Latest / Conversations with Amoda Maa - Exploring Awareness Through Dialogue and Living Inquiry / Episode 52: Is Community Important on the Spiritual Path?

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Episode 52: Is Community Important on the Spiritual Path? · Conversations with Amoda Maa - Exploring Awareness Through Dialogue and Living Inquiry

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  Greetings everyone and welcome back to another Conversations with Amoda Maa podcast.
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  It's been a while since we've done a podcast but here we are again.
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  What we're going to do today is explore the nature of community in spirituality.
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  And the reason, part of the reason we're offering this conversation is in light of our new offering
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  of from the Amoda Maa teachings, which is a community membership, which has been really quite a long time
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  in gestation and just in the last, I would say, three or four weeks or so, we've actually launched
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  it and the response has been really quite interesting and quite favourable and quite a lot of people
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  have jumped on, you know, and it was encouraging in a sense because it made us realise the value of
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  community in spirituality and so we're very encouraged to kind of talk about it and it's
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  in light of that really to actually talk broadly and somewhat specifically at some point about
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  what we're offering, but also to talk about the value and what community means in a way
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  in the spiritual world. So having said that, I'll say hello to a Amoda, greetings Amoda.
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  Hello, Kavi. And I mean, if you're ready, I think we're just going to launch into some
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  questions that I've got that are going to hopefully open up this conversation a little bit. So
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  let me ask you, first of all, what moved you? What's the motive? What's the inspiration? What's the
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  fire that that moved you and us. And we've been talking about this for really quite a long time.
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  And a couple of years, I think it's been in the gestation, in the hatching. And now it's appeared
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  what moved you to offer us to offer this online community membership and in many ways why now?
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  I think it formed as a possibility, and perhaps I would say more than a possibility, a necessity.
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  From the, was it three, four months, they were originally four month online programs that we
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  offered that started during the time of the pandemic and we all went online and we felt that
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  offering something on a weekly basis was supportive to those who were seeking peace and freedom and
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  truth in a turbulent world. And so we had the four month program and we offered that two or three,
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  I think it was three years in a row, perhaps even four years consecutively.
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  And what we found from that was there was such a yearning to continue in that field,
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  if you like, a sort of community formed itself.
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  And we didn't have anything to follow up with other than our usual teaching schedule.
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  And every year it was like, well, this wants to continue.
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  So rather than running a year-long program, which was also possible, this seed of an idea
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  came, how can we keep on supporting individuals on this journey?
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  And that's how the sort of community, the idea of a community membership formed itself,
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  It has taken a couple of years to really come together.
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  And now is the right time.
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  It just feels the right time.
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  It feels that we're ready on all sorts of levels.
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  It's quite an undertaking and it's a commitment for everybody.
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  And it just feels absolutely the right time.
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  I should also say that the right time has also revealed itself, not just from the
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  online work that we do, but from the in-person work that we do, it became glaringly obvious
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  at our recent in-person seven-day retreat that community is what people wanted.
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  In other words, to keep on, or at least having the possibility to meet each other, not just
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  at the retreat, but ongoing. Bonds were made, friendships were made, and trust, honest expression,
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  authentic expression, in a way that may not be available in other areas of life. And so the
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  community meeting twice a month, and there's more to it than that, which we'll talk about,
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  really spoke to everyone. So there was a deep thirst for it. So it feels absolutely the right time.
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  Yeah, I hear, I agree. And actually, I think actually in many ways, right now is the right time.
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  I'd like to ask you actually and to talk a little bit about what the
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  The structure is, let's just cut to the, you know, what is actually on offer?
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  I know I'm going to ask you how it differs from the online programs that we offer.
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  You know, but what is it specifically that we're doing, you know, that we're offering
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  in this membership?
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  You mentioned, you said, about two meetings per month, I think you said.
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  So let's just talk a little bit about those.
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  Why those are of value?
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  Yes, yes.
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  Two meetings a month.
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  The first meeting is essentially a teaching meeting
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  if you like, where I offer a discourse
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  on a specific topic,
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  a simple silent meditation.
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  And then,
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  as usual on our programs and teachings,
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  ample time for questions, answers, inquiry and so on.
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  And in some ways that is similar
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  to our public meetings online,
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  but those don't take place very frequently,
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  they take place three or four times a year
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  and are open to everyone who wishes to join.
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  but in the membership, so this was ongoing, so it's monthly.
