Latest / Most Things Kenobi - A Star Wars Podcast / Episode 151: Meditation in Real Life and in Star Wars

Transcript

Episode 151: Meditation in Real Life and in Star Wars · Most Things Kenobi - A Star Wars Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello there. It's time for most things,
• 0:02
  Kenobi. Shouldn't it be?
• 0:04
  All things Kenobi. Hi everyone, welcome to another
• 0:22
  episode of Most Things Kenobi, a podcast about Obi Wan Kenobi and
• 0:25
  all things Star Wars. I'm your host, Lauren.
• 0:28
  And I'm your host, Leanne. All right, so before we get into
• 0:30
  this episode, I just want to say since we are recording on the
• 0:33
  day it is Lauren's birthday, my space twin, I just want to wish
• 0:39
  you a happy birthday, the happiest of birthdays and all
• 0:43
  the best to you in this next year.
• 0:46
  And thank you for being my most wonderful space twin for the
• 0:49
  birthdays that we have celebrated together and and we
• 0:51
  will continue henceforth. So happy birthday.
• 0:55
  Thank you very much. So far it's been very nice.
• 0:59
  I love you. I love you too.
• 1:01
  Thank you for being my space to end and partner in crime here.
• 1:04
  Of course. Here's hoping that this is going
• 1:07
  to be a better year. Yay.
• 1:10
  Happy birthday Lauren to a better year.
• 1:15
  All right, on with the episode. This week we are going to chat
• 1:19
  about meditation. It's kind of a little different
• 1:22
  for us. It's still Star Wars related,
• 1:24
  but we're just going to explore in Star Wars and in real life a
• 1:28
  little bit so. Yes, indeed.
• 1:29
  Well, you and I explored in real life all the time anyway.
• 1:32
  We do. That's why we're here.
• 1:35
  Well, exactly. We both use it, we both know
• 1:37
  that it has benefited our lives, and we just kind of want to
• 1:40
  share that with people. And you can feel like a Jedi
• 1:43
  while you do it. So there you go.
• 1:44
  Truly. In fact, I have multiple
• 1:47
  definitions up and it all relates back to the Jedi and the
• 1:50
  Sith. We'll focus on the Jedi, but the
• 1:53
  goal of both regular human US, Jedi and Sith is all the exact
• 1:59
  same. Yeah, pretty pretty much.
• 2:03
  You could use meditation for evil in real life if you wanted
• 2:07
  to. It all depends on what your
• 2:09
  goal. And as Qui Gon said, your focus
• 2:12
  determines your reality right? So your focus going into the
• 2:16
  meditation can determine what comes out of the meditation and
• 2:20
  actually the definition of meditation.
• 2:22
  There's several different ones so I'll read two.
• 2:26
  Meditation is the practice that involves focusing or clearing
• 2:30
  your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques.
• 2:35
  It's not sitting with your legs crossed, fingers out like is the
• 2:41
  stereotype, right? You can literally do it laying
• 2:43
  down. You can do it with your
• 2:45
  headphones on on a train, you can do it anywhere.
• 2:48
  It's just you meditate to relax, reducing anxiety and stress.
• 2:52
  And it's the other definition that relates back to this is a
• 2:55
  mind and body practice focused on interactions between the
• 2:59
  brain, the mind, the body, and behavior.
• 3:02
  Yes, so true. Right.
• 3:07
  And then if you go to the Jedi meditation definition if you
• 3:12
  will, it says here via Wikipedia.
• 3:15
  Of course meditation was a mental technique practice by
• 3:18
  force sensitives and non force sensitives alike by which one
• 3:22
  attempted to get beyond the reflexive thinking mind into a
• 3:25
  deeper state of relaxation or awareness and that was used to
• 3:31
  enhance emotional control over the self and for better
• 3:34
  connection to the force. Now I know that I meditate to
• 3:39
  have a better awareness of myself and to enhance my
• 3:44
  emotional control. It's a it's like a an immediate
• 3:47
  way to stop physical side effects of anxiety.
• 3:53
  The breath. Yeah.
• 3:55
  It's important. It's so important and it doesn't
• 3:59
  take much either. Like that's the other thing I
• 4:01
  kind of want us to say like, OK, first of all, disclaimer, this
• 4:04
  is by no means a comprehensive, you know, look at meditation.
• 4:08
  There's so many versions of meditation.
• 4:12
  There's secular, there's non secular.
• 4:14
  There's lots of ways you can do it.
• 4:16
  You don't have to have anything to get started, right?
• 4:18
  Like you could just do it yourself sitting, laying down
• 4:22
  anywhere. But there are ways you can do
• 4:24
  it, ways you can break into it. And that's we just want to open
• 4:28
  that for people. If you're interested in trying
• 4:31
  it. If you never have tried it.
• 4:33
  Yeah. And and not only that, we're not
• 4:34
  experts. This is just our take on what
• 4:37
  we've come in to experience with because I mean, through therapy,
• 4:42
  I have somehow corrected my fear of flying and it was based in
• 4:48
  meditation and mindfulness 'cause that's what I chose.
• 4:52
  I chose a therapist who literally his, his entire
• 4:57
  practice is based in Buddhism and, and he went through all
• 5:02
  that training and it was the most beneficial for me.
• 5:04
  So that's my menial experience in meditation, but I'm not an
• 5:09
  expert. Yeah, I mean, I've always been
• 5:13
  interested in it. I've tried doing it since high
• 5:15
  school. I wrote a paper on it in
• 5:16
  college, but I didn't start practicing it regularly until
• 5:20
  just a couple of years ago, I don't know, like maybe eight
• 5:22
  years ago. And it totally changed my
• 5:26
  relationship to anxiety and my body, not only by making me
• 5:31
  aware of how anxiety impacts my body, but then how you can kind
• 5:36
  of like use even like what is it called?
• 5:39
  Is it square breathing? It's like 4/4.
• 5:42
  Oh, box breathing. Box breathing.
• 5:43
  Yeah. I use that when I had to go to
• 5:46
  court for my divorce. You're like to like, calm my
• 5:50
  body so I could go in and speak in front of a judge.
• 5:53
  You know, it's like simple breathing.
