UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: The following transcript may contain typographical errors or other mistakes due to inconsistencies in audio quality, background noise, or other factors. We cannot guarantee its precision or completeness. We encourage you to use this as a supplement to your own notes and recollection of the session.
Tami Simon: Welcome to The Michael Singer Podcast, presented by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. For more information about Michael Singer’s work, access to all prior episodes, and information about upcoming releases, we invite you to join us at MichaelSingerPodcast.com
Michael Singer: Ative, Jai Masters.
What is the purpose of knowing the truth if you don’t live it? The mind can make up whatever it wants. The heart can feel whatever it wants. Everybody’s different. It just makes for chaos. There are truths, unalienable, indisputable, all scientists of all nations see the same thing when they look down objectively at what is reality of what is going on. We’ve been through this many times. I won’t go too deep into it. I want to talk about what it means to live the truth. What are some unalienable, undeniable truths? They’re very simple. You sit in a little planet spinning on little nowheres there. That’s the truth. No one disagrees. Okay? You sit in a tiny little planet, you can take a photograph. We have photographs of it, okay? We can’t argue about it. The earth is round. I’m sorry, and it’s circling through space, dark black, empty space.
It’s just a tiny, tiny little planet and you’re on the planet for how long? A very few years. Those are two truths. It’s a tiny planet, middle of nowhere, and you came down to visit for a few years. You say a few years what? 80, 90, a hundred, whatever. The planet’s been here for 4.5 billion years. Please listen to that. I tell you what I want you to do, just because the numbers mean nothing to most people. When you have a chance, sit in a corner and count to a billion now 4.5, just 1 billion a second at a time and come back and see me when you’re old. So it’s been here that long and you’re just going to be here for, I call it 80, 90 years. That’s the truth. What if you live the truth that it’s a tiny little planet that’s been around the middle of nowhere?
What if you live the truth? Then no matter what you do, if can be here for a handful of years, you don’t know where you came from. I’m sorry. You may believe where you came from. That is very different than knowing the fact that everybody can have different beliefs about where they came from or did they come from anywhere? Is there reincarnation? Is there not higher planes rather? I don’t care. Those beliefs, fine, you have them, you’re going to have them. It’s wonderful, but those are not truths. Truths are everyone sees them. Science sees them. Reality. That’s what it’s, so you got this planet and I told you how small it is. It is so small. 1.3 billion earth fit inside the sun. Stop. That’s not just the number. 1.3 million is very big. 1.3 million Earth inside the sun and the sun is one of 300 billion stars in your galaxy and you’re spinning around that sun of what?
Meaning? Is it? None of what importance is it? None. You have to start there. You have to start with truth. If this entire planet blew up into s smithing, a few other planets would change their orbit and nothing else of the 300 billion stars. Not to mention that’s one galaxy. There are 2 trillion galaxies. So what meaning do you want to give it in reality and we’ll give it meaning later. In fact, I can’t help because I got to get it through like 300 billions. A very big number, okay? We were just talking 4.5 billion. That was 300 billion stars. Well, how far away are the stars from each other? The closest star to our son, our star? How far away is it? 4.3 light years, not 4.3 in the current count to 4.3. That’s nothing to it. See, you don’t get it. I told you what a light year is.
Hold a theme of light above the earth. Let it go for one second. It circumnavigates the globe seven and a half times. Take a breath that little fast seven and a half times, go that speed every second for 4.3 years and you’ll get to the next store. Does anybody get that? And there are 300 billion of ’em and they’re pretty much all that far apart from each other, okay? In one galaxy and there are 2 trillion galaxies. What about your next galaxy? Your next major galaxy is your Andromeda. How far away is Andromeda ready? Remember how fast a light light travels 7.5 times orbit the earth in a second go for 2.5 million years you’ll get to Andromeda and that is one of 2 trillion galaxies. How big is the earth? How big are you on the earth?
Those are called truths. Al Gore made a movie called An Inconvenient Truth. Remember that? Well, this is a very inconvenient truth. Ego does not like it. One single iota doesn’t want to think about it, doesn’t want to deal with it. Now, some of you went, whoa, because your mind touched and began to touch. What the heck we’re talking about? Okay, how do you live it? What does it mean to live truth? It starts with the fact that you want to be meaningful in the realm of that you are not meaningful. Rodales wrote a book called Becoming Nobody, right? You don’t like that. You want to be somebody, don’t you? You got to prove yourself. You want to defend yourself. What is that? You’re here today, gone tomorrow and you don’t even take up very much space. An ant is more to this earth than you are to the reality we just talked about.
