Practical Purity

[December 4, 2022 Update: Originally published November 11th, 2022 it’s being republished with a new date due to recent podcast publishing challenges and requirements]

I pitched the October 30th, 2022 Insight Timer live event Practical Purity thus:

What’s the importance of true purity? How can we view purity and what can we realistically think, say and do to increase the purity rate from day to day in our everyday mundane lives?

1. freedom from adulteration or contamination
2. freedom from immorality, especially of a sexual nature

a Dictionary definition of purity

Some notes:

• mind, emotions, body
• optimal energy, perhaps some qualities like:
  • Balance
  • Stamina
  • Tranquility
  • Lightness
  • Softness
  • Flexibility
  • Uprightness/Authentic/Truthfulness
  • Proficiency
• Puritan origins
• Hellfire Club
• How can this be transformed?
• sex, sexual activity/energy
• waking up in the middle of being emotionally entangled
• (living) environment inside and out: cleaning, tidying, energetic hygiene
• 4 nutriments:
  • food
  • sense-impressions
  • volitional thought
  • consciousness
• If fear based driver (activity) then energy will be fear based
• ‘setting the intention to increase purity and then being able to have the will power and desire to make the necessary changes, as hard as those may be’
  • Impact (And/Over) Intent | (1/25/2022 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu And Lydia Grace)
    • 100% responsible for our intentions
    • 50% responsible for impact of our intentions
  • Podcast | Studying And Practicing With “The Iddhipāda-Vibhaṅga Sutta — An Analysis Of The Bases Of Power” (SN 51:20): Introduction; The Sutta’s Key Encapsulation Paragraph & A Translation Reading (1 of 7)
    • Reference this podcast series for will power, achievement, change and desire to do so
  • radical acceptance mantra of “it’s OK” along the way

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The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:

