A House Built on Sand: Recent Episodes
Jibril Caliph Al-Sadat and Mark Hunter Brooks
This podcast brings the wisdom of older adults to you, sharing lessons others have learned in their lives so you won't have to learn them in yours! The podcast's title, "A House Built on Sand," refers to people who fail to build their lives on a strong foundation, making them more susceptible to the trials and challenges that living normally brings. Please join us, Jibril Caliph Al-Sadat and Mark Hunter Brooks, as we discuss life from our varied perspectives.
Who are you? We've asked this question before. You are NOT what you do, but in this podcast we are adding another component. You are not just your outer self but your inner self too. Your whole self is a mixture of your outer individual self and your inner being. This episode kicks off a new podcast series Jibril and I call "Worldly Spiritual" in which we talk about spiritual topics with the goal of helping fill the emptiness that has become so prevalent in today's society.
It's a simple title but it has multiple meanings. Johnny Appleseed, AKA John Chapman, actually lived in the early 1800's. In the fall of each year, he collected seeds from the crushed pulp of apples at cider mills and planted them the following spring. The "fruit" of his labor (pun intended) can be seen in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia, but what does this phrase mean on a higher level? It means that we should be planting seeds now that will bear fruit in the future - part of our series discussion of a multi-cultural America.
What is nationalism and how is it different from patriotism? This podcast is part of our emphasis on building a multi-cultural America now so we can grow into that inevitability over the next half-century. The key points - 1) Understand history, not just yours but everyone else's as well, 2) Become aware of the suffering of others, as it is a prerequisite to building moral courage, and 3) Be others-centered, thinking about the needs of those around you.
This episode talks about history and America's multi-cultural future. We need to understand how each group of Americans has interpreted the history they lived through and passed on to their offspring. This is essential for us to understand if we are to mature as a nation. We also need to understand that change is an ebb-and-flow. A change that may be positive for one person could be detrimental to another - take westward expansion in the 1800s vs. America's Native Americans or Columbus's Discovery of America vs. the Caribbean natives as examples. We need to create change that is in the greatest good for everyone involved. More topics covered too - all good stuff!
Jibril and Mark recount stressful times in their lives and how they dealt with them. You can look at managing stress as you would look at managing a business. You can grow your business by either increasing revenue or minimizing costs. The same is true with stress - you can either increase your ability to handle stressful situations or you can develop ways to minimize sources of stress in your life.
Freedom is a much richer topic than what people think. We are not free to do anything we like, such as choosing to run a stop light, because many freedoms are given to us by a society that chooses the way in which it wants to live. Also, what some people call freedom is actually individualism. We need to understand that freedom comes with a cost and that we assume responsibility when we are given freedom. Food for thought as we celebrate Memorial Day.
Everyone is flawed and everyone changes over time. It is important to know who you are and what you believe in to position yourself to be able to do great things. We also need to continually encourage others, giving them the grace and space to enable them to change and mature, and be willing to sacrifice personally to help our family, friends or community achieve great things. Lastly, realize that some things may not come to fruition until after you are gone. Do things according to what you believe in and stand for, knowing that your work now WILL have an impact in the future.
Empathy and compassion for someone else can lead to your loving them. Love is built on mutual sacrifice and thinking of the other before one's self. How does it apply to loving someone not like yourself? What role does fear play in destroying love, and how does fear progress to anger and then to hating someone else?
The second part of our podcast on mysticism. We discuss the experiential nature of mysticism and how it changes our thinking, to be more loving and caring toward others - among other things!
We go off script this week to discuss policing in America, but we don't talk about recent events. The main point made in the podcast is that people don't remember history and that what they see happening today occurred in the past as well. While the events we see today may be symptoms of larger problems, they will never be addressed until people realize that mutual sacrifice for the good of the community results in a better environment for everyone involved.
This is probably one of the most important topics we will cover this year. We both have a mystical bent to our background as well as two different religious perspectives. The important point to make is that mysticism will at some point become part of your spiritual journey, helping you discover that there is something beyond what we physically experience. We covered some important points that we will follow up on in a second podcast on the topic.
