Vision Battlesword [00:00:00]:
How are you feeling today, Raj?

Raj Padalia [00:00:02]:
I'm doing great, actually. Pretty blissed out still. I've been having some really great experiences over the last few weeks. Been doing a lot of deep inner work. I had some medicine ceremonies proceeding this week right now, so I'm feeling on really high spirits, feeling really accomplished. I felt like kind of like David and Goliath had conquered some inner demons. Stuff that has been bugging me or, you know, kind of weighing on me ever since childhood have now gotten really cleared out over the last few weeks. So feeling really light, kind of back to default, I should say.

Raj Padalia [00:00:43]:
You know, really blissed out and euphoric, even.

Vision Battlesword [00:00:46]:
Fantastic. Sounds like a great place to have a sacred conversation.

Raj Padalia [00:00:50]:
Yeah. And it's been really special. Cause there was a lot of almost, like, inner child wounds that were still in the background of a lot of the things I was doing today. You know what I mean? A lot of the ways I was thinking, there was still, like, some dust on the lens through which the way I see things regarding self worthiness, self love, and just overall trust, faith, and surrender. So those are the kind of the big themes I've been dealing with over the last few weeks.

Vision Battlesword [00:01:25]:
Hmm. But it sounds like you feel like you've been making good progress or you like the direction of your progress in these areas.

Raj Padalia [00:01:32]:
Definitely. Definitely. In the past, when I've done this kind of work, I would sometimes get frustrated because once I clear something, there's, like, ten more things to clear after that, and it seems like a never ending journey. It's like, when am I gonna be, you know, done with this? And then I, you know, I just get into that pattern of I'm just getting almost, like, addicted to healing, even. You know, I fall into that trap before, but this time, it feels like a lot has been cleared out, and I'm actually really impressed with myself and proud of myself for the progress that I just made. So just working on, you know, integrating that kind of pushing it to as long as it'll last before, you know, the next thing bubbles up.

Vision Battlesword [00:02:14]:
It's almost like the play is never done, and there's always more to discover, and there's always more to life than we can possibly.

Raj Padalia [00:02:23]:
Certainly. And it's also interesting because, you know, I'm the playwright, I'm the writer of the story, I'm the actor in the story, and I'm also the viewer as well. So in a beautiful way, it is all designed to get me to get to deeper capital, teach roots.

Vision Battlesword [00:02:42]:
Who are you, Raj Padilla?

Raj Padalia [00:02:46]:
So, originally, before I became really in tune with my spirituality. I worked as a physical therapist in a clinical setting, so it was very. This is a weird word for it, but it was very matrixy in the way that, you know, I would see the human body, I would see human emotion. It was almost like, you know, it was just a bag of chemicals. It was very kind of materialist, reductionist thinking. And this heavily science based perspective of seeing the world left me out of all the energetic side of things that we like to embrace here in Austin. So when I moved here, a whole new world was opened up to me, and greater sides of the picture were revealed. You know, how we can only see, like, 1% of the spectrum? Different shades were being opened up to me as I started to explore things that, you know, mainstream science would kind of deny.

Raj Padalia [00:03:50]:
And other than that, I've just been almost like a serial entrepreneur, just having lots of side hustles, deep curiosity about things, and exploring what my next path is. What I've been told to me by in dreams, from deeper intuitions and other experiences, have been to pursue a healing path. And it's kind of funny because I'd left the healing space when I quit being a physical therapist. And, you know, I tried things in other industries and finance and service businesses, and I now feel this deep calling to go back to the healing arts. It probably won't look the same way I've done before, but it was kind of funny how my karma kind of led me to become a physical therapist in the first place. So I get kind of new already.

Vision Battlesword [00:04:40]:
Hmm. Well, I'm Vision Battlesword, as you know, and I founded Sacred Light, created Intentional, Autonomous Relating, and I'm the host of this audio series, Sacred Conversations. What do you think about abundance?

Raj Padalia [00:04:59]:
Abundance has been playing a really big part in my life. I believe that when it comes to abundance, when I was growing up, I had this very limited view of abundance. I was very much in scarcity. My environment was very much in that type of thinking. And I'm grateful for those type of experiences because it created such a deep contrast within me, a deep desire to allow all the abundance that's really our birthright. So I've explored this in different ways. The most common way is probably through financial energy. But lately I've been learning that, you know, there's different types of abundance.

Raj Padalia [00:05:46]:
At least I shouldn't get stuck in just viewing abundance as one in one form, but rather taking note of all the different types of abundance that's coming into my life at all times. And that keeps everything flowing and keeps it coming.

Vision Battlesword [00:06:04]:
What is abundance?

Raj Padalia [00:06:06]:
Abundance is the recognition of all that is. I think it's our default state in that when we are not recognizing abundance, we are putting on the blinders to what's really in front of us. And that's where we start to notice lack of. So it's the exact opposite of lack.

Vision Battlesword [00:06:31]:
Abundance is the opposite of lack?

Raj Padalia [00:06:33]:
I think so.

Vision Battlesword [00:06:34]:
And lack is another way of saying scarcity.

Raj Padalia [00:06:38]:
Yes.

Vision Battlesword [00:06:39]:
Does abundance have something to do with having more than you need? Like, if someone, if we say that someone is getting their needs met, is that the same thing as saying that they're abundant, or is abundance somehow beyond that?

Raj Padalia [00:06:55]:
That's a good point. I do think it's beyond that, because when you say someone has, like, an abundance of something, it usually means they have extra or their cup is overflowing.

Vision Battlesword [00:07:05]:
Yeah. What would you say then? Like, how would you describe something that's not scarcity, but not abundance? What is that state called of just having your needs met?

Raj Padalia [00:07:16]:
Equanimity. Perhaps it's some sort of balance.

Vision Battlesword [00:07:20]:
Satisfaction.

Raj Padalia [00:07:21]:
Satisfaction.

Vision Battlesword [00:07:22]:
Contentment.

Raj Padalia [00:07:22]:
Contentment. Yeah. Contentment even has some negative connotation to it. Like how so? It's almost like you're just kind of tolerating something. At least that's how I've always read it. But I think satisfaction is a really good way of putting it. And I believe that in order to have extra of something, in order to be really abundant of something, whatever it may be, one has to learn to be satisfied with what they have now, because the universe always provides what we need at all times. And oftentimes when we're in want or we're kind of pleading with the universe for more.

Raj Padalia [00:08:00]:
The only reason we don't have is because we don't need it right now, or we're not ready to be, to receive it.

Vision Battlesword [00:08:08]:
But does it seem like. Well, we hear the word. I hear the word abundance a lot in the world generally, but I think especially within our community, the spiritual community, conscious community, we talk a lot about that. That that's what we're pursuing, that that's what we'd like to manifest. We want to live in abundance.

Raj Padalia [00:08:29]:
That's the top of list of everybody.

Vision Battlesword [00:08:31]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:08:31]:
And I think we just want to, at least I can speak for myself. We just want to, like that sigh of relief that when we are, even when we just have what we need, even if it's like past scarcity, where we just have, like, all our needs met, we're still thinking about, well, okay, what am I going to do tomorrow, then to pay the bills and things like that. I just have just enough. I think we all want that almost spiritual sigh of relief, like, all right, no need to worry about that anymore.

Vision Battlesword [00:09:03]:
Yeah, I guess that was the question I was sort of about to ask, is, why? Why pursue abundance? Why is abundance desirable?

Raj Padalia [00:09:12]:
It allows us to just be. I think that a lot of us have a hard time just existing because we have to worry about the things in our immediate environment, like where our next meal is coming from, how to pay the next bill, or taking care of others around us until those needs are met. One would just have a hard time just sort of existing.

Vision Battlesword [00:09:41]:
Sure. But we just made a distinction between satisfaction and abundance. Right. And by the way, I just want to. As an aside, I want to say I find it interesting that you mentioned that you have a sense of a negative attachment of some sort to the word contentment. Because I think of the word contentment as almost an ideal sort of contentment being equivalent to happiness. And I see at the same time.

Raj Padalia [00:10:09]:
I looked at it as the way of contentment is you're not striving.

Vision Battlesword [00:10:13]:
Uh huh.

Raj Padalia [00:10:14]:
But, like, now that I think about it, why would I be striving if it's. If it's all good?

Vision Battlesword [00:10:19]:
Right, right. But that's interesting.

Raj Padalia [00:10:21]:
Perhaps that's a little light inside of where I'm at with. With my relationship with, with abundance.

Vision Battlesword [00:10:27]:
It sounds like you're equating contentment with complacency in a way.

Raj Padalia [00:10:33]:
Yes. Yes.

Vision Battlesword [00:10:34]:
Okay.

Raj Padalia [00:10:34]:
Certainly.

Vision Battlesword [00:10:35]:
All right. But at any rate, if we have this state that we could call satisfaction, which is all of my needs are met, I don't actually have a sense of scarcity, but I also don't have a sense of abundance, meaning I'm not living in a wealth of surplus energy, surplus finances, material, whatever it is that we're. Whatever resource it is that we're talking about could be human connection, whatever that is. Is there anything wrong with that?

Raj Padalia [00:11:03]:
No.

Vision Battlesword [00:11:04]:
Okay. And yet it seems to me that there's a program that's very common in our society.

Raj Padalia [00:11:11]:
I'm guilty of that for sure, which.

