Pressure to Presence: David Gerken's Meditation Journey
This week Tricia and Doro are joined by David Gerken, a former Capitol Hill legislative aide and screenwriter for “The West Wing”, who now devotes his time to teaching mindfulness practices. In this insightful conversation, David reflects on his transition away from the fast-paced, competitive career path, driven by a desire for change and creative fulfillment.
Ultimately, he realized that success in conventional terms did not equate to true satisfaction and candidly discusses the benefits he found from the practice of mindfulness and meditation. Drawing from the Tao Te Ching and personal experiences, he underscores the importance of quieting the mind to allow space for intuition and deeper connections, sharing his perspectives on parenting, relationships, and the profound simplicity of being present. This reflective conversation will help you learn how to embrace, and quiet, your inner dialogue and surrender to serenity.
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Website: http://davidgerken.net
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Quotes:
The biggest gift that we can give anyone is our presence. It's being there instead of being all over the place. - David Gerken
Meditation really is just noticing what’s going on in the present moment. - David Gerken
Meditation is hard for people because they think there's some secret to it. But it’s so simple. It’s just stopping. - David Gerken
Show Notes:
DAVID GERKEN: It's an interesting thing because it's so simple that especially here in America, where people are taught, as you well know, especially in your area out there in D.C., everyone's charging hard. It's about power and who knows who and, oh, who's in and who's out. You know, work, work, work for those types of people. Meditation is the hardest because they keep thinking, there's got to be some secret something going on, what am I not doing? And it's so simple that they don't get it. It just freaks people out to just stop. That's really what it is. It's just stopping. It's it's doing your best to just stop and be rather than, do you know, everyone is so into doing in our country. There's a great line in the. My favorite book of wisdom is the Tao Te Ching. If you guys haven't read it, you have to, because guess what? It'll take you like two hours. It's pretty short and it's really easy to read too. It's not like crazy language. There's a great thing in there where it says practice not doing and everything will fall into place. You know, this is written like 2500 years ago, but he's so on. If you just sort of stop your mind and stop from going crazy and thinking, thinking, thinking. And that's where real genius comes from, is in that stillness.
DAVID GERKEN: You know what? Both Mickey Singer and Eckhart Tolle say the same thing about what you just said, because people come to them all the time and say exactly what you just said. I tried it, but my mind was just going crazy. And Mickey will say, well, guess what? How do you know that your mind was racing? Yeah, you were there noticing it. There was you, the real consciousness conscious you and the thoughts. And that in itself is a huge value because most of the time people are just lost in it. There is no you, there's just the thoughts. There's just that mishmash and there's no one noticing it. That's all meditation really is, is just noticing what's going on in the present moment. It might be the sounds of the cars going by that's happening in the moment. It might be your thoughts racing around that's happening.
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