In today’s episode Robbie & his partner Kandra interview Chris & Deb Wise. Chris shares about the 1st of the 7 teachings: Truth.
This is a deep dive episode into the Creator’s Truth, and how you can apply this teaching to yuor life.
This is the second of an 8 (or more) part series with Chris all on the 7 Teachings. This episode Covers the 1st teaching of Truth. This is a deep dive into God’s Truth and how you can apply this in a practical and tangible way in your life… So that you can live a more “awakened life”.
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The 7 Teachings are:
1. Truth
2. Honesty
3. Courage
4. Bravery
5. Respect
6. Humility
7. Wisdom
I am personally SO excited to share this with you, as Chris has been a major mentor, elder and friend upon my path. I love these stories and I am grateful you can experience them too.
(00:00) Introduction to Awakened Living Podcast
(02:28) Ceremony Opening and Prayer (02:28)
(04:01) Chris’s Background and Seven Teachings
(09:07) Understanding Truth
(15:08) Nature’s Truth and Human Impact
(18:59) Finding Truth Through Ceremony
(26:28) Robbie’s Journey to Truth
(33:14) Humility and Truth
(41:29) Respecting Nature and Medicine
(51:03) Living in Harmony with Creation
(01:00:52) Closing Thoughts and Next Steps
Welcome to the Awakened Living podcast with Robbie J. Bone. Through ancient & modern spiritual practices, we offer valuable tools, practices & wisdom to enhance your Human Experience.
In today’s episode, Robbie shares teachings from an interview with his elders, Chris & Deb Wise.
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please subscribe and share this with someone who can benefit, so we can help more people live an Awakened Life. For more information on upcoming men’s group’s, or to book a free call, follow this link.
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Notes
🌟 Introduction to the Series (00:02 – 05:07)
Robbie J. Bone welcomes listeners to the Awakened Living Podcast
This is part two of a series with Chris and Deb Wise
Focus on ‘Truth’ – the first of the Seven Teachings
Chris explains how he came to these teachings through a life-changing train incident
These teachings are universal but known by different names in different Native traditions
Chris refers to them as the ‘Seven Grandfather Teachings’ in the tradition of the Odawa people
🌎 Understanding Truth (05:08 – 18:31)
Truth is presented as the first teaching because it’s a foundation and starting point
When you understand truth, you can never be lost – it serves as a compass
Chris encourages people to spend a month seeking truth through nature and prayer
Individual truth vs. Creator’s truth – everyone has their own perception of truth
The Creator’s truth is the only one that ultimately matters
Creation itself embodies truth – everything in nature does exactly what it was designed to do
🌅 The Dawn Walker Teaching (18:32 – 31:28)
Chris shares the Adawa teaching of the dawn walker
Going out before dawn to witness nature’s awakening
Birds sing to wake up plants and then pray for humans before dawn
The sound of dawn is described as ‘the sound of creation’
The Creator asks us to greet him every morning and join in prayer
Chris discusses how nature rebounded during COVID lockdowns
He instructs listeners to use tobacco as an offering when praying at dawn
🔄 Living with the Creator (31:29 – 42:27)
Chris shares how he took the Creator to work with him as an HVAC technician
He could solve problems much faster because he worked ‘with’ the Creator
His wife Deb shares a story about how she heard the Creator’s voice too
Chris explains the importance of taking God with you in all aspects of life
Talks about not just turning to the Creator in difficult times but bringing him to good times too
Taking God to work resulted in extraordinary productivity and problem-solving abilities
💡 Finding Truth and Confronting Shadows (42:28 – 54:30)
Robbie discusses how finding truth sometimes requires facing inner shadows
Chris shares a story about a young man who was sent to sit in a field of daisies for a day
When the young man found truth, he felt ‘dirty’ – this is described as appropriate
Chris emphasizes forgiving yourself for not living up to truth
The process of cleaning up one’s life should be done gradually – ‘one corner at a time’
Most lies we tell are to ourselves about our environment and self-importance
When aligned with the Creator’s truth, miracles happen around us
🌿 Respecting Nature’s Medicine (54:31 – 01:04:32)
Discussion about different paths to truth, including plant medicines
Warning against taking shortcuts to spiritual connection through plant medicines
Concern that overuse is causing medicines to go extinct
Chris emphasizes that spiritual effects come from how you live, not what you consume
Deb shares a personal story about improperly harvesting sage and having an allergic reaction
Importance of asking permission and being respectful when gathering natural medicines
Each plant community is described as a ‘village’ that should be approached with respect
🙏 Living with Permission and Destiny (01:04:33 – 01:15:14)
Story about a young Chris trying to ‘help’ a tortoise cross the road
His grandfather admonished him for interfering with the tortoise’s destiny
Later they found the tortoise dead on the road – illustrating that it was meant to be
Important teaching: ‘Live life by permission rather than forgiveness’
Only the Creator knows each being’s destiny
Humans shouldn’t interfere with other beings’ paths without permission
Importance of humility in recognizing the Creator’s greater purpose
🔄 Conclusion and Next Episodes (01:15:15 – 01:17:14)
Gratitude expressed for the opportunity to share these teachings
Reminder to bring truth and the Creator into every moment of life
Announcement that part 3 will focus on the second teaching: honesty
Request for listeners to leave reviews and comments
Invitation to share experiences and perspectives
Hey everyone. Robbie J.
Bone here. And welcome today’s episode of the Awakened Living Podcast. And this is a follow up podcast and part two of our series with Chris and Deb Wise. So hopefully you caught the last episode, which was the introduction to the Seven Teachings. And in this episode we go into the first, the Seven Teachings, which is truth. And this episode is very potent. We go very deep into the Creator’s truth and how you can unlock that in your life, how you can find it. And I hope that it inspires you, I hope that it helps to light that fire of love and joy and beauty within your heart. And I also encourage you to listen from your heart to this episode. There’s some really strong teachings in this.
