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: Jai Guru Dev.
You see a lot today where some very special great people, a lot of them, want to stand up for what they believe in. Very beautiful, but I’m going to tell you a secret. You can’t stand up for what you believe in until you can stand up to yourself, and that’s the truth. All the rest is lip service. All the rest is a way of releasing energy. It’s not hard when you’re angry to express that anger. It’s not hard when you’re scared to express that fear. That is not what’s standing up for what you believe in is about, and that’s what a lot of this stuff ends up being.
Your beliefs, your pole stars should be formed during your times of greatest clarity. Don’t you ever let the direction of your life be guided as a reaction to something that happened to you. Something happens that turns somebody on. Something happens that turns somebody off. And the reaction to that becomes their beliefs, becomes the pole star of their life. That’s very, very shallow. It will never last. It honestly does no good in the sense that what you’re dumping into this world is not pure. It’s need, it’s desire, it’s fear, it’s anxiety, it’s anger. That doesn’t lead to anything good. In the end, temporarily a little flash fire looks like it can do something, but it doesn’t do anything. You formulate your ideals, your true, I call them pole stars. I don’t want to call them beliefs. They’re your pole stars. They’re what you guide your life by during your times of greatest clarity.
If you have a deep meditation, if you achieve a state where you just feel higher than you were before, you feel clearer, what does it mean clearer? There’s less noise inside. It is not about what’s going on outside ever. It is about that there’s less noise inside. The emotions are not creating disturbance one way or another for or against because they create a lot of disturbance both ways. You get attracted to something, you want something, all of a sudden there’s all this noise going on inside, isn’t there? You’re afraid of something, something bothered you. All of a sudden there’s all this noise going on inside. That is the definition of non-clarity. There is absolutely nothing that either of those noises for and against emotionally, energetically inside that is worth tying your cart to, that’s worth tying your chariot to. They’re not going to take you anywhere.
They come, they go, they burn out, but there are times in which the emotions are quieter, not suppressed. This is deep. If you have the noise, you’re going to make every decision you make based upon getting what the noise wants. I always talk to you about, let’s spend a moment. If you are feeling desire and need and attraction, everything you’re going to do is a servant to that. It’s going to make you do it. It makes your thoughts be that way. It makes your actions be that way. It’s not you. It’s that energy needing to express itself. Have you seen that? Do you understand that? All right, likewise, if you feel fear, anger, repulsion by something, it really turns you off, you are going to make every decision, every word out of your mouth, every decision you make, every direction you go in is going to be to try to make it easier to live inside yourself.
When you are feeling need and desire, it’s not easy to live in there. It’s burning. It drives you to get something. If you’re feeling insecurity and self-consciousness and embarrassment and fear and all that, it’s hard to live in there. It’s difficult. So you’re going to try to say things and do things that make it easier for you to live in there. I call that reactive energy. There’s nothing guiding you. There’s no guide. The moment the energy goes away, you’re left standing there. If you feel attracted to somebody and you need to be with them and you go crazy to be with them and then all of a sudden they something that turns you off, now you’re crazy getting away from them. Where did you go? Nowhere. You just went around in circles. You went nowhere. There’s no pole star. Nothing’s guiding you.
You’re just thrashing around in the water. If you’re drowning and you see maybe that’s an island up there, best to be swimming toward it, not thrashing around trying not to drown. At least have some hope, something you’re going toward. Most people don’t have that. They’re just reacting to the needs and fears or repulsions that they emotionally and energetically feel inside, and they’re uncomfortable with those things, and therefore everything they’re saying, everything they’re doing, is to try to get an environment around them that makes it easier to live with themselves. How about I say it that way? We have trouble living with ourselves, don’t we? It’s not all comfortable, and so what we try to do is create environments around us; people, places, things, that when they come in and they touch our inner state, it makes it feel better and doesn’t make it feel worse.
Well, I’m telling you, as rational as that sounds, it’s completely irrational. You’re not going anywhere. How would you like to live your life putting out fires? You don’t go anywhere. You’re just putting out fires. Maybe you’re better at it than somebody else, so it’s a little easier to live without all the fire going on. But what did you do with your life? Nothing. It didn’t go positive, no anything. It’s a non-negative state. You’re just trying to be less negative. That’s what putting out fires is. So when something is going on inside of you that is not comfortable, and I’m telling you because you yogis, you have to understand that for and against are the same. That’s when you get into non-dualist teachings. If you are feeling desire and need and drive towards something, it is not comfortable. If you’re madly in love with somebody, you can’t live without them.
You say, that’s a beautiful thing, I want that. Okay, I’ll lock you in a room without them and see what happens to you. You drive yourself crazy the same as you would if you had fear or anxiety. They are not comfortable inner states. They are not what we call peace. They’re not [inaudible 00:07:13]. They’re rajasic. That’s what we say in the trade. Those are rajasic energies. They’re energies that are disturbing. Yes, one’s disturbing in a rather positive way. It looks like if you get it’ll be positive. The other’s disturbing in a negative way. It looks like if you get it, it’ll get worse. I agree. If I had to have one, I’d have the positive. But neither are a state of well-being. Neither are a state of peace. Neither leave you in a state of clarity. So it’s not like you’re striving in your life to be driven by things that you need and want.
