WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:04.200 There is a most uncomfortable phenomenon that occurs during spiritual awakening, 2 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:08.400 and it is one that people rarely speak about openly 3 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:11.480 because it seems to contradict everything we have been told 4 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:15.839 about what it means to become more spiritual, more evolved, 5 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:20.559 more conscious. The phenomenon is this, you begin to find 6 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.280 that you cannot stand being around most people any more. 7 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:28.160 Friends you once enjoyed now exhaust you. Family gatherings that 8 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:32.079 you used to tolerate now feel unbearable. Colleagues whose company 9 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:35.960 was once pleasant now great on your nerves. The majority 10 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.799 of human interaction begins to feel hollow, draining, deeply unsatisfying. 11 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:42.840 And this troubles you greatly? 12 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:43.280 Does it not? 13 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:48.719 Because surely you think, if you are becoming more spiritual, 14 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:52.679 more awakened, more enlightened, you should be becoming more loving, 15 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:57.000 more compassionate, more accepting of all people, regardless of their 16 00:00:57.079 --> 00:01:00.560 level of consciousness. You should be like the book or 17 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:06.560 the Christ, embracing all beings with unconditional love and understanding. Instead, 18 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:11.599 you find yourself withdrawing, avoiding, feeling irritated and exhausted by 19 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.599 the very people you are supposed to be learning to 20 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:17.280 love more deeply. So you wonder, have I become arrogant? 21 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:21.159 Am I judging people? Am I falling into spiritual pride 22 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:26.040 thinking myself better than others? Or perhaps the awakening process 23 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:28.920 has gone wrong somehow, Perhaps I am becoming less human 24 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:32.280 rather than more human, less connected rather than more connected. 25 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:37.920 Something must be amiss because this dislike, this aversion, this 26 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:41.159 inability to tolerate most people. Surely this cannot be a 27 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:43.879 sign of spiritual growth. But I want to suggest to 28 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.760 you that what you are experiencing is not only normal, 29 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:50.200 it is virtually inevitable during certain stages of awakening. 30 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:51.959 And it is not a sign. 31 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.200 Of failure or spiritual pride or loss of humanity. It 32 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.200 is a natural consequence of a very specific shift that 33 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:02.000 occurs in consciousness. If that temporarily creates a kind of 34 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:06.079 incompatibility between you and those who have not undergone this shift, 35 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:10.280 let me explain what I mean. Before awakening, you are 36 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.199 largely unconscious. You live in a kind of trance, a 37 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:18.919 collective dream that humanity shares. And in this trance you 38 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.879 relate to other people through shared illusions, shared beliefs, shared 39 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:28.759 assumptions about reality. You bond over complaints about life. You 40 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:32.639 connect through gossip and drama. You find common ground in 41 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:37.879 your mutual pursuit of success, status, pleasure, security. You commiserate 42 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:42.719 about problems, you compete for achievements. You perform various social roles, 43 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:45.039 and everyone else performs their roles, and there is a 44 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:48.240 kind of dance that everyone knows the steps too. And 45 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:52.319 in this state, socializing is relatively easy because everyone is 46 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:55.520 playing the same game, everyone is speaking the same language, 47 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:59.120 everyone is operating from the same basic assumptions. You may 48 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:02.439 have preferences for certain people over others, you may find 49 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:05.960 some company more pleasant than others, but fundamentally you can 50 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:09.000 get along with most people because you are all inhabitants 51 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.360 of the same dream. But then something begins to shift. 52 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:15.719 You start to wake up, and as you wake up, 53 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.159 you begin to see through the illusions that most people 54 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:21.120 are still living in. You recognize that the things people 55 00:03:21.159 --> 00:03:24.719 are obsessing about are ultimately meaningless. You see that the 56 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.759 dramas they are caught up in are self created. You 57 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:30.879 understand that the goals they are pursuing so frantically will 58 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:35.400 never bring the satisfaction they imagine. You perceive the unconscious patterns, 59 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.360 the mechanical behaviors, the reactive emotional loops that drive most 60 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:43.680 human interaction. And once you see these things, you cannot 61 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:46.319 unsee them. It is like watching a film and suddenly 62 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:48.520 becoming aware that you are watching a film, that these 63 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:51.520 are actors on a screen, that the story is not real. 64 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.080 And once you have this awareness, you cannot simply go 65 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:57.319 back to being absorbed in the plot as though nothing 66 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:57.960 has changed. 67 00:03:58.400 --> 00:03:59.759 The spell has been broken. 68 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:02.439 So now when you interact with people who are still 69 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:06.360 deeply identified with their roles, still completely absorbed in the drama, 70 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:09.400 still chasing the same empty goals and complaining about the 71 00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:14.400 same self created problems, there is a fundamental disconnect. They 72 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.879 are speaking a language you no longer speak. They are 73 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:21.560 playing a game you no longer play. They are asking 74 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:24.279 you to participate in a shared reality that you have 75 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:27.279 seen through and can no longer pretend to believe in. 76 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.759 And this creates a kind of exhaustion, a feeling of falseness, 77 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:35.000 of strain. You are being asked to meet people in 78 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:38.519 a place where you no longer reside. You are expected 79 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.920 to care about things you have recognized as ultimately unimportant. 