Spirituality for rebels | Tribal dialogues #1

Welcome to the very first of a series of dialogues between Rudá Iandê, Justin Brown, and the Tribe community.

If you’re reading this, it means you’re a Tribe member of Ideapod. Thank you so much for your support!

This series of dialogues is our attempt to create content in collaboration with the community. Please leave a comment below with your reactions to the conversation and we’ll incorporate this into our next dialogue. If there are parts of our discussion you’d like us to explore at a deeper level please let us know this, too.

We are experimenting with different ways to make these dialogues as collaborative as possible.

Here is the recorded conversation in video and audio format. Below, you’ll find the show notes of what we covered.

Spirituality for rebels

Download the audio file here.

00:00 Introduction

• Justin from Ideapod and Rudá Iandê, a shaman from Brazil
• The conversation is exploring spirituality for rebels

01:23 What is spirituality?

• What’s the definition of spirituality?
• How has the term spirituality been misused (people can become self-focused during the process which is unhealthy)?
• Falling into the trap of being comfortable when we find our spirituality process
• By following the path comfortably, existential pain and struggles aren’t addressed
• Myths about spirituality
• Touching upon religion and moral codes

“The parameters of a what a spiritual person is supposed to be are just impossible to reach, so spirituality leads to hypocrisy” Rudá Iandê (05:25)

08:51 What is a shaman?

• What is the role of a shaman?
• A shaman’s relationship between an individual, society, and nature
• Rudá Iandê’s book Laughing in the Face of Chaos touches on moral codes within our societies
• Moral codes in the modern world
• Why religion can’t be separated from ideologies

“A shaman can come in and see the moral codes for what they are, to help people to either integrate them, transcend them, to just see them for how they impact the relationship between the individual, the society and nature” Justin Brown (09:09)

12:09 What does it mean to be a rebel?

• How do our social behavioral codes contradict each other?
• The moral codes programmed into our subconscious
• The difficulty faced when trying to change your behavior
• The quest of a rebel to search through their layers until they find their authentic self

“How many things have we absorbed without consciousness, and which now creates so much guilt inside of us.” Rudá Iandê (13:33)

17:36 The contradictions of being a rebel in modern-day society

• Is being a rebel about “me vs the world” or is it about ego dissolution and a connection to everything in the world
• If you are on the right path in your quest, you can find a place of alignment
• How society has both empowered and restricted us

“A rebel means challenging our own ideas and preconceptions.” – Rudá Iandê (17:09)

“Being a spiritual rebel…is a necessary step in your quest for self-knowledge and for self-development.” Rudá Iandê (19:52)

22:17 Defining our place in society

• Which game of life are you going to play?
• The sense of love and connection that comes with choosing a path which is true to yourself
• The journey of self-trust

“So we must redefine our place in society, we must choose which game we are going to play.” Rudá Iandê (22:17)

“Once you start embracing this path, it’s natural to feel a connection with the life that flows within you.” Rudá Iandê (23:41)

“There’s a lot of self-trust that comes from being on this journey of making the commitment to yourself, to get to know yourself and to face up to these contradictions, and to build that connection with that deeper nature.” Justin Brown (24:33)

24:47 Self-trust, the ego and spirituality

• The connection between the ego and self-trust
• The irony of destroying your ego – to fight the ego, you must use your ego
• The importance of a healthy, empowered ego
• Traditional spirituality can be disempowering
• Embracing your ego can build self-trust

“You can embrace and empower your ego. A healthy ego is full of energy and love. The ego is about saying yes, this is me.” Rudá Iandê (26:25)

“All of the power exists within right now, despite everything that’s happened in the past, this moment can be the moment that you change the game and make this commitment.” Justin Brown (29:46)

30:25 The evolution of Ideapod

• The journey since 2014
• Creativity, ideas, and a focus on the Ideapod community
• Rudá Iandê’s experience with Ideapod and Out of the Box
• Out of the Box – challenging  ideas and learning to live a more authentic life
• New, innovative ideas coming to Ideapod
• The Tribe membership’s importance to Ideapod

“What we are creating is basically a place where we intend to be honest, and we can hold space for others to show their true selves too with their personal power, creativity, and their insecurities.” Rudá Iandê (37:11)