E52: The Mind Is Not the Problem: Identifying with It Is

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 Masters, the spiritual path in terms of basic understanding is very, very simple. You are conscious, obviously you’re aware of things. Consciousness and awareness mean the same thing. You are aware, obviously you’re aware of thoughts, you’re of emotions. You’re aware you have a body. You’re aware that there’s a world coming through your senses fine. That’s just called reality, so what’s the problem? Well, the mind can be a problem. Why? For the same reason that eat food, it’s really not good for you that you get stomach aches, get indigestion. It’s not so much fun. Your mind is exactly the same. If you fill your mind with negative thoughts, you fill your mind with problems that you’ve had in the past with situations you didn’t like with fears about the future. If you fill your mind with garbage, it’s going to be a garbagey mind. It’s just as simple.

Anything you fill with garbage is going to be not peaceful, not loving. It’s going to express what you put into it. The mind is not at fault no more than your computer’s at fault. If you put data and programs and garbage into it, it’s going to spit that back up because you told it to. You have told your mind to be a problem. There’s an ownership thing here that you have to get. You’re in there, you’re conscious and you’ve just stored all kinds of garbage inside your mind and you’ve told your mind to worry about all kinds of things.

You’ll reach a point in your growth where you ask your mind, should I get married or not? What your mind should say to you, how do I know it does say that to you? It says, well, maybe you should. Maybe you shouldn’t. Well, this might work out, but what if that happened? In other words, I don’t. That’s what it’s saying when you say to me, I have indecision. Okay, what does that mean? It means the mind does not know. If the mind says to you, oh, by all means, do that. I’m quite certain do that. You’re not going to say you have indecision, you don’t do it, but the mind has indecision. Why? Because it doesn’t know the answer to the question. You’ve asked it, and guess what? That’s not okay with you. It’s not so you keep throwing more stuff at it. Do you know now?

Well, nah. It’s so beautiful to watch. That’s what it means to be conscious. Witness consciousness not means stopping your mind. It means being aware of your mind. You are aware. Obviously you’re aware it’s talking. It has indecision. You know what it’s doing in there. You’re watching, but you’re getting so involved in the mind. Why? Because you want an answer. You want the mind to be an oracle. Do you understand that? You want your mind to be psychic? You want to think your mind is psychic. Some people think their mind is psychic. Oh my God, that would be the worst thing that could ever happen. Then you’re going to sit there and say, my mind knows everything all the time. You want to bet? Wait to see what happens with that. Okay? You don’t want to be psychic. The very fact that you want to be psychic is what I’m talking about, that you’re not okay in there and you want something to tell you what to do, and your mind is what tells you what to do, isn’t it?

If somebody else tells you, your mind says, well, I’m not sure I should believe him. See, in the end, it’s your mind. It’s your mind. You listen to or your mind says, well, he’s rich or He is powerful or He’s famous. I should listen to him. That’s your mind. You’re listening to your mind. You’re not listening to what the person said. If your mind all of a sudden turned around, I said, nah. What does an actor or a famous person know? It’s he’s rich. I don’t care. That’s not right. Do you hear me? That’s not you talking. That is your mind talking. How do you know? Because you are aware of it. You can sit down and if a psychiatrist says to you or a therapist or anything to you, what do you think about? You tell them and if they say to you, they won’t do this, but they should.

Instead of saying, oh, why do you think about that or what problem? Cause you think about that. If they said, how do you know? You think about that. That’s the difference between a step back and a step forward. How do you know you’re thinking about that? What were you thinking about three days ago? No, it’s not an accident. What was it like in there afterwards? How do you know? Because you were in there and you experienced what the mind was saying when that took place. That is witness consciousness. I don’t know if any will explain it to you properly. You are always aware of what your mind is saying or it’s not a problem, okay? The problem is the mind is a problem. Why? Because you’re aware of what it’s saying. The problem is this, because you focus so strongly on what it’s saying, you get lost in it as if it’s you.

You got in the car, you’re driving around and all of a sudden the officer pulled you over and said You were speeding. Get out and you’re looking with a dumb look. What do you mean get out? Get out of the car. I am the car. I can’t get out of the car. This is me. That’s how I get along. This is my leg. This is my wheels, man. That’s what you’re doing with your mind. That so focused on it that you identify with it as you. Now, there’s a number of things you can do with that. The main thing you’d ask is why are you doing that now? Why are you conscious? You are conscious always. Were you in there when you were five? Did your mind say things 10, five days ago, month ago? You’re in there. Are you been there the whole time?

That’s not this big complicated thing. That’s the self who you God we make. I need to go to India or to Katmandu to find the self. That’s hilarious. You are the self. You are the one who’s watching the mind saying, need to go to Katmandu and find a guru to go find the self. That’s your mind talking. How do you know it said that? How do you know you need to go to Katmandu? How do you know you need to find a guru? How do you know you need to do this or that? Well, the mind’s saying it. How do you know? Well, because I’m in here and it talks doesn’t, but you don’t say, I see a talk. You say, I think this. I am this. You just got too close and you identify with your mind. You do it with outside objects too.

That’s my car. Get away from my car. What? It’s a car. It has nothing to do with you. That’s a story I like to tell you. You walked into an automobile sales place. There’s lots of people, all kinds of things, getting to sit in the cars, looking around it. Very busy day and the salesman works with you and you say, oh yeah, that’s the one I want to buy. And if people are in it, people looking at it, sitting on it, other people looking at it, okay, fine. You go back in there, you sign a few pieces of paper and you come out, get off my car. Come on, that’s my car. Get out of my, wait a second. It wasn’t your car five minutes ago. Now it’s your car. You all of a sudden are identifying your consciousness with an outside object, don’t you?

