Ceasing to be Caught in the Waters of Mind

TAMI SIMON: Welcome to the Michael Singer Podcast. Michael Singer is the author of two widely influential New York Times bestsellers, The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment, both considered modern classics on the spiritual journey. Michael Singer lives and teaches at the Temple of the Universe, the yoga and meditation center he founded in 1975, near Gainesville, Florida. Produced in partnership with Shanti Publications, the Michael Singer Podcast brings you select recordings from Michael Singer’s teachings at the Temple of the Universe. This episode is on Ceasing to Be Caught in the Waters of Mind.

Sounds True would also like you to know about an extraordinary eight-part video course we’ve created with Michael Singer. It’s called Living from a Place of Surrender: The Untethered Soul in Action, an online course many people report to be utterly life-changing. You can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com. That’s michaelsingerpodcast.com, and you can save 15% off any Michael Singer program available through Sounds True when you use the code Singer15 at checkout. Again, that’s Singer, one, five. And now, Ceasing to Be Caught in the Waters of Mind with Michael Singer.

MICHAEL SINGER: Jai Guru Dev. Jai masters. Eventually, if you work enough on yourself, you’ll find that what’s happening is that you are resting on your mind like you would float on water. I imagine a bird who’s fallen into the water and the wings are wet and it’s trying to stay afloat. It’s been there long enough. Of course, it’s just a bird brain that it forgot about flying. It just knows it wants to survive. That bird lying in that water, if the water is still and calm and pleasant, the bird is sunbathing, the bird is floating, the bird is even enjoying the experience of being in the water. If the water begins to become choppy — wavelets, disturbances — water gets over the head of the bird and into the mouth and it’s hard. And so, the bird struggles to stay above the ripples. And of course, if it becomes tumultuous, stormy, it’s very, very difficult. Very, very difficult for that bird.

It’s been through that numerous times and it’s almost drowned completely. It’s even gone down a few times. So, the bird, its entire life is the state of the water. Do you understand that? That’s what life is to that bird, is the state of the water. And so, the bird, if it had its way, would keep the water calm, would have it be comfortable and have it be peaceful. So, it tries, however it can, to find ways to do this. Now, of course, you and I know, and this is the part you’re not going to like, that the bird don’t have a chance in the world to determine what the water’s doing, does it? But it thinks it can. Why? Because it has to think that. Because it needs the water to be still, and it can’t exist thinking it has no control over this. So, somehow it even gets in, I know it sounds so silly, it gets into the spot where it found out once that it was chirping a little bit because the water was nice, right, and the water stayed nice, OK?

And that when it wasn’t paying attention and looking a little bit to the right, the water got choppy. And so, it developed all these concepts and views and opinions and preferences in its head, that, if I look to the right, don’t do that, because the water will get choppy. And if I do this and chirp just right, and every once in a while it works, you understand that, OK? And you come to discuss these with this bird, you don’t want to have a discussion with this bird. Because what this bird’s got going on in their mind is like, wow. Where did you get there?

And the answer is very straightforward. I had to do something. I couldn’t feel helpless. I couldn’t feel like there was nothing I could do. I ain’t drowning anymore. I don’t want to go under. My God, when I do these things wrong, the whole tumultuous motion and water gets amazing in drowning. I better make sure I never do that again, because I’ll get completely freaked out. And when I do things right, when I think right and chirp right and look right and do everything right, the water gets calm and still, and I needed to do that, right? And right now, I’m one neurotic bird.

Do you understand that? All right, because I can’t always figure out why if I chirped exactly the way I chirped last time, I must not have it right. There must have been something, past life or something, that has affected this. All right. It developed this whole thing about karma, about things it did before, it’s really complicated. It did something before so that even if it chirps right, it doesn’t matter now because it was offset by these past things and all that kind of stuff. And then really this whole past life thing, somebody came along, another bird that was floating along and told her about that, that’s not even what you did this time, it could be what you did last time.

So now you’re going to figure that out. And it really is very difficult for this bird. This bird is having a very, very hard time, especially, it’s hard enough that when the water gets tumultuous, that the bird has to struggle to stay afloat. Now, he feels guilty. Now the bird feels, what did I do wrong? I have tried everything. Oh, it’s just the most amazing thing. And the bird finally figures, I can’t figure this out by myself. It’s unbelievable. I know I’m causing this, but I can’t figure it out, right? Maybe there’s another force that can control this for me. I’ve heard rumors that there was a higher force, right? I’ll pray to that. And they ask that force to make it so that what I’m doing works and makes the water right. And this entire bird, every life, every moment, even the prayers to the higher force are about controlling the water.

Do you understand that? Every single thing that bird is doing is about the fact that I’m stuck. Yes, and we know he’s stuck in the water because he doesn’t know he can get out. Remember? I started right in the beginning telling he forgot that he ever flew. That’s so long ago. No. I’m too busy with other things. I’m too busy thinking about how to make the water calm and do things right and all that, that I… There’s not one part of my mind that has any idea that there’s something other than being in this water. I am this water. I am in this water. That is what my life is. I feel it. You can’t tell me I’m not. Every time it moves, I float. This is me. You got it, this situation. I swear to you, that is exactly with no exaggeration, how a human being rests on their mind.

The mind is not who you are, ever, just like that water is not who that bird is, ever. No matter what that water is doing, whether it’s calm or it’s tumultuous, it is no more that bird than any other, you understand that? The bird is independent and separate from that water. It is floating on it, but it is not part of it, has nothing to do with it. Your consciousness, your awareness of being is floating on the ripplets of the mind. In Yoga, we call them vrittis. If you go deep enough and quiet enough, you’ll see there are vrittis in the mind. When a thought gets created, it starts as a tiny vibration. And then it’s like a wavelet, it comes up. But those thoughts, those wavelets talk to you. You should learn that [mumbles]. Maybe if I [mumbles].

But you’re literally a meditator, somebody who’s gotten deep enough, every single thought has a seed, a start, a peak, and a finish. And you’re right there. Just like you would see the wavelets on a lake. You see them, right? They have start, finish, and so on. They come up, they go down, right? That is what your thoughts do. They are in a calm mind. The mind is calm. The mind is calm. The water is calm. If there are no forces, none, influencing the water, it’s calm. If there are no leaves falling in, if there’s no wind blowing over it, if there’s no rain falling into it, do you understand that? The natural state of the water is calm. Unless there are forces that are causing it to be otherwise. Fair enough. Your mind is exactly the same. Exactly the same. It is calm. It’s just calm, is what Buddhists mean void, the empty mind, doesn’t mean it’s stupid. The water’s not stupid because it’s calm.

