Video Blog Transcription:

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At one point when I was studying with my teacher, I’d been studying with him for quite a while, and one day he presented me with a hawk feather. And it was beautiful. He had wrapped the shaft in these different colored threads.

And I was blown away. It was a big deal because he was a strict teacher, and he didn't just give out stuff like this very often. In a sense you kind of had to, I wouldn't say earn it, but you had to show some devotion for sure. You know?

And so I was really touched. And he sat down and just looked at me in the eye and said, “Now go become it.” And it was probably years later until I really understood what that meant. As the shaman, he’s the representative of Spirit. So he's saying, ”I (and Spirit) see this potential in you. Now go and become it.”

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I was viewing it like, “Oh I earned the feather, right? I'm so spiritual that I earned the feather." And he was like, “No, no, no, now you're in the ballpark so you can even understand what a feather is. Spirit sees this potential in you, you've awakened the potential. Now go become it, go walk with it in your everyday life."

And it was a big difference, maybe subtle, but a difference between like you've attained the feather, and the feather is a representation where Spirit sees your potential.

And so another example, similar, but from a totally different tradition, Zen Buddhism. Well, Adyashanti who is a contemporary Zen teacher. He said a similar thing. Adyashanti works a lot to help people awaken to their true nature. And so he was talking about spiritual awakening as he often does.

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And he said, “Often your first spiritual awakening is almost a gift from Spirit. You almost stumble upon it. You may even not really know what you're doing. And so Spirit’s showing you “Here is your true nature. Here's what your true nature is like. Now go and figure out how to walk with that and how to be in that state.” As he would say, how to embody that state.

So I think that was a really interesting perspective. And we can learn a lot about how Spirit is expecting something from us. I think we're often like, “Oh Spirit, give me this, gimme, gimme.” But this asks, “What does Spirit want from us?” It’s kind of an interesting question.

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Spirit's counting on us to walk in our true nature, to be our awakened self in our everyday life. To be the Shaman or have the feather, which is the connection. The hawk is the messenger between this world and the next. To carry that connection with all of life in your everyday life. To become that.

And so it's a pretty serious challenge. It's like Spirit or God, if you will, creator is saying, “Here, I see this potential now go become it.” And I just think it's really cool. It is challenging, there's a lot of responsibility that goes with it. But it’s another perspective that I thought I would share with you.

And so that is my video for this week. Thank you for watching. I hope you have an awesome week and that you find a way to actualize what spirit sees in you. Or maybe even ask yourself, “What does Spirit see in you?” Or maybe ask Spirit, “What do you see in me?” So enjoy your week, and I will see you next week.