Aldea Spiritual Community

Reality Check (Part 2): The Spectrum of Life | Jake Haber

For the second part of "Reality Check", we recognized that life is not so black and white, but is actually a spectrum of nuance and complexity. This affects our faith, our connection to one another, and our understanding of the world at large! 
 
Quotes:
 
Lao Tzu:
"The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth. The wise man sees all in the spectrum, not in black and white.”
 
Ed Yong: 
“There is a wonderful word for this sensory bubble—Umwelt… Umwelt comes from the German word for“environment”…an Umwelt is specifically the part of those surroundings that an animal can sense and experience—its perceptual world…a multitude of creatures could be standing in the same physical space and have completely different Umwelten….” 
“It tells us that all is not as it seems and that everything we experience is but a filtered version of everything that we could experience.”
 
Eckhart Tolle:
"The whole is made up of both the dark and the light.”
 
Samsara (Film): https://www.barakasamsara.com/
 
 
 
 

Reality Check: Cognitive Biases | Jake Haber

Join us for the first installment of our "Reality Check" series, as we examine the cognitive biases of the human brain and how they prevent us from experiencing true reality.
 
Quotes: 
 
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Reality Check - Something that clarifies or serves as a reminder of reality often by correcting a misconception
 
Joseph Roux:
"Our experience is composed rather of illusions lost than of wisdom acquired."
 
Ramana Maharshi:
"Realization is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage.”
 
Rumi:
"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
 
Buddha:
"It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell." 
 
John 8:32: 
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
 
Biases & Heuristics:
Blind Spot Bias, Naive Realism, Confirmation Bias, Egocentric Bias, Cloak of Invisibility Illusion, Barnum Effect, Negativity Bias, In-group/Out-group Bias, Fundamental Attribution Error, Self Fulfilling Prophecy, Primacy Effect, Availability Heuristic, Affect Heuristic, Halo Effect
 
 

Let's Talk About Hope | Jake Haber & Guests

What does it look like to talk about hope in a time of overwhelming challenges, division, and uncertainty about the future? Let's find out together, as we hear from Jake & members of the Aldea community who respond to the question: "what gives you hope?" 
 
Quotes:
 
Desmond Tutu:
"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” 
 
Mahatma Gandhi:
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” 
 

Deep Tracks: Both Sides Now | Jake Haber

For the series finale of "Deep Tracks", we explored the Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides Now", allowing ourselves to be impacted by its themes of personal growth, evolving perceptions, and the wisdom of saying "I don't know". 
 
Lyrics:
Rows and flows of angel hairAnd ice cream castles in the airAnd feather canyons everywhereLooked at clouds that way
 
But now they only block the sunThey rain and they snow on everyoneSo many things I would have doneBut clouds got in my way
 
I've looked at clouds from both sides nowFrom up and down and still somehowIt's cloud illusions I recallI really don't know clouds at all
 
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheelsThe dizzy dancing way that you feelAs every fairy tale comes realI've looked at love that way
 
But now it's just another showAnd you leave 'em laughing when you goAnd if you care, don't let them knowDon't give yourself away
 
I've looked at love from both sides nowFrom give and take and still somehowIt's love's illusions that I recallI really don't know love at all
 
Tears and fears and feeling proudTo say "I love you" right out loudDreams and schemes and circus crowdsI've looked at life that way
 
But now old friends, they're acting strangeAnd they shake their heads and they tell me that I've changedWell, something's lost, but something's gainedIn living every day
 
I've looked at life from both sides nowFrom win and lose and still somehowIt's life's illusions I recallI really don't know life at all
 
Quotes:
 
Pema Chodron: 
"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.”
 
Rumi:
"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” 
 
Thomas Merton: 
"You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”
 
Richard Rohr:
“This process of transformation was slow, and the realizations that came with it were not either-or; they were great big both-and realizations… I could transcend precisely because I was able to include and broaden…It seems we all begin in naiveté and eventually return to a 'second naiveté' or simplicity, whether willingly or on our deathbed.This blessed simplicity is calm, knowing, patient, inclusive, and self-forgetful. It helps us move beyond anger, alienation, and ignorance. I believe this is the very goal of mature adulthood and mature religion.” 
 
Carl Jung:
"The paradox is one of our most valuable spiritual possessions...only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life.”
 
Albert Einstein:
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
 
Rainer Maria Rilke:
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer”

Deep Tracks: Imagine | Jake Haber

Tune in to a message on John Lennon's iconic peace anthem "Imagine", and how it explores powerful themes about using our creative capacity to envision a better world. 
 
Lyrics: 
Imagine there's no heavenIt's easy if you tryNo hell below usAbove us, only sky
 
Imagine all the peopleLivin' for today
Imagine there's no countriesIt isn't hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion, too
 
Imagine all the peopleLivin' life in peace
 
You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only oneI hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will be as one
 
Imagine no possessionsI wonder if you canNo need for greed or hungerA brotherhood of man
 
Imagine all the peopleSharing all the world
 
Quotes:
 
Woody Guthrie: 
 
“It’s a folk singer’s job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people.”
 
