Talks 2020
Click on the links below to watch on YouTube or listen to the audio.
December 27, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The word for today is "pivot". When anyone is tossing something at you that causes a reaction, pivot. You do not need to react. Your power, your freedom, your liberation, all are assisted by pivoting. Try seeing people who throw stuff at you as teachers. They represent an ongoing opportunity to master this profound spiritual art.
December 20, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The Dark Night of the Soul can be personal or collective. It is a time of trial and opportunity. If you are lost in it, ask for help. If you are not, Be the help. Kindness, love, compassion are great gifts. Give them freely. Merry Christmas.
December 13, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) What is your path? What is your destination? If you are aiming at happiness, success, recognition, freedom from fear or pain, those are temporary and will vanish no matter what life brings you. We all have one shared destination. Why are we so misguided?
December 6, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Who or what is ruling your life? Is it God, Higher Consciousness, the Self or is it your mind? For most people it is the mind, a temporary reactive construct that can easily become the slayer of your soul. It doesn't have to be that way. Wake up.
November 29, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The only truth in the statement "I am this or that" is the "I Am." Everything else is temporal, contextual, hierarchical, reactive, ego-based identity. None of it is true. "I Am" is the ultimate truth and the ultimate liberation.
November 22, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) I, Bruce, am a gay man. What that means personally, metaphorically and spiritually. How otherness, shame, and maintaining a hidden life prepares you for the essential journey to an overwhelming liberation.
November 15, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We are seduced into seeking Eternal Bliss when really what we are looking for is Eternal This. Bliss often arises in this but This is the goal. Most amazingly, we are already here. This is It.
November 8, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) It knows. And you are It.
November 1, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Taking the long view. The history of mankind is filled with drama. You may or may not like how life unfolds. But the personal ride can have joy in it, love, compassion, awe, mystery, wonder. Even in the worst of times, being alive is a gift.
October 25, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The basics. Just the basics. All you will ever need to know. Unless you want the details. Then give yourself lots of time. You have forever.
October 18, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Approaching I AM–a report from the front lines. A journey through insurmountable pain into an ocean of Love and Awareness. Prepare. Be ready. Do the work. We are all headed to the same place.
August 23, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Arriving at the ultimate directive: JUST LIVE!
August 16, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Welcome to THE REAL. The next 79 days are going to be as real for us as Pearl Harbor and the Great Depression were for our ancestors. How we welcome THE REAL will be a defining moment. Find the power of BEING IN THE REAL. It will transform you. DO IT!
August 9, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) In the ultimate sense there is nothing, no time, no space, no meaning, no purpose, no journey. Yet out of that nothingness love is born, beauty arises, truth shines. These are the times that try men’s souls yet there is no time, no space, no meaning. Just emptiness. Go figure.
August 2, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Getting or not getting what you want is often a source of struggle and suffering. We are programmed for that suffering. Learning to simply be and serve rather than get and possess brings joy and contentment beyond measure.
July 26, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Physician, heal thyself. In these days where care and attention, both physical and emotional, are not always available, it is time to help care for and heal yourself. The manual for self-care is already inside you. Read it.
July 19, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Be still and know that I Am. That is the entire teaching. Being still is the easy part. If not now, when?
July 12, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The power of kindness – toward others and toward yourself. In the end the highest teaching and the highest expression of spirituality is simply being kind. At first kindness takes work. In time it will be a manifestation of who you are.
July 5, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The inner and outer demands of our lives, of the reality we know and share, has never been so powerful or demanding before in our lifetime. It is not a time to look for escapes. The only choice, should you chose to accept it, is: Do The Work.
June 21, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Being human is not something to transcend. It is the immediate "isness" of being human that truly matters. Past and future inform our humanity, but acceptance of this moment is key. Don't fight fear, stress, confusion, etc. but witness them. Allow them to be. Be human.
June 14, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) I am reminded of Arthur Clarke's book, CHILDHOOD’S END and feel that his title describes the times we are living through. This is a transformative moment. It is time for all of us to grow up.
