In the Yuck but Not of It with Josh Reeves

[00:00:00] Hey welcome to our Mile Hi Podcast. We're so happy you've joined us. If you're

[00:00:04] interested in the four spiritual laws of prosperity, it's a great book by Edwin

[00:00:10] Gaines and I'm doing a free class based on it on the four Tuesdays in May. Would

[00:00:15] love to have you join us via live stream or in person here at Mile Hi Church. It's

[00:00:19] from 6 30 to 8 p.m. Come on and let's enjoy some prosperity together. Find out

[00:00:24] more at MileHiChurch.org. Our message this morning in the yuck but not of it.

[00:00:32] There once was a man who was walking with his spiritual teacher. They were on a

[00:00:40] hike and the man fell and hurt his knee and the man grabbed his knee and his

[00:00:46] teacher said don't grab your knee grab your breath. Don't grab your knee grab

[00:00:54] your breath. Sage advice. I might have started with are you okay? But it's sage

[00:01:03] advice. The next time you're angry don't grab the curse word grab your breath.

[00:01:10] The next time that person at the light in front of you in their car is looking

[00:01:15] at their phone instead of noticing the green light before you honk grab your

[00:01:19] breath. When you're hurting or lonely or frustrated acknowledge the hurt but grab

[00:01:27] your breath. There's something about human nature what I'll call yuck

[00:01:33] consciousness today that wants to go right where the hurt is. That wants to

[00:01:37] say look at me I'm hurting look at this this hurts ah and again we have to

[00:01:42] acknowledge the hurt but learn not to identify with it. We want to learn

[00:01:48] not to go to the hurt but where the healing can begin and that's what the

[00:01:53] breath represents in this piece. This is the essence as well of our practice

[00:02:01] here of affirmative prayer where the condition or the challenge in the

[00:02:06] prayer is almost completely insignificant. It's all about our ability to

[00:02:12] remember the truth. It's all about our ability to go into an awareness of

[00:02:17] the divine and that Fox the great metaphysician put it simply and profoundly

[00:02:23] all that you have to do is this stop thinking about the difficulty whatever

[00:02:29] it is and think about God instead. This is the complete rule and if only you

[00:02:35] will do this the trouble whatever it is will presently disappear. It may be big

[00:02:40] or little it may concern health finance a lawsuit a quarrel an accident

[00:02:44] or anything else conceivable but whatever it is just stop thinking about

[00:02:49] it and think of God instead that is all you have to do. Could it really be

[00:02:55] that simple? What is that awareness of the divine for you? Is it an image? Is

[00:03:04] it a feeling? Is it a song? Is it a deep knowingness at the core of your

[00:03:12] being? And perhaps all that you have to do when faced with the problem is let it

[00:03:18] go. Just let it go for a minute. It will be waiting for you when you come back

[00:03:25] and remember that spiritual truth of who you are and who knows what might

[00:03:30] take place. I once had a deep fracture in a relationship with someone I love.

[00:03:39] Mental health episode came up and it was at that point perhaps you've

[00:03:43] had this experience in your relationships where even if you were calling

[00:03:46] and trying to practice forgiveness and love it would just make things worse.

[00:03:50] You ever had that? Where it's just a fire and to continue to participate

[00:03:54] in the relationship just just makes it grow and grow and so I had to

[00:03:57] completely cut off communication with this person and it was painful

[00:04:02] and hard for me and yet I never had to separate my connection with

[00:04:08] that person because each and every morning in prayer I could see the

[00:04:14] spiritual truth of this person who I love, who they really are.

[00:04:18] I could surround them and love and light. I could wish them well.

[00:04:24] That's an amazing truth as well that even behind the fractured surface

[00:04:31] that life sometimes presents to us there is always that deep connection.

[00:04:36] The spiritual truth always remains and endures if we can cultivate it.

[00:04:41] And luckily in my life I practiced this prayer for over a year and a life

[00:04:46] circumstance came up and there was some healing and although there's

[00:04:50] some boundaries and perhaps not the same level of intimacy there,

[00:04:53] I have a healthy relationship with this person again and I'd like to

[00:04:57] think that that prayer had something to do with it.

[00:05:05] The 2000 year old man, Mel Brooks said,

[00:05:11] as the 2000 year old man, as long as the world is turning and spinning,

[00:05:17] you're going to get dizzy and you're going to make mistakes.

[00:05:21] Part of living a whole and full life means acknowledging the yuck.