homeless welcome this is Josh defog

integratingpresence.com welcome to this

live event titled practical Purity and

take what you find helpful from this and

leave the rest so the description I have

here is what’s the importance of true

purity

how can we view Purity and what can we

realistically think say and do to

increase the Purity rate from day to day

in our everyday mundane lives so I

thought we’d look at a definition uh our

dictionary definition of Purity it says

freedom from adulteration or

contamination the second definition is

freedom from immorality especially of a

sexual nature

well you know this country was founded

on puritanism right or part of it was

um from what I understand or what I’ve

heard too is that they were so strict

that they didn’t they weren’t wanted

where they came from so I think that’s

interesting then we have the Other

Extreme like the hellfire club which is

basically like I don’t know if I’m

misrepresenting this club or not but I

would say definitely hedonistic if not

debauchery and it’s kind of anything

goes right in secret so where these

proclivities can be indulged in in

secret and not have to affect society

those around them perhaps as much

probably most of us don’t fit into these

two extremes I would think but where’s

the middle ground to this first off

where does purity affect us I would say

on the three main levels that we

experience most days mind emotion and

body so then some of the benefits I

would say of somewhat living more of a

Pure Life is optimal energy some of the

payoffs for this perhaps could be

balance stamina Tranquility lightness

softness flexibility uprightness

authenticity truthfulness and

proficiency and there’s also this

interesting notion of transforming so

whatever comes across our path whatever

Falls in our plate how can it be

transformed into a more pure nature

because for whatever reasons we’ll

encounter things that we perceive as I

guess impure and if there’s an intent to

purify something how can we do that how

can we transform what’s already here now

what we experience in our lives and I

don’t know if I have too many direct

answers to that so it’s just kind of a

question for contemplation let’s just

dive in here to one that is the most

obvious around sex you know the Hot

Topic juicy topic of sex sexual activity

Sexual Energy

so this is easy and monastic life

um I’m just drawing on what I hear and

seeing known from Buddhist monastics

it’s really easy right there’s no

there’s no sex at all no sexual activity

they it’s a precept that they have to

refrain for any kind of sexual activity

whatsoever so in the laylife Buddhist

laylife State a lot of them take

precepts and one is not to abuse one’s

Sexual Energy so we’ve I’ve gone over

this plenty of times before but the

obvious one is kind of like adultery no

adultery that one seems pretty obvious

right there’s so many there’s families

involved there’s a partner involved

there’s the legal system involved in

this there could be kids Community they

went and got a marriage license there’s

so this one should seem fairly obvious

right even for me if there’s open

relationships too it just doesn’t

there’s it’s really risky so what do we

do as far as everyday life even just

with our sex sexual energy right there’s

things like seduction people using their

sexual G basically to kind of control

manipulate get what they want right so

detecting this and refraining from this

but also not repressing one’s Sexual

Energy too what it you know what are the

wholesome skillful ways to express

Sexual Energy what should be done with

it especially if one doesn’t have a

long-term committed loving relationship

until one gets into that

so these are all kind of questions to

consider so what about one’s living

environment I think this is one of the

easiest things that we notice our living

environment inside and out so the

easiest one we have control over is

where we live cleaning our space where

we live apartment houses wherever it

might be whatever we have access to

tidying things as well and then it gets

into more subtle things like energetic

hygiene and this can be something like

burning sage or smudging whatever plant

material is effective in your area

can be things like crystals before I

lose you on the woo-woo this is just

something to experiment on your own you

can look up how to smudge a house how to

smudge my space and basically it’s just

like well you brush your teeth you take

a shower things like this but the energy

levels in the house once it’s

everything’s cleaned there’s an

energetic component to address some

people like silver salt and Sage or are

things as well what I recommend for this

is whatever you find try it out for a

little while see if it makes any change

or help in your life and if not stop or

talk to other people about how to do it

so outside our living environment too

this has been an ongoing thing where I

live currently is I’ve pretty much just

stopped picking up trash uh other than

my general vicinity of where I live so

right along the borders it’s just gotten

too much so I don’t I used to pick some

of it up but I just really can’t keep up

I’ll just say really briefly it’s kind

of an open call for suggestions about

this I mean what do you do with people

just guessing here they’re maybe they’re

in so much pain maybe they’re not even

conscious of it maybe they don’t care

maybe they feel victimized it’s hard

knowing maybe they don’t even notice you

know the level of Consciousness isn’t

even there that they can

live with trash right outside their

place like a pig or something pick up

what you can am I doing enough am I not

doing enough personally I like to keep

my general area outside clean and then

if I have time and it makes sense to do

a little bit beyond that sometimes the

other big things here are the four

nutriments these are talked about in

Buddhism too and these are basically

what you’re putting in to your beingness

if that’s a word so the obvious one is

food the second one is since Impressions

and then I’ll come back over this you

know what you’re looking at listening to

smelling tasting touching the next one

is volitional thought so what are we

consciously thinking about when we feel

we have a choice to think about

something so when we know that we’re

choosing to think about certain certain

things or we well I’ll come back to that

and then Consciousness that’s kind of

the most subtle layer of these nutrients

so food is obvious right you eat crap

food You’re Gonna feel like crap it

might feel good for a little bit but

then more than likely you’re going to

feel like crap out people that know me

know I have like a pet agenda of organic

food food that hasn’t been sprayed with

synthetic pesticides and chemicals and

after eating primarily that for a while

and then eating something that has been

sprayed with synthetic pesticides and

chemicals genetically modified once the

level of sensitivity is built up then

this is even more noticeable at least

for me not everybody is as energetically

sensitive right away some of the easier

things for me to detect if you do dairy

I don’t do a lot of dairy but organic

milk versus non-organic milk it’s pretty

most people I know can taste the

difference immediately in those so

basically it’s just make Common Sense

choice I mean if you’re presented with

certain options of food choosing the

better options just that simple and

eventually what I find is that we’ll get

cleaner and cleaner diet that those junk

foods that used to provide so much

pleasure now they almost switch where

they just they might not even provide

any pleasure just by but then you’ll

start craving healthy food and getting a

really healthy food buzz from healthy

food so the Sims impressions are easy

it’s you just treat it like food this

was food would you eat it whatever

you’re watching on TV is it beneficial

helpful or is it like eating junk food

or maybe working in the sewer spacing

out same thing with we read and listen

to Ray says I was literally just

thinking about McDonald’s and I never

eat that the last time I had McDonald’s

by the way I think was in

2009 or 10 on a road trip so I was

traveling with somebody somebody told me

recently they got rid of all the healthy

options they used to have salads and

stuff stuff at McDonald’s now the only

thing they could eat is the fries I know

it’s it’s convenient but even things

like Chipotle supposedly use non-GMO

food they’re fairly quick I haven’t ate

them in a while things like Panera I

