YouSaid · the spoken record
Charles Eisenstein
- lines on the record
- 39
- first
- 2018-12-19
- most recent
- 2018-12-19
- sittings or episodes
- 1
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- podcast
Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections
“We're all really, really close We're already there in a new consciousness. So we need to help each other. You have this breakthrough and yes, I'm going to devote my life to this thing I love, but then the voices from inside and outside say, well, that's just irresponsible. That's impractical.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you were at ease, you felt at home in the world, and you saw this in nature as well. You saw every being not trying to out-compete all the others, but every being offering a gift toward the health and evolution of all things.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, like pretty much anything that is called alternative or holistic, it's basically anything that says that, yeah, we're connected. We're interdependent. Your well-being will bring my well-being more for you is more for me. It's the mentality of the gift of generosity. What I give to the world will come back to me somehow. Because we're not really separate Other cultures had this. Ancient cultures, indigenous cultures. In those cultures, your well-being, your wealth, your status, depended on how generous you were. So you could give everything away and you know you'd be okay because people would take care of you too.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think anything that rehumanizes other people sometimes people do processes where they bring people on opposite sides of a conflict together into a room and create conditions where they can connect with each other's humanity. And the conflicts become not irrelevant, but they're put in a different light. Because when you see your enemy's humanity, then the operating assumption that had powered the conflict.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doesn't it? Yep. And it kind of reconfigures what normal is. You have an experience like that, like a lot of people, if they have a near death experience or a powerful transformational religious experience. They go back to their normal lives, but those lives no longer seem so normal. And reality, as they'd known it no longer seems so real. And so the hold of the old story is loosened.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If we did that, I think the whole apparatus of our society Stop working. Like it's uncomfortable for a reason. It's uncomfortable because the world that is so familiar cannot accommodate that amount of connection and intimacy. It's actually kind of a threat. It says that the level of joy and intimacy that you've settled for is a lot less. Than what's possible. We're being shortchanged and deep experiences like that are in a way kind of threatening and sometimes people have an experience could be a heart attack or something that really brings them into touch with what Is real”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably most people have had those experiences. It might be at the bedside of a dying person. Or having a deep spiritual experience where you're like, it's all here already. And everything is a miracle. We have these experiences. I think what I was referencing and what you were reading is the experience of gazing into somebody's eyes, you know, and you see you're the same being. I am gazing out of a different set of eyes and you can have a really deep experience that way.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're wrong, I'm right, I'm good. Like you demonstrate you're good by being on the side of good in the war on evil. We've had the war on evil now for several thousand years. Has it worked?”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What normalized races? Right. It's about like you actually care about healing racism. So you want to really understand it and not just get the ego gratification of saying you're”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For me, like the basic practice is to ask what is it like to be you, especially if I'm in judgment. Because if I'm in judgment, that means my understanding is deficient. Judgment meaning if I were you, I'd do differently. I'd do better. So if you ask, well, what is it like to be a racist and how does someone become a racist? It doesn't mean that you're quote giving them a free pass. It means that you actually care.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think he might have actually coined the term inter-being, but it's a really natural word to use. Because it's not just interdependency and interconnection. It's that my very existence depends. On the existence of all beings. So if a species goes extinct, something dies in me. I become poorer.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, we're all born knowing that we live in a magical world, that we're all connected. Yeah, it's an innate knowledge.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. So the story basically says that if we can only insulate ourselves effectively enough, build a high enough wall, a good enough surveillance system, strong enough prisons, then we can keep the suffering out. But it's not true, and we're learning that the hard way. If we destroy ecosystems, then our own health is going to deteriorate. Like it's inescapable. We're all connected. That's what we're learning through a kind of cultural initiation.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's happening to you, yeah, yeah, everything that's happening to the world is happening to us. And whether or not we believe it, we can still feel it. That's why it hurts so much. And we don't even know why.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, if you're not a separate self, then what are you? You are maybe the mirror of all things, or you are the totality of your relationships. So that means that anything that happens to anything, to any being, is happening to you on some level. It means that any difficult relationship you have is mirroring something in yourself. It means that everything you do to the world will somehow come back to you. It means that the world outside of ourselves is not just a bunch of stuff, but it's a mirror of self. It has qualities like consciousness and intelligence that aren't just in human beings, but they're in all things, that pond over there, this tree.