[00:05:28] It doesn't mean set up camp in it. It doesn't mean become it,

[00:05:32] but we want to acknowledge that yuck that can take place in our lives.

[00:05:36] That as wonderful as it is to grow older,

[00:05:40] there are still those aches and pains that come with that.

[00:05:43] There's the yuck of dealing at times with the health care system.

[00:05:47] As much as many of us parents love raising our kids,

[00:05:51] we still have the yuck of the potential dangers of the AI,

[00:05:57] the tablets, the smartphones, the social media.

[00:06:02] You know, you move in with a man of your dreams

[00:06:05] and you still have to clean up after him in the kitchen.

[00:06:09] You're behind that person in traffic heading for the open road

[00:06:16] and you're stuck there.

[00:06:17] Have they invented an app yet that lets the driver know

[00:06:20] that the lights turn green? Wouldn't that be nice?

[00:06:24] We can all identify a place where there's yuck in our lives.

[00:06:28] Can we all do that? Can you think of it?

[00:06:30] Let's say it together. Yuck!

[00:06:33] But we don't have to become that yuck.

[00:06:37] We can remember that there's a purity of our being,

[00:06:41] a grander truth that can allow us to be in the yuck but not of it.

[00:06:47] There's a beautiful passage from a great Buddhist work

[00:06:49] called The Tibetan Book of Great Liberation.

[00:06:53] It says, in its true state, mind is naked,

[00:06:58] immaculate, transparent, empty, timeless, uncreated, unimpeded,

[00:07:04] not realizable as a separate thing but as the unity of all things.

[00:07:10] Yes, I'm talking about you.

[00:07:12] Your own mind is not separate from other minds.

[00:07:14] It shines forth unabscured for all living beings.

[00:07:18] Without beginning or ending, your original wisdom

[00:07:21] has been shining forever like the sun.

[00:07:25] To know whether or not this is true, look inside your own mind.

[00:07:31] Can you even believe that partially as the truth of who you are?

[00:07:35] That always within you is that original wisdom,

[00:07:40] that reflection of divine spirit,

[00:07:44] that ability to allow your consciousness to rise above any yucky

[00:07:48] or icky thing that may be taking place to pull you through,

[00:07:52] to uplift you, to enlighten you.

[00:07:59] In the Dao De Ching, a book of ancient Chinese wisdom,

[00:08:03] we are shared what's called the three treasures

[00:08:07] and they can be translated in many ways.

[00:08:09] But today we're going to translate them as mercy,

[00:08:13] moderation and modesty, the three M's.

[00:08:17] And I speak to these today because they all are tools

[00:08:21] of ways of being that help us remove ourselves from the yuck.

[00:08:27] And this first one is mercy, which means compassion.

[00:08:33] That's one of the things about yuck consciousness,

[00:08:35] about the collective consciousness of the world.

[00:08:37] One of the things that it can get us into is the grind.

[00:08:41] You know, anyone here living in the grind, working through the grind,

[00:08:44] getting that to do list done, life never seems to stop.

[00:08:47] We keep going and going and going.

[00:08:49] And when my consciousness is in the grind, the goingness,

[00:08:52] my greatest fear isn't death.

[00:08:54] It's not public speaking.

[00:08:55] It's being a minute late to anything.

[00:08:58] Anyone have that too?

[00:09:03] And I can get caught up in it.

[00:09:04] And on one particular morning, a few months ago,

[00:09:07] getting my daughter ready for school

[00:09:10] and we're a few minutes late on leaving the door and getting to school.

[00:09:13] And so I'm a little stern with my five-year-old,

[00:09:16] more than I would normally be.

[00:09:17] Nancy June, it's time to put on your boots and get in the car.

[00:09:26] And we get in the car and we're driving along.

[00:09:29] And my daughter says, Daddy, yes, Nancy,

[00:09:33] I just want you to know that even when you're mean to me, I forgive you.

[00:09:44] And it was an experience of grace, of great mercy.

[00:09:49] I honestly, I don't think I've ever felt so loved

[00:09:53] as I did in that moment.

[00:09:56] Uplifted, affirmed, removed from that consciousness of yuck

[00:10:00] to remember the truth of who I am by an angel, a little bodhisattva,

[00:10:04] a Jedi in a car seat.

[00:10:10] And we can practice that kind of mercy too.

[00:10:13] Is that not what Jesus meant when he said that we must be like little children

[00:10:17] to enter the kingdom of heaven?