John Lennon: 
“..the concept of positive prayer ... If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing—then it can be true” 
 
Crowfoot (Chief of the Blackfeet):
"We cannot sell the lives of men and animals; therefore we cannot sell this land. It was put here for us by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not belong to us"
 
Massasoit (Leader of the Wampanoag):
“What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?”
 
Crazy Horse:
“One does not sell the land people walk on.”
 
Chief Seattle:
“We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us?”

Deep Tracks: What Was I Made For? | Jake Haber

Tune in to Part 2 of Deep Tracks as we examine Billie Eilish's Oscar Winner "What Was I Made For?" from the movie Barbie.
Behind the vibrant cinematic flair of the film and the melancholy beauty of the song lies a powerful message of embracing the full spectrum of human experience.
Lyrics: 
Iused to float, now I just fall down
I used to know but I'm not sure nowWhat I was made forWhat was I made for?
 
Takin' a drive, I was an idealLooked so alive, turns out I'm not realJust something you paid forWhat was I made for?
 
'Cause I, II don't know how to feelBut I wanna tryI don't know how to feelBut someday, I mightSomeday, I might
 
When did it end? All the enjoymentI'm sad again, don't tell my boyfriendIt's not what he's made forWhat was I made for?
 
Think I forgot how to be happySomething I'm not, but something I can beSomething I wait forSomething I'm made forSomething I'm made for
 
Quotes:
 
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
"I believe faith is not certainty but the courage to live with uncertainty"
 
Alan Watts:
“This, then, is the human problem: there is a price to be paid for every increase in consciousness. We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain."
 
Joanna Macy:
"The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe... All is registered in the 'boundless heart' of the bodhisattva. Through our deepest and innermost responses to our world - to hunger and torture and the threat of annihilation - we touch that boundless heart."

Deep Tracks: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For | Jake Haber

Check out the first installment of our "Deep Tracks" series as we unpack the spiritual themes behind U2's iconic song  "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". 
 
Quotes: 
 
Carl Jung:
“One cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening become a lie." 
 
Bono:
 “Could you imagine Ireland in the '70s, it's a civil war….The country's dividing along sectarian lines. I was very suspicious, and still am a little suspicious of ... religious people, I mean, religion is often a club that people use to beat someone else over the head with. I learnt that at a very early age in Ireland.”
 
Joseph Campbell:
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life…. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive” 
 
Alan Watts:
"No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it.
 
 

Lessons From Preschool | Michelle Curcio (Extended Version)

Check out guest speaker Michelle Curcio's special message drawn from her own experience working with children, including lessons about inclusion, openheartedness, and love.
 
Quotes:
 
Arthur Satterwhite (Christianity Today):
 
“God knows something we don’t know (shocker): The differences that we look down upon in others are a reminder of how outrageously intentional, creative, beautiful, openhanded, and openhearted our God is. Sameness is not a virtue in God’s economy. On the contrary, sameness actually limits our ability to see and appreciate the full beauty of the diverse mosaic that is God’s creation.”
 
Listen to the end of the extended version for a response from members of our community!

Practicing Presence | Jake Haber

As we head into the Summer months, Jake encourages us to step outside of our comfort zone & press into our spiritual practices! 
 
Quotes: 
 
Neale Donald Walsch:
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone"
 
Praktikos:
"Pertaining to action, as opposed to theoretical (theoretikos)"
 
Brother Lawrence: 
“That when he had thus in prayer filled his mind with great sentiments of that infinite Being, he went to his work appointed in the kitchen…he spent all the intervals of his time, as well before as after his work, in prayer….We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of Him…. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”
 
Stanislav Grof:
“The potential for a mystical experience is the natural birthright of all human beings”
 
Wei Wu Wei:
“conscious non action, the deliberate and principled decision to do nothing for a reason” 
 
Neale Donald Walsch:
“Emotion is energy in motion. When you move energy, you create effect….It is the alchemy of the universe. It is the secret of all life.”
 
Ram Dass:
"What about all these things like joining ashrams, or going into systems or joining temples or..spiritual clubs, or going on retreats? All of it has its function, but the only way you know that it’s what you need is because your heart tells you. It pulls you toward it. Take what teachings you’re able to get and you need and go on. Don’t get hung up. I don’t feel any loyalty to any teacher I’ve had other than to become as conscious as I possibly can in order to alleviate human suffering… because there’s nothing else to do. And when I get all done, nothing happened at all anyway." 
 
 

Flow: Art & Awareness | Marlies Wolf & Jake Haber

Check out our interview with special guest Marlies Wolf, whose unique journey has led her from a mysterious illness to spirituality and meditation, and finally, to starting her own business teaching art as a mindfulness practice! 
 
Be sure to listen to the end for a profound guided meditation on awakening the creative spirit in us all!
 
Quotes:
 
Vincent Van Gogh: 
“Paintings have a life of their own that originates in the painter’s soul.”
 
Eckhart Tolle:
“It’s vital for every human being to contact that place within, where intuition arises, because otherwise you are confined to the limitations of your conceptual mind.”
 
Deepak Chopra: 
“Life is a river that continues to flow. You can’t step into it in the same place twice. Ever changing, existence is always new.”
 
Rob Walker:
“It’s all about taking in as much of what’s out there as you can. Attention is vitality. It’s the difference between looking and seeing, between hearing and listening, between accepting what the world presents and noticing what matters to you."