Good evening. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Let me begin by welcoming you to Singapore on behalf of all the people here. It is a real pleasure, it's a real honour. To speak to you, of course, many of us have already seen many of your videos online and today, of course, are the ones just before this. Now, as you know the topic for today is the impact of Indian civilization on the world. It's your topic but you keep putting on the top. Yeah, I'm going to put you on the spot for it. And before we go beyond that, I'm going to put you on the spot, try and get you to try and define what we mean by Indian civilization in the sense that particularly what we're not trying to get into is, of course, the impact of Indian civilization on mathematics and ancient times of software today, but really the impact of Indian philosophy, our way of life on the world. And I'm going to start with asking you how is the backbone of this civilization, whether you call it Hinduism or the Dharmic tradition, how is that fundamentally different from other ways of thinking about civilization?  It doesn't have a backbone because what a backbone means is the form is determined. Your body takes on this form because the skeletal system is a fixed thing. You can change a little bit, you can make it big or small, but the skeletal system is a fixed thing. Nobody has changed the shape of their bones out here. They only can put on some flesh or reduce some flesh. So backbone essentially means that you become a vertebrate. Vertebrate means you can only change your form marginally, not completely ever. But the thoughts of Indian civilization is it's like an amoeba. It can change, it can integrate, it can drop with impunity. So the essence of Indian culture is it doesn't have, it is not a vertebrate. It's an invertebrate.  Ultimately it means nothing.  This question is coming because both you and me and almost everybody here, whatever type of education they have received fundamentally is Western. Largely that's the only education system left except for few small pockets. So when I say Western, I'm not talking about a particular nation or particular continent. We are looking at that aspect of life or that part of humanity which wants their life in straight lines. When we say Eastern, we are talking about that aspect of humanity which does not want to be put in between two lines. So because the very way of thinking has become purely logical, irrespective of whether it makes life sense or not, being logically correct has become more important than having sense about life, how to conduct life. Everything is logically correct but nothing works. People are just breaking their minds trying to live their life but it's correct. And today, you know the food industry on the planet is 7.6 trillion. The pharmaceuticals are 7.2 trillion. They tell me by 2017, pharmaceuticals is going to become larger than food industry on the planet. This clearly shows that our sense of trying to handle life in straight lines has not worked. Though we have great inventions, though we have all kinds of preventives for every kind of you know epidemics and pandemics we used to have in the past, still more people are sick than ever before. So this is what I mean by saying we are correct on everything but it doesn't have any life sense. What we called as India is a profound sense of life but we are never correct about anything. I think basically what you're describing is really a evolving ecosystem. It's a messy system. It's like… it's not messy that is what a western man would think. It's like the difference is between that of a manicured garden and a forest. A manicured garden looks nice but nothing except human beings walk on it. So ultimately at some level it's dead. It is alive but they tend. If you don't tend to it for three months, it's all gone. A forest is not like that. No tending is needed. If you come back after a million years, it still thrives. But one who thinks in a linear fashion, a forest seems to be messy. Forest seems to be chaotic. It's not chaotic. There is a very profound order but that order is not in straight lines because it's an invertebrate order. Now that you brought the spine into this picture. So I think that's a fact that we are thinking about because basically what you're describing is a continuously churning but there is an order in that churn. In a sense it's an act of seeking, of innovating. It's a civilization really. It's a risk-taking civilization, would you say? It's a civilization that thinks of adventure?  If you use the word adventure, usually it means that you're taking risk with your life.  It's an adventure.  All right? That's how it is. Successfully come out of a dangerous situation. It's called an adventure.   All you're not a risk taker. You're talking in economic terms? Intellectually there's no risk. That is the beauty of the intellect. You can do whatever you want. There's no danger. In your mind, you can do whatever you want. There is no danger. That is where the Indian ethos comes from. Human intellect was expanded in such a way, they looked at everything in every possible way because there was no danger. They did not believe in putting their physical body into danger because this is not something that you can create.  But in our minds, every concept we have, every philosophy we have, every idea we have, every ideology we have, we can crush it right now, this moment. Next moment you can come up with a whole new world. So our sense of adventure was purely intellectual but the western sense of adventure was all physical. Physical adventure can be... cameras can capture it. You can make a movie out of it. Intellectual adventures cannot be captured like that. Even if it is expressed in some form, in the form of literature, philosophy or whatever, very few people will get it. All others will ignore it. Everybody can... you know, large part of the world I was surprised to know that whatever this one... you know, one mad wrestling matches are going on on the television. Some crazy... yes, whatever.  And it's most unesthetic, but I heard this is the most popular channel in India right now. It is, yes. Even my son is watching. This is the most unesthetic thing, but it's popular because physical things are something that everybody can identify with or instead of saying everybody, even the grossest mind will understand physical things. But intellectual adventures, it will take a some level of appreciation, some level of refinement within you to understand the intellectual adventure. When I say intellectual adventure, let's look at it like this. It's not now. Even five thousand years ago, if you go back to the times of Mahabharat, what they are speaking, even today in modern times, most people cannot come to terms with it. That's revolutionary. But these adventures were done. People ignored everything. If you say for example, five thousand years ago, Harappa Mahanjadaro, what did you read in your book, text book? They had very organized drainage system. But to build a city like that, how people should have been, what should their thought be, how should they be thinking, what were they doing, what was their trade? No, nothing about that. Nobody read anything about that. Everybody reads very good drainage system, Harappa Mahanjadaro had. All of you must have read this, isn't it? And is it... is an entire civilization about drainage system, I'm asking. No, I think you bring up a very interesting point about civilization is more than, of course, the drainage system. But it's about a certain spirit. I'm sure in the minds of the people who lived in those cities, drainage was the last thing on their mind. No, I agree with you. In fact, one of the interesting things about Indian civilization is that this intellectual adventurism or culture that you just described was enormously attractive because it spread across the world taken by Indian merchants. Of course, we now live in this part of the world. You know, we are in a city called Singapura. The line is... The very name is... And in fact, you know, the largest Hindu temple in the world is not in India, but in Cambodia, in Korbat. And all the way across through to Korea, where in fact many people are not realized, but Koreans say that their civilization starts with a Korean prince manning a princess from Ayodhya. So this is certainly a very attractive... Don't tell me, North Korea came from North India and South Korea came from South Korea. Evidently, evidently, they think their civilization started from Central UP. So... No, no, no. Nevertheless, the point I'm trying to come to is that this way of thinking that we had at a certain point in our history, we seem to have in some ways lost it along the way. But do you think in many ways this sense of intellectual and cultural adventure is coming back? You cannot say it's coming back. It can be brought back. Is it coming back? I don't think so. Not in a large scale. Very small pockets here and there. Should it come back? If you are interested in true well-being of humanity on the planet, it must come back. Because from simplest things, everything that we have done in the world today, the style of... or the mode in which we are doing today. For example, one biggest thing that everybody is talking about today is about your subject, economics. The economic engine of the planet is driven all by more and more and more. But physical world is a world of limited quantities. More, more, more is only destructive. More, more was possible, was thought of by a certain group of people in the world when they believed they will enslave the entire world for their well-being. When that was the basis, more, more, more was possible. You could always make other people have less, less, less and you have more, more, more. There is no question of entire population on the planet having more, more, more. It's totally out of question because there is no more. So these... these flaws, if they have to be fixed genuinely, before, you know, India is getting rapidly westernized, okay? Many parts of India, urban India is more west than west. All right? It's more American than American. Many people in the country. So before it becomes an all-encompassing thing, if we must bring it up, not for the sake of preserving our nation's culture, I am personally not identified with any nation or any piece of geography or history for that matter. But this is the only culture which is nurtured seeking. It is... if you look at fundamentally why India was recognized as one country, though at times politically it was nearly five hundred entities, at the same... in spite of that, people from outside recognize this as Bharat or Hindustan or as one nation and people within the country also felt they're one nation, though they were... ruled by various kings is just this.  