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  So for a start, that gives a teaching
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  on a monthly regular basis,
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  and the topics that are offered are not preset,
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  so we don't have a series of themes,
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  it's not linear that we're taking people through stages,
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  it really is spontaneous,
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  And mostly arises out of the listening that takes place
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  when we have the question answer sessions, the inquiry sessions,
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  and really feeling what themes are emerging that ask for
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  exploration, deeper exploration.
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  So that's the first monthly meeting that takes place.
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  Um, remembering on some level that many of the members at least so far are individuals
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  who've already worked with us, although that's not necessarily the case, but everyone's
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  familiar to some degree with our teaching.
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  So there is a bit of a foundation there so we can actually explore topics perhaps on
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  a deeper level or a broader level and so on.
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  So that's the first meeting.
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  And then the second meeting, which is the compliment,
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  is the meeting that you lead, Kathy, which
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  we call an integration meeting.
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  Because it's both of us that are really offering this.
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  People have come to know both of us and how that works.
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  And we call that the integration meeting.
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  Perhaps you can say more about that.
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  Yeah.
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  very very gladly indeed because actually when we when I realized you know what the benefit of the
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  second meeting was as a compliment to the first meeting I actually got quite excited about the
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  possibility of this you know because we realized that the integration and embodiment you know is
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  is the ongoing path. The teaching comes really from Amoda through Amoda. She's the light,
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  the light, if you like. You know the fire that kind of brings the message, the clarity of the
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  teaching. And then in the second meeting, the integration and the embodied meeting,
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  we get the chance really, and I facilitate the community to really in some ways unpack
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  some of that. Where does the teaching live inside the human experience? Where does it show up? Where
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  are the problems? Where are the issues? As greater extent as time allows, each of these sessions is
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  two hours. We start with a deep meditation for 30 minutes to actually allow all of this to enter
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  the field into the body into the whole experience and then we kind of dialogue and i hear from people
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  and we talk about what the issues are, well it shows up in relationship or i'm having this kind of
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  issue and it's not psychology but it is the opportunity for me to facilitate that deeper
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  kind of integration and that we've done one so far so we're new at it, it's fresh in a
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  sense, but I think this brings out, I like it because it brings out my strength, which
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  is to meet people down on the ground level where it really hits the road. That's the
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  for want of a better expression. The first one was really beautiful, a beautiful meeting,
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  and I think it will provide this ongoing opportunity to really feel viscerally as a felt sense.
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  Where does the wisdom of what we're taking in meet us in real life, in daily life?
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  So that's the most of the meeting.
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  But I'll also just mention the idea that we've got, which is not an idea anymore, that at
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  the end of the second integration meeting, we're going to offer some breakout groups,
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  community breakout groups where groups of four, maybe five probably four, people can
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  meet each other.
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  That's it, really.
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  That's where it goes.
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  won't be there, Amoda won't be there and it's the opportunity for people to kind of facilitate
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  what can be called friendship. Yeah, what can be called friendship? And so, you know, there's no
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  agenda, there's no nothing. It's kind of free form. So for 30, 40 minutes, we're going to open that up
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  and people can speak with each other about what's going on in their lives. And actually,
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  you know, from the experience that we've had, particularly from the live retreat,
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  that actually people were doing that and have been doing that anyway.
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  They're doing that. So part of the community offering is to kind of bring that to consciousness,
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  to facilitate it in awareness and to allow it to happen. And that's the kind of nuts and bolts,
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  if you like, of the second session. Yes. Well, I think you've said it all in the sense that
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  That's why this community platform, this community membership,
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  supports those who have been touched by our teachings. And at the retreats, there are a lot of
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  insights, a lot of openings, profound openings. And then, yes, of course, you go back home and
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  stuff happens or relationship or work or whatever. So the need for that integration,
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  the need to have somewhere where one can share one's experience of what it's like in the everyday
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  life to explore not just with us but with each other was so much wanted. That's what I meant
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  by the first for it really revealed itself. And so where does one go? Does one wait for the next
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  retreat? No, here it is. And this was very valuable. And certainly the friendship pods
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  kind of emerged themselves. We didn't really know how that was going to be. But people were
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  yearning to connect with each other in a way that was safe, that was sacred, that was honest.
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  So it's providing a new, if you like, paradigm or frequency field for meeting each other.
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  So this is really what's happening and I'm sure it will grow and evolve as time goes on.