• 5:56
  It it can be as simple as breathing.
• 5:58
  It's what I'm trying to say. Yeah.
• 6:00
  And I think a lot of people think that you have to like
• 6:03
  there's some kind of mantra. There is a way that you can
• 6:05
  incorporate mantras, but meditation, can't it?
• 6:10
  I think there's this misunderstanding that
• 6:12
  meditation, when you sit down to meditate, you're not thinking at
• 6:16
  all. And that's completely wrong.
• 6:18
  You're allowing thoughts, no matter what they are, to come
• 6:22
  and then to go, and you're not reacting to them.
• 6:25
  You're literally just observing what is going on in your body
• 6:29
  and your mind and not having any kind of judgment towards it.
• 6:34
  Yes. Which is hard for me and that's
• 6:36
  why it's a practice. It's not a one and done.
• 6:39
  It's a practice that you have to do it like working out a muscle.
• 6:45
  It's kind of the same thing. Exactly.
• 6:48
  Well, something I kind of realized while preparing for
• 6:52
  this episode cause like I know the kinds of meditation that
• 6:54
  I've done, but I wanted to see like what else is out there.
• 6:58
  And even with the meditations that I've done, there are
• 7:01
  multiple definitions and explanations for them.
• 7:04
  There are, you know, you can find on like psychology, what is
• 7:08
  it, Psych today.com or psych.com, whatever it is.
• 7:11
  Psychologytoday.com. So Combo.
• 7:15
  And then there's, you know, there's actual spiritual
• 7:19
  practices that have their own definition where it's based in
• 7:23
  practice that's been around for. You know. 2500 years and what
• 7:28
  you could do for yourself is see what sounds interesting to you
• 7:32
  and just start exploring. Some people may gravitate to a
• 7:36
  more structured process where they have a teacher and they go.
• 7:41
  Some people really don't know where to even start like I
• 7:44
  started on YouTube. Yeah.
• 7:46
  Oh yeah. There's a ton of good stuff on
• 7:49
  YouTube that fits anyone's style.
• 7:52
  There's music. There's no music.
• 7:54
  There's the Theta waves. I like the Theta waves.
• 7:57
  Do you like the Theta waves? I like certain ones in a certain
• 8:01
  Hertz. They really sound good.
• 8:03
  Then if they get like the Hertz are too high, it's really
• 8:06
  uncomfortable for me. So yeah.
• 8:08
  Interesting. Yeah.
• 8:08
  When I'm in this sweet spot, I really, really enjoy it.
• 8:11
  Yeah. I usually just like someone's
• 8:14
  voice, but if there's a Theta wave and it's the right Theta
• 8:17
  wave, then I'm, I'm in, it's, it's good to go.
• 8:21
  But yeah, there's all kinds of options.
• 8:23
  I even like sound baths too. Have you done a sound bath ever?
• 8:27
  I don't like those. You don't like Yeah, I could see
• 8:29
  how they would be sometimes. Again, like if the bowl or
• 8:32
  whatever they're using is a certain.
• 8:34
  Yeah. Like vibration, I don't like it,
• 8:37
  but if it's right again in a sweet spot, I really like it.
• 8:41
  But see, that's the fun part of trying to figure out where you
• 8:45
  are with meditating and what fits you, You know, you could
• 8:48
  turn on something be like, uh, uh, not this, but it could be
• 8:51
  day-to-day too. Because some, like I typically
• 8:54
  meditate at night, right? Well, whatever my night time is
• 8:57
  because my schedule is 24 hours. But I, I tend to notice when
• 9:04
  some things are just annoying me.
• 9:06
  Like if it's a guided meditation, I'm not doing it on
• 9:08
  my own. If it's certain guided
• 9:10
  meditations and I'm not feeling it, that's OK too.
• 9:13
  Yeah, that's being aware and mindful, which is part and
• 9:16
  parcel with meditation, being mindful, right?
• 9:20
  The practice of mindfulness. So yeah, it's it's really very
• 9:23
  personal. It is, and that's a good thing.
• 9:27
  You got it. It's part of getting involved
• 9:30
  with your own body and brain and kind of seeing there is a mind
• 9:34
  body connection. There is.
• 9:37
  Oh, yes, yes. If you doubt it, think of a
• 9:40
  lemon right now. Think of cutting a lemon in half
• 9:44
  and seeing the juice come out. Do you start to salivate?
• 9:47
  That's your mind body connection.
• 9:48
  You're not even seeing a real lemon.
• 9:50
  You know, like there's proof right there.
• 9:53
  I I saw a glass of iced tea that needed the lemon.
• 9:56
  Isn't that weird? Delicious.
• 9:58
  I over complicated it. What else is new?
• 10:05
  I have a long list of kinds of meditation just to kind of throw
• 10:10
  it out there. Yes, please.
• 10:12
  So we've talked about mindfulness, there's focus
• 10:16
  meditation, which that like mindfulness is like what you
• 10:21
  said before, where you're kind of like allowing things to come
• 10:24
  up. And like you were saying, it's
• 10:27
  really it was really hard for me at first because you're supposed
• 10:29
  to observe without judgement. Yeah.
• 10:33
  And our whole lives, I think we're trained to judge.
• 10:36
  So that is definitely something you have to work at and gently
• 10:40
  like, not beat yourself up. Oh no, this is a this is as much
• 10:45
  a exercise in self compassion as it is anything else, because
• 10:52
  you're trying to be kind and gentle with yourself, like you
• 10:55
  said. But again, the trick is to not
• 10:58
  try is to just let it be whatever that is.
• 11:03
  But if you are human, then you're going to want to attach a
• 11:07
  label to something, a name to something, an emotion to
• 11:11
  something. And that's OK.
• 11:13
  That's the other thing. It's knowing that it's OK if you
• 11:18
  have an emotional response to something because eventually the
• 11:22
  more you do it, the less of a response you're going to have.
• 11:26
  And that's essentially what my therapist worked with me on with
• 11:30
  the my fear of flying. I was flying anyway.
• 11:34
  I didn't let it stop me. I would put limits on how long I
• 11:38
  had to be on an airplane, right? Because for some reason that
• 11:43
  that was like a bookend in my brain, like, oh, if I can go
• 11:45
  three hours and no more, I'll be fine.
