I have now hosted over 100 episodes of Insights at the Edge, a free podcast series in which I interview Sounds True authors about their life and work. What I have found is that the part of the conversation that always interests me the most is when people talk about their own direct experience–their experience with difficult times, their “illumination” experience, their experience with intimate relationships (the good, the bad, the ugly). These are the moments when the conversation becomes the most real for me. I feel like saying to my guests, “Please don’t tell me what you think sounds like wonderful philosophy, tell me what you have seen with your own eyes, tell me what has surprised you, tell me what has disappointed you, tell me what has helped you feel most alive and free.”
Tami Simon
It’s amazing how much intersection there is in the world of “Gurus” – be they gurus of the internet marketing kind, or gurus of the type who want to tell us the rules of the cosmos or other certainties that are only a whispered word away.
The more you bump up against the folks who have all the answers, the more you realize you’ve been asking the wrong questions. (and of the wrong people)
The only thing I really have to offer anyone reading my words is my experience.
What I’ve learned along the way.
Packaged properly and articulated with honestly, I think that experience is worth quite a lot, because I’ve done a lot, and tried a lot, and learned a lot worth knowing along the way.
But, it’s only my experience.
And yours may vary.
There is a freedom and a freshness and an honest humility that emanates from just saying what you’ve seen and felt and touched and tasted along the way.
The map is rarely the territory, and for me at least, there is nothing more grating than those who want you to believe they’ve got both figured out, simply because they have a philosophy that sounds good, looks smart and butters the right buttons on the pixel, or page.
So when I heard these words, Tami Simon’s quote below – in the midst of a long midnight run….. I made a note to look it up when I got home.
This idea resonates with me so deeply now, both as a reminder to my own bloviating and self important self – to stick to my EXPERIENCE, and not the way I think things should be……but, more importantly, to the cacaphony of voices and ideas and opinions I’m inundated with on a daily basis by folks who have it all figured out…even though they almost always contradict each other, and quite often, themselves as well.
As a long time meditation practitioner, I have had all sorts of kalaideiscopic, crazy, cool, amazing insights and epiphanies about myself, & the wild, weird, wacky and wonderful world around us all.
And yet, I know, that there is nothing one can truly know about the cosmos, or the nature of life, or death – or any of the burning big questions that are answered while I surf the insides of my own awareness.
It’s tempting to consider.
But it’s only my experience 🙂
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