80 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.399 You are supposed to participate in conversations that feel utterly 81 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:48.680 empty to pretend interest in dramas that you can see 82 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:52.240 are entirely self created to support pursuits. 83 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:53.079 That you know will lead nowhere. 84 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:57.120 Moreover, most people are operating at a very low level 85 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:00.600 of presents, a very high level of mental noise. They 86 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:03.879 are not actually here, not actually present in the moment. 87 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:08.399 They are lost in thought, in worry, in planning, in regret, 88 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:11.680 in fantasy. And when you interact with someone who is 89 00:05:11.720 --> 00:05:15.480 lost in thought, there is no real meeting, no genuine contact. 90 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:19.600 You are speaking to their mental construct of themselves, to 91 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:22.959 their idea of who they are, not to their actual being. 92 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:28.360 And this too becomes exhausting, because you have tasted genuine presents, 93 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:32.680 genuine contact, genuine meeting between beings who are actually here, 94 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:37.879 and once you have tasted this, the alternative feels deeply unsatisfying. 95 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.199 It is like having eaten real food and then being 96 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:45.000 offered plastic replicas of food. You can see that they 97 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:49.160 resemble food, but you cannot actually eat them, cannot actually 98 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:50.519 be nourished by them. 99 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:52.439 There is also the matter of energy. 100 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:57.560 Before awakening, you likely gave your energy away constantly, without 101 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:01.040 even realizing it. You allowed yourself to be drawn into 102 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:05.079 other people's dramas to take on their emotional states, to 103 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:07.959 be affected by their moods and opinions and judgments. 104 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:10.000 You were permeable in. 105 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.720 Ways that allowed people to drain you, to pull you 106 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:15.600 into their patterns, to use you as a receptacle for 107 00:06:15.639 --> 00:06:20.720 their unconsciousness. But as you awaken, you become more sensitive 108 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:24.839 to energy, more aware of these dynamics. You can feel 109 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:28.519 when someone is trying to draw you into drama. You 110 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:31.959 can sense when someone is attempting to offload their emotional 111 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:36.879 state onto you. You can perceive when interaction is actually 112 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:40.399 a form of energy vampirism, where one person is feeding 113 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.639 off the attention and reaction of another. And once you 114 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:47.560 become aware of these dynamics, you naturally begin to protect 115 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:52.079 your energy, to maintain boundaries, to refuse to participate in 116 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:56.279 these draining exchanges. But this means that many interactions that 117 00:06:56.360 --> 00:07:00.480 were once possible are no longer tolerable. People who are 118 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.399 unconsciously using you as a source of energy, as an 119 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:06.199 audience for their drama, as a mirror for their ego. 120 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:10.720 These people now feel uncomfortable, draining, even toxic to be around. 121 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.600 Let me be very clear about something. This is not 122 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:18.360 the same as judging people or thinking yourself superior to them. 123 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.120 You may have tremendous compassion for people who are suffering 124 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:26.480 in unconsciousness. You may wish them well, hope they find 125 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:30.120 their way to greater awareness and freedom. But compassion does 126 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.519 not require you to sacrifice your own well being, to 127 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:38.319 allow yourself to be drained, to participate in unconsciousness simply 128 00:07:38.360 --> 00:07:41.360 because others are still caught in it. It is rather 129 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.680 like someone who has recovered from a serious illness. They 130 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:47.040 may feel great compassion for those who are still sick, 131 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:50.079 but they do not deliberately make themselves sick again in 132 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.639 order to keep the sick people company. They maintain their health, 133 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:56.199 and from that place of health they may be able 134 00:07:56.199 --> 00:07:59.120 to help others, but they do not sacrifice their own 135 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:03.120 well being in the name of solidarity with suffering. Now, 136 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:06.879 there is another aspect to this phenomenon that deserves attention. 137 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:11.000 When you begin to awaken, you also begin to see 138 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:15.879 your own unconsciousness, your own patterns, your own ego structures 139 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.600 with greater clarity, and this can make you intolerant not 140 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.720 only of unconsciousness in others, but of any remaining unconsciousness 141 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:27.279 in yourself. You may become quite harsh with yourself when 142 00:08:27.319 --> 00:08:31.279 you notice yourself falling back into old patterns, acting from ego, 143 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:36.279 getting caught in mental drama. And this harshness toward yourself 144 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:40.639 can sometimes get projected outward so that you become harsh 145 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:44.240 and intolerant toward others who are displaying the very patterns 146 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:47.279 you are struggling with in yourself. This is important to 147 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:50.559 recognize because it is one form of this dislike of 148 00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:54.759 people that is