A Christian grandfather of ten describes his peace shattered by anxiety about climate and politics whenever he holds a grandchild. Rupert Spira reframes — the greatest gift he can give them is to demonstrate experientially that peace is independent of what is taking shape in the world.
Transcript
I'm historically a Christian of many many years. I grew up in the Christian church and so I really appreciate it when you can relate the understanding to Christianity. It helps me a lot. My question has to do though with something that I struggle with that pulls me off of the understanding and that is hope especially hope for the future. I have uh I am blessed with with a blended family of five children. They are all married. They all live within an hour of me. [clears throat] And they now have children. And I have 10 grandchildren ages nine and under. I do pretty well until I pick up one of my one-year-old or my two-year-old or my three-year-old and they're smiling at me and it is divine. I can see literally their being in their eyes. It's amazing. But later the future starts to fall apart for me because of the dualistic world view that I see. Some of it has to do with climate. Some of it has to do with politics in America right now. And it destroys me. It ruins my [laughter] my peace and happiness to the point where I almost tell myself, I don't care anymore about my peace and happiness. I've got somebody else to care for. So, I'm just wondering if if you have I mean, this is I'm obviously somewhat of a novice yet. I'm not, you know, I can't say that I've achieved a complete understanding of awareness of my being, although I think I'm making progress. um what do I do about the future? How do I how do I think about it um or not [laughter] within the context of what we're talking about here? >> Paul, the greatest gift you can give your grandchildren is to demonstrate to them experientially, not verbally, >> okay? that their peace and happiness is independent of what is taking place in the world. >> Okay? >> If you could convey that to them by living it in your own life, then that would be the greatest gift a grandfather could give his grandchildren. >> And will that [clears throat] also ease my fears of the future? >> Will I feel better? discover that in order to convey that to your grandchildren, you will have first to discover that your own peace and happiness is independent of what takes place. So the answer is yes, it will. >> Okay. Okay. I I kind of knew what your answer was, but I I just need to hear it. It is pretty intense. It's pretty intense when you're picking up a one-year-old. >> It really is. I mean it's it's not easy I don't think to to feel peace and happiness and wonder where this dualistic world this is heading >> well if nobody else conveys this understanding if you don't convey this understanding to your grandchildren I suspect that nobody else will >> nobody else will yes >> so make it your sacred duty for the rest of your life to convey misunderstanding to them. >> That's it's I'm trying. Um >> I'm sure you are. >> I am trying. I'm sure you're doing very well. >> But I could use a little help. Yes. Thank you. Okay. [laughter] >> Nice to see you again, Paul. >> Nice to talk to you. Yes.