It’s mine. I me. Mine are lies. They’re the fact that I’m aware that my mind has now attached itself to this outside object and I am completely attached to my mind. So the minimum mine says that’s mine. This is my husband, this is my wife, this is my car, this is my house. That is your mind talking. In other words, is it you is I’ll take your car away? You gone? No, I know my car’s gone. Who does? How do you know your car’s stolen? How do you know your car blew up? Because you’re not the car. You’re still there, but I don’t want to be if my husband died, I don’t want to be here, but you are and you’re aware. You’re feeling terrible and all these things are happening. Why? Because you identified with things that were outside yourself. Do you understand that?

I’m working spiritually backwards. Instead of taking it back from where you are and then trying to get you out, I want to start off with who you are. You are already enlightened. You’re not trying to get back to God. You’re trying to stop leaving someday. You’ll understand how powerful that is. You already seated in that seat of divine consciousness. You are always looking in front of you. Where do you see what happens when you turn around and look behind? You’ll see the universe. That’s enlightenment. All they did was turn around, stop looking down at the mind, the emotions, the body and the world outside. You look down. If I say that, some people say, I don’t understand what you mean by look down because you haven’t taken the seat of self. Once you take the seat of self, once you’re able to sit back there enough, meditation helps, letting go, helps all kinds of things.

Help, but you’re there. You’ll realize you’re looking down. When you look out through your eyes, which way are you going? You looking up. You’re looking down. You’re looking down at your heart. No, the heart is up. No, your human heart is down. Your emotions are coming in down there from where you sit. I want to know, can anybody hear me? Can you get that orientation that you are looking down and out from where you sit and because you’re looking down and out, that’s who you think you are because that’s what you’re looking at, that you’re never what you’re looking at. You’re the one who’s looking. You are not your thoughts, so this is spirituality. You are there conscious. Do you have to try to be conscious? They teach you that. Let’s practice consciousness. Who heard them say that? You are conscious. There’s no practice consciousness.

You’re completely conscious all the time, but sometimes I get depressed. How do you know get depressed? Well, I feel it. Who does the same one that fell? Love feels depression to the yogi. They’re the same high, low, up, down, cold, hot. They’re just things you are experiencing, alright? And when you take a seat of self, which you’ll work your way back to, we’ll talk about that. You’ll notice that you’re looking, it’s like drawing you down. You’re looking down. Well, why look down? Because it has a power like a magnetism that pulls you toward it. Why? Because you believe you need it. You are only okay when your mind’s okay, you’re only okay when your emotions are okay. You’re only okay when your body’s okay and all those things are only okay if the world is the way you want it to be so that when it comes in, you’re okay.

That’s why you’re looking down, because you invested completely in what’s down there. Instead of realizing you’re back here, nothing will ever, ever touch you. First of all, it cannot get back to you. If I’m shining a light on an object, that light can change. It can move around and get closer, but the object can’t go back to the light. The object can’t find its way back to the bulb, but the bulb can find its way into the object. Nothing finds its way back to self. Self is complete and whole within itself. It is the light. It is the beginning and it’s looking down as the question becomes, all right, first of all, I want you to know it’s looking down. I hope you feel that. I hope you understand that for me. I’m sitting here, I’m looking out at you in here. I’m looking out at you, and if my stomach hurts, I’m looking down at the stomach, my heart hurts looking down at the heart and the heart feels bubbly.

Love coming up. You feel love coming up, coming up. What does that mean in his presence? I feel such love coming up into me. In other words, you were looking down. Love is starting to flow up. You’re feeling it bathe over you. This is the foundation. If you don’t get this, you’re not going to go anywhere. Go attract yourself what you want so that you can stay down and get what you want. That’s not spirituality. You’re welcome to do it. By the way, when I talk like this, don’t listen to me, but I’m telling you, you’ll reach the point where you realize that wanting to get what you want is why you’re looking down.

You’re looking down. Wait, I used to tell a story all of a sudden in the paper or on the web nowadays, a long time ago, there’s a website that says, rumor has it that a 1970 Philadelphia printed penny that is worth $6 billion is floating around Gainesville somewhere with a was the last time you looked for a penny. Nowadays you don’t have any, right, but never you never look for a penny, right? They give you a change. You put it in your pocket. Give penny. Okay? Guess what you do? Now you look at every penny can have a change in pennies. You look at every penny and if it says 1970, your heart opens. You freak out. Oh, but then it says D minted in Denver, not Philadelphia, and you get depressed. Is anyone willing to listen to what I just said? Is it true or not?

You are doing that. You have decided you need something. Why? Because you’re not okay and that money, 6 million would help a lot. Okay? And so you are looking down because you want to because there’s something down there that you think will make you better. So of course you’re going to look at it, but you look at it so hard that you identify with it. It’s not even hard to do that with that penny. Let’s say you found that penny. You’re looking at it and the cashier said, oh wait, I gave you one too many pennies. Give me that one back. No, it’s mine. I found it. I’m going to give it back to you. And you serious man, you fight. Isn’t it hilarious? You’re taking your consciousness. You’re looking down because you want to, because you think you need something and depending how strong you think you need it, you are going to cling to that.

Now your consciousness starts to identify with what you’re looking at. Those are two real strong points in spirituality that I try to stress. One is distraction. Your consciousness. You’re always consciousness. Don’t talk to me about getting conscious. You’re conscious how conscious. You’re infinitely conscious, but you’re distracted. Can consciousness get distracted? Pay attention. Teacher says pay attention. What does that mean? Your consciousness are floating off elsewhere. Bring it back here. You’re getting distracted by your thoughts, distracted by your feelings, distracted by the body, distracted by something going that penny outside. You got real distracted. What does distracted mean? You’re not sitting in the seat of self. Your consciousness is what self is. Consciousness is being pulled away to something outside yourself. You’re distracted. You think distracted means I’m trying to read, but an noise is distracting me. You’re already down. Yes, you’re being distracted from what you were distracted from.