• 11:47
  But that's stupid. But.
• 11:49
  It gives you. It's like a sense of control
• 11:51
  that you. Can, right?
• 11:52
  Because it's all about that. And The thing is, is the only
• 11:55
  thing you can control is your breath.
• 11:57
  So you're always in control, right?
• 11:59
  Yeah. But the exposure therapy of it
• 12:02
  all, not being on an airplane and doing it.
• 12:04
  But like I did have to fly anyway.
• 12:06
  And I was practicing what my therapist taught me, remaining
• 12:09
  in control of how my body and how my brain reacted to
• 12:13
  subtleties in the airplane's motion, the sounds, etcetera.
• 12:17
  And the more I did it, the less reaction I had until me and you
• 12:21
  are flying to a celebration in London and I had no reaction at
• 12:25
  all. So it does work.
• 12:28
  It takes a long time for certain things like that, but it does
• 12:32
  work. But over time the reaction
• 12:34
  becomes less and less. That's the goal.
• 12:37
  Yeah, focused is a little different than that because you
• 12:40
  actually pick something that you focus on.
• 12:43
  And it's kind of similar to contemplative meditation, but
• 12:47
  focused. Like in a paper I wrote in
• 12:49
  college many many years ago, they said you could look at a
• 12:52
  flower or like a flame and just sit and observe and see what you
• 12:58
  can see and quiet the mind because you're focusing it.
• 13:02
  Have you ever sat by a river and just watched?
• 13:06
  Like the bubbles, the undulation, the rocks underneath
• 13:11
  the water? It's so calming for a reason.
• 13:16
  It's the same reason why people gather around a fire and they
• 13:19
  just sit there. Yeah, they don't do anything.
• 13:22
  It's great, but then I also have thoughts come to me while I'm
• 13:26
  there, and they're often very contemplative thoughts.
• 13:30
  I'm telling you, nature is just a miracle in and of itself.
• 13:35
  Yeah, it's so healing. But you're right, if you focus
• 13:38
  on the one thing, Oh. It's good a lot of times too.
• 13:41
  You can use your 5 senses so like what do you see?
• 13:43
  Smell, taste if you're gonna don't taste a flame, but
• 13:47
  whatever. You know all of that.
• 13:51
  Flamin hot Cheeto maybe? Sorry.
• 13:56
  Great for meditation, yeah. No.
• 14:00
  Well, then there's love and kindness.
• 14:02
  Have you ever done a love and kindness meditation?
• 14:05
  Those are really hard for me. Isn't that sad?
• 14:08
  No, it's not. I think it's common.
• 14:11
  It's hard because the idea is to strengthen feelings of love and
• 14:16
  compassion towards yourself and others, and you can do like the
• 14:20
  world at large as well. Yeah, I mean, I've incorporated
• 14:24
  it. I had to do that.
• 14:26
  I keep talking about my experience with with my
• 14:28
  therapist and and flying because it's it's very real example.
• 14:32
  But I had to practice compassion and loving kindness with myself
• 14:36
  to cut myself a break and not be so hard on myself that my body's
• 14:40
  just trying to protect myself. And that's why it goes into
• 14:42
  fight or flight when I'm on an airplane, right.
• 14:44
  So there was some of that incorporated, but that was the
• 14:46
  most challenging part. Yeah.
• 14:49
  It's that exercise, yeah. And there's some like, there's
• 14:52
  some like general structure to that one.
• 14:54
  I think it's supposed to be like wishing yourself to be happy,
• 14:57
  safe, healthy, peaceful, and then wishing that for someone
• 15:00
  else. And usually it's someone you
• 15:02
  have conflict with. It can also be people you know
• 15:05
  that you love and you just want to like spread that love for
• 15:08
  there is a ripple effect, but it's also to resolve conflict.
• 15:11
  And that's why they say it's actually really important to do
• 15:13
  for the world at large because of the amount of conflict that's
• 15:17
  in the world. But I, I've always thought that
• 15:20
  was a very beautiful form of meditation.
• 15:23
  I do feel like meditation at its root is really about like to
• 15:27
  sound like a total fucking hippie love.
• 15:32
  Like love for the self. Yeah.
• 15:34
  And it radiates outward. And realizing you're more than
• 15:39
  just, you are very much mind body, but you're also much more
• 15:43
  than that as well. And it's all based in
• 15:48
  consciousness. And a lot of spirituality
• 15:51
  teaches that consciousness is also like a form of love.
• 15:54
  So I think it's it's kind of cool to to put it all together.
• 16:00
  I think there's a lot of influence.
• 16:03
  I know that meditation and mindfulness and stuff is all
• 16:06
  kind of rooted in Buddhism, but there's a lot of Taoism involved
• 16:09
  in that in all of this as well. Very similar pillars of
• 16:13
  thinking, but I mean, to relate it back to Star Wars in in this
• 16:16
  manner is like Yoda is supposed to be like the Buddhist teacher,
• 16:19
  right to Luke, who's who's the protege, right?
• 16:22
  The the coming up, the young, the must be educated.
• 16:26
  You know, the one learning the lessons and that sort of thing.
• 16:28
  But we are all learning the lesson and mindfulness and
• 16:34
  meditation is the is the is the teacher and we are the the
• 16:39
  practicers. Yeah.
• 16:42
  Is that right, practitioners? Practitioners, yeah.
• 16:45
  We are the ones trying to learn and continually do it over and
• 16:49
  over. I mean for the sake of a three
• 16:51
  hour movie. Luke learned it pretty fast.
• 16:53
  But. But The thing is.
• 16:56
  Is that he had the force to help him.
• 16:58
  Well, yeah, the force is kind of like the embodiment of the
• 17:02
  whole. So if we, like you said with the
• 17:04
  love, it's called love, we meditate, we have love for
• 17:09
  ourselves, it ripples outward. We give it to the people that we
• 17:12
  may go in conflict with. We kind of send out the good
• 17:14
  vibes, quote UN quote. And that in tune kind of works
• 17:19
  with the force of everything. Yeah, and it even ties back to
• 17:26
  Vipassana and even like healing meditation because the persona
• 17:31
  is about like the subconscious and how you're constantly having
• 17:36
  either cravings or like some sort of emotional reaction to
• 17:41
  stimuli that happens all day long.