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have this intuitive feeling that the people who are really altering the future of 500 years might be like the grandmothers who are taking precious time one-on-one with a child, a sick child, or the kindergarten teachers.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You do a small kind thing. You don't know how it's going to affect the world, but by doing it, you're making a statement of what kind of world I want to live in. And I think that it's a real mistake to condition these things on, okay, let's make sure it can go viral. Let's make sure it can scale up. Because most things will never scale up in any predictable way. And I think that the most important things that people are doing in this world are those that are invisible. And even thankless. People like me and to a greater extent you, like you have a gigantic platform or even take it up a notch, you know, the president or something, we think that these are the people with the power in the world Because you can make a big wave. But how do you change the deep currents?”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, how do you create a movement? Like, people say that, but real movements seem to start unintentionally. And I think that it's actually more true that movements create us. So someone goes out and plants a garden or builds a little house for a homeless person or does something like that, other people then say, yeah, that's a good idea. I think I'll do that. And it becomes a movement.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like you might have every mental reason to try really hard to make it, to be a success, to get good grades, to get a good job, to play the game of life as it's been offered to us. But there's a rebellion. I think it's a mutiny of the soul, I call it, that says, yeah, you can make me sit down in this seat, but you can't make me pay attention.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, yeah Authority figures are telling you that you get an A if you do well on those worksheets. And if you walk outside, you get in trouble and you get sensitive to the principal's office. Just that simple. So that knowledge, I think, for many people is a lonely knowledge, this knowledge that life is supposed to be more authentic, more intimate, more real. And this kind of low level suffering that we take for granted. For many people high level suffering that we take for granted, it doesn't have to be like this”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, just like that feeling of just sitting in school. And it's a beautiful day outside. And there's some part of you that knows Not supposed to be this way. I'm not supposed to be filling out these worksheets. I had a politically radical father who introduced me quite early to a bit of the true history of our nation. Genocide underneath its slavery, economic oppression. Part of me was like, it's not supposed to be this way. But so much of the conditioning, the programming around me said that, no, you're supposed to be happy here. With the life that's offered to you.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we feel lonely. If we're not actually separate selves, then our beingness, our sense of being in the world depends on our relationships. And when our intimate relationships are only in the family, I'm not talking about sexual intimacy, I'm talking about really being known. When we don't know our neighbors and we're not participating in the natural world, In an intimate way, then we feel alone. We don't even know who we are. There's a deficit of identity when we're shrunk down into these little separate souls.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, because we're surrounded by the institutions of the old story. We still live in communities that aren't really communities because we don't know the people around us. We're surrounded by strangers.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We see it separate from ourselves. Right, so health comes through conquering bacteria Or conquering nature, even your own nature. Health, virtue, wealth, et cetera, et cetera, comes through discipline, through exercising control over yourself, over your desires, perhaps. So it's the same pattern on an individual level, on an economic level, on a political level, and then also on the ecological level, the human relationship to the world. So that's kind of the big picture. Because these are the myths that condition us to see the world.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, yeah, so we've had a cultural story that answers those questions. And basically, it comes down to who you are is a separate individual in a world that is separate from you. That's an objective universe and it's populated. This universe is populated by other separate individuals who are, since they're separate from you, you're basically in competition. With them, their well being doesn't mean that you're going to be better off. In fact, their well-being can mean more for them and less for you. So we're in this constant competition, surrounded by impersonal forces. So this story, I call it the story of separation. So on the human level, same story says that human progress and our destiny comes through the conquest of nature.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We kind of live in a mythology and by mythology I mean the story that answers really basic questions like who are you? What's the purpose of life? What's real? How do you create change in the world? What's the purpose of humanity? Like these are really basic questions that every culture asks.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, right. So something really hurts. And that hurt is channeled through a story of blame and it becomes hatred. But if you channel it through a different story or not through any story at all and you just feel it, then it doesn't become hatred.