It’s not, not water. All the potentials are there for it to create waves, it’s just there are no forces causing that to happen. The natural state of your mind is complete peace. Absolute, total calm. Calm. Not thinking nice things, it’s way beyond positive thought. Positive thought is just a nice wave. Sorry. Negative thought is a tumultuous wave. It’s empty. That’s the Buddhist. That’s what Zen talks of, empty mind. The empty bell, the void. It means that… it doesn’t mean there’s nothing there, it means there’s nothing in there. So, the natural state of the mind is the calm water.

It’s just absolutely still. Not to go off subject, but Ramakrishna, the Great Master once said, “The purified mind is no different than the self.” It’s very, very deep. When the mind is calm, it’s like empty set. There’s nothing there but the consciousness aware of itself. If you look into the absolute still water, you will see your reflection. That doesn’t happen when there’s ripples, it’s all distorted. So they use that example.

When you are in deep meditation, when you’re in deep meditation, you don’t know you are, not till you come back, then you knew you’re in deep meditation. But if you are in deep meditation, there is no mind. It’s not creating thoughts. You’re not sitting there thinking, “Oh, I’m in deep meditation,” then you’re not in deep meditation. There’s only the sense of being. And I’m thinking, I’m being. No, you’re just being, and the mind is not disturbing or pulling you away from that. And that’s what’s meant. The purified mind is no different than the self. It’s not like the self is watching a pure mind, OK? There’s nothing pulling your consciousness away from your awareness of being. Do you understand that? You’re just aware of being, even though you’re resting through the mind. It’s empty, empty mind. So, it’s beautiful that the Zen stuff of empty mind and empty bell and void is no different than any of the other traditions. They just use different words, OK? The key is you are you, you are the bird, the self, the consciousness, the awareness of being, and you are resting on mind.

The problem is your mind is never still, never still. If you go, maybe once in a blue moon into a deep meditation, you understand what a still mind is. Otherwise, I am telling you, if you will pay attention, your mind is always creating ripplets. Always creating ripplets. That’s unbelievable, right? Like I said, not until you’ve experienced absolute still mind, can you experience the fact that the mind is not still. Because you’re so used to it. You’re just like that bird. You’re resting and the mind is always saying, “Well, I’m OK, there’s nothing bothering me. Now, that’s mind. Those are ripplets, right? God, I like this situation. I feel so good. This is the happiest I’ve ever been.” It’s mind. Do you understand that? Don’t you dare think of mind as the negative, right? Mind are these thoughts, these wavelets that are coming out. All right?

Of this lake. This lake I like to see, your psyche, your inner state. What I mean by psyche is the mind and the emotions, that inner state. I like you to see it as water. It’s a lake. It’s a lake. Is it ever still? Give me a break. All right? You have to work to make it still. You have to go meditate and do yoga and do mantras and do all kinds of things, right? Even the techniques like mantra, is mantra a still mind? No. Mantra is not a still mind. What is mantra? A mind whose waves are steady. It’s always saying the same thing. And because it’s always saying the same thing they’re of the same temperament, the same thing. It’s easier to float on, you understand that. If your mind is sitting underneath saying, “God, God, God” or “Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya,” that’s all it’s doing. That’s a lot nicer place to rest.

Than, “Oh my God, why did I say that? Oh, I shouldn’t have said that. Oh my God. I’m so embarrassed. This is ridiculous. Should I call her? No, don’t call her. No.” Is that just my mind or does your mind do that too? I thought maybe it did. All right. All right. So, your mind is always creating these ripplets. Let’s just go slow on this. Do you see that? I’m going to tell you right now, it does not have to be that way. It was not meant to be that way. It should not be that way. It is very, very difficult to live life when there’s like that. Just like the bird has a very hard time when there’s all this noise going on and the ripples and the waves, not to mention the tough times. We understand how tough the tough times are. Somebody dies, your husband leaves you, you get sick. All kinds of stuff goes on, doesn’t it? And all of a sudden there’s this tremendous turmoil, can it get tumultuous? Answer me.

AUDIENCE: Yes.

MICHAEL SINGER: Has it ever gotten tumultuous in there, I mean really tumultuous in there? Can you understand that it could get so tumultuous that in 1929, senior executives were throwing themselves off the 20th floor of Wall Street buildings. Not saying, would you do it, please don’t, but do you understand that that’s where suicide comes from? It gets tough in there. Let’s talk about that. It gets hurricane level. It gets tsunami level. It gets unbelievable and unbearable, right or wrong?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

MICHAEL SINGER: That is just that bird floating on top of the exact same mind. You understand that? But the mind has become so tumultuous that it’s being pulled under, it’s drowning, and that’s what it feels like, don’t it? “I’m drowning. I’m dying. It’s killing me.” All right? So, I am telling you that you, every one of you and everyone else, are capable of dealing with this, of calming the mind. You are capable of it becoming so steady that the sun dries the wings, and you find out you can fly and you never, ever, ever have that problem ever again. You don’t even remember when you used to be in the water and you used to do all that. That’s liberation. That’s what’s meant by Jivanmukta, a liberated soul. They have extricated themselves, transcended. So it’s called transcended, you understand that? You have pulled yourself out of this resting on the mind. Now, I want to talk about why you’re resting on the mind, and what I said before, when you deal with the lake, with the water, there are forces that cause it to get… that make wavelets. Its natural state, I’m telling you, any physicist will tell you, leave water alone. Don’t touch it with any other force. What will it do? Become stable. It would just settle right down and that’s the end of it, and never make another move.

Its natural state is equilibrium. Its natural state is… it takes energy, force to cause it to be other than that, right or wrong? So Newton, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if a raindrop falls in there, it’s an action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Stick your hand in the water, it’s an action, and water will disperse, exactly to the extent of the mass of your hand. All right? That’s what’s going on. So how does that translate to the mind? Why is the mind that is supposed to be, and can be, and was meant to be a beautiful, empty, quiet thing until you go to use it. There’s nothing wrong with floating on the water. If the bird is flying high, we have a beautiful wetland down there.

I see birds flying high and they dive down to catch fish or they float on them. They do, they literally dry their wings, all right. Blue herons do that, floating on the water. So, you can have fun with the water. You’re welcome to use your mind. You’re welcome to create ripplets, thoughts in the mind in accordance to what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to accomplish. If I’m sitting there trying to figure out why electricity flows through a wire, maybe I should create some thoughts, right? I want to create some thoughts to think about that. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the mind is a beautiful playpen. But it’s not a playpen, when in and of itself, it’s creating all these ripples and all this noise and sometimes going way south and pulling you under, you understand that? And you no longer have any idea of who you are. Who you are, is this tumultuous, disturbed mind who’s trying to come to peace, who’s trying to not be disturbed. You’re always trying to not be disturbed, can we talk about that?

