Seriously Souled 10-day journey - Rabbi Cowland

there's a real secret out there in the world it's called grandparents family friends parents some of my fondest memories my grandfather died as a young boy i was 11 when he passed but some of my fondest memories are him sitting me down and explaining to me a little bit just about how life worked i came home crying from school i know something hadn't worked out particularly well there was always him and my grandma too my parents as well and as i got older of course my friends who would just explain to me a different perspective a different way of looking at things and they did so voluntarily and they did so out of love they loved me they wanted me to succeed they cared about me and i think it was because they loved me and they cared me about me and they they just wanted me to succeed that i was able to remember those lessons and use them moving forward and when i think about the difference between that and the type of advice i've received or ideas i've received in the past from people who i didn't think loved me didn't think cared about me wanted something outside of me to succeed it was harder to listen to their advice a lot of the time because it just wasn't being communicated with me in mind there's a principle in in judaism which is so different to the rest of the world but it's super intuitive to human beings and that is you gotta teach what you know you learn something powerful about life you learn an insight you get a new perspective you realize the judaism looks at the world a little bit different than the country that you're from or the education system that you grew up in you've got to share it with people that you care about and love if you feel it will be a benefit for them because otherwise it's almost like squandering the power of the inside that you had i mean why would we not want someone who we love and care about and want to succeed to have information ideas insights that are gonna help them lord knows people are doing great in life of course but there's aspects of life where they're struggling relationships the people's inner worlds these are not things that we're taught that much about school i mean there's all these videos about how people aren't even talk about money in school or how to do a tax return in school let alone how to really build a healthy relationship how to practice self-love how to relate to spirituality how to how to talk about or understand the parts of themselves that they keep us awake at night you know that when we wake up in the morning we feel lonely and life's not meaningful enough sometimes there's a whole world out there called jewish spirituality that talks directly to those points and when we have friends and uh even in our own lives you gotta you gotta teach these ideas anything that you hear you have to share you know we as a society we're a proud nation the jewish people we you know thousands of years ago we had we had we had an enviable civilization and a cornerstone of that idea was of that civilization was share what you know if you have wisdom we democratized it if you have wisdom share it best idea wins shoot down the idea if it's not a good idea work with the idea if it is a good idea but we democratize the idea of wisdom there's no hierarchy you don't qualify as a teacher you share what you know and now in our societies where we've been mixed in with millions of cultures over thousands of years we've lost so much understanding of the brilliant insightful fundamental and super important truths of jewish philosophy so when you learn something and it resonates with you it's an act of leadership it's an act of rebuilding the jewish people it's an act of cultural identification it's an act of national pride it's an act of love and care and concern for the person that you're with when you share with them what you know whether it's a point of information about judaism no i didn't know that before whether it's a point in wisdom my life will be so much better if i use that idea it really really helps me so you've got to share but how do we share not by preaching not by preaching education only really works ethical education moral education spiritual education when it's based in the person who's listening gaining their own insight about what's being said that people have to be in a calm place in a loving place it can never be judgmental it needs to be based in a question that the person asked an experience that a person is having something where their heart is open to hearing insight about their relationships about their inner life here's an idea i heard that really worked for me that really transformed my understanding of this but no judgment no implication for them well if you've known this you wouldn't have done that no no no sharing wisdom is caring about people so you've got to share because you've got to care right and you've also got to share in a way that shows [Music] you