The Process of Enlightenment

I guess it's not on vinyl , but I couldn't wait to put this on audio so you all could understand , so you could get just another level deeper of you understanding how this process , how this thing that we call life , unfolds . Hold on , let me get a little throat lozenge here , because my throat's a little dry , but I was sitting here thinking about it .

We went down to Florida for an AU tournament here last week and we went down there and we were supposed to get down there . Pretty simple , right , indeed Atlanta , atlanta , fort Lauderdale we were supposed to be there . Well , you know , I don't watch the news .

I don't , quite frankly , can't tell you what's going on in my own world , outside of my own sphere of awareness , and I didn't know that it was raining , I had no idea that there was bad storms and all this down in South Florida . So we get to Atlanta . We get in at like 11 o'clock and we don't leave until , I think , 1230 .

We're supposed to leave , right , start boarding at like 12 o'clock , so we got time . So his flight's delayed until 230 . Okay , o'clock , so we got time . Says flight's delayed till 2.30 . Okay , dang . So then that's when I come to awareness , like oh , it's been raining pretty bad , and you start hearing things . Then it gets delayed to 3.30 .

Then it gets pushed back to 5.30 . Then it says we're going to leave at six . And I told Carly , I told my wife , I said , look , if it gets delayed three times , we ain't going anywhere . Well , now , here it is , it's time to get on right , it's time to get on the plane . And so we thought it was time to get on the plane .

Everybody's about to line up . Then he's like , well , it's been canceled . And I'm like , dang , it's 5.30 . We've been here since 11 o'clock . So now I started thinking about what I got to do , right . Are we going to drive ? Is it going to be canceled tomorrow ? Rain's supposed to be there tomorrow . What are we going to do , right ?

So I ended up coming to the realization I'm like all right , we're probably going to have to drive , because I don't want to run the risk of not being able to get down to Florida because the rain and everything gets canceled and delayed again . We don't have our bags . Our bags are on the plane . How that are going to South Florida . You can't . You can't .

I mean you can't even talk to anybody . So I'm like , all right , let's stay in a hotel . We'll stay in a hotel for the night and then we'll just drive to Florida . Make a long story short we ended up having to drive 10 hours down to Florida . Right , was this in the plan ? No , absolutely not .

Is this what I had planned on after sitting in the airport for seven plus hours ? No , it wasn't . But the first thing I asked myself was what is this trying to tell me ? What is this trying to teach me ? What is this trying to unlock within me ? So I asked myself what am I feeling right now ?

And I started to come to the realization that expectations weren't met . I thought it was going to be smoother than what it really was . I thought things were going to be seamless . I had done this hundreds of times before Catch a flight , get another flight and now you're there . But for whatever reason , it wasn't happening the way it was supposed to .

Now I got to drive 10 hours , didn't sleep all that well the night before . Now I'm fatigued . You know what happens when our energy levels go down because we're tired . What ends up happening ? We have less willpower . You have less control over your mind . You have less control of being able to steer where your mind goes .

So now we're susceptible to things triggering us . Not triggering in the sense of that it's negative . Triggering in the sense that it's opportunity for us to stir up stuff within us that we didn't realize was there . Hold on , now let me get going . And I said to myself dang , this life , this universe , put me in a position so I could do some more work .

But the work can't be done unless you start asking the question . So I started asking what is this trying to show me ? What is this trying to teach me ? This question of you asking this repeatedly will open you up . So the illumination process can take place . So we start understanding that there's four stages of this illumination process can take place .

We start understanding that there's four stages of this illumination process . When I say illumination , think about what something illuminates . It has more light . When it has more light , there's more information . When there's more information , there's more awareness . When there's more awareness , there's more spirit . You see how it's going .

You start moving into the divine , the infinite part of you , right ? So the first stage of this is the call to adventure . The call to adventure , and I'm telling you the four stages . These are the four stages for us to awaken , and it happens over and over and over and over again , but the first stage is the call to adventure .

So this is the beginning of this journey , of a journey where you feel like there's a need to leave the comfortability of the ordinary , of the same , the mundane , the everyday life , and all of a sudden , you feel it's calling . So now I may have told you all and you saw my story on Instagram I looked at this as an adventure , this trip down to Florida .

Now it became an adventure . It wasn't what it was supposed to be . Things took a hard left . Now I got to pivot , I got to make decisions . I got to pivot , I got to make decisions . I got to do things differently . Sometimes this happens in life . Sometimes you thought you were going to have good health until you was probably 80 , 90 years old .