Fundamentally the difference between seeking and believing means. Seeking means you have realized that you do not know. I do not know is the basis of seeking. Believing means what you do not know you have chosen to assume and concretize your assumptions and put God's seal on it, finished. Once you put divine seal on your stupidity, you can never come out of it, okay?  Here this is a culture where even if God appeared or somebody appeared whom you believed is God, still they cannot give you commandments, this is the thing to do. Well, for example, the most famous book probably is the Geetha in India. Well, he's supposed to be God himself, whatever he says. The other guy is arguing and arguing endlessly, asking a thousand questions because even he cannot give commandments to him. It has to make logical sense to him, otherwise he's not going to take it. This is not today's culture, five thousand years ago. This is the way we have been. This is the way we are right now. But today because we have been, you know, 250 years ago or 300 years ago, we were the strongest economy on the planet. Everybody wanted to come to India because it was the richest nation. Well, last ten, fifteen generations we've fallen on bad times. Because of that, nobody listens to what you're talking. Slowly it will change because in the world if your voice has to be heard, first thing you must be successful. There is no substitute for success, unfortunately. It doesn't matter what brilliant things you're talking about. Unless you're speaking from the platform of success, nobody is willing to listen to you. This is an interesting one, taking that in some sense it's a very post-modern, in fact post-industrial idea about how to think about the world, which is essentially that we poke every assumption of our lives or ideologies and we try and dissect it. There is one danger in this, in that it can lead to you becoming negative, but you can begin to think that sort of mysticism is some sort of a monasticism, like you mean that is surely not what you're trying to say here. It's not a self-denying way of life that you are describing. Tell me, if you don't take out your twelve-cylinder car today and you chose to go on a bicycle, is it self-denying or is it eco-sensitive? It depends who is looking at you, right? Somebody chose to sit in a place under a tree and he was happy sitting under a tree. Why do you call itself denial? He might have found something that you've not imagined possible. He has found something which you cannot even imagine. That's why sitting under a tree, he's fine. So many of these ideas that you are telling us, I believe some of it came to you while you were since you mentioned bicycle, but maybe on a mobile, Chris Cross said India. So it would be wonderful if you could give us some sense of what is it that really you found as you Chris Cross this country that inspired you to begin thinking like this? Initially I did most of South India on my bicycle. Oh, in the bicycle? Initially. I did Southern India on my bicycle. I was planning an expedition on my bicycle to Moscow. Okay. Okay. But then my father a little lost his mind thinking how I will go to Moscow on my bicycle. Two of my friends went. They came back after all nearly four years being on the bicycle. They made it. They went to Moscow, they went all over Russia, they went through all this, now all this, you know, the twenty and odd central Asian countries and they came back after four years. Well, I got kind of sabotaged. Anyway, my travels, I was just flipping through your geography history book, you know. This geography and history is a little...  Yeah, a joke. A novice bank robber wanted to try it on a gas station first. So he walked into the gas station, pulled out his gun and he said, he put his gun to the salesperson and said, all the cash, otherwise your geography. He said, come on, you mean history, isn't it? And I said, no, don't change the subject. So when I was reading your book, I thought of this, okay. It's a... it's a geography book but it's history. You're not changing the subject, it's the same subject. Geography and history is the same subject. That's a point of your book in many ways. So for me, all these travels, I had traveled without any purpose. I was not going to any particular place. I simply rode across India. For me, because I... I never thought nor do I even today think in words. I only see pictures and videos in my mind always. Even today, what I did those many years ago, I remember every feature of land. It's very difficult to explain this. I'm not talking about some great mountain or river or a waterfall, not like that, those definitely I remember. I'm talking about every corner, one little outcrop, one little bird was sitting on the tree, one small this, one anthill here, one there. It's just in my mind.  Just simple terrain. The land just took my heart away. Just looking at the land. Then came people for me. Because in my mind, in my experience, everything I look at it is all... first of all is geometry for me. If I look at a human being, first thing is I look at the various aspects of geometry and if I look at them right now, I will tell you in ten years what problem they will have. Because if their geometry is okay or not okay, it's so visible. The very way they sit and stand, you can see what are they going to get or not get. Because geometrically whether it's right or wrong, the entire physical existence is a consequence of geometry. Only what is geometrically right will last. What is not geometrically right will not last. How long something lasts simply depends upon whether it's geometrically correct or not. I think they were showing those buildings. It is all about geometry for me. And the very word yoga means this, that you align your physical geometry with the cosmic geometry. Suddenly what is there is here also for you because you're properly aligned. So when I looked at the terrain, which at that time only India, now I travelled all over, but at that time when I travelled, it was all about geometry, how a little rock... I'm not talking about huge massive monumental rock. I am talking about a little stone was sitting as I was riding from the corner of my eye, saw that stone, that stone still lives in my mind. So this is how I just absorbed India into me. Then it came to people. I just ride into some village, walk into some home, any home. I just walk in and I say, I'm hungry. They would look at me, who is this guy? But they said, okay. And they would arrange a meal for me. I would eat there and if I wanted to sleep there, right there, either if they allowed me in the house or just outside the house, I slept there and early morning I was off again. So for me, I didn't... I never introduced myself, nor many times I never asked their names. Nor did I exchange email ID because there wasn't one at that time. There was no need to again reach back and contact them. Nor did they have any need to know who I am. It was just like that. This is India. Just come together as if you belong to them.  This is how I traveled, very, very rare, you know. In this entire travels I remember maybe five or six times I stayed in a hotel room. Otherwise I slept in anybody's home or sometimes just outside in the town. In the center of the town I would sleep, people would come and ask who, what this... I'm traveling like this. Somebody would take me and give me food because I'm saving every rupee for more gas. More gas means more miles. So my impression of India and people and the culture was there are no lines. If you don't carry lines, there are no lines. A lot has changed since then of course. So many things have happened. People are suspicious about each other. There has been terror attacks, there are bombs. Everybody wants to frisk you from top to bottom now. So many things that's because of the events that have taken place. Otherwise this is India. Even today I'm sure it's true in rural India it's still like that. You can walk in anywhere and it's okay. If they're what they have they'll share it with you. It's not some great meal they're serving you. If you approach in a certain way everything is wide open because there are no lines in people's minds. Lines are being now being drawn because people are going to schools now. Everybody's getting educated.  See this is the kind of education we're getting. The more educated you become, the less inclusive you become. There was a time, I've gone and stayed with families. A family of over four hundred people in Karnataka, in the coastal Karnataka there are families where four hundred people in one family and one more guest, they don't even care, okay? You also stay and go, what's the big deal? But today gradually it came down, family meant you, your wife, your children, your parents, not her parents ever. And slowly your parents went out now just wife and kids, if you move west you will see kids also out as soon as possible. And slowly husband and wife are living in many homes, I'm telling you, I'm not joking. There are people, husband and wife married for many years now separated but not legally separated living in adjacent homes, only when they want. Otherwise separate homes because they can't stand each other. This is the form of education very important in the entire world where inclusiveness is not possible. Slowly you can't stand anybody over a period of time because the way of thinking is becoming so logically correct. The more logically correct you are, you look at anybody, nobody seems to be okay. Really, you're logically hundred percent correct you think, you look at them, nobody is okay. If nobody is okay, it is not a question of correctness, it is a question of madness. It's the first sign of psychological disturbances, you start thinking nobody is okay except you. We are heading towards that big time. The statistics tell me that thirty-eight percent of the European population is psychologically ill. Every year three hundred and fifty million Europeans go through serious psychiatric treatment. So what you're describing is, you know, continuous individualization into silos and this is not just about individual silos but this is also a thought process, a wider thought process which is true maybe...  Intellect is like a knife, it's like a scalpel. Whatever you give it, it will slice it into two and look at it. Then it's not happy, it will slice into four and look at it. Then it is not happy, it will slice it into eight and look at it. This is the way of the intellect. Intellect knows everything only by dissection, cutting everything into pieces. This is the way we have developed science. This is the way our logical thinking processes because we have come to this place that intelligence means intellect. The Indian way of life, we have looked at human mind as sixteen parts. To make it simple, I will make it into four here. This is called as buddhi, manas, ahankara and chitta. These are different dimensions. Intellect means only buddhi is being used, which is a sharp knife. This sharp knife is a good instrument for you to survive in the world. It dissects everything and shows you.  