You’re distracted from first you’re distracted from the self. Then you’re distracted by the mind, you’re distracted by the emotions. Then you’re distracted by the world. Guess what I just described to you? The fall from the garden, if you never understood it before, that is the fall from the garden and you bumped your head on each step all the way down. You were seated in the self, which I’ll explain to you later what that experience is like because the highest thing you could ever experience, but from that seed of consciousness, you got distracted by the mind. Why? Because the mind didn’t like what the heart was feeling. It was trying to figure out what to do about it. What’s wrong with the heart? It didn’t like what you were doing when you’re talking to somebody else. It felt jealousy and now all of a sudden I left the seat of self, fell down into the mind, fell down into the heart, fell down into the outside world.

Now I must manipulate you and everybody else don’t I? The meaning of my life because now that I fell down into this world is to manipulate everybody and everything in this world to get it the way I need it to be so my heart doesn’t hurt, maybe even feels good so that my mind is happy and says, oh boy, I found who I want and I have everything so that it can be okay in there and I can feel some of the beauty that is coming from self. It still has to flow through mine. It’s conditional wellbeing. Talked to you about that the other day. I am only, okay, how many of you don’t raise your hand because this is embarrassing? How many of you’re only okay if everything’s the way you want it to be? I used to have fun asking you. Let’s say I used to do it back in the seventies and I was first waking up.

You woke up, ask somebody, how are you doing? What they’re going to say, I’m okay. Gee, that’s really good. Okay, right, I’ll get by. It’s not so bad. It’s been worse. People say that when you ask the question, how are you doing? I still have hope. There’s a really good one. Can you relate? That’s what’s going on is because the world passing in front of you is not everything that your mind and your emotions and everything want them to be. You’re being distracted and pulled down. Now you devote yourself. Most people just do what their entire life to attempt to manipulate outside world to be away so they feel okay inside and okay is the best they can get. Conditional wellbeing. You say you love me. I love you too. Alright, what did you say? I don’t like when people talk like that to me.

I’s it for love? Everything has to be exactly right. Exactly right. Have a date with somebody you really like it. Go on your third date. Then he comes and picks you up on a bow tie and your Uncle George wore a bow tie and you did not like your Uncle George. You don’t like this guy. My stomach didn’t feel good. I don’t want to go out tonight. Do you understand what’s happening? So basically you’re in there getting distracted by your mind, your emotions and the outside world, okay? They pull you down, they pull your conscious down into them. They pull it. So far, what is the ultimate distraction identification? If it pulls you so far that you’re always distracted, your ego does that to you. Your ego is very consistent. I like this. I don’t like that. She shouldn’t have done that. Oh my god, I can’t be.

I told her not to do that. It’s always saying those things and it doesn’t ever stop. You think it’s you because it’s so consistent and you stared at it for so long and you’re devoted to doing what it says to do. Tell ’em you don’t like bow ties. Don’t get so upset. Just tell ’em you don’t like bow ties. Okay? Right? It’s talking to you. It’s telling you how to be. That’s hilarious. Okay? And so you’re so close to it that you’re no longer just distracted by it. Let’s put it this way, what is the difference between distraction identification? Distraction is something you were somewhere else and you got distracted, pulled your consciousness. What if everything else, the best it can do is distract you from where you sit all the time and you’re not sit in the self, you sit in the ego, you identify your home base as you.

God, I’m trying so hard. You’ve built a mindset. Psychology cultures your self-concept. What is your self-concept? What you think of yourself? Do you all have self-concept? What you think of yourself? Think you’re pretty, you think you’re ugly? You think your hair’s nice? You think this. You think your nose is too long. You think you have a perfect nose? You think your eyes, you think you need better lashes? That’s what your body, right? You think that your smart, you think that you’re stupid. You think that you are good. You think you’re bad because what happened in fifth grade and you got yelled. Come on. Do you or do you not have a self-concept? Isn’t it pretty consistent? What does it mean to have a self-concept? A concept is something you mentally made up about yourself. It’s a concept here. I’m going to ask him, what does taste like?

He says, I don’t know. Well, come on. What’s your concept? That would sound like, well, it started like banana. So maybe it tastes like a banana. Alright, make it up. That’s what a concept is. The concept is never truth. It’s a concept that your mind made up about something and psychology. Well, the ego, your self-concept, go look it up. They know it’s not real. If you made it up, you took little pieces from your past, you held ’em together and you glued this thing called your ego. This is what I think about myself and you’re so fixated on it. That is your home base. Things can distract you from it. I’m depressed. I’ll never be happy ever. And then somebody calls you who you like and says, oh my God, I’m so embarrassed. I’ve never told you since we were in kindergarten. I think you walk on water, but I’ve been too embarrassed to call you and tell you I love you so much.

Alright? How you doing? It distracted you from the garbage you were doing inside your head. Can you go from A to Z in a billionth of a second? Can you go from Z to A in a billion to a second? You get to distracted by what somebody looks like. Distracted what? Somebody said you get distracted. So it’s just distracting you from, I get distracted by this. It’s distracting you from your home base is your home base. Enlightenment the self. I am the self noticing that you wish. Alright? Your home base is your ego. Does anybody understand that? And because the seat of your consciousness is not in consciousness, which it really is, you’ve taken the seat in the concept of self and it’s there all the time. You go from distracted, you’re not distracted by it, you’re there. So you identify with it. Your home base is what you identify with.