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  It was just to kind of wind that bit up. At the beginning of the meditation of this integration
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  meeting that we had that I realized that there's a hunger and a thirst and a need for momentum
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  and continuity because it's certainly in my experience, momentum on the spiritual path is
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  invaluable because as you spoke to, what happens is the awareness, the connection, the insight,
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  the freedom, the taste and everything that happens either in an online meeting or most
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  definitely in the live experiences. And then it's the very nature of the conditioned self,
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  if you like to go back into the life that is causing a lot of the problems in the first place.
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  and with all the grace and with all of the insight, it doesn't necessarily happen, but life is a
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  habit of coming up and, you know, and seemingly derailing people or compromising it, or, you know,
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  they always happen to get and I'm back. And so there's a need for a kind of momentum to keep the
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  breakthrough alive, just to keep it alive, to keep the inquiry, to keep the longing alive.
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  And that's the continuity, continuity and momentum go together to me with integration and embodiment.
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  You know, I speak about the gradual path a lot, you know, and this is the facilitation
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  of that gradual path. And you know, that's why I like it. That's why I've got it.
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  That's it, that's it. And that's why it's called the field of love. Because with that continuity,
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  with that momentum, there is a frequency change that takes place. We can have that frequency shift
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  during a retreat, very powerfully, very potently. And when I say frequency shift, I mean simply
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  the shift from the ego identity, the separate self, to the knowing of unbounded consciousness,
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  unbounded awareness as true nature. And that that can happen very powerfully. And it can be seen
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  and recognized and it may last a while. And then as you say, you go back into life and very often
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  the habitual ways, the old programming, the victim identity or whatever it might be that's
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  a part of the me identity comes up again. And then there's a sense there's something missing
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  and how can I get back to that state? So the frequency shift needs, and that's why I said
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  it's a necessity, it needs to be supported, it needs to be maintained, and the world,
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  as we experience it on a conventional level, does not support that necessarily, or certainly
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  doesn't in most cases. So where do we go for that? So here it is, this is a frequency field
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  where we meet each other not from the divided state, not from the unexamined, unconscious state,
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  but from that deep knowing of the oneness of being. And yet within that, there is an honest
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  exploration of what the challenges are, what emotions come up, what triggers come up and
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  all of that, which is part of the integration process. So it's a field of love that doesn't
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  mean that everyone has to agree on their ideologies and so on, but the deeper agreement, if you like,
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  and it's not an agreement, it's a connectedness that is always here, is on the level of beingness.
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  And that has honesty in it, openness, presence, listening, just being with, it's an unconditional
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  space, it's unconditional. And that's very different frequency to what's been
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  available to most of us in the family situation or in any other aspects of the world.
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  So it is very potent in that sense.
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  I, the kind of adding to what you said as well, you know, the one thing that one can see is
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  facilitating these meetings and speaking with many people is that actually the spiritual
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  journey can be really for many people quite a lonely journey. It can actually isolate one
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  quite a lot. You suddenly find that you're asking deeper questions, you're unpacking,
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  unveiling the social matrix within oneself and you start becoming somewhat alienated from friends,
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  from family, from the whole of the matrix can start to appear like a bit of a problem.
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  We have experienced this, people saying, "I'm lonely, I'm on this path and I don't know what to do
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  because I actually can't speak to anybody very much about it. This is an issue on the path.
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  And whilst we can't meet in physical presence all of the time, because we're located in different
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  parts of this big world, this actually does offer, I mean, I'm in Sangha in general, online Sangha,
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  in general, does not specific necessarily to us. And I do want to talk about what role
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  it plays role sang a plays in this but this is speaking very much to what a relief it is and we've
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  seen that already what a relief it is to to at least dissolve that a little bit of this i'm on my own
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  because we are alone but we're alone together that's a point worth making and because we kind of
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  named it the field of love. You know, we've declared it quite, quite honestly and openly.
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  You know, we're holding this frequency and we're holding this frequency and the love vibration.
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  That means we're not going to play any fancy tricks. There's nothing real. It's very authentic.
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  It's very real. So if we can meet each other in that reality, you know, then it supports the journey.
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  Yes, absolutely. I think Sangha and community, whether it's in the ashram or
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  whatever form it takes, has been very much a part of the traditional spiritual path,
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  whether it's Buddhism or anything else really, any other...
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  Not modality, but philosophy, ideology and so on.
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  There has been a lot of abuse of that over the years, abuse of power and control, holding
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  on to people through control so that people don't feel free to leave and feel like they
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  get all that kind of stuff.