I painted the picture very carefully about that bird, right? Every word I said was exactly what’s happening. I didn’t do any exaggeration. So, I said your bird is floating on the water and it noticed that if the water is tumultuous, it has trouble, it’s not good. Therefore, it’s trying to have the water not be tumultuous. That is what you’re doing every single second of your life. “No, I’m trying to get a better job. I’m trying to find a girlfriend or boyfriend. I’m trying to blah, blah, blah. I’m trying to get people accept me and like me, right?”

You are trying to quiet your mind by getting a girlfriend or a boyfriend. You’re trying to have your mind say nice things to you because other people say nice things to you, do you understand that? You couldn’t care less. Ever hear of opposite day? Can we go and we play opposite day, all right? We’re going to play opposite day, right? Here it goes. Listen to me. When I hit this switch, I wish I knew where it was. When I hit this switch, right, if somebody walks up to him and says, “Oh my God, you look much better last time I saw you,” you look like you’ve aged 60,000 years, all right? Are you ancient? What happened to you? Your whole mind went, “Oh my God, I love that. Oh, talk more. Come on. Keep going. Oh, that is so beautiful. How did you come up with those words? They’re perfect. Wow. Thank you.” What if your mind said that? What now? You’d love it. The reason you are trying to get people to say nice things about you and to you is because your mind gets quiet when they do it.

Somebody sits there and says, “I’ve never loved anyone in my life as much as I love you. I can’t even talk, as just looking at you melts my whole being.” How are we doing, right? That is not because of what they are saying, it’s because it quiets your mind. What if they were saying that and they were a stalker standing outside your bedroom window saying that? How are you doing? I rest my case, OK? I’m glad you understand. I’m telling you, you don’t care one iota about this world. Not you’ve meditated enough, that you’ve gotten beyond the world. You don’t care one iota about this world. Nobody cares one iota about this world, nobody. The richest person in the world, who’s greedy and trying to get more money, couldn’t care less about money and couldn’t care less about this world. It is that when they’re the one who has the most money and they become Forbes’ number one billionaire, and they see their picture on the cover of Forbes, right? Their mind goes, “Ahhh.”

All right. Because I guarantee you, if the night before they had a dream, one of those really vivid dreams, like a God dream, a spiritual dream, right? And it basically said to them, “If you ever have the misfortune of getting your picture on the cover of Forbes, as the richest person in this world, you will never have another moment of peace and joy in your life. They will pick on you and steal from you and beg you, you will be the saddest person who ever walked the face of the earth. You will wish you are number two.” And even listen to me, right? You like things because they quiet your mind. You don’t like things when they disturb your mind. It’s not the other way around. It’s because the thing made the mind get still or quieter or comfortable that you became comfortable. That’s why you like it. It is because the thing called turmoil — standing front of a painting. Yes. Beautiful Monet, Renoir, I like them, paintings, all right?

Stand there and tell me, “Oh my God, it’s so beautiful.” That is because your mind became quiet, right? If you had been told that that was a stolen Nazi painting that they had it, and blah, blah, blah, OK. And your mind could get very disturbed about it. You’re not going to say it’s beautiful. That’s why they say beauty is in the eyes of beholder, wrong. Beauty is in the mind of the beholder. Just change your mind, one little thing, and it’s not going to be beautiful, is it? Sit with that for a second, because you are like that bird. From that point forward, you have forgotten that you’re not paying attention and what you’re trying to do now because the water is affecting your life so much, you’re trying to figure out how to get the water to be quiet. You don’t understand you’ve left even the concept that it’s the water.

You’re sitting, you’re saying it’s how I’m thinking and how my eyes are looking at, and whether I did something before, it’s my karma. You understand that? You’ve tried to attribute it to things that are under your control. The water is not under the bird’s control, but the state of the water determines the state of the bird, because he’s resting on it. The bird can’t handle it’s not under my control. You can’t handle it’s not under your control. Do you understand that? “I’m not happy. I thought I would be happy. We’ve been married five years. It’s just not doing it for me anymore. I’m not happy,” right? What have you done? The water’s not nice inside, it’s not comfortable like it was when we first met in their honeymoon stage, right? Now, the fact that you lost your job is disturbing me. The fact that we can’t have children for whatever reason, right? It’s, “Oh my God. It’s just not working for me.”

In other words, “My mind doesn’t like this,” does anybody understand that? You don’t even have the right to say, “I don’t like this.” You’re resting on a mind that doesn’t like it. That’s why you don’t like it, you understand that? You are the consciousness that is resting on a disturbed mind, that is saying not-nice things, correct? “I don’t want to come home, he’ll be there. I’m not comfortable with him, and I don’t want to talk to him. Because he doesn’t even understand how I feel. Oh, if I ever told him now I would hurt him, I don’t want to do that.” There, how’s that mind, fun? Right, you’ve been there. That’s a very disturbed mind. You’re resting on that mind because you don’t know anything about fixing your mind.

It’s like, “Oh my God, how would I fix my mind? It’s who I am, right?” You need to fix the world so that when it comes in, your mind likes it. If you never heard anything I ever said, do you understand that? You don’t have to fix your mind. If your mind’s bothering you, fix it. If your mind’s saying, “I don’t know if I love him anymore,” say that you do. It’s much easier. Why did he come home? You might say, “I can’t wait to come home. Oh my God, this is great. I can’t wait to see him. He lost his job. He really needs me. This is great. I love to be needed.” Some people’s minds say that. Why can’t yours, right? In other words, the problem is your mind. The problem is that the mind is disturbed or that the mind is calm.

When you go and you’re having this trouble with your husband and you go take golf or tennis lessons and the golf pro is really kind of interesting. And all of a sudden, your mind becomes quiet when he shows you how to hit a forehand, right? And hugs you a little bit, you understand that? You got a problem. So, you’ve got a problem with a disturbed mind, you got a problem with a quiet mind. All of a sudden, you’re leaving your family, right, because of the golf pro or something, right? You are resting on the mind and you have lost your sense of self. However the mind is, is how you are — just like that bird, right? There’s not even any concept that there’s any way out other than the water becoming quiet. Therefore, you try to manipulate the world around you so that when it comes in, the mind will become comfortable and calm and manipulate the world around you. So that when it comes in, the mind will not become disturbed. Do you see that? Do you understand that? That’s all everybody’s doing, right?

