Knowing Who You Are is Knowing What You Are’ with the author of ‘Pictures of The Soul’ David Green

Dr. Brad Miller 0:00

Yeah, let's talk for a second about what you mean, specifically

Dr. Brad Miller 0:04

in terms of apical to other people, excluding the

Dr. Brad Miller 0:07

distraction, and digging for the gold, as you say here,

Dr. Brad Miller 0:11

it seems to me we're talking about clarity and focus,

Dr. Brad Miller 0:15

and disciplines of in helping these things to help get a

Dr. Brad Miller 0:21

separation between the distraction and to our inner life.

Dr. Brad Miller 0:24

So what are some of the, you know, practices and principles?

Dr. Brad Miller 0:28

So what are some of the habits that people can apply

Dr. Brad Miller 0:32

from your teaching that can help us to exclude the distraction

Dr. Brad Miller 0:36

and go for the gold as you say.

David Green 0:39

it's interesting, the first two words that were said to

David Green 0:43

the very first Jew is to Abraham, Lekh lekha, which means

David Green 0:49

go to yourself. Now, when the first time you hear a word

David Green 0:55

said to somebody in the Bible, it has tremendous significance.

David Green 0:59

It's, every word has significance. But the fact that those

David Green 1:02

were the first two words said to Abraham, he's telling us

David Green 1:06

a very important principle of life. And one is go, which

David Green 1:10

means remove yourself from the distraction of the home

David Green 1:16

he grew up with, which, which was a home of idol worship,

David Green 1:19

and he had to leave that environment. And then he had

David Green 1:22

to go to yourself, which is an inner process of discovering

David Green 1:27

who he was. So there's removal of distraction is something

David Green 1:31

that we need to practice, we need to move ourselves

David Green 1:36

away from where our friends, our environment, or social pressure,

David Green 1:41

if you have the opportunity to go to a different location

David Green 1:44

that's even greater, like when I went to Israel, I moved to a

David Green 1:48

different environment where the value system is different.

David Green 1:51

So removing yourself from their daily routine, and if it

David Green 1:55

means just having to go into your own room, and

David Green 1:58

close your eyes, and try to meditate on removing all the noise.

David Green 2:04

That ation is that is a process of the left, the Go removing

David Green 2:09

way that distraction. And, and people do that on a surface

David Green 2:13

level with mindfulness meditation, they become aware

David Green 2:17

of their breathing, they become more aware of their body.

David Green 2:20

That's the first level, but the soul has five levels to it. And

David Green 2:28

when when God created man, He breathed five levels

David Green 2:33

of the soul into man. And the first level, which which starts

David Green 2:38

with the word, "he", the letter "he" which is the fifth letter

David Green 2:38

of the Jewish alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet, and it

David Green 2:45

makes the sound like the breathing sound, okay,

David Green 2:49

so when God, God breathed the five levels of the soul into

David Green 2:53

man, he made the sound, which is the five levels going into

David Green 3:00

man, he, is the fifth letter of the of the Hebrew alphabet

David Green 3:04

which represents those five levels, the lowest level is

David Green 3:08

called the nephesh. And that's the first thing to tune into it,

David Green 3:12

which is removing the distraction and tuning into the

David Green 3:16

nephesh level of the Soul. And the nephesh, that level of the

David Green 3:19

soul resides within the blood. And that means that's why

David Green 3:23

you feel your soul all around your body. Even though the soul

David Green 3:26

wants to rise up like a like a wick and a flame. It stays

David Green 3:31

connected to the wick, as it says in Proverbs, that the soul

David Green 3:35

of man is like the candle of God, the the soul is in you,

David Green 3:40

it's within your body. But at the same time, it's always trying

David Green 3:43

to rise and reconnect to its source to our Father in heaven.

David Green 3:47

So person tunes in to the soul, especially starting with the

David Green 3:52

nephesh level, which is connected to the body, we can start

David Green 3:55

to remove the distractions and tune in to the basic

David Green 4:01

functionality of or awareness of the soul, then what

David Green 4:06

we do is move to the next level, which is called the roof,

David Green 4:09

the roof is the spirits level of the Soul, which is somewhat

David Green 4:14

of a scary place to go because it's connected to infinity.