And whenever we encounter strong medicine, it’s really important that we discern what is for me and what is not for me. Take what serves you, take what serves your soul and take what serves your path. And the rest isn’t for you. So inviting you to go in with that and to really enjoy today’s episode. We’d love to hear from you. So if you enjoyed this episode, if you enjoy the other episodes, please leave a comment, please leave a review. Give us some of those nice stars. You know, it makes a really big difference and allows us to grow and reach more people with these messages. So I hope you enjoy today’s episode and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
All right, welcome everybody. We are back sitting with Chris and Deb Wise and my partner Robbie and myself, Kandra. And yeah, we’re sitting down to have a conversation and hear some more stories and teachings around the teaching of truth within the umbrella of the seven teachings, the seven grandfather teachings that Chris has shared and Deb has learned and shared. And they embody these beautifully. And we want to share more with you guys. So thanks for t. And yeah, get cozy, make some tea and just open your heart and your ears to listen and feel and be with us for the next hour or so. And I’ll pass it to Robbie to share a little prayer.
Okay, so, yeah, inviting you to tune into this prayer with your heart, wherever you’re at in this moment and join us in the ceremony of Truth. So, Creator, we come before you, Mother Earth, sacred ones from the sacred directions, those beings of pure love, pure truth, pure peace of the east and the south, the west and the north, below, above and within the teachings, the spirits, the powers of truth and honesty, courage and bravery, respect, humility and wisdom. We ask that you join us in this space, that each person who Is witnessing and learning from this.
This call can receive the understanding they need, receive the knowledge they need, the insights, the breakthroughs, the epiphanies to overcome whatever is blocking them in their life, Whatever mistruths they’re living, that this call can support them to ground into truth that we can share from our hearts, listen from our hearts, and that the power of love can guide us in our life in a good way. So thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Yeah. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity. It’s a real honor to share these things. Had a great time last week. Really, really fun. We got some feedback on it. My daughter said, lose the mustache.
Well, the truth is, he looks a lot younger now, so.
So she said I had to be more presentable. So here I am presenting. So a shout out to my daughter, Kayla. I wanted to kind of follow up a little bit from what we talked with last week in regards to how I came to the teachings. And these things that align for me in such a profound and deep way was like a guide that pulled me in the direction that I ended up walking. You know, the train. The train accident or incident was a. A pivotal point in my life. It is the time when the creators stopped my world. Prior to that, I had a lot of really great teachers. First and foremost, the creator. And then, of course, Red Hawk. And we talked about him and the foundation that he laid before me. Out west, they call these teachings the seven principles.
So I understand that these are universal teachings, both spiritually around the world and from coast to coast in the native culture, though they call them different things in different tribes. Okay. I refer to the seven grandfather teachings in the tradition of the Odawa people. And that is because I live in northern Michigan at this time, and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I also like the way that feels to me because I used to love to sit with my grandfather and visit. It was like my favorite thing to do was sit around the fire at night with him every night, talk, you know, and converse and learn and hear his wisdom. And so the thought of seven grandfathers coming down to share wisdom with me is. Warms my heart, makes me feel real good. And so I like that.
That teaching or the way that they present that teaching of the seven grandfathers. The teachings that I received from my grandfather are slightly different than the way that the adow will present their teachings. Okay. So I presented the way that I was raised with it and the way that I was taught. Truth is the first teaching. The reason that I teach Truth that way is because it’s a foundation, It’s a starting point. If you understand truth, then you know where to begin, and you can never be lost. That means 10 years from now, if you get lost on your way and you lose track of stuff, all you have to do is go back and find truth and you’ll be back on your path. So truth is a great barometer. It’s a compass.
It tells us where that true north is in our lives, in our hearts. It always is where the Creator sits. It’s where that light sits. And you can always go back to truth, find truth again, and you’ll find the Creator and creation. And when you do that, you can never be lost. You can always go back, no matter how chaotic and crazy your life gets. That’s the beauty about truth. And that’s why, in our tradition, we always started with truth as the first teaching. So I say to people, take a month. Go find it. Spend every day thinking about it, praying about it, meditate on it. Focus your whole month to it. Give a month to that teaching. Understand truth through and through. When I talk about truth, I mean, we all have our own truth, right?
We all believe in our own stuff, right? And it’s all based upon the environment, the conditioning, who our parents were, the region that we grew up in. You know, like somebody’s truth is in Africa is going to be totally different than my truth because of the environment and the region that they grew up in, the traditions that they grew up in. So what they know to be true is going to be different than what I know to be true. Truth is a individual experience, isn’t it? You know, my truth, your truth? Everybody has their own, right? It’s kind of like opinions, right? So question is, what’s. What’s the real truth? What’s the truth between your truth and my truth? What’s the real truth? What is truth? What is it to be truthful?
Because if I sit here and I say, well, in my truth, the world is green, and you say, no, in my truth, the world’s blue, which. Which is true, which is the reality? Where’s it all at? How do we know the difference between one person’s truth and another person’s truth and the real truth? It’s important to know who truth are you seeking. I hear people say, I. I go to the church I find is most comfortable for me, the one I get the most out of. Hey, if you’re getting the most out of it, great. I applaud that. But my guess is you pick the tr. The church that tells you what you want to hear. You’re not picking the church that’s telling you the truth. Because the truth is hard. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. Real truth is not easy.
Real truth is humbling. Real truth stops your world. That’s real true. And if your truth isn’t that kind of a truth, then you haven’t found God’s truth because his truth is the only one that matters. The Creator’s truth. If you look at creation, they’re the only things that do what God designed them to do. And they do it without fail. They live a truthful life. Whether it’s a tree, a blade of grass, a cockroach or worm, ants, a spider, a snake, a bird. Everything in nature does what it was built to do. They live their purpose as the Creator laid before them to do. They provide the earth with the medicine that the Creator gave to them and to them alone. That’s true living. 100%. What the Creator made you to be is true.
If you go out to nature and you look at nature, you’ll see what it is to be true, to live truth. So it is in nature that we go to find true. One of the great Adawa teachings is the teaching of the dawn walker. I love that teaching and I probably got it wrong or parts of it, but my understanding is that you go out every morning before the dawn. That’s a special time of the day because early in the morning the birds, they start chirping at pre dawn before the sun comes up, they start singing and they sing to wake up all the plants. They’re like the plant alarm clock. It’s so cool.