You are a servant of the mind, whatever your state of mind is, will drive you to do things outside. You will try to change the outside, to manipulate the outside, to control the outside, so that when it comes in, the mind will go, “Oh, I like that.” Instead of, “No, no, I don’t like that. No.” Right or wrong? Has there ever been a time that your mind said, “No, I don’t want to go there. I don’t like that,” that you felt good going? You’re laughing at me, I’m laughing at you. I mean, that’s ridiculous. It’s just a mind. It’s just a body of water in there that can make ripples or not make ripples. Right or wrong? It can get nice in there, can’t it? And they’re really disturbing there, can’t it? Just like the water.

That has nothing to do with you. You are the one who’s experiencing that. If you sit there and tell me, “Oh my God, my heart’s hurting me. It’s hurting my mind, driving me crazy since he left,” I’m going to ask you a very simple question. You won’t like it. I’m going to ask you, “How do you know?” I’m asking you, how do you know? How do you know your heart hurts? You never asked yourself that question. You said, “How do I stop it?” Of course, let me do something, but what do I do? All you care about is stopping your heart from hurting. I’m asking you how you know it hurts because the answer is, “I’m in here, floating on it. Oh. I’m in here, who are you?” Who are you who’s in there that notices that the heart hurts because you are not the hurting heart. You said, “My heart hurts.” Whose? My is a possessive pronoun. Your words are actually correct, that’s what’s hilarious.

Your words are very, very spiritual. The way you describe things, right? “Oh, my hand hurts.” I don’t understand. I thought you were your body. You said it’s my hand. Whose? Whose hand is it? My purse, my piano, my hand. I’m not an identity with a piano. I’m not an identity with the purse. I’m not an identity with the car. I’m not an identity with the hand. I am the one who’s noticing the hand and calling it mine. You want to know how tenuous mind is? Watch this. You walk into a car dealership. You don’t happen to own a car. Somebody asked you before, where’s your car. I don’t have one, right? You put down some money. You get into a car. It’s mine.

It’s really funny. It’s mine. How did it become yours, right? It’s not you, you understand? It’s a possession that you have. You in there were in there before you had the car. You’re the same who has the car, are you not? I am telling you, though you will not like it. I actually said this on the course, I feel funny about it, all right, that if you are standing there, staring at the hand and it gets chopped off, you’re still there staring at the not-hand. Yes or no? You have not changed one iota. You are the exact same conscious being inside saying, “This is my hand. What happened to my hand? Where’s my hand?” The same person, right or wrong? That is you. That is the consciousness, the awareness of being. It is the exact same thing with your inner state. “My heart hurts,” whose heart?

The one who’s noticing that there’s a thing in here that’s going [growling]. “I am the experiencer of the hurting heart.” Has it always hurt? “No.” How do you know? “Because I was in there then, and I’m in here now. I’ve always been in here.” How long have you been in there? Did your heart ever hurt when you were 12? Did you know? Was it the same you who knew? You are the bird, the consciousness, self, floating on the ocean of mind. When the mind is calm, you’re fine. When the mind is tumultuous, you are not. Since you know this, this is the core of what you know, right? It’s like cave people, like, not like. “Me like calm, me no like turmoil,” right or wrong? Who taught you that? Your parents? Do you have to go to school to learn that? Oh, that’s as intuitive as it comes, all right?

“I don’t want to be drowning, OK. I like it being comfortable in here.” Of course you do. Of course you do. Ain’t that nice, I get to say that, don’t give that up, you could never give that up. You understand that? That’s part of your nature. So your being is in there, you are resting on this lake. You don’t realize that because you’re so lost in it. You’re resting on this lake, and you’re only OK when the lake is OK, and you’re never OK when the lake is tumultuous, all right? Now, you don’t understand that. That’s what yoga is trying to teach you, what I just told you. That very simple thing I just told you, you are not your mind. You are resting on your mind. Therefore, you are experiencing the state of your mind, right? You have no idea what to do about it, other than you have noticed that if something outside of you says something to you, sometimes your mind likes it and it gets quiet.

And if something outside of you says something to you, sometimes your mind doesn’t like it and it becomes tumultuous. Have you noticed that? Sometimes, have you noticed if you’re building a house, someday you’ll do that, and they paint the wall with the color you picked, it doesn’t always look exactly the way you thought it was going to. Notice the word thought, that’s mind, by the way. That you thought it was going to, and now every time you walk into the room, the mind disturbs you. Who knows anything about that? It’s not funny, right? It’s like you walked into a room and the mind says, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I picked that color.” Every single time, “I can’t believe I picked that color. I should have picked the other one. Oh my God. I didn’t pick that, should I paint it? No, it’s not worth painting. [grumbling].” You’re disturbed. Have you noticed? In other times, you get it just right. What does it mean you got it just right? Your mind says it’s right. What determines what is just right? Your mind.

TAMI SIMON: You’re listening to the Michael Singer Podcast produced by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. Sounds True has also produced with Michael Singer an extraordinary eight-part video course, Living from a Place of Surrender: The Untethered Soul in Action. You can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com and save 15% when you use the code Singer15 at checkout. Now, back to Michael Singer on Ceasing to Be Caught in the Waters of Mind.

MICHAEL SINGER: All right. Since you have experienced this, I’m giving you the model, you’re floating on the mind. When the mind is calm, you’re fine, or at least better, and when the mind is tumultuous, you’re very not, OK, and everything in between. And so now you’ve noticed that states of the outside world affect your mind. Have you noticed that yet?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

MICHAEL SINGER: OK? Therefore, you are out there attempting to manipulate the world so that when it comes in, your mind becomes quiet. And you’re out there attempting to manipulate the world so that when it comes in, your mind does not go into turmoil. Fair enough? Anyone want to own that? OK, good luck. Because I’m telling you, that’s exactly the same as the bird deciding how to make the water quiet, right? And so, basically, you feel you have no choice. “I have no choice. I’m not happy.” What does that mean? Your mind is not OK. Therefore, I need to find another relationship. Therefore, I need to change my job. Therefore, I need to do this. Therefore, I need to do that. It literally runs you. It tries to figure out… that’s the most funny part. Are you ready? Your mind is doing all this. When you want to fix it, you go to the exact same mind, “You listen to me. I’m scolding you.” You go to the exact same mind that isn’t OK and ask it what needs to happen outside so that I am OK, so you are OK? Oh my God. That’s unbelievable, right? If something is not OK, it doesn’t know how to be OK. It’s not OK.

