Ep.001 Introductions, Spirituality, Beliefs, Parental responsibility: Live Show Discussing Spirituality with Mark Zaretti

[00:00:07] Welcome to the Wayback live show podcast, discussing spirituality with me, your host, Mark Zaretti. Each week I answer your questions, and though I may not have all the answers, together we’ll make more sense of life one episode at a time.

[00:00:21] What you’re about to hear is the audio from the live show.

[00:00:26] Visit thewaybackgroup.org/live-show/ to find out more.

[00:00:32] Yeah, we are live. Okay, we are live. So this is Mark Zaretti from the way back. And this is the first ever episode. It’s Thursday evening on the 14 march, and it’s 09:00 p.m. UK time. And this is discussing spirituality with Mark Zaretti. And the purpose of this show is to, as it says, make sense of life one episode at a time.

[00:00:55] Now, if you were tuned in a few minutes before the live stream started, then you would have heard me saying that there’s got to be more to life than this. And that’s really kind of the vibe of what this show is about. It’s a spiritual show, and I think a really good starting place, therefore, is to discuss, well, pardon me, is first of all, well, who am I? And also what is spirituality?

[00:01:20] This show itself is going to be about Q and A. So if you want, you can put a question in the chat. And if at any point I’m discussing something and you think you’ve got a question and you want a bit more clarification, then feel free to just fire away a question. And we’ll be monitoring the chat over here so you can see the live chat here and any questions that pop up there, I’ll do my best to answer them. Now, I don’t think I’m going to have all the answers, but this is a journey that we’re all on together. And who’s we? Well, if you’re like me, then you are someone seeking spiritual truth.

[00:01:58] And so that’s really a good starting point then. So if you’re like me, then you’ve probably been on a bit of a journey. So let me share a little bit about where I’m coming from, what I’ve done up till now, and how I’ve ended up here doing this live show. So where does it begin? My own personal journey started when I was about seven years old. I’m 49 now, so it was a few years ago now. And around about that time, you’ve got to remember this is kind of early eighties, so there’s no Internet.

[00:02:29] At the age of seven, I didn’t have access to anything, really. I think there were only three or four channels on tv. And I just started experimenting with things like breathing. I. I found a crystal while outside and started just holding it and noticing things there as well and putting it succinctly. I guess I was starting to explore more inside and realizing that there were things that were kind of intangible. So a big kind of thing at that time was the first few Star wars films were out and the force was this idea that you could move things or know things without actually touching them. And I guess to a seven year old, that was quite an astounding thought, really. And that was one of the things that maybe inspired me back then. But I always had that kind of calling, if you like. And I think a lot of us are like that. And maybe you have the same kind of experience where maybe at a young age or maybe later on in life, you had a sense that there is, there’s got to be more to life than this and you start realizing that maybe we’re not going to find all the answers on the outside. And so we start looking inside. So at about seven, I’m doing breath meditation, exploring energies and just generally was quite, I guess people would say psychically sensitive to things at that time as well. I say the word meditation, but back then I didn’t know what the word was. I was literally just led by intuition alone, just slowing down my breathing, closing my eyes, focusing inside. And I’ve got to be honest, about the age of 13, I had some pretty amazing experiences that helped me to realize that there was something going on and it isn’t, it wasn’t just let’s change camera. Yeah, there we go. So we’re learning. And it wasn’t just imagination, it was something much deeper.

[00:04:27] Fast forward to when I’d gone to university and I discovered a much more profound form of meditation. And, yeah, kind of went along with that, discovered something called light and sound meditation. Fast forward. I think it was about twelve years. I’ll kick myself if I get the dates wrong, but 2006 or 2009, roundabout. Then I reached a point in that journey which people label and they use labels like enlightenment. But one thing you’re going to realize with the work that I do is I’m not big on labels. I’m much more interested in what does that mean? So let’s just say for now that I reached a certain point of expansion where it was beyond all limits and that was profound and kind of, each step in the journey was almost like a quantum shift in awareness. So started off going beyond the body and then accessing levels of awareness that were way out there beyond anything that I could experience doing. Kind of more normal, we say normal traditional practices like mantra and mandala and focusing and breath and yoga and kundalini and all of these things.

[00:05:40] But eventually I had this big shift or I was gifted, it is probably a better way of putting it. And that was after about 8000 hours of meditation. And I’ve done many more thousands of hours since.

[00:05:55] But that was just the beginning. So come round about 2016, I started to realize that the picture was much, much bigger even than what I had realized and became able and encouraged in some ways to bring down information.

[00:06:12] So 20 1516 I started writing spiritual articles. And then 2016, around about December time, I published my first ever book, which was literally channeled in a process over 30 days.

[00:06:26] Since then, I’ve released a number of other books. And if we just jump over here, then we can have a look at Amazon.