Vision Battlesword [00:11:13]:
Is that we ought to be pursuing abundance like, as if satisfaction is not success. Satisfaction is not even acceptable. There's always. It's just like you said, well, what's the next thing? And what's the next thing? And what's the next thing? And there's always this next thing that we're supposed to be pursuing until what? Until, you know, until we have a million dollars. Until we have a billion dollars. Until we have, you know, and the.

Raj Padalia [00:11:40]:
Number always gets more.

Vision Battlesword [00:11:41]:
Whatever.

Raj Padalia [00:11:41]:
Yeah, let's take money, for example. You know, as soon as one hits that first million, the next thought is, well, if I did x, Y and z to hit that one, then I just have to do a, B and C to hit, you know, 2345. And it just becomes. Becomes a trap. I've seen it happen with a few of my friends where after you hit the one, they're just. They feel just as poor as they did when they were just at 100,000.

Vision Battlesword [00:12:07]:
Yeah, I had a. There was a very similar part of the conversation that I had with David Sauvage, which was all about money specifically. And we just kind of recognized that same trap or that same phenomenon where it's like you can continue to add zeros to an income or to a bank account and still have the exact same feelings, the same feelings of lack, the same feelings of scarcity of want.

Raj Padalia [00:12:34]:
Yeah, this is top of mind for me. I'm in that same boat right now, and I'm learning through experience. I mean, I could read somebody, write something like that and be like, well, that's just nonsense. Like, even if I had a million, like, I wouldn't want more, or, yeah, I would feel thrilled with that. But, you know, being in this experience right now, I can say for sure that the numbers on the screen don't do it. You almost have to, no matter the number on the screen, you have to learn to feel, you know, extremely wealthy or extremely satisfied, no matter how many zeros are there, because you just end up adding more zeros and pushing the goalposts further and further and further. Because then you think, like, well, yeah, the millions, nice. But then 5 million, I could take care of this guy and my parents and my grandkids and this and that.

Raj Padalia [00:13:28]:
And then 10 million, I could, you know, there's new game levels that open up in life, new side quests that you can kind of go on with 10 million versus just the one. And then you kind of get married to those ideas in your imagination. Well, like, of all the coolest things you could do at 10 million, but.

Vision Battlesword [00:13:48]:
Then there's more, presumably, to life than money.

Raj Padalia [00:13:51]:
Correct.

Vision Battlesword [00:13:52]:
We could be abundant in a lot of different ways.

Raj Padalia [00:13:55]:
And what we're really going after, even with the money example, is just the feeling that that will get us. And, you know, I'm teaching myself right now this really trying to get it concrete, is if that's all we're going after, then why not just feel the feeling now? You know, it can be just as simple as that. But.

Vision Battlesword [00:14:18]:
Yeah, to me, the question always is, for what? Well, I'd like to have a million dollars. For what? You know, to me the question is, well, what do you want to do? What experience do you want to have? What kind of lifestyle do you want to create for yourself? Or what are the things that you'd like to manifest? And then is there a way to shortcut that? Like, that's kind of the way I've been thinking about things for the past several years, is we're caught up in a process. The process is making money. But that's not actually the goal. The goal is to take the vacation. The goal is to take care of my family, take care of my parents. The goal is to build my dream. The goal is whatever that is.

Vision Battlesword [00:15:06]:
And so I start thinking along the lines of, okay, well, how do we achieve that goal? Perhaps one process for doing that is first collect a million dollars, then next step. But is there any other way? Are there other paths to getting directly to whatever it is that you actually want? And so that's kind of where I start thinking of like, well, what is the true abundance that we want to have, that we want to create in our life? And then again, I'm going to ask the follow up question of why? But, you know, is it an abundance of relationships? Is it an abundance of love? Is it an abundance of time to pursue my own activities and passions and leisures and whatever those things may be? Is it an abundance of actual resources so that I can build something? Or is it an abundance of influence so that I can create change in the world? What exactly is it that we actually really want? Seems to me is a very important question that often gets overlooked when we're talking about abundance.

Raj Padalia [00:16:18]:
Yeah, you brought up a great point regarding the different categories of abundance that one can go after. A lot of times the first thing people go for is abundance of financial energy. Whereas sometimes if somebody's feeling in lack of financial abundance, they're failing to notice all the other categories where they are really abundant. And kind of paying attention to those areas often allow the financial energy to come in because you're now kind of vibrating at the idea of all the other areas that we're abundant in. I mean, we have an abundance of oxygen. You know, we never feel any lack related around that. We have an abundance of sunshine. We have.

Raj Padalia [00:16:59]:
I mean, I can speak personally. I have a time, abundance, you know, I mean, I have that kind of time. Freedom may not have all the money that I really want to achieve, like the whole bucket list. But I certainly have a lot of time, and that's something I sometimes fail to ignore. Like, wait a minute, I'm a time billionaire. You know what I mean? And that's really important to know. And. Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:17:21]:
And one thing I'm really good at manifesting into my life is relationships. I almost, anytime I go into a room, I'm always meeting the most interesting person there. Or I'm always, like, leaving a party with, you know, a new network or new friends or new acquaintances. And sometimes I think, man, if only I could just attract money just as easily as I attract people, everything would be groovy again. But it is the same exact mechanism. All of it. Yeah, because I don't resist it.

Vision Battlesword [00:17:55]:
I love that point. I've never really thought of that before. We have an abundance of sunlight. We have an abundance of oxygen. Not everywhere necessarily in the world, but generally speaking, on this planet, an abundance of water. There's so many, yeah, there's so many things that we just take for granted that we actually have in true abundance, like, so much that you really can't run out. And there's always going to be more, you know, there's more being created all the time. That's a really fascinating way to think of it and also to just kind of do a self assessment of your own life and really take an accurate accounting of the things that truly are abundant in the sense that we, you know, in the sense that we defined it, which is to say, I have a surplus of this resource.

Vision Battlesword [00:18:43]:
Maybe it's time. Maybe it's a certain kind of freedom. Maybe it's a certain kind of resources. What do you think about the general abundance program that we have in our society? And correct me if you think I'm off base with this, but, you know, I see it as a kind of a drive toward unlimited growth. Like, it's, it's sort of a growth oriented mindset that there's really no constraints on. It's, it's just, it's a never, it's a never ending.

Raj Padalia [00:19:12]:
It's dangerous.

Vision Battlesword [00:19:13]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:19:13]:
And I think it has to do with, at least I can speak for myself. It has to do with its relation to status and the way others perceive you or the ways others may approve or disapprove of you or even self critical judgment of myself. Like perhaps I don't feel enough until I have x, y, and z, or until I've accomplished x, y, and z. And it's, and society always kind of hammers into us that more is greater, you know, and all the advertising on the packaging is always, you know, 15% more. This. Everything's always more, more. Nothing's ever, you know, it's like you get what you get. Everybody's always looking for that extra bonus because there's no constraints on growth.

Raj Padalia [00:20:01]:
It becomes a never ending race.

Vision Battlesword [00:20:03]:
Yeah, I thought about that a lot. You know, I spent a lot of time in the corporate world, in publicly traded companies, where it's the quarter to quarter growth mindset, sales organizations, sales focused sales mentality. And there's always a new goal and there's always a new target, and it's always, okay, well, 5% this quarter, 5% again, next quarter, 5% again. And I find it curious that more people don't just notice that. Doesn't it seem like that can't go on forever? Isn't there an exponential component of that compounding? Like you think of compounding interest in a bank account or anything that compounds as a percentage of itself in an iterative or recursive process that will eventually reach natural boundaries or natural limitations?

Raj Padalia [00:21:00]:
I don't know. What if there are no natural boundaries or limitations? What if it's just the nature of things to keep growing and perhaps the pie just keeps getting bigger?

Vision Battlesword [00:21:09]:
Yeah, I see that. There's something about that makes sense to me if what we mean is that the pie is represented by our ability to continue to innovate and create new strategies, new technologies, new ways of multiplying resources, energy, food, all of the different things that would ultimately create, like a, like a physical or a natural limitation to growth.

Raj Padalia [00:21:39]:
Yeah, perhaps the key is just being satisfied at each level and like, yeah, more 5% next quarter would be nice, but where we are right now is pretty good, you know, and just learning to be okay with that, I think, is really key.

Vision Battlesword [00:21:54]:
I'm just saying. What I'm trying to point out is that to me, there's a little bit of a logical flaw in the idea that, like, let's say I'm going to start a company, I start a company, and for a certain period of time, while I'm in a growth phase, it does make sense that I want to set targets for the growth of my company of 10% year over year, or 5% quarter over quarter, or whatever those targets are. That makes sense to my business plan and my strategy. What I'm suggesting is that there seems to be an open endedness to this program that applies universally across the board, to all companies of all sizes, in all nations, in all economies. Like, it's just there's a perpetual growth mentality of everything where that piece of it doesn't make sense to me because physical resources are ultimately limited. And even if they weren't, isn't there, like, okay, you said, you asked a question earlier, like, is it just a state of nature that things inherently grow? And my answer to you is, no, obviously not.

Raj Padalia [00:23:00]:
That's true. You know, things can wilt. You know?

Vision Battlesword [00:23:02]:
It's not just that things can wilt, it's that things reach a maturity and they stop growing. Human beings don't continue to grow indefinitely until we're a thousand feet tall. And that's true.

