Episode 4: Speak Now

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Watch the episode on YouTube here!

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Welcome to the God of Honeybees podcast. I’m Justin Herb.

In this episode, I want to talk about how to reshape the way we think about a common phrase: Speak now or forever hold your peace

But first, let’s start with some announcements.

Work on the book is going well. The first printed version is on it’s way and then I’ll send it to the author who has agreed to read it and share her thoughts with me. Like I said in the last episode, I’m not going to name drop because I don’t know if the author would appreciate that, but I do want to tell you that I am very excited about it because I really really enjoyed her work. That being said, I have to raise money for the editor so that I can publish the book. This will hopefully be the last round of edits the book needs. If you have any ideas on how an author can raise money to get a book edited, please send them my way! You can reach me at godofhoneybees.com, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or godofbeespodcast@gmail.com

I still have some stickers that I want to send you for free! They are badass stickers with our logo on them from stickermule.com. If you sign up for the email newsletter at godofhoneybees.com, I will send you a sticker for free with a personal thank you note. Not only will you get the sticker but you will also get additional resources on any articles, books, podcasts, speeches, etc. that I reference in the show. In the last episode, I talked about using rocks for meditation and in the email for that episode I included a link to a video of Krishnamurti giving a speech as well as a free online documentary about a study involving our consciousness and water. So the email newsletter is the absolute best place to get access to all the content and more from the God of Honeybees podcast.

Now, with that taken care of, let's get on with the episode.

A few mornings ago, my wife said to me, “speak now or forever hold your peace”. Usually I wouldn’t have thought twice about it but, maybe because I’ve been listening to meditations so much lately, or I’ve been occupying my time with my book more, but this phrase hit me in a different way. So, I want to go through it piece by piece. 

Do you remember yesterday? Of course you do. Pick any event that you remember about that day: What was the weather was like? Did something piss you off? Did your shoes fit? Was the coffee in the break room strong enough? Where do these events exist? Can you take something you remember about yesterday, grab hold of it and bring to now? Can you grab the weather from yesterday and hold it in front of you? See, the only thing about yesterday that exists is the particular firings of groups of neurons in your brain, reconstructing the last time they reconstructed the memory of yesterday. This is the only place you can find anything about yesterday. It’s interesting then that we give so much weight to our thoughts about yesterday. In the last episode, when we talked about using rocks for meditation, we touched on why we should practice looking without identifying or labeling. Looking at the world around us in this way is an idea I first heard from Krishnamurti. In a nutshell, he explains that only by looking without categorizing can we dissolve the illusory delineation between observer and observed. A two-fold product of dissolving the boundary between observer and observed is firstly the slowing of mental chatter. This is because you are learning that thought is simply a tool to use in the world -- just like your other senses.

Second, the peace you feel from the slowing of mental chatter and therefore a loss of anxiety, shows you that anxiety comes solely from thought. Thoughts about yesterday or tomorrow create the illusion of passing time, indicating something is moving with or without you, so you’d better get your act together. Simply by starting out observing our world without putting it into boxes can lead us down a path that ends with the realization of our true nature and the nature of our existence.

Now, how much time should we spend concerning ourselves with yesterday? Or tomorrow? These reconstructed or hypothetical realities are creations of our minds. The moment we exist in as we sit and think about these other realities will soon become a yesterday as well, shifting into a reconstructed reality that we can’t do anything about. How much more important then is it to talk about now? Think about now? Where are you right now? Your thoughts are mere input stimulation categorized and organized by your mind -- no different than the sensation of touch or smell. Let that particular sensory input relax for a moment. Think about right now. Speak about now. Speak now. 

Next, the choice to engage the goings-on around you is, of course, your choice. This is the beautiful aspect about our existence: we are simply awareness and we can choose to participate in the game, engage in the context our bodies are in, or we can choose to not engage. Not identify with the stimulus or with the input. This is a fruit of true growth -- being able to increase the space between stimulus and response. We have the capacity to recognize that we are the witness to these things, watching them like clouds passing. But they will come and go. Whatever instance you find your mind and body in will come and go. You can choose to engage it, or rest in awareness and watch the goings-on around you for what they really are: clouds passing by. It is at this point that you can truly play the game because you don’t think you are the game. You can hold your peace. 

So if I might suggest an adjustment to the phrase to help keep this concept in mind, I think it would be something more like this: Speak about now and forever hold your peace. 

Recognize that past and future only exist in thought. And that it is thought that creates the sense of anxiety because thought centered around the past and future creates the idea of time. Focus on now and be at peace. 

Thanks for checking this out. I hope you enjoyed it. Here’s the thing: this is a conversation. I’m talking to you directly -- the individual. I want to hear from you! This podcast is hosted on Anchor. If you get the app, you can actually leave me a voicemail. Or you can tweet me @GOHPodcast, hit me up on Instagram @godofbeespodcast, or send an email to godofbeespodcast@gmail.com. The best way to access all the content I provide or reference is to sign up for the email newsletter. You can sign up at godofhoneybees.com and get special content that doesn’t show up anywhere else, direct links to any source I reference in the episode, and a fancy PDF version of the show for reading later or sharing! Also, if you like the concepts presented in this show, you would probably enjoy my book, The God of Honeybees. I dive deeper into these concepts, how they relate to my background, and then tie them together to show you how this is all connected. I would love to share that with you! Consider signing up for 5 bucks a month to help keep the project going and help me get the book to my editor at patreon.com/godofhoneybees.

Special thanks to Videvo for footage used on this show as well as Karnbeats.com for the music you have heard.

This has been God of Honeybees Podcast. Talk to you soon.