[00:06:41] So if we jump over here, we can see on Amazon that there’s a number of books that I’ve released so far and I’m actually in the process of writing quite a few more books. Well, I say it’s actually just one book, but it’s so big it can’t be published in one section. So it’s broken down into different books. And I’ve been writing this last book, overdose. I guess it’s about five or six years now, but the books that I have published are already available. They’re all priced not for profit, but the point is. So over the years, I’ve had a lot of experiences and then I’ve started sharing these experiences. And I guess one of the first things I did was YouTube. So going back to 2014, so we’re coming up to ten years and here we can see some of the articles and vlogs, podcasts nowadays, video podcasts, but really from about, well, even before I dived into the more profound forms of meditation, I started teaching. So 2000 and no, it wasn’t even 2000, it was 1998, round about then that I started teaching.

[00:07:56] And so I’ve been teaching for 25 or 24, 25 years, meditating for about 42. And as you can see with YouTube as a, as a point of reference then I’ve been sharing this journey and what I’ve discovered for about ten years now beyond just the teaching and the books. 2016. So we’re about eight years into being a published author.

[00:08:24] So that’s a little bit of a background.

[00:08:28] The main kind of portal through which I do my teaching is called The Way Back and the website is thewaybackgroup.org. and one of the things I’m really keen on is making everything freely accessible as much as possible. Obviously, the printed books have to be paid for because Amazon Publishing isn’t free, but I price them at not for profit. So make a few pence on each book and that literally goes back into supporting the website and podcast hosting and things like this. So if you go to the main website, then you’ll find that there’s all kinds of stuff. So there’s meditation video guides and guided meditations, free MP3s, loads of articles, podcasts. So I think we’re on podcast number 48 at the moment, episode 48. And they, these go back again. I mean, I can’t remember what year.

[00:09:24] Number two, let’s have a look at this one just to see how far back these go.

[00:09:30] So the 3 June 2016. So yeah, around about the same time as I started doing stuff out on YouTube maybe a year or two later.

[00:09:41] So that’s a little bit of my story and where I’m coming from. Some I produce podcasts, videos, articles. I even do feature length documentaries. And all of this I do for free.

[00:09:56] If you go to zaretti.com, then that’s another portal, more for the publishing side of things. So you’ll find links to the books, how to get alerts from Amazon. And one of the projects I worked on was this Stonehenge project.

[00:10:12] And here you can actually watch the entire feature documentary. You can either watch it on YouTube or you can watch it on Rumble.

[00:10:23] And there’s even a free to download audiobook podcast series for that as well. So I try and give up, give away as much as possible for free where it can be done basically, because the whole point of spirituality is it should never be profited from.

[00:10:43] It’s here to support people. It’s here to help people.

[00:10:48] And I’ve been on the receiving end of a years ago, one of the people I was being taught with insisted on being paid. And it really kind of, well, let’s just say there was conflict of interest. So eventually it didn’t sit well with me. And so when I really kind of started teaching independently and I’m not affiliated with any groups, when I started teaching independently, then I decided, look, I’m going to do everything as much for free as possible. And yeah, there’s more to life than money, let’s just say.

[00:11:24] So if you’re following, welcome. And if you’re watching this in the, after it’s been live, we’re going to be putting up as a normal video. So if you’re watching afterwards, welcome as well, and do put a comment in the chat or in the comment section. If you’re watching afterwards, just saying, you know, your first name, where you’re from, and if you’ve got any questions, then fire away. So that’s a little bit of where I’m coming from. And I think it’s important just to kind of lay our cards on the table a little bit and talk about where we’ve come from. But the spiritual journey isn’t just about where we’ve come from, it’s about where we’re heading towards. So if I just do this, one of the, I think maybe now is a good time to say, well, look, if we’re talking about spirituality, what is spirituality?

[00:12:28] It’s such a.

[00:12:30] I think it’s one of those words like meditation, even that it depends on what your own ideas are. So everyone’s got an idea perhaps, of what spirituality is. And what would be interesting is if you are watching live just in three words, just right in the chat window, three words that describe what spirituality is. And I know my own ideas have evolved over time, so maybe when I was 1617, spirituality would have evoked imagery of people, I don’t know, chanting or sitting around or in serene meditation or something like that. And that is an element perhaps of people being spiritual.

[00:13:14] But I think that spirituality is something that’s actually much more present for good people.

[00:13:22] And it isn’t always embodied in an action like meditation. And in fact, I’m very open and honest about this. So I’ve done thousands of hours of meditation and I’ve sat for days and days. I think 1012 days was the longest I did. And I used to sit down and do five day meditates. And I’m talking like literally maybe 14 to 16 to 18 hours a day, just stopping when, you know, for bathroom breaks and small meals. No concept of time, no watches, no phones, no contact with the outside world, just meditating, sleeping, meditating, eating, that kind of thing. And so I certainly have enjoyed the benefits of meditation, but these days I’ve completely decoupled and I’ll explain why. But I’ve completely decoupled meditation from spirituality because you can be spiritual without meditating, and you can be meditating but not be spiritual. So what is spirituality then? Well, in its simplest way of defining it, it would be starting to have an awareness of the fact that there is something far greater than you.

[00:14:40] And obviously we’re not talking about something within the physical realms. I mean, a bus is greater than us. A mountain is greater than us.