And if you’ve ever gone out and sat in nature silently and quietly and listen for that time when they wake up, all of the nature in that predon, they say. And then for a brief moment they go silent just before the dawn crest the horizon. Because they go into prayer. And here’s what’s nuts. They’re praying for us. They’re praying that we’ll get it right. That today we’ll wake up and meet the dawn walker and we’ll join them in prayer and talk to the Creator. They pray that every morning for us that will come into balance in our lives and stop destroying everything in our path, consuming everything we run into, stop treating everything as a commodity. They pray that every morning then the dawn comes up. And if you listen real careful, you pay attention, it makes a sound.
And if you have never heard that sound, then you have never heard anything in your life because it is the most profound sound that you will ever hear. It is the sound of creation, the very beginning of it, how it all started. And every day, the Creator gives us a reminder of what it sounds like when he first started creation. And all he asks us to do is take that moment every morning, join the birds in prayer, and greet him every morning. That’s all he asks. Nobody does it, though. Very few people, maybe.
After hearing this story, I’m feeling pretty convinced, seeing all those little plants out there.
You go out, we use tobacco in our culture, in our way. We use tobacco because that’s the medicine of the dawn. That’s how we ask questions and prayers. And you make that offering. You get some tobacco, you put it in your left hand, and you hold it close to your heart, and you go out and you listen. And when the birds pray, you pray with the birds for humanity. Don’t pray to heal nature. Don’t pray to heal the planet. Don’t pray to heal the birds. Pray to heal humanity. And I say that because the Creator showed me something very unique out of COVID Everybody complained about being on lockdown and being upset, and everything stopped. You know, the supply chain stopped, and, oh, my God.
And, you know, I can’t get out of my apartment, and I got to stand on the porch and clang pans and sing songs and find a different way to entertain myself. But here’s what happened. The world came to a screeching halt. We stopped manufacturing, polluting, and making and tearing up nature. And in that one year’s time, nature rebounded for the first time since the 1600s, 1500s, fish were swimming in Venice canals. You know, I mean, nature came back, and it only took a short year for it to start poking its head out and getting in our way again, right? Oh, we all came out of lockdown. We were like, oh, what are all these animals doing everywhere? You hear the reports about it all the time. It’s crazy. If we just leave nature alone, it’ll take care of it. The planet will renew itself.
The water will clean itself. The plants will clean the water. Okay? All of nature has this balance. It can heal. It can heal really fast if we just take a step back, leave it alone for a few. Just leave it alone. Join the birds and pray for humanity. As humanity has lost its purpose, we find that purpose again. Walking and talking with the Creator. Take your tobacco out. Meet the dawn walker. Make a prayer with the birds. Hold that tobacco to your heart in your left hand, and Then offer it to the ground. Put a prayer in it for humanity, that we would find love again, that we would know love. Ask to know the Creator’s truth in that moment.
Put that prayer in that tobacco and put that tobacco on the ground, give it to the Creator and ask to know the Creator’s truth. Do that every morning for a month. I guarantee before that month is out, you will know the truth. I guarantee it. I have been doing this for a good number of years, and there is nobody I have met that has gone out there with earnestness and done it for the right reason, which is to know God’s truth that hasn’t found that truth. Okay, Go find truth. Go find the Creator’s truth. And stop. Stop thinking your truth is so important. It’s not. It’s his truth that’s important. It’s the Creator’s truth that’s important. It’s how you live his truth that matters, not how you live your own. That’s true. That’s how you find it.
Anytime I’ve been in a spot in my life where everything goes haywire, goes to, so to speak, you know, like, I get fired and I lose my job and my girlfriend leaves and oh, my God. And you know, we’ve all had those times, right? I go find truth. I just go back to the woods and I’ll sit out there as long as it takes. Sometimes it’s a week, sometimes it’s two, sometimes it’s a month. But I don’t go back to society until I know the truth again. It’s important to know the truth. It’s important. I don’t know what else you can say. Go find the truth.
Simple.
I think, you know, Robbie has gone on that journey with me. I think Robbie had never got his experience. It was amazing. And I’d like him to share that if he could. I don’t know where we at with time?
Yeah, let’s do it. I was going to say I never got off the journey. We’re still doing it.
This is a ceremony. People go out and be in a ceremony for a month and find God’s truth. Join him in ceremony. Join the bir. Join him every morning. It’s hard, especially in the winter. It’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard. I know. If you want to wait till spring, I get it. Anyway. Go ahead, Robbie. I want to hear your story. Was a good story. So. Yeah.
I remember when I first met Chris. It was a number of years ago after the last year of my vision quest down in Colorado. And we Did a sweat lodge together. And I had heard stories of Chris from some of the other folks around, but I hadn’t actually met him yet. And it was funny because I remember actually before the vision quest, or. No, maybe it was right after. Anyways, at some point, were up at your house doing lodge with Deb was there, and I was like, she’s like, oh, Chris isn’t here. He’s on vacation. And I was imagining you, like, on the beach in Hawaii, but in reality, you’d, like, taken your motorbike and driven out to Michigan and were doing, like, really deep ceremony with your elders out there. And it was just funny because I feel like it was a.
It was a moment of just. Yeah, how appreciating your contrarian nature and how sometimes people misperceive you. And when I first met you, there was a misperception just in that of like, you know, not fully seeing the truth of. Of where you were standing. So all that being said, we did lodge and I made some prayers in the lodge, and I was feeling. I was going through a rough time in my life and feeling a lot of poor me. And feeling really stuck in a story of, like, feeling powerless in my life and powerless to certain situations I’d found myself in relationships that I found myself in. And even though I could see some of my parts of it, I couldn’t fully see what was really going on.
And, you know, looking back, I see that there was many human dynamics, but when I look back with the lens of truth, I see that it was the beginning of a hero’s journey, that through my pain and my suffering and my difficulty and the heartbreak that I was going through, that it drove me to seek out answers and to seek out guidance. And that’s what brought me down to Colorado and completing that commitment with the vision quest and finding myself with Chris. And so I made the prayers. And, you know, if any of you guys have been to ceremony, it’s common. You make the prayers and you do the thing and you eat the food afterwards and go home. And often your life doesn’t always change that much. And we can kind of go on that hamster wheel for. For many years.