actually problematic, that does stem from judgment 149 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:59.399 and spiritual pride rather than from genuine incompatibility. When you 150 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:04.360 find yourself of feeling superior to others, contemptuous of their unconsciousness, 151 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:09.159 annoyed by their spiritual immaturity, there is likely some shadow 152 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.639 work to be done, some recognition of your own remaining 153 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.960 unconsciousness that you are avoiding by focusing on the unconsciousness 154 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:21.200 of others. But even accounting for this shadow dynamic, there 155 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:25.480 remains a legitimate incompatibility that develops between those who are 156 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:29.919 awakening and those who are deeply asleep. And this incompatibility 157 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:32.759 is not a failure of love or compassion. It is 158 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:38.440 simply a recognition that genuine connection. Genuine relationship requires a 159 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:43.600 certain level of mutual presence, mutual awareness, mutual willingness to 160 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:47.600 meet in reality rather than in shared delusion. You cannot 161 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.039 have a real relationship with someone who is not present, 162 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:54.240 who is entirely identified with their thoughts and emotions and roles. 163 00:09:54.919 --> 00:09:57.879 You can have a functional relationship, perhaps you can perform 164 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:00.399 the social dance, but there is no depth to it, 165 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.240 no real intimacy, no genuine meeting of being to being. 166 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:07.639 And once you have experienced what real meeting feels like, 167 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:13.159 the shallow connections feel not just unsatisfying, but actually painful, 168 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.240 like a kind of betrayal of the possibility of genuine 169 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:20.720 human contact. Moreover, there is the simple fact that interests 170 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:24.919 change during awakening. Things that once fascinated you now bore you. 171 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:29.840 Conversations that once engaged you now feel trivial. Activities that 172 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:34.799 once brought pleasure now feel empty. And if your relationships 173 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:38.720 with people were based primarily on shared interests in these 174 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:42.320 things that no longer interest you, then naturally those relationships 175 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:46.840 become difficult to maintain. You cannot force yourself to care 176 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:50.759 about things you no longer care about. You cannot manufacture 177 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:55.279 enthusiasm for pursuits you have seen through you cannot pretend 178 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:59.279 to be absorbed in dramas that you recognize as illusions. 179 00:11:00.039 --> 00:11:02.279 And if people are expecting you to be the person 180 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.559 you were before to participate in the shared reality you 181 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.440 have left behind, then naturally you will feel a kind 182 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.360 of friction, a sense of wrongness, a need to withdraw. 183 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:16.320 This is why awakening so often involves a period of solitude, 184 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:21.320 of withdrawal from social life. It is not antisocial or misanthropic. 185 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:24.480 It is simply that the old ways of relating no 186 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:28.120 longer work, and the new ways have not yet fully formed. 187 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:32.879 You are between worlds, no longer able to participate fully 188 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:36.960 in the unconscious social reality, but not yet established in 189 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.320 a conscious way of relating that can include others. And 190 00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:46.399 during this transition period, solitude is not only preferable, it 191 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:47.240 is necessary. 192 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:48.840 You need space to. 193 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:52.000 Integrate the shifts that are occurring, to allow the old 194 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.200 patterns to fall away, to discover who you are when 195 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:57.440 you are not performing the social roles you have been 196 00:11:57.480 --> 00:11:58.879 conditioned to perform. 197 00:11:59.080 --> 00:11:59.919 You need time. 198 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.559 Alone to feel into your own being, to learn to 199 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:06.080 be present with yourself, to develop a relationship with your 200 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.440 own consciousness that is not mediated through the mirror of 201 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:13.360 other people's perceptions and expectations. This does not mean you 202 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:17.440 will be alone forever. As you stabilize in awakened awareness, 203 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:21.799 as you become more established in presence and authenticity, you 204 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.559 will likely find that you begin to attract different kinds 205 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:27.399 of relationships. You may find other people who are also 206 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:31.440 awake or awakening, people with whom genuine meeting is possible, 207 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.720 people who can relate from presence rather than from pattern, 208 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:39.600 from being rather than from role. These relationships feel entirely 209 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:43.120 different from the relationships you had before. There is an 210 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:47.879 ease to them, a naturalness, a lack of pretense and performance. 211 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:52.799 You can be yourself without adaptation or defense. You can 212 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:56.240 speak honestly without fear of judgment. You can simply be 213 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:00.159 together without needing to fill every moment with activity or conversation. 214 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:04.960 There is a recognition, a resonance, a sense of meeting 215 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:08.480 in a shared reality rather than in shared illusion. But 216 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:13.799 such relationships are rare, at least initially, and you may 217 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.440 go through a long period where you feel quite alone, 218 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.759 where you have few, if any people in your life 219 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:23.639 with whom genuine connection is possible, and this can be difficult. 