[00:10:19] Just like little Nico over there.

[00:10:24] We can remember. Amen.

[00:10:26] Amen. Oh, it's Juniper.

[00:10:30] Sorry, Juniper. That's what she was reminding me of

[00:10:35] that we can experience that kind of mercy

[00:10:38] that in your day to day interactions, as opposed to holding people accountable

[00:10:42] to the grind or to the task list when we can again respond with compassion.

[00:10:49] We immediately get out of that rat race

[00:10:51] that Lily Tomlinson reminded us, even if you win, you're still a rat.

[00:10:55] And and we can make our put our souls up front.

[00:10:59] We can be authentic and we can make a real difference

[00:11:02] in helping people remember who they are, much less practicing that compassion.

[00:11:07] Towards ourselves.

[00:11:10] So mercy and also the second gift of of moderation,

[00:11:16] moderation, there's the consciousness in the yuck

[00:11:21] that's cultivated by our consumer culture.

[00:11:25] And we could define this consciousness as you can't have just one.

[00:11:30] Right? I think Ruffles made it famous.

[00:11:32] They actually articulated. You can't eat just one.

[00:11:36] And there's this culture that kind of needs us to be empty.

[00:11:40] It needs us to want to have more and unintentionally,

[00:11:43] it creates a sense in us of emptiness,

[00:11:47] of need and of not enoughness that gets articulated through

[00:11:54] drinking too much, eating too much, smoking too much,

[00:11:58] listening to the news cycle too much, being on our phones too much.

[00:12:04] And what I can tell you and what I've learned is if you do

[00:12:07] and consume something from a place of emptiness,

[00:12:09] you're only going to wind up empty in the end.

[00:12:13] We have to learn to consume from that place of fullness.

[00:12:17] And when we do that, our fullness is affirmed for us.

[00:12:22] We can say and affirm, yes, I can have just one.

[00:12:27] You see that with me? Yes, I can have just one

[00:12:30] and make it beautiful just the way it is.

[00:12:35] The Tao tells us, be completely empty.

[00:12:38] Be perfectly serene.

[00:12:41] The 10,000 things arise together and they're arising as their return.

[00:12:46] Now they flower and flowering still homeward, returning to the root.

[00:12:51] The return to the root is peace.

[00:12:54] Moderation isn't so much about cutting back.

[00:12:58] It's realizing that the only way we experience true abundance

[00:13:02] is sometimes through the less.

[00:13:05] It's through the simplicity that we can experience the richness of our lives.

[00:13:10] I'm a dessert fan. Anyone else here a fan of dessert?

[00:13:14] So one thing I like to do, especially on the sacred candy holidays

[00:13:17] of Halloween in Easter is I will only let myself eat

[00:13:22] one candy and I kind of turn it into a bit of a meditation.

[00:13:26] I'm going to offer it to you right now.

[00:13:28] We may even have some chocolate to share.

[00:13:31] If you leave the wrappers in the seat in front of you, I will be fired.

[00:13:34] So please keep them with you if you want one.

[00:13:37] Cover on. But I like to take a little candy.

[00:13:39] Here's a little Mr. Goodbar right here.

[00:13:43] And I just slowly open it like Charlie getting ready to see the golden ticket.

[00:13:51] And I behold it and I see it.

[00:13:54] This chocolate, the great sacrament of Mile High Church

[00:14:05] and just fully present to the chocolate.

[00:14:08] The chocolate comes fully present to me.

[00:14:28] And you might notice like I'm the first thing that I notice

[00:14:31] wholly and completely satisfied.

[00:14:35] I'm not thinking about the crackle I'm going to grab next.

[00:14:42] I'm not thinking about my anxiety.

[00:14:46] I'm not trying to quest quelts that thirst in me that can't be quilts.

[00:14:50] I'm simply enjoying a piece of chocolate.

[00:14:54] And I'm not hungry.

[00:14:56] I'm full and I'm grateful for the life that I'm living.

[00:15:02] What does it mean?

[00:15:02] I know this is kind of complicated to talk about.

[00:15:04] I guess I'll go ahead and finish the rest of this after.

[00:15:07] As we want to ask ourselves when we're approaching the things that we're consuming,

[00:15:14] what we're consuming from.

[00:15:17] And when we can be fully present in a place of loving who we are,

[00:15:21] when we can consciously consume whatever we're enjoying,

[00:15:25] we can experience its richness.