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  And so this isn't, we have to be careful, not we, we, you know, the idea of community
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  must not be abused.
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  It's not about forming some kind of clique, or that's what I mean by not, we don't all
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  have to agree because that's a kind of ideological, straight jacket that we all believe the same
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  principles and we all have to behave a certain way and I live my life in this certain way and I
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  can't go anywhere else or follow anything else or discover for myself this is certainly not what's
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  going on here, but having a place, a safe and open place for that support when it's
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  needed for that exploration, for that possibility of friendship on a deeper level, is part of
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  spiritual path because the world is built on the matrix. As you said, the social matrix,
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  the family matrix, the educational matrix, the cultural matrix, the religious matrix,
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  which is based on codependency and power and so on and separation. And so there has to
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  be a place that we can go to that is not that. And within that there's no control, there's
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  no, yeah, there's the request for kindness and courteousness, yeah, and things like that.
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  But otherwise, and it's not about how to live your life, what you should do and what
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  you shouldn't do, but it is about a deep exploration of how truth is lived in each of us, how it wants to move, and so on.
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  So there is a value in that.
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  on a personal level, I was never part of any spiritual group or community. And yet, I was
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  deeply touched and would say I still am by the very broad community of Osho. I did spend
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  time in India at the ashram. I don't think it was called an ashram but
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  and found a level of authenticity and deep self-exploration that wasn't available to me
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  anywhere else. And even though I, you know, it's not a place where you can live forever,
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  it's a place that you immerse yourself in for a while. And then living alone in various
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  way in the cities, that frequency, if you like, remained with me. And I still feel very connected
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  to it without being involved in any way. So I think that that template, if you like,
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  was very valuable to know and to feel and to meet others who are on a similar path and
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  And yet totally unique, yeah, totally unique, allowed a great ground that wasn't available
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  in the, let's say conventional world.
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  Let me ask you a little bit more about that.
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  really about that, but about you. Because essentially, what we're doing is, this is called the
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  Emodomar Foundation, the Emodomar teachings. If there's any head honcho, number one, if
• 3:52
  you like, it's you. It comes through you. I've known you for a very long time now. You're
• 3:53
  not a community oriented human being, you're a singular, long, you know, mustang, you know,
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  you're a singular, you don't, you know, do you know what I'm, what I'm kind of digging
• 3:55
  out here? It's like, isn't there a bit of a juxtaposition here within a mode of art?
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  I mean, me for myself, and I know I'm part of the bridge here between you and people,
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  we've talked about that and I'm always prepared to talk about that because I'm a, I'm also
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  alone, but I'm a more of a social, you know, integrator, I can speak to humans. So, but you,
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  as the number one in this, are not a social creature. Talk to me about this.
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  Well, yes, there's an anomaly here and in some ways, I mean, I live in the paradox
• 4:01
  of everything. A great paradox of existence. I will talk to maybe our next podcast will be about
• 4:02
  you and the paradox of your existence. And I am able to, I embrace the paradox where the
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  - yes. - because that's my experience of awakening enlightenment, whatever you want to call it,
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  is the paradox. Although I say I've been immersed in some... In a field, I call it the field,
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  it was a field of unconditional love that I experienced through my time in India, and
• 4:06
  the people around our show and so on. I am not on a personal human level interested in
• 4:07
  community in that way. I don't particularly want to be part of anything. I don't need
• 4:08
  to, I am singular and I have contemplated and energetically experienced, viscerally
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  experienced, the aloneness of consciousness, which is also the same as the all oneness.
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  So I have no need for that.
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  I have no need to be in some group or other.
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  And yet I find myself being part of a group, the fact that I'm like teaching it, leading
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  it or being the one that is offering something through this teaching, through this vehicle,
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  it doesn't really matter what role we play.
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  I'm still in the group as such when we sit in retreat for seven days.
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  Well, there's a group.
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  Yeah, there's a community when we offer things online.
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  There's a community.
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  not a social interaction and I don't need to form friendships, all of this. So I can only be
• 4:20
  given, if you like, to the role that has revealed itself for me, which is not of my own creation.