It is completely meaningless and you have to start there. Spirituality starts there. It doesn’t start with your beliefs of what you think should be going on or what you think you should be doing. You have to start with the reality of what’s going on. I’m sitting on a planet in the middle of nowheres and I’m only going to be here for a few years and the planet is nothing in relationship to everything. Okay, very good. Are you willing to go there? Why? Because it’s the truth. You have to start there and build the foundation of your life upon truth. Then what? Okay, let’s just make believe and you’re willing to let go of the party that can’t stand listening to this. It’s called your ego.
I am important. I’m special. I’m good at what I do. I have a lot of money. I look good in relationship to what? The person next to me. Well, there are nothing. Also, you have to start there. If it doesn’t feel good, that’s because you’re hanging onto a falseness, which is I am very important and I matter, and when I die, I’m going to take everybody and bury them in the pyramid with me along with all my belongings so they come give me a break, okay? No. The truth is you come down here with nothing, you go back with nothing. You want to repeat that? You came down here with nothing. Nothing stark naked, okay? People saw you. Isn’t it embarrassing, right? And you came down here and you had nothing. You had nothing, nothing, nothing. And guess what happens when you leave? You’re taking nothing with you.
The main point is there’s a body dropping out of a womb sitting here and a body laying in the bed dead there and that’s it. And somebody lived in there and what did they do with their life? They fought. They struggled. They suffered. They got hurt. Oh my God. What they did was unbelievable sitting in the little planet, middle of nowheres. Why would you do that? What else is there to do? Maybe we talk about that. Maybe that’s why we laid the groundwork. What does it mean to live truth? But you have to start without this ego. You have to start without thinking. How do I say it? What is ego? What is ego? The simplest term, something you made up so you don’t have to deal with the truth.
Listen to me. Alright, let’s start. What do I make up? I matter. Come on. I matter Compared to what? Einstein’s theory. Relativity. It’s all relative. You said I matter compared to you. What do you matter compared to what we just talked about? Reality has always been there for 13.8 billion years. So you start with that. The ego can’t handle that. It can’t handle that. This consciousness dropped in and it has to relate to something and it doesn’t relate to what I just talked about. It relates to this is my body. This is who I am. This is what I look like. No, it’s not what you look like. Why is it not what I look like? Well, you tell me which is what you look like when you were born, when you were five, when you were 15, when you were 23, 87 on your deathbed. Which one is you? Thank you.
It is not what you look like. You can’t even pick which one you look like you’re in here. You have no face. There’s a Cohen in the zen tradition that the masters give you. Go contemplate the following. What was your face before your mother was born? Have fun. Okay? It’s like you don’t have a face. Your consciousness, you’re in here. It’s like light shining on something. The light doesn’t become what it’s shining on. If the thing is bright, I mean the light is bright, the thing is dark. I mean the light is dark. If the thing’s broken, I mean the light is broken. If the thing’s gorgeous how everyone looks at it and wants, it’s this giant hope Diamond has nothing to do with the light. You are the consciousness that is aware of what you see in the mirror. You are not what you see in the mirror.
You’re the one who sees it. You are in there, you’re conscious, but when you drop in here, you identify with this thing you’re looking at why? Because I don’t know who I am. I’m lost. You don’t know who you are. You don’t know who you are. That’s why you made somebody up. Go on a date and like the person a lot and try to figure out how you should behave. So they’re like you, I’m whatever you want me to be ready, I’m leaving you. I’m happy with you. No, I’ll change. I’ll be whatever you want me to be. Sorry, I talk surreal. I I’ll be whatever you want me to be. Just tell me, no, don’t leave me. I can’t stand that. Who is this talking? What do you mean you’ll be whoever somebody wants you to be. Would you make yourself up and they can make up a new one?
Yes. It’s called real truth, isn’t it? Okay, so you made up a you didn’t you and you change it that you made up in there. It’s not the same when you used to play with Barbie or with the toy trucks or whatever the heck going on. You’ve changed along the years, haven’t you? No. No. You have not changed one iota. What you’re looking at has changed. Your consciousness does not change. It evolves. What does that mean? Consciousness evolves. It understands more about who it is. It knows it’s not what it’s looking at. The light. Somehow the light of consciousness somehow caught on. I’m shining on a hope diamond, but I’m not the hope diamond. They throw hope diamond away or they found a flaw in it. Oh my God, after all these years, they found a flaw in the hope diamond. Well, oh my god, they destroyed me.