You won't have them, that's all if you dissect them. This is what is happening. We are not understanding the distinction between intellect and the deeper dimensions of intelligence which functions within us. The intelligence within us is inclusive in nature. As you sit here, you may hate the person who is sitting next to you. If you... Okay, I didn't mean you should, it's not an instruction.  And you have no problem. Yes? You have no problem, body has no problem. Because the deeper intelligence within you has no issue.  Yes? You cannot sit there anymore. This is the nature of the intellect. It keeps on dividing, dividing, dividing. The other dimensions of intelligence have not made like this. Right now, we are able to live only because this is inclusive. What you exhale, the tree is inhaling, what the tree exhales, you are inhaling. This is how life is happening, not just this. Right now, what is happening in every subatomic particle in this body is reverberating across the cosmos in so many different ways. I am not talking philosophy. I am talking about physics. No, this is this sort of inclusive way of thinking. I think in mid... No, no. You cannot think inclusively. If you don't think you are inclusive. Okay. I mean basically of feeling, what would be the correct word for it? Because experience perhaps is perhaps the... People ask me, Satguru, what are you usually? Today morning, I'm doing an interview with some FM radio in India because it's Tamil New Year's Day is coming. Satguru, what is your thought process most of the time when you are not teaching or speaking? I said, I don't have any. I don't think. What is there to think? I don't know. I don't think that's all. I just walk around joyfully with an empty head. That's why I don't have the burden of knowledge. There is... I've never felt burdened by it because I don't carry it first of all. I don't have a single thought in my mind. Most of the time. I mean, there is a certain art to it that must surely be... We can't put it down into certain steps, maybe in the siloed way. But if you have to sort of describe the way one, so if I had to dissect, say a global problem or something, how would you say this particular approach deal with it as opposed to the way we now deal with it which is to break it down with some parts, solve each little bit and put it back together? See, the parts will never make the whole. Suppose I will get you a pair of kidneys, one nice, very healthy liver, heart, this, that, everything. Okay, make it into another human being and give it to me, let me see. It'll not work like that. Parts will... parts will not make a whole. Parts are there, yes. Now, if you want health also, right now why I mentioned this, you know the healthcare industry becoming bigger than the food industry is simply because of this, because you have a kidney doctor, you have a lung doctor, you have an eye doctor, you have a knee doctor. It is not far where there'll be a separate doctor for your right eye and left eye because there is a difference between the two. Yes. There is a difference between the two. So tomorrow if you go on specializing, you will need hundred doctors to have a health checkup. By the time you get appointment from hundred doctors, definitely you'll be sick. So specialization is a good thing to appoint, but now we can't stop it because if we see one more thing and one more thing, if you divide the atom, there are too many things there. So you will need specialists for all that. By the time you get there, you'll get lost because the sophistication of the physical creation is such, for every atom you will need one specialist and for every subatomic particle, you need further specialists. So at that rate, what will you know I'm asking? You will not know anything. There is another way to know everything. Simply by embracing something, either by dissection you know or by embrace you know, you know life only by inclusion. Dissection is a exclusivity process, elimination process, but if you want to know these people, you know them only by inclusion, not by elimination, isn't it? So what is good for material things, you're trying to make it happen for every aspect of life. Life does not work like that. If you give this flower to a scientist, first thing he will do is he'll rip it apart. Yes, that is the way he will study it. Did you miss the point? Yes, he will know all parts of it, but he won't know the flower. But the beauty of the flower, everything that you need to know about life, in a way this flower is the peak of that plant's life, isn't it? Instead of absorbing that, instead of including that within you, because every life's aspiration is only to reach the peak of whatever this life is possible, isn't it?  By elimination, will that happen? So now a global problem, if I don't break it down, how do I know? Only because you're breaking it down, problems are multiplying. You know, in India, they talk about certain forces like Mahishasura or somebody. The stories are, if one drop of blood falls on the ground, one more guy will rise, another drop falls, another guy will rise. That is what it is. Raktabiji. Yes. I'm saying the Raktabiji is all we're doing, we're only complicating the world like never before. We're not solving problems, let's at least admit that. We're having sophisticated explanations for our problems. Problems are not gone, isn't it? So I'm going to change tack a little bit here. And you know, most of us here live in Singapore, many of us are children, we're bringing up in Singapore, outside of India. And we want to take some of this lying thinking and pass it down to them. What are the, you know, one or two things that we think are the critical parts of our culture and civilization that I think we should try and get them to buy? I see both your boys are in kurta at least. So, see we need to understand this. What we call as Indian culture is not a mode of dress, a mode of speech or a certain way of doing things. Fundamentally shifting life from belief to seeking. When I say shifting life from belief to seeking, people feel their life is strong when they believe something. All these days they've been talking about believing in God, these days it's become a fashion to say, I believe in myself. You believe in things that you do not know. You can't believe in something that's here, either you know it or you don't know it, isn't it? Yes or no? This is all the option is either you know something or you don't know something. Because you're unwilling to admit you do not know, you say I believe in it because it gives you confidence but confidence without clarity. Confidence without clarity is a disastrous process. If you have clarity, you will see everything the way it is. If you don't have clarity, at least you must have hesitation. But if you have confidence without clarity, you don't see a damn thing but you're dead sure. There are too many people like this, believe me. But the opposite of that is there, that if you see everything clear, you will not get paralyzed. If reality is going to paralyze you, then you have to live in hallucination. When I said belief, belief need not be of any sense, you just believe because it gives you confidence. For a long time people have believed in somebody up there managing your life, Upparwala, if you're an orthodontist. So first of all, we are sitting on a round planet and it's spinning. If you're looking up, you're invariably looking up in the wrong direction, you're on the equator in Singapore. You're invariably looking up in the wrong direction. At least if you look towards Delhi, maybe you're looking northward a little bit. So I'm saying you are incapable of knowing what is up and what is down in this cosmos. Nowhere is it marked this side up. Have you seen this side up marked in the cosmos, in the galaxies somewhere? No. You don't know what is up, what is down. If you go further south, even people in Australia down under, they think they're also looking up, isn't it? So there is no up-down business. This is why, in what is called as Indian ethos, the fundamental things which are essentially different from every other culture on the planet is, one thing is there's no belief system. Another thing is there's no God because always you have been told that your life is your karma. What this means is karma means action or doing. When we say your life is your karma, what's being said is your life is your making. Entirely your making. There is nobody else influencing from anywhere. But so many things are happening beyond me, how? That is because, just tell me, today morning you woke up. From that moment to now, there are four types of action. Physical, mental, emotional and energy actions are happening. Every moment of your wakefulness and sleep, it's happening.  Hmm? How much do you think? Percentage, tell me. How much percentage do you believe you have conducted consciously? In body, in mind, in emotion and energy? Probably quite small. Way below one percent. Okay? You might have done a few things consciously. Rest is all simply happening. When so much is happening unconsciously, the results that happen out of that unconscious action, you try to attribute it to something. See, right now, if I take this object and throw it up and I forgot, after sometime it'll come and land on my head. Now I think, who did this to me? All right? If somebody looks suspicious little bit, I'll pounce on him because I don't remember throwing this up. So when ninety-nine percentage plus, ninety-nine plus percentage is unconscious, obviously the results are not something that you can account for. But it is entirely your making. When we said it's entirely in your making, when we said your life is your karma, in one word, we destroy the heaven and everything else. All the people whom you worship in that country are people who walk the geography at one time. We looked up to them because of certain qualities. When I say certain qualities, for example, Ram is a big icon because you're talking about UP, central UP.  He's a rightful king because of some political situation he goes to, the forest to live in the jungle. With his newly married wife, who is a princess, she's not made to live in the jungle. And his brother out of his love leaves his wife and his family and goes behind them to take care of them.   