I’m this, I’m that, and blah blah blah blah, blah. And even if you change, you say, I used to be, it’s a mindset of who you are. I used to do this and I used to do that. Now I don’t do it anymore. I’ve grown now I meditate instead of running around like a maniac. But I used to, and this is why still the eye is there instead of you who’s back there being you, you’re down here being I, that thing you made up in your mind. So you go from distraction, being distracted from the seat of self to identifying you’re identifying, alright, why? Somebody took your identity and had false identity and went around and signing your name all over the place and on the web answering questions that other people are asking you and saying he’s you. Alright? But we call that somebody’s stole your identity.

Wow. Stole it from what you made up. You made up an identity. Nobody can steal self. It’s in there. You’re conscious, alright? But they stole what your identifying with and said, that’s my identity now. So this word identity is very powerful. So I’ve just gone from sitting the seat of self to being distracted by different things. But some things you’re distracted by, you stay distracted by. You’re committed to them totally. For example, some of them are really committed to being a insulted by the eagle. I was you the example of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Now these are very highly educated people and very gentlemanly type people. Somebody says, well, I don’t remember. I don’t know the story. Somebody says something to one of ’em. Sir, you have insulted me. In other words, you didn’t say what I want to hear. We will meet tomorrow morning back to back with muskets. We’ll take six steps and shoot each other in the face.

I think you’re rather identify with your ego, right? Say the guy, say whatever you want. Well, I care. It’s matter with you. I got to sit there and die because you insulted my ego. You’re challenged. Do you understand? Okay, that’s called identifying with it. You identify with it. They say survival instinct is supposed to be the strongest instinct in any animal. And you’re an animal. You got an animal in there, right? It wasn’t stronger than that. That challenged your ego. Your identification with ego was stronger than your identification of your body, stronger than survival. Have you ever looked at it that way? That’s called I’m identifying with what I’m looking at. Instead of identifying with who’s looking, you’re back there noticing what should have happened. Is it okay? You insulted me, my heart heard and my mind starts saying puking all over the place. And then I went home and the self said, hello, what are you do tomorrow morning?

Right? And eventually you step back says, I can handle what he said. I can handle what people think of me. What do I care what people think of me? They’re not thinking of me. They’re looking at my body. I’m not my body. They’re looking at guess what? They’re looking at your body. So are you. It’s crazy identifying what you’re looking at instead of identifying with who you are. So the first step is you’re conscious. Then you get pulled down into the mind. Okay, mind distracted, you fine. You can be in meditation. It’s nice and it distracts you go back, but you didn’t. You get pulled down but you stayed down. You stayed down. Why? There’s a line in the bible. Fox of the earth have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has not where to lay his head. That’s exactly what we’re talking about.

He didn’t do that. The son of man has not where to lay his head. You’re laying your head. The fox lay him in a hole. Bird’s laying on the air. You’re laying on your ego. That’s where you lay your head. If you don’t, you’re enlightened. If you don’t, don’t lay your head down. You just be who you are, but you get pulled down and we might as well do it. So I get pulled down into the mine. The mine doesn’t like something you don’t get pulled down in your mind as you drove by the trees. You drove by the white lines, you drove by people you don’t know. You don’t get pulled out in your mind. You don’t get distracted. But let it be one person you do know talking to somebody you don’t want to talk to. Bam, you’re down because you built this ego.

What’d you build it out of? It’s just a mind. It’s just thoughts. What’d you build it out of? There was some things that came in that felt good, other things that came in didn’t feel good. Guess what? You like the ones that feel good and you don’t like the ones that don’t feel good? Did I get it? See, I’m a psychic. Okay? Now you sit there and something happens in your life, especially when you’re young, formative years, whatever it is, they call ’em formative years. What are you for me, your ego. You’re building one. I need to build a concept of myself. And so if something happens in the feel good, then all of a sudden you build a thought pattern that says, I don’t like that. You don’t like what? I don’t like what happened? Okay, well it’s already over. Don’t worry about it already happened.

No, that’s not what we’re going to do. We’re going to not like it and make sure it doesn’t happen again because we didn’t like it. I did like that. Okay, good. I’m glad you like, no, I want it to happen again. I don’t want it to happen again. I want it happen again. Here’s built an eye rather than letting the world be what it is. Come in, experience it. Some feel good, some feel bad, it’s cold, it’s hot, it’s reality, but you can’t handle it. And so what you do is build a concept. I don’t like the heat. I like the cold. I don’t like the cold. I like the heat. I like this person. I don’t like that kind of person. I don’t like to be talked to this way. Why don’t you like to be talked to that way? Because my uncle George talked to me that way.

Blah, blah blah blah. That’s the other thing psychology said. They say man is a sum of learned experience. I’ve been teaching that lately. Man is a sum of learned experience. Obviously they’re talking about women also. Alright? You don’t want to be the sum learned experience. Why? Because you’re not. You’re the person who had the experience. You didn’t have the experience you had. You wouldn’t exist if you didn’t have the experience. My parents got divorced. It really messed me up. I didn’t like it at all. I don’t like stepfather. So now what? I don’t like stepfathers. I don’t like fathers or I don’t like my father. He wasn’t there. My stepfather was there. I don’t like divorces. I don’t like marriage. I lead to divorce. Oh boy, I spread that sucker out.

Now I have a concept his how I am. I’m independent. I’m never going to get married. I’m not having children either. Why? Well, I’m not going to put some kid through what I went through. People talk like that and they think they’re right. He had one stupid experience. So what if your parents didn’t get divorced? He’d be totally different. Mind would be talking in there. Who would admit that you did not decide? What you think about it is the sum of your learned experiences. So you had these experiences, you stored them inside and you built a concept of yourself. A likes this, it, nothing like that. And so now you’re drawn into it completely because invested in it. It has distracted you so much that you identify with it. I’ve never talked this clearer about it. Do you get it? That’s what the letter I is. I like this. I don’t like that. I was say I used to like this. I had a dream. Who’s the I? You’re talking about the self. You’re not talking about you in there. I in there. But let ask you a question. Do you watch your mind? Use the word i. Does your mind use the word when it talks to you?