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  I haven't planned this, I haven't had a goal for this. It's what's revealed itself. And each of
• 4:22
  us has a unique expression and a unique role. We may call it, "Oh, well, she's the teacher," or
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  "he's the leader," or "he's the guide," and so on. And not everybody can be that. And all should
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  they? Everyone has their rightful place. And that's just the way of things. All beings have a community,
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  whether we look at the plants in the garden, the trees, any aspect of nature or any animal
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  species. It has, I wouldn't call it, well it's a kind of hierarchy, but it doesn't have to be a
• 4:27
  hierarchy that is to do with control or power or any abuse of boundaries or any of that.
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  It's just the right pattern. It's the right fractal. This is how nature works. It's fractalian.
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  Fractal always begins a pattern and then it gets repeated and repeated and becomes a community,
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  if you like. On a human level, we call it a community, but it's a fractal pattern.
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  So, yes, it's somewhat unanomaly, but if we look at it from this perspective, it's not at all.
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  I mean, I could live in my ivory castle or I could have done. I can't anymore. But I
• 4:33
  could have lived in my ivory castle and did live in my ivory castle for many, many years
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  without friendships, without partnerships, occasionally relationships. Just in my head,
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  I could write an infinitum about the nature of consciousness or something or other. And
• 4:36
  and I'd be perfectly happy. But that's not enough. There was something else, and so this has emerged
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  in this way. So yes, I'm absolutely singular and totally comfortable, happy at one with a loneness,
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  And yet it's all one and that's how it's experienced. Beautiful. I think that what you say sparks so many
• 4:39
  kind of questions and inquiries or revelations, you know, and I think, you know, knowing you,
• 4:40
  I think you could, you know, there was always a little part of you that would
• 4:41
  long to be the writer who has just shut away somewhere, living your own life and partly
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  the me coming along and this work and this coming to America has enabled forced, coerced,
• 4:43
  courted or whatever it is. The fire has an aquarium, as the fire of your open
• 4:44
  whatever it was to court you to actually bring that fire. Let's name it as that.
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  It's like a Promethean myth to bring that fire of love and openness and awareness into the human
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  experience. That's not to over-grandize it, but it is to name it as such.
• 4:47
  So that's one thing. And I see that we, and I am fundamental in that in a way because I do
• 4:48
  provide the bridge between you and people in a good way. But also, there is such a trust in the
• 4:49
  community as such as it is around you, around me, around us, if you like. And it is extremely
• 4:50
  refreshing because there is a depth of trust, not trusting anything, but there's a level of trust
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  that we humans can get to where we can not actually trust anything but just trust the field itself.
• 4:52
  And maybe that comes through you and maybe it comes through me. Maybe it comes to the fact that,
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  you know, I don't know, you're a woman, I'm a man, we're not going to play any funny games and
• 4:54
  people fall into that and within that every single person is allowed to find their own place.
• 4:55
  That's what I'm getting to. And I think that does affect you as well, because you are able to
• 4:56
  find your own place in it and it's okay being the teacher. There's not a problem with that.
• 4:57
  There's nothing attributed to it. And I, as the bridge, I'm okay with being, you know, having one
• 4:58
  in your realm and the other foot in the human realm and to dance in my own way in that kind of
• 4:59
  paradox because neither of us are interested in having friendships. And that's a really good
• 5:00
  thing. We're actually self-contained within what we've got. We're kind of quite happy.
• 5:01
  But there is such a longing and a desire to be of great service in a way.
• 5:02
  That's exactly what I was going to say.
• 5:03
  I feel I'm in service to this.
• 5:04
  I'm in service to life.
• 5:05
  So whatever moves as a genuine impulse, even though--
• 5:06
  and it doesn't anymore, but it used to-- the personality
• 5:07
  self says, no, I can't do that at all.
• 5:08
  I don't want to do that.
• 5:09
  And that's not there anymore.
• 5:10
  But it's just given to that.
• 5:11
  And that was a very strong knowing, even though it hadn't formed itself yet, after awakening.
• 5:12
  Very shortly after awakening, when certain insights came, and I don't mean about my life,
• 5:13
  but just about the nature of existence and the nature of consciousness as it becomes form,
• 5:14
  or as it moves through form. And I wasn't teaching then, it was all very quiet and it was just
• 5:15
  integrating itself. But one of the primary insights that stayed with me and was there at the beginning
• 5:16
  was that that which has woken up to itself, which actually isn't about the individual,
• 5:17
  about the personhood, but that which has woken up to itself, consciousness, awareness has woken
• 5:18
  up to itself, recognize its own nature through the individual, because it can't do it without
• 5:19
  a nervous system, a physiological system for recognition to take place.
