Tao of Yummi Sutra 66

Learn What’s Most Important at University of the Universe: Where Cosmic Rubber Meets Infinite Road

The wisdom to find your great teacher and serve unquestioningly can mean many different things…but it’s not about giving up responsibility for the most intimate of relationships– that of yourSelf to the Universe. It’s the most intimate relationship because it’s yours alone. What you serve unquestioningly, a.k.a. believe in, is that authentic value is yours to give, and what you do matters. Belief unlocks insight.

Alone doesn’t mean isolation, because you’re not alone in that way. Here, alone refers to the point where the proverbial rubber meets the road — yourSelf and the current moment. You can be surrounded by other beings, but you’re the only one able to perceive this great intersection of all that is. It’s source material, here in the phenomenal world.

You’re an essential expression of the Universe, part of the fabric of all that is.

When you hear a voice shouting that you’re “less than,” it’s just that pesky little Ego, in its limited perspective, expressing its own authentic nature as connective tissue between the limited and the unlimited — physical, phenomenal experience and the rest of reality in all its dimensions (both within and beyond Space-Time). Ego might not be skillful, but it’s trying to do a job.

Without the limited, there would be no reason for Ego to exist, so give the little guy a break. Ego will have its childish tantrums. A child’s tantrum is something that requires your love, gentleness, and patience, but it’s certainly not words to live by.

Far from “less than,” original Self is unlimited. It’s where you come from and where you go to. In between, you’re here, a physical being, limited but living into purposeful and learning mindfulness and serendipity for the next grand adventure, whatever that may be.

Doing It: This is yourSelf’s authentic vantage point — where the rubber meets the cosmos. Experience the infinite. Take a seat. Close your eyes. Follow your breath out and your body will pause and then breathe in on its own. Imagine being created by nature in each moment. Now imagine creating each moment. You can experience this with meditation, whatever form it takes for you.

Existence, Your Great Teacher

The truth already exists, connected to every fiber of your being. But you don’t know it all, already…at least, not at a conscious level. This situation lends meaning as you learn from the unfolding of the Universe.

As an essential expression of the Universe, you’re destined to become more yourSelf, moment by moment, as distractions fall away. Your soul is seasoned with the passing of time. The degree of openness (the beating heart of non-attachment) that you’ve worked to achieve determines the degree of seasoning.

People can go through existence with blinders on, detaching from all that’s painful and feeding that big cosmic ball of ignorance, but this isn’t you. You know you’ve got to feel it first if you’re going to transform it. Pain can be handed down through generations if shadow isn’t transformed. Detachment is denial, and denial buries shadow deep down where it gains its own momentum, growing into something much worse that will resurface.

Attachment gets in the way as well, and carries you out of the moment, away from the opportunities to live into purpose. You know what it’s like, accessing the news cycle and feeling the outrage. You attach to outrage — a toxic mix of fear and anger that only produces more. Attachment to expectation and all you can see is that expectation for the future. Blinded to all else by, or disappointed when expectation differs from reality, there’s no clarity in attachment. It gets in the way of feeling more and seeing more.

Doing It: The cycle of truth, resonance and realization is the cycle of transformation to meaning and fulfillment. Deep inside, the truth resonates because you’re connected to it, but haven’t yet realized it. In realizing the truth, you weave your wisdom and pass it on.

The Gift of Beings

Realize compassion for yourSelf to know true compassion for others. If you cannot open your heart to helping the one you know better than anyone, how can you open your heart to all other beings?

You know the feeling when you’re beating up on yourSelf. It probably happened in the shower or on the drive home from work. You replayed a moment in your mind and wished you had done something differently. You critiqued yourSelf and replayed it over and over, like a theater of shame. Grasping the memory pulls you out of the moment and away from openness to your opportunity to create meaning and live into purpose. Even on the ride home, there are opportunities for you to manifest so much purpose — insight, creativity, inspiration, love and more. Remember — beating up on yourSelf is only a temporary state until you choose to stop, then you’re done and onto the next thing.

The beings on the road with you have something to teach if you’re paying attention. Someone who cuts you off can teach you about gratitude and respect both by showing you what not to do as well as its flip-side, the way you want to be. The opportunity comes in how you react to being cut off. Do you yell and scream, or maneuver to safety and get back to the business of living into purpose? Maybe it’s a creative opportunity that you’re mulling over in your mind and maybe it’s just laying your emotional reaction to the other driver out in front of you so that you can hone your practice of feeling, making a choice whether or not to engage, and then using your evergreen mindfulness tool, the question, “What’s really going on here?”

Doing It: It doesn’t stop there. You’re grateful that these other beings live in continuous teaching mode…but where would you be without the opportunity to live into purpose by helping? This is the deep nature of compassion. Living into purpose, you perceive the opportunities to help as they arise. Then, without imposing what you think others should be feeling, you simply help. It’s what you do. Your integrity is who you are.

See with More than Eyes

There is great power in what eyes cannot see. You can live at the surface where what you see with your eyes is the sole conscious stimulus to act and react — no deeper search for meaning. But all that you don’t see still exists. Cosmic balls of shadow continue to exert a gravitational pull. You continue making meaning, but since you won’t see it with your eyes, do you feel fulfillment? No, you trust in deeper meaning. See with more than eyes.