It’s not you. You’re ones looking. It’s not difficult. Spirituality is not difficult to understand, difficult to do, difficult to get out, difficult to break this stuff, but that’s the problem. The problem you’ve been drawn down because exactly what you’re drawn down to is exactly the stuff you stored because you either liked or didn’t like it. So it’s already powered. It’s the powerful part of the world. If I took your mind and put it inside of him, he couldn’t care less what it said. If it said, I don’t like bow ties. Why? I said, why are you saying that? He doesn’t have the history. He doesn’t have the foundation that you do. You built a house in there and you live in there and now you come out here and make the world try to be the way you want it to be. And guess what I just explained to you?

Why? Everything’s the way it is in this world. That’s the cause of war. It’s cause all this harmony, everything because everybody’s doing that. They don’t know they’re doing it, but everybody’s doing that. And guess what? Nobody has had the same experiences. Nobody. Your experiences are unique. You went through a pattern of life that nobody else has ever gone through, will ever go through, never. Because it will not repeat itself. And you picked out certain points and you built a you and your you is 100% different than anybody else’s that ever existed, ever will exist or does exist. You’re unique. There’s no way anybody’s ego is anything like yours because your ego is built on the sum of your learned experiences. And nobody, right now we’re having experience, but we’re not even having the same experience. You’re all looking at me from different angles and your mind came in here with patterns that are either understanding or not understanding or liking or not liking what I’m saying.

So everybody’s having a different experience and plus, when you go out, you’re all going to go different ways and have different experiences. I don’t care if you’re married, it doesn’t make any difference that every single 8 billion of you, whatever it is nowadays, 8 billion of you are different in there and you all want it to be the way you want it to be. So no one is, there’s war, no one. There’s this harmony. No matter there’s divorce, no wonder there’s crime. No wonder is everything. So stop judging, just understand. That’s called compassion. Understand that’s how you look at this world. Just understand when you’re talking to somebody, you’re not talking to self. You wish you were. You’re talking to a self lost in the ego, lost in some of the learned experiences. Of course they’re not the same of you. Of course they think different than you do.

Who’s right? Stop it. Don’t judge. You’re judging based on your frame of reference, your past experiences, your view. If you had different experiences, I’m telling you would think different. Even if you’re the biggest activist that ever lived, which is wonderful, okay? Understand that there’s another side and they’re just as active and that’s why you’re not right. You’re right. Based upon the experiences you had, they’re right based on the experiences they had. Which is why Christ said, judge, not that you shall not be judged. We judge based on our frame of reference and you say, what else do I have? Yes, I know that’s what you have, but you don’t have to go live there. You can step back and realize, yeah, I got one. Anybody got one? Found an ego. Anybody got one? Anybody feel defensive? Anybody think they’re right? Anybody get upset when things aren’t the way they want it to be?

Who decided how they want ’em to be? Some you learned experiences. You grab that stuff, right? But the big step I told you about, if you stare at it long enough and don’t, everything else is you get distracted from you. What does it mean to be entertained? I get distracted from my normal thought patterns. Go to a movie and have your mind think exactly the way it thinks the entire two hours. Whatcha going to say that was a terrible movie? No, it’s a terrible mind. Yoga nun used to sit, it’s fiction of it sitting in a train on a long train ride like this.

They said the conductor walked him and says, sir, excuse me, you’ve been sitting there for hours. You look so peaceful. What’s going on? He said, I am peaceful. So go to the movie for two hours and don’t get distracted from your peace and love. Not bad, nice two hours, but that’s not what happens. Is it because it’s going there ain’t so much fun and so it distracts you from you, but you come back to you and you’re so fixated you don’t know it, but someday you will. You’re so fixated on your identity with the ego that you think that’s who you are, period. You fight for it and claw for it and everything, alright? And what’s worse is the ego and the mind are in cahoots with the heart. Why do you want to know why? I mean yogi, I know why. You go deep enough.

You understand there’s an energy flow. It comes from above. It comes from you. It’s the shakti comes from you. That’s your Shakti, your chit Shakti conscious energy. There’s a nature of self. Your total ecstasy and your conscious energy. That energy flows down because it’s supposed to. You can be in this world. Alright? It flows down if it flows cleanly, it does this. It flows down and up and it brings the bliss and the beauty of your highest being through you all the time is feel ecstasy and joy and love. Do you interact with the outside world? Yes. Out of ecstasy, joy and love. That’s a very different interaction as opposed to out of making it be what you want it to be. So you can be okay. See the difference? Okay, so if it did that, that’s what you would feel. That’s the saint. That’s a true saint.

There are beings have met some. There are beings who’ve walked around this world that that’s what’s going on inside of them is the self. They’re experiencing that and they’re filled with joy and love. And by the way, that’s you are that great, but what’s wrong? The energy flows in, but it hit your mind. It hits your mind and the mind doesn’t like things. The mind has preferences and hopes and dreams and concepts and views and all kinds of things. It’s very busy in it. Then the energy instead of coming down into your heart, into your body health, right? There’s all the meridian system. When, so the acupuncture, the conception and governing vessels are that energy flowing within the body. Where does it come from? It comes from heaven. It comes from the height of your being flows down, and then they study it at different levels.

Right? When they go down to acupuncture, they’re down to the tiniest little meridians where the energy makes it into the body and does it. They get blocks. So sickness takes place. It’s all real. You don’t have to study it. So all the same energy and Shakti flowing down, okay? It hits the mind. Well then if light shines through a filter on the other side of the filter, what does it look like? Distorted light. The filter distorted it. Well, your mind is a filter for that energy. It’s got all kinds of preferences. It opens your dreams and likes and disliked then, okay? And if the mind is open, that energy can flow through. It can flow through. Alright, where does it go? When it flows through the mind, it goes to the heart, goes through the heart, and if the mind has disturbed it, so now it’s wavy and gravy, then the heart gets disturbed.