I know I did for many years. And this time was different. I made the prayers, we ate the food, and then before I know it, me and Chris are talking till, like, 2 in the morning. And he’s just sharing all these teachings because he’d sat in front of me in that lodge and heard my prayers. And not just heard the prayers that I Was speaking as a human, but heard my soul and my spirit and what my spirit was really asking for. And at that point, my. My humanness didn’t really. I wasn’t connected fully, so I didn’t actually know what my spirit wanted. So I was just fumbling around with my human prayers Rather than praying from my heart and my soul. And so we talked, and. And then I was driving home, and I remember he had given me his number.
And it was like, four in the morning at this point. I’m driving back, and I’m thinking, like, you know, do I. Do I call him? I had this issue that I want to talk to him about. I was like, do I call him? And spirit was just so loud, like, yes, you have to call him. I was like, this seems inappropriate. It’s like 4 in the morning, but all right, I’m gonna do it. And I type in the number and call him up. And he’s like, hey, what’s up? And I was like, I need to talk to you about these things. And he was like, yeah, I knew someone was gonna call. I was like, what? He’s like, yeah, a big, huge bear just came to my window and started growling and woke me up out of bed.
And then I got up and, you know, my phone started ringing. And right there was the beginning of a pretty epic journey. So, all that being said, he basically gave me that ceremony and said, you know, go. Go find truth. And I remember that when you gave that ceremony, there was something inside of me that was like, I know I need to do this. Like, I need to do this with all my heart, and I need to do this. Like, this is my life. Like, you know, this is my number one priority. And it was this deep decision that I made in that moment. And so when I got home, I started getting up. I got up with the dawn, But I actually went up and climbed a mountain. Every day. There was this hike I did, and I would get up.
It was around 4 in the morning because this is in July. Drive, you know, get my coffee, get my water, drive to the mountain, get out. It’s still pitch dark. Hike up with a headlamp, get to the top and start my prayers and my offerings. And I think it was on maybe the fourth day. I was praying up on the hill and looking out over the hillside and watching the sunrise up over the hillside and watching the dark turn to light. And I remember seeing this vision where I saw the sun emerge from another light. And this light was behind the sun, and this light went through the sun and the light of the sun shone into all of creation and all of nature.
And I saw the light of the Creator in all the trees and all the birds and everything in front of me. And it was the most inspiring, beautiful moment of that ceremony for me where, you know, I. I cried. It was so beautiful. And it really changed me on a deep level because I saw how everything is alike. You know, everything has the same source. And I’d heard many teachings about this, and my mind was familiar with the idea of it, but this was the first time I had experienced it in a lived, physical way. And that changed my being. It changed my physical life, the way I was living. And it started something really magical. So I told Chris about it, and he’s like, you found truth? You know, I was like, okay, that’s what it was. And.
And, you know, it was really the truth found me. And I really attribute it to the level of decision and earnestness and. And energy that I put in. Because something that we’ve learned is that you have to give to receive. So give not just tobacco, but you give, you know, your time and your energy and your sleep and your comfort, and you go forth and ask for something from the universe. The universe kind of takes all that into account because if. If you find the truth and you don’t, you’re arrogant about it, you don’t. You’ll never really find it. You have to have that humility and willingness to sacrifice some of ourselves. And that sacrifice is the offering. It’s. It’s. Sacrifice actually means a sacred offering. It’s not a negative thing. It’s a beautiful thing.
And so, yeah, that was my experience of truth, and it continues to unfold. I feel like that was the first. And then now there’s. There’s many more moments where, you know, you find the truth and then you find the bigger truth, and it just keeps. Keeps expanding. It’s a. A lifelong journey.
So, yeah, life is a ceremony to be celebrated. It’s not a beginning in an end. It’s circles. The finding of truth is the beginning of the circle. The journey is knowing the truth and living the truth. That’s the journey. You remember last time we spoke, I talked about how my life was up and down and all around, and I thought, oh, it’s so chaotic, and this doesn’t make any sense. And this year I’m this, and this year I’m that, and that year I’m this, and when am I going to be this? And then I came to a place that put me out on a vision quest. And I want to talk about that a little bit, because that’s very important in holding truth in our lives, is that we should fast at least one year in our entire life.
That means in an entire life, we should give ourselves to the Creator for the life that he gave to us. And so I love the Native culture for that because they go out on vision quests. They believe in that. I believe in fast. I believe in sacrifice and giving ourselves. You know, I talking earlier today about machoism and about men being all that in a bag of chips. And they’re so tough, and they want to know how to fight and they want to know how to conquer. They want to know how to do this and do that, and it’s all about might and strength and go do a Sundance, think you’re a badass. Go do Sundance. Go see what that’s about.
Because I don’t care how many muscles you have, I don’t care how good of a fighter you will offer yourself to the Creator. Well, do four days and four nights. No food, no water, no sleep. You think you’re a real man? Go do 10 days standing over a fire. They call that the warriors fast. Stand over a fire for 10 days, 10 nights, no food, no water, no sleep. See how tough you are? I met men that were Army Rangers, Navy Seals, went out. I could do this. I’m bad. They didn’t make it. Spiritual strength is different. It’s bigger, stronger, and it’s a muscle that men and women don’t exercise. Get all strong in your bodies. Get all strong in your mind. Get all strong in your emotions. To neglect your spirit, which is the strongest part of you.
I love the Apache people because of their resolve and the resiliency. Amazing resiliency with these people. And in my life, I have displayed that resiliency in different careers and different things that I’ve done. There’s a truth in that resiliency, a truth that light, that Creator flows in all of us. It sustains us. It’s what’s kept people that should have been conquered and annihilated years ago. We’re still here. We’re still here because of the spirit we carry, because our strength is in our spirit. Most people couldn’t endure the truth that we have endured. And I would hope they would never have to. I would hope that no man or person ever has to suffer like that. But truth is what has sustained our people. People truly want to be strong. We’ll see where you stand in truth. You’ll know how strong you really are.
Remember a young man came to me one time, just come out of the service. Bad weightlifter, man. This guy’s arms were bigger than my. Shoulders were wide. It was huge, dude. Biggest guy I ever saw. I said, oh, my God, you’re all swollen. Have you seen a doctor about that? We laughed, you know, that’s a good joke. But he was a big man. Went out, did four days with the Creator, and sat with the Creator for four days and four nights. Became the most humble man I ever met. Serves the Creator in such a good way. Lives a good life. Truth is humbling. Real truth. It has a color. It has a smell. I even feel that it has a taste because things taste different after I have it. It’s a thing. Right? Go ahead.