No, it didn’t have anything to do with you did it. So spiritual evolution and evolving and becoming more evolved being means you step back from identifying with what you are aware of. You’re aware of your thoughts, you’re aware of your emotions, you’re aware of your body, you’re aware of what’s in front of you. Are you not? Who is that is spirituality. It has nothing to do with what’s going on outside of you. It has nothing to do with your body. It has nothing to do with your thoughts. Has nothing to do with your emotions. Those are things you’re aware of. You are aware of your 12-year-old emotions. You can still remember you because are aware of them. You’re aware of your 30-year-old emotions. You’re aware of your thoughts yesterday, the same you who’s aware that you remember your thoughts, was aware of your thoughts. There’s just one awareness and it doesn’t change.
It evolves but it doesn’t evolve. Meaning it becomes greater. It’s already the greatest thing that could possibly be. Consciousness is perfect. Consciousness is God, but the ray of God consciousness that is looking at your thoughts has lost itself in the thoughts it thinks. It’s the thoughts. That’s so funny. It thinks it’s the thoughts. Your mind creates the thought that says, I’m the thought, watch this. Oh my God, I can’t believe I thought of that. I’m so embarrassed. I hope nobody could read my thoughts. How could I tell anybody that I had that terrible thought? What is going on in there? A thought passed by and you identified with it. I’m ashamed. I feel so guilty. Oh my God, I’ll never make it to heaven. You’re creating more thoughts about a thought so you can be screwed up with your thoughts. It’s just a thought.
Oh, I’m so smart. I solved this equation. It’s just a thought. It’s a thought that you’re watching and so you come to the point, you understand the consciousness is aware. It’s pure awareness. I am aware I am that I am. I’m aware. You drop down, you’re lost. You don’t know what to be aware of. So you grab the body. This is my body mine, right? You identify with it. You started building an ego. You started saying, I’m not the pure consciousness, that array of divine consciousness that happens to be looking at this. I am what I’m looking at. That is a key of the whole thing. And that is a lie. That is a non-truth. You are not what you’re looking at. You’re the one who’s looking. You’re the one that’s aware of what you were looking at. You’re aware of what you see. You’re not what you see.
You’re aware. You are awareness. That’s all you are is pure awareness, but that’s not comfortable. You’re lost. And so you grab a hold of the body, start with the body. This is mine and then mommy picks you up. That’s mine. I me, mine and the crib mine. Yes, everybody got some mine stuff going on in there? Yes or no? You see, it hasn’t stopped one odor from the day we’re born. You just changed what you’re identifying with, but you’re still doing the same thing. You built this false identification of yourself in your mind and you made yourself up and you can change yourself anytime you want, but you made yourself up and there. It’s that’s not who you are. You’re the one that’s aware that and that’s witness consciousness. I always said you’re the one that’s aware that’s going on in there. Some of you not you guys, you made it here.
Some of you are not aware that that’s what you’re aware of. You’re so identified with it that you never take that one step back to say, yep, I see what’s going on in there. That’s called witness consciousness. Witness consciousness. I’m the consciousness and I’m witnessing what I’m looking at. I’m aware. Do you have an ego? You see it and most of you realize it’s a pain in the ass. Some of you thinks it’s the greatest thing in the whole world. You don’t know how good I am. Lemme show you. Let’s ego. And some of you say it’s a burden to carry this thing around, right? You can’t get along with anything, complains about everything. All it cares about is itself. You’re just able to see the nature of that thought pattern, which is your ego. Okay? Now you see what witness consciousness is. Witness consciousness is not enlightenment.
Witness consciousness is not even a high spiritual state. Why witness this consciousness? You’re still looking at you. You’re just aware that you’re looking at you. You’re aware. You’re going to understand the following. His body. For old age, he was in a wheelchair and they had to help him get up and stuff like that. And somebody once said, master can help you get up. And he said, don’t talk to me about this body. It’s nothing but a bundle of troubles and the sooner I get rid of it, the better there. He would not identify what he was looking at. Okay? Ram Krishna, full enlightened master. When he talked about what you call me and I, the body, he called it this. I don’t know what this wants. I don’t know what’s wrong with this. Don’t talk to me about this. I don’t want, and he meant, meant the ego, the emotions, and the body to him.
Was this because he was that far gone, right? So witness consciousness, you’re still staring at you. That’s wonderful. At least you’re aware that you’re standing against you as opposed to being lost in staring at you and defending it and protecting it and putting it out there and trying to make it look good. You’re just seeing it. Do that how? That you do protect yourself, don’t you? Somebody says something to you that bothers you. Do you defend yourself? Okay, are you in there defending yourself or are you noticing that someone in there is defending themselves? That’s witness consciousness. You notice it got offended and it’s talking real fast and his heart is going like this and the words are coming out and you’re noticing until you lose it, we call losing it. You ever lose it? What does that mean? You don’t even have a relative center of consciousness.