Raj Padalia [00:23:16]:
Neither do trees, neither does anything.

Vision Battlesword [00:23:18]:
Yeah, things reach a maturity and they stop growing. But we don't look at things that way for some reason.

Raj Padalia [00:23:26]:
Yeah. With our wallets, for example.

Vision Battlesword [00:23:27]:
Correct. I wonder why that is.

Raj Padalia [00:23:30]:
Hmm. Perhaps because, you know, the four minute mile just keeps getting broken. You know, you always find somebody with a bigger wallet then, you know, like, well, I guess the point of max maturity isn't there and nobody's really found it yet.

Vision Battlesword [00:23:43]:
But I think you, I mean, there's this, the thing you said previously, I think there's something true about that also. The pie does get bigger. If what we mean by that is whatever the state of, or whatever the baseline of, let's say, satisfaction or abundance was 100 years ago or a thousand years ago, based on the state of the arts, the state of technology, that's true. Whatever our expectations were. There's another thing we didn't name earlier. It seems to me like, at least in this place where we are right now, in this city, this country, there is an abundance of electricity. Seems to me, I mean, if by, you know, certainly it's not unlimited, and certainly it does, we do have to pay for it, we do have to trade resources for it, but we don't really think too much about, I turn my lights on when I want to. I run my computer 100% when I want to.

Vision Battlesword [00:24:36]:
I'm not it. Basically, it might as well be unlimited. I can suck as much of it out of the wall as I personally want. You know, it's as close to being like water as anything else that we have.

Raj Padalia [00:24:46]:
We're living better lives and have more resources than the biggest kings in all of medieval history, for example.

Vision Battlesword [00:24:54]:
Right. So that's an example of, I think, the overall pie getting bigger in the sense that by creating new technologies and strategies and innovations for raising the overall baseline of our expectations and moving more and more things into that category of abundance, almost like sunshine, air and water, then that's sort of the overall growth of the baseline of abundance that we're all enjoying. But then that does seem to move the goalposts. And I think that's the piece where I'm like, okay, is there some sort of a balance here? I guess what I'm trying to. What I'm. What I'm asking is, is it appropriate at some point for us to have a conversation about what actually does human maturity look like? You know? Or is it. I think there's an actual mentality where, like, that question doesn't get asked. Or the default assumption is, well, first we fill up this planet, and then we go to the next planet, and then we fill up that planet, and then we go to the next planet, and it's like, no, the growth never has to stop.

Vision Battlesword [00:26:03]:
It just never, ever stops. We've got a whole galaxy to expand into. If we fill that one up, then we'll just keep on going to other.

Raj Padalia [00:26:08]:
Galaxies, and that economy will just get bigger and bigger as well.

Vision Battlesword [00:26:13]:
I question that. I question that. It's like, what if there is a human adulthood where it doesn't mean we have to stop getting happier, and it doesn't mean we have to stop continuing to push the envelope in terms of our knowledge and awareness and technology and ways that we can make our lives more enjoyable or different ways that we can experience the world and all this sort of stuff, but we don't have to continue to grow as a species in terms of population and consumption of resources. In other words, creating an abundance of us.

Raj Padalia [00:26:52]:
That's really interesting. And there might be two different answers. One for the overall collective and one for each individual. Because perhaps all of our bucket lists might be of different sizes, and that somebody's maturity level could be, like, when they complete their own respective bucket list and that, you know, past that. What's the point of a billion dollars if you've already hit everything you wanted to hit? So that could be, like, that limit that one set for themselves. And maybe, you know, when they hit that bucket list, they write another one that expands on that, but that's okay. But then at least you're still creating a limit for where you can finally feel like, okay, that's enough. But for the collective, I don't know.

Raj Padalia [00:27:40]:
I think it just might keep growing. But certainly there can come a point where we can all, as a collective, decide, say, hey, you know, this is kind of enough, because the faster we grow, the more we'll need on the other end to supply that. And if we just stopped growing as a species. Now all our resources will eventually pile up to the point where will all be really in a large surplus.

Vision Battlesword [00:28:07]:
That sounds rad.

Raj Padalia [00:28:08]:
Yeah, it sounds great, actually. It does sound really good, because then everybody will have full feelings of abundance. They'll be really rich in resources. It's a very interesting concept.

Vision Battlesword [00:28:21]:
Yeah. There's just something for me in this whole conversation that's really juicy around this balancing, balancing of satisfaction versus abundance, and balancing the different kinds of satisfaction or abundance that I can experience in my life, like having an integrated or a holistic awareness of what are my needs, what are my desires, and how much of all of these different things could I have satisfied? And are there ways to accomplish that that are more direct, efficient paths of least resistance?

Raj Padalia [00:29:05]:
Yeah, that's the paradox, right? Like everybody we know around us, a lot of us live in a state where we want abundance, right. And what keeps it away is that wanting it. And if myself and others, we could just learn to be satisfied, that's when we sort of allow the abundance to come through the path of least resistance, you know, just a very act of wanting it is, you know, telling the universe that you're in lack of it. And that just sends a vibration of. To give you more examples of ways that you're in lack. It's almost, we just have to ignore it and just be grateful and appreciative and loving and satisfied with the way things are and get into full surrender and acceptance of that is when the abundance can surprise you and delight you in, like you said, the path of least resistance. I've had this happen in my life many times where I finally get to a point where I just kind of let go of the desire and just give it to the feet of the universe or just focus on other forms of abundance I have or just, you know, learn to just be grateful and satisfied for what I do have is when more tends to come in.

Vision Battlesword [00:30:22]:
Yeah, I'm just thinking about, there's a little bit of a tension sometimes between the idea of pursuing prosperity, I think, by which we usually mean material wealth, material resources, and not judging that, you know, at all, except, you know, except as like, good, you know, like a worthy pursuit. And then I think we have an idea of accomplishing that prosperity and then doing great things, beneficial things, things to further the abundance of all.

Raj Padalia [00:30:57]:
Yeah. Expanding the consciousness of humanity for a show.

Vision Battlesword [00:31:00]:
Yeah. And then also there's a tension on the other side, I think, where there's a lot of folks we hang out with or associate with that eschew that kind of material prosperity or that type of abundance, and advocate more for focusing on a spiritual abundance or an emotional or relational kind of path that may take the form of something that would look like one person as scarcity or poverty, but to that person who's pursuing that path, feels like a more a truer type of abundance than any material wealth that we could collect for ourselves. But I look at, I'm looking for a balance. I'm looking for how can these two paths, and even other paths of abundance, come together into a philosophy that's coherent and where these things are mutually compatible, where there is no sense that we have to trade one for the other?

Raj Padalia [00:31:59]:
I think they're very, very tied in. I think that when one, let's say one is living that true spiritual path, I think that once they really tap into that and really get rid of any core wounds or any kinks in their vibration, material wealth just comes to them. And that those that are pursuing just a more material wealth path while ignoring their own physical health, emotional health and spiritual health, they often reach some sort of a ceiling point on their end too. And oftentimes I've noticed that I've had prosperity and material successes come in. When I do some shadow work, for example, I'm like, hmm, this is pretty interesting. This has happened to me a few times in the last six to nine months where, you know, I've taken care of some kind of a core wound or done some sort of form of shadow work, or, you know, learn to love myself. And boom, the next day my portfolio is up like 60%. And it's like, well, that's really strange.

Vision Battlesword [00:33:03]:
That is interesting.

Raj Padalia [00:33:05]:
Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [00:33:06]:
What does abundance look like for you when you dream about abundance? What does that look like? If you fantasize about your life in abundance?

Raj Padalia [00:33:16]:
It's freedom. It all revolves around freedom. Freedom to do what I want, when I want the freedom to, you know, be, do, or have anything that I want. And the things that I want revolve around a certain hierarchy of needs where I'm in the pursuit of spiritual excellence, physical excellence, emotional excellence, mental excellence. And then once my cup is sort of full with that, then, you know, take care of the household and take care of my community, and then take care of, you know, kind of goes, it expands more and more from there, and I help the people around me, you know, attain those four areas or four pillars of excellence after starting with myself. So this way I'm able to give what I already have. And if I have the ability to do that, then that would be pure abundance for me. That's sort of what my bucket list has sort of revolved around personally.

Vision Battlesword [00:34:15]:
Wow. I mean, so all of that stuff seems very personal and not material so much.

Raj Padalia [00:34:23]:
It requires materials to do those certain things, I believe, like, what I have, like, different notes on these things where, like, all right, with a million dollars, here's all the side quests that I can accomplish for the 5 million mark and for the 10 million mark, here's what I can do. And I'm in the pursuit of the highest potential possible, because then I can be able to do all the lists, but they really revolve around, especially towards the higher end numbers is the expansion of consciousness, of humanity as a whole. Cause I think that's why we're here, and that's sort of the greater truth, is to help everybody do that.

Vision Battlesword [00:35:07]:
Hmm. Can you have an abundance of consciousness?

Raj Padalia [00:35:12]:
No, I don't think so. And I think that we're all. We kind of already have or built in with this expanded consciousness. It's almost as if I'll be helping myself and others deprogram themselves to get to that, get to that state. So we might have an abundance of extra layers we need to shed right now, more so than.

Vision Battlesword [00:35:37]:
But there's no such thing as too much consciousness or more than you even need?