David Green 4:19

So when I move into there, it's called, I call that the empty

David Green 4:22

spaces, which is the title of my second album. And if you

David Green 4:25

listen to empty spaces, you'll see it's a meditation that takes

David Green 4:29

you into a place, which is empty, which is infinite. And you

David Green 4:34

have to surrender and go into a place of what

David Green 4:37

seems like total darkness.

Dr. Brad Miller 4:40

For me, the cat could keep up with you here. Now the first

Dr. Brad Miller 4:43

level is to kind of connect with the body, the blood and the

Dr. Brad Miller 4:45

breath and so on. And the second level is basically to empty self

Dr. Brad Miller 4:50

in order to be at I'm assuming maybe we're going to move

Dr. Brad Miller 4:52

towards reception here. But am I tracking

Dr. Brad Miller 4:54

with you here David?

David Green 4:57

The first first level is that you It's not, it's the part of the

David Green 5:01

soul that connects to the body, and still as a spiritual thing.

David Green 5:06

But in the Bible in a number of places, it says that damn,

David Green 5:10

who had nephesh, that blood is the nephesh, it doesn't mean

David Green 5:13

that it is the soul, it means that's the first level of the Soul.

David Green 5:17

So that's why as your blood moves all around the body, right,

David Green 5:21

that's also the nephesh, moving all around the body,

David Green 5:24

in my book, pictures of your soul, I actually have illustrations

David Green 5:27

of what happens from the right ventricle of the heart to the

David Green 5:30

left ventricle of heart, how that goes to the brain. It's a complex

David Green 5:33

process, but people by learning that it actually heightens your

David Green 5:37

awareness of the soul. But the soul is connected to the blood,

David Green 5:43

but it's a separate entity, but that's how it moves through the

David Green 5:47

body through the blood. And that's it feel this, that how could

David Green 5:51

this spiritual thing this soul be held in a body? Which is a

David Green 5:56

physical thing? That's a contradiction, a spiritual thing within

David Green 6:00

a physical space? And yes, yes, the answer is yes, it is within

David Green 6:04

the physical space, because it's connected to the blood, then

David Green 6:09

when you move to the next level to the roof, now you're

David Green 6:12

above the blood blood, you're above the body, it's still connected

David Green 6:16

to the nephesh. And that's why it's still within us. But it's

David Green 6:21

connected to the next level, which is the the nephesh is connected,

David Green 6:25

almost like, like a chain like a link to the next level. And each

David Green 6:30

level of the soul is connected like a chain up to the highest levels.

David Green 6:34

The the there's the next level is called the neshamah, which is,

David Green 6:40

resides within the brain, which is why the brain has so

David Green 6:43

much of the central part of the navigation of a human being.

David Green 6:47

And then there's levels above that called Hyah, and Yoshida

David Green 6:51

which are well beyond our comprehension but sometimes

Dr. Brad Miller 6:54

So we've gotten body to the emptiness, the and the soul,

Dr. Brad Miller 6:58

and then the brain into these higher levels of consciousness.

Dr. Brad Miller 7:02

And can you talk a little bit in your in your work about

Dr. Brad Miller 7:05

achieving our unique personalities and become a, how this

Dr. Brad Miller 7:09

helps us find our mission and our place in the world?

Dr. Brad Miller 7:11

Is that part about actually that?

David Green 7:16

The what I've been describing is more the anatomy of the soul.

David Green 7:20

And if that's very important for a person to develop soul awareness,

David Green 7:27

and my book picture, your soul, that's the whole idea of it is

David Green 7:30

that it's just a number of questions where people would think

David Green 7:34

you can't answer them because there's sounds like, like a

David Green 7:38

ontradiction. But in fact, we we learn about what the soul is

David Green 7:43

from the ideas that this book is written based on what's

David Green 7:46

called the Tanya, which is a Hasidic masterpiece. So

David Green 7:51

the book is more of a meditative process of becoming aware

David Green 7:55

of the different levels of your soul, and how to deal with

David Green 7:58

various struggles and things like that. My other book

David Green 8:01

is called a book about you, which is about individuality

David Green 8:04

and knowing your purpose in life. Different focus.