You lose it into what’s happening. Next thing you know what’s being said is you’re sorry later and it’s just flowing out of your mouth and you’re defending yourself and arguing, can you get really lost in it? Yes or no? That’s when the consciousness loses its seat of centered awareness and gets lost and what it’s looking at. And sometimes you come back, I hope you come back. You come back and you realize, whoa, whoa. What’s going on there? And over time you learn not to do that. That’s spiritual growth. That’s the evolution of the soul. The soul is perfect. It’s just getting identified with what’s not, with what comes and goes. Eventually you get to the point and we’ll talk about again, we’re still talking about how to live the truth, but now I’m talking about how to live the lie, aren’t I? The ego is not who you are.
It has nothing to do with you. It is something you’re aware of. It is a collection of thoughts that you built inside your mind that you hold onto for dear life and defend and project and protect because you rest on the ego. You didn’t know who you were and so you built a nest in your mind, a house out of thoughts. Your ego is thoughts. It’s nothing but thoughts. I believe this. I think that I don’t like this. This is all I’m going to vote for. It’s called a self-concept. You made a concept of yourself, a concept can’t be who you are. It’s a concept. It’s something you made up. What’s your concept of who he is and where he came from? I never met him. I don’t know. I’ll make something up. Just create a concept. So you created a concept of yourself, the concept of who you think you are.
That’s why it can get hurt. That’s why I have to defend it. You don’t have to defend truth. Truth is truth. It’s real. But this thing ain’t real. This ain’t real and there’s no good one. The ego is a lie. The ego is fault. Somebody like that, ask Yogananda, what is the ego? I said the masquerading self. You’ve built a mask out of thoughts and you hold it in front of yourself because you’re scared, because you don’t know who you are really. You’re not self-realized, enlightened, and so you don’t know what to hold onto. So you built this mask out of thoughts and we all built different ones, didn’t we? That’s how we all think different and act different and behave different. Ever say to somebody, I can’t believe you said that. I would never said something like that to you. Of course you wouldn’t build the same one that I built.
You built your mask out of the experiences you’ve had in the past. What else would you build it out of? So you had a nice experience with somebody named Sally and you tend to like Sally’s now, right? Or a redhead or in a bad experience. You’ve had experiences, haven’t you? If they were good experiences, you clinging to them as good, you don’t want ’em happen again. They are bad experiences. You clinging to them. I don’t want ’em to happen again. And you build a you. I’m the one who, no, you’re not the one who married, so-and-So no, you’re not the one who had this child. No, you’re not the one that played Dorothy in the fifth grade. Those are experiences that you had. If you didn’t have those experiences, you would still exist, but you built a fault to you in your mind out of these experiences.
And psychology tells you, look, they tell you what man’s, a son has learned experiences. They say things like that. They call it self-concept. They say man’s a sum who learned experiences. In other words, they’re admitting it’s not real. You would still be there if you didn’t have those experiences. Take the worst experience you ever had and the best. What if it didn’t happen? Would you still be a conscious being, experiencing life? It has nothing to do with you. It’s just an event that happened outside that when it came in, it didn’t fit you, that didn’t fit your ego didn’t fit your self-concept. Even the terrible ones. No, I’m not somebody whose child died. Well what happened? My child died. But I’m not somebody who my child died. It’s bothered me my entire life. Parents should outlive their children being real today we’re talking like adults, right?
Well, maybe it should be that way, but it wasn’t. So what does that mean? It means yes, it’s painful. Yes, it’s difficult, but is it going to define your life? That’s who I am. I’m the person who had a miscarriage. I’m the person who lost a child. I’m the person that my husband left me. I’m the person that my wife. I’m going to define myself by the experience that I couldn’t handle. And so you look at it and you say, that doesn’t make much sense, does it? Because it’s not who you are. You existed before it happened. You exist after it happened, but you took it as part of your ego. Why? Because you are resting on your ego. Your consciousness is lost. It’s not really lost. It’s merged with God, but it’s looking away from that turned in the wrong direction. It’s looking down.
If you turned around in there, you would be with God. You’re looking away as to fall from the garden. You’re looking down, you’re seated in universal consciousness staring at your mind and all self-realization is, and enlightenment is, is you cease to do that and it merges back. Mary Baba said, my consciousness was like a drop in the ocean, A drop staring at me when I let go, it fell into the ocean. Find a drop that you dropped into the ocean. That’s what the word merger comes from. Yoga is union merger. You merge back. The great beings are merged. Consciousness return to its source truth. Alright? But you’re staring at this thing you made up. I’m sorry to keep talking about it, but it’s unbelievable. Thoughts are just thoughts. They’re like waveless in the ocean, have one heaven having thought you want, right? But you made up some and now I started telling you the consciousness rests.