[00:14:50] It’s something that is higher and greater than us. And this is why I say that for good people, spirituality is perhaps more present in their lives than they realize. You see, if they’ve got an idea that spirituality has to be demonstrated through, I don’t know, going to church or meditating or doing a yoga class or something like that, then they’re going to get hung up on that and they’ll see themselves, well, I’m not spiritual, but I want to share a little story with you, and maybe this will help explain how spirituality is right there. And maybe people just aren’t orientated towards it in terms of what they’re thinking, but it’s still there, because spirituality isn’t a thinking thing. It’s a heart thing.

[00:15:40] Okay, so I’m going to share a story.

[00:15:44] I’m not going to name names, but this is someone I’ve known for many, many years, and they are a dear friend. And they don’t live here. They live in another city. And I was visiting them for a few days. Now, this guy’s got a brilliant brain. He’s a real kind of tactician. I say he’s really good at poker and kind of strategy games and stuff like that, and he goes to the casino.

[00:16:10] Now, I’m not going to judge anything here. Fundamentally, I think everyone on some level can understand that gambling isn’t a good thing, you know, but a lot of people do it, and that doesn’t mean that we write them all off or we judge them. So there’s no judgment here.

[00:16:31] But what I want to talk about is how he started to demonstrate a level of, say, spiritual awakening, and it was totally off his own back, so there wasn’t any discussion about it. But I. So he’s been going to casinos and gambling for a while, and the problem is he’s actually really good at it. So occasionally he actually makes quite a bit of money. And so when there’s a level of success, then you can say, well, there’s a motivation to keep doing this thing, and there’s certainly benefits. So it would be, I think, quite something to say, well, you shouldn’t do that. But then I don’t like to tell people you should or shouldn’t do anything. That’s not how spirituality works. Spirituality has to be self referenced and self experienced. In other words, it’s not a set of morals. It’s more that through experience you grow and therefore you reflect your growth through your behaviors. So last time I saw him. He said something quite interesting, he said, and it was just a casual conversation, he’d been to the casino the night before, and he said, you know, the. The thing is, Mark, I realized that when I’m winning, other people at the table are losing. And he’s a family man. So he started to realize that that means that other people who perhaps have a family that are dependent on them, or the same kind of job stresses and everything that we all have, these people are losing their money. So while he’s winning, they’re losing.

[00:18:09] And I. It’s quite an obvious thing, but the fact that he talked about it showed that at some level, there’s something inside him that’s starting to wake up and see that it’s not just about him winning, that there’s a connection to other people and that his success in this particular endeavor is resulting in the harm to others.

[00:18:35] And I thought, interesting. I didn’t say anything. I was just pleased that he was starting to work these things out. That’s the thing. If we go in heavy handed and we’re just telling people you’re wrong for gambling, then that just gets people’s backs up. But it’s interesting because he did say to me, why don’t you come to the casino? And I took that as an opportunity to express where I’m coming from. And I just said something along the lines of, well, thanks for asking, but that’s not where my vibe’s at. The energy of that isn’t really going to sit well with me. And I appreciate it’s exciting for people, but I personally see that gambling is a negative thing, and I don’t want to get involved in that environment.

[00:19:24] And he totally respected that. I think he kind of. Well, he’s known me long enough, and although we are friends, not because he’s a student or a peer in any of the meditation groups or anything I’ve been involved in, he’s someone that I just know from university, and he’s a wonderful guy, so he knows that I do stuff like this, but he’s not. He’s not personally interested. But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have value in my life and that I don’t have love for him because he’s a good person.

[00:19:57] So, anyway, it was just really nice to hear him talking in his way about starting to realize that he’s part of something bigger and that his choices are actually having an effect. You know, it’s not quite at the level of realizing that there’s something greater out there. And you know that there’s therefore some kind of, how shall I put it, that his choices matter on a much deeper level. But nevertheless, when we sit more in our hearts and less in our heads, then we start to pick up on these subtle changes in people, and then we can nurture them and ultimately in ourselves as well. Because what each one of us is able to pick up on is also a reflection of where we’re coming from, if that makes sense. So let’s just have a look here. So we’ve got a few people watching. Do say hello in the live chat. It’d be great just to, even if you don’t want to give your name, just say hi and perhaps where you, where you’re looking from.

[00:21:03] I’m just going to write in there. Hi, Mark from Kent, UK.

[00:21:09] There we go. Just testing. It works. And again, remember, this is our first ever live broadcast, so hopefully you’re hearing me. Okay. If you are following this and there’s any kind of audio problems or you think the volume should be louder or quiet or anything like that, please do let me know.

[00:21:28] All feedback is gratefully received.

[00:21:32] But basically the point I’m making is that spirituality, yes, at the sharp edge of the knife, spirituality may be about things like a deeper focus inside sitting in stillness, what some people would refer to as meditation. But fundamentally, spirituality is when we start to awaken to the fact that there is something greater than ourselves and greater than the things around us. And that naturally will lead on to words like the source, the creator God. Now, the moment you, I’ve just noticed down here, it says, to seek the truth is to seek goddess. The moment you use the, you know, you say the word God, press this button. There we go. We’re back to this camera. So the moment you say the word God, I think it’s one of those trigger words for a lot of people.