It’s going to betray you. It’ll never last. It will never last, and you know it doesn’t. So when you see those energies, if those are what are driving you and you call that activism, you call that living up for what I believe in, that’s not true. The state of clarity is when either that stops, but don’t worry about it stopping. It takes time for that to stop. And how long it takes for you to not be that? Why? Because you’re not it. It is something that’s going on inside of you. It is something you’re noticing. You notice fear, you notice embarrassment. You notice anxiety, you notice self-consciousness, don’t you? You notice need. You notice them. You are not them. So what I said to begin with is in order to be true and stand up for what you believe in, you have to be true to yourself.
You have to be able to handle yourself. You have to be able to stand up to yourself. That’s first. That’s what I mean by stand up to yourself is there’s a lower energy going on in there, isn’t there? And you know it. That energy is not easy to live with, is it? If you can’t live with it, it will run your life. There’s no choices here. There’s no vacations. You take it with you on your vacation. There’s no time off. That’s what people try to do with drugs and alcohol. Give me a break. A break from what? Me. You’re not going to break from anybody else. I need a break from me, all right? So when you have disturbance going on inside of you, it is not easy to stop it. It is not easy to live with. It is not easy to not have it going on.
That takes time. It will happen. Do you understand that? You can live a life in which no disturbance goes on inside of you. Every one of you can live a life in which no disturbance goes on inside of you just to get it on the table. Well, then why would I live my life? Because you’re so driven by these for’s and againsts that you think there’s no life to live if they’re not going on. What you don’t understand is that you in there, you who’s being disturbed by these disturbances going on inside, happens to be a whole other level of consciousness. You’re a whole entire being unto yourself. You’re you, and you have a nature. The nature is not what you’re looking at. If I hold pictures up in front of you, one is of this, one of this, one of this, and I keep changing them, it’s not changing you. You’re the one looking at the pictures.
When you look at anxiety, when you look at fear, when you look at jealousy, when you look at need, that’s you looking at it. Those are like pictures that your lower self is holding up. They’re like masks. This is what I feel right now. This is what I feel right now. This is what I’m feeling right now. It’s not changing you. You don’t change one single iota when I hold a different picture up in front of you. You don’t, the one who’s looking at it, but your emotions, your thoughts, your lower self, we call your lower self, your personal self, does change, and it’s going to take time for those patterns to work their way out to where they are not as strong and then literally not there. They become a very thin veil like the crickets in the background.
The crickets don’t have to stop for you to live your life, do you? Every once in a while you stop. Oh, the cricket doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t disturb you. It’s just there. That is how your lower self becomes. Every once in a while you just see a little something, but it’s nothing, there like that, a little feather on your arm. That’s where I want you going. All right? Now, what drives you then? Why would you do anything? Why would you get up in the morning? Why would you get married? Why would you work? Anything? You don’t understand. You have a nature. They have their nature. If I hold pictures up in front of you, you can analyze the pictures or I can analyze you who’s looking. There is somebody looking. That’s what we’re talking about. So it’s not about analyzing or figuring out or stopping these lower energies that have a reason for being, which we’ll talk about in a moment.
I mean, not a good reason, but everything in this universe has causes. They have causes that cause them to come up when they do and to be what they are. Fine. That has nothing to do with you. When you are able to rise above them, we call it transcending, not get rid of them. Transcending doesn’t mean suppression, and transcending doesn’t mean they’re not there. Obviously, transcending can’t mean they’re not there because you’re transcending something. There’s nothing there, you’re not transcending anything. So to transcend, that’s why it’s called a transcendental philosophy, the eastern teachings. To transcend that stuff means to pay attention to who you are that’s watching them. That doesn’t take time. That’s it. There. Who’s looking at the picture? Me. Didn’t take long, right? So it’s the same thing when you were working with your lower self. That state of your being is not neutral.
People think there’s nothing. That’s not true. The truth of the matter is from the seat of self, from the seat of consciousness, from the seat of awareness, is where all beauty comes. That’s where true love comes from. True love is not something you feel with your heart. True love pours from your being. It is the essence of who you are. That is the nature of self. That thing you call love, that energy of love, it then flows down, and then if the mind is open, it flows down and pours out through the heart. That’s why you feel it when you’re open, when you’re receptive. You don’t feel the love when your mind is complaining and you don’t like somebody, et cetera, et cetera. But if your mind is completely open to a situation, a dog, a sunset, a person, love comes out, doesn’t it? That’s not the source of love.
I talked to that before. The faucet is not the source of the water. This fourth chakra is a faucet. It can open, and when it opens, the water flows through. Where does the water come from? When you meditate deep enough and explore your being deep enough, you return to the source and you realize you are made of love. That’s who you are in there. You are an ocean of love. You’re infinite, unending, unconditional. The mind puts conditions on things because you are behind the mind. The self watches the mind, doesn’t it? You notice your thoughts. You are behind your mind. So when you return to that place, it is nothing but love. And then when things are open, it pours out because the source and the state of your being is love. It’s inspiration, it’s ecstasy, it’s creativity, it’s God. All right? It’s just a tremendous force of beauty and wellbeing in anything you can say.