That’s its house. It rests on those thoughts and if anything disturbs those thoughts, whoa, it gets really disturbing in there, doesn’t it? Hurricanes are going on inside and you can’t rest. And then if somehow you get it together, how rationalized? Well he really, I know he loves me. He loves me so much that he can’t say it. He loves me so much. He can’t stand to be in my presence because he loves me so much. He keeps running away. She didn’t really mean that. I know she didn’t mean that, right? I know what you were thinking. I don’t care what you say, I don’t care how honest you try to be. I know what you were thinking. I know that I know. Wow. And you just make up more thoughts to patch the holes in the thought patterns. It’s so unreal. It’s ridiculous that we devote our lives to it.
Well I guess it’s uncomfortable if it doesn’t work. Okay, alright, so all those senior talked about are called non-truth. They’re just made up stuff in the mind and the mind can make up anything it wants, can’t it? Like the mind made up that the earth was flat, had all the evidence, mind makes up that women aren’t as good as men. The mind makes up all kinds of stuff. Where’d you get that? Where in the world you get that? I made it up how you make it up and now it becomes real. I got other people to believe what I made up. Am I telling the truth? Okay, let’s get real. Let’s get real. It’s just made up stuff, but which of the made up stuff is right? Isn’t that funny? Which of the made up stuff is right? None.
You are the self, you are the consciousness and so is everybody else, period. That’s what everything is. But it’s staring at a set of thoughts that are different than yours, the set you made up and that’s making the world go around and all the wars and all the problems and all the disharmony because you think you’re right. When I talk to people, I say even spiritual people, they think they’re right. They actually think they’re right. There’s not a single thought that you have. That’s right. It’s a thought. I gave you some truths. You sit on a planet in the middle of nowhere and nowheres is pretty big and you ain’t going to be here very long there. You have to think about it. You know how to know it’s the truth. If you don’t think about it and you don’t believe it, it still happens.
It has just nothing to do with you. You understand that It’s so big, it’s ridiculous. So you get to the point where you understand how we started saying, now that’s neat to talk about how do you live the truth? How would you live the truth? What if you did look at that ego and said, no, thank you. Been there, done that. Oh, I want to meet you when you get there, been there, done that. I am not going to devote my life to a collection of made of thought patterns. I only have a few years here. That can’t possibly be the meaning. It can’t possibly be the meaning. I built a building and gave it my name. So what exactly did it do for you or anybody else? Nothing. Nothing. So you just catch on. You say maybe I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I do know what I’m not supposed to do.
I’m not supposed to make up a bunch of thoughts in my mind and then make believe that’s real and then devote my life to it. What’s the alternative? You come down to what’s real. Are you here? Yes. You can be here for a few years. Yes and go cry. Maybe cry. Is there anything you can do to help there that’s not about you? Is there anything you can do to make it a better place to anything you can do to help? Based on my beliefs? No, no, no. Well, if it’s not my beliefs, what’s it based on? Is there a moment unfolding in front of you? Is there anything you can do to help? Not philosophy, not some concept and view of what everybody should be doing. And now I’ll help them do it. Everybody should think the way I think that’s so destructive. It’s ridiculous When you give up on your own made up garbage.
Now you’re here and you see there’s a moment of folding in front of you. And since you don’t have all this garbage going on inside of you, you’re able to relate to the moment and see what you can do to help. That’s called be here now. And you think, well that can’t work. Do you want to bet there? Because your mind can’t conceive that that could work. That you could be in the moment without concept, view, opinion, preference, hope, dream, anything. You’re in the moment and you’re interacting with the moment in order to help in any way you can called serve in order to serve. How can I raise this moment? Is there anything I can do? Maybe you can smile, maybe you can help. No one defines it, but you’re not busy making it be what you want. That does not help one single iota because somebody else wants it to be something else.
Just let it be. Here it is, here it is. What can I do to serve? And then the next moment unfolds. What do I need to do to make the next moment unfold? Nothing. Because that’s the truth. I forgot to tell you. You’re sitting on a tiny plant in the middle of nowhere. You only be very long and every moment changes, every single moment. It’s a motion picture, not a snapshot. It’s never been the same. It’ll never be the same. It changes every single moment changes. Nothing stays the same. There’s not an atom in the same place, not an electron in the same place. Not the corks or a subatomic particle sits still for 1000000000th of nothing. Alright? Everything is changing constantly. So why have these concepts and views and opinions and hopes and dreams and preferences and beliefs and all that a real being is present in the present moment serving to the best of their ability.
