Ep. 118: Devotion

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I just had 72 hours of the defecation hitting the oscillation – no kidding. 

 

A trailer of this 72-hour shitstorm: cell phone and internet stopped working; washer and dryer broke; puke in the car x 6; sleep-deprived; DMV epic; Board of Nursing epic, and more…  

This led to me brushing off an elderly lady who was trying to ask me a question. And throwing chicken in the garage (you’ll have to listen to the pod for that one). 

 

All this unplanned stuff before I was about to head out into leading a retreat 

  

But you know what? I chose alignment.  I am devoted AF to alignment. 

  

I’ve noticed that when I am aligned and mindful, I show up more often as the person I want to be. So that’s why I meditate when I don’t feel like it, or when it feels like the last thing I have time for is to sit on my ass on my cushion. 

  

What is devotion and where does it come from? And how can we use it when we aren’t religious? 

 
 Devotion can be a really loaded word for a lot of people and isn’t used a lot in the West. For me, devotion used to have a very heavy weight to it for me. Like it was a forced thing. A required thing. A burden. 

  

So like a lot of things in Buddhism, when I was given a new lens to look through, I could see my previous traditions and religious experiences in a different light. 

  

One time I was having a challenging time at a meditation retreat and my teacher there, Mary Grace Orr, said, “I have found in times like this that devotion can really help. A sense of devotion.” 

  

Tara Brach describes devotion as “to give ourselves fully to what we love.”  

  

And if we fall in love with being present, the more we wake up and learn to be here, and then the more we care about being here right here, right now. The love of it fuels our practice. 

  

There are different ways devotion is expressed, and it can be applied not just to spirituality but to whatever requires our time, energy, and attention in this one precious life. But above all, it requires a sincerity of heart, a true love for the thing, otherwise we will waffle and not commit and constantly question what we should be devoted to. 

  

If we wait to feel motivated to meditate or be kind or love unconditionally, when things are going well it’ll feel easy and we’ll feel so good about ourselves. But when we have a shitshow day or week or month or year or decad, motivation isn’t going to reliably be there. 

  

So we need something else to help wake us up, to keep us moving forward on our path – and that is devotion. 

  

We can look at it like a deep commitment, but even deeper than that, it’s a commitment to what we really love. 

  

// What devotion means and how we can apply it – even if not you aren’t religious 

  

// What clarity has to do with devotion – and why we need to take the time to get clear 

 
 // How to come back when we fall away from our devotion 

  

// What devotion has to do with work, relationships, and anything that requires our time, every, and attention 

  

// How to tell if devotion is sincere or just posturing 

  

// What can help us get clear about what we want to be devoted to 

 

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// Join the waitlist for the Adventure Mastermind at AdventureMastermind.com and save the dates for the first retreat of the next round, sometime the week of March 25th in Baja, Mexico. Get clear about your unique Soul purpose and how to create a life that supports it during this one precious life we have. 

// If you’re new to the squad, grab the Rebel Buddhist Toolkit I created at RebelBuddhist.com. It has all you need to start creating a life of more freedom, adventure, and purpose. You’ll also get access to the Rebel Buddhist FB group, and tune in weekly when I go live on new topics.  

// Want to dive into this work on a deeper level on your own time? To study it and practice it together with a group of people with the same goals of freedom, adventure and purpose? Check out Freedom School – the community for ALL things related to freedom, inside and out