Therefore, when you sit in that seat and are not being pulled down to the lower energies, you are inspired to act, not driven to act. Those are very different things. The lower energies drive you out in the direction that they’re talking about, don’t they? The higher energies inspire you to do what? Interact with the reality that’s in front of you. Inspiration is always about here and now. That’s why the power of now, when people talk about that. It is when you have nothing else going except the presence of your being where the presence of your being is experiencing the reality of what’s in front of you. Everything else is mind. There’s only one thing in front of you. If I hold up a picture, that’s the picture you’re looking at. If you’re remembering another picture, that’s mine. If you’re hoping for a different picture, that’s mine.
There is nothing but what’s in front of you. That’s the only reality that exists at any moment, isn’t it? The rest is mine. There is no past except in your mind. It’s not happening now. There’s not a single atom that’s created in the past that stays there, and there is no future except in your mind. That one’s easy, isn’t it? So the only thing that’s real that is not just mind is the moment in front of you, the here and now. If the here and now is stimulating mind; like, dislike, want it, don’t want it, now you’re not interacting with the moment, you’re interacting with your reaction to the moment. This is everything, isn’t it? I mean, this is the essence of the teachings. You don’t need all the books, all right? They can help you, but that’s it. If your past, it’s mind. If your future, it’s mind, period.
Every single bit of it, I don’t care how nice it is. If it ain’t in front of you, it’s mind because that’s the only other thing you can look at that can create something is your mind. Otherwise, God, reality, here and now created what’s in front of you. The quantum field emanated this with quarks and leptons and bosons in this very moment, and there it is in front of you. You did not make that. Everything else you made with your mind. When you can stand in the presence of reality, then your being, your inspiration, your divinity, your wholeness, your soul, interacts directly with what has been created in front of you, and that brings about such beauty. That’s what Lao Tzu meant by the Tao. That is the Dharma. That is the complete wholeness. But if you are dealing with past, if you are dealing with future, that’s your own personal mind, and if you are dealing with your personal reaction to what is going on outside, there’s no clarity.
That’s called non-clarity. The only thing that is actually clarity is when none of that is going on or it’s not that it’s not going on, it’s that you’re not paying attention to it. If she’s talking, but I’m not interested in what she’s saying, I can still be interacting with you, and she can keep talking. You ignore people all the time, don’t you? You ignore all kinds of things so that you can focus on what you want to. It’s the same thing inside. You do not have to listen to this noise that’s going on inside. It doesn’t mean it’s not going on, but you do not have to listen to it right now. This very moment you do not have to listen to it. Now you say, “Maybe you don’t Mickey, but I do.” That’s not true. It’s not true. Let’s say you’re a smoker or a drinker, and I walk right up to you and say, “You don’t ever to have another drink for the rest of your life,” well, you don’t. You don’t have to. That’s ridiculous. There’s nobody making you. They’re not tying you down and pouring it down your throat.
They’re not making you smoke. If you don’t want to smoke anymore, stop putting cigarettes in your mouth. I try to make this distinction. If I say to you, “Go out there and pick up my car. Go out there and pick up my car with one hand, in fact, with your little pinky.” Well, okay, you can’t do that. There actually are things in this world that you can’t do. I’m not saying you’re Superman or Superwoman. There are things in this world that you can’t do such as picking up my car with your little pinky. All right? But you want to know what? If you’re doing it, you cannot do it. There’s not a single thing that you are doing that you’re not capable of not doing.
Why? Because you’re the one who’s doing it. If you are doing it, just don’t do it. “I can’t pick up a car with my pinky, Mickey. I’m trying, I can’t pick it up.” Okay. All right. Just stop trying. “I can’t.” It is not true that you can’t, just stop doing whatever the heck it is you’re doing that keeps you trying it and just don’t do it. So if you sit there and say to me, “I can’t stop smoking,” all you have to do is the next time you feel like you want to smoke, don’t pick up a cigarette and put it in your mouth. That’s all. That’s all you have to do, and you’ll never smoke again for the rest of your life. Now, if you want to tell me, “I can’t,” now, that’s pretty amazing. I can’t not pick up the cigarette and put in my mouth.
How many of you believe that there’s anyone who can’t not pick up the cigarette and put it in their mouth? I don’t care how many packs they’ve smoked a day because there isn’t anyone who’s not capable of not picking up the cigarette and put it in their mouth. The problem is, they don’t want to bad enough. The energy that is driving them to pick it up, remember we talked about those energies driving you, there’s energies in there aren’t there? That’s not your deep self, that’s your lower self creating nervousness and anxiety and uncomfortableness. That drive is greater than your interest in not going with it. That is where the rubber hits the road. That is spirituality right there, right there. You have decided that you don’t want to go with these energies. I don’t want to smoke anymore. I don’t want to drink anymore. I don’t want to get angry anymore. I don’t want to go with jealousy. I don’t want to be like that anymore.