The energy in the heart is not pure. It’s not clean. It gets disturbed. That’s why somebody says, if you love somebody with all your heart and you just ooh you moment and they say something or don’t say something, I tell you, they don’t just say something, you’re saying talk to them. Oh my God, I just love you so much. I’m melting to be in your arms and then you wait and nothing gets said back and don’t tell me you don’t wait. How many times does that have to happen before you’re not open anymore or better yet, you talk like that and you just melt. I just express that love. I love you so much. So they say, yeah, I love you too. You told me you wanted to say something when you told me you love me. I told you how you doing? How much love you feel after I get said, answer me.

Okay, what was it telling you? You closed your mind did not like what was going on and it screwed up the energy. You can go from love to hate in a billionth of a second. There are people, it was not you, but there are people that if that happened and they were just melting into so many and melting this beautiful moment saying, I love, I just love you so much, person. Yeah, I love you too. They love it. I don’t want to be attached. I want to feel love. So I feel safer around because you’re telling me, oh, I love you too and I need you so much. No, I don’t think so. I hope you’re blushing and scared. Are you willing to look at what it’s like to be this thing? What’s it called? A human. That’s what a human is. It is God looking down, sending shati, pouring Shakti down into the mind that you built and free will.

You don’t want to built all this stuff. And then it gets shati, it gets all disturbed. Then it flows down to the heart and the heart can open and close and so sensitive and build of a second based upon the energy that’s coming into it. Then it goes down into the body can a messed up mind and a messed up heart disturb the health of the body. That’s why now you understand why? Because you said take a blender and it takes one 20 volts. It blends very, very nicely. Put a rheostat on it and go like this. Higher or lower it goes.

That’s what your body’s doing. When you send disturbed energy into it, you get ulcers, you get this, you get tension. Your back locks up. Is that the only cause of illness? No, there can be physiological problems, but it’s a major cause in our world of where headaches and tension and an anxiety and all these garbage comes from. By the time it goes through that mine, it ain’t going to be doing too good. By the time this comes all the way down. Then of course now that you’re screwed up, you dump that talking about polluting. You know what? Factories polluting where there’s stacks or dumping water, you’re polluting that messed up energy comes out into the world. How you make sure it does. You fight with somebody, you argue with somebody, you express your opinions. Why? Because I can’t live with that energy inside of me.

It’s messed up. I want to get it out. Do you see that? That’s what’s going on. And you identify so strongly with that mind that you identify with this whole thing as what’s going on. If I told you I’m talk about spirituality, that’s not spirituality. That which I just talked about, that entire process, it’s not going to come out spiritual. I don’t care whether you get your way. I’m not impressed that people come out here and they want it so bad and they get money and they get power. They go out there and try to make the world be the way they want it to be. Manipulate everybody, get what they want. I’m bored. What’s that about? You haven’t fixed a single thing. You haven’t done a single thing. Guess what’s going to happen from that? You’re going to die just like everybody else, but you’re going to die more screwed up.

And when you’re lying on your deathbed, you’re not going to want to die. Why? Because the money’s not coming with you. If the pride is not coming with you, the admiration of others are not coming with you. All the garbage that you spent your life working for because you couldn’t handle what’s going on inside of you and try to compensate with the outside, it’s gone. People want to know what happens after I die. Well, I don’t want to answer it, but I’ll tell you what, that ain’t going with you. The money’s staying right here. Know the pharaohs used to bury all their stuff inside those pyramids. Do you know that? Thinking that they’ll either come back and it’ll be with them. They buried their wives and servants alive inside those pyramids. Well, they’ll come with me. No, they won’t. So you wake up and you realize, what am I doing with my life that I’m going to do that mess myself up?

Your mind’s messed up. Your mind’s messed up. Why? Because the only way you’re okay is the conditions of which you want them to be. You say, I’m okay. I’m doing railroad with my life. I’m married. I got two kids. They’re going, everyone school. I want finance are stable. I got insurance over everything. I got my will filled out. I feel very, very secure. Okay, what happens when the market drops 80 points in a day? Well, what if your wife leaves you and you find out she having an affair with somebody? Why did you say that? I don’t want to think like that. Very good. In other words, your wellbeing is conditional. I’m being bad. I your wellbeing is conditional. I love you more than anything like that. I want unconditional wellbeing. You’re capable of unconditional wellbeing. Not only you capable, that’s who you are. The self you who’s in there looking at this garbage is such an non eternal conscious ecstasy.

That’s where Buddha got back to it. They called it nirvana. It’s basically enlightenment, awakening. You’re going to call it self-realization. You realized who you are because you are not what you’re looking at. You’re the one who’s looking. And so basically you’re now devoted your life that you made a mess of your ego. You define an ego. Well, isn’t there such thing as a good personality? No, there’s no such thing as a good personality. There’s no such thing as a good ego. There are egos you can build that are more capable of tolerating the mess that you interact with. Coping. That’s the word coping. A yogi doesn’t deal with coping. Coping. What’s that mean? I want to live a life of coping. How’d you do? I didn’t suffer too much. No, you’re ecstasy. You’re a great thing. You’re the one who made this mess by holding what you literally built storage inside of you, what you don’t like.

Every single thing that ever happened in your entire life is still in there because you stored it in there as something I don’t like. And if you think about it, 30 years later, it bothers you. You stored it. So now the Shakti has to make it past all that garbage you stored and it can’t gets all messed up. And so this is why the whole world is the way it is. This is why you are the way you are. What’s the answer? The answer is true. Spirituality. The spirituality is about one thing. It’s about spirit. What is spirit itself back here where you’re looking from, you who’s looking our spirit. That’s what I mean my spirit, Shakti. I don’t care what you want to call it, okay? When it gets into the body, they call it Qi. When it’s working its way between, it’s called prana.