June 7, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Watching a man murdered on television is a wake up to reality that rarely finds its way to a worldwide audience. It convulses us. It is a call to action. But that action need not only lead to protests. It's also a call to become a witness to Reality itself.
May 31, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." How do you find the "best" of times when the world is erupting around you? You know the answer.
May 24, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Meditation begins by surrendering thoughts and then moves deeper into surrendering feelings. One is moving toward a place of profound stillness, not of abolishing thoughts and feelings but finding no one to react to either.
May 17, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) My son Ari graduated Georgetown Law School today with no celebration and little acknowledgement due to the pandemic. Many of us leave the world in the same way. In the end it's our Self that celebrates and acknowledges us. It’s all that matters.
May 10, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) A Universal Intelligence underlies our individual egocentric intelligence and governs our lives if we let it. We can access it through the chakras. Meditation allows us to trust it.
May 3, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Reality has brought us all into the arena of the blank canvas and the deep unknown. The novelty of our moment is wearing off and turning into a time of true change. Give up trying to second guess the future. Dig into the now.
April 26, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We are all in solitary confinement. Once we get past wallowing in self-pity and the awful noise of the mind, we can get down to the work of finding who we truly are and the essential joy of Being.
April 19, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) It is odd to believe that opening your heart, being honest, sharing love and just being truly alive take work, but they do. Still, these days... if not now, when? We could be dead next week.
April 12, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We've all made our bed, now lie in it. What to do when you don't like your reality. The secret is not buying a new mattress. I truth is not outside you.
April 5, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We all die. Life is impermanent. This is a moment of existential truth. It is an opportunity to learn how to die and how to live. Don’t waste it. This moment has your name on it. It is for you.
March 29, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Meditation is essential in a time of upheaval. It restores you. It gives you serenity, guidance, assurance, comfort, and fills you with love and gratitude. Go deep and it will also give you the ability to serve others as well. It’s better than Netflix. Stay healthy. Love to you all.
March 15, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Jerry Zucker, director of GHOST, AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN, TOP SECRET, etc. sent me the following birthday video. In this crazy time we are living through I thought it would be a helpful replacement for my weekly talk. Enjoy.
March 8, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Each one of us is on our own. Your entire journey is up to you. There will be family, teachers, lovers along the way, but in the end, there is no one who can live your life for you. Without finding your Self, you are lost.
March 1, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Touching is an essential action of manifested beings. Touching others. Touching oneself. Being touched, being moved are crucial to the human experience. Mudra is the art of touching without physical contact. Like dowsers looking for underground water, Mudra finds the unseen in our lives.
February 23, 2020 Los Angeles, CA (watch, listen)
Meditation is a practice. But a practice for what? Rudi called it a life’s work. What is the goal? What is the purpose of this lifetime of practice? No one can answer that for you. In the end, it is all up to you. Good luck with your practice.
February 16, 2020 Oakland, CA (watch, listen)
The path to God is God. We are training to see God, to witness what is always Present and always Transcendent and the same time. Practice and work are essential. I encourage and implore you to try.w.
February 9, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Rudi often referred to the Guys Upstairs, as though they were higher beings watching over us and guiding the show on earth. I refer to them in the same way. To me God is plural as well as singular and one way or another we are being watched over, guided and being held accountable for our actions.
February 2, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
I took an unexpected psychedelic journey this past Friday, taking CBD oil unknowingly laced with THC. The Universe told me that I was dying and to let go. My blood pressure hit 190/95. I felt blindsided by death, as many people are, but I took a deep sad breath and said yes.
January 26, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Rudi always called out practice, The Work. That is because our experience of the world is not passive, it requires action to maintain and expand our physical and spiritual lives. Unused muscle atrophies. It is essential to actively sustain your inner life.
January 12, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
A farewell to Beau Buchanan, one of Rudi's most devoted students and the pilot of the plane that killed Rudi when it crashed 46 years ago. Beau had a stroke on Friday and is being disconnected from life support today. Send love.
January 5, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
We are at an existential tipping point in our world, socially, politically, culturally, environmentally. Harmony and balance can only be found in the silent still center or our being. Meditation is the path to that center.