Okay, fine. Very good. I respect that. You’ve looked at it. You’ve seen it’s not productive energy. Now the question is, are you capable of transcending those energies or are they going to run your life? And if you come and say to me about any of it, well stay with a cigarette because that’s easier, all right? If you say to me, no, I’m not capable, you are capable. You have the power of will in the inside. That’s willpower. That power is stronger than any drive, urge, need. You are the boss in there. You’re it. It’s just that you’re not willing to apply that will, and therefore you get sucked into these energies. I’m not saying there aren’t energies in there. There are energies in there. I understand them very well, believe me. There are energies in there, and they pull you one way or another.
Do you have to do what they’re saying? Of course not. If somebody says, “I’ve smoked for so long, I can’t not,” or even a drinker, and say you find you right at the moment where you’re stupid enough to go into a bar with your old drinking buddies. You’ve got 10 of your chips from AA, but you went into the bar, and you’re sitting there and you’re holding the glass, and you’re not even thinking and you’re about to drink it and somebody says, “Put it down,” well, there’s no way you’re going to put it down. You want to bet? You want to bet? Here’s $5 million, and your wife will come back to you. You can start all over again. You’re totally forgiven. If you put it down for 10 seconds, can you do it? If you can do it for 10 seconds, you can do it for 10 minutes.
In other words, the question is not whether you want to. The question is, are you capable? Isn’t it true you’re capable? If you want to, you are capable. It’s that simple. So spirituality and being true to your beliefs, if you will, true to your pole star, means that you have reached the point where there’s not a single thing, not one single thing, that can go on inside of you that you are not capable of handling. And what it means capable of handling is you’re still home. Am I home? Yep, check. Struggling a little bit, but I’m here. Hi. You have to always be there seated in the seat of self. You cannot let these energies pull you into them or the next thing you know instead of no, I haven’t smoked for three months, it’s I haven’t smoked for three hours. Or I said I would stop yelling or hitting, and I really meant it. I don’t know what came over me.
I know what came over you. I know very well what came over you. I understand it very well. I understand where it came from. I know mommy hit you. I know daddy did this. I know all kinds of stuff. Ever since you were mugged, you’ve had all this anger inside. I know all about it, but I also know that you are capable of staying above that energy. Listen to me, you’re not capable of not having that energy come up. Now you are capable of releasing over time those energies so they’re no longer there. But in a given moment, you are not capable of magically waving a wand and not having jealousy, fear, insecurity, need, pop up, all right? The question is not that. The question is, have you done the work on yourself that is necessary so that you’re still there when it comes up, right?
It’s not like you’re gone and then you come back. Anyone know anything about that? You’re still there when it comes up, and then you’re still there enough to make a decision. It’s my house. I make the decisions around here, not you, pointing down there. Those energies down there are not deciding what I say or what I do. The fact that there’s an urge, I understand that. So that’s what we’re talking about. So it is not a question of suppression, it’s a question of transcendence. It is not a question of making it not happen. It’s not a question of being embarrassed because it happened. I can’t believe after five years I still want to have that drink. Who cares? It doesn’t matter if you want to have it, what matters is whether you did it. It doesn’t make any difference what’s coming up below you.
So if you don’t like it and you push it down, let’s talk about that, suppression does not work. If I am sitting there and I don’t like the wind blowing by me and someone’s trying to teach me, it’s not bad. It’ll blow your hair. It feels good against your face. Just let it blow past you. Stay centered and be there in the presence of the wind. But I can’t do it, so what I do is take a four by eight piece of plywood, and anytime the wind shows up, I have handles on it and hold it up against the wind. That is big trouble. You will devote your entire life to that because the wind keeps blowing. There, you don’t need any psychology. There it is. If you hold that thing up there, you’re not getting married, you’re not getting a new house, you’re not enjoying your dinner.
Somebody feed me, I’m busy. Come on, shove it in. Are you hearing me? You have a full-time job holding back those energies. You did not make them not be there. Suppression will never make them not be there ever. Why would it? They’re there. You just pushed them down. There are reasons they’re there. We can talk about later how to get rid of those reasons. You can get rid of those reasons. It can be very nice in there. Now, not only will you devote your life to what you’re suppressing, whether you realize it or not, it doesn’t matter, at some point you forget there’s wind. You just know there’s plywood.
I’m serious. Do you hear me? Oh, it’s funny, but it’s not. You will literally forget why you’re holding the plywood. It would just be all about, I’ve got to hold this. Come on, I’m holding it. Hey, somebody help me. The only way you’re going to get married is if somebody comes there, “Hey, I want to hold that plywood too. Let’s do it together.” And as long as you’re both plywood holders, the thing holds together. The moment the other person’s like, “I don’t want to hold this plywood anymore,” okay, you get divorced, and you don’t know why you’re holding the plywood. That’s the suppression. You don’t know what you suppressed. If you truly repress something, you don’t know what you repressed. But I’m telling you, you’re down there holding it down. Let’s say you held that plywood up for three years with a constant wind, you’re somewhere where there’s always wind, if you take that plywood down, is there less wind because you held it up there?
The exact same forces exist. That’s exactly the same inside of you. Nothing goes away through suppression or repression. Period. And not only will you spend your life holding, talking about those energies now, when you spend your life holding it, but someday, I guarantee you, and I’m going to say it this way, by the grace of God, the wind will become strong enough to blow you over or to blow the plywood away for a moment. There is no way you are getting away with suppression. There is no way that’s working. So you need to understand that. Now, if an energy is very strong and you feel that it might overcome you, is it pertinent and meaningful to push it away some so you can catch your breath? Yes. That’s a technique just like meditation or anything else, but be aware you did it.