Now , all of a sudden , life has shifted . There's a whole nother journey . Now that's about to take place . You see , maybe your marriage , it was till death , did us part . Yeah , it was till death , did us part . This is what people got to understand . Good God , almighty , they want me to start again .

When we say till death , do us part , it don't mean till you physically die , it's till death , do us part . Death takes place multiple times in life on an emotional level , on an energetic level . So now , if I know that maybe the divorce , maybe it is till death , do us part , because the version of who I am today ain't the same version of that Metro broke .

So y'all get me started . Maybe the version who I am now isn't the same version of me who we were when we met . I've died and been reborn again . I'm not the same . So this call to adventure is phase one . So this is when you recognize that there's a void or a sense of incompleteness in life .

If we don't do it ourselves consciously , oh , don't worry , life's going to do it itself , you ain't got to worry about it . So this is when you're going to go through a crisis , you're going to go through a hardship . Sometimes we call this the sacred wound . You are going to go through something , a significant life event that will be the catalyst for change .

So what is it ? Is it health , is it financial ? Is it in our relationships ? It doesn't matter . It doesn't matter . It doesn't matter how it comes . That's irrelevant , right . It doesn't matter if it's me catching a flight and missing the flight and having rain . I realize , though , this is an adventure . This is a microcosm of life .

I'm trying to get you to see the metaphor here . Stay with me , because I'm going to get deep here in a minute , but this is phase one . It can only be an adventure when you see it as an opportunity . It can only be an adventure when you see it as an opportunity . Only be an adventure when you see it as an opportunity .

When you look at it as a challenge , as a hardship , as a struggle , as a setback , you ain't going to see the adventure . If you can't see the adventure , you're stunting the illumination process . You're stopping it from being able to start the process of you growing and evolving .

So this is why I'm trying to tell you all if you can shift your perspective in the moment from this isn't a challenge , this is an opportunity . This isn't a setback . This is going to be an adventure . This isn't a pain . This is going to be a journey .

Now I've spurred and given the right energy for this illumination process to continue into the second stage . And we know the second stage is going to be the death of the old . Sometimes we refer to this as the great departure .

I'm not going to get into this right now because that's going to be the next podcast , but when we touch on the great departure , you'll start to understand that this death of the old self is going to happen repeatedly Good God Almighty , you ain't trying to hear me .

It's going to happen repeatedly to ensure that the illumination process can continue to take place . So part of this stage is how you identified as the old limbic brain right , the reptilian brain that what you actually thought you were . You start this profound transformation now . You start to let go of the old identity . You let go of the old beliefs .

You let go of the habits that no longer serve your higher purpose . You let go of the old beliefs . You let go of the habits that no longer serve your higher purpose . You let go of those parts of you that no longer serve you . Good God Almighty , you see what happens here . So now there's going to be a death that take place .

I asked my son this morning . We started working out , we went to the park it was super early this morning . I said yo , we got in the car and he's 11 , about to be 12 . So I know he's about to go through a transformation process . I know that the little boy inside of him I see bits and parts of it still holding on .

I'm telling him , like yo , you about to turn into closer to a man than you are a boy . But we have to be able to let go of the boy . We have to reconcile the boy right , evolve and illuminate . So I'm asking him I said what is death ? He said death . I asked him does death exist ? He says no . I said well , what is it ?

Then he said death is the transformation of something . I said okay , bet , okay good , you've been listening all these years . Okay , do we know that you're going to go through something ? Do we know that here , soon you're going to have to let a part of you that no longer is going to serve you You're going to have to let it go .

You're going to have to let it die . You're going to have to put it down . You're going to have to embrace this concept of this is the new me . The old me has served his purpose to get me to this point . So we do this all the time in life . Right , we have rituals and we have like ceremonies , right ? Why do you think we have funerals ?

Why do you think you have birthday parties ? Why do you think we have baby showers ? Why do we think we have all of these things ? These are ceremonies and rituals to usher in the new version of us , because a death has taken place . But here's what ends up happening .

Oh , you want the relationship , but you ain't willing to let go of the version of you that keeps attracting the narcissists , the cheaters , huh .

Oh , you want to be the leading scorer in the league , but you ain't willing to let go of the version of yourself that still lives in a lower level of self-acceptance , that doesn't even believe it's worthy of leading the league and scoring . You want me to keep going .