know they got a lot of chemicals out of

their food also just buying things that

are quick to eat at health food stores

possibility traveling a lot of even

small towns will have a health food

store so volitional thoughts so how many

times a day do we wake up and like oh

well this line of thought that I have is

negative or it’s not helpful so choosing

to think about things that are helpful

because what we pay attention to we give

energy and what we give energy to we

participate in and amplify to so when we

do have a conscious choice to direct

where and what we think about consider

is a helpful skillful wise not only for

me for others both and for everyone

ideally and it’s a process it’s a

training as well and this is why

mindfulness is so important because if

we’re not aware we can’t be able we

don’t know what we don’t know right so

the next one is consciousness I’m

probably gonna skip this if anybody has

had any specific questions or anything

they’d like to share about Consciousness

that is nourishing versus stuff that’s

not I think one of the easy ways if

anybody’s ever done certain types of

substances we know that certain types of

drugs and substances one will be like a

really low vibration or a low

Consciousness level and some may

temporarily boost Consciousness alter it

raise a vibration however there’s lots

of caveats to that like it can do so

artificially people can get hooked on

these things people don’t integrate

experiences from them they artificially

can speed a process that a person’s not

ready for but just basically noticing

similarities and parallels to that if

you’ve had those experiences there’s

things where we just feel like we have

access expanded consciousness of course

meditation is one of the best ways I

know of to do this the next thing here

that I learned recently is our

motivational factors so if we’re

motivated by fear if fear is a driver in

our activities then they energy

surrounding this will be based in fear

so even though we might have some decent

productive or changes that come from

Fear like uh the stick in the carrot

thing they’re still going to be fear

surrounding that a fearful energy

involved in that so feeling or being

mindful of this as well so our

motivation what kind of energy and

what’s behind what our motivations and

drivers are so that type of energy is

going to feed in to the result as well

so has anybody here ever woken up in the

middle of being emotionally entangled

with someone basically not even knowing

uh what’s going on and then all of a

sudden oh wait I’m in an argument and I

just realized it so entangled in this

you know for me personally it’s like

waking up and oh I’ve pushed this and

pushed this just to try to prove a point

but has it even really helped trying to

Stand My Ground in order to try to

convey a point I would say sometimes

maybe yes other times it’s like making

things worse so again mindfulness of

waking up oh hey there’s a choice in

this matter what energy am I bringing

usually is an energetic game so where

whoever is dominating an energy and the

strongest the tendency tends to be for

the other person to match that energy

level just so they can relate to the

other person when in fact I find it more

helpful and I’ve been taught that let

the person be however their energy is

and focus more on the energy I want to

bring to the response instead of

matching that energy coming at me so I

focus on okay listen wait and then

respond with the energy that I wish to

convey and how I respond is going to be

a big factor and I feel sometimes just

those altercations as long as they’re

not abusive and sometimes they just need

to happen like some every press need to

come out if we’re constantly avoiding

conflict that’s almost as Dent or mental

sometimes than being entangled

emotionally Tangled perhaps something

for consideration again when we’re

mindful that we do have a choice and we

can pause and reflect and have different

choices available than the immediate

knee-jerk reaction which before I

started meditation practice it was just

basically based on habit patterns and

responding in the same old ways so I ask

a few friends about how they engage in

Practical purity

and one of the things I got was setting

the attention to increase Purity than

being able to have the willpower and

desire to make the necessary changes as

hard as those may be so basically this

is intention settings so most of all of

our activity is driven by an intention

and this is a Clarity I got on this I

did a live event a while back about

intention and outcome so the clarity I

got on this was our intentions are 100

our responsibility so if I set an

intention to do something setting that

intention is 100 on me now the outcome

is 50 50. so part of it will be my

behavior what I say what I do and the

intention comes into that and then the

other part is the other party how it’s

met viewed perceived and responded to so

the the responsibilities shared there

because I can’t control how it’s what I

say is going to be received I am so I’m

partly responsible for that but not a

hundred percent right so the increased

Purity here setting that intention and

then sticking to it and the willpower

this is an interesting thing it’s a

whole another ball whacks about how much

we actually volition and will we

actually have involved how that whole

process works of course I’m not 100 up

on how willpower works or doesn’t a lot

to say about that but I’m not qualified

to be an expert in that obviously in the

desire to make the necessary changes is

really important the series I did on the

any pot of the roads of power one of

them necessary to accomplish just about

anything is the desire that’s the first

thing are we just doing central desire

or would you have a desire to actually

have something beneficial more lasting

benefit for our long-term happiness

happiness of others well-being of others

both in everyone so desire to make the

changes look that desire and the changes

that need to be made and sticking to it

persistent patient persistence and

making sure you’re having good

instructions too because if the

instructions are awful and what we

should be doing then it doesn’t matter

how patient or persistent we are and so

that’s where discernment comes in to

know the difference right and I would

also add to this radical acceptance too

because some days it’s just too freaking

hard to to make those changes we need to

make so the Mantra of radical acceptance

is it’s okay so it’s okay that I’m kind

of failing at this now it’s okay that I

don’t want to fail it’s okay that it

sucks that I’m failing at it or

perceived that I’m failing at it and

it’s okay that I’m doing the best I can

applying that so we don’t beat myself up

and at the same time notice that the

next step from that is making those

changes we need to make making those

changes we know we need to make that

we’ve been putting off again I just kind

of want to reiterate why this might be

in important Purity is just the

energetic quality right so we notice

maybe reflecting back on when we felt

we’ve been

done things pure and how the energy

level is and then how we’ve done things

we might consider unpure and now without

any kind of value just on an energetic

basis kind of looking at the energy if

it’s clean uplifting helpful instead of

falling in to this thing of oh I’m a bad

person I shouldn’t have done that a

little bit of that can help prevent it

from happening again at the same time it

can be pushed too far into like a

self-pity shame blame and guilt things

like that a healthy reinforcement to see

that it’s not beneficial it might be

kind of a relief in the moment it might

be kind of benefit from it weighing

those as well but practically how do we

make those assessments to see what’s

what’s beneficial and helpful and of

course good clean energy it’s all

obvious right when we’re feeling good we

feel like we have good energy then life

seems more amazing we were able to enjoy

the things we want in life

to help others better and help ourselves

better and then also not pushing it into

puritanism because I mean we have these

things like these certain religions

where there it’s just ridiculous amount

of extreme Purity where it’s almost

unrealistic and so what ends up

happening is the opposite where people

rebel against those things well may you

all find practical Purity in your days

ahead and see and know the benefits for

yourself for others for each other in

all beings everywhere may all beings

everywhere realize Awakening and be free