Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American. Hello everyone and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and I'm your host. And today we'll be talking about skepticism. I know that maybe we already have some ideas about this and sometimes. In the podcast, I might be talking about things that you feel are kind of common sense, but let's take a little deeper look at this today. So skepticism. As I was thinking about this episode, I personally was never really a skeptic. I was kind of overly trusting. Maybe I was a little naive. I always wanted to believe what people said and so forth. And I know that other people were a little less willing to give in or willing to believe what was being presented. I actually admired those people a little bit because it seemed to me that they had a little more self-control than I did. But today I wanna talk a little bit about the downside of being skeptical. Well, what is skepticism? Let's start with that. Skepticism, I'm gonna use a definition right now, is basically where you question something before believing it. You question it before cooperating with it. You question it before agreeing with it. I think that's a good thing. In this spiritual practice in ra yoga meditation, we are really looking at sharing principles, spiritual principles that people can use in their lives for their own individual life. So I really am not telling anybody what to do. Maybe I'm asking everybody to meditate, but, and maybe learn a little bit about spiritual principles, but that's kind of it in terms of what I'm asking people to do. Other than that, it's all our internal journey. So I think skepticism in this case maybe questioning something before you believe it might be a good thing. Especially if you have been like me where you've kind of believed things and went along with things and trusted things, maybe too much. But the downside of skepticism could be that skepticism may keep us from trying something new. And what do I mean by that? Well, maybe I was brought up in a certain way with a certain set of values and so forth, and when some other set of values is put in front of me or some other information, I might be a little mistrustful of that new information because I believe the other thing. And I've been believing it for so long. I was thinking about meditation today and I was thinking that part of the reason why people are not meditating on a regular basis, I think is because they don't believe that it's helping them. I think that there's this culture of it has to show me that it works kind of thing. As we know that there are plenty of things that we do in life that don't show us the results right away. Like I always use the brushing of the teeth as an example. We brush our teeth every day because we, we've accepted or believe that that's helpful to me or keeping me healthy or good for my teeth, and actually good for my heart and my overall health actually brushing my teeth. But I don't think we've been given enough information about meditation to make it seem like it would be valuable to us. So today, in terms of skepticism. I am thinking that sometimes that skepticism is, could be from a lack of understanding, could be from attachment to old ways of thinking and believing, could be because you can't see the value in it right away, or maybe all of the value in it right away. And I think sometimes that keeps us from trying. So today I wanna talk about one particular area of spirituality, which I had trouble with, which I know that maybe others may have trouble with. And this is the principle that innately the soul is pure and good, peaceful, loving, benevolent, that principle. I think we're a little skeptical about that being true, especially if I'm getting instruction to sit down in meditation and say, I'm a soul, and my nature is peace, and I'm experiencing anything but peace. I'm experiencing fast moving, thinking, irritability, fidgeting, wanting to get up and move around. Daily responsibilities. Maybe I'm trying to solve a problem, maybe I'm emotionally upset about something, and as soon as I sit down and meditate, I'm not experiencing peace, so I might feel a little skeptical about that particular piece of information. Or let's say that the soul is inherently good. This principle of I am good. That's a hard one sometimes, and I'm gonna speak as a Christian here, brought up Catholic and Christian. That there's this idea of sin that we're all sinners. And I think in a way that that's a good way to look at the self 'cause you don't want arrogance, right? We don't wanna be arrogant, we don't wanna be forceful. We want to maintain some kind of humility, or try to, but I think that this idea of, in meditation, we're looking, I'm looking at myself as a soul, a pure soul, and a good, I'm good. My heart, I'm good. Isn't it funny how we kind of believe it, but we don't wanna believe it? Right? So this skepticism of some of these ideas, these spiritual ideas, I think keep us from trying or keep us from continuing to practice, because we don't see the results right away. But it's hard for us to buy into the principles. So the skepticism is like, well, I'm, yeah, okay, may, maybe that sounds good, but I don't really believe it, so it's hard for us to try. So I wrote here that sometimes skepticism could be suspicion or mistrust. I think there's such, maybe you could call it a healthy skepticism where you're just having, you don't wanna believe anything right away. So you're questioning, I think that's reasonable. I wanna question it. I wanna examine it before I agree or give in to something or commit to something. The second thing though, maybe it turns into suspicion or mistrust, and I think that's what's happens with different religions or different practices. Sometimes we suspect them or mistrust them, and that's, nobody's saying that you have to leave what you believe or whatever, but I'm talking to the people out there who maybe are okay in their life. They're okay with everything. Their family is okay, but they don't, they feel like maybe they could go deeper into themselves. Maybe they have anxiety, maybe they have a little depression, or maybe they feel unsatisfied. Even though on the outside everything's okay. Maybe getting up