Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
MAREN SPRINGSTEEN: [Laughs] Oh dear, I love that.
WIZARD: He's a sweetheart.
MAREN SPRINGSTEEN: I can imagine. Yes, his essence still
shines through.
WIZARD: But that was his tipping point when Ramana Maharshi
shared that with him about his playing with Krishna, because he'd
played with Krishna all his life. He'd had these visions.
TRIP: Maren, you've been through a lot with the health struggles,
and you had to end a career that you loved, and you've had your
dark night of the soul, and even fairly recently. So in your book,
your advice for those who would like to remain in that state of
grace that brings such joy, you're advice is to keep feeling grateful,
keep being gratitude, a grateful open heart relieved of any burden.
And I had a follow up question to your advice, is consistent
gratitude something we can cultivate, or is it a byproduct of a
grace given realization that just comes over time without any
practice or cultivation on our part?
MAREN SPRINGSTEEN: I would say both, and I would like to say
first that I really don't think I'm qualified to offer advice to
anybody. I don't see myself in any way as a teacher or model, or
anything like that. I'm just completely normal, just a normal
being.
WIZARD: That's the mark of a sage [Laughter].
MAREN SPRINGSTEEN: I think it can be both. In this life many
times it took severe challenges, or it took absolute grace by itself to
be in that state and to receive everything as a blessing. But I think
it definitely can be cultivated and I do not think it’s part of the
normal human condition same as compassion doesn't seem to be
built in into the human experiment very much. And I think it's
something that can be cultivated, and should be cultivated at this
pivotal time. Not that there is any “shoulds” really, but I just think
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