Episode 121: Are We There Yet

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hey y'all I'm Amanda and I'm Drilla I'm Melissa hello this is Morgan

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and I'm Penny Welcome to our podcast

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today welcome to another episode of five lemons laughing we're so grateful that you are here listening to

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us oh what we're talking about today is actually like what are we doing what

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does a spiritual work look like are we striving are we seeking are we looking

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for spirituality or can we just sit back and relax and be yeah this week we're talking about

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the Paradox of spiritual growth like why are we chasing why are we chasing

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Enlightenment why are we chasing happiness what if that act of chasing is

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actually blocking it oh so take a deep breath you know what or don't either way we exactly

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where we're supposed to be and that's what we're talking today isn't it funny

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like Enlightenment just the thought of Enlightenment of being it's such a it's

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such a society thing to think that we have to work at it right like it's not worth it if we don't work at

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it or it won't come if we don't work at it yeah yeah it's like that

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um you know the more you work at it the more you run after it the further it gets away um where the where the end

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point seems further and further and further out I faced this actually in my

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meditation I I really had to realize that a lot of the even the like the

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grounding stuff the loving stuff the reading the stuff it was all still doing the

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stuff and um I really had to realize that it's really more about the

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being the just sitting and the just breathing and the just realizing that

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you're already one you're already we're already completely connected um and to kind of like fall into that rather than

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chase after something

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yeah what that's bringing up for me right now is like like striving or

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thinking it is in the future is um a little bit different than

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practicing being in the present right you know that's so um for me I do have

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to practice coming back to um we use the word I use the word Enlightenment in the

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you know in the intro and um oh let's just Define that who can Define enlightenment right like what does that

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really mean before we get into like are we chasing enlightenment Penny do you want to look

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that up yeah hey I can look that up okay so let's just like let's just U Workshop

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it without looking anything up Do It Let's Do It

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Enlightenment So inlight Right light right yes be in light

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that's and what does mint mean Enlightenment maybe the ACT a state of

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something yeah yeah so just being in the being in a state of

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Light which would mean that we

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are well we're one we're love we're connected that's what I see when I see

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light what do you guys see no suffering right I think of love when I think of

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Enlightenment like when people say love and light that's what I you know put those two things together like light the

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opposite of dark and darkness for some reason has you know scary fear anger

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resentment type of connotations for me so lightness is the opposite of

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that nice would say a consistent state of awareness is what it feels like to

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me and a break from being involved in the suffering of

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the world like your own suffering within the world you

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have become you've you've you're at a different place where you're not engaged in

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that and so that's what enlightenment means to you Melissa right not engaging in the world of not not suffering in the

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world wow that's a big one that's a big one yeah I was just talking to my

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husband this morning about as soon as we have expectations we start suffering and attachments that was kind

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of hard for him to he actually started making it kind of a joke but I really believe that you were

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just talking about suffering Melissa that yeah so Enlightenment would be having no expectations and just

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accepting what is versus thinking I know what's best for

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others yeah being in the flow yeah yeah oh just pause for a minute and just

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think about that just you know like we're floating down a river it's a beautiful summer day

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and yeah we're just floating going with wherever the current takes us so

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beautiful so in that sense so Enlightenment it sounds like what we're describing is a state of being is a

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state of um not doing yeah being so when you are doing

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your your you're being instead of focusing on the doing you're still in the level of awareness that this body

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and this experience it's all still not you're not attached to that so expand on that a little bit more

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Drilla meaning that you're not necessarily going to just sit on you know on the earth somewhere and just

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stay there you still participate in life but your level of Consciousness is that

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this is not your body is not who you are and these things that you're doing they

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have no impact on on you on your essence on your peace right yeah yeah that makes sense

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so what I heard Drilla is so Enlightenment in you know one sense is

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not attaching to the bodily form it's the seeing beyond that like the the

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seeing to and working from the connected State the state of all that's what I

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heard from that just to say it a little different is that what you were talking about yeah yeah yeah but okay and not

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but and and I love and is beautiful

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beautiful and what if something comes up and disturbs that flow for a few minutes

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then Drilla what would you do with that like let's say they're spraying round up in your neighborhood or there um you

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know stuff is going on in the government that's irritating you or or you know

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your I don't know your best friend didn't call you to congratulate you for some big award you got or something like that so what do you do with that if

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you're an enlightened being well are you asking this Drusilla or the enlightened one well I would like I would like the

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response from both drillas yes this one we get pissed off talk okay

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yes she has those days but the ideal the sage Dr which is the Drilla that I've

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always known that I was born to be that Drilla doesn't know or care about

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Roundup or a Donald Trump or a um and

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that's not for fish you know um we give power to whatever we choose to give

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power to yeah yeah

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yeah like the example yeah just like the example about the food this Roundup is no different

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the food if it's if you eat a piece of cake and you're thinking oh I shouldn't have cake just bless the cake and ask

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for the cake to bless you right it's it's it's really no different and do we really think Donald Trump has that much