Dr. Brad Miller 8:09

So what you're teaching her hair is teaching us here is to

Dr. Brad Miller 8:13

understand our soul, understand the physiological, spiritual,

Dr. Brad Miller 8:20

almost metaphysical, if you will, aspects of everything here

Dr. Brad Miller 8:24

that we're talking about here. And how that then helps form

Dr. Brad Miller 8:27

us, our personalities, and us as people as beings that are

Dr. Brad Miller 8:34

spiritual and physical at the same time, then helps lead us to

Dr. Brad Miller 8:37

some direction of meaningfulness in life. And so what I'm getting

Dr. Brad Miller 8:40

at here, David is so many people have a sense of meaning

Dr. Brad Miller 8:43

less Thus, in life. You've mentioned some of the people we

Dr. Brad Miller 8:47

work with students, you had your own moments of depression,

Dr. Brad Miller 8:49

and so on and searching for meaningfulness. I certainly

Dr. Brad Miller 8:52

have had that many of our listeners have had that situation.

Dr. Brad Miller 8:55

You're I call it the malaise of mediocrity, you kind of feel like

Dr. Brad Miller 8:57

you're just stuck. So how can we use what you're teaching

Dr. Brad Miller 9:01

here to help people get unstuck, to get onto something that is

Dr. Brad Miller 9:05

meaningful and purposeful in their life? I'm talking about some

Dr. Brad Miller 9:08

practical applications here of what you're teaching it.

Dr. Brad Miller 9:11

Don't get me wrong, what you're teaching is wonderful and

Dr. Brad Miller 9:14

practical. But I'm talking about some some day to day

Dr. Brad Miller 9:17

disciplines, some people might be able to fly.

David Green 9:20

Well, I think that one of the things that we have to deal

David Green 9:26

with is the fact that our emotional and spiritual memory is

David Green 9:32

very short. Which means that inspiration is not meant to be

David Green 9:38

something that that you get and you walk away with

David Green 9:43

and it's you can hold on to it. Even the Jews on Mount

David Green 9:46

Sinai experienced the giving of the Bible of the 10 commandments

David Green 9:51

and then committed the goal of the golden calf soon after.

David Green 9:56

So spiritual spiritual inspiration is something that But you

David Green: 10:00

can't just expect to stay with you. And therefore, it should

David Green: 10:05

function more as, as a glimpse of where you want to go.

David Green: 10:10

We need to be inspired. But we can't walk away from inspiration

David Green: 10:15

expecting that to be what's going to hold us up, it's only

David Green: 10:18

there as a preview of where you're supposed to climb to.

David Green: 10:23

So what to do is, every day, a person should go through the

David Green: 10:28

process of reminding themselves of what was inspirational,

David Green: 10:34

or find the inspiration to then use as a vision to strive towards.

David Green: 10:41

And so the way we do that, in Jewish practice, is prayer.

David Green: 10:47

Because prayer is divided up into the appreciation of different

David Green: 10:53

categories of things in life that are very important to remember.

David Green: 10:58

So if if a person were to sit down and write down, what are the

David Green: 11:04

five most important principles that if they could walk around

David Green: 11:08

with every day, that would transform their life, because they

David Green: 11:13

would be able to live with that awareness. Write them down

David Green: 11:18

and put them in your pocket, and take them out and read them

David Green: 11:22

at least three times a day. Because although it may sound

David Green: 11:26

simple, like, the fact is that if there truly are deep values that

David Green: 11:33

they really believe in, if it's a type of awareness, they really

David Green: 11:37

want to try to achieve, then you have to be honest with yourself,

David Green: 11:42

that there's temptations around us that pull us away from those

David Green: 11:45

things. There's depression that pulls us away from those things.

David Green: 11:49

There's various challenges in life that are going to make it hard for

David Green: 11:52

you to focus on those things. So treat yourself the way you would

David Green: 11:57

teach somebody else. Give yourself an assignment of writing

David Green: 12:01

down, what are the things that I think are the five most

David Green: 12:05

important points of awareness, and then take it out and

David Green: 12:09

meditate on it? Look at the think about them, try to feel them.