[00:15:29] Love the Mr. Goodbar.

[00:15:35] Moderation helps us experience the fullness of our lives on an everyday basis.

[00:15:42] Mercy, moderation and lastly, the third treasure, modesty.

[00:15:49] Modesty or humility.

[00:15:53] There's this aspect in the world.

[00:15:55] Maybe you have it too.

[00:15:56] I definitely fall into it where you want to be first.

[00:16:00] Where you want to be special.

[00:16:02] Where you want to be the best until you live your life in this competitive

[00:16:06] spirit as opposed to seeing people for who they are.

[00:16:09] You compare yourself to them or try to one up them in some way.

[00:16:15] And getting out of this takes humility.

[00:16:18] Getting out of this takes modesty to love ourselves as we are, to be enough

[00:16:23] as we are and to not have to be so competitive or driven,

[00:16:27] but to be self loving and creative.

[00:16:32] Anyone here have any frenemies?

[00:16:35] You know what a frenemy is?

[00:16:36] That's a that's a that's a friend that you might be close with,

[00:16:39] but you have a competitive spirit.

[00:16:40] You secretly don't really like each other or you let each other know,

[00:16:43] know that in times of gentle ribbing.

[00:16:45] And I have a great frenemy.

[00:16:47] We've known each other since we were teenagers.

[00:16:50] And what we do is we try to brag about things going on our life

[00:16:54] and then act unimpressed by them.

[00:16:58] Josh, he wrote a book.

[00:17:00] That's wonderful. Self published, huh?

[00:17:08] You had a kid that's wonderful.

[00:17:10] And did you have that labor or did your wife?

[00:17:14] Gone to Mile High Church following Roger Teal.

[00:17:17] That's wonderful. How's that going for you?

[00:17:20] It's not gentle.

[00:17:22] That dental ribbing.

[00:17:23] And I'll always remember running into my friend and asking him

[00:17:28] how he was doing.

[00:17:29] And he shared with me that his wife had just left him.

[00:17:33] He'd been married a year and a half and it didn't work out.

[00:17:35] He didn't know why he was questioning his career,

[00:17:38] his purpose in life, his faith.

[00:17:41] And it was so amazing because I had all that frenemy energy

[00:17:44] and it just went away like that.

[00:17:46] In that moment, it was clear that he was the better man.

[00:17:50] And in his vulnerability, it showed and revealed our connection of heart.

[00:17:56] How much we love each other, how much we admire each other

[00:17:59] and how silly that young, young consciousness can be

[00:18:03] when it drives us into being competitive with one another.

[00:18:08] Without modesty, we don't receive the forgiveness of children.

[00:18:15] Without humility,

[00:18:18] we think our truth is the way of life and forget

[00:18:22] God has a greater truth waiting for us.

[00:18:25] Without humility, learning to embrace our foibles and mistakes

[00:18:30] and just we don't get to learn and move on from them.

[00:18:34] Modesty, humility allows us to live in the present

[00:18:38] and embrace the best of life.

[00:18:43] I'm going to hopefully not do something sacrilegious today,

[00:18:45] but I want to add a fourth M that doesn't come from Laosa and the Dowdy

[00:18:50] Ching, but the fourth M is Moxie.

[00:18:55] We could all use a little bit more Moxie

[00:18:58] because there's this other aspect of the world consciousness.

[00:19:02] And it's totally understandable,

[00:19:04] but it's when we get depressed at the state of the world,

[00:19:08] the state of the country, the state of affairs.

[00:19:11] We look at what's taking place in Gaza.

[00:19:14] We look at what's taking place in Ukraine.

[00:19:17] We look at places of injustice or pain or abuse in our own country.

[00:19:23] And it all breaks our hearts.

[00:19:25] And it's very hard to remain optimistic

[00:19:29] when we know this kind of stuff is going on.

[00:19:32] And Moxie is that quality that's like a defiant joy.

[00:19:38] It's that ability not to be naive and see the world with rose colored glasses.

[00:19:42] It's our ability to hold ourselves

[00:19:44] and our fellow human beings to a higher calling and a higher way of being.

[00:19:51] Moxie is a courageous spiritual quality

[00:19:55] that allows us to bring the greatest amount of optimism

[00:19:59] and responsibility and positivity

[00:20:01] to even the most difficult areas of our life.