Raj Padalia [00:35:41]:
I don't think so.

Vision Battlesword [00:35:42]:
Interesting. Yeah. I was sitting here thinking about it sometimes when you were talking, like, what does abundance look like for me? What do I dream? If I dreamed of abundance, meaning having more than I need, what would that look like? And it's hard for me to even conceive of it, actually. It's. It's very interesting. But it looks. It looks like land. I see myself on land.

Raj Padalia [00:36:10]:
Similar things I imagine and similar things on my. On my list. Lots of land. Lots of the ability to be really sovereign, the freedom and ability to want a bigger house without feeling sort of guilty for it. You know? It's just, if I want it, it's. I want it, you know what I mean? There's nothing, I don't think to justify to society or to myself or to God of why I want it. I just sort of want it. Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:36:36]:
You know, a lot of. Maybe, like half my list is pretty material things related to, you know, the bigger house, nicer car, that kind of a thing. And the other half is more time and space to pursue more inner missions and inner pursuits.

Vision Battlesword [00:36:55]:
Yeah. I see myself on land. I see myself in community. The abundance that comes to my consciousness is so much about food. I imagine abundance to me, looks like just so much food. I see myself walking through my garden and it's just like, there is way, way more growing here than like any of us could possibly eat. And that's also just fine. Like, it doesn't feel like anything's going to waste.

Vision Battlesword [00:37:27]:
It doesn't feel like it's just, there's just more.

Raj Padalia [00:37:30]:
Yeah, more feed more people. Yeah, yeah.

Vision Battlesword [00:37:32]:
And I don't feel pressure to do anything with it. I don't feel pressure to like, it's just fine. It's there. It's fine. I go get some when I want some, and that's fine. It really does come back to like, what you said before. I can see that. I'm seeing that more and more.

Vision Battlesword [00:37:49]:
It's about a level of relaxation that your nervous system can achieve when it's like, for me, it's food in my fantasies, but finding a replace for whatever, whatever that resource is that it's like I can just reach out and have some and that's fine. There's plenty more. There's more. Even for other people. It's okay. It's never not gonna be there. Like, that's what abundance feels like. I think it feels like just a.

Vision Battlesword [00:38:16]:
A level of relaxation that somehow goes beyond satisfaction into like joy or something.

Raj Padalia [00:38:24]:
I've gotten a glimpse of that, you know, in my previous medicine ceremony that I did where I at least got a taste of, whoa, this is what real letting go is. Like, that relaxation. Like, oh, I don't need to worry about x, y and z or I don't. I have everything. I am everything. And if you are everything, what are you in lack of? But, you know, that's not very grounded. And you can't just like, I don't be in that state. Well, I guess you can, but we were sort of, kind of forced back into our physical bodies where we're here to, you know, learn, explore and play.

Raj Padalia [00:38:59]:
And the game wouldn't be as much fun if we sort of had everything all at once.

Vision Battlesword [00:39:05]:
Well, this is what I'm trying to figure out. Like, just what you just said just now. It sounds like setting up a little bit of a binary where it's like, okay, well, we've got, on the one hand, we can have this experience through various means, through medicine, through meditation, through peak experiences. We can have this experience of oneness and non duality and complete, like, abundance in the universal sense and like, all this different stuff. But then it's like, well, at some point we're going to come back to the meat sack and we got to run around and try and feed this thing and get our needs met and all this different stuff. And what I'm trying to figure out is, like, okay, how do we bridge that? Because there's something about that that feels false to me, that feels like a false choice that we get set up for. And this is also, like, almost a little bit like what I was describing before of the kind of spiritual versus material philosophy, maybe being in the middle.

Raj Padalia [00:39:59]:
Is there a middle path?

Vision Battlesword [00:40:01]:
Is it a middle path, or is it a both? And, like, I feel like I'm looking for both end. I feel like I'm looking for the both.

Raj Padalia [00:40:07]:
Like, almost an interlocking mechanism.

Vision Battlesword [00:40:10]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:40:10]:
Each one feeding into the other. Almost like a positive feedback loop.

Vision Battlesword [00:40:13]:
Totally synergistic.

Raj Padalia [00:40:15]:
And that's why I think the universe does work, and they both do end up feeding into each other, because, like I said, I just. I've had so many examples of recent memory where I do achieve some spiritual goal, and the next second, you know, I have this material come into my space, and then when that material wealth comes into my space, I let go of some inner wound of something else, and they just kind of keep building on top of each other. Or, like, this material wealth gives me the time and ability and resources to take care of something I've been holding onto from the spiritual sense. And they. And they do. I think they do interlock with the. With each other, and there could be just one in the same.

Vision Battlesword [00:41:00]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:41:00]:
Why. Why is there even a separateness?

Vision Battlesword [00:41:02]:
Exactly. That's. That's my question. Why. Why are we seemingly sometimes presented with this apparent choice of, well, do you want to pursue the worldly path, or do you want to pursue the godly path? Do you want to pursue the spiritual, or do you want to pursue the material?

Raj Padalia [00:41:20]:
Like, I mean, Austin's a great place to observe this dichotomy. There's very few cities where I've seen such a split. You know, you go to someplace like New York, and it's, you know, it's one end of the stick or someplace like Asheville, and it's the other.

Vision Battlesword [00:41:34]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:41:35]:
Here, there's a really interesting mix, and I have great friend groups and kind of both sides of it, and they don't intermingle much, you know? Right. They wouldn't necessarily hang out in the same room. I'm lucky enough to hang out with both myself. Cause I can kind of speak both languages pretty well. But to get them in the same room is sometimes difficult, and I think it's because they see each other as two different ideas, or like you said, two different total paths as one or the other, and non compatible and non compatible at the same time.

Vision Battlesword [00:42:11]:
They each view the other as non compatible. Yeah, it seems to me 100%.

Raj Padalia [00:42:15]:
Yeah, I see that too. I see that, too. And there's almost even a level of disrespect that one can have for the other. Everybody thinks the other side is concerned, silly. Whereas what are even both sides really measuring? It's pursuit of excellence in some form of energy and skill. That's all the same thing. And why are we choosing to be good at one thing and not the other? Why not just be good at all of it?

Vision Battlesword [00:42:43]:
Or at least have an integrated approach? Like, even. There's. There's been some ways that you've been talking in this conversation that I want to examine a little bit. You know, when you've been saying things like, first I do the shadow work and I heal this wound, or first I achieve, like, a level of abundance in my emotional world or in my spiritual world, and then I notice that the material abundance follows that. Okay, fair enough. But does one have to follow the other? Or can they both be happening simultaneously? Yeah, that's where I'm going.

Raj Padalia [00:43:21]:
I think they both could happen simultaneously. It's just I have my foot on the brakes of one or the other.

Vision Battlesword [00:43:28]:
Sure.

Raj Padalia [00:43:29]:
At all times.

Vision Battlesword [00:43:29]:
So I think that's kind of how we're trained, and that's kind of the whole point we're making.

Raj Padalia [00:43:33]:
Right, right. Yes, yes. And that's something. I could take my foot off the. Of the handbrake, you know? Or I could. It could happen all at the same time. There's no reason why it doesn't have to.

Vision Battlesword [00:43:46]:
And then on the other side, I think that the thinking is generally, well, first I'm going to get all of these worldly, material, resource based needs met.

Raj Padalia [00:43:58]:
Then I'll become a monk. I've had this thought myself. Been a fantasy of mine. I'll get the $10 million, and then I'll go live as a monk. I've definitely played with that idea quite a lot.

Vision Battlesword [00:44:08]:
Sure. Or it's. It's like, at least the theory is like. And then I'll have all the time that I need to meditate.

Raj Padalia [00:44:14]:
Yes.

Vision Battlesword [00:44:15]:
Go to ceremony, to.

Raj Padalia [00:44:17]:
Yes.

Vision Battlesword [00:44:17]:
Study with a monk.

Raj Padalia [00:44:18]:
100% guilty of this. I'm 100% guilty of that. And I. It comes down to perhaps a reason why the two sides are incompatible or seemingly incompatible, or we don't get them at the same time, is because our reasoning might be different for wanting one or wanting the other, whereas we might want more. We might have more pure reasons why we want the spiritual success. And I want, I don't want to use the word impure reasons why we want the material success, because it's all one thing. But I think maybe the reasoning might be different, and that's what kind of keeps one and not the other or allows one and not the other. Maybe it comes down to the why.

Vision Battlesword [00:44:58]:
I like that question. And the other thing that I'm just kind of thinking about is, like, what is our definition of abundance as we defined it before? And again, I'm kind of thinking through my own just little mini thought experiment of like, okay, what in theory does abundance even look like for me? And I'm having a really tough time, like, conceiving of it because there's something about me, for some reason, that just tends not to think in these terms. And I.

Raj Padalia [00:45:25]:
Maybe because you're already super duper abundant.

Vision Battlesword [00:45:27]:
That might be, but I just flat out and don't imagine abundance. I just don't. Or in the sense of, I don't imagine rolling around in money like Scrooge McDuck, you know, or like, I don't. I just, I don't imagine. Okay, like, take. Let's go back to the property. Let's go back to the community, you know, on the land. I don't imagine.

Raj Padalia [00:45:51]:
I don't see you in a few Ferraris. I don't.

