Iain McGilchrist, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin #3

A working meeting discussing machines, life, agency, souls, and the continuum of being.

Iain McGilchrist - https://channelmcgilchrist.com/
Richard Watson - https://www.richardawatson.com/


The poem I was referring to half-way through is this one:

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know  what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s  longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you  will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the  adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I  want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you  have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and  closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you  can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your  fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic,  remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I  want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If  you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If  you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty  every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and  still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full  moon, ‘Yes.’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money  you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and  despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to  feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I  want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and  not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have  studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else  falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
By Oriah Mountain Dreamer