Robbie said it tastes like chicken.
Yeah, sure.
It’s not the truth.
Okay.
We’ve. We’ve all had brushes with the Creator at one time or another where we’ve said, man, God must have been looking out for me on this, or, God must have been looking out for me in that. But have you taken the time to look out for him? When we’re in need and we’re hurting, we always go to God. You know the old saying, there’s no atheist in a foxhole. Yeah. When the bullets are flying and the shit’s hitting the fan, everybody’s praying to God it’s true. All right.
Yeah.
What about when you’re not. Remember I talked about bringing him to the party, leaving him at the door when things are good. That’s what we do to him. When our life is good and everything’s going well. We got that new car, new truck, new boat, new house, new wife, new life. It’s all wonderful, right? Are we bringing him then? Or is it just when we’re in the foxhole and the shit’s hitting the fan? Don’t you think he wants to be a part of the good stuff, too? The everyday stuff? Why do you only call him when you need him, when in fact you need him all the time? I used to laugh in the. I was in the H Vac industry for 45 years. Fixed refrigerators and heating and air conditioning systems. Mostly in the commercial side of things.
So on the commercial side of things, you’re in the worst of weather. Worst of it, if it’s a blizzard outside and that equipment’s working broke, you got to be on the roof in that blizzard fixing it because the people down inside that building don’t have heat. And when it’s 130 degrees, 103 degrees on the ground. It’s 130 degrees on the roof. And you’re up there fixing the air conditioning because they’re 80 degrees inside the store and it’s too hot. It’s the worst. You’re in the worst conditions physically. Right. And I would work like crazy. I love the trade, love it, enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. The creator brought that industry to me and brought that job to me and trade to me so that I could be of service to him.
It was a great way for me to make a living, support my family and serve him. It was fantastic. Great job for that, right? And he traveled me all over the country working different companies and doing different things. Okay. And never once was the money as important as he was. Never once. And every day I took him to work with me and every day we fixed equipment together. Now the average service technician runs two service calls a day. The above average service technician runs four service calls a day. I can run 10 to 15 service calls a day. My record is 28 in a day. And I’m not talking about just go out and tell them what’s wrong with it.
Talking about total repair and fix and working and leave and fix and repair and leave with zero callbacks. And I had other service technicians that would follow me around and try to keep up with me, and they would come to me and they go, how are you doing it? How do you do? Was easy. I just drive to the call and bring him with me. We’d work on it together. And he knows what’s wrong with everything.
So good.
So most of the time I could take the parts with me before I even got there because I already knew what was wrong with it before I got there. Other technicians that call me on the phone, they got this problem. This is what’s going on. Hell, I didn’t know what they were talking about. I just asked him and he’d say, check that limit switch, or check this or check that. And I tell them that. They would go, how’d you know that? I don’t know. It was never me. It was always him. Don’t be bashful, jump on it.
Well, I have to kind of laugh a little bit because, you know, God does work through all of us. And I work in the industry as well, but I work on the other side of work in purchasing. I do the estimate, bids and proposals and order all the parts. Well, I do get to take God with me to work. And sometimes, you know, we get to work with our spouses. And I had a fun story where, you know, Chris got a little bit arrogant about, okay, I always hear God at all times. I. All the time. And while this time he wasn’t listening, he was just trying to get, you know, get things done in. In a hurry. He’s working on a. An oven, a lux oven. It’s an R20.
And he calls me up and he says, hey, he says, I need to get an actuator right away for this oven. Get on it for me. I gotta get this going. And I said, well, wait a minute. Just. Just a moment, please. And I said, hold on. What White. What? What are you talking about? Hold on? And I said, an actuator cost around a thousand dollars. Are you sure that it needs an actuator? I’m absolutely positive that it needs an actuator. And I laughed and I said, well, on that actuator, I said, there’s a little tiny capacitor. I said, my capacitor costs, oh, about $3.93. I said, and I’m being told, yeah, right now, that maybe you ought to try that capacitor. Why don’t you just humor me? He’s all right, I’ll try the capacitor. And, well, guess what? It was the capacitor.
It was $3.93, and the problem got fixed. Okay? So.
So I’m walking back to the truck to get the capacitor, and I’m going, what the hell? He’s laughing and laughing at me.
Yeah. And he’s saying, why? I talked to everybody. You weren’t listening.
I talked to her, too.
You had to know that. You had to know that. That I talked to everyone. So that’s just a fun story. But, yeah, it’s.
Thank you.
It’s all part of it. It is. And it’s. You know, it was like that day I walked away going, she talks the same. God, that’s awesome. You know, And. And she takes him to work, right? So he goes everywhere with her. Just like he goes everywhere.
It makes life a lot more bearable, a lot easier to deal with. Deal with problems just magically getting taken care of. Problem solutions, you know, you can fix something that can’t be fixed. A bill gets paid that couldn’t get paid. It really. It really is a good thing to take God with you at all times. At all times.
And it starts with truth. Take a month. Take a month out of your life and go find him. He’s there. Take a month. Go spend it in nature. Meet the dawn walker every morning, get out there and see that creator. Listen for the sound of that dawn. Look for that light. Look for his spirit. Find him. Make friends with him so that you can take him with you.
It’ll be well worth your time.
Beautiful.
That’s how you find truth.
Something that. Something that I’ve seen in myself and others is that when the truth comes, sometimes when we first find it, sometimes when we lose our path and come back to it, there can be a tendency to really have to face a lot of shadows within ourselves because we have to look at the truth of how we have been living and the truth of how we haven’t been living. And sometimes that can be a lot for people if they. If they haven’t done that work before or they haven’t seen that part of themselves. And sometimes it can end up being triggering. It can trigger fears and insecurities and not feeling good enough and feeling dirty.
Kind of like the analogy that I like to use is that it’s like a room that hasn’t been cleaned and the lights haven’t been turned on in a long time. And you finally turn the lights on and you look around and the house is a total mess. But it’s not that you were consciously neglecting it as much as you just didn’t have the light to really see the truth of what was going on in it. And then it’s like, well, can we turn the light off? It’s a bit easier when. I don’t know, it’s so dirty in here. But once you turn it on, there’s no. You can’t unsee it. I wanted to bring that up to also invite you to share any thoughts about that when someone’s going through that challenge.
