Ashlyn Harris

Oh, yeah, you know what I need to do right now is have a talk between the sane part of myself and the insane part of myself. And as you said before, the inner critic comes to the ball masquerading as wisdom. But it's not wisdom. It is your ancient fears. And it is the dysfunction of the larger culture. So you might be telling yourself you need to look better. Well, that's not your voice.

That is as to invoke another amazing person, Sonia Renee. What am I? Sonia Renee Taylor, I believe, is her name. I'm embarrassed and I'm forgetting her last name, but she's a great writer. And she said something to the effect of when I see self-criticism, I realize it's not my voice. It's the voice of the system. And so you're telling yourself you don't look good? Well, by whose standards?

That is as to invoke another amazing person, Sonia Renee. What am I? Sonia Renee Taylor, I believe, is her name. I'm embarrassed and I'm forgetting her last name, but she's a great writer. And she said something to the effect of when I see self-criticism, I realize it's not my voice. It's the voice of the system. And so you're telling yourself you don't look good? Well, by whose standards?

It's the culture's standards. And I have two modes that I'm least proud of. One is greedy, and the other is angry. And over time, I've learned to actually have some affection for these modes because it's just the organism trying to protect itself. It's just my ancient fear-based patterns

It's the culture's standards. And I have two modes that I'm least proud of. One is greedy, and the other is angry. And over time, I've learned to actually have some affection for these modes because it's just the organism trying to protect itself. It's just my ancient fear-based patterns

doing their best usually you know like they're it's a five-year-old's version of doing their best to protect this body but i don't need to listen to them in fact the radical disarmament is to actually make friends with them to kind of high-five those demons instead of trying to slay them and for me that's been really useful and and just to get it back to your question combining these i would say modern psychological tools with ancient contemplative tools has really been helpful

doing their best usually you know like they're it's a five-year-old's version of doing their best to protect this body but i don't need to listen to them in fact the radical disarmament is to actually make friends with them to kind of high-five those demons instead of trying to slay them and for me that's been really useful and and just to get it back to your question combining these i would say modern psychological tools with ancient contemplative tools has really been helpful

Another fascinating question is, what is me? Close your eyes and look inside. Can you find some core nugget of J? Spend some time with that question. That'll pop you out of ruminating about lots of other unhealthy things.

Another fascinating question is, what is me? Close your eyes and look inside. Can you find some core nugget of J? Spend some time with that question. That'll pop you out of ruminating about lots of other unhealthy things.

I think you I think I think you come more out of the Hindu tradition. Yes. And I come a little bit more out of the Buddhist tradition, even though I don't look like it. But, you know, that's that's where I've spent the last 15 years of my life really doing a lot of study. And one of the things they say in Tibetan Buddhism is that. the not finding is the finding. Because there's nothing to find.

I think you I think I think you come more out of the Hindu tradition. Yes. And I come a little bit more out of the Buddhist tradition, even though I don't look like it. But, you know, that's that's where I've spent the last 15 years of my life really doing a lot of study. And one of the things they say in Tibetan Buddhism is that. the not finding is the finding. Because there's nothing to find.

Yes, I mean, on the level of consensual, conventional reality, I'm Dan, and that camera's taking a picture of me, and yes, that is true. But on the deepest possible level, if I look for some core nugget of Dan, there's nothing to find. And that not finding is...

Yes, I mean, on the level of consensual, conventional reality, I'm Dan, and that camera's taking a picture of me, and yes, that is true. But on the deepest possible level, if I look for some core nugget of Dan, there's nothing to find. And that not finding is...

is the answer and if can you stay with that ambiguity there is something healing about that so how how do you take that out of the esoteric clouds into your actual life one little linguistic trick you can you kind of teed me up for this before because you you use the phrase i am like i am so and so what if you just and again this is i want to give credit to the person who came up with this it's joseph goldstein is a great meditation teacher but he often

is the answer and if can you stay with that ambiguity there is something healing about that so how how do you take that out of the esoteric clouds into your actual life one little linguistic trick you can you kind of teed me up for this before because you you use the phrase i am like i am so and so what if you just and again this is i want to give credit to the person who came up with this it's joseph goldstein is a great meditation teacher but he often

advises his students to say, instead of I am fill in the blank, there is fill in the blank. There is hunger right now. There is anger in my mind right now. There is sadness in my mind right now. There's no you to find. The adding of the you on top of it is just adding insult to injury, right? That's extra. But it's true that hunger or anger or sadness can be here right now.

advises his students to say, instead of I am fill in the blank, there is fill in the blank. There is hunger right now. There is anger in my mind right now. There is sadness in my mind right now. There's no you to find. The adding of the you on top of it is just adding insult to injury, right? That's extra. But it's true that hunger or anger or sadness can be here right now.

But if you can take the I am out of it and to the there is, well, then it's workable, right? You can do something with it. You can let it pass. You can observe it. You can try to work with it. But if you add in a whole story about how I, Jay, or I, Dan, I mean, curably fill in the blank, well, that's a much bigger problem.

But if you can take the I am out of it and to the there is, well, then it's workable, right? You can do something with it. You can let it pass. You can observe it. You can try to work with it. But if you add in a whole story about how I, Jay, or I, Dan, I mean, curably fill in the blank, well, that's a much bigger problem.

Well, can I turn it around?