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Often see it that way that he's kind of making visible things that were invisible before. Not like he invented bigotry. Or misogyny, but they were kind of kept under the surface. There was this polite veneer on top of that ugly part of American culture. And now it's plain to see. And maybe that's a good thing that something kind of comes up for healing. The invisible becomes visible. So, I think it is perhaps a positive step.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, just like the idea that democracy works and you elect wise, capable, compassionate leaders. Because that's the will of the people. And instead, we elect somebody who behaves very much like an ad person. I'm not saying that he is one. In fact, I think that there's a trap there.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Had all these new diseases arise, autoimmune diseases, that we have no idea how to solve, no idea how to cure. And in politics too, like the story of how American democracy is supposed to work, or the deeper narrative of America, land of the free, home of the brave, bringing peace and democracy to the world, all of these are getting harder and harder to maintain. One thing that happens before it really breaks down. That you hold on even tighter to the story that's not working And that might be part of what's happening politically today. And at some point, you just can't hold on anymore.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you get sick, you go to the doctor, the doctor fixes you. And you participate in this grand project of civilization. You'll be okay That story on every level has been disintegrating. It's not working anymore. We don't have the technological utopia that was promised to us back in the 50s, the 60s, you know, when we had these visions of the future An age of leisure, robot servants, space colonies, the cure of all diseases, it looked like we were going to do that As one disease after another was conquered. But since then,”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we had a formula for how to do life. You study hard, you get good grades, and you'll go to a good school, you'll get a good job. You get married, you have”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I call it the wound of separation. That it's the felt experience of being cut off from all that we're meant to intimately connect to. And then from that place, feeding the hate, online comments that are all about putting someone down kind of almost feels good to make jokes at the expense of somebody else. But does it really feel good?”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If we win the battle, we'll lose the war. You might be able to win the battle, say, politically, by arousing so much anger and indignation and hatred against the other side that you overcome them in the next election. But what you will have done is strengthened the ground conditions of hatred. Martin Luther King basically said that. You can use hatred as a weapon, but you cannot use hatred to defeat hate.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Means that there's a deficit of understanding. So when you, and this is what I would call the news story or the next story of interbeing. That says that in some sense we're all one. If I were in your situation, then I would do as you do. And if I think otherwise, it means I don't understand your situation.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it's a delusion, because it's based on judgments that aren't true. If I say, and this happens in personal life too, that you're doing that because you're not quite as good a person as me. Because if I were you in the totality of your circumstances, I'd do better than that If I were poor rural white, I wouldn't be a racist. I wouldn't say such a thing. Whatever the story is. Because in fact, if you were that person in the totality of their circumstances, you'd do that too. And any judgment that says, I'm different from you.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, same pattern like in almost every action movie. And what's missing here is the deeper matrix of causes that is much more complicated. So two things happen when you realize the real causes. One is that you don't know what to do because the usual solution of finding the bad guy and fighting the bad guy doesn't work. So you don't know what to do. I would love to see some politicians run for office and say, healthcare, immigration, I have no idea what you do. Wouldn't that be refreshing if someone just said, I don't know what to do instead of having to have a plan, which is going to be a reiteration of policies based ultimately on this war thinking that don't work? And the second thing that happens is that you realize that”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On both sides. Yeah. I mean, each side thinks that it's the other side who is the bad guys. And what I'm seeing is this pattern. This is, I guess, part of the mythology of our culture. It's a formula for making the world a better place. And the formula says, first find the bad guy, blame something And then go to war against that, control that thing. That's”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would love to see our nation broken openly. Sometimes we say that about a person like, oh, that experience just broke them open, broke him wide open. And now he begins to sob, you know, now the grief comes in, now he changes his view of life. That hasn't quite happened yet. We're still holding on to the old story, the old normal. And part of that is what you were just talking about, the polarized oppositional, hate-based politics, which is basically two sides holding on tighter and tighter and tighter to their polarized opinions about each other and their superficial diagnosis that the cause of the problem is those bad people. Yeah. Yeah.”
2018-12-19 · Oprah's Super Soul · Charles Eisenstein: A More Beautiful World Is Possible · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source