Make sure you don’t use it as a solution. It is a temporary situation for you to catch your breath, get some strength, and then let go. I’m not advising it, but you’re going to find out that you’re going to do it some. I don’t want to make you feel guilty or anything, right? You’re going to have trouble with some energies. The worst thing you can do is give in to them because it becomes a habit. Now, why am I saying that? Well, let’s take drinking or smoking, whichever you want. All right? Let’s take drinking. Okay, somebody comes and you feel an urge to drink, and you’re AA. You’re not doing it, right? You gave up on it, right? Okay. If you have to insult your friend and live with the fact that you feel a little rejected, that’s better than going drinking. If you find yourself in the bar and somebody offers you a drink and something inside of you says no, run, run, run, it’s not nice. They won’t invite you back. But you’ve got to admit, you’re better off doing that.
If the drink is right next to your lips and you taste it for a second and you throw it against the wall, even if you get in trouble because it broke a window, that’s better than taking the drink. There’s nothing, nothing that is worse than actually continuing the habit because when you drink that drink, two things happen. One, you reinforce the habit period. You reinforce the habit. Two, and this one, I don’t like telling you, because the probability and difficulty of you getting back to the state of self-control that you were in is now 10 times harder. Why? Because everything you did to get to that point now doesn’t work anymore. God, I really want to do this. I’m going to be true this time. You said that last time.
Isn’t that what it says? Don’t bother. Don’t even bother. You tried last time. It doesn’t work. You know how many smokers sit there and say, “I’ve tried. I’ve tried 10 times. It doesn’t work. I can’t stop. I’m just smoking.” So that’s what happens when you give into it. Nothing good happens. It doesn’t in any way, shape or form except for momentarily make you feel better. It has long-term and short-term completely negative effects, and we were talking about this whole talk is about how to be true to your beliefs. Stand up for what you believe in. That ain’t standing up for what you believe in. You don’t stand a chance. You’re being driven by something that you don’t believe in. It’s running your life. Suppression doesn’t work. You can temporarily push it away for a moment to catch your breath, but please do not think that out of sight, out of mind.
It’s going to come back in space. It grows, it gets stronger down there. It builds up just like when you dam up water. First, it’s just a little pressure. Now, watch what happens over time. You’ve got to dam up more and more. That’s what you have to understand these energies. So suppressing them does not work. Expressing them does not work because then it reinforces the habits and all that kind of stuff. The only thing that works is transcendence. Why does that work? Because you are the one who’s in there. You’re noticing the energies. If you can pull back into the seat of your being, one, you’re not suppressing the energies, you’re not giving into the energies, plus you’re giving them room. It does two things. It drops you back into the seat of self, you who’s watching, which is a nicer place to be. If I’ve got anger or fear or need going on inside of me and I can find a moment repose, I’m taking it.
Let’s say there’s all kinds of anxiety going on inside of you. Tightness and anxiety. Wouldn’t you like for a moment to have a little vacation? When you pull back into the seat of self, you’ll feel a little bit more comfortable because you get a little distance. But the main thing it does isn’t that. It’s by you pulling back you leave room for it to release inside. It actually just releases inside, and you don’t stop it. You’re going to realize at some point you go deep enough is that you are the blockage. It is your resistance, your will that’s pushing it away, and therefore it can’t release, and so it stays inside. When you’re able to fall back into the seat of self, into the seat of your being, the source, the witness, as you fall back into this, you can actually feel the distance between you and it, and the more distant, not push, it’s not a matter of pushing it away, it’s a matter of releasing yourself from it. Do you understand that difference?
As you get that distance, you’ll see that those energies can release, they can let go. Sometimes they release all at once, and that which was anger actually becomes love. It’s called transmutation of energies. This is deep stuff. This is the deepest yoga that you’re learning here. Transmutation of energies means anger, lust, need, greed, insecurity. These are all blocked energies. That’s what they are. They’re just different flavors of blocked energies. When you cease to block them, they release, and sometimes, not often, but sometimes they release all of a sudden. They push the blockage out of the way, and energy comes up, and the moment the energy comes to the higher centers, it changes its entire nature. I’ve literally seen uptightness. You let it go, and all of a sudden there’s just this great feeling of love and God and just beautiful energy rise up inside.
People who do deep psychotherapy work have releases, and all of a sudden they’re filled with energy. They can’t sleep at night. All this energy wells up inside of them. That’s because what they were dealing with was blocking the flow of the energy. All this stuff is blocking your energy flow. So if you are ready, willing and able, and we’ll take each one of those in a moment, ready, willing, and able, when the energies come up inside of you, and they will come up, and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as there’s a reason for the energies to come up, they’re free to come up. You do not want to suppress them. You don’t want to get into a spiritual ego where you say, “I’m past that. I shouldn’t feel anger anymore. I don’t have any of that.” Because then you’re going to suppress.