They don’t need anything from that moment. I don’t need you to like me, I don’t need you to not like me. I don’t need you to believe in me. I don’t need anything from you. Therefore I can help you. Therefore I can serve you otherwise I’m serving me. How often have you been in a moment that you didn’t want anything from? You weren’t afraid of it, you didn’t want something from it? We are out there having built this thought pattern of the ego manipulating the world every single second to try to make it be what we want it to be. So it’s comfortable for us. It’s embarrassing, but is it not the truth? That’s what it means here. Welcome to a human being because that’s what they’re doing. They’re lost in their mind, totally committed to their ego and they have found out if I can get things the way I want, I feel better inside.
And if things are not the way I want, I feel worse inside. And if I think things will be better, I feel better. If I think things will be worse, I feel, oh my God, it’s just all about you. It’s just all about what I made up with this mind structure. What if that wasn’t there? What does it mean to live truth? Because that thing’s a lie. And I know it’s difficult to get rid of. We can talk about it a little bit, but at least get the foundation down. What it means is it’s not about me, but nothing is about me. Nothing is about me. There is no me not like that. There is no made up concept of how I need things to be and want things to be and what’s right and what’s wrong and good and bad. And there’s just consciousness interacting with reality with an open mind and an open heart.
And that didn’t bring me into the moment. The moment came to me and it will come to you. You can’t stop it. You, you’ve tried. You’ve tried your whole life to make the next moments be what you want them to be. When you’re done with you, then you’re president in the moment and you’re interacting with reality that’s unbelievable. And you’re serving it, you’re serving it. You’re doing what you can to help, not to help you, but just to serve the moment. That’s how you live your life. It is a life of service. It’s just totally service. But you’re not thinking, I’m living a life of service. You don’t know you’re living a life of service because you’re not saying there’s another life other than reality. My ego is so big that I’m not going to yell at you. You bothered me, but I’m not going to yell at you.
Aren’t I high? No you’re not. Because I heard the word I 15 times in that sentence and it was called spiritual ego got one and it’s just as hard to live with any other one. What if I wasn’t? It’s in there you go. Alright, let’s talk about what you can do about this. It’s kind of fun to talk about that up. Kind of just freeing to talk about truth, to realize that whole thing we have to do, we don’t have to do, right? Congratulations. You impress somebody. Wait until the next time you meet them. Be scared that you won’t impress ’em next time. I guarantee you it’s going to be that way. Why? Because it’s fake. Here’s my mask. It’s not me, it’s my mask. Do you accept it? Do you see it? Do you like it? What should I change? You’re busy buying there, trying to be okay, but holding this mask out there.
So the better you do, let’s watch everybody. The better you do, the more scared you are, the more you have to manipulate everything, control everything and so on to try and make it be what you want it to be. There’s no freedom in that. There’s nothing in that. What does it mean to be real? Let’s talk about that one. Are you going to get rid of ego? No. No. It’s just a thing. It’s a thing. The self drops down if it’s merged, it doesn’t experience ego, but when it comes back, it’s there just like your body is there. Alright? The question is not, are you going to have one? Let’s get that straight. Do you have one? You know you do. Doesn’t enlighten being have one? Not when they’re merged. Yes, they have one, but they’re not looking at it. Is your house still there when you went away?
When you come back, is it there? But you’re not interacting with it when you’re not there. So it ego can be there. It’s part of the structure. When the self drops down into the body, it’s going to build some kind of fake concept because it is not experiencing itself as itself a great perfect master like Christ is there. Even when they’re here. That’s a perfect being there. Just can’t even talk about it. Imagine that you are merged with the whole universe and this is here. Learn to have deep respect because of what he was, the state he reached. Okay? I told you Yogananda, somebody once went to Yogananda. When he came to America in the twenties, he ended up in Carnegie Hall teaching control of the life force, right? Somebody once asked him, master, you came here from India and come America, and now you’re in Carnegie Hall teaching all these thousands, thousands of people.
Don’t you feel pride when you stand up there and look out at the audience? He said, no, I don’t. And they asked him, what do you feel? He said, well, I’m standing there and the talk is taking place. I’m simultaneously on a higher plane with my master helping other high beings. And at the same time as all those things are happening simultaneously, my consciousness is expanding the speed of light in all directions across the universe. That’s what I feel. That’s an enlightened being. You’re just pure consciousness. But you can exist everywhere. Consciousness is everywhere. But when you come back, there’s an ego. It has to be so relate to the body. All the masters taught. There has to be some tie. Mayor Baba, very great master used to have a disciple stand outside his room at night, open the door periodically and see if he was wiggling his big toe because if he was not wiggling his big toe, he would not be there in the morning. That’s how tenuous. Don’t be afraid you won’t get there, right?