Well, I. I want to share a story with you about a young man. And. And I got to say that I admire him and his. His tenacity, his ability to work. And he’s still working to better himself every day. And. And I admire that about him because that’s what this is about. This is about me. I’m a human being and a man, and I can be a better man. I can be a better man today than I was yesterday. No. And so being honest with myself and being truthful with myself is a good thing because I can see where I am at fault, where I’m not living in a good way, you know, and sometimes it’s really hard to see those things.
It’s really hard to admit that I’m selfish or it’s really hard to Admit that I haven’t given the Creator the time that he needs. So this young man came to me and he wanted. Wanted some help. And he had dedicated a good portion of his life to come out to my house and to live with us and to go out and learn these teachings. And that was the focus of why he was here, kind of an apprentice thing. So I sent him out to find a field of daisies. And he had to sit in the center of this field of daisies for the whole day. And he went out there and bless him. He sat there the whole day and it was cloudy and it was rainy and it snowed on him and it hailed on him. And man, he really endured.
He really endured, you know. And then later in the afternoon, the sun came out and it shined and he was out there the whole day. And then about six or seven o’ clock, I see him come walking down the street and he comes onto the house on the property here. And he stops before he even gets onto the property. He stops. And I can see that he’s really struggling. He’s really struggling. He’s rubbing his head, he’s thinking, he’s walking in circles and talking to himself and it’s really having a hard time. Finally gets the courage. And he comes back to the house and he can’t look me in the eyes, and his head’s bowed. He’s real humble. He says, I found truth. I said, yeah, what color is it? And he told me, what’s it smell like?
And he told me, what’s it feel like? And he told me and he says, and I know that you know the truth. And I feel dirty. I feel real dirty. That’s how you should feel when you find the truth. You should feel dirty. You should realize that you have not been living up to it. You have not been doing it. That’s good for you to know. Swallow that pill. Forgive yourself, because he already has forgiven you for being so filthy. All he asks you to do is clean it up one room at a time. Don’t eat the whole elephant. One bite, you’ll choke on it. Clean one corner, clean another corner, and the next day, clean another corner. Then in a year, you’ll look back through that house and the house the Creator lives in will be clean.
You don’t try to do it all at once. Forgive yourself for being filthy. He forgives you for it. Remember, like, we get angry with each other about the way that we treat each other. Somebody does something to me, oh, I gotta get even, right? That’s just dirty, right? That’s just dirt. You’re just picking up more filth. Instead. I see that I’m not living up to what I should be living up to. I should start cleaning that up instead of being angry about it. Picking a fight because you’re only beating on yourself. Forgive yourself. Be kind. Be patient. Be sweet. Don’t forget to be ruthless and clean. Get rid of that. That separates you from God. Get rid of. Be truthful with yourself. There’s a great book out there called Brutal Honesty. Love that book.
The reason I like that book is because it just points out that we all lie. Most of the lies we tell are to ourselves. About the environment we live in, or about who we are or our self importance. Be truthful with yourself. Face the truth. See how your truth doesn’t align with the Creator’s truth. Clean it up. Make his truth your truth. Believe me, if you live God’s truth, who’s going to stand against you? And if they decide to do so, you better pray for them. They’re going to need the help. They’re going to need the help because he hits you with stuff like trains, cars and airplanes, tornadoes, lightning. They don’t play around. We win when we live with the Creator. We lose when we’re trying to steal energy from each other.
When we go out to creation and we live in his truth and we know his truth and we write that truth in our hearts and we walk that truth in our physical living. We live with Him. He becomes our partner, our roommate. He’s in our vessel. He possesses us. Remember, I heard a teacher one time say to me, everyone’s possessed. It’s just a question of what you’re possessed by. Are you possessed by greed, Maybe jealousy, maybe envy, maybe fear? I want to be possessed by that golden light that I found when I found truth. I love being possessed by that. It moves the ball forward. It keeps life interesting and funny. You guys see all kinds of great little miracles. People don’t know that miracles happen all around us.
When you live with the Creator’s light in your heart and you align your truth with his truth, he shows you this amazing show. Haven’t you found that to be true in your lives?
And it helps you clean your house. The golden light.
Yeah. All you have to do is bring it in.
Seriously. I do a good ceremony, I end up cleaning the basement. These like, cobwebs in this, like corner with like dead spiders and flies. And I’m just like going into places I’ve never been. It’s just this thing takes you over because that’s the light that inspires purity, cleansing and that devotion to cleaning the house. Yeah. Where the lights were off. So why not be possessed by God and get a little. It’s help.
It’s so amazing. And. And he’s got like all this energy to possess us all, you know, it’s not like. Not like it’s infinite. I don’t have to steal it from you. Yeah, some for me.
Seems we’ve forgotten that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the world would be a better place if we stopped living in competition for energy, but instead found the energy that we’re entitled to. It’s there for us. We’re entitled to. Belongs to us. And when you don’t go out and live in his truth and have his truth, you’re basically throwing away what has been given to you as the greatest gift of life. That’s truth. I don’t know how we are on time, but I don’t know what else I could say.
I think that was perfect and perfectly an hour, actually.
So.
So doing amazing. Yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to add?
Yeah, I think to comment a bit more on. On a few things. One was about feeling dirty when we find the truth. And what I’ve found in that is that’s also the experience of humility, that we’re humbled when we find the truth. You know, there’s a lot of. There’s a lot of paths to the truth. And one of the ways that’s become very common is with plant medicines. And those plant medicines show us the truth. And sometimes people come out of it and their ego gets supercharged by the experience. And that’s a unfortunate effect because we don’t really find the truth unless there’s a sense of humility in it. And we know that we found the truth when. When we’re humbled by it. And what’s beautiful about humility is that it actually is trying to lift us up.
You know, humble humility is not about being small and, you know, meek and all that. It’s. It’s actually standing in that truth and that absolute power of God. But knowing that it’s not ours and that it’s not something to use over others. It’s. It’s that we’re all equal. No one’s better, less than.