• 17:44
  And so you're trying to learn and understand what your
• 17:47
  subconscious is reacting to and why you like crave food or crave
• 17:51
  affection or whatever it is that you need.
• 17:54
  And if you can use love, you start to heal a lot of that
• 18:00
  stuff. So you can heal physical
• 18:03
  ailments, you can heal emotional stuff as well.
• 18:07
  You like, it's actually kind of crazy.
• 18:10
  There's a lot of research that shows meditation actually has
• 18:14
  science based impact on you. And all of that roots out of
• 18:19
  good feeling. Like not just like you have to
• 18:22
  feel good when you meditate. Feelings don't always feel good,
• 18:25
  but having that love and compassion for those feelings
• 18:29
  starts to let your body heal in scientifically measurable ways,
• 18:34
  which is pretty fucking awesome and feels like the force.
• 18:38
  It's like it does healing. It really does long long
• 18:42
  duration force healing. Yeah, exactly.
• 18:48
  I always think of the cause. A lot of this is about the self,
• 18:52
  right? And then there's the idea of the
• 18:54
  ego, which is the eye, the feeling of I or self in contact
• 19:00
  with the external world through perception.
• 19:02
  So that's like one definition of what an ego is.
• 19:05
  Now people may think like, oh, he or she has a massive ego
• 19:09
  sense of self, yes, but we all have an ego.
• 19:12
  There's that thing in us that causes the cravings or causes
• 19:16
  the emotional outbursts within ourselves like I want this or it
• 19:21
  should be this way or why isn't this like what I want it to be?
• 19:24
  That is the self, the ego speaking basically out of turn
• 19:29
  right And this I want to talk about this going back to this is
• 19:37
  I'm I'm reading this excerpt. I have notes here from the Star
• 19:40
  Wars and philosophy book. It's an amazing book by Kevin
• 19:43
  Decker and Jason Eberl. There's there's a whole chapter
• 19:48
  and explanation on the ego and the self and everything and but
• 19:52
  this is what it said. The Buddha said that he taught
• 19:54
  one thing and one thing only how to be free from suffering.
• 19:57
  Because the Buddha said that all of life is suffering or some
• 20:00
  form of suffering. And that's not meant to be
• 20:02
  depressing. It just kind of is the freedom
• 20:07
  is that in the letting go of clinging to the ego or to what
• 20:11
  the self is protesting? Doth protest too much, right?
• 20:16
  Quote with this letting go, negative emotions dissolve into
• 20:21
  nothingness when Yoda teaches Luke to know by way of being
• 20:24
  calm, at peace, and passive. This is the teaching of Tao,
• 20:28
  which I mentioned earlier. In Taoism and in the Tao of Zen,
• 20:31
  there is a practice of letting go and trying to kind of empty
• 20:36
  your mind of everything, and that goes back to meditation
• 20:39
  where you're letting it happen. You're not emptying your mind of
• 20:43
  thoughts, you're emptying your reaction to them.
• 20:46
  When you're at peace, you're letting things flow.
• 20:49
  And actually, that leads me to another note in here.
• 20:51
  It says Buddhism teaches that there is no inherently
• 20:55
  substantial self. Everything is in permanent.
• 20:58
  All is in process with everything changing, always
• 21:01
  flowing. What does that sound familiar?
• 21:04
  That sounds like some Jedi shit, right?
• 21:10
  And Luke, Luke asked Yoda, how am I to know the good side from
• 21:15
  the bad? Yoda says you will know when you
• 21:18
  are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the force for
• 21:21
  knowledge and defense, never for attack.
• 21:23
  So we've heard that before. But the the theme of peace,
• 21:27
  passivity, empty yourself of these egoist wants and desires
• 21:33
  and things that muddy the waters of peace.
• 21:38
  We're all going to have it. We all have this and we will
• 21:43
  always meditate and still have it, but it's being OK and being
• 21:49
  kind to yourself, compassionate with yourself and others.
• 21:52
  Because when you think of yourself and that you have this
• 21:55
  and you're, you're meditating to make yourself better with
• 21:59
  emotional reaction and things. Then you start to see other
• 22:03
  people like they're trying or OK, maybe they should try
• 22:06
  harder. But I have compassion because
• 22:08
  we're all in the same God damn boat.
• 22:11
  It's an inward to go outward type of thing.
• 22:14
  I'm making this really difficult and I apologize.
• 22:16
  No, I think it's 100% true. It really is because it's that
• 22:21
  whole like modern idea now of like put your, you know, if
• 22:24
  you're in an airplane, you put your air mask on first before
• 22:27
  helping someone else. It's really true.
• 22:30
  Like if you're not doing these things to care for yourself, you
• 22:34
  get drained way faster or used up a lot quicker than if you are
• 22:40
  doing it. Then you have more energy and
• 22:43
  space to give that love and compassion and hold space with
• 22:46
  other people. And I think it's it's actually
• 22:50
  one of the most valuable things people can do for themselves is
• 22:54
  to care for their spirit, whether that's through
• 22:56
  meditation or whatever it may be.
• 22:59
  But I think we both feel strongly that meditation is one
• 23:03
  of the easiest and most accessible ways to get free
• 23:09
  relief really quickly. The thing I struggle with the
• 23:13
  most, that meditation does the most for me is I struggle with,
• 23:19
  and it's very human, I have to remind myself.
• 23:21
  But I struggle with why can't things be this way right now?
• 23:29
  And the art of letting go of your need to have things be a
• 23:34
  certain way is the most immediate path to freedom.
• 23:39
  And it just doesn't happen all the time.
• 23:42
  I will meditate and still fail at it.
• 23:45
  But at least I'm aware. I'm aware that every time I say
• 23:50
  should, something should be some way, This shouldn't have gone
• 23:54
  this way. It should have been done a
• 23:55
  different way. I say it all the time at work.