David Green: 12:15

And if you do that enough, it then becomes a part of you.

David Green: 12:19

And you live with that awareness.

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:21

Yeah, I think what you're sharing here is really, a so good.

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:24

This one's good to revisit this on a regular basis

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:27

several times a day, you mentioned, praying several times

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:29

a day, you mentioned writing some things down or

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:32

rereading them. Like, it's important because you know,

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:36

we have to have not only the inspiration and the motivation,

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:38

but we have to have the discipline to keep doing that and keep

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:41

going. I'm, I'm always inspired by the biblical story of Moses

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:46

and the promised land, and the journey out of slavery

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:50

through the wilderness, over 40 years to get to the promised

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:53

land. Of course, Moses ever really gets to the promised land, it

Dr. Brad Miller: 12:56

gets to see it. But the point is, is that, you know, they had all

Dr. Brad Miller: 13:01

kinds of issues and troubles along the way, when they forgot

Dr. Brad Miller: 13:04

their mission and their purpose and their vision. Along the

Dr. Brad Miller: 13:09

way, because it's a hard road life is a hard road. And many

Dr. Brad Miller: 13:12

difficult things come into mind as a distraction. But you have

Dr. Brad Miller: 13:16

to have that vision of the promised land out there. And that's

Dr. Brad Miller: 13:19

part of what you do. You're given us your.

David Green: 13:23

Another another important point that's related to this is that

David Green: 13:29

God really gave us two souls. He gave us what's called the

David Green: 13:33

divine soul, which is pure, and is the Tanya, which I quoted

David Green: 13:38

before, says that the divine soul is like a piece of God is we

David Green: 13:43

have this piece of godliness with us. That's the thing that

David Green: 13:47

I was saying, you have to dig for gold, that divine soul. And

David Green: 13:50

it wants to do everything that God says is we should do in this

David Green: 13:54

world. But then the animal soul is there, which is its basic

David Green: 14:01

nature is like that of an animal. It it wants to breathe, eat,

David Green: 14:06

it wants to satisfy its reproductive desires. It's, it's, it's looking

David Green: 14:12

for, you know, for for animalistic pleasures, and we have

David Green: 14:17

that within us. And, but it's a gift that we have that in us

David Green: 14:22

but we have to know that when the animal's soul is speaking,

David Green: 14:26

and when the divine soul is speaking, and that tiny describes

David Green: 14:31

that really, they are both like battling over a city and the

David Green: 14:35

city is your body. They both want a body. But even though

David Green: 14:40

there seems to be at war with each other, the idea is to make

David Green: 14:44

peace with them. And what happens is that the, the, it's like

David Green: 14:49

a horse and a rider if the rider is using the horse properly. It

David Green: 14:55

can take the person the rider to be able to achieve all kinds

David Green: 14:58

of wonderful God The things, I can deliver food to the poor

David Green: 15:02

using my horse, I can get there much faster if I use the physical

David Green: 15:06

horse that's there. So the horse is the horse that the the animal

David Green: 15:11

side of us is there to use to do good things with if we harness it

David Green: 15:17

properly. But if the horse gets away on us, then we're going to

David Green: 15:21

fall off that horse get dragged by the horse. And we'll be pulled

David Green: 15:24

into all kinds of places we don't want to go. So it'sconsidered a gift.

David Green: 15:31

And what happens is, people tend to identify with their animal soul.

David Green: 15:36

And that can be a terrible mistake, one because it'll make

David Green: 15:40

them do all kinds of things that are below their dignity.

David Green: 15:43

But the other is begins to cause you to label yourself as bad.

David Green: 15:49

And if you label yourself as bad, then you will disconnect from

David Green: 15:54

God because your depression is based on believing that

David Green: 15:59

you're an animal. And believe you're an animal, then there's

David Green: 16:03

very little spirit of spirituality for you available, because you're

David Green: 16:08

only chasing after your loss. And you're, you're looking at yourself

David Green: 16:12

as a failure all the time. And that depression is something

David Green: 16:17

that makes people say I give up, right. But if they know

David Green: 16:22

that it's theirs, there is an animal soul that's making that

David Green: 16:25

speaking through their heart at that time, then they should

David Green: 16:29

recognize that they do have the ability

David Green: 16:32

to overcome it, that the divine says

Dr. Brad Miller: 16:35

That maybe we make to go to these deeper places.