And bring up such an amazing point with that, you really do. Because let me say this, you know, as part of the leave nature alone thing, okay. You run out, you go do mushrooms. You run out and go do the ayahuasca. You go out and you do the peyote. You go out and do those ceremonies. Have at it. Knock yourself out, okay? There’s such a rush to go do those things right now that the medicines are going extinct. What are you going to do then? How are you going to find it? How are you going to find that shortcut? You want to take a pill and you want to take a shortcut. And that’s what people are doing. I want a shortcut to God.
When all they have to do is go out here and sit by the river, or go sit on a mountain, or go sit in the hill, or go watch a squirrel. That’s all they have to do to find God. He’s right there. But people don’t take the time to do it because time’s a commodity. And I don’t have time for that. My schedule’s too busy. So I’m going to run out here for two weeks and go do this ceremony that’s going to give me the shortcut to God. And then I’m going to come back to my life. And I’m not going to change anything. I’m going to live the way I was living. With this knowledge that I obtained that I have no outlet to use, no way to physically use it, no way to practically move that knowledge into my physical life.
So I had a great experience. But that’s all you had. That’s all you got. Now, I’m not saying that those medicines aren’t good. They are in their right perspective for the right reason. Let’s take mushrooms, for example. The name of that spirit is Little Smoke that Sees Like a Spirit. When you take that, it lets you see the world as the spirit sees the world. What are you going to do with that information? How does that help you live life in a better way? Because the way you live, that gives you the spiritual side effects. It’s not the pills you take. It’s not the medicines you eat. It’s the way you live. If you live truth, you’ll have truthful things happen in your life. If you live honestly, honest things will happen in your life. If you live with respect, people will respect you.
If you live courageously, you will be courageous. If you act bravely, you’ll be brave. It’s a physical way to live. And it’s only the way we physically offer ourselves to the Creator and Creation that gives us spiritual side effects. I’ve had better visions, better dreams, and better understanding. Going out and sitting with nature for four days and nights. Than I have from taking all the mushrooms, all the ayahuasca, and all the peyote. Each one of those medicines has a purpose. When you misuse it for a different purpose, you’re not going to keep it. It’s going to be a fleeting experience for you. You have to change the way you live your life. You live in a good way, and good side effects will occur. You live in a so good way.
Well, I got most of that going to get so side effects. You live in a shitty way, you’re going to get shitty side effects. You may have a lot of money, you may have a lot of stuff here on this physical earth, but you better be ready to eat the sandwich that’s coming next.
Brutal honesty.
Yeah. And that’s just the way it is, guys. Leave nature alone. There’s medicine out there in nature that can heal everything we suffer from, but we have to treat it with respect. We have to be humble. We have to treat it as an equal. When I go out together, Sage, my. My wife, I love her so much. She went out, I called her on the phone one time, and I said, need sage. Need sage. We’re in Michigan. We don’t have sage. We need sage. Send us out a bunch of sage. And she was, like, very earnest in her efforts.
I was very green to the teachings, meaning I didn’t know. And so her and a bunch of.
Friends ran out to the field and they gathered Sage.
Well, were trying to do a really good job, I’ll tell you that. And one thing that you. You need to do is you need to be respectful. You only take what you need. You don’t take everything. You take what you need. And you make sure that you didn’t take the whole plant, just. Just a little bit. And you ask the plant, you ask it, you know, will your people help our people and do it in a good way so that it will regrow and rejuvenate. Wow. See, I didn’t know these teachings at that time, you know, And I just wanted to please, if you will, and get all the medicines that needed to be gathered, but nobody told me the right way to do it.
So I went over and I asked a neighbor, and I said, hey, you know, is it possible that we can go gather sage upon your land? And she looked at me, she said, oh, please. She goes, it’s just weed. She goes, come out here and take these weeds from my house. Clean up my yard. Please, please. And I said, all right. So I gathered about six people, and we Head up to her yard, and we took great big trash bags and went at it. Oh, boy, did we go at it. And we took Sage, we took this, and we took that, and we cleaned up her yard and went back all, you know, just, you know, happy as. As. As you can be. Big smiles.
When we brought it back to the property, we laid it out and I was so excited about, oh, my goodness. We gather six trash bags full of sage. Can you imagine what we’re going to do? Well, guess what? I didn’t know I was allergic to sage. Okay? Talk about a humbling experience. I didn’t know that wasn’t the right way to gather. Talk about a learning experience. I didn’t know I didn’t do it the right way. With respect, the way that you gather and the way that you do. I didn’t do any of those things. And, boy, did I get spanked. Within a couple seconds, I was talking to my friends, and I’m laughing, and we’re giggling and we’re having a great time. Within seconds, my tongue swelled up huge, my eyes shut closed. I couldn’t talk to anybody.
And they’re like, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Get some Benadryl in her. Get her down to the doctor. Quick, quick. You know, after that experience, I realized how you have to be really just impeccable about the way that you live and respectful for what you do. Now, I’ve been around sage since then, and we use sage in our ceremonies all the time. Fact is, I cleanse the house daily with sage here, and I don’t have those kind of troubles and. Or problems because I’m respectful of. Of the medicine.
So the next year, I came out Colorado, I was out in Colorado, and I said, hey, we need to gather some sage for the guys out in Michigan. Do you want to come with me? She’s like, oh, no, I’m allergic to sage. This isn’t going to be good. And I laughed at her. And I says, yeah, well, when you attack it, like, with a vengeance, it’s obviously going to attack you back. It’s going to punch you for it, right?
And it did. And it did.
Right? Source has come with me. Come with me. I’ll teach you and I’ll show you some stuff, right? And so went out to a very remote area. It’s a val canyon. And so went to this canyon and we started walking, and I told her this was going to take us the full day. And she kind of looked at me funny because there was Sage everywhere. And she says, I don’t know that it takes the whole day. I says, no, this is going to take the whole day. And we walked and worked our way up that canyon, and we stopped at each little village as went along the way and made a tobacco offering and asked if they could spare some of their people or some of our people. I wanted to think about that.
There’s a bunch of sage in an area. It’s a village full of people. I’m asking them to give their lives for our people. So then they say, yeah, you can have some of our people. And the ones that want to go will volunteer, and you take them. I’ve also had them say, no, we can’t afford to lose any people this year. And I don’t take them. Be respectful. Listen, pay attention. Don’t just run out there and start harvesting and taking things. People are killing nature by doing that. They’re killing. They’re. They’re making these plants go extinct. They’re just overrunning it. Leave nature alone if you’re gonna go gather things, don’t take everything. Don’t take it all. Don’t kill the whole village.