Don’t be jealous and then ask jealousy about how to not be jealous. Jealousy does not know how not to be jealous. Why? Because jealousy is jealous. Do you understand that? You have to extract from being caught in that state, to where you get clarity. Now you can look and see about changing things, but that’s not what you do. I’ve told you the ultimate. I have a totally disturbed mind. I’m on withdrawal. I was hooked on whatever and I’m trying to go through withdrawal. My mind is disturbed. What do you think your mind is telling you to do? “Get a hit. Just once more. You’ll be OK. If you can get a hit, you’ll calm down and then you can get off the stuff.” What? Do you hear it, or you want to bet it says that? “If you could just, just once more, all right? I’ll get my strength back. I got my strength back, I’ll be able to go through this withdrawal.”

It literally makes sense to that mind, and it says stuff like this. I know people that try to stop smoking. They can’t. They tried many times. So now I see them smoking. “What are you doing?” “Well, I had trouble not smoking, right? So, I thought about it. I said, if I smoked two packs a day, instead of one, I’ll get so sick of it that that’ll stop me from smoking.” And people actually do that. I’m serious. You have no idea what the mind’s going to say when it’s disturbed. Yes or no? Are we having the communication here? All right. So, it’s bad enough that you’re rest on your mind. It’s bad enough to the mind is totally- we’ll talk about why the mind is affected by the outside world in a minute, but it told me that it’s being affected by it, but you don’t know what to do anything.

So, what you do is go to the disturbed mind, while it’s disturbed, and say, “What should I do to change the outside,” right? So, “I don’t like what she’s saying to me, she says she’s going to leave me, all right? She says she’s going to leave me, what should I do?” “Hit her.” Isn’t that what it tells them, right? I did 30 years of prison work, you’re not going to embarrass me. All right? Doing in maximum security prison, in for life. Everybody I dealt with for 30 years, all right? Every single one, if we ever had a conversation like this, and that’s how we talk like this, just like I talk to you, every single one smiled and said, “That’s why I’m in here.” Now you know the reason you’re in here, right? You fell in love with somebody and you want to get married. You want to engage. You obviously have no money, right? And you see a jewelry store over there and you walk in and steal a thing. Who gave you that idea? My mind.

You know the expression “seemed like a good idea at the time”? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. This is so real. I want you to own it. So, basically, you are resting on this mind. The mind gets calm or disturbed by different things, which you don’t understand. You don’t understand why it does that. You just want it to be nice, just like the bird, right? And you do get like that bird and make up all kinds of things about how to make it happen. Watch. You’re whatever age you are, and you’re disturbed, you’re not happy with your living conditions. So, you start thinking, “Well, let’s see, if I can get the raise, by the time I do that, I can leverage the money, I can invest in the market and get that. And I heard those new Bitcoins went up 800% in the last eight months. I’m going to put all my money into the Bitcoins, all right.” And, don’t, by the way, all right?

And you start with things like that. Figure it all out, all right? “Then I’ll be wealthier and I’ll be able to have a nice car. So I’ll attract the right person to me. Because now, I don’t want to attract anybody to me the way I am now, the type of person that would be interested in me now, I won’t be interested in later, when I go where I’m going.” Doesn’t it sound sensible?

All right, good. All right. So, the mind when it is in disturbance, you go to that mind and it tries to figure out every… You check it out, every thought your entire life, the only thing your mind has done is complained that it’s not OK and tried to figure out what everybody else needs to be so you can be OK. And no time did the mind say, “I’m not OK, I should shut up.” No, it didn’t say that, OK? And when you went to the mind and said, “Oh, mind, what do I do about this turmoil?” It didn’t say, “I don’t know, I’m just a mind.” It didn’t say that. It tried to figure out. It just kept thinking. It keeps thinking, thinking, thinking, doesn’t it? That’s why it’s thinking all the time.

People ask me, “Why will that voice in the head not shut up?” Because you told it to try to figure it out. That’s all it’s trying to do, is figure it out. All the time. Let’s watch it. Just watch, I’ve watched it for a long time. It’s trying to figure out what’s wrong and what to do about it. But at no time does it say what’s wrong is I’m complaining. It says, “How do I fix what I’m anything about?” You understand that? All right. What is all that about? It’s what the bird is going through. You’re lying on the mind. When the mind is disturbed, you don’t distinguish yourself from the mind. When your mind is disturbed, you’re disturbed. So, you’re floating on there. The only way you know to be OK, because that’s the only way the mind knows, is when the outside world comes in, the mind gets quiet. You’re OK.

So, I need to figure out how the outside world needs to be. And I mean, down to the slightest detail, especially a relationship. Oh my God, you know exactly how he or she is supposed to be, right? OK and if they’re not that way, well, we’ll work on them. How’s your relationship? Work in process. Right. Are you seeing all the angles I’m hitting you at? So now you’re left in a situation where you need to figure out how the world needs to be. Two things. You need to figure how the world needs to be so that when it comes in, you’re OK, and you’re doing that based on your disturbed state, so good luck.

And second, more important, now, “I think I’ve figured it out, I got it. I got it. I went to a seminar and a coaching seminar, right? And the life coach and he told me how I should be. And I got this, I see what I’ve been doing wrong. I see I need to put my emphasis on this and change this and do that. Then I’ll be OK.” All right. Well, great. I’m glad you feel good about it. Now go make it happen, because that is equivalent to that bird having figured out how to make the water be quiet.

That world outside– you listen to me, the world that is in front of you right now had not happened yet a moment ago, OK. Where did it come from? Do you think it came because you wanted it? It came because of what you made up, it’s supposed to be? No, there are forces causing the world to be what it is. Physics, chemistry, psychology. The world in front of you is the result of all the causes that cause it to be that way. How much of those causes is what you want? I want to know. How much of a causal factor is the fact that you decided, “But I want that job.” The fact that there is a job, the fact that there is a company, the fact that there’s other people, the fact that your past work, the fact… You understand that? There’s 800 million zillion variables. The fact that you want the job, that is not a causal factor.

It’s just something you made up in your head that will make you feel better. “If I got the job, I would feel better.” I know it’s tough to talk this way. Do you understand that? Right? There’s not a single book that you opened up and you studied natural sciences in school, meteorology, chemistry, physics, psychology, anything that when you were trying to study, why things are the way they are, that you opened it up and said, “You did it. They’re the way they are because of you.” You’re right. It rained yesterday goes it’s your birthday, and nobody likes you, even God. That’s why it rained. We studied, the meteorologists all studied it, and they took a vote. Because I’m telling you as funny as that sounds, but it didn’t rain on your birthday because it was your birthday, nor is anything else happening because it’s the way you want it or don’t want it. It is happening because of the trillions and trillions of forces that cause things to be the way they are, right?