220 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:28.240 Because humans are social creatures, we are wired for connection, 221 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.559 and the lack of it can feel like a kind 222 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:35.519 of starvation, even when we understand intellectually why the old 223 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:38.480 connections no longer work. The key is to not make 224 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:40.519 yourself wrong for what you are experiencing. 225 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:42.279 Do not force. 226 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:47.519 Yourself to maintain relationships that feel draining or false simply 227 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:51.080 because you think you should, because you are afraid of 228 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:54.639 being alone, because you do not want to hurt people's feelings. 229 00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:57.559 It is far better to be honestly alone than to 230 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.799 be falsely connected. It is far better better to withdraw 231 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:05.240 than to continue participating in unconscious patterns that you have outgrown. 232 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.879 At the same time, be careful not to become rigid 233 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.879 or closed. Not everyone who is still asleep is draining 234 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:16.480 or unbearable to be around. Some people, even in their unconsciousness, 235 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:21.799 have a sweetness, a kindness, an openness that makes their 236 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:27.840 company pleasant. Some people, though not awake, are at least curious, questioning, 237 00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:31.720 moving in the direction of greater awareness. These people you 238 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:35.120 may still enjoy, may still learn from, may still have 239 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:37.799 genuine exchanges with, even if the full depth of meeting 240 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:38.879 is not yet possible. 241 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:41.080 And remember that awakening is not. 242 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:44.360 A fixed state, but a process, a journey that unfolds 243 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:48.879 in stages. The period of intense intolerance for unconsciousness is 244 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:49.320 often a. 245 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:52.840 Phase that passes as you stabilize. 246 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:56.279 More deeply in awakened awareness, you often become more able 247 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:59.679 to be with all kinds of people without being pulled 248 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:03.360 into the the patterns, without being drained by their unconsciousness. 249 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.879 You develop a kind of spiritual immunity, so to speak. 250 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:09.159 You can be in the presence of drama without being 251 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:11.639 drawn into it. You can interact with people who are 252 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:13.720 asleep without falling back asleep yourself. 253 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:15.080 You can meet. 254 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:18.559 People where they are without needing them to be somewhere else. 255 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:21.159 This is not because you have learned to tolerate what 256 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:24.399 is intolerable, but because you have become so established in 257 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:27.120 your own center that you are no longer vulnerable to 258 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:30.559 being knocked off balanced by the unconsciousness of others. And 259 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:35.480 from this more stable place, genuine compassion becomes possible, not 260 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:38.720 the false compassion that sacrifices your well being for others, 261 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:43.759 but real compassion that sees clearly accepts what is and 262 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:48.039 offers what is genuinely helpful without attachment to results. You 263 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:50.879 can be present with people suffering without taking it on. 264 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:55.000 You can see their unconsciousness without judgment. You can offer 265 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:57.600 truth when it is asked for and silence when it 266 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:01.480 is not. But even from this more state, you will 267 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:05.559 likely find that your social circle has changed dramatically, that 268 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:08.879 most of the relationships you had before awakening have either 269 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:12.519 transformed or ended. That the people you now choose to 270 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.360 spend time with are very different from the people you 271 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:17.799 once surrounded yourself with, and. 272 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:19.559 This is as it should be. 273 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:25.120 You have changed, and your relationships naturally reflect that change. 274 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:29.159 So if you are in that uncomfortable phase where you 275 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:35.759 find yourself disliking people, withdrawing from social contact, feeling irritated 276 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:39.639 and exhausted by interactions that once seem normal, do not 277 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:43.720 make yourself wrong. Understand that this is a natural part 278 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:48.279 of the process, a temporary incompatibility that arises as you 279 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:51.960 shift from one mode of consciousness to another. Give yourself 280 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:56.279 permission to withdraw, to be alone, to protect your energy 281 00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:00.799 and your peace, and trust that as you continue to awaken, 282 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:05.680 as you stabilize in presence and authenticity, the right relationships 283 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:09.799 will emerge, connections that are based not on shared illusion, 284 00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:13.599 but on shared reality, not on unconscious pattern but on 285 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:17.480 conscious presence, not on mutual ego reinforcement, but on genuine 286 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:21.400 meeting of being to being. These relationships are worth waiting for, 287 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:24.480 worth being alone, for worth letting go of all the 288 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:28.279 false connections for because in the end, it is not 289 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:31.759 about how many people you know, or how popular you are, 290 00:17:31.880 --> 00:17:33.759 or how full your social calendar is. 291 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.160 It is about the quality of your. 292 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:40.759 Connections, the depth of your meetings, the authenticity of your relationships. 293 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:44.839 And one genuine connection with another conscious being is worth 294 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:48.160 a thousand superficial relationships with people who are still asleep.