How can it rejuvenate and regrow?
Don’t do that.
How could that ever happen? If you go and you take it all, it’ll never happen.
There’s a sacred cedar tree in Grand Portage, and I’ve had the honor to sit with that tree and do a pipe ceremony. And very few people are allowed to go to that tree. And the reason they are is because they used to let anybody go to it that wanted to go. And this tree is 5,000 years old, and it grows out of a solid block of granite on the shoreline of Lake Superior. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s just absolutely a miracle to sit with. It is an amazing energy. This tree is ancient. It knows things, you know, and it was just such an honor and privilege. They stopped letting people go to that tree because people were picking pieces of it to take home with them. They were killing it.
That’s like, I’m going to walk into your house and your grandmother’s over there, and I’m just going to reach over and rip her ear off and put it in my pocket and take it home. That’s what you’re doing. That’s what people are doing when they run out of the woods. They harvest the Chaga or the OSHA or whatever they think they want to make money on or because they have a product they can offer, because they can do this with it or do that with it, or they want to use it for this or that. You realize you’re taking someone’s life responsible for that. Wake up. Need to find the truth. People need to find the truth bad if we’re gonna save the planet. Find the truth and be respectful. Learn these teachings. Take the seven months of your life. Clean your house.
Live in a good way. Stop being destructive. Start living the purpose of man and bring the Creator along. Everything that you think you can get, he has and he’ll give it to you.
True.
If you ask in a good way, that’s some truth. We need to change the way we live if we’re going to heal things.
You know, and it’s okay that we don’t always know everything. I mean, I have to humble myself and be. Find the humility, you know, in myself and know that. Gosh, I. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to do that, you know and learn the truth of and respect others, all of God’s creation. We’re no bigger or greater than anything out there. Even that little tiny blade of grass deserves the same respect as we do. Because that light of that golden light lives through everything, even that blade of grass. The trees, the birds, we all have that golden thread of life that goes through us all. And that’s God’s truth, God’s light, God’s thread of life that gives us all that truth.
When I was really young and I was walking with my grandfather, were just walking across the desert. And I don’t know if anybody out there has ever walked across the highway on the desert before, but it’s. It’s not exactly a joyous experience. It’s pretty exhausting, you know, it’s hot, tired, the ground’s hard and it’s just a sludge and along, you know. And I looked up ahead in the road and there was a bump in the road, like there was a rock or something on the side of the highway. Man, I got excited because that’s the only thing I’d seen out there that was different in a long time. And so I went running ahead and sure enough, it was. What I thought it was a tortoise. And it was. And I was just thrilled that this tortoise was out there, you know.
And I picked him up and he seemed like he wanted to go to the other side of the highway. And so I picked him up and I ran him across the highway, you know, and I placed him on the other side of the highway. And I was all proud of myself, and I come skipping back across the highway to my grandfather. And he stopped and admonished me. And he said to me, do you think you’re God? And I said, well, no. He says, what do you think you’re doing? I says, well, I’m helping that. That tortoise. And he said, what right do you have to change the destiny of that? Who gave you the right to change its destiny? Well, it looked like it was headed across the road. He says, we’ll look at it now.
And as I looked at it now, I saw that it was going back to the road. And he says, who are you that you would change that creature’s destiny, that being’s destiny? Who do you think you are? What right do you think you have with that? He said, come on, let’s go. And I could tell that he wasn’t happy with me, and I felt bad. I said goodbye to the tortoise and off down the road went. A few days later, were coming back that road, the opposite way, came to that very spot, and they’re laying in the middle of that road. Was that tortoise Squish flattered. Now get out. You could call him a sail tortoise because you could pick him up, throw him like a Frisbee. I looked at my grandfather and I said, he’s dead. He died.
My grandfather said, that was his destiny. That was what was supposed to happen to him. You were trying to circumvent that. You don’t have a right to do so. Only God, only the Creator knows what each person in each living being on this earth’s destiny is. And you have no right to interfere with it without permission. And that’s the caveat. You gotta ask permission. So, in truth, I’ve learned to live my life by permission rather than by forgiveness. I don’t want him to have to forgive me. I would rather not make the mistake and I’d rather ask permission, even if he’ll say no. And he has, because his purpose is greater than mine and he knows more than I. That’s truth.
Thank you.
I share these stories with you guys to tell you that this is me. This is my life. This is the way I do things. This is not the end of all ends. In other words, I’m not the authority on any of it. I’m just a man trying to be a better man every day. And if what I have learned I can share with you and share with others to help them work on themselves, then that’s enough. Anyway, we ran over time.
I’m sure that was perfect. Thank you. A lot of points. And ended with a really strong, strong point. And that one was really strong for me when I first heard it. I really resisted it. Just the. Yeah. To really be in that, like obedience or asking for permission and having to be humble in that was a challenge for me. But brought such a great gift. Like a really. Yeah. Changed everything to tune into that. So thank you for. Yeah. Bringing it back to that and feels good to leave it on a. On a strong point there for us to really in that and. And sit with that.
Well, thank you. Thank you again for the honor to be here.
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you guys. Well, we better let you guys go. Have a great night. I know that you guys have things to do, so.
All right, we’ll end it here. So thank you so much. We’ll see you guys next time.
Yeah. Thank you so much and thanks, everyone.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We’ll see you all again.
Okay. There we have it, part two of our eight part series, All About Truth. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Please reach out, share your experiences, share your perspectives. Leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you. And remember to bring truth into your life. Bring the Creator, bring God into each moment of your day, each moment of your life. Live this human experience to its fullest. Live it with love, with purpose, with passion, with joy, and share that with everyone you encounter. So live with truth. Always. Have a beautiful rest of your day, a beautiful rest of your week, and tune in next time. Part 3 is coming soon and we’re going to be talking about the second teaching, which is honesty and living in honesty. Living in the Creator’s honesty. So stay tuned for that.
And once again, please leave a review. Give us some of those nice, beautiful stars and leave a comment. It really helps us out. So have a beautiful day, beautiful week, and we’ll talk soon.
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