TV has its geeks, from Steven Urkel on Family Matters to The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper, and they have been portrayed from the perspective of the average person. Yes geeks are socially awkward, but they also possess an intellectual strength. Mark and Jibril share their stories about the geeks they knew, and discuss the importance of balancing individual strengths and weaknesses to help communities grow and thrive.
Telling stories is important because it tells you who you are as a person - who your ancestors were, what challenges they overcame, how did they live, etc. We love listening to stories because they teach us about life, but they also teach others about us. This is why we must know who we are and what we believe, because the stories we tell gives others an insight into who we are and what we value. This podcast let's us tell stories too! Enjoy...
How does your ego affect what you need and want, and how does it affect your ability to make good decisions? What's the difference between needs and wants for you, your children and your community? Jibril and Mark share their stories to help make the points.
Jibril and Mark talk about their families when they were growing up, their importance and how the many groups in which we are involved are families too. We should also be aware of the multi-generational impact of our decisions and actions as it relates to our families and the importance of listening to those who understand the long-term effect of decisions because of what they have seen unfold in their lives.
We're experimenting with a different format, so please share what you think with us in the comments. In this podcast, we talk about the many aspects of communication and its importance, not only in maintaining good relationships among family and friends, but in our community as well.
Consciousness is such a broad topic. We discuss it in this podcast as it relates to improving how you live your life. In past podcasts, we talked about the importance of knowing who you are, embracing your whole self, following a middle path and thinking about others instead of yourself. In this podcast, we discuss knowing what you believe in order to create a worldview. Part of doing this involves understanding what you believe about consciousness.
People try to repress things about themselves, sometimes to the point that when it does come out, it can be uncontrollable. We are made of both good and bad things, both light and dark. Learning to accept them helps us become a better and more whole individual.
How one describes the difference between religion and spirituality reflects where they are on their spiritual journey, and that's OK. The important thing is to know who you are and what you believe. Only then will you be able to tell where you are on your path. You can also see a difference between religion and spirituality when someone, who is usually more spiritual, starts a religion, and people that come along afterwards, who are usually more temporal, and institutionalize it.
Seek balance, the Golden Mean or the Middle Way, in how you approach Faith and Reason. Be skeptical but keep an open mind. It is also OK to hold an extreme view on either side, but remain open to change. You have your entire life to explore what you believe. What you currently believe is simply a reflection of where you are on your spiritual journey. Also realize that you cannot change what someone else believes, only they can do that, but you can provide the space for others in which they can have the opportunity to change.
"Everything in moderation" is a phrase from ancient philosophy describing the importance of having balance in one's life. It can be found in the Hebrew Bible, in the Qaran and in mythology. We also talk about the importance of having balance within families and communities, not just within ourselves.
God can be thought of as an ocean of being...or as whatever people need to believe to continue their spiritual evolution. We also discuss the importance of passing on things we have learned in life and the role it plays in spiritual evolution.
Knowing who you are is the basis for building a strong foundation for your life. Jibril and Mark talk about this concept from their different perspectives.
Politics is not about party affiliation. It's the way groups prioritize changes to their communities and the process for making those changes happen. Effective politics depends on how well we know the people who live around us and how well we know ourselves.
Fear helps protect us from potentially harmful situations, but it can also rob us of opportunities to develop and grow. How can we conquer fear? Jibril talks about conquering his fears when he went through Army Airborne Jump School.
What can we say in a half hour on a topic that people spend days discussing? It's about what makes people want to follow you. Do you challenge people who work with you and for you to become better than they are now? Do they trust what you say? Do they think you care about their life and their problems?
What makes you a success in life? It's not about material wealth. It's more about relationships and how you have developed yourself over your lifetime.
When Jibril meets people, he likes to tell them that he's poor. He doesn't do this to elicit an emotional response, but to make a point. Being poor is not a bad thing.