[00:20:05] I went through the list of spiritual teachers

[00:20:07] to think of a great teacher of Moxie,

[00:20:10] and I settled on a more secular one.

[00:20:12] I couldn't help but think of the King, Elvis Presley,

[00:20:16] the King of Moxie,

[00:20:20] brought a lot of Moxie to his music and to rock and roll in the 50s.

[00:20:26] And he stopped doing music for a while in the 1960s

[00:20:32] and he was doing movies and a lot of things changed.

[00:20:36] Vietnam happened, the summer of love happened.

[00:20:41] And he came back and he did a TV special in 1968

[00:20:45] that became called the Comeback Special.

[00:20:49] And he chose a song to close it out with called If I Can Dream.

[00:20:54] And it wasn't a great point in our country.

[00:20:58] Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been murdered.

[00:21:00] Robert Kennedy had just been murdered.

[00:21:03] So it took a lot of Moxie for him to choose this song

[00:21:07] that was written about King even in a moment of great pessimism

[00:21:10] in our society to remind us that if we can dream,

[00:21:14] if we can embody that Moxie,

[00:21:17] we can make a major difference in our lives.

[00:21:20] And I don't have to read you lyrics

[00:21:21] because we have an awesome music program here.

[00:21:23] So we're just going to hear the song.

[00:21:40] There must be lights burning brighter somewhere.

[00:21:47] Got to be birds flying higher in the sky.

[00:21:54] More blue if I can dream of a better land.

[00:21:59] We're all my brothers.

[00:22:02] Walk hand in hand to me.

[00:22:04] Why? Oh, why?

[00:22:07] Oh, why can't my dream come true?

[00:22:15] Oh, why?

[00:22:18] There must be peace and understanding.

[00:22:23] Sometimes strong winds of promise

[00:22:28] that will blow away all the doubt and fear.

[00:22:34] If I can dream of a warmer sun,

[00:22:38] where hope keeps shining on every one.

[00:22:42] Tell me why?

[00:22:44] Oh, why?

[00:22:46] Oh, why won't the sun appear?

[00:22:53] Oh, why won't the sun appear?

[00:23:00] Oh, we're lost in a cloud with too much rain.

[00:23:09] We're trapped in a world with trouble and pain.

[00:23:16] But as long as a man has the strength to dream,

[00:23:22] his soul and flight he can fly.

[00:23:31] Deep in my heart there's a trembling question.

[00:23:38] Still I am sure that the answer is going to come.

[00:23:44] Somehow out in the dark there's a breaking in candle.

[00:23:53] While I can think, while I can talk, while I can stand,

[00:23:59] while I can walk, while I can dream.

[00:24:04] Oh please let me dream.

[00:24:09] Tom Lecce even gave us a little bit of hit the knee shake.

[00:24:46] Have you noticed that there? Thank you, Tom.

[00:24:48] If Elvis can do it in 1968, you can do it in 2024.

[00:24:55] Let's have a prayer.

[00:24:58] Just moving into that awareness,

[00:25:01] that original wisdom, that divine light in each and every one of us.

[00:25:05] Something that we all share together yet as individualized

[00:25:09] in our hearts and our minds and practice in our daily life.

[00:25:13] We give thanks for this divine knowing of truth within us

[00:25:17] and know that it's up to us to cultivate

[00:25:22] an awareness of it in all areas of our lives

[00:25:25] that through these treasures of mercy and compassion,

[00:25:30] of modesty and experiencing more through each and every little thing,

[00:25:35] of modesty and practicing humility,

[00:25:41] and of having that moxie that always knows that light within us

[00:25:45] is greater than any darkness that may appear around us.

[00:25:49] We are giving these treasures not just to improve our becoming

[00:25:52] but to respond to anywhere that gives us that impression of yuck,

[00:25:57] of not enough, of fractures, of hurt.

[00:26:00] We can remember that truth of who we are

[00:26:03] and we can hold others to that truth of who we are.

[00:26:06] That a life lived with love at the center is possible

[00:26:09] and as a byproduct of that is great healing,

[00:26:12] great forgiveness, great understanding

[00:26:15] and the true richness of a great life.

[00:26:18] We give thanks for it.

[00:26:20] We apply this knowing to anyone we know

[00:26:22] or anyone we don't know who could use

[00:26:24] that healing spirit and that reminder of the truth

[00:26:27] of who they are today.

[00:26:29] We let it be, we let it root, we let it grow,

[00:26:32] we let it become and so it is.