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Bob Brown | Otter.ai

Bob Brown

Edwin Rutsch13min

Cara Wilson

00:01

It is now my pleasure to introduce Bob Brown. Bob Brown is a pilgrim on a spiritual journey. For years, he hosted an empathy tent in 1000 Oaks California and offered empathetic listening. Life has improved immeasurably since connecting with Edwin Rutsch and the empathy tent in 2017 and he's going to speak to us on empathy circles and consciousness. Take it away.

Speaker 1

00:25

Bob Tara, thank you and Edwin, thank you too, and for everyone for being here, what a privilege and what a joy. And let me push some buttons here,

Speaker 1

00:42

and I'm trying to share my screen and I'm getting a Request button. Here we go,

Speaker 1

01:00

empathy circles and consciousness. My approach is that consciousness is the big circle, and empathy circles are within that big circle of consciousness. This photograph was taken in 1968 on my left is my brother. On your left is my brother Steven. That's our mom in the middle, and I'm on the right. In 1968 I had been listening to my mother tell me every so often for the past five or six years, you are not the center of the universe, or she would say something like the world does not revolve around you. And I thought, Well, Mom, I love you and I listen to you, but you what you're saying doesn't make any sense to me, because everything I saw, heard, tasted, touched, smelled, did revolve around me. It came to me and I was the center of the universe.

Speaker 1

02:09

And mom kept saying, You are not the center of the universe. And she was my mom, and I believed her, and then, from what I perceived, I was the center of the universe, and there was a big conflict. And it really took me from 1968 to a long time after that, helped immensely by Edwin Rutsch to realize that I was not the center of the universe. The Empathy circle helps us realize that each of us is not the center of the universe. This revelation is a major breakthrough in the evolution of consciousness.

Speaker 1

02:55

Consciousness is the quality or state of being aware, including self awareness and awareness of engagement with the world. As consciousness expands, the sense of separation and isolation shrinks one is aware of being one with and making a unique contribution to all that exists.

Speaker 1

03:28

Empathy circles help us move away from self centered separation into the awareness that we are all part of a unified wholeness and

Speaker 1

03:47

we have a variety of consciousnesses to choose from selfish Buddha, Christ, collective, cosmic, divine, Islamic, Krishna, Moses, Tao, universal, along with many, many others. And as each of us identifies what kind of consciousness we have, the bigger it is, and the more inclusive it is, the better it is. Here's a definition of consciousness from Rupert Spira. We are that with which all experience is known. We are that in which all experience appears, and we are that out of which all experience is made. And for my money, Rupert Spira is one of the leading teachers of consciousness in our world today.

Speaker 1

04:50

In addition to empathy circles, what are some other activities we can engage in to expand consciousness? I. Meditation, journaling, repetition of a mantra, either spoken softly or silently or written out repeatedly by hand, reading, creating or beholding art, and then practice awareness. Practice awareness. Practice awareness. Over 1000s of years, consciousness has evolved in a collective sense, most of us start out with what Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber call reptilian consciousness, concerned only with eating, eliminating and comfort. This consciousness is prevalent in the human infant. As the human person grows, the typical evolution is to typhonic consciousness, whatever I imagine is reality. This is prevalent in toddlers. And then as we get to be the age of reason, we develop mythic membership consciousness, which says, My tribe is better than your tribe. My religion is better than your religion. This is prevalent in most adults on our planet today. A few people move a little farther, and they have what is called a mental egoic consciousness, which is taking responsibility for oneself and sharing responsibility for others. This is rare, but it is occasionally present in human adults.

Speaker 1

06:50

Once we get past mental, egoic, it's extremely rare, but these are better levels of consciousness. In my opinion, intuitive consciousness is beyond rational thinking, characterized by human cooperation, forgiveness, negotiation, mutuality rather than competition, and a growing sense of oneness with others and of belonging to the universe. And then the end of the spectrum is the unitive conscious consciousness, the experience of working unconditional love into one's faculties and relationships, the sense of a separate self diminishes. So this is the goal we're looking for. And Spyro teaches that it isn't. It really is existing in us. We just have too many things blocking it. So we want to find ways to come back to Unity of consciousness.

Unknown Speaker

07:56

So there's a little thing on my i

Unknown Speaker

08:04

What have I done?

Speaker 2

08:15

From our point of view, it just looks like you're out of presenter mode. Okay, let me

Speaker 1

08:21

there's a big screen showing up in my

Edwin Rutsch

08:25

we don't see it. Okay? You don't we just see, okay.

Unknown Speaker

08:37

Do? How do I get rid of this thing here?

Cara Wilson

08:47

Well, no, I don't know what you see, so I cannot help you. We see a your presentation on the small scale. We're still on the obstacle to the expansion of consciousness.

Speaker 1

09:01

Okay, view. There's a zoom screen that shows speakers and stuff like that.

Unknown Speaker

09:10

Oh, you've gotten back into the gallery.

Edwin Rutsch

09:14

Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1

09:18

So I'm, I'm a little, I can't I didn't memorize this, so I can't say it, but there's a it looks like a participant. Thing, we

Edwin Rutsch

09:38

don't see it. So whatever we see your presentation, we don't see whatever you're seeing on the screen.

Unknown Speaker

09:45

Okay, let me try this.

Unknown Speaker

09:51

There we go.

Speaker 1

10:01

Forgive me for my lack of skill here. All right, obstacles, expansion of consciousness. There are self centered habitual behaviors, and there are self centered patterns of thinking, and those are things we want to get rid of, and how to reduce these obstacles with meditation, journaling, repetition of a mantra, reading, creating or beholding. Art, practice awareness, practice awareness. Practice awareness, the unit. Universe is the ultimate empath. It accepts and listens to everybody. The universe is a manifestation of ultimate consciousness in which we all exist together in a unified oneness.

Edwin Rutsch

10:58

One minute, Bob,

Speaker 1

11:04

this is another quote from Rupert Spira. I encourage you to if you're curious about consciousness, look up Rupert Spira. He's got all the wise stuff about consciousness, and then the brain is the manifestation of it. We breathe, relax, accept, initiate, a self aware response in place of reflexive behavior and Nick's negativity. Ian McGilchrist is another world recognized expert in consciousness. He says consciousness is irreducible, primordial, omnipresent. Michael Benner is former KPFK radio host who says awareness is the supreme quality of mind, and love is the wisdom of the heart, two sides of the same coin. Consciousness is the ultimate reality that defines everything else. Rupert Spira, imagine how regular participation in empathy circles combined with an intentional program of consciousness raising can change the world for the better. And then here's a little humor about it. I don't know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing. And a quote from Pema Chodron, you are the sky. Everything else is just the weather. Bob,

Cara Wilson

12:31

thank you so much. This was wonderful. I have said for a long time that you're not that you are the center of your universe, just not the universe. So I loved hearing your reflection of that perception versus reality is, in and of itself, such a powerful awareness. Awareness allows impact. I loved that quote, with which, in which, out of which, which, and then patterns and habits. Awareness, building, awareness, awareness practice, awareness, practice, awareness, practice, awareness, and I will be looking up Ruben Spira, thank you so much for that. Bye.

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