Now you’ve got your ego involved of defining yourself as somebody that doesn’t have these energies. Okay? So it’s not a matter of I’m only human, so how do you expect me to behave? It’s a matter of, yeah, there’s a human in there. You still there? You notice? It still does its thing, but you have managed to reach the state to where never again for the rest of your life will you not be there, and you know what I mean by there, being there. You are centered. It pulls on you, and you let it go. I’ve taught this once before. There’s the difference. Right now, most people, the energies pull, they’re gone. The only chance they have in life is to create situations around them that don’t disturb the energies. Otherwise, they’re yelling, they’re freaking out. They’re saying stuff they don’t mean. They’re being ways they said they weren’t going to be. Ever notice? All right.
So they try to manipulate and control the environment around them so that when it comes in, it is easier to live with. They don’t know how to deal with the inside, so they try to control the outside so that when it comes in, it’s easier to deal with. It sounds rational, right? Control the outside so that when it comes in, it feels better. The trouble is the outside’s different every moment. You can’t glue anything down, right? It’s like every single moment there’s a different moment in front of you, yes or no? Everything. The wind changes. The weather changes, people change. Moods change. Everything. Cars don’t start. They do start. Every single moment there’s a different moment in front of you. How exactly are you going to be in charge of making sure that the moment that’s in front of you coming in isn’t disturbing you?
It’s a losing battle, isn’t it? So you just realize, no wonder we’re neurotic trying to do that, so that doesn’t work. So the next step is people come in and they struggle with themselves, that this lower self energies are doing all this, and they’re trying not to drown. They’re trying not to drown. Really the next step is suppression, by the way. First is control of the outside world. Second is suppression. Since I can’t control the outside world, what I do is suppress the energy when they get disturbed. That’s a normal behavior of human beings. And believe me, everything you’ve suppressed is why it keeps coming back up. The next is to sit there and say, I’m not bothered by… Use rationalization. Try to find a place in your mind that’s able to process these energies in a way that you’re not going with them.
It’s very confusing and very difficult. The next is you struggle with them. It’s a stage. Many of you’re in that stage where you’re back there far enough and the energies come up, and they’re threatening to you. So you struggle. You struggle to stay above them. It’s a constant tug. They’re pulling on you, you’re pulling back. It’s a battle. People sometimes say to me, “Why do I have to fight this battle?” Because you have to, because if you don’t, it pulls you into it, but you won’t have to fight the battle forever, I guarantee you. This is the difference, and that’s the stage I want to talk to you about. See that battle as a tug of war. The energies down there are pulling your consciousness, pulling your being into them, trying to make you do what they want. You’re trying to stay behind them.
You’re leaning back. You’re trying to do this. Well, the deep teachings, which someday you’ll understand exactly what I mean is when you’re doing that, at least you’re at that stage, they’re not sucking you in. By the way, there’s no karma in that stage because you’re not doing what they’re telling you to do, but you’re holding onto that rope. You’re fighting. You’re not going to win that tug of war because you’re fighting with yourself. If you have a battle between your right hand and left hand, you lose. All right? You can’t win that battle. So what do you do? It’s not a matter of getting stronger. It’s not a matter of all these new age techniques. It’s as follows. Who said you have to hold onto your end of the rope? Where’s that written? I understand your lower self is holding onto the rope. It’s pulling for all it can do.
Who said you need to fight that tug of war? But I try not to. I try to win. Now, I’m talking about winning, talking about relax your hands instead of trying to do the technique of winning. Relax your hands. What will happen? The rope will start to slip. Oh, my God, no, no, you’re not losing. You’re losing when they pull you that way. If they’re pulling the rope that way and you’re still here, who cares? Relax. That’s called surrender. Relax and release. Relax your hands, and all of a sudden there’s no connection between the lower self and the higher self. It’s still there, but it’s not connected. That’s the deepest thing I will ever teach you. That’s how you untether your soul, not by pulling the tethers up and ungrounding them. If you’re in a hot air balloon and it’s tethered to the ground by concrete, the holes of the anchors are concreted in, you’re not going to win by taking the whole concrete platform with you. Put more helium in the balloon, more heat. Come on. No, it’s not going to get strong enough to pull the whole thing up, and you’re not going to win by pulling on the ropes as hard as you can.
You’re going to find out that the only reason the ropes are holding the balloon down is because on your end you’re holding onto the rope and you’re in the balloon. Let it go, and the balloon will go up all by itself. That is exactly what’s happening inside of you, and that is the highest spiritual technique. The moment you feel the energies get weird, the moment, the only chance you have, is the moment there’s a disturbance. And you know what I mean? The energies get like this. Just get a little weird in there, don’t they?
And I mean the millisecond, let go. Don’t wait to see what they are. Don’t defend them. Just let go. Let go. But don’t own them. Don’t own it. Let go. Lean away and let go. If you wait even one moment, they will start pulling on you, and then something will happen. Either you’ll try to manipulate the environment outside so they stop pulling on you, you’ll try to suppress them and they’ll keep coming back up or you’ll try to rationalize, “Oh, this isn’t going on inside of me. This is you doing this.” Hear me? Blame and shame. That’s what goes on in there at that point. Blame and shame is the mind trying to balance those energies. You do not want to use your mind to do this. Your mind is not your friend in doing this. Your willful suppression is not your friend. Manipulating the world is not your friend. Your mind rationalizing, compartmentalizing, all these energies so they all fit together, you don’t want to do that. You want to let go.
