes from this understanding is tremendously powerful. You know, the understanding of the principles is being taught in all kinds of places, you know, in schools and prisons and all kinds of things, and it's being shown to have tremendous benefit and incredibly fast turnarounds in people who were once thought to be impossible, you know, that their lot in life was set, and it's just not so. It's just not so. There is so much hope present and inherent in an understanding of these three principles. Great, Susan. It's difficult to see behind some devastating behaviors. That's— I really am very appreciative that you are bringing this to the fore, so I'll spend a couple more minutes on that. The way you can look past people's behaviors is by seeing where they originate. You know, with my ex-husband, I used to try to look into, you know, his family background or you know, how he was treated as a child or what beliefs he grew up with. None of that explained his behavior. It just didn't make sense to me. What finally made sense to me was the simple truth that he was acting on his thinking in the moment and trying to make himself feel secure. That's the only place we need to look to understand people. People's behavior, whatever it is, whether it's bodily harm against another person or it's something more simple, like where I want to go after this phone call today. So that's the way to look past behaviors. And again, it's not excusing behavior, it's understanding it in a way that makes it easier to erase, essentially. It makes it easier to repair. Oh good, I'm glad that helped, Susan. So I'd like to pause just one last time before I close this out to see what other thoughts you have in closing. I really hope, using that word purposefully, that you have found some hope in what we've talked about, because I have never in my life felt so hopeful for the future of humanity and for the future of this planet, because I know without any doubt in my mind— I mean, there's no, there's no doubt ever about this for me. That what these principles point to and the simple way that the principles express that has the power to make tremendous change, effortless change, in the world that we see. And I have made a pledge myself to devote everything I have left in me towards this end. And I don't expect you to do that, but it would be amazing if everyone who has been exposed to these principles would, as I mentioned before, even as simple as being in conversation with another person and seeing through their story into who they really are, no matter what's going on on the surface, that in and of itself is transformational. If each one of us did that with the people in our life, that would change everything. Can you imagine? Can you imagine how that would be? Um, glad you're with me, Rebecca. Thank you. So I guess what I would encourage you to do as a single step after this call is maybe the next time you listen to someone who is upset about what's going on, or is, you know, just in conversation with you about something. See if you can sit in this place of clarity and compassion, and like you have x-ray vision, you know, see through to the human underneath who is not only the same as you but is you. That is part of this universal experience we're having called life with a capital L, and, and, and see what transpires from there. Final thoughts before I close out. If you want to get in touch with me, please feel free. I'm online at www.thedailyprinciples.com. I'm also at maryschiller.com, and you can always email me at mary@thedailyprinciples.com. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks, Joel. Thank you, Patty. Thank you if you were here live on the call. I so appreciate that. And if you are watching on the replay, thank you so much for watching, and please feel free to get in touch with me anytime. I am here to support you and help you in any way that I possibly can, so don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you so much, everybody. I'm going to sign off. Bye-bye now.