Believe me, we can't recognize you. You will become like that in three months' time. Yes, you don't know what it means to live in a jungle. Not today. Seven thousand six or seven thousand years ago when it was fully on, jungle was fully on, not like today, it's not a reserve. Entire country is forest, full of wildlife, living there with a young woman who is not trained to live there, is not a simple thing, it's a severe punishment for anybody. As if that was not enough, Ravana came and kidnapped her, Ravana was not a tiger, he was a lion. He was a man. So and then the man goes in search of his wife, you know, like I was in a small town in Andhra Pradesh and one little girl, one thirteen-fourteen-year-old girl stands up and asks, «Sadhguru, they say that Rama went walking from all the way from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka to find his wife. Is it true? How is it possible? It is not practical, isn't it? And I looked at her and said, «See you're still a little girl, but in a few years you'll find a man. When you find a man, do you want a man that if you get lost he will anyway come looking for you or he thinks it's not practical and find solution? Find solution in the neighborhood? Oh, she knows, she wants a man who will come in search. So the man is so… whether he's in love with her or he's committed to his wife, he goes looking down south and finds her after a huge battle, brings her back. She is fully pregnant. Again some political situations, again he sends her to the forest. She bears children in the jungle. He doesn't know whether it's boys or girls, no sonogram. He doesn't know whether it's boy or girl or boys or girls. She delivers twins and he doesn't know. And then he wages a war. He gets into a battle with these boys, not knowing there is children. He could have killed them.  He was almost on the verge. He could have killed them. Fortunately he did not kill them. But if he had killed, he wouldn't know he would have killed because he went out to kill them. With the intent of killing them he went out, but somehow he did not succeed and then she died in the jungle, he never saw her face. Do you call this a successful life? I'm asking you.  Do you call this a successful life? No. But we worship him. We worship him not because he was a super success of the day, he was a super success of the day. We worship him because it doesn't matter what life threw at him. He remained the same, equanimous. No matter what anybody did to him, he maintained his dharma of being who he is. So we bow down to him. It doesn't matter because what life does to you is not always your choice. What you do is your choice. This is what karma means. So he was completely in charge of his karma. World did all kinds of things to him but he remained the same. He never became bitter, he never became hateful, he never became angry. He continued to do what he was required to do without being pulled off track. So for that quality we worship him because when we said our samskriti you must understand the word samskriti Sam means equanimous it also means exuberance. Krithi means to do life in an equanimous and exuberant way. Equanimous not in a death-like way. Exuberant not in a drunken way. Equanimous but exuberant. If you conduct this life like this this is called as bhartiya samskriti. So he is an epitome of that. All kinds of things were done to him the worst kind of things. What worst things can you happen to you then other than what happened to Rama's life tell me series of tragedies, isn't it? Disaster after disaster but he is in samskriti. He conducts his life with full involvement and equanimous. It doesn't matter what his personal tragedies are. So this is why we worship him not because he was a super success. So our idea of success is this if a man can go through this life untouched no matter what happens poverty comes, wealth comes, success comes, failure comes he goes through it untouched maintaining who he is without losing his humanity. Then we say he is a successful man then we say he is a maha purush so Rama is worshipped for that. Thank you. This is a great point.


Hello, and welcome back to The Croft Box. My name's Brenton. Today we're in episode 92 of the Wizard101 Death Walkthrough. Last episode, if you haven't checked it out already, we entered the Crustacean Empire, and today we're starting by talking to Sinner to Xanthus. Those will certainly make a difference! Time to strike while the iron is hot! The leader of the Lothians is named Glaukel. He's hiding out in the Senate chamber. I've sent word along that we have a wizard who is going to drown him. Eat that Seamold and wait for the effects to kick in! You eat the Seamold.  Great! I can see from your face that you're ready to rumble! Mine Ben will sound the shell horns to announce you're on your way! Okay, let us hit on in... ...and defeat this guy. Here we go... Myth and... ...balance. Yikes! You know what we're gonna do? I'm gonna be back in a sec. Okay, I'm back. I didn't want to... ...rage too much if I got Earthquaked. So... Also, they both have so much health! Oh my god! I was kind of sneaky. But, yeah. Just because... ...Otherus, hello! Haven't seen this one before on this character. Authorus is quite a cool spell. It does quite a bit though. Also takes forever! Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! This is gonna hurt. Oh! Do much damage at all? Slash any? Weird. Um, Slybug. That's fine. No. Dun dun du... Nope! Blade! What? 200 health? 200? 162. Not even 200. How bad? Mm-hmm. Two feints. Another blade and hopefully next round we can hurt. Yes we can. Yes. We can. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Ouch. That hurt. Yum. Oh, blade. Hello. Of course a fizzle. Yay. God love fizzles. Ha-ha. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do as well I didn't hurt. Um, ha-ha. Nice wee shield you got there. Would be a shame if it wasn't useful. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Here we go. Critical. Nice. They are dead for sure. Yum. That actually did quite a lot. What was that for? Well, that did even more. No, that did less. Oh, you got the wrong guy. I was set up on his shadow weavers. They was calling the shots. I was just a proxy. Uh-huh. Let us head on back to Thurston Plunket and see what we have to do next. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do So the shadow weavers were responsible. It's as I expected. The entrance to the Solarium is within the Barvaca. The capital of the Crustacean Empire. The secret to the Astral School of Sunmagic is within the Solarium. I must be kept from Orgaad that all caught if the Lothians are working with the Shadow Weavers. That means that Morganth can't be far behind them. You must go to the Solarium and recover the Son of Celestia before she takes it for herself. The Crustaceans haven't let me enter the Barvaca. Maybe Nestor will tell you how to get in and pass the Piscients. Okay. Let us head on over to Nestor. And... See what he says about this one. Wrong way. Let us go the other way. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Do-do-do-do-do-do Do-do-do-do-do-do Do-do-do-do-do Okay.  Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do The Barbican has been taken by the Piscian guards when they seized control of our government. Now we are locked out. If you want to find a way in, you will have to find out how. Maybe the Piscients will tell you. Okay. I'll be back in just a sec once I've defeated these Piscians. Okay. I am back. Who be ye, and how'd you get through me, men? From the Luxiae you are seeking a way into the Barbican, am I right? I am Lieutenant Deful of the Good Ship Calypso. A pirate vessel sunk at times ago within these very waters. We are pleased to help you get where you need to be if you can lend us a hand and return. The Piscients and their likeies, the Lothians, have been giving us a wee spot of trouble as of late. Could you gather for us the power moats from some down-stellar protectors? We have need of them. Okay. Let us collect some of these boys. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Basically, we needed to... Oh yeah, that's right, we can't go that way. We have to go all the way back the other way. We had to defeat the Piscients and they told us that there were pirates done here and we had to defeat some of them and then we talked to that guy.  Congrats. We have the last Langing Lizard, which is right over here, right there. So we can hand that quest in at the end of this episode, which is cool. And now we need to find three more of these down-stellar protectors, which could be... who knows where. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do I can't go up there. There's one there. Okay, this is actually kind of difficult finding these. They're basically everywhere. Not all over the place. Who knows where they are. Hmm, here we go. Here's another one. Three. Go back up here and get number four. There we go. Four. Okay. Defoe. We'll happily lend our swords to their cause. I'll be back when I'm at Senator Zath-Xenthus. Okay, I am back. The treasure of the Calypso? Oh my. The Lothians took that a while ago. They hid it somewhere and courted the map that showed where it was buried. Each of the pieces was given to a trusted Lothian. If you defeated them, you might find the four quarters of the map. I don't mean to drop. Rather, he's not far from here. Can you find him and lend a helping claw anything to quiet him? Okay, I'll be back once I've defeated these anglers. Okay, I am back. If I were the treasure is hid, it's not ideal, but it's a sight better than empty hands. I can make hide nor hair at this map without a compass. Can you help find our compass from where it was taken? You're told that a Poiseum commander named Acastus Hexen had it in his keeping. He patrols the barricade, the terrace, the mezzanine, and the concourse are his usual haunts. We're up. Oh god. Well, I'll be back in a sec. Okay, so we're at the first place and there's no sign of him here. So we need to go to the next place, which is who knows where. 250 meters away. Who knows what that measurement is anyway. We'll say steps. Hmm. Acastus Hexen isn't here either. Okay then. Well, where is he? Dun dun dun. Dun dun dun. Dun dun dun. No sign of Acastus Hexen here. Okay, we're going to go in here and find him then.  Mm-hm. Let's go. I'll be back in a sec. Okay, so I don't have enough time to finish recording this if I don't have to hurry up. So, I am going quick. So we've got people to help, and by people I mean myself. So, yeah, let us do this. Also, I don't have time to waste around trying to play the... Are you going to Tower Shield now again? So, yeah, we're just gonna go. Oh, look at this spicy Tower Shield. Oh, no. Oh, look at this Tower Shield. Cool. So, yeah, you know, just might as well just get it done. Yep. It also means that, really, that is embarrassing. Um, yep, let's waste it. Let's waste a faint. Haha. Thanks, game. Okay. What's this, man? It's a fizzle man. What's this, man? It's a fizzle man. Unlucky man. Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. Peew! Peew! And let's hit. Yeah, boy. Pew! No, great. Which is unfortunate, but it's fine. ok there we go perfect we did it ok let's head on back to the foe dun dun dun nice, your got our compass back it's a little bit to dig up but it still points true normally you were away i had a war with our captain queen calypso Calypso. She shares the name of the ship. She says she'll help you, but only if you can prove it. That means he must cross swords or bonds, or what have you, with Queen Calypso herself. She's a wily one. Won't be an easy mark, so best of luck to you. She awaits you to bow to the ship. Okay, let's head on over. She is death, I believe, so again, we're gonna have some help just because I can't be... I mean, yeah, I just can't be bothered. So yeah. Let us head on down. This is actually a really cool area. This is pretty cool. Okay, and... hi. How are you? I am Queen Calypso. My ship and soul are intertwined in I rule these seas. Who are you to challenge me in my place of power? I don't know, who am I? I think she's not there, lol. Okay, what does this do? There we go. Just have to press a lever. That's cool. It's because he's already done it. That's funny. Okay, seven thousand. Oh my. Golly gosh. Me oh my. I will enjoy this, yes boy. Yeah, that's fine. It's kind of weird how we had to pull the lever. Oh well.  Oh, Scarecrow. Hi. Hello. I think this is the first boss with thought that has used ranks to inspell against us. Which is cool. Okay, what do we got now? We will infall and we will heal. That double pit fail is not good. It's kind of annoying. I really hope we get a power pup. Power pup? I still can't hit it, but next round we can. Actually, six, seven, eight. Yeah, we can next round. Even if we put that fail like we just did. Here we go. Wraith, hello. Hello. Okay, and away we go. Sirens, what a spell, honestly. I love sirens. It's such a good spell. Four of three, zero. May actually not kill her. No, we did. I think, yep, we did. Cool. Okay. There we go. Now we talk to her. I am taken aback at your skill with magic. You have won my respect. United, we are unassailable. For long years the crustaceans feared our intervention. Our time has come. You provided lieutenant to foe with a treasure map. It points at the crustaceans treasury. Only the Lothians would think to hide our treasure back in the treasury from whence they took it. Journey now to the treasury and recover our treasure. If it is restored, we will lend you our blades. Okay, let us head on over to that treasury then. Okay, treasury, where are you? Treasury is over here. Yeah. Okay, and we're in Calypso. Luckily, we can do this. Yes. We have longed for your return. We counted the minutes you were away from us. Oh, gleaming treasure. It is good to see you as well, wizard. I have a gift for you, one that will take you further than our mere blades, the key to the Barthican. We stole one long ago and hid it amidst our gold. It is the greatest of fortune the Lothians did not find it. The Piscians are led by a vicious tyrant named Praetor Mako. With this key, you can enter the Barthican and deal a death blow to the Piscian uprising. Okay, let's go do this then. I think this is the last bit that we have to do, I think. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it is. Okay, let's head on to the Barthican. Hello. Let's head on in here. The scent of wizardry is on the current. Soon there will be blood in the water. Let's go. Let's do this. Okay, myth and life, not too bad. Ten and nine. Okay, hopefully the myth doesn't earthquake, which she probably will. But you never know. You never know, man. You never know. Okay, let's hope he gets a path up and does a minotaur. He didn't. No, it's unfortunate. I've hit with something good. Thank you. It's better than having too many perps. The regenerate. That's actually a really good healing spell. It does a lot. This pit fail is really annoying that we keep getting on most storm. It makes it longer for no reason. Okay, that's it a lot, which is good. My goal was actually to kill it, but you know, that's fine. I didn't have any legs. I knew I wouldn't. But that's still good. Ten and 106. Finally can hit. Let's go. Sirens. Sirens is good. Good. Dead? Yes, you are. Perfect. And dead. Bye. There we go. Amazing. Okay, let us head on back to Thirst and Plunket, and in fact I'll be there when I'm at Thirst and Plunket. Okay, I am back. Bye, Joe. You've got it. After all the searching and scrambling for pieces of the portal, you now have access to the Solarium itself. Well, don't let me stop you. Get back to Celestia Base Camp and be on your way. Okay, let us head on back and we will go and use the Sun Portal. The portal is finally complete. Yay, we completed the portal. Next episode we'll hit her. Yay. You got the Solarium stone repaired? I can't believe it. Ready yourself? The Solarium contained power beyond your imagining. If you can recover the Sun of Celestia, you can unlock the secrets of the Celestian Sun magic. According to Plunket, the Sun of Celestia is in a place called the Chancellor. It may be guarded though, so be careful. Okay, next episode we will head on into the Chancellor. So, thank you for watching. Remember to leave a like and subscribe. In fact, we're going to listen to this. Young wizard, ominous winds are blowing and your help is essential in quieting them. I have need of a student of your exceptional abilities. Can you visit me in my arm? Can you come to Four Falls Mill in Triton Avenue? It's an emergency and you're just the wizard to help me. Okay, we're going to mark here. We're just going to finish up a few things.  I'm not going to listen to the dialogue. Thanks for finding the lounge lizard. Now that I know where to find him, I can get him to safety if need be. Celestian explorer. Yeah, boy. And we are also going to get a new hat, which I have stored in my bank from my old death wizard. And most of you will probably know what it is. You have three, two, one. Is it in here? Nope, it is in the shed bank. My backpack's full. I'm going to go into you. Here we go. Hangman's hood, which gives us grit. Yay. So yeah, overall, this is basically the upgrade from the skier. It gives more resist, more damage. In fact, yeah, more damage, more incoming, more grit, obviously, more health, less accuracy. But that's fine. We're going to put it on right now. Hangman's hood. Look at that. Fantastic. So next video I post will probably be waterworks. Anyway, thank you for watching. Remember to leave a like and subscribe. And if you want to subscribe, press the little bell so you know exactly when I post another video. And remember, craft outside the box.


Alexis and Richard, I want to thank you for sharing your story with us and helping all of us understand your situation and the situation of so many families here in Texas. I'd like to ask our panelists to come up and I will introduce them to you. To my immediate right and your left, this is Dr. Francis DaVini and Dr. Francis is the Senior Research Associate for the Center of Public Policy Priorities who helped put this film together that we just watched and also she is the Director of Texas Kids Count. And then Richard, and where is Alexis? You're not, do you? No, okay. And Richard James, you all have met him in the video we just saw and they've been living here in San Antonio for about a year. And Kevin Moriarty with the President and CEO of Methodist Healthcare. And so we'd like to open this up for any questions that you might have. Would you all like to begin by making a statement or do you want to start with taking questions? Sure, right. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming out and sharing this film with us tonight. It was a very special project for us at the Center, not only to get to meet such wonderful real Texas families like Richard and Alexis, but also to be able to put life to a lot of the work that we do at the Center for Public Policy Priorities. The Center is very well known for producing some beautiful bar charts and graphs of things that are very important in Texas. But what we really needed was to be able to add a little heart to the story and to really bring truth to those numbers that we had. And so we embarked on something very new for us, which was a film that you just saw, Fighting Chance, to really help people understand that when we say we have, you know, 1.3 million children living in poverty in Texas, what does that look like? Who are these children that we're talking about? Instead of trying to otherize people, to really bring them in to help you understand that they are not dissimilar to you. They have, as you heard in the film, they have all the hopes and dreams that any family would. And their paths are very different. They may have found themselves in a tight economic situation because of a medical issue, or they may have had a job that didn't pay enough, or they may have lost a job. Whatever the situation was, they all found themselves in a place where nobody wants to be. And that's probably the best definition of poverty is that it's somewhere no one wants to be, right? And so what we're trying to do is to be able to use these stories to help people understand that the ideals of having a safe family, a healthy family, a secure family is something that we all share together. And I'd like to say me and Alexis were privileged to be part of this project. You know, a year and a half ago, we would have been oblivious to who these Texas families are on these pie charts. Beautiful pie charts. Yes. But I mean, we learned a lot about the Medicaid system specifically, you know, trying to get care for our son and trying to survive. And, you know, we're both college students. We'd like to think of ourselves as intelligent people.  And so it's just good to see our, you know, our son up here making a difference and just letting people know that there's people that need these types of programs. And this hardly anything I can say after seeing this. We were happy to join with CPQ to fund it, to put it together, to help put a face to all of the things that are happening to so many people. And as I'll take an opportunity to tell all of you today, your legislator, your legislature has the opportunity to add a million and a half people to Medicaid. And they're debating it. And it's funded. There's a half a million children that are add ons. If that gets through a half a million children. And they think there's some sort of decisioning process that they have to go through to accept your tax money back to expand the Medicaid program. And so this insanity that happens in this state so often around issues of taking care of people who are in need just has to stop. They're just too many people. You know, you the statistic of 26% of our state being uninsured translates to 6 million people. And we're not going to ensure a million and a half because of politics. It's terrible. Doctor, what do you have? You have the mic. Are we going to ask people to come up? We'll take up. Okay, we're take the microphone to you. Okay. All right. If you have, when you have a question, I will start. Okay, Mr. Morari, what would you recommend people here do to advocate for these children? I mean, certainly writing letters and emails, but what else to convince the legislature? Well, all of you know you're legislators. I mean, in Bear County, you don't need to go for the Democrats. You need to find an R. Lyle Larson is an R. He's a nice guy. He's been a county commissioner for a lot of years. You know him. Talk to him. He needs to be on the side of this issue going forward. We just elected Campbell to replace Wentworth. She's a senator. She's an R. She says, No, we're not going to vote with this issue. Somebody needs to call her and say this is about me and my service. This is something I need. That needs to be out there immediately this time around. If it doesn't work this time around, then I would suggest to all of you, you need to be involved in the political process. You need to make your voice heard. You need to have your story out there. You need to get angry about what's happening around you and make it something that drives you every single step of the way. It's absolutely critical and important that these services be available in our communities. It's just a terrible tragedy. I spoke to the legislature two weeks ago and gave them the statistic from two reports, one from Harvard, you know, which they discounted and one from UT Medical Branch in Galveston. One said that 5,000 people would die a year because of lack of services under Medicaid. If this expansion wasn't occurring, one said 9,000. Harvard said nine UTMB Galveston said five. I said choose. But you can change that to zero by allowing these funds to come in.  