Vision Battlesword [00:45:53]:
I don't imagine a Ferrari there. But in my garden, I don't imagine, like, having goals for growth of the garden. I don't imagine. I don't imagine thinking to myself, like, well, I've met all my needs. I met all the needs of the family. I met all the needs of the community. We have a little bit more even than we need, but we're still going to go for 5% more next quarter so that we could start exporting. I just don't think in those terms.

Vision Battlesword [00:46:22]:
And so where I'm trying to get to at this is like, can there be a different way that we think about what success even looks like or what, quote unquote, abundance even looks like that has an end state that has a satisfactory conclusion that doesn't. Again, coming back to, like, the companies I used to work for and the infinite growth trajectory of, like, well, now we're a $3 billion company, but then, now the next target is to become a $10 billion company. And then the next, it's like, well, are you eventually going to take over the entire economy of the world. Like, where is this going? Or does there get to be a point where it's like, we're a $10 billion company and that was the goal and we're good. And next quarter we're going to go for the same? And next quarter, we're going to go for the same.

Raj Padalia [00:47:12]:
I think there are companies that do that, but they're usually very tiny.

Vision Battlesword [00:47:17]:
Yeah. They're not the norm.

Raj Padalia [00:47:19]:
Not the norm. It's the exception.

Vision Battlesword [00:47:21]:
Right. And so I'm just curious about that. As we're thinking about setting life goals for ourself and as we're thinking about if we are managing a business or going into business, becoming entrepreneurial or any of these different things, does it make sense to imagine ourself or to imagine that organization, that entity? And what does it look like at maturity? What does it look like at adulthood, so to speak, like. And then looking at all of our different needs in different categories, such as our physical, resource based, material based needs, our emotional needs, our needs for connection and love, our needs for, you know, go down the list. Maslow's hierarchy is a good, good model to start with, but then beyond that, you know, what are my needs for self actualization and feeling creatively expressed in the world? Feeling like I have an influence in society.

Raj Padalia [00:48:21]:
What you mentioned earlier was really interesting. Perhaps the reason why you seemingly are so abundant is because you don't think about it. And that the very act of me considering, like, am I abundant or not? It might be keeping it from me because I'm, like, in pursuit of something. Like, I don't think to myself, like, do I have enough air? I just have it. I don't think about it. And I do. So that's interesting. That's something I can take away from you, is maybe I should just stop thinking about the damn thing and just.

Raj Padalia [00:48:54]:
I think that might allow it a little bit easier, because once I'm at the point where I accomplished all the bucket lists, I don't imagine I'll be thinking about it too much. After that. I'll be in that state of relaxation.

Vision Battlesword [00:49:09]:
Well, you said something earlier in the conversation that I thought was really poignant, which is I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but the way I took it, took what I took from it is something along the lines of, we can be in a phase of growth, meaning we can still have goals, and we can still be stretching ourself to, you know, new boundaries and simultaneously be contented, be satisfied with wherever it is that we are. Actually, now, journey, be happy with the journey. There doesn't have to be.

Raj Padalia [00:49:39]:
It doesn't give me pleasure in the journey.

Vision Battlesword [00:49:41]:
Striving doesn't have to be suffering.

Raj Padalia [00:49:43]:
No, absolutely. Absolutely.

Vision Battlesword [00:49:46]:
Growth doesn't have to feel like scarcity.

Raj Padalia [00:49:48]:
No, no. It's all about taking pleasure in the journey of, like, let's say, like, I know Abraham Hicks uses this example quite a lot. She says when somebody wants to go on vacation, let's say to Hawaii or something, after you finish the vacation, you end up coming back home, and it's like, well, that's where you are right now. You're done. Right. But the whole point was to kind of go there and spend time and come back. If the end goal for both of those situations was you sitting right here in your living room, then why aren't you just as happy not going? Because you would have ended up right here anyway. But the whole point was to take satisfaction in the journey of things, not just like I want.

Raj Padalia [00:50:31]:
It's here. It wouldn't be as much fun. It depends what perspective you're looking at it through. But I do believe that we're here to have fun. It's sort of like a game.

Vision Battlesword [00:50:42]:
Yeah, I agree with that, too. And there's another piece of this that I've been thinking about, which, you know, coming back to the original definition of abundance, being in excess of needs or excess of meeting the needs. Well, that's another. There's another little trap in there, just in that word need. Well, how much do we need? How do we define that? Right. We could expand the scope of that concept to be very, very, quite large.

Raj Padalia [00:51:10]:
Or shrink it.

Vision Battlesword [00:51:11]:
Well, I do need a fifth house, and I do need. Yeah, a Ferrari and whatever.

Raj Padalia [00:51:16]:
It's a very personal definition. It always depends on kind of what perspective. You know, from one perspective, you only need oxygen and water and, you know, food. But from another perspective, to serve my community, I need XYz resources. Yeah. It's a perspective thing. You could look at it from all different ways, but no matter what, whichever way you look at it, it still has the potential to cause happiness or unhappiness, because the act of needing is, you know, admitting lack and kind of get stuck in that need. It's a strong word.

Vision Battlesword [00:51:52]:
Mm hmm.

Raj Padalia [00:51:52]:
It's a word I've been trying to eliminate from my journaling and my vocabulary and, like, my thinking, it takes practice. Still work on it.

Vision Battlesword [00:52:02]:
You listen to the conversation that I had with Jackson?

Raj Padalia [00:52:05]:
I did.

Vision Battlesword [00:52:06]:
So what do you think about that reframing of? Well, we were kind of kicking around the idea that you could actually reframe all needs, I guess perhaps maybe excluding, like, the real survival needs, what you talked about, but that you could reframe all needs as desire. What do you think about that?

Raj Padalia [00:52:24]:
I'm in agreement of that. And then that also doesn't mean the desires are bad or good either. It's sort of all neutral, I believe.

Vision Battlesword [00:52:34]:
So maybe there's a different definition here, which is if I am receiving or if I am experiencing everything that fully satisfies my desire in any area in any moment, I'm experiencing abundance.

Raj Padalia [00:52:50]:
You are. But does that mean there's not going to be another thing that you desire next?

Vision Battlesword [00:52:55]:
No, not necessarily, but I'm just, instead of characterizing abundance as something that's in excess of need, it is equal to desire. I just think there's a psychological shift there.

Raj Padalia [00:53:09]:
Yeah, there is. There is. There's a lot less pleading with the universe with desire versus need. Because when you use the word need, you're almost like kind of pleading with your mother for something. And that can kind of lead to, I don't have this. And I really, you know, need this to survive or need this to be happy. It becomes very conditional. Whereas a desire could be thought of as, it'd be nice to have this, but if I don't get it, it's I'm okay where I'm at, where I'm at, but it would be nice to have a little something extra.

Vision Battlesword [00:53:43]:
Let me rephrase it. So maybe instead of saying abundance is having more than we need, we could say abundance is having everything that we want.

Raj Padalia [00:53:53]:
Whoa. Yeah, that's beautiful.

Vision Battlesword [00:53:57]:
And then the game just becomes about calibrating what you want.

Raj Padalia [00:54:00]:
Yeah, that's really beautiful.

Vision Battlesword [00:54:02]:
So if I say, for example, if I say, well, you know what I really want? Like, if I imagine my ideal life, I imagine wanting maybe 50 acres or 100 acres. I don't really want 1000 or 10,000. I actually don't really want that. That sounds like a lot of responsibility. That sounds like a lot of upkeep. Definitely management, you know, whatever else adds.

Raj Padalia [00:54:26]:
More headache, for sure.

Vision Battlesword [00:54:27]:
Okay, what do I want about 100 acres? I want a community of maybe eight or a dozen people. I want a source of water that's reliable. I want a garden that provides us with what we want. So in other words, what I'm saying is kind of bringing these different concepts together about what's the mature state of your life where you're done growing and that's okay. Like, here I am, I'm five foot eleven, 150 pounds. I'm done growing. That's okay. I'm not, I don't, I'm not seeking to be 8ft.

Vision Battlesword [00:55:04]:
I'm not seeking to be 1215ft tall. I, as a human being, I can't.

Raj Padalia [00:55:08]:
Wrap my head around that. I do. Maybe it could be wrong, but I have this belief that the soul part of us doesn't stop growing because it's through growth is where we kind of learn new things. And that when you do, you know, achieve everything that you wanted, life is going to sneakily show you another area. They're going to show you some sort of form of contrast for you to create again, because by nature we're just creators. Right. And if you were done with everything, you would stop creating. And that maybe cause some discord within you too.

Vision Battlesword [00:55:45]:
I see what you're saying. Yeah. And that resonates for me because I certainly don't imagine myself ever being satisfied in the sense of not wanting to learn. Yeah.

Raj Padalia [00:55:56]:
You're going to keep reading new books, new information. Yeah, 100%.

Vision Battlesword [00:55:59]:
Not wanting to push the boundaries of my own consciousness, push the boundaries of my awareness, my spiritual.

Raj Padalia [00:56:05]:
Yeah. And that's what I mean by awareness in that sense.