Oh , you want the big deal , you want the big contract , but you ain't willing to heal and reconcile the part of yourself that's living in poverty consciousness , that doesn't believe it's capable of ever earning that much . And guess what ? We can look at the actions . We can look at your behavior and see that you're stuck in between stage one and stage two .

You're not really ready or you haven't yet given had a death of the old self . So when we start to embrace the emotional challenges of this stage of letting go and here , look , I'm going to tell you all this . Anybody who's ever had a spiritual awakening , this is what it is . This is what it is right now .

If you had an awakening , you went through something . Maybe you didn't get playing time , maybe you struggled Look my water bottle's falling all over the place Maybe you just something happened in life and it didn't go the way that you thought it would . And now here you are struggling .

The only reason why the struggle came was because you were still holding on to the old perspective that didn't afford you the opportunity to see this as a call to the adventure . Do you see how this works ?

So when we start embracing the concept of I'm going to be a caterpillar who's going to turn into a butterfly and it won't be a one-stop shop I'm going to get comfortable being a butterfly , but in the process it's going to have me turn back into a caterpillar and then I gotta upgrade again to become a butterfly again .

The process is continuously going , it's continuously happening . And then here's what's going to happen good , good , god , almighty . Here we go .

When you get through stage two , when you get through stage two , we move into stage three , the initiation and illumination . So this is where we find a mentor , we find someone . They come to us . Good , god , almighty . Every time , goodness , we find someone . When they speak , it hits different when they say something .

It gets into your spirit , it makes you sizzle deep down inside . We are now in the process of sizzle deep down inside . We are now in the process of initiation and illumination . We're able to use someone else's wisdom , someone else's insight , and gain knowledge through their experiences and their teachings to transform our perspective of reality .

Okay , so now here's what ends up happening when we do this . Now you can start to integrate A little bit easier , because you're pulling on their energy field and their energy field is from a higher state of consciousness . Why is it every time , every time , every time that the major upgrades in life came ? I always had a quote-unquote mentor .

I had someone who came in for just a time period . They were never meant to stay forever . It was just because I was at that frequency . I needed just a little bit more help and they came in literally like out of nowhere , like thieves in the night . They came in , they gave me what they needed and then they were gone .

So the reason I'm saying this is because you may have someone in your life who's your teacher , who's your coach , whoever . It's important to understand everything is for a season . Everything is for a season , so you can find your reason . That's the whole goal , and the reason was you . You had to find yourself .

So I started to see like , oh man , I go through stages where I've had people who've come in my life , and some have come through the positive polarity , some have come through the negative polarity , but they were the initiates to help me in this process of illumination .

My job was to make sure that I had an open mind , that I had an open heart , that I was able to receive . There was times I'm finding right now good God , almighty . I had a business coach years ago and he used to tell me stuff . I'm like man , this is so stupid . Why is he telling me ?

He don't even understand what I'm doing , he don't even know what I do . Blah , blah , blah , blah . Now here I am , four years later and I go back and look at my notes that I took and that stuff is helping me now . He gave me the answer before the question came . You see how this works . You see how this works . The answer came before the question .

So why I'm saying that you ain't got to worry whether or not you're going to make it to where you got to go . You ain't even got to worry because somebody's going to come into your life .

Somebody's going to come into your life who will initiate the illumination process and let you borrow their years of experience , their years of hardship , their years of struggle , their years of bankruptcy and setbacks and divorce . They're going to say , hey , I've already done this . Let me help you out real quick . Let me show you the way .

Is this not what parents are to our children ? I told my son right now , everything he's ever dealt with at 11 . I've been there , done that , got tired of it , did it again and got tired of it again . Everything that you've ever done , everything that you're going to experience . I know you may think I'm this old , corny , bald-headed dad . Your boy was living .

I tell him all the time I lived it , I did it . And just because I don't talk about it doesn't mean that I haven't lived it . He said to me today I was tying his fishing pole for him he's going fishing with his padpaw . He said man , you're the most wise person I know . I said well , I guess that's a compliment , so I'll say thank you .

But I said you know what ? I'm not wise , I just have more experience than you . I've just lived just a little bit longer than you . I said you know Pop-Pop's , my dad . I said he's wise . I look at him and say he's wise , he's just lived a little bit longer than me . I said so you can use my experiences to help you to become more wise .

So I say this because during the stage three you're going to have people come into your life and hear me when I say this they can do this through the negative . They ain't got to do it through the positive , they could do this through the negative . I was involved with a business partner . I learned through the negative . I learned through his bullshit .