May I add? Sure. So I think it's really important to remember too that the sole function of our elected officials is to make sure that we each have the opportunity to reach our fullest potential, right? That's why we send them there is to create us Texas to create an environment that allows each of us to reach our opportunities that are in front of us, right? And so I think a lot of times people forget that that's their job. That's what they're supposed to be there to do. And they get kind of freaked out by the suits in the big stone building. Okay, but I promise you all of the people who are elected, you know, they're trying they really are trying to do what they think that their constituents want them to do. They think that because that's who they're hearing from. If they don't hear from people saying, What are you doing? Why are you not making choices that represent me? I live in your district. They're going to keep doing what they think people want them to do. And I'll tell you this too. These are also real people. They have to take their cats to the vet. They have tires that blow out on their cars. They have arguments with their teenagers. They are real people, and they're not as intimidating as they seem. And furthermore, the people who answer the phones are probably 22 year old interns who work there from the university. So not that there's anything wrong with being 22 years old. But I'm just saying it's not as intimidating as it would seem. And it's a simple phone call. And what I used to work in the legislature and we assume that for every phone call we got, it was representing the opinion of 100 people. So that's a really, really powerful 30 second phone call that you can make to the capital. And it makes a really big difference, particularly in these last days when they're debating such really important issues around Medicaid expansion. We're also looking at trying to get universal breakfast to all schools who have children about 80% of their kids or more who are eligible for free and reduced price lunch. They're just gonna say, ah, go ahead and give breakfast to everybody. And it's fully federally funded. We don't have to put any money toward that from the state and they're debating it. It's moving. It's moving in the right direction. But so we have programs like that we're talking about payday lending. And that's gotten very bogged down in a lot of the political process. Are you guys familiar with kind of check cashing places and payday lenders and all that? So that's another big step that we can make in Texas to really protect families who maybe don't feel like they have the same kind of financial options that a lot of families do. They are not comfortable with banks or they don't understand the financial situation. And yet one of these very simple things that we can do to help protect families is getting kind of bogged down. So again, I just repeat what Kevin said. And it sounds so simple and it sounds innocuous. But I think really making that call makes a really huge difference. And I can't stress that enough. And they do read those. And you think what does one voice? What does one email? What does one letter mean? But as Dr, I'm sorry, Divini just said, it represents 100 people. And I know from being inside the political process myself, when you get 100 phone calls, they start paying attention. Well, success did happen. And I'd point out Marion Sokol here. Marion, stand up for a minute. Come on, Marion. You can do it. Marion spearheaded the effort on the CHIP Children's Health Insurance Program for the state of Texas. 10 years ago, when Governor Bush was the governor and Governor Bush at the time said Texas was not going to accept that program except that 75% of poverty. And the advocates said 125%. I wanted 200%, you'll recall. I didn't get my way. I agreed with the advocacy group. We went for 125. And in six months, a no was turned to a yes because of all the children's advocates to say, oh, come on, the Children's Health Insurance Program we're not going to accept it in Texas. Somebody told him he wasn't electable as the president if he had a state that was taking care of children at 75% of poverty. How terrible is that? What image is that? And it changed. Two weeks ago, excuse me, I went to Austin with the nuns on the bus with Sister Simone Campbell. And we brought 500 letters signed to the governor. We visited all of our legislators on this issue. What we were told over and over again is even if they pass it, the governor is going to veto it. I came home and I said 500 letters is only a drop in the bucket. We need 50,000 letters. And so I want to ask everybody here, get everyone you can to write to the governor and tell him we need this bill passed. And all of the legislators that I went to said that they would support us. I probably didn't go to any of the hard ones. But they did say they would support it. But I know that there were some who said no. But what they were saying to us, you have to get to the governor because he's going to veto it. I saw a hand up over here. Did someone have a vote? I don't know if this is a question you all can answer. But so often we have these things and we're singing to the choir. So when I see that film, my heart breaks for all of the families. I think about this constantly in just my daily life. But I know that there are really good Texans that I meet and they're friends of mine. And they don't feel the same way. And I'm not sure they'd even view this film in the way that I view it. So I'm just curious to know what it will take to help them to understand that these things are important. Because they don't want their tax money going to these things. They're not thinking about it the way that we're talking about it. So I would just be interested in hearing a good argument that I can make or share with some of those individuals. Well, I'm not really sure I have like the brilliant argument to make. But we're working on it. But what I would say is our ultimate goal, and this is going to sound lofty at first, but give me a moment. Our ultimate goal is really to help people understand that we're all in this together. As we say in the film, it's, you know, every family could be in this situation. And as Richard eloquently said earlier, you know, there's hardly any family that could handle a $1.5, $1.6 million medical bill, right? And so our goal at the center is to really push the message forward and to use this film to talk about that we are all part of a very large community. Now that sounds, you know, kumbayan, touchy-feely, right? So we're actually taking it to the business community. So we've been doing a lot of outreach. We don't want to forget our choir. We like our choir. We want to give support to our choir. But we also have been doing outreach to some nontraditional audiences for us. And so we've been reaching out pretty heavily to the business community, to bankers, to a lot of the influential people in the state. And what we're finding is that they actually do view the film in the same way that you and I might view the film.  And so we're using that as a point of departure to say, okay, once we open the heart, how can we find that kind of common place on the table when we're talking about brass tacks. And so we are actually going to be culminating this series of roadshow presentations of the film and talking about some of our other data with a summit in April of 2014 about family economic security.  We're going to be having it in Austin. I don't have any more details yet, but that is the plan is in April. And our intention is to bring together not only the choir, but to bring together business folks, to bring together small business owners, to bring together bankers, so that we can develop a common and shared legislative agenda for 2015, moving forward to talk about how we can strengthen families' economic security. So I'm not sure that answered your question, but I talked a long time. So maybe it kind of like made you feel nurtured. I have something on that. Something I've noticed is people support programs that benefit them or that they can relate to. And, you know, I've had friends that have put things on, you know, Facebook or social media or talking in just conversation.  And so I think it does go a lot with just putting a face to it. You know, okay, well, I can physically see how this is benefiting somebody else. But I think otherwise it's just a hard, it's a hard thing to comprehend. People can, it's easy to say my tax money is going to helping somebody that's poor and doesn't want to take care of their family. And that's not the case. You know, I would say you probably knew the statistics, but 99% of the time I'm sure that's not the case. And so I think just things like this that show these are real families. These are real people. I think that that does help. I agree with Richard completely. However, if you want the elevator statement, the zinger, the zinger is this, the economic report that's been put out by both Perryman and Hamilton and several others, nobody's non-controvertible report. Everybody in here that pays insurance premium, your premium is $1,600 more because the Medicaid expansion program is not happening in Texas. Okay? Every, every one of your friends that doesn't want to pay taxes is paying $1,600 more. Our hospital district has said, if you're a property owner, your property taxes are 20% higher and would go down.  