Vision Battlesword [00:56:07]:
Yeah, I certainly see all of that. And I also see, like, I don't. And it's. And again, I don't think it's a spiritual versus material dichotomy either, because I certainly also see for myself or anyone else wanting to continue to create new technology, wanting to continue to explore again. And exactly the analogy of how we explore our consciousness or spiritual side, exploring this amazing, intricate, complex, mysterious material world as well. And, you know, it's in our nature, understanding the physical properties of it and wanting to learn how to manipulate that physicality in different ways and wanting to extract even more richness from it, you know, in, in all the different ways that we can. So. Yeah, no, it's not, it's not an idea of growth in the sense of hitting a certain point where you stop wanting to have more life, but there's a certain specific kind of, let's call it material accumulation.

Vision Battlesword [00:57:14]:
So it just, style of growth comes.

Raj Padalia [00:57:16]:
Down to just about money then that's the only one that doesn't deserve to keep growing or has like a negative connotation with keep growing, but everything else is okay. Why wouldn't that grow with the other stuff too? Like in the same pursuit of books or understanding new forms of physics and technology, money would just be a symptom of all that.

Vision Battlesword [00:57:33]:
No, it's not money.

Raj Padalia [00:57:35]:
It's empty materialism. Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. I'm just kind of playing devil's advocate.

Vision Battlesword [00:57:42]:
No, I appreciate that. I like the pressure and the friction. I'm trying to work my way through it right now, but I guess. Do you see my intuition on it?

Raj Padalia [00:57:52]:
Like, certainly I totally get what I mean.

Vision Battlesword [00:57:55]:
Because where I'm ultimately coming back around to is this calibration of want peace. That's where I'm ultimately coming back around to. Where if your want keeps expanding, then you're never going to experience abundance. If we define abundance as experiencing the satisfaction of everything that you want. I have everything I want. I'm living in abundance. There would be a calibration of, this is what I want.

Raj Padalia [00:58:26]:
Yeah, you can always read, and now.

Vision Battlesword [00:58:28]:
I'm living in abundance. Here I am.

Raj Padalia [00:58:29]:
Yeah. You can always get into full abundance by just simply adjusting your definition of want.

Vision Battlesword [00:58:35]:
That's kind of what I'm getting at.

Raj Padalia [00:58:36]:
Yeah. And I think that's an important thing to do.

Vision Battlesword [00:58:39]:
And so the point I'm trying to make here is that I think the glitch in the program is that there is no upper bound. We're not even given the idea that there should be an upper bound to want, typically speaking.

Raj Padalia [00:58:56]:
Or just that we could shrink the definition. Yeah, that's an okay thing.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:02]:
Or right size it.

Raj Padalia [00:59:03]:
Or, you know, right size it. Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:05]:
Come into a comfortable, like, I was.

Raj Padalia [00:59:06]:
Talking about a balance with it.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:08]:
I think I'd like more than ten acres, but less than a thousand, like.

Raj Padalia [00:59:11]:
Yeah, there's not enough of that. There's not enough of that. It's very black and white.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:15]:
That's what I'm getting at. I'm just talking about, like, getting comfortable in your life. Getting comfortable in, like, this. This feels like it fits. And I don't feel this pressure of striving or scarcity. Let's rephrase that. I don't feel a pressure to strive from a sense of lack. I may still feel the pressure to strive from a different.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:40]:
From a sense of excitement, from a sense of love.

Raj Padalia [00:59:43]:
Passion. Yeah. Compassion. Like, wow.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:47]:
So it comes back to, again, you said, why?

Raj Padalia [00:59:48]:
Why do we want the things we want?

Vision Battlesword [00:59:50]:
Exactly.

Raj Padalia [00:59:51]:
And when that gets tweaked in just the right subtle ways, it's all ours.

Vision Battlesword [00:59:57]:
So why do you want the things that you want?

Raj Padalia [00:59:59]:
You know, and that's something I'm working on right now. And that things that I want out of really pure love and the universe knows what I mean. I can say whatever I want to say, but the universe knows, like, the real truth. And the things that I want out of pure love will come to me and is coming always, constantly flowing to me. And the things that I want out of because the status it might give me or because, you know, I want approval from my parents or this and that. And those are the things that, you know, have some stickiness in the pipes on the way to me.

Vision Battlesword [01:00:33]:
Have you ever in your life felt truly in a state of abundance?

Raj Padalia [01:00:42]:
Besides, like, when I'm too young to know, like, what bills are and stuff like that? No, not yet, but I can feel myself getting there.

Vision Battlesword [01:00:52]:
What about in every. What about in any. Because when you mentioned bills, that makes me think you're thinking of finances and stuff. What about in any area of your life?

Raj Padalia [01:01:01]:
Oh, there's this. Oh, I meant, like, fully abundant in all areas.

Vision Battlesword [01:01:05]:
Okay.

Raj Padalia [01:01:05]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, in certain areas of my life, I feel extremely abundant.

Vision Battlesword [01:01:09]:
Yeah, for sure.

Raj Padalia [01:01:10]:
Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:01:11]:
Like what you're talking about previously about.

Raj Padalia [01:01:12]:
Time, with time, with relationships. In terms of. Not relationships, more like friendships and, like, networks, ideas, books. I mean, I have the Internet by fingertips. I have, like, you know, half of human knowledge, like, right there. I feel extremely abundant and resourceful, perhaps, you know, money has always been, like, a sticky one for me.

Vision Battlesword [01:01:39]:
Well, you and a lot of people.

Raj Padalia [01:01:41]:
Yeah. And it's like. It's. It's all relative, too. You know what I mean? The amounts don't matter. It's. This is same. It's the same spiritual journey.

Vision Battlesword [01:01:50]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [01:01:51]:
To get all of it. You know, it doesn't matter whether it's $20 or 20 million. It's the same thing. The same mechanisms are at play, and that's, like, the beautiful thing about how life is designed. It's gonna keep giving me the experiences I need to learn the lesson. And when I learned the lesson, you know, it won't be as relevant anymore.

Vision Battlesword [01:02:11]:
You think there's a lesson to be learned about money?

Raj Padalia [01:02:14]:
Yeah, I think so. I think that when I really let it go, it'll come to me, and then when it comes to me, it won't matter because I've already let it go. So it's a paradox that I'm playing with. I'm always just sort of stuck in the chase.

Vision Battlesword [01:02:29]:
As you know, I'm particularly interested in relationships, and you were saying that that's one of the areas that you feel the most abundant in your life right now.

Raj Padalia [01:02:40]:
I should define that and specify not, like, sexual relationships or, you know, a wife or, like, kids or something like that, but certainly my ability to meet interesting people. So, like, a subset of relationships.

Vision Battlesword [01:02:54]:
Okay. Yeah. I was just curious what that's like, you know, what, what that means for you and how you experience that relationship. Abundance. You know, whether that's just a lot of rich and interesting experiences that you get to share with other people, or whether it's a lot of, you know, stimulating, very stimulating conversations and quality time that you get to spend and things like that.

Raj Padalia [01:03:19]:
And I think the only reason I have that is because I have no resistance around the idea.

Vision Battlesword [01:03:24]:
Hmm.

Raj Padalia [01:03:25]:
I don't think about it. I don't make vision boards about it. I don't, like, go to sleep imagining it, because I'm not trying at all.

Vision Battlesword [01:03:34]:
See, that's an interesting point to me about how we get into abundance or how we attract it.

Raj Padalia [01:03:41]:
Yeah. It's a paradox. And I do that for money, and that's why I have trouble with money, you know what I mean? And I play with this idea of myself, like, why can't I just treat money the way I treat these other few things that I have full abundance in? And I'm getting there.

Vision Battlesword [01:03:58]:
Why can't you. Why can't you treat money the way you treat relationships?

Raj Padalia [01:04:02]:
I don't know. It's like I have the foot on my boot on my own head. I'm not sure.

Vision Battlesword [01:04:09]:
But the way you experience it is you just have no resistance to receiving.

Raj Padalia [01:04:15]:
Meeting somebody interesting on the connection. Yeah, connection, yeah. I don't try at all, and it always happens, and I fully expect it as well.

Vision Battlesword [01:04:24]:
That's another interesting point. Yeah. You just go through life fully expecting.

Raj Padalia [01:04:28]:
That that's gonna happen and fully accept it. Expect it, yes.

Vision Battlesword [01:04:31]:
Like, how could you take that mindset and apply it?

Raj Padalia [01:04:33]:
I think I can. I think I can. I just need to keep tweaking at it a little bit, which is pretty great, actually, because then I'll have everything that I. That I want within my box. So. So I'm really thankful and grateful that I have that experience to teach me about the other areas of life.

Vision Battlesword [01:04:48]:
What advice would you give someone who is seeking more abundance in their life?

Raj Padalia [01:04:54]:
What I'm working on right now, which is just letting it go, because the act of wanting something or needing something is admitting that you're in lack of. And that when I stop doing that and when we collectively stop doing that, the universe tends to show us exactly what we want. That's been my experience. There might be unconscious areas in which we have abundance blocks. You know, I've often attracted the biggest amounts of material wealth or abundance after dealing with the things that I've been unconscious to. Hence, like, the shadow work. I once made the biggest amount of money I ever made after working with a manifestation coach. And we just did anger stuff.

Raj Padalia [01:05:40]:
Nothing related to money at all. And we just, like, worked on, just, like, emotions the entire time and wouldn't do anything else related to money. And, like, two weeks after that, I had, like, a lottery winning windfall.

Vision Battlesword [01:05:51]:
Wow.