(On Zoom) The word for today is "pivot". When anyone is tossing something at you that causes a reaction, pivot. You do not need to react. Your power, your freedom, your liberation, all are assisted by pivoting. Try seeing people who throw stuff at you as teachers. They represent an ongoing opportunity to master this profound spiritual art.
December 20, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The Dark Night of the Soul can be personal or collective. It is a time of trial and opportunity. If you are lost in it, ask for help. If you are not, Be the help. Kindness, love, compassion are great gifts. Give them freely. Merry Christmas.
December 13, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) What is your path? What is your destination? If you are aiming at happiness, success, recognition, freedom from fear or pain, those are temporary and will vanish no matter what life brings you. We all have one shared destination. Why are we so misguided?
December 6, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Who or what is ruling your life? Is it God, Higher Consciousness, the Self or is it your mind? For most people it is the mind, a temporary reactive construct that can easily become the slayer of your soul. It doesn't have to be that way. Wake up.
November 29, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The only truth in the statement "I am this or that" is the "I Am." Everything else is temporal, contextual, hierarchical, reactive, ego-based identity. None of it is true. "I Am" is the ultimate truth and the ultimate liberation.
November 22, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) I, Bruce, am a gay man. What that means personally, metaphorically and spiritually. How otherness, shame, and maintaining a hidden life prepares you for the essential journey to an overwhelming liberation.
November 15, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We are seduced into seeking Eternal Bliss when really what we are looking for is Eternal This. Bliss often arises in this but This is the goal. Most amazingly, we are already here. This is It.
November 8, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) It knows. And you are It.
November 1, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Taking the long view. The history of mankind is filled with drama. You may or may not like how life unfolds. But the personal ride can have joy in it, love, compassion, awe, mystery, wonder. Even in the worst of times, being alive is a gift.
October 25, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The basics. Just the basics. All you will ever need to know. Unless you want the details. Then give yourself lots of time. You have forever.
October 18, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Approaching I AM–a report from the front lines. A journey through insurmountable pain into an ocean of Love and Awareness. Prepare. Be ready. Do the work. We are all headed to the same place.
August 23, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Arriving at the ultimate directive: JUST LIVE!
August 16, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Welcome to THE REAL. The next 79 days are going to be as real for us as Pearl Harbor and the Great Depression were for our ancestors. How we welcome THE REAL will be a defining moment. Find the power of BEING IN THE REAL. It will transform you. DO IT!
August 9, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) In the ultimate sense there is nothing, no time, no space, no meaning, no purpose, no journey. Yet out of that nothingness love is born, beauty arises, truth shines. These are the times that try men’s souls yet there is no time, no space, no meaning. Just emptiness. Go figure.
August 2, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Getting or not getting what you want is often a source of struggle and suffering. We are programmed for that suffering. Learning to simply be and serve rather than get and possess brings joy and contentment beyond measure.
July 26, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Physician, heal thyself. In these days where care and attention, both physical and emotional, are not always available, it is time to help care for and heal yourself. The manual for self-care is already inside you. Read it.
July 19, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Be still and know that I Am. That is the entire teaching. Being still is the easy part. If not now, when?
July 12, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The power of kindness – toward others and toward yourself. In the end the highest teaching and the highest expression of spirituality is simply being kind. At first kindness takes work. In time it will be a manifestation of who you are.
July 5, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) The inner and outer demands of our lives, of the reality we know and share, has never been so powerful or demanding before in our lifetime. It is not a time to look for escapes. The only choice, should you chose to accept it, is: Do The Work.
June 21, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Being human is not something to transcend. It is the immediate "isness" of being human that truly matters. Past and future inform our humanity, but acceptance of this moment is key. Don't fight fear, stress, confusion, etc. but witness them. Allow them to be. Be human.
June 14, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) I am reminded of Arthur Clarke's book, CHILDHOOD’S END and feel that his title describes the times we are living through. This is a transformative moment. It is time for all of us to grow up.
June 7, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Watching a man murdered on television is a wake up to reality that rarely finds its way to a worldwide audience. It convulses us. It is a call to action. But that action need not only lead to protests. It's also a call to become a witness to Reality itself.