I learned through what he didn't shouldn't have been doing . That's how I learned , you see . But the question is are we going to be open-minded , are we going to be asking those questions that need to be asked so we can extract the information , so we can continue on our journey . So now , when we do that , we move into stage four .

Good God , almighty , here we go . Good God , almighty , here we go . Good , oh , my goodness , stay with me , stay with me here , stay with me , stay with me . We move into stage

four . Stage four is when we return from the journey . Good God , almighty , we return from the journey with gifts . We come back with gifts . We come back with more knowledge , more skill , more insight to benefit others . You all are listening to this podcast right now because I've been going on journeys .

You all are in the community because I've been going on journeys and I'm coming back each time to give you gifts . This is my contribution to this world to take my experience and what I've learned in this individual experience and then go share it with somebody in hopes that somebody will be in the stage three where they're ready to receive .

Then they may be able to take this information and take this knowledge and say , dang , I went through the same thing , dang , this is how he did it , dang , let me see if I can do that . And now , guess what ? You start to see that you were the butterfly instead of the caterpillar . So the cycle is continuous .

This evolution will continue to take place , but it's about you moving through these four stages and then being ready for the next call to adventure . So I told you when I went down to Florida , when I realized that this was an adventure , it was an adventure and then the death of the old self . I went down there and it's crazy how life happened .

I told you all when I went on my second ayahuasca ceremony here a couple of weeks ago , a couple of months ago , how much easier it has been for me to see life and see life as a reflection of my moods . Right , and every day that I wake up , I set the tone . I tell myself what it is I'm going to feel for the life .

That day , I tell myself I don't let life tell me , I'm telling it . And then we go down to Florida and I start to find myself . I'm not able to have my space like I need to , right , we've got four people in a hotel room . I had to get up early . I'm not sleeping all that great . We got to play games .

We're in a gym with thousands of people , right . So I got constantly things pulling on my auric field , right On my energy field . All of these things are happening , it's slowly , unbeknownst to me , pulling me into a lower state , lower state , lower state , lower state , lower state . And then my son we're playing and he gets a technical foul .

He's never got a technical foul Out of his behavior . I'm like man , what are you doing ? What's going on ? He didn't think he got called for a foul and jumped up . He wasn't trying to slam the ball . But he doesn't understand . When the ball bounces higher than your head , they're going to call a technical foul . Right , this is just the formality of basketball .

He didn't know that and I know he didn't know that , but it triggered the shit out of me . I mean , it triggered people like no , we can't act like that here . You can't play on this team if you're going to act like that . So it triggered me . Here's why I'm saying this .

Here's why I'm saying this Because even in that moment when I was triggered , I knew that it had nothing to do about that technical foul , it had nothing to do with that basketball , it only had to do that's how it sounds I had to go on a hunt .

I had to turn into this hound dog , this hunting dog , and go find within me what this was , that this was bringing up . Oh , it took me about eight hours . Not only did it take me eight hours , it took me dreams as well . So then I had this vision of this old business partner who I told you about .

He was wearing camouflage in this dream and he walked by me , but he wouldn't look at me and I wouldn't look at him and I was like . I woke up the next morning because I realized that what my dreams are Good , I realized what my dreams are and what your dreams are . All they're doing is trying to show you what's below the surface , that you're unaware of .

See , the world will show you through the personification of your emotions . So I knew that this guy in my life represented self-acceptance , because I attracted this guy in my life when I had such a low level of self-acceptance .

He had the same vibration , but he was doing it through the negative polarity of taking advantage of other people , so that way he felt good about himself . I knew that I attracted him in my life because I was resonating at such a low frequency of self-acceptance .

So when I saw him in the dream and he was camouflaged , what do we wear camouflage for , so nobody can see us . When you go hunting , you wear camouflage , so the animals can't see you . So when I saw him in my dream , I knew the self-acceptance , or the lack of , is hiding right now . And that's what this technical foul was for .

It was trying to show you a wound , dg , that you had no idea was inside of you . I'm going to tell you something . All I'm doing is telling you my own life . I did not realize . I'm 41 years old , how , for so much of my life , I thought my ability or my talent in basketball was the only way I could accept myself , and this is why this happened .

My fear was that I got a technical foul because , remember , your children are just you . I got this technical foul . What if people don't accept me ? What if they don't ? You have low-level self-acceptance . Why ? Because you have put your self-acceptance in the hands of this game . Do we see how this works now ? Oh , my goodness .