Raj Padalia [01:05:52]:
And then I've also had equal experiences of having the opposite experience because of certain other wounds that I haven't addressed as well. But it's interesting. It's interesting that after medicine, work, like, the day after my portfolio goes up almost every time. It's, like, not mathematical coincidence. There's something to it.

Vision Battlesword [01:06:14]:
What's your theory around that? Do you think that it's clearing out energetic resistances? Do you think that it's, like, retuning your intentions and your frequency to.

Raj Padalia [01:06:25]:
It's frequency related, but it's. With the first thing you said. It's just a lot of letting go, I think, and a lot of allowing and surrendering and just being satisfied with what is. That's the acceptance.

Vision Battlesword [01:06:39]:
So some advice that you might give to someone that is desiring more abundance in their life is to start with acceptance of what is.

Raj Padalia [01:06:51]:
Yeah. And I think that's doable for all of us. I was gonna say it's tough, but I don't even want to introduce that in my way of thinking. It's definitely doable.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:00]:
Is it tough accepting what is?

Raj Padalia [01:07:02]:
No. In fact, it's technically easier because you're doing less things, right?

Vision Battlesword [01:07:06]:
I think so. Yeah.

Raj Padalia [01:07:07]:
It's technically easy.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:08]:
It makes sense to me.

Raj Padalia [01:07:09]:
Yeah. You don't have to do anything. It's, like, easier. Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:14]:
Default setting. If you don't do the other thing, then you're just already doing that.

Raj Padalia [01:07:18]:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. Yep.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:22]:
So start with acceptance of what is.

Raj Padalia [01:07:25]:
Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:25]:
Then maybe get clear on what is it specifically that you actually really want.

Raj Padalia [01:07:31]:
Yeah. I think getting clarity, I think that's the easy part for most people, is getting clarity with what we want. You know, strengthening the desire.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:41]:
I have noticed, personally. I mean, this is the work that I. Well, excuse me. This is the play that I do for a lot of people, as you know, I have noticed that it is not something that we're used to doing, necessarily taught.

Raj Padalia [01:07:54]:
Yeah, that's true.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:55]:
Or even really given permission.

Raj Padalia [01:07:57]:
Permission is a good way to put.

Vision Battlesword [01:07:58]:
It to do a lot of times. And clarifying that. Want or clarifying that.

Raj Padalia [01:08:03]:
It's the first step. How does God know what you. How is God going to complete your order if you're not very specific?

Vision Battlesword [01:08:09]:
Right. But additionally, I think the expansion that we've just made to that concept is not only about getting clear so that you can have that communication with the universe and communication with yourself and know what it is that you're talking about. It also is a calibration system of getting desire in alignment with expectations, such that when you do manifest the thing that you want, it feels satisfying that you don't feel like you're missing out on anything. Like that is. That is abundance. I am in abundance. I have everything that I want. I don't need more than I want to be abundant.

Raj Padalia [01:08:50]:
Exactly.

Vision Battlesword [01:08:50]:
I just need what I want. Yeah, so that's. I think we're getting to something here. It's like step one, acceptance.

Raj Padalia [01:08:58]:
Step two, well, no, step one is getting clear of what we want and then just accepting what we have.

Vision Battlesword [01:09:03]:
I like it better in the other order, I think. Step one, accept what is.

Raj Padalia [01:09:08]:
Accept what is. Okay.

Vision Battlesword [01:09:10]:
Step two, get clear on what exactly is it that we want. And then step three is maybe clear the resistance. Right. Do the shadow work.

Raj Padalia [01:09:22]:
But part of that shadow work is also accepting what is. You know, if we were in full acceptance of what is. It'd be very satisfying.

Vision Battlesword [01:09:30]:
True.

Raj Padalia [01:09:31]:
There'd be a lot of letting go involved in that.

Vision Battlesword [01:09:34]:
True. That'll get you very far.

Raj Padalia [01:09:36]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's a powerful one. Just accepting what is.

Vision Battlesword [01:09:40]:
I think that's the piece that takes. That automatically takes the suffering out of striving.

Raj Padalia [01:09:47]:
And then I know you and Jackson talked about that.

Vision Battlesword [01:09:50]:
And then calibrating our desire. Let's just say calibrating it to. What does that actually look like? To where I feel content, I feel satisfied, I feel abundant without it necessarily being more than necessary to achieve that state. At least insofar as we're talking about, actually. I mean, it could be. We could be talking about material, we could be talking about relational.

Raj Padalia [01:10:19]:
It's all the same.

Vision Battlesword [01:10:20]:
Emotional, you know, but, like, clarifying and calibrating that desire. I think that's the piece that has the potential to remove disappointment or that perpetual feeling of not enough. It's like, well, first of all, it's currently enough. And then secondly, this is actually the place where it almost couldn't be more.

Raj Padalia [01:10:43]:
Yeah. What's the relationship between acceptance and gratefulness?

Vision Battlesword [01:10:46]:
That's a great question.

Raj Padalia [01:10:47]:
Are they one and the same?

Vision Battlesword [01:10:49]:
You know, I had this conversation with glad and that acceptance and gratitude as two different concepts came up, and we never asked that question about differentiating those two things, acceptance and gratitude.

Raj Padalia [01:11:03]:
Just on first glance, superficial glance at the question, and pretty equivalent. Like, I feel like to reach full acceptance, you just have to be grateful for what is. Otherwise, you won't be able to accept it. Right. I don't know.

Vision Battlesword [01:11:17]:
I like it. It's very interesting. I'm trying to differentiate them, you know? It's like, if I'm in a state of acceptance, you're already grateful. Am I already. Am I automatically in a state of gratitude?

Raj Padalia [01:11:29]:
I think so. What if you're already grateful, are you already in acceptance? It could just be like one might be overarching another. Like, if you're already in acceptance, are you sorry? If you're already in gratefulness, are you automatically in acceptance? Seems like not. Maybe not.

Vision Battlesword [01:11:45]:
How could you be grateful for something that you don't accept?

Raj Padalia [01:11:50]:
Or maybe you're not. You might be grateful for one thing, but you're not accepting of other things. Where I think if you're in full acceptance, it's, like, more all encompassing, maybe.

Vision Battlesword [01:12:03]:
Well, so Glenn and I did a bit of play on the word acceptance, and what we came around to is that acceptance is both an act and a state of not resisting reality. That's eventually where we came around to philosophically is, okay, got it. The only way to be out of a state of acceptance is to be actively resisting truth.

Raj Padalia [01:12:30]:
Got it. Got it. Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:12:32]:
Or reality. Does that make sense?

Raj Padalia [01:12:33]:
I mean, we're in for the ride, so great.

Vision Battlesword [01:12:35]:
But gratitude. So it's hard to see how you can be in a state of gratitude without already being in a state of acceptance unless you're being grateful for, like, a lie or a story or something that's not true.

Raj Padalia [01:12:47]:
Or just one part of something. Okay, I'm really grateful we're having this conversation, but I'm not accepting my bank account right now.

Vision Battlesword [01:12:55]:
Oh, I see. Well, yeah, sure. I could see if we're talking about a state of total acceptance.

Raj Padalia [01:13:01]:
Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:13:01]:
I think a total personal acceptance.

Raj Padalia [01:13:03]:
Yeah. Is, like, really overarching.

Vision Battlesword [01:13:05]:
Okay.

Raj Padalia [01:13:05]:
I think that's like.

Vision Battlesword [01:13:06]:
But you can also be in partial acceptance.

Raj Padalia [01:13:08]:
That's true too. That's true. Or you could also be in total gratefulness, and that includes acceptance too. So I guess maybe they are equal in many ways.

Vision Battlesword [01:13:17]:
There's. So there's something extra about gratitude. There's something about.

Raj Padalia [01:13:23]:
Has, like, a tinge of, like, joy or happiness. There's a more warmth to it, I feel, than just total acceptance.

Vision Battlesword [01:13:31]:
There's a yes. And I think that warmth has something to do with. Okay, so maybe try. Let's try this on. So I can be in a state of acceptance all by myself, unilaterally. It's a personal experience that I'm having. It doesn't require or even. It's not even particularly helped by anyone else's experience.

Vision Battlesword [01:13:54]:
It's just I'm either accepting or I'm not. But in gratitude, it's a relationship that I'm having with something else or someone else. In other words, there's an aspect of thankfulness for it where it's so.

Raj Padalia [01:14:08]:
It's.

Vision Battlesword [01:14:08]:
I feel like. I feel like gratitude has some element of an energy exchange. If I'm. Whether I'm grateful to God, whether I'm grateful to the universe, I'm grateful to myself, grateful to you. But at some point, it's. It's like.

Raj Padalia [01:14:24]:
Requires two to tango.

Vision Battlesword [01:14:26]:
That's what I'm. That's what I'm thinking.

Raj Padalia [01:14:28]:
What about acceptance? Isn't that just between you and God, though?

Vision Battlesword [01:14:31]:
Um, my sense is that acceptance is just God.

Raj Padalia [01:14:36]:
It's so much more. Less action. You're right. Being grateful requires some form of. It's almost like a verb or gratitude. I'm having gratitude. Acceptance is just like playing dead. It's just like you're just stillness.

Vision Battlesword [01:14:52]:
Yeah. Let's examine, like, the word that comes after I'm in acceptance of I am grateful for. Do you see what I mean? Yeah. It's like I can do acceptance all by myself. It's just a matter of not resisting whatever is true. But in order to be, what are you accepting? What do you mean?