May 31, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." How do you find the "best" of times when the world is erupting around you? You know the answer.
May 24, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Meditation begins by surrendering thoughts and then moves deeper into surrendering feelings. One is moving toward a place of profound stillness, not of abolishing thoughts and feelings but finding no one to react to either.
May 17, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) My son Ari graduated Georgetown Law School today with no celebration and little acknowledgement due to the pandemic. Many of us leave the world in the same way. In the end it's our Self that celebrates and acknowledges us. It’s all that matters.
May 10, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) A Universal Intelligence underlies our individual egocentric intelligence and governs our lives if we let it. We can access it through the chakras. Meditation allows us to trust it.
May 3, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Reality has brought us all into the arena of the blank canvas and the deep unknown. The novelty of our moment is wearing off and turning into a time of true change. Give up trying to second guess the future. Dig into the now.
April 26, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We are all in solitary confinement. Once we get past wallowing in self-pity and the awful noise of the mind, we can get down to the work of finding who we truly are and the essential joy of Being.
April 19, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) It is odd to believe that opening your heart, being honest, sharing love and just being truly alive take work, but they do. Still, these days... if not now, when? We could be dead next week.
April 12, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We've all made our bed, now lie in it. What to do when you don't like your reality. The secret is not buying a new mattress. I truth is not outside you.
April 5, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) We all die. Life is impermanent. This is a moment of existential truth. It is an opportunity to learn how to die and how to live. Don’t waste it. This moment has your name on it. It is for you.
March 29, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
(On Zoom) Meditation is essential in a time of upheaval. It restores you. It gives you serenity, guidance, assurance, comfort, and fills you with love and gratitude. Go deep and it will also give you the ability to serve others as well. It’s better than Netflix. Stay healthy. Love to you all.
March 15, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Jerry Zucker, director of GHOST, AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN, TOP SECRET, etc. sent me the following birthday video. In this crazy time we are living through I thought it would be a helpful replacement for my weekly talk. Enjoy.
March 8, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Each one of us is on our own. Your entire journey is up to you. There will be family, teachers, lovers along the way, but in the end, there is no one who can live your life for you. Without finding your Self, you are lost.
March 1, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Touching is an essential action of manifested beings. Touching others. Touching oneself. Being touched, being moved are crucial to the human experience. Mudra is the art of touching without physical contact. Like dowsers looking for underground water, Mudra finds the unseen in our lives.
February 23, 2020 Los Angeles, CA (watch, listen)
Meditation is a practice. But a practice for what? Rudi called it a life’s work. What is the goal? What is the purpose of this lifetime of practice? No one can answer that for you. In the end, it is all up to you. Good luck with your practice.
February 16, 2020 Oakland, CA (watch, listen)
The path to God is God. We are training to see God, to witness what is always Present and always Transcendent and the same time. Practice and work are essential. I encourage and implore you to try.w.
February 9, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Rudi often referred to the Guys Upstairs, as though they were higher beings watching over us and guiding the show on earth. I refer to them in the same way. To me God is plural as well as singular and one way or another we are being watched over, guided and being held accountable for our actions.
February 2, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
I took an unexpected psychedelic journey this past Friday, taking CBD oil unknowingly laced with THC. The Universe told me that I was dying and to let go. My blood pressure hit 190/95. I felt blindsided by death, as many people are, but I took a deep sad breath and said yes.
January 26, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
Rudi always called out practice, The Work. That is because our experience of the world is not passive, it requires action to maintain and expand our physical and spiritual lives. Unused muscle atrophies. It is essential to actively sustain your inner life.
January 12, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
A farewell to Beau Buchanan, one of Rudi's most devoted students and the pilot of the plane that killed Rudi when it crashed 46 years ago. Beau had a stroke on Friday and is being disconnected from life support today. Send love.
January 5, 2020 Red Hook, NY (watch, listen)
We are at an existential tipping point in our world, socially, politically, culturally, environmentally. Harmony and balance can only be found in the silent still center or our being. Meditation is the path to that center.