So really that referee , the basketball , the tournament , my son , the canceled flights , the rain , the crowded hotel room , carly moving around in the bed when I'm trying to sleep All of these things Were teachers Trying to help me To get to this unconscious wound that had been laying so deep in the soil we didn't even realize it was there .

Do you see how this works ? So everything that whole weekend was teach me , show me where the wound is , where the adventure can take place , where the death must happen . And this is life . Everything around you is trying to teach you . Everything around you is trying to tell you . I went to the mall with my son yesterday .

I had to go pick up some stuff for our retreat and I went and I was telling him in the car . You know he's struggling right now because he's in between that stage of chrysalis . He's not quite a butterfly , he's not quite a caterpillar . He's in that stage of who am I ? When am I ? Prepubescent years , tough years , from 11 to probably 16 , 17 .

I told him , I said right now , what's happening right now is you're a caterpillar up on a tree . You feel confined , you feel restricted , you feel like nobody understands you . It's is . You're a caterpillar up on a tree . You feel confined , you feel restricted , you feel like nobody understands you . It's because you're about to turn into a butterfly .

You don't really understand yourself . You don't know what you are right now . You don't know if you're this baby caterpillar who was only thinking about things for himself , or if you're going to become this butterfly who knows it's boundless , it's infinite , can go anywhere and do anything . You don't know where you are right now , that's normal .

But I said do not stop becoming a butterfly . Do not dim your light . If you feel like you have to be a butterfly , do not make yourself lower or smaller than front of him had this huge , huge , huge , huge tattoo and it was a butterfly . And he says , dad , look , she has a butterfly tattoo . I said , yes , she does .

I said don't think by coincidence that this just showed up in your life . You've manifested this . The universe , your higher self , is trying to say , hey , don't stop being a butterfly , my friend . And then , as he's telling me this , he looks behind me , the lady behind me at life , she has a butterfly tattoo on her arm .

Now , to the linear , logical , egoic , 3d mind will say wow , what a coincidence . No , no , no . This is the universe giving you breadcrumbs , saying , hey , here's where you can start your adventure , here's where the death of the old self will be , here's your initiation process , getting ready to begin . So what's my point of today ?

Know that this journey was set up for you . These four stages were there , these four processes , these four systems ? They were there to help you to illuminate , to help you to enlighten , to help you to increase your self-awareness , to help you to heal , to help you to return back to the divine . This is all this was . This happened on a micro level .

This happened on a macro level . Think about when you incarnated into this physical body . Lord knows , some of us would be like man . Why did I do this ? Why did I do this ? Think about the first adventure . The first call to adventure was you coming out that womb , when you decided to come out that vagina . That was the first adventure .

And then , how many deaths would have taken place before the great death , the big one , how many initiations and illuminations .

And guess what , when you do physically die , you return back to the other side . We go back to the spiritual world with all of the gifts , all of the understanding , all the experiences , all the knowledge , all of the new perspectives . Do we see ? These four stages are happening all the time .

They happen within school , they happen within a marriage , they happen within your own life . They're happening repeatedly , but my point of this podcast was to help you to know that , even when it feels like it's hard , it feels like it's random . You ain't one of these four stages . You ain't one of the four .

If I know these four stages now , what happens when I consciously put myself in those positions ? What happens when I put myself in positions that's challenging , that's hard , consciously ? What happens when I do that consciously ? Now I'm moving into a completely different stratosphere . I'm initiating the four stages .

I am the initiate and the illumination process will take place at a rapid rate , as always . You know , I'm always here as a resource . I'm here to help . However , I can Don't join the DG Mindset community right Link in all my bios , the link in all my bios on social media at the community . It's a wonderful space .

We're actually having a community-only event coming up here in November . You won't want to miss it . Sorry , october . You will not want to miss it . Sorry , october . You will not want to miss it . Find yourself surrounded by mentors and initiates who maybe they're not better than you . They're just maybe a little further along than you .

This is what the DG Mindset community was . This is what it is . I know a lot of people listen to this podcast every week . I know the numbers in the podcast , the downloads is not the same as in the community . Ask yourself what are you afraid of ? Because I'm going to keep it 100 with you .

Everybody wants to do X , y and Z , but who's willing to really do all the things that it takes ? I don't have it all figured out . I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I do , but I will tell you this .

I can give you a new perspective from the experiences that I've gained and that may help you along this journey , or maybe someone else in the community may do so . Just keep going , though . Keep pushing . Know when to sit . Still know when to keep going , but don't stop . You may have to take a break , but keep going .

And , as always , I wish you nothing but the best on the pathway to your results .