[00:22:25] And so if that is the case, and I don’t know if you felt triggered or not, but if you or others react to that, then I want to draw your attention. Let’s just go back here a second. So if we go to the podcasts on the website, and you can get these on Spotify and places like that. But there’s a really good podcast here. Spiritual life explained, overcoming belief with experience. And you can also actually find it in the articles. And if we scroll down. Here we go. So it’s part one of four, this one, believing in God versus experiencing God. What matters most to you or what matters to you? What’s interesting with this podcast, which is also available as a video is. There’s the video.

[00:23:19] We kind of do a bit of a deep dive into why people are triggered by words like God, Jesus, love, all light, and how quite often it’s because they’ve not through their own fault, but maybe through bad experiences, or people being pushy with them, or reacting to someone who’s further along the journey.

[00:23:42] And maybe that person just put things across in a way that was a bit domineering or something like this. But a lot of people maybe have been put off these things because partly they only see these things in relation to religion.

[00:23:57] And, you know, if we go right back to the homepage, the first thing I say is, hey, could it be that you can find God beyond books and buildings and that God does not belong to a religion?

[00:24:11] Excuse me. So when I’m talking about spirituality, what we’re talking about is having an awareness that there is, or starting to have an awareness that there is perhaps something greater than ourselves. And ultimately the word that I think everyone on the planet has heard of that would describe that adequately would be God. I’m not making any claims here about what God is, but what I want to kind of draw a straight line here and just say, look, but we’re not talking about religion.

[00:24:44] And again, so those articles and podcasts I showed you really explain the difference between kind of religion and spirituality. That one is founded in belief and one is founded in personal experience.

[00:25:03] Okay, so spirituality is that inner yearning for something greater that is beyond ourselves. And that’s why meditation is always about, fundamentally about sitting down and letting go of our self awareness to move into an awareness that is greater. And that’s why terms like ego, so whenever we’re self referenced, that’s the opposite of spirituality.

[00:25:30] And keeping it really simple, then spirituality is a direction. It’s a direction towards God, or the source or the creator or whatever you’re comfortable with. And we can only really, in life, ever be moving in two directions. We can be moving more towards that or more away from it and keeping things really simple then ego. So anything where we’re putting our self interest first, where we’re putting our little self first, and that might also manifest, for example, as fear.

[00:26:01] But we, I mean, look, we’re all going to be guilty of this at some point. It’s the kind of thing that goes hand in hand with the dualistic experience that we’re having down here. So there’s, again, there’s no judgment, but I think it’s really healthy to just be able to talk about these things openly and just have this conversation. And again, fire off some questions in the chat if you wish.

[00:26:27] But what it means is that fundamentally, we’re really moving in one of two directions, more towards God or more away from God. And this ticker that you can see kind of going along the bottom here, at some point, you’ll see a saying that came from, I think it came from one of my podcasts, and it says that the purpose of life is to be closer to God at the end than where we were when we first came into it, or words to that effect. And that really simplifies what spirituality is. It’s getting closer to God. And since that ultimately is a heart based thing and not a head based thing, then it’s not about accumulating knowledge and accumulating information and philosophy and debate. It’s much more about using things like this, where we discuss in natural language, just in a friendly, conversational way, what the purpose of life is, so that eventually we fall through the cracks of our understanding into that way of being. Because really, what the goal of any journey of spiritual merit would be, would be to maybe start with ideas and concepts, because we need something to move or help us orientate our internal compass which way is more towards God, but then to actually do it. And so take that knowledge and that information and transmute it into states of being. So we do the work down here on the outside, but then we take it on the inside, and we become closer to God through these kind of changes in ourself that start to happen naturally when we realize that there is something greater than ourselves. So we’re kind of just talking around a bit. So I’ve got some notes here, but, yeah, I actually had a question. So, one of the purposes of this show is, during the week, I run a private get together and online chat with people that are very much dedicated to their spiritual journeys. And we talk a lot, and there’s not always time to answer every question there. And some of the questions are very specific, but some of them are quite generic and would help a lot of people if they were answered. So if any questions come up during those meetups, then this Thursday session is a good place where we can kind of discuss that, pick it apart a bit, and maybe expand on things that there wasn’t time to do. But also, whenever I release a new podcast or videos or book, including the ones that have already been released, then if we do this, so just go back to here. And books. So, for example, these books, then if you’ve got any questions. This is also a really good place where you can ask questions about, for example, spiritual life explained, the wake up call, or the six virtues, because I know I found it. And quite a few people have fed back to me that when they reread these books, they actually find that they get more from it the second time. And I’m pretty sure that if there’s something that resonates with you, then fire it over as a question, we can look into it a bit more because there’s always a balance between what I can put in the videos and what I can put in the podcast and what I can put in the books and then a much deeper discussion. So I’m really happy to have those discussions if you think it would be helpful.

[00:30:07] But one of the questions that came up, I’m just going to get my phone because I’ve got it on here. So this question came up in the last meetup.

[00:30:17] I’ve got some people messaging me about, oh, that the apologies can’t make it tonight, but we’ll try again next week. And someone’s saying that rumble’s all a bit new to me and they trying to find their way around and that’s understandable. By the way, the reason why we’re on Rumble is rumble is really kind of much more pro freedom of speech. And you know, you’re not going to get struck off just because you talk about a subject that certain platforms deem, you know, verboten, you’re not allowed to talk about. Hi there. So we got. Good evening, Mark. Great to see you live. Nick here. Hi, Nick and hi, Millie.