every day and saying, oh, today's gonna be better, but then never feeling fully peaceful or satisfied Inside. I find that meditation, this type of meditation, raja yoga, meditation, can be very helpful. But the first premise is that you are a soul and your nature is peace. The skepticism that may come in there may keep us from trying this meditation, and that's what I'm talking about today. Why would we be suspicious? I think suspicion comes from memories of being hurt, or fear of being hurt or taken advantage of. I did another episode recently where I was talking about trust, and I was saying that on one level, maybe I'm trusting, or maybe I'm functioning okay, but on another level, maybe I still have negative thoughts about others. I still. Look at what they're saying and doing and make up stories about what they're thinking and how they're against me. And there's a lot of undercurrent of suspicion and fear going on underneath sometimes. I never really thought about it before because on the outside I was always trying to manage my external boundaries, but I found that once we master those external boundaries and I'm talking to, those of you out there. Who maybe are okay in that area? I'm okay. I'm okay saying, no, I'm okay. You know, I have my friends, I have my family. I'm okay out here. But internally, do I still have negative thoughts about people? Do I still mistrust people? Do I still feel angry at things? Do I still think that this is right and this is wrong? And I get aggravated when things aren't the way I think they should be? I think that that level is where meditation can really help us, especially if we begin to think of myself as a soul and I am peaceful and I'm good. That piece of information or that belief, that value, that idea will help to dissolve or help to heal all those negative thoughts inside. I was having a class the other day, last night actually, and one of the students asked me; Well would it be okay for me to just think that they're gonna get theirs eventually? Like their karma's gonna come back to them? I mean, I'm laughing because I'm sure we all have had that thought, but deeper in the in, in the heart, it's not funny in a way because. It's keeping us feeling like we wish something negative to happen on somebody. Do I really wish something negative in my heart? Actually, no, I don't. This is where we get deeper into this idea that deep in my heart, I'm good. Deep in my heart, I am pure, I am peaceful. I do wish well for everyone. Now, why am I bringing this up with skepticism? I feel that skepticism, mistrust and suspicion are all parts of the same level. And when we want to deal with that level and maybe get past that level, like, can I actually live without those negative, suspicious overthinking over evaluating others' behavior? Borderline paranoid even sometimes, right? I'm convinced that they hate me or I'm convinced that they don't know me or I'm convinced. Amazing how we can make ourselves believe these things. So I'm saying today that the spiritual practice, this raja yoga meditation with the spiritual practice of the first thought, I'm a soul. Second thought I am essentially good and essentially pure. And the third one is, my nature is peace. That thinking, that way of feeling and experiencing will begin to address those lower levels of suspicion and maybe skepticism to the point of not wanting to try. Like I'm not giving myself a chance to grow, maybe because of skepticism. At first, it's not easy to believe myself as good. I know for me, I didn't believe it. I mean, theoretically. Yeah. Okay. Theoretically, yes. I'm God's child. I'm a soul. I'm good. I'm peaceful. I'm loving. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I believe that intellectually. It was enough for me to practice it, but there was a ton of evidence to tell me how it's not true, and then wouldn't it make sense that I would look at others that way too? That they're not good, they're not trustworthy, they're not pure, they're not peaceful. It's funny, isn't it? There's more to it here than just the way we behave on the outside. There's a chance for us to actually be peaceful, to actually let go of some of that mistrust, some of that fear, some of that, like I said, sometimes even paranoia, and maybe open myself to a new way of interacting with myself and with others. So let's do a little reflection on this. Just to end the video, we'll do a little reflection. So sit quietly and just first reflection, just ask myself, do I find myself skeptical when new things come in front of me? Do I find myself mistrusting? Or wanting to protect myself when new things come up. Second reflection. If I do feel skeptical, does it stop me from trying new things? Do I get into my comfort zone? And I feel like I don't wanna move away from my belief system or be open to something new maybe. And then the third reflection. How have these feelings affected the way I look at others and the way I look at myself? Do I fear others? Do I make up stories about others? Do I resent others? Do I think that they're wrong? Do I wish that people would be different or situations would be different than they are? And does that keep me from feeling peaceful or feeling at ease in situations? Final reflection, number four. Let's look at the raja yoga principles here. Can I look at myself as a pure soul? Can I imagine myself in my heart as good, and can I entertain the idea that my original nature is peaceful? Okay, so think about that today. Maybe see if you can catch yourself being a little judgmental, suspicious, resentful, making up stories, skeptical to the point of not wanting to try or separating yourself from things. It's funny as I'm saying this, I'm like, my thought is like, oh, I hope this isn't too depressing. It's not meant to be depressing. It's meant to be like facing what's really there. I don't think we see this level. I think it operates all the time, judgment, this, that, and it's going on all the time and we're not able to touch it. So this looking at skepticism, looking at mistrust and, and looking at these ideas from raja yoga can help us access that level and transform it. So I will leave it there. Remember, our slogan is Heal, Empower, and Serve. And until next time, take care.