But you can wiggle your toe if you want. That’s how tenuous the tide of the body was. But it’s still there. There’s still an ego, but you’re not identified with it. Yoga also said once that till the day he died, God challenged him with things that he liked and didn’t like, but you’re not identified with it. They asked rum a Christian, oh, the great master doesn’t enlighten being ever feel anger. I know your concept says no, right? He said yes, but it’s like writing on water. How long does it last when you pass your finger to write something on water? I just passes it right through. So everything comes in and passes through. So there’s still somebody there, but they’re not resisting. They’re not holding on. They’re not liking and disliking and suppressing and doing all the garbage that we do. So when a master, if something happens and there’s this human reaction called anger, it just comes in and goes through nothing to do about it. It just comes in and goes through. Jealousy, fear, insecurity. Well fear. You’re talking about a fearless being. I tell you something though, but you don’t know. A fearless being feels fear. They’re just not afraid of it.
They’re not afraid of feeling fear. A great warrior that goes into battle is he’s fearless. There’s fear, but he’s not afraid of the fear. He’s able to handle the fear and carry on and go about the business, like riding on water. It comes and goes. There are human emotions. Have you noticed there are human emotions? Can you handle them? Can you handle? And the answer, call 1, 2, 3. No, not a chance in the world that I can handle them. So what do I do? I manipulate everybody and everything in my life so that they don’t do things that make me feel the ones I can’t handle. That’s what you can do with your life. Isn’t that wonderful? I’m going to go out and manipulate every single moment, every person, every interaction I’m having and going to have, think I’m going to have. That’s interesting too, to make sure that when it comes in, it doesn’t bother me.
So you just lived your life, avoiding reality, avoiding yourself, avoiding everything, and especially if something happened to me in the past and bothered me, I’m going to make sure it don’t happen again. I’m going to let it define my life. Say alternative. Let’s stop doing that so that we can live truth. We can live life. We can serve something other than being afraid and trying to protect ourselves and doing everything. How do you do that? What I have learned, yes, there’s meditation. It’s wonderful. I don’t teach meditation, but a lot of people do, right? Meditation’s wonderful mantra is wonderful. All the traditional techniques are wonderful. Guess what? I found that waking up in the morning and saying things are going to happen to me today. Some of them will not be so comfortable and some of them will be so comfortable that I want to grab them and run away and say with them, right?
I’m going to go through this day centered. I’m going to let happen today. What happens and let it pass through me and then deal with it. Once it passes through, not react to it. I can’t handle it. I’m not going to interact, and again, I’m not perfect at this. I’m not going to interact with life because I can’t handle it. That’s not going to be my definition of interacting with life. That’s the purpose of my life. Trying to manipulate everything so that I can handle it. Why don’t I just get rid of the part of me that can’t handle it? That’s yoga. Why don’t I just get rid of the part of me inside that can’t handle reality instead of trying to manipulate everybody and everything, which is impossible so that when it comes in, it doesn’t hit the part of me I can’t handle.
I am going to let go of the part of it that can’t handle life, that can’t handle reality. That is the spiritual path. It’s inside. I’m going to let go of the part of me that can’t handle what is going on in front of me instead of storing yet another thing inside of me that hurt me or I got disappointed. I didn’t get what I wanted. No. How do you do that? I teach her the same every time. You don’t start with the big stuff. You can lay down on the couch, it’s fine. Everything helps, but that’s not going to do it. That may get rid of one. Oh, I realized mommy did this when I was five. Good career. Congratulations. What else happened to you? Oh my God, near me. What you do is you sit there and say, I am going to learn how to handle things.
I’m going to learn how to handle things, period. That’s what I’m going to learn. I’m going to learn to play tennis. I want to play the piano. I learn how to handle things. Just another thing to learn. Are you good at it? No. Are you good at tennis? First time you pick up a racket, you go to golf. First time you pick a club, are you good at piano? First time you sit down, no. But you can learn. Are you good at handling things? No. I’ve gotten really good at manipulating and projecting different stuff so I can control the environment around me so it doesn’t bother me. What if I instead tried to work on myself so I learned to handle reality and I teach it and living unez? I got into very deep with that. How do you do that? You don’t start with your suppressed stuff.