[00:31:07] Great to have you on here. And it’s nice to see some comments coming up. So I was going to share. Let’s just go to this screen so we can see them. So welcome, Millie, and welcome Cue ball 78. Nick, it’s great to have you joining us this evening. Could you guys just let me know if the audio is okay? If you want me to tweak the volume, that kind of thing. Just give us any feedback technically as well, if you, because it would really help us all to make sure that we’re getting the best quality stream here. This is all new to me as well, but yeah, I wanted to share this question with you, so let’s dive back onto my phone.

[00:31:52] Okay, so this one came up the other day.

[00:31:56] Here we go. So this was on Monday the 11th.

[00:32:00] And this is a woman who has a couple of young kids. Now, we were talking about the podcast 48 on Faith had just been published. And let me see if I can just show you that one. So here we go, this one. And there’s a really good picture there. That’s what it looks like. And the feedback was really, really good. Now, when I say the feedback was really, really good, that’s nice to hear from my perspective because a lot of work goes into doing these things. The audio is fine for me and all good with the audio. That’s great. Thank you very much for letting me know, guys, because I don’t know what you guys are hearing at the other end, so it’s good to hear that it’s working well for you. Okay, so when people say give good feedback on these podcasts and stuff, that’s always nice to hear as a content creator. But remember, what we’re really doing here isn’t about creating nice videos or nice images, although it’s nice to do so. It’s about making sure that whatever is produced is actually spiritually helpful to people. Okay, so this was a question that came up the wayback. Podcasts and videos have been really helpful for guiding me. But I have two young kids and I was wondering if you’d consider making podcasts or videos aimed at children.

[00:33:27] There’s so much information in terms of religion and other types of belief that children are exposed to, but nothing that is really representing spiritual truth like this. Referring to the way backs body of videos and articles and things like this, a kids podcast or video would be really helpful. Thanks.

[00:33:49] Now, at the time, my, my gut feeling was no, but I did kind of go off and I did the work to look into it. Now, when I, when I talk about things like I did the work, that means I’m going into state becoming really, really neutral.

[00:34:09] And in the same way that I’m able to channel much higher sources of information.

[00:34:16] I’m also able to look into the truth of things, as in, would this be for the greater good or would this actually not be for the greater good?

[00:34:25] And the information started coming to me and this is what I wanted to share and we didn’t have a chance to share this on the Monday, so hopefully this will be useful.

[00:34:37] That basically the reason is, if you think about it, the most important years are the early years. That’s when so much in a person is informed and kind of set in stone. There used to be a saying, google it. But it’s along the lines of show me the boy at seven and I’ll show you the man. It means that by time a seven year old has developed to the age of seven the way that they’ve been brought up, the attitudes, the morals, the values, and all of these things are really going to define who they are for the rest of their life. And in esoteric circles, I’ve heard people say that you basically spend the, there’s a seven year cycle, so you spend the rest of your life reliving the first seven years of your life. And they literally talk about things like, if you were sick on your 6th year, then you’ll be sick again on your 13 year and the next time it comes around and so on and so on.

[00:35:36] I haven’t looked into the validity of that, but there seems certainly this idea out there that the first seven years really, really do matter.

[00:35:44] And even in astrology, and again, I’m not endorsing astrology, but certainly something that I had a passing interest in in the past was that each house, so there’s twelve houses in the zodiac, and that represents your life as you go around. The zodiac is the journey from, you know, basically embryo newborn baby all the way around to old man Capricorn. And then the last few years of your life as you kind of get ready for the spiritual journey, which was Pisces. And each house is seven years. So that would mean that a human is 84 years of lifespan. And so seven years. Seven years. Seven years. So the first seven years really, really do matter. Now, I talked about this in one of my earlier podcasts quite a while ago about how when a, when a good person is incarnating into life, then they will seek out parents who are of a similar vibration. Now there is a bias. So the, the mother’s vibration is more important to the incoming soul that’s going to incarnate than the father’s. But they, but it is really important.

[00:36:58] The father is considered as well. And that it’s the dynamic that the father and the mother create. The reason why there may be is more of a bias towards the mother is that in all likelihood, it’s more the mother’s going to be the one that’s going to carry the child for the first nine months before they’re even born. And then the initial tight bond will be with the mother. But the father really does have an input into this. And so I know, Nick, you’re a man, and Millie, I’m guessing, is a woman. So as an example, in a parenting role, both men and women matter. And together as a family unit, they matter as well. Because if you think about the energies, one is more yang, one is more yin. So they’re going to bring different things to the equation. But the point is that that soul, before it became born, found the right family unit, including any other kids that are already there, that would be of an appropriate vibration for its own vibration, so that it would be able to advance its journey.