“She’s perfect, but she’s short for me.” That has nothing to do with you. You have no right to even think like that. She’s short because of genetics and therefore, it’s because her great- great-grandmother met her great-great-grandfather, has nothing to do with you. You weren’t even around. Every single thing of the moment in front of you is inherited from all the moments that ever were. That is equivalent to why the ocean is doing what it’s doing while the bird is floating on it.

That bird can think all it wants, that I’m causing it to happen. You’re not. You are not causing it to happen. There are forces that are causing it to be the way it is. You want to think you’re in control because you can’t handle that you’re not. Because at any moment it might get tumultuous. “No, I have control over this, it’s how I’m holding my eyes. It’s what I’m saying in my head. It’s how I sung my song before. It’s karma from a past life.” Go on, just have fun, OK? Have fun letting your mind develop a world that says, “I have control over what’s coming in.” You do not. Christ said, “Let those who have eyes to see, let them see, and those have ears to hear, let them hear.” In other words, the world is unfolding in front of you. It is coming in through your senses.

You got some work to do if you can’t handle reality. If that’s what you’re doing with reality, you’re not going anywheres. You’re going to struggle and suffer and get neurotic, just like that bird. You’re going to feel, “I’ve got to figure how to make it good. Now, I’ve got to do, I’m doing everything I can and how do I manipulate it?” And you’re just going to be busy thinking all the time. Every time you meet somebody, you’ll be uncomfortable. You’ll be uncomfortable to meet a new person. You might not impress them. They might not like you. They might cause trouble. They might know somebody you knew. Do you understand that? There is discomfort at all times inside of you. And I’m just saying you, generic you, humanity. There is discomfort all the time, no matter what is going on. Every once in a while, there’s a peak moment, but it doesn’t last, right?

It’s uncomfortable. You’re scared. You’re scared something will go wrong. Can we relate to that, to being scared something will go wrong, you might say the wrong thing? Have you ever walked away from a conversation with somebody? Conversation is over, but it’s not over inside your head. “Well, why did I say that? Oh God, I was doing good till I said that.” You are scared, that’s scared, OK. Right. We said there were forces that were causing the water to be the way it is. There are forces that are causing your mind to be the way it is. You’re not doing it. You didn’t decide to have a neurotic mind. What has happened is past experiences you have had, some of them have come in, made you feel comfortable. This is perfectly natural. Some of them come in, make you feel not comfortable.

If you don’t think that’s natural, the example I always use is have a butterfly, two butterflies flying around, gorgeous, monarch butterflies while three people standing next to you and they’re all nature lovers come flying around, over all your heads and land on your arm. Both of them, they land on your arm. How are you doing? As I thought, all right? Have one rattlesnake come crawling up, [rattling sound] right? Not land on your arm yet. Just be there, right? How are you doing? OK. Those things have nothing to do with you. You did not cause those butterflies to land in your arm and you did not cause that rattlesnake to rattle. But yet when they come in, they’re either comfortable or not comfortable. Fair enough.

So that’s what the Buddhists mean by the nature of things. Everything has its nature. Nobody’s denying that. So that when it comes in, it will cause certain changes in the ripplets of the mind. So what? They don’t last. A leaf will drop in the water, it will cause ripples and they’ll go away. There’s nothing to do about it. There’s nothing you can do about those ripples when the leaf falls in the water. I want you to go home and meditate on that. Anything you try to do, will make more ripples. “I’ll stick my hand in and pull it out.” Yes. It don’t work very well. “I’ll jump in the water so that I can catch the next leaf before it falls.” That worked out really well, too, right? There’s not a single thing you can do aside from leaving the natural forces to let the ripple calm down, right. So butterflies may come and land. They’re beautiful. It’s very nice, it’s good. Rattlesnakes may rattle. Not so nice. It goes away.

Still, the natural state, when no other force is affecting it, you’re OK. And the vast majority of the time, right now in your mind, what’s affecting the state of your mind is you. You’re in there worrying about what will happen in the future and holding onto what happened in the past. I’ve washed my mind. 95% of the problems that my mind thinks about are things that I decided I didn’t want or want. They’re not rattlesnakes or butterflies. “Well, what if I go on the vacation and it rains? I don’t want it to rain, I don’t know why. That’s ridiculous. I won’t like that. Maybe I shouldn’t go.” What is that? Those are ripples you are causing. There’s no rain right here, there’s nothing going on. Your mind is creating ripples.

“Well, what if I get married and he turns out to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. How will I know? I’ve only known him 12 years and he wanted to live together for 11. I guess I’m very neurotic about that. So, I’ve checked this out for 11 years and now he tells me if we don’t get married, he’s going to leave. Or do I want him to leave or don’t I want them to leave. Even if I really loved him, why didn’t I marry him yet? God, I don’t know.” Who’s causing that? You. Your mind is causing its own ripples. It’s hilarious. All right.

So, the cause of these ripples in the mind are because you’ve had past experiences. Some of them have been pleasant, some are not. You’ve held onto them, and there is a bottom line to it very quickly. The bottom line is you’ve held on to those experiences. You have not let them end like the ripples of the leaf in the water. You understand that? Not a single thing ever happened to you, you let be over. You stored it. I mean, look, things that didn’t affect you strongly, you let go. The white lines in the road come and go. All kinds of clouds float by. But basically, inside, if something is extremely pleasant or extremely unpleasant, I guarantee you it’s still there.

It left an impression on you. And now what happens is when the world is unfolding, you’re judging it based on what it’s going to be like. And you are out there trying to manipulate it. How do you manipulate it? By thinking about it. Therefore, you’ve ended up… I don’t want to get into where you live in there, you know all about it, right? It’s very rarely calm in there, is it? OK, and you are busy. All right. What is your option? Your option is to realize you are lying on a mind that is like lying on water. When the mind becomes disturbed, it’s not nice to be in there. When the mind becomes calm, is nice to be in there, right?