• 5:20
  Then from that recognition, it doesn't have to, but it does.
• 5:21
  sacrifice, it's true home in order to come back into the human vehicle and be of service
• 5:22
  in some way. And the service part didn't reveal itself for quite some time. But it knew it
• 5:23
  sort of recognized that it was a kind of sacrifice, but a sacrifice taken consciously because
• 5:24
  it can't stay there. Well, it is there. It hasn't changed. But if we just on a human level,
• 5:25
  because the other human is still here, if one tries to maintain that as a static state, that
• 5:26
  becomes a spiritual ego and it becomes disembodied. And on the other hand, if there's no body for it
• 5:27
  to filter into, well, that's death. And obviously, I hadn't died on that level. The physical system
• 5:28
  was physiological system was still here. So whilst this physiological organism was still alive,
• 5:29
  then awake consciousness, awakeness or awareness recognizing itself has to then be filtered
• 5:30
  through the human vehicle. Because even though the ego identity has come undone, there's still
• 5:31
  a human vehicle for it to filter into and then what? And then what? Well then an intelligence
• 5:32
  keeps on informing that movement but an intelligence that isn't of the separate me identity but of
• 5:33
  that mysterious the mystery of intelligence, the mystery of divine intelligence which is in the field
• 5:34
  as awake consciousness filters in and through. Well, then that's what's been emerging. That's the
• 5:35
  service. That's the giving of myself to whatever wants to move here. And so here we've ended up
• 5:36
  at offering a community membership, which would have been a million miles away of anything I could
• 5:37
  could have imagined, let's say 20 years ago.
• 5:38
  So that's all we can do.
• 5:39
  And there's a great freedom and a great joy
• 5:40
  and a great, the joy of creation,
• 5:41
  there's a creation that keeps taking place here.
• 5:42
  And that's where we are, what for,
• 5:43
  what we call it, whether we call it community
• 5:44
  or friendship or support or service.
• 5:45
  These are all labels, but.
• 5:46
  So this is, you know, when you speak of that,
• 5:47
  you know, the phrase, "Bodhisattva of love came to me
• 5:48
  because the body satver is exactly part of,
• 5:49
  in many ways, without any of the tradition and stuff,
• 5:50
  is exactly what you're kind of talking to."
• 5:51
  - That's right.
• 5:52
  - The bodhisattva-- - That's right.
• 5:53
  - sacrifices their eternal you know, union to say,
• 5:54
  "Oh God, I've got to go back and I'm going
• 5:55
  into the human realm." - That's right.
• 5:56
  It's going to be tough, but it is inevitable that I've got to do it.
• 5:57
  And the only thing that I added was the love factor because I think this is, you know,
• 5:58
  it's the same, of course, you know, awareness of the way that you're talking of it and love
• 5:59
  the way that we talk of it are the same thing.
• 6:00
  So this is you returning as a bodhisattva of love.
• 6:01
  That's exactly it.
• 6:02
  And that was such a profound knowing.
• 6:03
  then of course the mind doesn't get hold of that and say, "Well, I'm going to do good
• 6:04
  things and I'm going to be a spiritual teacher and I've got to serve mankind." It doesn't
• 6:05
  come from that. It's a very organic, authentic, natural, honest allowing of the movement because
• 6:06
  until this body comes undone, there can be no, you know, if there is such a thing which
• 6:07
  I think there is, but I won't know until I totally experience it, the final rest.
• 6:08
  And so this is it and this is the great paradox.
• 6:09
  Yeah. I think this is also in a different way, but actually is the experience for me as well,
• 6:10
  because I've had to leave whatever residue of discomfort, whatever residue of self has followed
• 6:11
  me around, even as far as Santa Fe where I thought I could escape it, right? Because unable to escape
• 6:12
  the residue of my own self, it didn't disappear in one fell swoop in the way that, you know,
• 6:13
  happened to you. And then I realized that my calling was to serve love in the way that I do,
• 6:14
  in the ragged way that I talk about it, and to serve this ultimately to serve this teaching,
• 6:15
  because I think I believe it's so pure and I, you know, it just feels so, so clean.
• 6:16
  The yearning of the human being to have a clean experience, not morally, but just honestly and
• 6:17
  truthfully. And then I realized I might be waiting until discomfort or something left in order to,
• 6:18
  And you know to step in and serve love and realize the calling is to actually be here whatever to serve it in the way that i can just in the way that i do and there's such a great freedom in that because i'm not trying to get rid of anything.