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power no God has all the power even even Beyond in between that let's just say

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that there's so many more things that could happen between Donald Trump and

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God what about those people that were taken to El Salvador and who knows how

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being treated why we try to get them back to the US to get their due process I mean what about those guys that's kind

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of has me worried and maybe I don't need to be worried sorry about that my life just

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right I mean because there could be some amazing things happening um that are positive as well you know yeah we don't

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know all things in time and space good point thank you for reminding me of that yeah and that's what enlightenment is

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right in my to me it is being living from that space not about not taking

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action it's not about not you know whatever you're doing in the world but it's about coming from that loving that

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space yeah I like so if when we Circle back to

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our topic right like of actually um the TR this trap or this

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illusion of chasing spiritual growth like Enlighten what so like chasing

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versus being

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yeah well I like to think of the practices that I'm doing that my morning ritual

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um uh that gets me connected to my higher power

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are uh maybe it's a little of both maybe it's a little chasing and a little being

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maybe I and I'm just kind of sorting this out as I talk just being honest with you

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that um I like to think of them though as I it's just helping me to cultivate that connection to um the Oneness that

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we talk about that we're all one and so it's just helping me connect to that and I think I would

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say um years ago I was definitely chasing it definitely I wanted it

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because I've met people that had it and I wanted it so bad so I was willing to do whatever it took and um you

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know yeah you know go to meeting uh do the work that I was assigned all

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these things um so I'm not I'm I'm honestly I'm having a tough time sorting

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out if that was chasing and what's so wrong with it if it was because I didn't

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have the capacity to realize at that time that I was already connected and I didn't have to do anything I I I I

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recently I would say in the last couple years I really started to understand that I need do nothing to prove myself

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but before I didn't know that honestly so that's amazing I think that you just

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saved our listeners like how many years of of yeah of practice of of striving

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because that's why we're here is to talk for us to to be with each other because I love my lemonades for us to learn from

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each other as we're on this podcast and also to share with our listeners so just to jump ahead a couple of steps yeah

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have you ever seen the dolly llama no not have you not in person not in person

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but I have I've seen him you know on I actually follow him on Instagram he's my

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friend on Instagram and but um he is just so dang cute and

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he's got this big smile and he's always smiling and I was thinking like what would the dolly Lama do with the people

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that they're sending to El Salvador he would probably say I don't know if this is right or you know like I hope this is

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is a we are better human beings than torturing people but it would not take

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the smile off his face and it would not change his peace like that is his

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Enlightenment that is the place his being that's the place he's

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in that's beautiful meliss don't you think yeah yeah it doesn't touch it

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doesn't I mean I can't say that I experienced it all the time but things

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bounce right off like it cannot penetrate I mean if it's just I guess

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it's hard to describe if you haven't at least had the holy instant consistently

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is the best way to describe it you know I think we've all experienced the holy instant

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or yeah when you're um it's it's basically just being present 100%

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present right and it's exuding and absorbing love and light even if it's

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just for a glimpse one tastes of that then you know how the valy Lama it's

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able to do it because it's just that but it's consistent so if you can get there

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and then you can understand all the things that we're practicing forgiveness acceptance It's

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just taking off the layers so that we can do it not only in an instant maybe next time it's 10 minutes maybe next

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time it's an hour maybe next year there's time we're able to do it weeks at a time you know um but it's all still

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the same thing just in that very moment nothing can penetrate or take away the

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joy and the Bliss and the love that you feel right and there's also a a a quote

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and I don't know it I wish I knew it for btim but essentially it says um what's

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the difference between not having Enlightenment and being enlightened is just

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realization there's no doing there's just realizing that you already are enlightened and

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then yeah all you need um which I love and I heard another quote too that the

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difference between an enlightened person and someone that may be on their path to Enlightenment is just uh how quickly

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they can recover once they um get out of the flow and so yeah yes I've heard

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Michael Becki talk about that said not that things doesn't come through to try to penetrate but it's that he can

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quickly aware be aware that it's something is trying to penetrate like this could really piss me off this could

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really get under my skin and not letting it yes and choosing love and choosing

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love and choosing love so Dolly and llama probably chooses love over and over over

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and over just else there's a great Netflix show with him and Desmond Tutu

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and they laugh most of the time and they're talking about major stuff and they just having a great time I loved it

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yeah I'm not sure what it's called but you got to look that up because that that sounds like a good show to watch i' like yeah I'll look it

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up tell you though I was thinking about what you were saying earlier Melissa um

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and now I kind of almost forgot what it was you said exactly but I just make the comment anyways and oh about the effort

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put into it and I and I thought I thought a lot since um in the more recent years about why things seem to

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come easy to me when I was younger and it wasn't because I was working hard to

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become spiritual I knew nothing about it right but it was because I didn't have all the other veils and beliefs piled on

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top so there were less things that I had to so it has nothing to do with right the other stuff right it has to do with