How do I not lie on the mind? Why can’t I just leave the mind to be what it is? When it sees a rattlesnake, it gets disturbed. When it sees butterflies, it gets calm. That’s very nice. It’s beautiful. It’s like the seasons. It’s like the weather. The rain is nice. The wind is nice. Why can’t I be comfortable with the fact that the mind reacts and responds to the nature of things? Why would it not? Here’s a mirror. It reflects what’s in front of it. Here’s a mind, it is moving in accordance to what comes in. But the movement is very quick. It comes through. Somebody comes in and yells at you. “Why did you do that? You shouldn’t, I told you not to do that, right?” You look at him, “He never told me squat. He’s talking to the wrong person,” right? That’s the end of it. It’s the end of it. Next time he comes by, right, you don’t say, “He’s the one who yelled at…” Nothing. You might not say a single word, a single word.

That’s beginner’s mind, it’s clean. It went right through. It didn’t store anything, it didn’t take it personal. You don’t have to protect yourself. You don’t walk in the woods anymore. Why? I saw a rattlesnake once. When? 12 years ago. Where? In the Rocky Mountains. But you’re now at the shop. Do you hear me? All right? You understand that the highest thing you can do is to become comfortable with the different states of the mind so that you’re not freaking out when it’s going through its different states. To become comfortable with the different states of the heart.

Yes, somebody you love dies, the heart is going to have some trouble. If it’s not, you better go to a doctor, or you didn’t love them. Do you understand that? Is don’t ask me as a Yogi, “How do I get my heart not to hurt when someone I love died?” You don’t. Period, but you can be comfortable with the beauty of your heart saying, “I love this person so much.” When people talk to me like that, I tell them, I want you to feel that heart as saying, “That’s how much I loved you.” It’s an expression of love. It’s not an expression of pain. It’s an expression of love. It’s natural. You feel comfortable with it. If you’re comfortable with it, you are healthy. It will go through. It will pass. It will not leave scars. You will talk about how beautiful that relationship was and how, “Oh my God, how you realized how much you really love this person”.

Because when they were not there, it was amazing, this period you went through of purification, OK? And you’ll be happy to get another relationship. You won’t be, “I’ll never do it, not again. I don’t want to talk to anybody. Nothing, oh my God. And God’s evil. Why did he take this person away?” Mind, mind, mind. When we first moved out here, we started an I Don’t Mind Club. I don’t do the verb called minding. I don’t create all that garbage. So, what happens is you decide, “I am in here and I’m resting on the mind. I don’t have to be. I can extricate myself,” and I’m sure you can, then you just fly. That bird up there, will fly and then, it’s welcome to go in the water if it wants to, but now it knows how to go in and come out. That’s where I want you. Liberated, you’re free. It’s blue skies, gorgeous, everywhere is all the time.

What if something happens that makes the mind disturbed? You know this. You let it run its course. You’re strong, you’re healthy, and so on, right? How do you extricate yourself? You will not be able to extricate yourself by fighting the mind. That’s not what we’re going to do is come in here and fight with the mind. You can’t make those ripples be quiet. What you can do is be comfortable with the ripples. It’s called primary ripples, this is just my terminology. It’s not in the Vedas, right? There’s primary ripples and then there’s secondary ripples. Like every hero in war, when they drop bombs, they say there’s a secondary explosion. What does that mean? It means there was a munition saturate, right? So not only did they get the first explosion, but it was much bigger. So, there was a secondary explosion, all right?

There are primary ripples, meaning the world comes in, it causes certain ripples in your mind. Fine. Right? Get comfortable with that. Get comfortable that the nature of things reflected in your mind, do you understand that? Somebody was mean, and they mistreated you, right? You went through that experience. That came in, it felt yucky. It doesn’t feel good when somebody is mean and mistreats you or rips you off or so on and so forth. Lies to you. when you find out they weren’t honest, right? Doesn’t feel good, right? That’s a primary ripple. It will pass. It will pass. How? By itself. I don’t understand. What you mean when you say I need help making it pass is you mean, “I’m resisting it, I need help learning how not to resist it.” You don’t need help having it pass. I’m in big trouble now with all the therapists in psychology, right? If you accept it completely, it will pass.

You do not need help stopping the ripples caused by the leaf. They will stop by themselves. They will run their course. So will everything inside of you. But if I do the secondary ripple, which is what? I’m trying to take the leaf out. I’m trying to keep the leaf from coming back to me. I don’t want this to have happened, so I’m pushing it away. I’m suppressing it. Now it doesn’t go away. You caused more ripples by flapping your wings to try and stop the ripples. Does anybody understand that? I swear I’m going to say it again because this is it. This is all my teachings. You cause more ripples by flapping your wings, as that bird in the water, thinking that that’s going to flap down the ripples.

It’s not going to flap down the ripples, you’ll make more, OK? When you’re in there struggling and fighting with the past and what might happen in the future and why somebody said that, is why you are causing ripples by yourself. Yes, there are natural ripples. Yes, there are. They are the reflection of the nature of what came in. They will come and they will go, period. You just be comfortable. You don’t react by fighting them.

You don’t react by getting all weird inside and coming with concepts of what’s supposed to be and not supposed to be. And “This is wrong, and of course I have the right to be righteous anger, right? I have the right.” Why do you want to be angry? Why do you want the right to be angry? There’s no such thing as righteous anger. How do you like that? There’s no such thing as righteous anger. There is such a thing, all right, as blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth. There is such a thing as a person who is centered enough and calm enough that they can stand in the presence of very disturbing things and bring harmony to it. That they can do. A big difference, isn’t it? Right? That’s an activist, passive activist, right?

So, you realize you are causing, and I’m telling you, I’m putting a number on it. I’ve been doing this for about 40-odd years, at least 95% of all the vrittis, ripples that are going in your mind, you did as a secondary reaction to what’s going on. And now you’re reacting to the reacting, OK. And reacting to reacting to reacting, all right? It’s so complicated in there, you can’t even see straight. All right. What’s the way out? Stop it. Stop the mind from reacting? No.

Rest quietly and let the ripples pass through. It takes time, relax and release. That’s the answer. You’re in there. You know you’re in there. You’re reacting to everything, aren’t you? Right? Your only reaction, at some point, is relax. It’s OK, relax. No. Relax, relax, and lean behind what’s happening. The ripples are in front of you. You’re lying on top of them. Relax and release. And someday you will float above them all by yourself. You don’t try to float above them, that’s just mind, right? You just relax and release. Stop being so interested in everything your mind has to say because 95% of it is garbage, right? You’re going to see it’s all about “How do I fix this?” Everybody’s got a Mr. Fix It, Miss Fix It in there. You’re just trying to stop the ripples. But by creating mind to stop mind, you’re creating more mind. That’s all there is to it.