• 23:57
  All I'm doing is wrestling with something that is never going to
• 24:01
  be. It's like a girl, Louise Hay
• 24:04
  says, says who should says who. Yes, exactly who who proclaimed
• 24:11
  that It should be me, My ego, that's who.
• 24:14
  I need to chill. Louise Hay, by the way, she's
• 24:18
  like, she's the OG in all of this.
• 24:23
  And back in the day, Lauren exposed me to Louise Hay.
• 24:28
  She's she's passed now, but her legacy lives on.
• 24:32
  She was aware of these things long before many people ever.
• 24:38
  And it's so funny, if you go on YouTube and you look her up, it
• 24:41
  always has like weird music in the background 'cause she's kind
• 24:44
  of old timey. Yeah.
• 24:47
  OK, so beware. But if you watch her live stuff.
• 24:50
  You'll see she. Like Brooks, no fools.
• 24:54
  She's a woman who has this very sweet, like, grandmotherly voice
• 24:59
  and then like, she'll be like, 'cause you want to cross your
• 25:01
  arms. I don't like your energy.
• 25:03
  You know she. Whoa, she is, she has a well, a
• 25:09
  lot of this is what what what do you call it when we do the thing
• 25:12
  like I am the I am meditations when you.
• 25:15
  Affirmation. Affirmations.
• 25:17
  Thank you. Those are the hardest things for
• 25:18
  me to do, literally the hardest things for me to do.
• 25:22
  But Louise Hay has one on YouTube about your different
• 25:26
  body, the different parts of your body.
• 25:28
  You and I have both done it. That shit works.
• 25:32
  If I do that one I feel so much better about myself.
• 25:37
  Image my weight, my ham Hock thighs, my terrible, my Gherkin
• 25:45
  toes. Like everything.
• 25:48
  Yeah. I know I'm going.
• 25:51
  You gotta do this tonight. I do have to do it tonight, but
• 25:55
  that one really does work despite what I just said.
• 26:00
  Well, part of what I like about affirmations are hard for me
• 26:03
  too, but part of what I like about them.
• 26:06
  And she loves to make you do them in a mirror.
• 26:09
  Oh yeah, no, that's must be really effective.
• 26:11
  I can't do it. And like, if you feel
• 26:13
  uncomfortable or if there's like a body part, you're like, I
• 26:16
  don't really want to talk about it.
• 26:18
  That's the one you're supposed to focus.
• 26:19
  On yes, yes it is. And in fact, as I sit here
• 26:23
  telling you, I don't like looking at myself in the mirror
• 26:25
  and doing like affirmations. That means I need to do them
• 26:28
  more. Right.
• 26:29
  Like it's a sign that it's just like working out.
• 26:32
  If you're like, I don't feel like doing squats, it's like
• 26:35
  that's probably the thing you need to do that.
• 26:37
  Never skip leg day. Never.
• 26:40
  It's leg day, bitch. Say that before you go into
• 26:46
  meditation. It's meditation day, bitch.
• 26:51
  You've already settled your ego right there.
• 26:53
  There will be no talking back from your ego.
• 26:56
  And you'll go into it with a oh, we should talk about intentions
• 26:59
  because we, we, we mentioned this.
• 27:00
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:02
  So the Sith, OK, I'm bouncing in between like real life and then
• 27:06
  Jedi and Sith, but. That's good.
• 27:09
  That's how our lives really are. Ours just overlaps into.
• 27:13
  You know what's? Funny, this entire chapter talks
• 27:17
  about the balance, the Ying and the Yang, Anakin's two sides,
• 27:21
  Luke's struggle, if you will, the whole thing.
• 27:25
  The fact that Han Solo didn't believe in the force.
• 27:28
  He was a one man show. And then he came around.
• 27:32
  He, he, you know, the word Solo got thrown out.
• 27:34
  He found a family, he found the force, the whole thing.
• 27:36
  This is all in this book, I'm telling you.
• 27:38
  Go get it. Anyway, what were we talking
• 27:42
  about? Oh, the intention, I'm probably
• 27:45
  not going to be able to find it 'cause there's so much in here.
• 27:47
  But it does say it references the Sith and how they would
• 27:50
  meditate. They would go in to meditate,
• 27:52
  not to their think of the code. Let's go with the Sith code,
• 27:56
  right? And then think of the Jedi code.
• 28:00
  If you're meditating like a Jedi, you're going to clear
• 28:03
  yourself of any unwanted reactions, thoughts, emotions.
• 28:06
  You're going to go into battle with a clear mind, you know,
• 28:09
  ready for anything. You're going to take what is,
• 28:13
  let go, let the river flow, etcetera.
• 28:15
  The Sith are going in to reaffirm I am powerful.
• 28:21
  I am, I am the best. Let the evil flow through me.
• 28:26
  And they're doing it to increase their power.
• 28:28
  But their intention is not the outward love that we talked
• 28:33
  about, not to let the Force flow through them, to be in harmony
• 28:37
  with things and to have a clear mind.
• 28:41
  They literally are reaffirming over and over and over all the
• 28:45
  negative stuff that's in their code so that they can go wield
• 28:48
  an A weapon of destruction. Yes, they're like self
• 28:52
  provoking. Yeah, yeah, that's the better
• 28:55
  way of putting it. They're like gassing themselves
• 28:57
  up. Yeah, focusing on the things
• 29:00
  that hurt and that make them angry and what?
• 29:03
  The fuck no stop. It's essentially clouding their
• 29:09
  mind. They're putting all of this bad
• 29:12
  murky stuff in their brain, which is what they feed off of.
• 29:16
  But if you think a good old Obi Wan Kenobi and how when he got
• 29:20
  flustered in battles, which was very, very rare, he floundered,
• 29:26
  he was sloppy. And that's why I think a better
• 29:31
  fighter goes in fully meditated, cool with oneself, calm
• 29:36
  together, one with everything, and you know who you are in that
• 29:41
  moment and what your purpose is. The Sith drama Queens to the
• 29:46
  very end. I just think if you go in with
• 29:52
  anger, it's not a great way to start anything.
• 29:55
  Just isn't. No.
• 29:57
  If you're angry and then you meditate to understand your
• 30:02
  anger, to let it pass through you, to let it have its place in
• 30:07
  you and then let it go. Totally different.