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that we put all this stuff on and now we got to take it back off so all we're doing is removing the veil you know all

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the beliefs dismantling them whereas a little young 12-year-old I didn't have many things to UNM to you know to

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dismantle so it was easy for me to be loving like I just remember being nice

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to everybody at school no matter what I felt or thought or you know people can be mean and you know as teenagers but I

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was just always nice to people and that was just what I feel like was the what

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we're all born with and what we you know how we came into this art did I tell you all the story about when I was in my 20s

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I would say probably about 20 3 years old 24 maybe set the beauty salon getting my hair done and I I I did used

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to smile a lot okay like that was that's what made me think about it the doll Lama I did smell a lot like I had a

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Conant that was my resting face right and so I'm sitting there getting my hair done and my hairdresser has a daughter

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and she's about five or six years old and she's sitting on the floor looking up at me and then she asked her mom is

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that lady smiling all the time lady just keeps smiling

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that's great and I just remember that and it just never dawned on me until someone

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said it like that was my resting position in life was to be you know so I know that's possible you know what I'm

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saying um and it's it's not farfetched I think if we just think that we're doing the work of not trying to get somewhere

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but to undo all the damage that we've done to ourselves by believing the

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stories I think a big part of that Jilla getting there is letting go of judgments too

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right practicing you know doing the practice of now is Letting Go like

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because right now there is no past and if there is no past then there are no judgments of the past no grievances

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there's no grievances there's no judgments because we're just right now we're not bringing the past with us and that's a huge reset

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button that's huge say there's no past Amanda explain to someone listening what

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that means to you so in like if I focus on now if I take a

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minute and focus on my breathing my brain once I get into it

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we're calling it The Holy instant right now because that's what you know that's just the words that we're using to describe that but in these breaths my my

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whole attention is on my breathing the whole attention is on what's going like

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I I hear a bird is just chirping outside of my window I feel the breeze coming in

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the window my skin is a little cool right in this space of right now there is nothing else so there is no past

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because I I I'm letting it go completely that it's just not in there in that

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breath and so that's the practice so that's practicing being present

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retraining the mind that's um a lot of what we're doing it's not we're not

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chasing Enlightenment we're actually just retra I love the that story you told Drilla because it is about just

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letting go of um letting go of all the things that we've learned to practice

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being bright now did I answer the qu that question whoever asked it perfect I'm practicing

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being present so much I'm forgetting what we're talking about like when somebody says something I'm like oh yeah

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and then like it's gone yeah so funny you say that Amanda I felt in the last few weeks that I can't remember anything

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and I'm like it's on purpose like I can't remember like I love that

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yeah that's a good way to approach it hey the documentary I was referencing

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a little bit earlier was the mission it's called Mission Joy finding happiness in troubled times it was created in 2021 and it's the documentary

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based on the Deep friendship between Archbishop Desmond 22 and the dolly Lama so perfect timing

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because I believe uh Desmond 22 has passed away now so that's probably a

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pretty powerful film and with the times we're going through right now I think it's just that's just another just another troubled

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times as human beings could be maybe not yeah thank you

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we don't know and it's so funny like my view like I I hear my community very

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worried and upset about what's going on in the world right now and I can't I just don't feel it like I just know that

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it's everything is working out perfectly right I I could I just know that so deeply like none of that me and so like

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on a large scale I got I got that but um the other day I bought a new pair of

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shoes I hardly ever do that and my dog chewed him up the next day [Laughter]

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and I it was hilarious I it was I just lost my cool I didn't beat my dog or

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anything like that but I went right into blaming my husband for not being a good dog parent like

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just funny how things show up so like you know and then we were I was just I was like in my anger yesterday and I was

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enjoying it get out of it so yeah yeah my

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daughter said to me this morning you're on one mom I go maybe I am in a little Funk is that what she

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meant yeah yeah exactly I wasn't as loving as and as kind as I usually am

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yeah

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so I want to Circle back to the holy instant yeah so Drilla are you saying I want to just make sure that I understood

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what I heard you say so you're saying the holy instant is just being 100% present at this moment and that's the

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holy instant it doesn't really matter what's going on it's just that you're present to hear the bird chirp or the dog bark or the wind on your

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skin and I capture there's no thoughts of the past or the future oh okay fful

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acceptance of the present wouldn't you say what did you say Melissa full presence of the I mean uh full acceptance of the

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present moment oh I like that too so again going back to llama he is having

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full acceptance probably knowing this is an illusion the world probably knowing that

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humans are creating this their own suffering probably um understanding

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how all that works how illusion works and understanding that that's just

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happening and choosing and accepting at the same time choosing peace and

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happiness in the moment to me the moment is in the moment

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so it never shifts and that's really like the quantum physics why there's there really is no past and there's no future because

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it's only what you're looking at is what is the is reality which is the

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present to me that there's another aspect of it is to is um in being in

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completely present to being in the Holy instant is um tapped in right so it's

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it's tapped into whatever you I believe that you know in that connection right in I

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believe the source