This is yoga. This is true spirituality is you just relax and release, but there’s no buts. It’s the same thing as not picking up that cigarette. You told me you aren’t going to smoke anymore. Yeah, but… No, there’s no buts, are there? You do not allow there to be a but, it’s simply this. I feel that energy. I’ve seen where it takes me. I ain’t going there ever again. You have the right to say that. You have the right to keep your apartment as clean as you want. You have the right to make for dinner what you want. You’re a free being, but if something inside of you doesn’t let you, that’s your fault. So you look at it, and you commit yourself once and for all.
If the energy starts getting weird inside, the solution is to relax and release. Now, you won’t be able to do it every time. I don’t care if you fall down a thousand times, just get back up like riding a bike. Just get back up, get back up right away, win. Let go as soon as possible and come back as soon as possible. If you do that, if you commit yourself to letting go the moment you see. I want it as it’s starting to pull you in. You’ll just feel it pulling on you. I don’t know what to say. That’s silly. If you took my arm and started pulling, how can I say, I don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t know what you’re talking about? There’s no pulling going on here. Well, of course there is. It is exactly the same inside.
You feel those energies start to pull on you. Right? Let go, let go. Let go of the rope, let go of the rope, and you’re going to find out that not only did you not get pulled down, but a piece of the energy that was pulling you down released. It’s what literally happens is those energies have no strength. You gave them strength by suppressing them. You gave them strength by fighting with them. If you cease to do that, their energy comes back to you. You get stronger, they get weaker, and it’s truth. And eventually you will not understand for the rest of your life how they ever had any control over you. You will sit back behind without any effort. Ram Dass once said, “I’m standing on a bridge watching the waters of my life flow by,” watching what you would’ve done. You see what you would’ve done pass by, but you’re in a state of absolute clarity.
You’re just standing there seeing it all. Now you can be true to your beliefs. Now you are capable of looking outside, seeing what is the pole star of my life because it sure ain’t that stuff. And seeing what the moment that’s coming in front of you is offering you to do to move in that direction. So it is not that you don’t have a pole star. It is not that you don’t move in that direction. It is not that you don’t apply your will. It just happens naturally. If I am somebody who believes in children and proper caring for children and this, that, and the other thing, all my philosophies and views and yelling at everybody and getting all upset because people hit their kids is not doing anything besides making me anxious that I might hit my kid. It’s just making a mess or I’ll hit them.
Instead, you become clear, and you will see moments where you have an opportunity to do something. You have an opportunity to talk to somebody. You have an opportunity to help with a situation. A mother’s getting all upset, she’s shaking her kid in a department store, and you’re there. You’re not getting upset about it. You’re not giving into anger because of it. You’re present and you see, oh, the universe has brought a moment in front of me where I can just not yell at the lady or the man, whoever it is, just walk up and say, “Oh, I can help. Let me help for a moment. Let me help for a moment while you catch your breath.” All of a sudden you just raised the world. You live true to what you believe in because you were clear. If you do any of the other things, if you hit the lady, if you call the child protective services, maybe it was a moment the mother was having trouble, and the next thing you know they take the kid away.
I don’t know what you did, but I’m telling you, you own it. If you go in there and hit the mother, if you go in there and cause trouble, that’s your karma. You’re involved. You took on the karma of that situation. That’s what karma means. If you’re clear and you’re not giving into the reactive energies inside of you, there are moments openings. They’re just little openings like water finds a crevice, doesn’t it? It finds a way to flow through. Every moment presented before you, if you are clear and you have a pole star, you’ll find that there’s a little something that allows you. They always say in business a lot of times or in sports, take what it gives you. Like in football, if they’re going to give you five yards, take the five yards. It’s okay. You don’t have to go long. Take the short pass.
It’s the same thing in life. If you have a goal, you have a direction and you’re clear, it’s giving you something. It’s both giving you and calling. It’s just a natural flow that it will flow in that direction, and you’re going to leave behind you a trail of beauty. It doesn’t mean everything’s perfect. It doesn’t mean you fixed everything. Give me a break, right? What you did is raise the moment that passed by you and you’re going to find out that over time it has a major effect, has a major effect on people’s lives, has a major effect. And now we’re getting spiritual. I don’t usually do it. If you can do that, what literally happens is you become an instrument of the divine will. When you’re an instrument of your own will, if you’ve even got any room, if you’re giving into your needs, your desires, your fears, your anxieties, there’s no room for anything to use you as what Christ meant when he said, “You can’t serve two masters.”
You can’t serve these energies personal inside of you and at the same time be an instrument for something higher than that. But the moment you are able to keep your center always, I’m talking about every second, every millisecond, you are a centered being. You are clear. You see that the energies got upset, they’re pulling on you, but you’re still back here and you’re able to act clearly. Then you will see that the moments are asking something of you. There’s an opportunity to move, and over time, bigger things will come to you. So all of a sudden, because this is how it happens, because that mother was shaking her kid, and you stayed clear before you would’ve called the police, you would’ve yelled at her, but you’re the clear person, as you’re standing there and you say something as simple as that, compassion for the mother, literally compassion for the person that’s about to hit her kid. Oh, my God, I see what you’re going through. Let me help for a moment.