Imagine that one you respect disappears from your life and only your life. This other’s life unfolds in social media, but all traces of them in your relationship have gone. It’s painful, and the pain comes from what eyes don’t see…memories, the artifacts of a relationship, no longer refresh. You wonder what you did but may never know. Ask the other, and there’s silence. The relationship transformed into shadow, darkness so deep, nothing’s visible.

You can attach to shadow. Ego pipes up, “It’s your fault.” Was it? You know the regard you have and the way you treat others. Perhaps this one travels in shadow and doesn’t know how to deal with it. You may never know, but assuming responsibility means living attached to shadow, whatever the source.

Doing It: Ask yourSelf, “What’s really going on here?” You’re reaching out. You care. You’re hurt. They seem to be well, but they’re not returning your messages. See that? They’re not returning your messages. Have you ever completely ignored another’s messages? It may have seemed necessary because you knew no other way. Would you do it again? Metabolize that shadow. Then you’ll know compassion for one who disappears and be free.

Progress While You Sleep

What if you already knew that you’d figure it out? You always have. Why should this time be any different? It will work…but you’ve got to believe.

Belief is the clean energy of childhood. Relentless joy and resilience thrive in absence of the doubts that adults collect over a lifetime. Time to stop hoarding and clean house.

There’s a part of you who believes around the clock. Belief fuels forward momentum, even while you sleep. Your progress is evaluated, your lesson plan modified, and “the work” receives comments, questions, and reactions without your having to be conscious. The Universe runs this deep in you because you’re a part of it.

It’s you, in the eternal now, living into purpose, alive in the moment, and ready for what comes. Authentic value is yours to give. It’s Ego who continuously compares you to others. Ego thinks it can drive you by cracking the whip, “you’re less than,” but you know better. You’re collecting experience and becoming more yourSelf with each moment.

Destiny and free will exist together. You’re free to choose, but all roads lead to you in the current moment. Your destiny is to become more yourSelf, the one with the most experience and progress.

Doing It: Forgive yourSelf. All memories are past moments that cannot be changed — so why attach to them, replaying them over and over, letting them carry you away from the current moment and all that is? What justice does beating yourSelf up achieve? The direction you face is forward, into the opportunity to create value. Right now is where you can make a difference. Become mindful in the moment and open to all that is.

All Along the Cosmic Watchtower

Make today a day to treat yourSelf well, but do it mindfully. That way you’ll be creating the change you wish to see while doing yourSelf a solid.

It’s not about buying yourSelf jewelry or a new outfit. You want to do things that are good for yourSelf. Feed yourSelf good food. Appreciate each bite and add to that big ole ball o’ cosmic gratitude. Go to a place that empowers you. Dedicate significant time to creating authentic value through a project that YOU want to do. Do it YOUR way.

Doing It: Make your mantra, “I’ve got my red guitar, three chords, and the truth.” Start here and define your brand…even if it’s just for the day. When in doubt, let your mantra lead.

Your red guitar is authenticity. It’s the choices you make, your taste, your personality, your experience, history, preferences…all rolled into one. It’s that special way you do things.

Your three chords are your skill set. What do you know how to do? It doesn’t take a college degree or a black belt to know how to do something. Maybe you can dance. Maybe you can draw. Maybe you can bake…on top of the more formal skill-based training, you’ve had, like how to code, practice law or fix a car.

The truth is just this: the truth. Live so that you have nothing to hide. A lack of transparency just contributes to anxiety and doubt.

So you’ve got what you need, now what are you going to do with it? Something that comes from love. Something that love inspires. Something creative that springs from the inspiration.

…and be kind. Kind to yourSelf, gentle as you would be with a small child. Do this all day long, and you’ll have been good to yourSelf for a day. The only question left is, why not do it more often?

…AND IF you found value here, please click that li’l GREEN HEART to help share it with others you love and respect…even if you’ve yet to meet them. Thank you!

This is Tao of Yummi, Sutra 66.

The Tao of Yummi is a serial conscious cartoon strip about finding your way to the delightful and unexpected through purpose and mindfulness. If you’re living into purpose and mindful in the moment, you’ll open to the infinite love, inspiration, and creativity that is already yours.

Infinite love and gratitude, as ever, to Kris Smith, Jake Nelder, Ben Nelder, Amy Nelder, Peter Rutter, Jan Kadrie, Kaleo Sallas, Meika Cooper, Laura Hoffman, Joni Woolard, Korbin von Stentzsch, Malia Henriks, Alex Tanassi, Ben Cooper, Danna Colman, Srinath, Neal Gorenflo, John Heinsen, Glase Lomond, Derek Sivers, Jay Lauf, Max Schorr, Ben Goldhirsh, Casey Caplowe, Oprah Winfrey, Julie M Jensen, and Amy Jo Martin!

Yummi Delish a.k.a. Jeff Nelder

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…talkin' 'bout purpose, mindfulness & Serendipity. We are all essential expressions of the Universe. This is your authentic Self. Welcome friends!

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