• 30:10
  Totally different. Yeah, and think of like Qui Gon
• 30:14
  right before he died 100% and he he kneels down and it's not like
• 30:19
  getting, you know, straight and centered so that I succeed.
• 30:23
  It's more so that you're passive in case you die.
• 30:26
  Like I think that Moll is a great counterexample of that to
• 30:32
  be cut in half and use his rage to stay alive no matter what in
• 30:37
  a dumpster for. Like 15.
• 30:40
  Years. This is so true.
• 30:45
  And like, Qui Gon just met his death in the middle of something
• 30:49
  like knowing that he was like he had found the chosen 1 and was
• 30:52
  gonna train and like had to still let go of that and was
• 30:55
  still you could see him make peace with that.
• 30:57
  It's just all part of it and he knew that.
• 31:00
  He knew that this is how things are supposed to go.
• 31:04
  Didn't turn out the way he wanted, but he had full
• 31:06
  confidence in Obi Wan. He was at peace.
• 31:10
  To be at peace is all we want, right?
• 31:15
  Unless you're safe. Well think it like Vader has his
• 31:19
  meditation chamber with all no he's going in there to think
• 31:23
  about pad man obsessive about Obi Wan and all that did was
• 31:26
  torment him his entire life. Yes, yes, your.
• 31:31
  Focus determines your reality. 100% you're.
• 31:34
  Focused on pain? Your life will be pain.
• 31:37
  That's it. Now, if you go in and you're
• 31:40
  pained about something and you meditate on it and you let it
• 31:43
  go, yeah, then you've achieved some inkling of peace.
• 31:49
  We're never, ever, ever going to be at peace.
• 31:52
  Ever. 100% never. But we're OK with that, see,
• 31:57
  because of meditation, because it's just the human existence is
• 32:04
  falling down, getting up, falling down, getting up,
• 32:06
  tripping, getting up, falling, getting up, tripping, falling,
• 32:10
  then getting back up. It's a combination, all of this
• 32:15
  just constant. You and I talk about it in our
• 32:18
  personal lives like. Yeah.
• 32:20
  Meditation in any way that it comes to you, I believe provides
• 32:26
  a little bit of peace from that, a little reprieve and a little
• 32:30
  bit of self understanding of it and what we're going through.
• 32:33
  Because if we're going through something, don't we at least
• 32:35
  want to make some sense of it? That's human nature.
• 32:38
  Yeah, absolutely. That's why the Buddha did.
• 32:42
  What he did? He learned of all the pain in
• 32:45
  life and couldn't come to terms with it.
• 32:48
  And like, I think didn't he, like, go off into the wild?
• 32:51
  And he said, oh, yeah, Tree. The whole foundation of Buddhism
• 32:54
  is to find a way to come to terms with and find peace with
• 33:00
  the pain 'cause that's inevitable.
• 33:03
  You know, what is it? The four suffering?
• 33:06
  It's like birth, death. I can't remember all of them
• 33:09
  right now, but. The four pillars of suffering.
• 33:12
  I have a whole book on that too. Yeah, I mean, and and Buddha was
• 33:16
  like, what? You know, when before he was
• 33:18
  Buddha, when he was just a Prince, he was saying like what,
• 33:20
  you know, why does this exist? Why do humans have to feel this?
• 33:24
  And we have to find out what, because it's going to happen.
• 33:27
  You have to find a way to go moment to moment, even sometimes
• 33:33
  even just break it down a little.
• 33:35
  Bite sized pieces, even if just for 20 minutes while you
• 33:38
  meditate, you feel calm. That's 20 minutes of calm you
• 33:41
  weren't going to have otherwise. Yeah, I, I take breaks at work.
• 33:46
  I'll go outside the office and sit and just watch some birds
• 33:51
  and it's all I usually need to separate myself from whatever
• 33:54
  was revving me up. Yeah.
• 33:57
  And I realized, man, it's just a blip.
• 33:59
  It's just a blip on the radar. It's just, you mentioned the
• 34:02
  pillars of suffering. Well, in in this here book, Star
• 34:08
  Wars and philosophy tell you it has everything it says.
• 34:11
  According to Buddhist psychology, there are three
• 34:13
  poisons which produce suffering, attraction, repulsion, and
• 34:19
  ignorance. Now in the following paragraphs
• 34:22
  they go on to describe Anakin Skywalker 'cause he he had the
• 34:28
  affliction of all three, attraction, repulsion, repulsion
• 34:31
  and ignorance. Attraction includes the desire
• 34:34
  to have or possessiveness, which obvious right Anakin's excessive
• 34:40
  clinging to everybody and everything.
• 34:43
  He has an ego centered drive to be strong despite his own
• 34:46
  weaknesses and to never show that weakness because he's
• 34:49
  repulsed by his weakness. Which, right, that's what that's
• 34:56
  what Palpatine played off of. And yeah, I mean, he even says
• 35:01
  the Emperor says use your aggressive feelings, boy, let
• 35:03
  the hate float through you. He's repulsed that it took him
• 35:07
  that long to knock down Dooku, even though it was Palpatine's
• 35:11
  own doing the entire time. And then it says here both
• 35:15
  attraction and repulsion are rooted in ignorance, which is
• 35:18
  the illusion of being an isolated individual ego.
• 35:21
  And that's where it says Buddhism.
• 35:24
  Nothing is in isolation from the whole of this ever changing
• 35:28
  process. Obi Wan sense says the force
• 35:31
  binds the Galaxy together. And it's interesting to note
• 35:34
  that the one hero character who explicit explicitly professes to
• 35:38
  not believe in the Force is named Han.
• 35:40
  Quote Solo, derived from the Latin term alone.
• 35:44
  Who then sounds full circle. Yeah, right.
• 35:47
  I love it. This is one of the many reasons
• 35:50
  Star Wars is awesome. Exactly.
• 35:53
  When one is constricted by one's ego, the emotions characteristic
• 35:57
  of the dark side are generated. When Yoda says for Luke to be
• 36:01
  passive, he does not intend for Luke to become inactive.
• 36:04
  For the forces ever in motion, like water flowing in a river,
• 36:08
  passively in action without effort.