Raj Padalia [01:15:13]:
Like, when you're an acceptance all by yourself, what are you accepting? Just the way what is.

Vision Battlesword [01:15:18]:
Oh, it could be anything. I'm in a state of acceptance, of my emotional state right now.

Raj Padalia [01:15:24]:
You're grateful for that emotional state? Aren't they, like, synonymous in that sense? Right.

Vision Battlesword [01:15:29]:
Gosh, that's so interesting. With gratitude, there has to be a comparison to something else. I'm just experimenting right now. You've really thrown me for a loop.

Raj Padalia [01:15:40]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We throw it off for a loop, too. I mean, that was my first inkling was that they're, like, super equal, which is strange.

Vision Battlesword [01:15:46]:
There's certainly a lot of overlap, but. Yeah, but, like. Okay, so maybe the distinction is that with gratitude, there's a comparison to something else. So acceptance is just this.

Raj Padalia [01:15:58]:
Okay, got it.

Vision Battlesword [01:15:59]:
I just have this. That's all. Acceptance is this. Whereas gratitude is I have this as opposed to this. I judge this as good. There's a judgment. That's what it is. Gratitude contains a judgment, whereas acceptance does not.

Vision Battlesword [01:16:13]:
Whoa.

Raj Padalia [01:16:14]:
So what's a higher vibrational state? Wouldn't it be acceptance then?

Vision Battlesword [01:16:18]:
I don't know.

Raj Padalia [01:16:18]:
I always thought, you know, acceptance is almost like complacency, and then gratitude is like a higher. Like there's more love to it, you know, more warmth. But the way you just put it makes acceptance the highest of all.

Vision Battlesword [01:16:30]:
I don't know that I necessarily look at it that way because I don't necessarily view all judgment as an inherently negative thing. But I do think that that's the difference. I think we finally put our finger on it. Acceptance is. This is.

Raj Padalia [01:16:49]:
There's no judgment in acceptance.

Vision Battlesword [01:16:51]:
Whereas gratitude. Whereas gratitude says, this is good. And I don't know. Yeah, I don't know that they necessarily have to be different vibrations or interesting.

Raj Padalia [01:17:03]:
That's the difference. I think that is it. Yeah, interesting.

Vision Battlesword [01:17:07]:
So do either one of these.

Raj Padalia [01:17:08]:
Yeah. Acceptance, I still think is even will allow more in our life because we don't want that judgment of good, bad. We want it to be totally unconditional, to allow abundance.

Vision Battlesword [01:17:21]:
Interesting.

Raj Padalia [01:17:22]:
So acceptance is the key then. Interesting.

Vision Battlesword [01:17:24]:
At the very least, I think there's more thickness to, like, anything that contains a judgment, there's a little bit more thickness in terms of what stands between us.

Raj Padalia [01:17:37]:
And there's more surrender in acceptance too, right?

Vision Battlesword [01:17:40]:
Yeah. If we want the least, if we want to get the closest to pure experience of reality as possible, then any judgment adds just a little bit of a filter there.

Raj Padalia [01:17:54]:
It creates a separateness.

Vision Battlesword [01:17:56]:
Yeah.

Raj Padalia [01:17:56]:
A total non dual experience is you're just, I am this. I am, I am, I am.

Vision Battlesword [01:18:00]:
And that. And that. Exactly. So my initial intuition that, like, okay, well, with gratitude, there has to be a someone else.

Raj Padalia [01:18:08]:
Like that was your. That's what you were getting at. Yeah, I remember.

Vision Battlesword [01:18:11]:
No, but I see that. That separateness, like what you're talking about, huh?

Raj Padalia [01:18:15]:
Yeah. Acceptance is totally unconditional. I am ness. I am, I am, I am. I am.

Vision Battlesword [01:18:20]:
On the other hand, gratitude feels good, right?

Raj Padalia [01:18:24]:
Yeah. It's something we should all strive for.

Vision Battlesword [01:18:27]:
Maybe gratitude is like the completion of the cycle. Maybe starts with acceptance, moves to desire.

Raj Padalia [01:18:34]:
Well, I think a lot of people lack gratitude for the bad, what we perceive as bad things. And that's why we say, oh, you should be more grateful. We're already grateful for all the good things already. But what we judge as negative experiences, when people say, oh, you should be more grateful, it's probably referring to that. Because when you are grateful for what we perceive as good and bad, that's acceptance.

Vision Battlesword [01:18:58]:
Hmm. I like. Yeah, this is really interesting. So accomplishing gratitude for some, an experience that was previously judged as bad changes the judgment to good. That's like what it is. It's like gratitude alchemizes it, makes it.

Raj Padalia [01:19:16]:
All good, which is acceptance. Yeah, it's all good. It's all good in the hood.

Vision Battlesword [01:19:22]:
Gratitude alchemizes bad into good. That's what it does.

Raj Padalia [01:19:25]:
Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:19:26]:
Yeah. It's a step on the path to acceptance, I think, then.

Raj Padalia [01:19:29]:
Interesting. This is really interesting.

Vision Battlesword [01:19:31]:
Yeah. Fascinating. So anyway, the abundance formula that we're kind of creating here in real time is something along the lines of step one, accept. What is step two, clarify your desire. Step three, manifest. Step four, gratitude. Something along these lines.

Raj Padalia [01:19:49]:
The gratitude may come before the manifestation too, or it's all happening simultaneously, really? Because the manifestation is just the emotion.

Vision Battlesword [01:19:59]:
Mmm.

Raj Padalia [01:20:00]:
And the thing is just coming on a delay anyway. But what we want with the thing is just the emotion we'll get when we get the thing.

Vision Battlesword [01:20:08]:
Do you want to say anything about attraction in the context of abundance? Because I know that was another thing you brought up.

Raj Padalia [01:20:13]:
I have been squeezing it in throughout our conversation.

Vision Battlesword [01:20:16]:
Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Raj Padalia [01:20:17]:
It's the lens by which I'm looking.

Vision Battlesword [01:20:19]:
At all of it, and, well, I kind of noticed that a little bit. Do you want to say anything explicitly about that?

Raj Padalia [01:20:27]:
I think that it's the mechanism by which everything works. And if somebody was looking for abundance, it would make sense to know how the engine sort of works. It's a worthy pursuit in terms of studying it, because it's just like the law of gravity, for example. And it does sort of prove that we're always creating our own reality. So when we're not in abundance because we're doing it to ourselves in some way to get us to realize some greater truth, it's all purposeful, and there's beauty in that.

Vision Battlesword [01:21:03]:
And what do you think is the relationship between attraction and abundance?

Raj Padalia [01:21:07]:
Abundance is just one of the many things that we're able to attract through our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. You know, one can have a very abundant lifestyle without ever knowing what the law of attraction is. So that's interesting too. But they're still playing by the same rules.

Vision Battlesword [01:21:25]:
Yeah. Whether you're aware of it or not.

Raj Padalia [01:21:28]:
Correct? Yeah. Yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:21:29]:
You can't go out of bounds.

Raj Padalia [01:21:31]:
Yeah. There's no object.

Vision Battlesword [01:21:31]:
All is gonna move the way.

Raj Padalia [01:21:32]:
Yeah. 100% physics.

Vision Battlesword [01:21:35]:
Hmm. Is there anything else that is important to you about abundance that you'd like to share today?

Raj Padalia [01:21:43]:
No. I thought the conversation was quite helpful in helping me realize or shine light on areas where I have, like my foot on the, on the hose. Because when it comes to attraction and abundance, it's all our default state. Our default state is to, you know, think something, wants something, ask. And it is, you know, given that's the default way of things. And our default inner state is true euphoria and abundance and bliss. And oftentimes we just sort of, you know, we're pushing the cork down or we have our foot on the, on the hose and if we just take that off, you know, it'll come back into flow. So it's more about, you know, when you stop doing that thing you're doing, it'll come.

Vision Battlesword [01:22:28]:
It's almost like, stop hitting yourself.

Raj Padalia [01:22:30]:
Yeah, yeah.

Vision Battlesword [01:22:32]:
Doctor. Doctor, I have a headache.

Raj Padalia [01:22:33]:
Yep. It's exactly like.

Vision Battlesword [01:22:34]:
Stop hitting yourself with a hammer.

Raj Padalia [01:22:35]:
Yeah, it's exactly like that. It's exactly like that.

Vision Battlesword [01:22:39]:
Fascinating.

Raj Padalia [01:22:39]:
But like why are we hitting ourselves with a hammer? And that's like a whole other rabbit hole by which we learn and grow. It's a feeling that we can all have right now at our fingertips just by adjusting the size of the want. And we can all do our own again. I'm speaking for myself, our own digging to figure out like, why my want is at what size and why don't I shrink it so I can feel abundant now? And it could be, you know, lack of trust, faith and acceptance and surrender and all those juicy things, but I'm definitely getting there.

Vision Battlesword [01:23:19]:
Super cool conversation. Thank you. Yeah, I really, really enjoyed this one.

Raj Padalia [01:23:25]:
I appreciate you having me. Yeah, it was great chatting. I learned a lot myself.

Vision Battlesword [01:23:28]:
So let's do it again soon.

Raj Padalia [01:23:30]:
Yep, sounds good.