[00:38:05] And so that means that the most important relationship in terms of why that soul chose to incarnate onto this plane, this planet at this time, was based on the vibrations of the parents. And when you talk about the vibrations of the parents, that’s going to manifest in terms of their morals, their values, their worldviews, how they talk, what they talk about, all of these things are an external manifestation of the internal values. So if someone’s coming from the heart, there’ll be a lot of love in the way things are discussed and what is discussed. Whereas if someone, say, not coming from the heart, much more intellectual, then there’ll be more of an intellectual lean. So if you’re a, if you’re coming in and you want to work on love, then you’re going to find a loving family to incarnate into. And so why would I say no to the idea of creating podcasts or videos or a book or all of the above to help guide children spiritually? Well, it’s simple when we look at it from the top down, when the person that is incarnating in isn’t a child, they’ve had many, many lifetimes, but they’re going to forget their past and have a fresh start in this life with specific goals to learn. And therefore, the first thing they did before they even came was make sure they chose the right parents to help them realize their goals. And so if they’re looking for spirituality, they’re going to find people that are already demonstrating spirituality.

[00:39:39] And so, flattering as it is that someone wants me to produce a podcast or a book or something, the point is, it’s not my responsibility. It’s the responsibility of the parent to demonstrate the highest qualities that they have to the child that has come to them, because they’ve come to them for those qualities. Now, it’s two ways you’re going to learn from the child as well, and then by the time the child’s moving into adulthood, they will move beyond you. In other words, your role is very much in those early years. That’s the most important part. By the time your child is going out to school or socializing in a wider circle, then there’s going to be a lot more influences. But what you put in place in those first seven years are going to govern how that child then reacts and interacts with the wider world.

[00:40:33] As I said to that person, the primary responsibility is actually the parent. The parent, be it mother, father, or both of them together, are the primary spiritual teachers of that child. So if you’re spiritual, then the best thing you can do is respect the fact that your child probably chose you because you’re spiritual and therefore demonstrate your spirituality around your children. It doesn’t have to be dogmatic, and it doesn’t have to be kind of contrived. You know, like when they say, oh, pardon me, when someone gets a camera and goes, make it natural. And there’s nothing natural about that because it’s all far too contrived. But just a bit like with my friend, when, when he said, oh, do you want to come to the casino? I just naturally said, you know what? It’s not really my vibe. Thanks for the offer, but the energy’s not right, and I find it a bit negative. That was natural. I didn’t ham it up. I didn’t over bake the cake. I just used the opportunity that came up to express this notion that, you know, in other words, I was demonstrating my spirituality to him. Now, if he was my child, there’s a thought. A guy’s about six foot three and built like a tank. But, you know, if he was my child, then I’d be nurturing, nurturing him simply by demonstrating my spirituality. So I really think that this is a call to arms for anyone who’s a parent. And what a gift to be a parent when we understand that we’ve been chosen for our qualities, for our vibration, for our energy, to nurture someone in their most informative years.

[00:42:20] And so, yeah, the. The call to arms for parents is to feel, yeah, you. It is down to you. It is your right and your privilege to help this new person, excuse me. Which is actually a soul that is reincarnating to or incarnating to have more experience to help this person on their journey. And that guy that I was referring to when I’m.

[00:42:52] I’ve known him for many, many years, and I’m actually godfather to his son.

[00:42:57] And this was another time when he demonstrated a level of spiritual maturity, is when I went around there not long after his son had been born, probably about two weeks in, and I sat down and he literally just dropped this child on my lap. Not dropped, but placed it on me. Ready or not, here he comes. And I was awkwardly holding this kid because I haven’t had kids. So, you know, I’m good with collies, but I’m not sure how to hold a kid or anything like that. And so, and he, and I said, you sure? And he said, yeah, yeah. He said, look, he doesn’t belong to me. He belongs to society, he belongs to life. My job’s to take care of him. But I want him to be, you know, exposed to people, obviously, you know, good people so that he gets used to being handled by other people. And you know, that was real foresight because what my friend was really demonstrating was this notion that they don’t come to us, they come through us, they’re on their journey, in other words. And he just wanted to give his son the best start at being socialized and being comfortable around other people and, and here’s life. Embrace it. So yeah, I think what a wonderful opportunity. And look, if you’re like me and you haven’t had kids, take this and we can use this attitude.

[00:44:21] So how are you around other people’s kids? If it’s appropriate to, like, if you’re an uncle or an auntie or, you know, you’re babysitting? We’ve always got to respect that, that child, how can I put this? I’m not advocating that we try and spiritually teach, but we just demonstrate the qualities. And you know, I’m going to draw your attention, let’s just see if I can get the right thing. I’m going to draw your attention over here. So if you go to guidance and you go to the six virtues, see if there’s a picture on this page.

[00:44:57] Well there is right at the top. But let’s just drop down a bit, see if there’s a, okay, we’ll go for the top picture then. Right.

[00:45:07] Oh, there they are. So we’ve got this section here. I’ll just highlight it. So if we’re demonstrating humility, gratitude, respect, non judgment, compassion and unconditional love, then these things are helping. Well, these are demonstrations of spirituality. And therefore, if we demonstrate them around people, especially now that we can appreciate that the first seven years are really, really important. So if we’re demonstrating these things in a way that could be understood by a six year old, a seven year old, and it doesn’t, it doesn’t cut off at seven, by the way, obviously. Look, you know, even 1012 14 1825 50, we’re all still learning. I guess what it is is that we’re more impressionable in the early years, but we people can still make an impression later on. And so it’s never too late to kind of inspire other people. And look, spirituality isn’t about you anticipating what’s in the heart of another person and therefore acting accordingly. It’s about you demonstrating what’s in your heart. So, humility, gratitude, respect, non judgment, compassion and unconditional love really are things that we can all just look to engender in ourselves as a way not only of inspiring others, but actually being congruent with our spiritual nature.

