Are We There Yet?

my wife cheney has this beautiful quirk where she will use aphorisms either inappropriately or just mix up the words where no one knows what she's trying to say when we decided to start having kids she said uh should we kill the goalie and well i had no idea what she was talking about when she said that so i happen every few weeks that she will do something like this and it is so adorable we were just on our flight to india i try to go once a year to visit the ashram and we left about two weeks ago now and we're there for a week and it was so funny that at the start of the boarding process we gave the ticket over or we gave our boarding pass to the agent they checked us both in and she said bouncing wow wow and i think she was just excited the flight was beginning not exactly sure why the music bouncing wow wow came up that's usually associated with some type of porno situation but i guess she was just excited about boarding this flight excited about the beginning so many of us can get really excited about the beginning of a new journey fast forward about 20 hours later and she and i both like ah we're almost there it went from excitement in the beginning to well deep into a 26-hour trip she was exhausted and it was not that exciting felt very mundane it was boring and exhausting all at the same time and this is so similar to when we pack our car up with our little kids and l our six-year-old will just start blurting out almost as a cliche from a sitcom or we're there yet five minutes into what she knows is a two-hour drive often we can find ourselves years into a journey of transformation and maybe even ask ourselves the question a few months in how long will this take but rivers do not turn at 90 degree angles but nothing of significance in nature happens at the drop of a hat whether it is as seemingly final as death or whether it is as meaningful as birth none of it happens instantaneously and that is the same for transformation it starts small and you can start slow slow and slow and slow and then all of a sudden fast but whenever we're in that slow part of that slope can feel like i should be further along that thought is a mistake because what we're trying to do is shift very strong foundational thought flows that requires both an unwiring and a rewiring it can take a long long time the more powerful the river the longer it will take the more powerfully we are involved in the world the longer it can take rivers do not turn at 90 degree angles but it's all the more sweet when you can turn that river turn that powerful mind that you might have towards the higher ideal and how do we do that it's bit by bit piece by piece daily reflection followed by daily reflection yesterday's episode was on reflection it's a valuable episode to take in the fact that we need to reflect on anything we want to learn it could be an instrument it's not just learning new shiny things every day it's reflecting refining that which we have already learned over and over and over and over and over and over again until it is the natural flow of things but is it binary where it's all or nothing we're told in the gita that it is not that each relative step forward each tiny movement even if it's not moving the whole river is the beginning of a new life a life with that requires just so much less effort stress and strain to where each step towards enlightenment towards waking up becomes more pleasurable than the last or else what would be the point no one would pursue this path and yet if you're watching this video if you're attracted to these types of ideals and concepts then you are well on your way this very philosophy talks about not being caught up in the outcomes the results but just focusing the work at hand focusing on what you want to reflect on today and maybe it's this very concept rivers do not turn at 90 degree angles the more powerful the river the more investment there might need to be to turn it but every step along the way when i can speak from experience the fact that every step while it becomes easier and easier you see this profound philosophy is also just so practical in our daily lives it helps so much in the mundane side of things it helps so much with the meeting you've got in two hours maybe the conflict you want to resolve with a spouse maybe your work has some challenge to overcome later today or tomorrow after listening to this and this philosophy can make the journey just so pleasurable the thought of a destination just falls away and you're 20 hours into that 26 hour flight filled with such gratitude that you're not thinking how do i get out of this scenario no longer asking are we there yet that's what this philosophy offers and that's today's reflection on the daily vedantic we'll see you next time thanks for listening to the daily vedantic this reflection is part of a free repeating two-year course in advaita vedanta rooted in the timeless wisdom of the upanishads arguably the oldest philosophical texts on earth you can begin with episode one which gives the 15 minute overview of the whole philosophy of vedanta or you can join the journey with any episode at any point but the critical aspect of this course of understanding and mastering anything is to study and reflect even for 10 to 15 minutes on the timeless each day preferably at the start of your day as is said in this philosophy reflection is 100 000 times as powerful as listening so listen journal sit with discuss these concepts or ask questions at the daily vedantic.com with our ai powered chatbot informed by about 700 episodes here as regularly as one can if you want to see clarity and peace almost effortlessly unfold in your daily life and if it doesn't result in a near immediate increase in clarity and peace then toss aside and feel free to never listen again one of the things that you might notice is after seven or eight days in a row this doesn't feel like a discipline it feels like a visit with a best friend to dive into the timeless with daily reflection within a few days it becomes one of your favorite parts of the day you can also find out more including news about in-person events in los angeles and beyond at the daily vedantic on instagram or through our weekly newsletter at the daily vedantic.com additionally check out the links in our show notes for more resources like the books that i mentioned most frequently in the episodes including vedantic treatise perhaps the simplest and most straightforward read on this philosophy i've ever come across until next time and from the entire team that works on the daily vedantic project thanks for listening