• 6:19
  Just try to be here in the human realm.
• 6:20
  In his honest open clear untangled way is possible and that's actually what i particularly like about it because the learning that we've gone through in society is such a mess of entanglement of self the self.
• 6:21
  that's got all wrapped up with each other and with ourselves.
• 6:22
  And if there's any opportunity to let loose that, to let loose some of the, you know, the
• 6:23
  tanglements that we put around each other, the tentacles as I call them, you know, that we can
• 6:24
  offer that kind of clean and kind of healthy environment in which we can meet each other.
• 6:25
  That's Sangha. That's right. It is and it's born of our relationship, which we don't have to go into
• 6:26
  right now. It is born of our relationship because that's a Sangha too. It's clean, it's pure, it's
• 6:27
  unentangled, as you say, and all the qualities that are experienced in our teaching groups,
• 6:28
  whatever we offer, our community is also right here within the self and its relationship to itself
• 6:29
  and within us. And so it's a natural flowering of that that we are both in service to.
• 6:30
  Yes. Very beautiful. I've enjoyed this conversation very much. We haven't got through
• 6:31
  all of the individual questions, but I actually don't think we need to. I think we've touched on
• 6:32
  everything that we need to. I mean, this is a beautiful conversation and it's a beautiful
• 6:33
  exploration and that's it. Were you all going to say something?
• 6:34
  No, I was going to say much the same and just say maybe we should just finish off by just saying
• 6:35
  again what the community is about or what it involves.
• 6:36
  Yeah.
• 6:37
  On a, yeah, go ahead. Can you do that?
• 6:38
  Yeah. So we meet twice a month.
• 6:39
  The first meeting of the month is on a Sunday.
• 6:40
  The second meeting of a month is on a Friday.
• 6:41
  So they're about two weeks apart.
• 6:42
  First meeting is the teaching meeting that I guide with the discourse,
• 6:43
  meditation, Q&A inquiry session. Each meeting is two hours. Kavi then offers the other meeting,
• 6:44
  the integration meeting, also two hours on a Friday, guided meditation, deep guided meditation,
• 6:45
  and then the opportunity for sharing and exploring what might have come up from the previous meeting.
• 6:46
  friendship pods which are evolving. We also have our team members Andrea who is part of our team
• 6:47
  who will be supporting those friendship groups that will take place online. There's also the
• 6:48
  Facebook private and Giancarlo hopefully as well. Giancarlo also. I want to mention Giancarlo.
• 6:49
  supporting that. Yes, there is a private Facebook group just for community members,
• 6:50
  where they can interact or share or connect. There's also a WhatsApp private members group,
• 6:51
  which apparently, because we're not directly involved in it, is doing incredibly well,
• 6:52
  everyone's super excited about it. People are connecting, and this is outside of the
• 6:53
  two monthly meetings, people are connecting, they're speaking on the WhatsApp, they're
• 6:54
  speaking on the phone. It's totally obligatory. Sorry, it's not obligatory. It's not obligatory.
• 6:55
  Sorry, it's not obligatory. You must. Yeah, only if you wish to be part of that, but
• 6:56
  it seems to have a life of its own. There are some discounts available for members
• 6:57
  for joining our other online programs because the other online programs are theme based mostly.
• 6:58
  And a few other things, the recordings are available and such like. So check it out, it's on the website
• 6:59
  under community, all the details are there.
• 7:00
  It's very good. It feels like an offering whose time has come. In such a good way, in such an honest way,
• 7:01
  that an organic way, that I actually still very excited about it. There's not much more to say
• 7:02
  about that. If you're moved and you want to check it out, go to the website and explore a little
• 7:03
  a little bit further and see how you feel.
• 7:04
  Amoda?
• 7:05
  I think that's it.
• 7:06
  I think we covered it today.
• 7:07
  That was a very joyous conversation.
• 7:08
  However, I will get you in a future podcast about living in the paradox and dive into
• 7:09
  that a little bit more.
• 7:10
  I think that might be quite useful and interesting.
• 7:11
  Okay, we're going to finish up today.
• 7:12
  Thank you so much for listening.
• 7:13
  May be well, may be blessed.
• 7:14
  We'll see you again for hopefully not too distant future
• 7:15
  for another conversation with Amoda Maa over and out.
• 7:16
  Namaste from us both.
• 7:17
  Namaste.