• 36:10
  I think that's important because that goes along with, well, does
• 36:13
  meditation mean you're not having any thoughts?
• 36:16
  That's impossible. No, it's about passively letting
• 36:19
  them exist and not clinging to any of them like Anakin so
• 36:23
  desperately clung to your beautiful point you made in some
• 36:27
  episode at some point when you said Luke was ready to die when
• 36:32
  he went into the throne room with Vader and and Sidious,
• 36:36
  right? He had already cleared it with
• 36:38
  himself. I'm OK, I have a goal.
• 36:41
  I'm at peace with this and whatever happens, happens.
• 36:45
  But I'm going in there to right the wrongs, bring balance, you
• 36:49
  know? Try and save his father.
• 36:51
  Yeah, do the whole love thing, which works.
• 36:54
  Right. Love conquers all.
• 36:59
  Oh my God, it's called love. It's what?
• 37:02
  It's what me and my friends always say.
• 37:04
  It's called love. I don't know, it's a difficult
• 37:07
  subject, but it's it's also quite simple.
• 37:11
  I think as humans we tend to overcomplicate it.
• 37:13
  Yeah. And I think, I think with a
• 37:15
  meditation practice, it's very common to start very simply,
• 37:19
  like don't put pressure on yourself to like feel the
• 37:22
  universe. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 37:24
  Like start simply, I mean it can be you could use meditation for
• 37:30
  spiritual practice. You can use it for health and
• 37:34
  healing law of attraction. You can.
• 37:37
  You can even use it to like unblock creativity and like open
• 37:40
  up flow. Oh, there's writing meditation
• 37:43
  too. Oh yeah, and walking meditation
• 37:46
  as well. You do that right?
• 37:49
  I do. I haven't been able to lately.
• 37:51
  Oh yes, right. But but still you have in the
• 37:54
  past, yes? Yeah.
• 37:55
  And like there's even a technique like if you want to
• 37:58
  use, I think it's a Buddhist technique of walking a very
• 38:01
  specific way. And they actually, I don't know
• 38:04
  if it's Zen Buddhism or or if it's a specific kind of
• 38:07
  Buddhism, but they even suggest doing your walking meditation
• 38:11
  first to start this like flow of blood and everything and start
• 38:17
  getting your chakras kind of warmed up.
• 38:19
  And then you go and sit in meditation after that and you'll
• 38:22
  feel like your vibration a little bit more.
• 38:25
  And I have done that. And it is true, especially on a
• 38:29
  cold winter day. Oh, yes, yes.
• 38:33
  You come back inside and you meditate.
• 38:34
  You can like leave your body. Damn.
• 38:39
  Yeah. Wow.
• 38:41
  I've had feelings, I, I will admit when I'm meditating of
• 38:45
  like floating around inside my body, never like detached from
• 38:49
  it, but. I haven't had this interesting,
• 38:51
  but I know that's a thing. It feels so good.
• 38:54
  Yeah. It's just kind of like a I'm
• 38:56
  still in my body, but I'm like not firmly rooted into the
• 39:00
  physical part of it, which sounds crazy, but it's really
• 39:03
  true. I did want to talk about
• 39:04
  something really quick too, just the like scientific benefits of
• 39:08
  meditation, just so that. Yes, please.
• 39:10
  We love science here. Even just as simple as like body
• 39:14
  scans, right? Or like progressive muscle
• 39:17
  relaxation, it can reduce your stress, it regulates your
• 39:21
  heartbeat, it can regulate your nervous system, which in turn
• 39:24
  will like help balance your digestion.
• 39:28
  It can relax obviously your muscles, it can help you sleep
• 39:32
  and it can open your mind body connection.
• 39:34
  But then like they have shown in studies that doing meditation
• 39:38
  will actually increase neuroplasticity, especially in
• 39:42
  like the right hippocampus. So they were saying it there's
• 39:45
  possible benefits to people with like Alzheimer's or preventing
• 39:49
  dementia by doing meditation increases brain health because
• 39:53
  you are being mindful and controlling of thoughts.
• 39:58
  And, and even with mindfulness, when you're kind of letting
• 40:02
  stuff come up, you know your mind will wander.
• 40:06
  And you gently bring it back into focus.
• 40:09
  And that activity is what creates neuroplasticity, which
• 40:13
  is pretty fucking awesome. It's incredible, it truly is.
• 40:18
  The mind is really powerful if we let it.
• 40:21
  It is like and and the gut is like the other place where you
• 40:25
  have like just, is it more nerve endings than your brain
• 40:29
  something It's like your second brain, they say.
• 40:31
  Well, there's a, there's a the doesn't the vagus nerve kind of
• 40:36
  end or originate somewhere near your intestines?
• 40:40
  Yeah, it goes from your spinal cord.
• 40:43
  I. Your Am I thinking of the right
• 40:45
  thing? Yeah, the vagal nerve is the one
• 40:46
  that goes all the way through your center.
• 40:48
  Yeah. And it can affect your
• 40:49
  digestion, your heartbeat, all sorts of stuff.
• 40:52
  Yeah. Yeah, Yep.
• 40:53
  Digestion, heart rate and immune system.
• 40:56
  Three very important things. Yeah, and I've done vagal nerve
• 40:59
  meditation where you picture your breath going up and down
• 41:02
  it. Yes.
• 41:03
  Yes, it it really helps. It can help with things like
• 41:07
  even indigestion. Holy cow, it.
• 41:10
  I mean I just, I just did a quick Google search and it's a
• 41:13
  link to everything. It is.
• 41:16
  It's your. It's basically like kind of
• 41:18
  where your chakras sit. Yeah, I love chakra stuff.
• 41:22
  I do too. You know I do.
• 41:25
  Yes. Whether or not you believe in
• 41:28
  chakras, even where those are supposed to sit in your body,
• 41:31
  they're always an essential spot.
• 41:34
  And they've shown that if you use your mind to bring awareness
• 41:37
  to a body part, like if you focus on your fingertips and you
• 41:40
  can make them tingle, it's partially because you're
• 41:41
  bringing increased blood flow there.
• 41:43
  Yes, yes. So that is how you can heal.