[00:46:30] So, you know, if you want to dive into this a little bit more, then the six virtues is there’s quite a lot of videos, as you can see here, and shorts and things like this and podcasts and because I’m logged. Oh, there we go. You can even get it as a free download. Or if you go to the homepage, you can, if you prefer paper, which I do, I’m a real book person, then you can get the book from Amazon. And it’s priced not for profit. It’s about the same cost as a coffee and a bagel, I think. So, yeah.

[00:47:08] It’s not that we couldn’t produce a video, but it’s much more impactful talking about video for kids or something. It’s much more impactful as a parent for you to demonstrate the qualities of spirituality, to make it natural in your child, because it’s what they’ve seen. And to talk openly about spiritual spirituality as a question, not as a discourse. So, you know, hey, what do you think of this? And, you know, maybe if your kids or a friend even, it doesn’t have, I mean, we’re talking about kids here, but remember, this extrapolates to people, anyone, really, but, you know, maybe someone’s struggling and you could say, okay, well, you know, how could you approach this from a higher stance? And this is where the phrase what would Jesus do? WWJD is a really good moral compass. Because again, we’re not talking about religion, but if everyone’s heard of Jesus, so, you know, he stands for all of these amazing qualities like love and forgiveness and compassion and truth as well. And so he’s a really good example for people to look to and say, okay, well, what would Jesus do in this situation? And that if someone asks themselves that, that is spiritually seeking, not in an intellectual way, but it’s creating the desire within to become more like Jesus in our own lives. So that’s. That’s amazing stuff. And, yeah, so the key take home is that the person who is best placed to guide a child is not a video or a book, because that’s still abdicating responsibility to some third party is the parent themselves, because the guidance isn’t just about information. It’s about demonstrating behaviours and ways of being and attitudes and morals and values that can be mirrored and learned by the child, because they’ll see the value of it, you know? So it was good, it was a good question and I understood where she was coming from. Full of compassion and really well meaning and.

[00:49:17] But yeah, the answer is actually to her. You as the parent, are actually the most important teaching aid for your child. And so if you’ve had, you know, what she’s saying is she’s found all the podcasts and videos really helpful, and they are aimed at adults. I mean, I don’t, they’re not, there’s no swearing or profanity in there, but the, the language used and everything and the tone and the kind of, maybe the life examples that are drawn up on are all adult.

[00:49:47] But yeah, just put it in your own words, translate it through behavior and putting it into words that children can understand. Use it as metaphors to help guide others. So there we go. So, Millie and cue ball, I don’t know if you’ve got anything you want to add to that, or any observations, questions, feel free to fire away. And if you’re watching this later on, again, thank you, thank you, thank you. Please subscribe. You’ll see on the ticker at the bottom. So if we go back here, you’ll see along the bottom that if it hasn’t disappeared, there it is.

[00:50:26] That there’s links to various ways of engaging and firing, you know, getting in touch. So you can send me questions and I’ll bring them into the next one or join us live next time.

[00:50:38] But yeah, so, yeah, here we are. So, coming towards the end of episode one, I’m gonna probably call it a day at 10:00 unless any really good questions come in. Last call for Millie and Cuball, but I wanted to reiterate that this Thursday evening session. So I’m gonna probably do this every, every week or maybe every fortnight, we’ll see how it unfolds and it’s actually for you.

[00:51:18] So the more that we get questions, the more people join in and give us kind of live interaction, then that can help determine where we go forwards with this. But it’s just another way of really making spirituality available.

[00:51:39] There are other books, but most of the content in the books you’ll find in the podcast. So if you don’t want to buy the books, then go to the podcasts and for example, the Stonehenge book. You’ll get everything, really, from going to the video. So I’m not trying to sell anything. It’s more just that I think books are a wonderful way of digesting information, and there’s something really nice about having a book in your hands. And so I’ve made books available, a not for profit price.

[00:52:10] I think children are much more interested in learning than we give them credit for. Totally. I think they’re absolute sponges. And I think maybe the problem is that, I mean, I’ve seen this in the, over the last few decades that tv has become the babysitter or tablets.

[00:52:29] Yeah, he says. So, yeah. Spiritually, I mean. So I think children are much more interested in learning. Spiritually.

[00:52:37] Yeah. I mean, look, when I was seven, I was just like this. This is amazing. But I didn’t. We didn’t have the Internet. No one was talking about it.

[00:52:47] I didn’t have anyone to go to.