You didn’t challenge her. You didn’t diss her. You rose the situation. Next thing you know, you get a call from this lady. She says, I was really helpful. I got a few friends. Would you come talk to us? And I say, you’re not even do anything. You’re not trained in anything. Next thing you know, you’ve got a little group that’s going on. People want to learn how to not hit their kids. Well, that’s a nice group. I want to go to that group. How about you? You’re invited to the kids hitter group exhibits about how not to, and then the next thing this happens, and the next thing you know a book gets written, and the next thing you know, you lecture.
I mean it’s like, oh, my God, because you are an instrument of the divine will, that is what happens. The universe calls upon you for more and more things because you’re capable of it, and there’s no end to how much good you can do. But if you are not capable of maintaining your own center, you’re of no use to anybody. So I’m going to go back to where I started. Don’t say I’m being true to my beliefs, to what I believe in, when you’re really being true to your lower self. You’re being true to your reactive energy, being true to the garbage that’s going on inside of you. And any of you made it out here to this point, cannot look me in the eye and say, “Well, I don’t know the difference.” You know when the lower self has taken you over. So the question is, are you willing? As soon as possible, the moment the energy gets weird, I’m telling you there is a point where you wouldn’t even know why it got weird or what type of weird it is. It’s not jealousy yet. It’s not insecurity yet. It’s not embarrassment yet. It’s not need yet. You don’t know what it is.
It’s just there’s a disturbance and a force. You don’t even wait. People always say to me, “Don’t I have to find out where it came from?” No, you have to let it go. You do not have to trace these things down to the root. You don’t have to get down to the root. You have to just be willing to let it go. If those energies can pass through, they’re gone. They will let go at the root. Maybe as they come by, you’ll see what they are. Who cares? All I know is they won’t pull you in.
So you let go the moment it gets disturbing. If you don’t, it will get more disturbing. You’ll find out, oh, this is jealousy or this is insecurity because it’ll start to form. Then from the form, your mind will get involved. That was emotion. Your mind will get involved, start telling you what to do about it, and then it’ll start justifying it, and then it’ll start lying to you. I’m not jealous. I’m not jealous. He just needs to learn a lesson. If I don’t do this, who else is going to do this? You won’t know anything they’re talking about, and then you’re lost. Then you’re lost. People have trouble coming back from those states. But there will come a time during that where you start to get some clarity. My experience going back to the old days is when it started to get clear again, I didn’t want to see it.
I was embarrassed. I didn’t want to have fallen. So at that moment, it was actually hard to let the clarity come back. You wanted to rationalize at that point. No, I didn’t. I didn’t fall. I didn’t fall. No, no, that wasn’t a fall. I was just being true or I turned my head away. I don’t want to look at it. I don’t look at it. Let’s do something else. Go on. A wise person the moment they see the disturbance falls back. The moment they realize they fell down, then the moment it starts to get clear again, you let go. No rationalization, no nothing. Fine, fine. I fell off the bike. Fine, let go. See it. And what will happen is that distance between when it starts and when it’s over will get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And I’m telling you, eventually you’ll never, ever, ever lose one single millisecond, nanosecond of consciousness.
At some point, you’ll become what’s called established in the seat of self and effortlessly. You’ll see things, but they’re at a distance, and they will never pull you into them. Never. You could sit right in the mist no matter what is going on, no matter how big it is, you’re there. And then the only way that will happen is that has to be what you’re about. I’m about being there. I’m not about being right. I’m not about getting in my way. I’m not about getting what I want. I’m not about avoiding what I don’t want. You’ve changed the entire definition of who you are. I am the one who stays above these energies, and you just do it. It’s always worth doing. It is always worth letting go of yourself. Always under every situation, isn’t it? And now, I don’t need to teach you spirituality because that is spirituality. That is what Christ meant when he said, “You must die to be reborn.” You have to die of the personal so that you end up in the spiritual. It’s not like if as I’m letting go of the personal now I’m ready for the spiritual. That is the spiritual. Once I’ve let go of the tethers on a hot air balloon, now how do I go up? No, it goes up, doesn’t it?
Well, that’s what you’re going to find within yourself. If you are willing to let go of the pull of those forces, over time, they will release and there’s less and less trouble, and all that energy comes up to you. And eventually there’ll be this torrent, the rush of holy waters. I love to quote the Bible. Nice Jewish yogi. So there will be this rush of energy raising up inside of you every moment of your life, sometimes more than others, but it’s always going on, lifting you, picking you up, lifting your heart up, lifting your mind up, just constantly flowing up.
And that is what your natural state is. But you have to be willing to let go of yourself. So that’s how you be true to what you believe in, by not letting your personal self be what you believe in. That’s not the pole star of your life. So you willing to work on this? Every single technique you do, meditation, mantra, new age, Alpha waves, anything, is all trying to teach you how to be in charge of your own consciousness. If you’re meditating on sound or alpha waves, what are you doing? I’m deciding where my consciousness goes, and all I’m talking about is you’re deciding where your consciousness goes, aren’t I? But I’m talking about every moment and every second of your life. Work on these things. 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. 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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