David Green: 16:38

right, you can go from the lowest place, but know

David Green: 16:42

that the reason why you fell there is because the

David Green: 16:44

animal soul took over. And what you have to do is you

David Green: 16:48

have to work your way back up to be the one in

David Green: 16:50

control of the animal. So rather than let it control you,

David Green: 16:54

it's sort of like a There's a story in the Talmud of a king

David Green: 17:00

who wants to test the sun in order to give them strength

David Green: 17:03

to withstand various desires. So he hires a prostitute to

David Green: 17:07

try to seduce the son. It doesn't sound like a very nice

David Green: 17:10

thing to do. But the prostitute is working for the king.

David Green: 17:13

So the prostitute doesn't want the the son. But the Son,

David Green: 17:20

enabling enabling him have the choice to get makes him

David Green: 17:24

a dignified being. So too, we're given an animal Soul

Dr. Brad Miller: 17:28

we're being tested. In this case, it was a test here and

Dr. Brad Miller: 17:31

how we try and make comes into play.

David Green: 17:33

Now. That's, that's an easier test to identify. Right?

David Green: 17:37

Joseph, you know, was tested by the wife of both the fire.

David Green: 17:42

And he's considered very righteous, because she was so

David Green: 17:45

beautiful, and he was able to withstand the temptation.

David Green: 17:48

Drugs and other abusive behavior are easy to identify as

David Green: 17:54

being something that we don't want. But most theme and

David Green: 17:58

depression are things that the animal soul can impose upon

David Green: 18:02

a person, that you don't recognize that that's a negative

David Green: 18:06

thing that you have to fight against. You identify too much

David Green: 18:10

with it as being this as me. And as soon as you identify it as

David Green: 18:14

being me, then that's it's one, the animal soul has one because

David Green: 18:19

it densify yourself with the animal. So as if that. But in fact, if

David Green: 18:25

you recognize that the essence of who you are, is the divine

David Green: 18:28

soul, then you can reattach yourself to the beauty of that

David Green: 18:33

jewel that's within you.

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:34

Sometimes we tend to add something to the effect of,

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:36

you know, some people think, you know, we are physical

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:39

beings having a divine experience or a spiritual experience.

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:42

But what you're here helping us understand is the phrase I

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:45

heard and teach you, we're really we're spiritual beings

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:48

having a human experience. And we need to understand that

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:52

transition there. And so, David, I'd like you to speak for just

Dr. Brad Miller: 18:55

a second about anybody who you've been able to be helpful

Dr. Brad Miller: 19:00

to through your teaching your writing your music, you've

Dr. Brad Miller: 19:02

seen some transitions in them, you know, really interested

Dr. Brad Miller: 19:06

in how our teaching here today that you're given us some

Dr. Brad Miller: 19:09

great things here giving you practical tips and people tell

Dr. Brad Miller: 19:12

us a story about someone that's been touched by your work.

David Green: 19:19

There's a number of people who I found going on a path

David Green: 19:26

that wasn't theirs. And what I was able to do was give them

David Green: 19:34

the courage to assess who they really are. And they use my

David Green: 19:41

teachings to do with different personality types that are based

David Green: 19:46

on what's called crested GLORIA And Tiferet which are

David Green: 19:51

kindness, restraint and harmony which is personified in

David Green: 19:57

the Bible by Abraham. I Isaac and Jacob, each one of them,

David Green: 20:03

repaired the world through the attribute, which was a godly

David Green: 20:07

attribute that they personified. And each one of our souls is

David Green: 20:13

rooted in one of those. Right? I may be a crescent personality

David Green: 20:18

in that what my soul thrives on his love and kindness, and

David Green: 20:25

you may be a guru or a personality, whose soul thrives on

David Green: 20:29

achievement, and discipline and responsibility, right? By helping

David Green: 20:34

a person discover what the root is of their soul, then they

David Green: 20:39

can evaluate, Hey, am I living the life of me? Or am I living the

David Green: 20:43

life of what my parents want me to be? Or that

David Green: 20:47

society wants me to be. And by using this technique,

David Green: 20:51

and tacked on my website, there's a personality test

David Green: 20:54

that shows you the balance of each of these three things.