[00:52:50] The only experience or exposure I had to anything beyond the mundane was religion. So I was going to church at the time, but that just didn’t resonate with me. And I remember I actually served on the altar, and I was kind of to the side of the altar and people were coming up to do the communion and things like this. And I remember looking into the eyes of one of the guys who I was going to say on stage, but one of the guys who’d come up from the congregation on next to the altar, so he was going to take the bread, the wafer to an old lady who lived in, who was in a nursing home and couldn’t make it to church. And so this was supposedly a very sacred act, that he was bestowed the right to take it out of the church and take it to someone. So I don’t know if he was like a deacon or something, but they were certainly, he had privileges.

[00:53:47] And he really, it was, it was watching him that triggered for me an understanding that this isn’t spirituality. Because I looked into his eyes, because where I was sitting, he was quite close, but I was looking to the side and I looked at his body language and how he was interacting with the priest. And all I saw was pride.

[00:54:09] Pride and ego, because he knew what he was doing was important and he knew what he was doing was special, but there was no humility there. And I didn’t have the vocabulary back then to articulate these things. Maybe I still don’t. But. But basically, now I would understand that he was lacking humility and he was in his ego and he was full of pride. And so, you know, he was, look at me. Look at this special thing that I’m doing.

[00:54:32] And I didn’t see any religion, I didn’t see any spirituality. I didn’t see anything of substance. And there were a few other things, but that one really, to this day just stays with me. And it was really kind of a defining observation, really.

[00:54:49] And the point was by then, I mean, I was probably about eleven and I was looking, really looking. And, you know, children.

[00:55:02] Again, I’m not a parent, but I’ve had enough interactions with people and their kids. And the kids are normally far more open minded and questioning and sensitive and than the adults, you know, so show me the kid at seven. There’s the man. You know, Millie, the idea of approaching things from a higher perspective resonated with me. This is one of the, yeah, it’s spiritual wisdom.

[00:55:37] It’s not in a book, it’s in your heart, it’s in your soul and stuff. But basically, quite often the difficulties that we face in terms of dilemmas of how do we proceed or what do we do or how do we think or how do we act. All of these things that we’re trying to navigate down here, if we flip it and look from a higher perspective, then suddenly they resolve out into very simple terms. And that’s why the question what would Jesus do? Is it a way of calling on that higher perspective and say, okay, well, Jesus represents the highest, the epitome of spiritually evolved humans and the most loving, the most caring. And obviously, Jesus was something else as well. So, you know, but just on a level that we can relate to him as a human being, he demonstrated the higher principles. And so when people say, what would Jesus do? That’s a way of kind of looking at that in a practical way that we can fathom. But if I show you this, so if you go to this book here, the wake up call, this really talks about that, who we are or who we think we are down here. And, you know, people talk about higher self and stuff.

[00:56:48] This book turns things upside down in terms of our understanding of our role in relation to our higher self and also to fundamentally to God, the creator, the source. So, yeah, really good that you picked up on that, millie, because approaching fingers from a higher perspective, you know, when things resonate, this is something I’m fascinated by.

[00:57:12] When things resonate, then that’s normally because there’s some element of truth in them.

[00:57:22] Excuse me. So, yeah, I’d really learn. It’s something I’ve, I’d like to practice even more and something I’m already aware of is that whenever there’s a certain resonance, then that’s something to pay attention to. And kids, I mean, if you’ve got kids, they can teach us how to learn. You know, they really can get them away from the tvs, get them away from the tablets, get back to playing board games, get back to sitting around the table and eating dinner as a family, get back to talking. And, you know, cue ball, you said, yeah, kids are much more interested in learning spiritually. It’s not that we give them credit for. It’s just that maybe we’re imposing our own limitations on them, and kids are far more flexible and hungry, you know, but I do think all things in their place as well. So kids are interested, and that’s the time to really wake them up to the possibility that there is something greater. And you could talk in very simple terms. Remember, I’m nothing. We’re not advocating religion here. We’re talking about spiritual truth. So you could talk about the truth that there is something greater, and you could call it God or the source.

[00:58:37] And, you know, this has to be so liberating for me when I realize that, look, it’s not a or b. It’s not, you’re religious and you believe in God or you, you don’t believe in God or you’re agnostic or you’re scientific. There’s c. And option C is that I, you can have God in your life and be spiritual, but not religious and not based in faith in belief, but actually based in experience. And I want to just quickly draw your attention to this article again, because I really kind of talk about that faith in God. I think I was talking about this on LinkedIn, actually, and I wrote about a, b. And the option c actually exists as well. So we’re about option C here, which is having God in your life without it being religion, without it being just faith, but actually basing on experience. And I’m talking experience from the heart, not experience, just from the head. Okay. So really good. Millie and Cuball, thank you for kind of your feedback on that. That’s really, really great. So those of you who are watching this afterwards as well, this, this is for you. This what we calling it? What are we calling it? Thursdays we broadcast or Thursdays week. Yeah, Thursdays we broadcast TWB, making sense of life one episode at a time. So moving forwards over to you, whether you are watching this afterwards or Millie Cuball and the other people that were joining us earlier, tell me what you want.

[01:00:21] You know, this is your chance to ask questions. I believe we call it discussing spirituality with Mark Zaretti. So I’m Mark Zaretti, and this has been a live show where we’ve been discussing spirituality. It’s 1 minute past ten, so I’ll see you all at the next episode. God bless.