This week’s meditation begins with noticing the tendency to hold on. It sharpens to a more specific inquiry: “I need to hold onto the wrongs done to me and the wrongs I’ve done to others.” Is that true? The group digs deeper beneath that enticing story that can just seem so factual, like common sense. “Of course I need to hold on! Otherwise how will I make amends? Or get the apologies I deserve?” But what is life like when we hold on to the wrongs we’ve done and had done to us? And even more fascinating – what would our experience be like if we didn’t believe we needed to? There’s a powerful shift that takes place with the questioning of these stories in this group. Feel free to join in on your own!
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259. Unforgivable
This week’s deep inquiry begins with a simple invitation: to notice what arises within you when you allow yourself to consciously experience being open to any and all possibilities in life. In this group meditation, what comes up in response to Tom’s prompt is fear. It feels terrifying to open to all possibilities when those possibilities include things we think we very much would not like to experience; things we think we wouldn’t be able to handle. Going back to last week’s episode theme, we are convinced that something truly terrible can happen. This episode expands on that conversation with the idea that we could do something unforgivable. Something beyond forgiveness. We could go somewhere that love cannot reach us.But is that true? If it’s a friendly Universe, how could something we call ‘unforgivable’ be a good and beautiful thing? If you’re up for it, there’s a profound inquiry available this week – one that points to a profound experience of life waiting on the other side of unforgivable.
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258. Something terrible can happen(?)
The mind wonders if there’s even any point in questioning a thought like, “Something terrible can happen.” It seems so obviously true. “Of course something terrible can happen! I could lose my job, my partner/child/parent/friend could die, I could get sick … and that’s not even counting all the terrible things already happening like wars and starvation.” Yes. That is true. All of those things could happen and are happening. But in this powerful inquiry on some sensitive subjects, Tom asks question two of The Work: “Can you absolutely know it’s true?” Can you absolutely, positively-for-sure know it’s true that something terrible can happen? Or could it be possible that the words of mystic St. Catherine of Siena are applicable to this story, that the absolute innocence of all within creation takes awhile to understand. Either way, we have the freedom to check in for ourselves and question painful stories. We have the freedom to notice whether believing this thought helps us show up in the world as truly helpful, happy beings – or not.
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257. I need to be valued
This week’s episode explores the thought, “I need to be valued.” This thought can become so insidious with its underlying beliefs – for example, believing our support, our existence depends on being liked by others. There can be a laundry list of things we think we need to be valued for: our time, our presence, our various roles, and most often just … ourselves. But what happens when we believe this? What becomes of our sense of freedom? As Tom often puts it, does it give us a big, fat ‘Yes!’ to life? Or does this thought become a prison shackle that we try to accommodate by contorting ourselves in order to be valued by others, and resenting them when they don’t come through with that validation? If you’re somewhere on your own freedom journey, we invite you to join this conversation and facilitation guided by Tom.
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256. I'm responsible for [insert chosen person]'s happiness
One of the main aspects of The Work is identifying a thought to question. Part of identifying it can be allowing ourselves to really feel it. So in preparation for this week’s episode, we invite you to look at the people surrounding you in life and really, deeply, as-best-you-can, feel the thought “I’m responsible for their happiness.” What does it feel like in the body? Is there someone in particular who especially triggers this belief most of us pick up so young? If you notice the thought feels constrictive and limiting and stressful, but also somehow like the “right” thing, well…you’re not alone. Follow along with your own inquiry into this thought, and notice what your experience might be like without it.
We bring to you the voice and perspective of Tom Compton, a Facilitator of "The Work." Using a method of self-inquiry developed by Byron Katie, this podcast explores the underlying thoughts and beliefs that lead to suffering—at the personal and collective level. Tom guides us through meditations and invites us to pierce the stress and drama that often prevent us from seeing ourselves (and our freedom) clearly.
Ireland