You start with the fact that it’s raining out. I don’t want it to rain. I have to get out of the car. How about we work with that? How about we start with the tiniest, tiniest little thing that you’re not going to change anyways and you’re letting it bother you for no reason in any way, shape or form other than you let it bother you? How about we learn, not let it bother us? Can you learn to walk in the rain and say, okay, oh yeah, what can you learn to notice that it’s cloudy out at night before you go to sleep and you want to go camping tomorrow and you’re upset that maybe you won’t be able to go camping. It’s called worrying. You’re making up things and getting upset because they might happen. Anything might happen. How about we start working with that?
Working with saying, I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to be like that. If it rains, it’s going to rain. I’ll play checkers inside instead of going hiking. I can handle it. That’s I can handle it. I can handle it. There’s your mantra. I can handle it. The mind said, what if I can handle it, but maybe I can handle it? You just starts saying, I can handle it instead if I can’t handle it. You start working with yourself to say these everyday things that I drive myself crazy about, why don’t I stop doing that? And if I can learn to handle the weather or the driver, people always accuse me. You always take these examples of the weather and the driver in front of you. There are bigger things there in life, but if you can’t handle the driver in front of you or the weather, you ain’t going to handle the bigger things in life.
If you can’t even get the ball over the net, don’t play the Williams sisters. You got to practice. You got to start with the simple stuff, but you’re not willing to do that. You don’t understand how important it is that if somebody’s driving in French slower than you want, it doesn’t use your blinker. It keep stepping under their brakes. Can you handle or you get in traffic? What are you going to do by that? You’re stuck in traffic. Three lanes there it is. Accident up ahead. You’re locked in there. No. Yes. I don’t want too bad. Can you handle it? You might as well use that for your spiritual growth. You might as well use that to prove if I want to, I can handle it fine. I’ll sit here, I’ll play some music, I’ll do a mantra. I’ll breathe whatever you want. Just don’t complain.
Don’t sit there and say, I can’t handle this because then when something really big happens, you’re never going to be able to handle any of it. Practice handling reality started us talk by saying, what does it mean to live truth, practice handling reality? Because if you can’t handle reality, you’re not going to live truth because reality is truth at that moment, and I’m telling you, you can get very good at it. Maybe you think you can’t. Every one of you, I don’t care. Every one of you can get better at handling the moments in front of you than you are doing now, because what you’re doing now is trying to make sure the moments in front of me don’t bother me. That’s like the kids don’t want a tantrum in Moss Brothers, you say, what do you want me to get? What color? You know better than that? Well, you’re doing that with yourself. Oh, I don’t like this. Oh, should I do? I’ll leave. What should I say? He whatever the thing says that ego, whatever it made up, you just do everything it says. No wonder it’s spoiled. What happens when the ego doesn’t get what it wants? Throws a tantrum. Now, how old you are? It throws tantrums, doesn’t it? What happens if it gets what it wants?
Wow. You letting the ego run your life. You practice not doing that by renunciation. No, I never use those words in a million years. What’s renunciation? You have to decide what to renounce. You’re still letting the ego you understand that No, just be here now at the moment unfolding in front of you and handle it. That will take you the whole way. The whole way. Why? Because ultimately, if you can handle every moment’s unfolding in front of you, you don’t have any worry, you don’t need an ego, it’ll fall away pretty much, and you’ll be at peace and you can serve. And then what happens also, you don’t realize it is the self stop staring at the ego. Why? Because it’s not so distracting anymore. If you can handle things like the white lion in the road, they don’t bother you. You don’t have to pay attention to them that much.
You can pay attention when you’re supposed to, but they don’t have nightmares about ’em. How many of you have nightmares about the white lines in the road? How many of you have nightmares about all the trees you’ve driven by or people you didn’t know? It’s only when you screw it up, it becomes a problem. So the more you can handle the moment I’m falling in front of you, the more self will be elevated, naturally will be, what was that word? Oh yes, untethered and will be untethered. You’re tethered because you’re staring at what bothers you. When you learn to handle things, they don’t bother you, and all of a sudden you just naturally, the whole ascent takes place by itself. You just naturally are higher. You naturally feel this joy and love pouring inside of you. Okay, so we start off by saying, how do you live truth? You can do it and it’s really beautiful and it’s really beautiful for you and for everybody else because the next thing you know, you’re serving, imagine serving, truly serving. Not because you’re supposed to, like you want something, but just because there’s nothing else to do, you don’t have you that needs to be served, and what you’re left with is a heart that reaches out and serves, okay? Work on these things.
Tami Simon: You’ve been listening to The Michael Singer Podcast, produced by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. For more information on Michael’s body of work and all back episodes, please join us at MichaelSingerPodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening. Sounds True: waking up the world.
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