You're paying $1,600 more per year for that premium forever until it goes away and your property taxes are going up forever unless this happens. And it's coming out of your pocket. Now if you don't want to do it for any other reason, and we are in a theological place and, you know, we all do believe in life after death and there is an accountability for our actions, you know, you can go down that path as far as I'm concerned as well. You know, it works with the elderly. They're kind of closer to death. You know, I used, I mean, seriously, I speak to very conservative groups of church people and the first thing about it is, well, why should I be paying for Medicaid for some child? I said, well, why should I be paying for a heart transplant for you at 85?   Your child as an adult, your disabled child, and they, they transition to that thinking if you go hard at them in that fashion. But you have to be on popular. If you want to be popular, don't take on this issue. If you want to be invited back to that, by that person, don't, you know, talk. But after the first drink, you know, throw it at him and don't stop. I'm serious.  I mean, if you can take it on in that manner, then you're not serious about understanding what it means. And if you are serious about understanding what it means, then you have the perfect right to stand on that ground and not back down. You're going to fight at your family reunions anyway. Why not do it about something really, really important? Yes, in the back of the room. Kathleen right there. Hi, I'm Sister Susan Mika and thank you very much for all of your work on these issues and for the stories. I think that they touch us, you know, at a very deep level and motivate us to keep going and to continue, you know, very hard work. Because I work with the socially responsible investment coalition and we're talking to corporations all the times about their practices. And it's very hard, but we don't give up either. You know, we make a little step forward and one back and one to the side and that type of thing. And I mean, I think that this is the same thing, you know, in a way because you're saying there's a lot of support out there for this. But where is that support? Chambers of commerce.  But I mean, you know, like, come on, how can we maybe have a broader alliance or how can we be reaching out and supporting each other's efforts? You know, Francis, you're saying that, like, one phone call is worth a hundred other people. What's a letter worth? About a hundred other people. Well, you know, when we're looking at this, I mean, you know, we just got to keep flooding those offices with our thoughts. Because, I mean, you know, sometimes legislators make a change of heart for just a few calls because they don't get that many maybe on a certain topic. Now, on this, I know they're getting a lot of calls because a lot of people are organizing. But I just feel like we have to keep at it. And I know, like, you know, your boss, Scott, was saying too, if we don't get it, we need to get it now. But if we don't get it now, we don't give up. We keep working on it. There's, you know, possibility of a special session. There's, you know, on and on and on. I mean, to me, that's that's what we have to keep that hope up and keep moving along and see, well, what else can we do together? Because, yes, you are talking to the choir here. But we talk to a lot of other people. And how can we mobilize maybe is a better word or something? A lot of the people that are out there. And I'll just add to what Sister Susan said, which is, can you imagine Texas being the only state without Medicare? Can you imagine Texas being the only state without the Children's Health Insurance Program? It will break at some point. Like, right, we will break this wall down at some point. But the speed with which we get there depends on how hard we keep hitting at the wall. We will not be the only state in the country that doesn't have Medicaid expansion or doesn't have, you know, I mean, eventually we will get there. But how fast we get there depends on how hard we keep hitting it. Now we'll add to that, you know, we assumed the same kind of ratio, one call, 100 people, one letter, 100 people. But because people don't write letters anymore, you get a flood of letters, a giant box of letters in the legislator's office and it's really annoying because they're not used to it, right? They're like, what am I going to do with all this paper? My gosh. And so it makes a more of an emotional and a visual impact, but it's harder to get. So, you know, an email goes down the list in your inbox and you kind of disappears. And so, but it's helpful. You can still do that.  We were in the governor's meeting with his staff and I was sitting there counting these letters and I mean the staff was huge. So, and the staff person was just kind of looking like, oh my gosh, you're right. All right, I just had two things real quick. First, Richard, how are you doing? We're doing, we're doing good. We're doing good. We came up on our, what would have been our son's year birthday. And so, we're doing well, we're doing well. Thank you for asking. And in terms of advocacy, everyone here agrees advocacy is great. So, just pure logistics. You want to do something, you have a bridge group, you have spurs. Where should someone who's here right now go specifically to advocate for the expansion?  And if you could do a ganja man dance thing associated with Medicaid and go viral with a million hits, then, I mean, I'm serious. Your generation has the ability to figure out a different way, okay? And if you can figure out a different way and it gets out there, then you're getting somebody to think, okay? All I'm asking legislators to do is think. Someone asked other conservatives on board this last weekend, Texas Association of Business has voted in favor of the Zawas bill and they've now told as of today, I'm looking to my staff, Sandra, as of today, the most conservative republic-oriented business group of large businesses in Texas have said, pass the damn thing and stop debating it. So, it's not just the advocates for folk because it's the right thing to do. The business community has said, do it. Oh, why? Elevator speech. Every business in Texas that doesn't comply with this cumulatively will hit a $200 to $300 million fine per year that they'll be paying because they're not part of this and so because of the way that the funding is and how you're subsidized at a certain rate. And they know it. They figured it out. They said, well, they don't need that additional cost to them and so all the pieces that are out there is moving people. Now, you said, well, the government is going to veto the bill, right? Well, Zawas is a republican anesthesiologist, chair of the committee out of Houston and he is the supporter of the bill and the bill is a privatization bill, okay? That's what it is. It's a Medicaid privatization, but as far as I'm concerned, if I can get Blue Cross Blue Shield rates for Medicaid, so what? As long as a million 500,000 people get covered, all right? I don't care who gets the admin money. I don't care who takes the 15% admin on it. Happens to be a half a billion dollars a year, which is what they're arguing about. Who gets the profit, okay? I don't care if it goes into the private sector. I want the program and so I think all the advocates need to say get something done, you know, we'll tweak it, we'll figure out what doesn't work down the line and make it happen, but that's what needs to occur.  It's pretty easy, it will take a couple of minutes. I actually helped organize the nuns on the bus event that was two weeks ago, so if anyone wants to and if it's okay with you all, if they can come to me afterwards I can get them those numbers, I have all them available. Excellent, excellent and then after the session call them again and tell them how like happy or disappointed you are in what happened and then six months down the road call them again because an election is coming up.  You know, you've got the time, it's toll free, make a hundred calls, then you know maybe somebody will figure out it's coming from one number, I mean, my wife is sitting there with a microphone so. To challenge you Mr. Moriarty to a ganja man video since I know you're fully capable of tweeting and doing all of that. That hip replacement a couple of years ago, can't do it. That's a good thing, you had good insurance. To Don's point, I really do think, you know, I am part of the choir but I also work for a bank, so I work with a lot of very conservative bankers and they just don't understand the business case for it and so I think a lot of us need to be, I think we all are very sympathetic to families in need in the least served, but I don't think we're being well armed with the information to refute the gibber jabber that they're hearing from the very, very conservative far right. And so I think the more information we have on that, the more helpful it will be because I think we're all sympathetic. I think our hearts break for you and your husband, but it's the business case that we need to hear more of. Well, what we actually originally intended this film to be paired with and it is in many cases is our family budgets work. So if you go to familybudgets.org, it's a new interactive tool that we have online where you can actually go and you look up, you can pull up San Antonio and you say, okay then I want to see, let's create a family and say we want it to be a family who receives health insurance through their employer and it's two parent, two child family and right now they're not saving for anything. And once you make all those choices, it automatically fills in what that family would need to make in order to make ends meet in San Antonio, New Braunfels area. And if you fill all that in, a two parent, two child family needs to make $39,000 a year for those two parents together. And that's with, and that's you know, a considerable amount of money for many families. And so what we find is that when you actually change it to be a single parent in particular, then they only have to make $34,000 a year, but it's like $17 an hour for a single parent. $17 an hour, that is a really high wage. And so a lot of times when we're talking to business people, not only do we talk about kind of the bigger business numbers about kind of the impact on their particular business in terms of fines, but also on the individual families, how you're having to pay more for your health insurance premiums, but we also talk about their workers. And so we say, can you afford to pay your workers $17 an hour to make ends meet? And they're like, no, I can't afford it. Well, it's like, that's right. But do you think that they should be healthy enough to come to work? Yes. Do you want them to be healthy enough to come work? Yeah, we do. And do you want them to be able to save so their kid can go to college? Well, yeah, we do. So what do we need to put in place to be able to make sure that that happens? If you can't afford to pay them in that much, but you think they need to be healthy, how are we going to get that done? And you kind of lead them down the