It’s all of the same stuff. But I ain’t interested in any of that. Shakti, pure Shakti, pure energy coming from the universal energy. Universal consciousness pours down and focuses on your mind, on your heart, on your body and gets lost. How do you free yourself? How do you free yourself? Well, there’s all kinds of ways. Is it good to have your body be healthy so it’s not bothering you so much? Of course it is. If it’s distracting you, you’re distracted. Is that the answer? You can be the healthiest person that ever lived me screwed up inside. So it’s not the body though. You should work with the body. There’s no reason to have a body that’s bothering you. You do your best to have one that’s healthy but doesn’t bother you as much, doesn’t distract you as much. How’s that? Does? Body pain and body stomach aches.

They distract you. They distract you. They pull the consciousness down. So of course, by all means, take care of your body. Take care of it to be what? Be the best healthiest. No, just so it’s not distracting you so much because you’re back in here. You get back in here, everything changes. And it doesn’t mean you don’t interact out here. I told you that first of all, if you get back in here and stop disturbing the flow of the Shakti, the body’s healthier in of itself because it’s coming down and getting fed from the energy. So it’s fine. Yes, take care of your body. But now that really the end is you’re being distracted by your mind. You’ll be distracted by your ego, your ego’s running your life. You’re so distracted by the ego that you’re never not distracted. Therefore you don’t know you’re distracted.

Everything’s distracting you. From your ego. You say, oh, that distracted me. Oh, I was doing good, but you did distracted me. No, that’s not you. You’re the one looking at the ego. So what’s the answer? The answer is just like I said with the body this, I’ve learned to teach this because I went through trying to shut the thing up. I’ve been through the whole thing for 50 odd years, just as it made perfect sense to say to you, take care of your body reasonably, not neurotically. Not sit there and say, the whole purpose of my body is a perfect diet. I’m going to count every calorie. If you do, that’s fine. I’m going to count every calorie count how much protein I get. I’m going to measure every single thing out. I’m going to devote myself my entire life to the health of my body.

Mazel tov. Because the highest relationship with your body is it’s not distracting you from your seat of self. It’s not pulling you down. It’s healthy enough. That’s how healthy it should be. Yin yang here, I don’t take care of. It’s one side. I take way. I’m totally lost in it. That’s not the balance. The balance is take care of your body there. So balance the Tao. What is the balance? Take reasonably care of your body to where it’s not distracting you. So you can do your inner work, okay? And your outer work. Then what? Then you will notice that your heart and your emotions and your thoughts are a problem. Emotions are very difficult to deal with. You can suppress ’em. That’s not hard. But you get ’em all messed up. Otherwise to try to control your emotions, it’s like trying to grab air. Your emotions are the result of your thoughts.

They’re the result of the mind. You work with the mind, it will take care of the emotions. Alright? It’s much easier to work with your mind, isn’t it? Here have positive thoughts. Yoga. One of the techniques was every time you have a negative thought, offset it with a positive one. Alright? So if you sit there and say, I don’t like her hair, it reminds me my sister. Just stop. Here’s gorgeous. It’s really beautiful and I love that. It reminds me of my sister. I should have a better relationship with my sister. So I’m going to have a great relationship with her. Just do something positive because positive means open. You’re open, you’re receptive. Open means the energy could flow. Closed. Closed. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be this way. Why It have to happen to me? It’s not fair. That’s closed. You’re closing it.

That energy will get screwed up, becomes somebody who understands the flow of the shakti because that’s what it’s all about. When you feel love, it’s the Shakti flowing through your chakras. Alright? When you feel clear, it’s the energy coming into you. If you close it off with all the negativity. So yes, by all means, that’s the equivalent to having a healthy body. Have a healthy mind. Just have a mind that doesn’t distract you. What does that mean? Exactly what I said about the body. The body distracts you not taking care of it properly. So it hurts. There’s pains, this and that. All kinds of trouble. Go to the doctor all the time. Spend your life with the body. Same thing with the mind. It’s not about shutting the mind up. It’s not about meditating 40 hours. It’s not about that, right? Yes. Meditating because it helps quiet the mind.

Just like eat decently. It is about getting your thoughts, the way you’re digesting your thoughts and the way you digest the world when it comes to your thoughts in a way that don’t distract you so much right now. They distract you so much. You identify with ’em. You say, it’s who I am. I’m the person likes this. Give me this or I’m leaving. You’re married to your thoughts. You’re not married to your husband and wife. If they do something you don’t like, all of a sudden you’re not married anymore. Who are you married to? You’re married to your ego. You’re married to your ego. That’s who you listen to here. But if you’re going to start saying, well, I don’t know if I’m happy in this relationship, I don’t know. Back in high school I was much happier. I was happier. It was a good time and I had that relationship with that guy and I felt much more love.

Do I have to settle for this relationship? I know we’re we got kids, but that’s your mind talking. That’s not you. That’s the sum of your learned experiences talking out of your mind. But I feel it so deeply. Of course you do. Don’t tell me. Oh, but my heart feels, and of course it feels it. The energy comes through the mind, out the heart. I’m talking deep truth to you. You better wake up. So basically start by working with your mind. How have a relatively healthy mind, but it’s not healthy. You’ve been feeding it garbage. Work with it. Learn to be positive. Learn to be more open. And main thing, what I do teach, I did it in a new book, first time ever in living in Tether. I gave some techniques. They’re very broad. They say things like this, is your mind a problem?