You’ve just learned to relax. That’s what meditation is about. That’s what all this stuff’s about. But I want you, not just on your pillow, I want you every second of your life, right? You’re driving in a car, this car driving in front of you is driving 10 miles out below the speed limit and you’re in a rush, OK? What exactly do you think, what is going on in your mind is going to do to fix that situation? “Come on, come on. I mean, don’t you see the sign? We just passed the sign. It says 55, why are you doing 45? Come on, you’re supposed to be in the right lane!” What’s that doing? Causing you ripples. Yes. Fine. The guy’s driving below the speed limit. Certain amount of notice. You notice. There, you notice. Yes, you are going be a little later than if he wasn’t there. Notice, right? That rest of the crap you’re doing in your mind, that’s just making you neurotic. That’s just causing more and more ripples.

Then you go tell people, “They don’t even know how to drive around here. I’m going to move. I’m going to move. There’s old people in Florida, I don’t want to live in Florida anymore.” You’re moving because a person… you can’t handle anything, right? Handle it. When he didn’t handle it, relax. “How can I relax when they’re driving 10 miles below the speed limit?” Well, figure it out. They say, Mickey, don’t give techniques. I ain’t giving you a technique for that, all right? I understand if you’re not doing something, you have to learn how to do it, you need a technique, right? You know how to play the piano, right. But if you’re doing it, you don’t need a technique to not do it. I’m playing by the scales, I’m playing the piano, and the teacher said, “No, you hit the wrong note here.” “Yes. I decided to sounded better.” “But you’re supposed to be learning skills.”

I can’t give you a technique for you to not do it the way you’re doing it. Just decide that’s stupid, play the thing right, OK? It’s the same thing here. There’s no technique at the point I just told you. The person is driving, your mind is starting to give you this junk. You’re conscious of the talk I just gave you, and you’re sitting there saying, ‘There is no benefit to me creating all these ripples inside my mind to do this. I am going to just relax into the situation and not create secondary ripples. Just relax.” I’m telling you, there’s a doer in there that’s freaking out. So it has to do something about everything. You hear me? Relax. You relax. Don’t come back and say, “But my mind won’t relax.” That’s like saying the ripples won’t go away. No, you’re supposed to be honoring and respecting those ripples.

So what? You’re not making secondary. You see why I say primary and secondary? Well, you’re seeing a lot here. All right. So, you relax. And what will happen is they will run their course and the driver will turn away and you’ll relax. And you’ll be grateful that you didn’t cause all this trouble. All right, you get stuck at a train, right? Count the cars. Don’t complain about everything going wrong because you’re stuck behind the train. Christ said, “Let you be as little children.” Little children love being stuck by a train. “Look, it’s a caboose, look.” Be a little kid, have fun. So, I’m telling you to do that with all this stuff, I call it low-hanging fruit. Learn how to not create yourself problems.

And then you’ll learn to relax with bigger things and bigger things. And eventually, when you can relax, what that means is I’m not fixated on the ripples. There are ripples. I’ve seen they come and go, it’s OK. Somebody got sick for a day, missed work. Then they go to work. Somebody else got sick for a day, missed work and he’s all nervous and afraid, “What if it happens again? I’ll lose my job.” And then they get sick of that. Which are you? The person that can handle things or the person that can’t handle things? Stop it, right?

Don’t think there’s an answer to that neurosis, because there isn’t. The only answer is to relax and not create the secondary ripples. And if you can do that, you’ll start noticing the primary ripples are not hard. Yes, the world does lots of different things. It comes and it goes. Every day is different. All right. It just comes and goes. I’m OK with that, all right? You will start to float above. And I’m going to stop it here. What do I do about floating above? That is like you’re in a hot air balloon, helium or hot air balloon. It’s filled with helium or hot air, but it’s tethered. See, I like that word. It’s tethered to the ground, isn’t it? All right. “How do I go up? Should I put more hot air in it? Should I raise the fire level so there’s more helium or whatever’s going on, right?” No, cut the tethers. “But how will I go up?” That’s the hilarious question. If you cut the tethers, you’re going up. There’s nothing for you to do at that point. Do you understand that?

So, don’t be thinking anything like that, all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo, all right. Stop screwing with these ripples. Relax. Let them pass. “But they’re not passing.” They will, if you leave them alone. How long will it take? None of your business. Does it make sense to you? You understand that? All right? You let go. “But what if the tether is hard to cut? How do I go up without cutting it?” You don’t. “But what if it takes longer than I thought it would?” Stay with it, babe. You just do what you need to do to cut the tethers.

You do what you do to relax in the face of the ripples. I’m begging you. I’ve told you a deep truth here. Relax in the face of the ripples. They will pass. If you don’t relax, you will suppress them and they will not pass. They will keep bothering you for the rest of your life. Because they’re trying to pass, they keep coming back up, all right? So, you relax and then you’re going to see you’re happier. “Why am I happy? Why would they make me happier?” You’ll see. Because your natural state is happy. Your natural state is joy. Your natural state is love. “But why would I feel love if I don’t have anybody?” You’ll see, because love has nothing to do with anybody else. It has to do with your inner state of beauty and openness. And you start going up and up and because it’s now nice, you don’t care about the ripples nearly at all. You saw a rattlesnake, “You can make poison, it’s a rattlesnake. And it would [rattles] just like in the movies. It was so neat. Wow.”

That’s not how you were five years ago. “No, I guess it wasn’t. Wow.” You’re growing. That’s growing. Not how many hours you can meditate. Not what clothes you wear, what food you eat. That’s growing. All right? So, you relax and release. Start going up. then you really start to go up. At some point, the spiral really starts. You start feeling joy, real joy, like ecstasy, like the highest state you’ve ever felt when your mind was quiet is going on all the time, times a thousand. You’re holding your kid for the first time, you’re at your wedding day, right? Take that moment, and it never goes away, it only keeps growing no matter what’s happening. That’s yoga. Now you’re somewhere else. Now you’re a high being, right? And you just keep getting pulled up into it, and eventually, the masters teach you, that you get pulled up so far away from your personal self that you realize you can soar, that you have nothing to do with that water at all, nothing. You’re going to submerge in the infinite. All right. All right, good. Thank you. Jai Guru Dev. Jai masters.

TAMI SIMON: You’ve been listening to the Michael Singer Podcast produced by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. Sounds True has also produced with Michael Singer an extraordinary eight-part video course called Living from a Place of Surrender: The Untethered Soul in Action. You can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com and save 15% when you use the code Singer15, that’s number one, five at checkout. The music you heard is the song, Giving It All by Be Still the Earth. Thank you so much for listening. Sounds True, waking up the world.