path and you actually get them to talking about what are the options? Because as a small business owner, let's say, they can't afford health insurance for their employees, because it's just they're getting priced out of the market just like individual families are. And say, we understand that you're struggling with that. Families are struggling with that too. What do we need to have in place to be able to make sure that they can be healthy enough to get to your job every day? And that's kind of that's kind of some of the conversation that we're having. But we add in all those other business points too that your husband eloquently laid out for us. So yeah. So we are currently engaging in what we're calling the road to a better Texas. So it's a road show where we're doing a lot of meetings like this, but not only with our choir groups, but also with business organizations and trying to reach a whole varied list with meeting with chambers and meeting with elected officials. And right now we've already taken this around to we've had about 20 different presentations reaching about 2,000 people. And it has played on Austin's PBS station several times. It has played on help me out Alexa. It's played on Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, Alaska. It's actually played on Alaska's PBS station and New Orleans. New Orleans and oh somewhere on the east coast. Yeah. So we've gotten several PBS stations to play a multiple times on their stations. We also have it on our YouTube station as well. And we've been giving out and we actually have copies of the DVD. We have a few copies of the DVD with us tonight. And so we're giving it out for people to play and what we're finding is it's kind of going a little bit viral where people are like taking the DVDs and playing them in for their boards. They're in they're playing them for their meetings that they're holding and we're not even there. So it's actually going well in terms of getting the message out. What we really hope is that this is not just going to be kind of a feel good for the choir but it's actually going to bring people together in the summit in April to really start making an actual point by point plan that we can all sign on together where we get businesses and activists and advocates together to sign on to a legislative agenda for 2015. I am so sorry to not have mentioned that. Of course we actually do have the faith community involved. Methodist healthcare ministry is actually funded funded the film with us and so we actually do actively have the faith community involved and that is my bad for not mentioning that. That is an excellent idea. Can you get me in? Absolutely. All right. I will talk to you after. And I'm serious about that. I'm not being sassy. I mean that would be great. Okay. Excellent. You'll you'll like me a lot. Most of you won't see this but starting Wednesday we're going to release three vignettes less than a minute in very conservative markets in north and central Texas that basically say what if Texas were to have a Medicaid program profiling children families and others and we're paying for the media so we can get in prime time and then the media stations are going to give us additional media because we are a nonprofit but we're buying the media because we want to be in prime time in those communities with a strategy to have those communities call in and again we're targeting the communities of the committee members that are going to make the decision on this issue and we're starting that Wednesday I'm going to run it through the end of the month. The legislature ends on the 27th of May and so again I've been on a lot of these issues before and it typically takes in Texas is a pretty slow state so it's it's at least two sessions before they get it so we may have to be a session away but we've told the legislature we're not going away. I mean we've reminded them that we've been on these issues before and we're not going anywhere except back and we are gonna I mean I'll do a report with Dr. Brody or the Harvard report that annotates the 9,000 deaths per year by county by rep and start doing publicity on that you're killing people it's 9,000 a year so if it takes two years that's 18,000 deaths and you will figure out where they are. Again something has to happen to get people to understand this is pain and suffering I see my staff and I see it I mean we are we fund the charity care we fund the interventions we have the individuals walking in the door with cancer and tertiary stage and we're doing the tomb removals with people that are gonna die and we see them our doctors our nurses our staff and it's avoidable it's absolutely avoidable and that's what's driving us to get this done that's what the healthcare industry sees the avoidability of all of this pain and suffering. And Richard would you share with us your experience with the system? So as you saw in the video we at first were a little naive to the system and we understood that our son was gonna have some pre-existing conditions and we knew that that meant we wouldn't be able to get our own insurance however Alexis was on private insurance under her father and we were just under the misconception that he would have continuous coverage from there. Quickly we realized that that wasn't the case within hours we had representatives from the hospital you know we need to get these Medicaid applications we need to get these things filled out. One of the things that was startling about the actual application itself is it's not it doesn't look at what you need it looks at what you have and so you know we had some money and savings we're both college students we both had pretty nice car still very low-paying jobs we're just still college students and so what we had initially disqualified us from any kind of benefits and so we had to you know we had to do things we had to give one of our vehicles to her mother so that that wouldn't be counted I mean the the cost of of our son's care was staggering I mean in the millions of dollars and they're looking at our you know means like $30,000 in savings as something to disqualify us and it was eye-opening it was just eye-opening and you know we got through it but if it wasn't for if it wasn't for Medicaid and receiving that help and getting the best care because we had some of the best care that we could we actually moved to San Antonio for his care because we were living in Lubbock and so we completely had to relocate and I don't think people realize that either that I mean this is your child so you're gonna just completely change your whole life and we did and so we wouldn't have had six months with our son if it wasn't for the healthcare and able to get Medicaid and I mean I think it was like four million dollars by the end of it and we wouldn't have had four million dollars to keep providing our son healthcare so he would have been in that statistic and we wouldn't have had to this doesn't seem quite to fit now because we this question about the faith-based community but there is a church in Dallas who's developed this app and a local church CBC has just and if we could if we could get the churches to put a link from their app their phone app either the film or you know the elevator I mean the church that has it in town has 23,000 who came at Easter 23,000 who watch on TV I mean watch so that's those are those are pretty big numbers and I know the church in Dallas who has you know that same capability you know if we could approach them and we could even get you know minimum so Domenica stand up okay Domenica is of the appropriate age to know about apps social media Twitter etc you tell her the app she'll figure out how to link it okay right tomorrow right one two three it's easy to link I can tell you what our church app is but I don't know the guy in Dallas who developed this and now churches at least can can pay for for this this application and I you know I mean CBC's got a lot of people in it and they only pay $10,000 okay don't quote that but I think this is the kind of conversation that we need to not only have in this room but we need to have out in the communities and not be afraid to have out in the communities and try to be in this that exact kind of creative thinking about how do we get the message out there about what Texas children and families need we can't just do it when we feel comfortable in a room together we have to be able to have those difficult and creative conversations out in the world as well and I love your creative ideas so please please come share them with us well and I would end and on a different note and that's this and you can go out to our website mhm.org and go to our quick links and download a report called do this and you shall live I think it's still there right and we did that report so that we could follow every single faith's agenda on taking care of the unfunded and the least served and so regardless of whether you're Episcopal Catholic Baptist Methodist Jewish or Muslim it doesn't matter your faith traditions compel you to do the right thing for people and so the report is do this and you shall live you don't need to know the numbers you don't need to know Medicaid you don't need to know about food stamps our faith traditions tell us all that we need to do these things because it's the right thing to do and so that's you know take that book with you and you don't need to know the data you don't need to know the numbers you just need to say you know what faith that you you're on page nine here read it I mean we did the same thing on children's issues we had every faith leader sign an encyclical on children's health care why the Catholic bishops letter the Lutheran Metonatter every single letter of every one of the denominations on a national level said we need to do these things for children well then if I'm meeting with an Episcopal about just the Catholic legislator I don't need to talk about whether he's an R or D I ask him if he goes to church and I said by the way why aren't you doing this because you go to church that's what it says I've asked the leaders of every denomination to talk to their legislators in their place when they're at church why not that's what you that's the space you own at least 40 at least 40 four score in 10 right well thank you all so very much I mean we have nearly a hundred people here everybody makes a call or a letter that's 10,000 and then just going out to reach to four or five of your friends and getting them to do that that's 50,000 that you want to deliver to the governor so there's a lot of power in this room a lot of power in this room and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort but thank you all very much thank you all for your time thank you I want to call you Dr. Francis and said Divini at that one time yes thank you it was really great you're fine nice all right thank you you're really free to be in here to have the time to do this it's enlightening