• 41:47
  You increase blood flow, you increase increase endocrine
• 41:52
  movement as well. Like it's actually pretty
• 41:54
  amazing. You look disgusted.
• 41:56
  Well, I looked up, I said big nerve near intestines and it's
• 42:01
  the vagus. But do you know what it's
• 42:03
  called? No, the vagus trunk.
• 42:08
  And I hate that. I hate that term.
• 42:15
  Anyway, that's. Funny.
• 42:17
  Well, how do you feel now? Centered.
• 42:22
  Yeah, I feel like I want to go meditate now.
• 42:24
  And very human, because this is just a lesson in being human and
• 42:29
  really being OK with it. Like I said, you can use it
• 42:34
  however you want, but if you start exploring it, find
• 42:38
  something that works for you or that just fascinates you and
• 42:40
  just try and find a nice YouTube video that really clicks with
• 42:44
  you and then you can fire that YouTube video if you don't like
• 42:46
  it. You absolutely can, although
• 42:49
  YouTube has this new thing if you're not a YouTube prime
• 42:53
  member. All meditations and like
• 42:56
  ambiances and ASM Rs and all these things in this similar
• 42:59
  realm now have like commercial interruptions in them.
• 43:05
  Oh, that's awful. Yeah, and people are really,
• 43:07
  really, really complaining about it.
• 43:09
  So just a warning, if you're going into it and you fall
• 43:13
  asleep, it might wake you up, which is.
• 43:17
  I get an ad at the end of some of mine that scare the shit out
• 43:20
  of me. Yeah, so, you know, just test
• 43:23
  them out first. I have a YouTube prime because
• 43:29
  YouTube is one of the only things I watch.
• 43:30
  I use it for meditations every damn night so I just pay for it
• 43:34
  but. There's other stuff too, like
• 43:36
  there's the Calm app, Oh, there's.
• 43:39
  My favorite app is Insight Timer, which allows you to set a
• 43:43
  timer by yourself to do your own meditation or there is a host,
• 43:48
  and I mean a host of free excellent meditations with and
• 43:52
  without music, voices, the whole 9.
• 43:56
  And you can, it's, it's a free app.
• 43:58
  So I mean, if there's paid stuff on there, but it's the majority
• 44:01
  of it is free. That's awesome.
• 44:03
  Yeah, and the call map and then there's there's so many, there's
• 44:07
  so many. Now you.
• 44:08
  Probably find stuff for free on Spotify even at this. .0 yeah,
• 44:11
  they do, they do do stuff on there, yeah, yeah.
• 44:15
  Well, and speaking, we're going to do some stuff too, actually.
• 44:18
  Yes, actually we are. Thanks for reminding me.
• 44:22
  Well, because this is such an important part of our lives and
• 44:26
  we know we have some followers, that it's part of their lives as
• 44:30
  well. And we've talked to them about
• 44:31
  it. Like we've decided we're going
• 44:34
  to start doing something monthly with our patrons and it's going
• 44:37
  to be different every month. We haven't really made a hard
• 44:41
  and fast rule about what we're sharing, but we're going to
• 44:45
  share something each month with our patrons.
• 44:48
  And it's going to be, what do we call it, Leanne?
• 44:50
  Mindfulness with MTK. There you go.
• 44:54
  So. We're going to just record some
• 44:56
  kind of topic on on meditation, mindfulness, maybe Star Wars
• 45:01
  related, may not be, may be totally personal.
• 45:03
  And we might share resources like if we don't do a recording,
• 45:06
  we'll share like what meditation we've been using.
• 45:09
  And I have been trying to consistently make meditations.
• 45:13
  I've only been able to make 2 but I'm working on more it's.
• 45:18
  Awesome. I think it's cool that you do
• 45:20
  that. It's really fun, I really like
• 45:22
  it, I just wish I could set aside more time because the
• 45:24
  editing part takes forever because I'm like building a
• 45:26
  soundscape for it. Right, right, right.
• 45:29
  Yeah, if you guys are interested in any of that, consider
• 45:33
  supporting us on Patreon. I mean, it's we have tiers as
• 45:36
  low as what, $3 I think. So it's.
• 45:38
  Yeah, yeah. And we just thought it benefits
• 45:41
  us, we'd like to pay that forward and benefit our friends
• 45:44
  and supporters as well, so. We're trying to spread that love
• 45:48
  outward in a ripple effect. Plus it's kind of fun to talk
• 45:51
  about and it's very force like. It is it kind of feel like a
• 45:55
  Jedi. You kind of do.
• 45:57
  I mean for for what it's worth, it may be the only time I'm like
• 46:02
  one next step lightsaber, but that's never going to happen.
• 46:10
  Oh man, I wouldn't that be cool. We'll start with meditations,
• 46:12
  and then we'll lead to teaching you how to unwield.
• 46:15
  A yeah, right. I wish.
• 46:18
  I wish. Someday.
• 46:26
  So next week we are going to talk about the Jedi again, but
• 46:30
  in a different capacity. We're going to talk about
• 46:32
  examples of the Jedi trials and what we know, what we can
• 46:38
  theorize based on some characters.
• 46:41
  We have examples already, but we're going to deep dive into
• 46:44
  kind of maybe the Old Republic all the way up to what we know
• 46:48
  now to, you know, characters such as Canaan and Ahsoka, most
• 46:52
  recently in the long line of Jedi.
• 46:55
  So join us back here next week for the trials.
• 46:59
  Thank you so much for joining us here on the Most Things Kenobi
• 47:02
  podcast. We appreciate every single one
• 47:04
  of our patrons and are grateful for your support.
• 47:07
  If you'd like to support the podcast and become a patron as
• 47:10
  well, head over to The Most Things Kenobi Patreon.
• 47:13
  As always, you can follow us on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and
• 47:16
  YouTube, and don't forget to subscribe on your favorite
• 47:19
  podcast player. If you enjoy our podcast, feel
• 47:21
  free to rate US on Spotify and Apple.
• 47:24
  And if you need just one place to find all of these, head over
• 47:27
  to Most Things kenobi.com. So until next time, Myspace
• 47:31
  Twin, may the Force be with you. Always.