David Green: 20:58

And by my book, a book about you, each chapter is about

David Green: 21:03

one of these personalities with positive and the negative

David Green: 21:08

traits that come with them. So people become accepting of

David Green: 21:11

themselves. Like a facet personality is one who loves other

David Green: 21:16

people, and is a people person, they're extroverted. But they

David Green: 21:21

also tend to be very late for things because they get distracted

David Green: 21:24

by people. So by accepting that negative that comes with the

David Green: 21:29

positive, then the people come to love themselves much more.

David Green: 21:33

And I feel that's the biggest problem I think

David Green: 21:36

people face today is a lack of self.

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:39

Yeah. lack self esteem and what your work here is going

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:44

to help them to do that. And I love to hear all you shared

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:46

about how people have been influenced by that. So

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:49

David, how can people learn more about you, you've got a

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:51

couple of books, you've got music, you've got a website.

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:55

I know that some of our listeners are going to want to learn

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:57

more about what you're about how can

Dr. Brad Miller: 21:59

people learn more about about you?

David Green: 22:01

Well, if you go to realyouproject.com That's real, you all,

David Green: 22:07

spelled out realyouproject.com you will have links to

David Green: 22:10

where you can buy my books, like on Amazon, or directly

David Green: 22:17

from me. My music can be heard at David H. Green,

David Green: 22:23

on Spotify, on Apple Music, you Amazon and all the other

David Green: 22:26

streaming services. Or to get a taste of that you can hear

David Green: 22:30

this into my songs on my website, there's links to them as well.

David Green: 22:35

I have videos there. And previews of my books. On Instagram,

David Green: 22:40

it's real dot u dot project. And all the links to everything is on

David Green: 22:46

the website itself. So I highly encourage people to go to

David Green: 22:50

real you project.com My book, a book about you is just

David Green: 22:55

released by Morgan, James and publishers. So that's an

David Green: 22:59

all the major retail outlets, bookstores and online.

David Green: 23:04

Everything's on Amazon as well. And my new book pictures

David Green: 23:08

of your soul is, is a, what I did was I besides the illustration

David Green: 23:14

showing how the how the soul works in relationship to the body.

David Green: 23:18

I found there's a photographer I've known for over 40 years,

David Green: 23:21

who has been taking beautiful pictures of people praying at the

David Green: 23:25

Western Wall, and fire prayer so that the whole book is interwoven

David Green: 23:31

with those photographs to just to be as an inspiration to see

David Green: 23:36

the soul. And that's why it's called pictures of your soul.

David Green: 23:39

You can actually be the soul which people think is too

David Green: 23:42

abstract. But yet it's very concrete. If you learn more

David Green: 23:45

about it, be in touch with it. So I highly.

Dr. Brad Miller: 23:50

that's awesome. And you know, I have a picture of myself

Dr. Brad Miller: 23:52

at the wheeling Western Wall, as well. It reminded me

Dr. Brad Miller: 23:55

of that PowerBooks transplant that I had, we're gonna put

Dr. Brad Miller: 23:58

connections to all of this David and are the realyouproject.com

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:02

At our website, Dr. Brad miller.com. And it's been a

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:05

fascinating conversation heavier David, I'm sure we'll have

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:08

more conversations as we go along. But his book, he's got a

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:12

couple of books but pictures of your soul is his latest book.

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:14

He also has a book about you. All this is about helping

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:18

to discover your own personality and your mission in the

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:22

world and your place in the world. By going into a soulful

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:25

place and is really helpful to our audience here today.

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:28

I'm gonna be on the adversity podcast, David Green,

Dr. Brad Miller: 24:30

thank you for being our guest today on beyond diversity.