Yes. Can you deal with it? I’m not doing so good with the big things. They bother me a lot and I get all lost and it might go down and I come back. But then start with little things. When you wanted to play the piano, you didn’t start with Mozart or Kowski, you started with the scales. You want to play a sport. You don’t start playing against the pros. You sit there and get a coach and a ball thrower or something like that. Do that with your ability to work with your mind. I don’t want you to try to say, oh, I got this problem since a divorce. I’ve been like this. Okay, I’m going to stop that. No, you’re not going to suppress it. Suppression’s terrible to push that energy back down. It’s not bothering me. Yes it is. Just wait. Alright? You have to learn to handle things.

That’s what it’s about. Can the self in there instead of doing the garbage it does of pushing everything away and grabbing and clinging. Learn to say the day will unfold. It will be the temperature it is. It’ll rain when it rains and stop when it stops. Some people will be nice to me, some people won’t. And I’m going to go through this day and not resist, not push things around, not fight with the world. And you learn to little by little with little things. Start with little things. Let go and handle it. That means let it come in. Let it pass through. They’re not storing it. Let it come in. Let it pass through. If a day takes place and you didn’t store, I mean still more, you can bring it back in memory, but you didn’t suppress it. You didn’t hold onto it, you didn’t cling to it.

You understand that You didn’t keep it power packed so it keeps coming back up and bothering you. Let it pass through. I dare you. That’s how you start growing. Real growth. And guess what? The mind will get healthier. Well guess you’re not storing as much garbage. It is exactly the same as the body. Eat garbage and see what happens to your body. Store garbage. See what happens to your mind and what you like and what you dislike is garbage. There’s a world out there, it’s unfolding. It rains when it rains. I don’t care if it’s your birthday or not your birthday or it had plans. Its rain. It makes the food grow. I told you if it rains in, don’t one or two. Here’s positive thinking. Oh well there’ll be produce in Publix. Turn it around and you’ll find your mind can get healthier. Is a healthy mind a great thing?

It’s less destructive, isn’t it? And that’s what you’re going to find. It’s not about shutting the mind up, it’s about ceasing to be distracted by the mind. Right now. You’re so distracted, you don’t even know you’re distracted by it because you identify with it. All is things distract you from your mind. You’ll never think that this ego is distracting you from self. That’s when wake up. That’s when it needs to wake up. You realize, oh my God, I’m in here looking at that thing. It’s a monster. Well, how do you fix it? Rip it up, throw it away. No, you can’t do that. What you can do is learn to let life come in and pass through and don’t put more in there first. Don’t put more in there. Then what will happen? The rest will come up by itself. I dunno what you mean.

You’ll find out it’s a life of stock. Last in first out. When you stop pushing stuff down there during the day, the old stuff will start coming up, but it’s painful. Good. Destroy with pain. Come back with pain. Here you are healing your body, healing your mind. And by the way, they will heal themselves. Your body has a whole system called the immune system that really know what will make it okay? You just won’t listen. You start listening. Your mind does not want that stored in there. The shark does not want to be blocked. It will push it up and it’s a good thing and you should be happy and starts cleansing and what happens? That’s I laid the foundation for you of identity and distraction. Now you’re watching it instead of being it. That’s a very big step. Witness conscious is a very big step.

It means I’m noticing what’s happening in there. I’m not what I’m noticing. I’m the one who’s noticing. That’s witness consciousness. That’s objective observation. That’s what this whole thing’s about. Now you’re sitting back there. Can you stay back there? No, because I want this garbage in there. It’s distracting me for myself. Let go. Stop putting more in there. Let it cleanse. And what will happen is very naturally, you will find yourself miraculously much happier than you’ve ever been in your entire life and feeling loved because of bird chirped and because the sun is setting or because it’s raining really hard and it’s thundering and it’s scary and you’re having so much fun with everything. And the next thing you know, meditation has become spontaneous. You’re sitting there watching TV and you’re distracted just watching it. And because your mind got settled a little bit, you start feeling all the Shakti pouring up inside of you.

You eat and you finish eating. You feel all this energy pouring more and more. All is happening. Everything you do, it’s just energy pouring why you’re not blocking it. That’s what I want you to be unconditional wellbeing. Again, Bible Christ man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that leaves at the mouth of God. In other words, you don’t only live off what’s coming in from outside, there’s a flow inside. Every word to leave isn’t that beautiful? Every word to leave in the mouth of God, the Shakti, you live off the Shakti. Alright, so I’ve had a deep talk with you about what spirituality actually is. It’s about ceasing to be distracted by the garbage you stored inside that’s making you sick. So this is how you get healthy. You’re healthy by being extreme or doing so. You just stop doing this stuff.

How do you be healthy by stop doing this stuff that’s making you not healthy. That’s good enough. Because health is a natural state. Doesn’t mean something can’t get broken or sick. Of course you deal with it. But generally stop doing the things that make you sick and that’s good enough. You’ll stop being distracted by it. Then you’ll stop identifying with it and you’ll start realizing that you’re the self then, oh, I got you. Back to is the seat of self is the beginning of the seat where you’re looking down. You know what you’re looking down, where the masters go from there, it will dawn on you. Not your mind, but your intuition inside. Where’s the energy coming from? It’s beautiful. I lived with it for years. It feeds me. Now you start saying, what is it? Where does it come from? And you realize, I’m still looking down.

The energy’s coming up. I’m looking at it. What if I turned around because it’s 360, it’s everywhere, but it’s still focused on you. You’re still focusing on your individual identity of consciousness. Even though you’re not identifying with ego, you’re identifying with being the one who’s watching the ego. The great ones went past that. They turned around and what they saw. See the sun shining the reflection in front of you. Fine. That’s what you think the sun is. Turn around, blinding light, that’s enlightenment. And you realize I am the universe. That’s who’s looking down there and saying, oh my God, you’re so great. Is he going to be disgusted and you’re busy being depressed and get upset because somebody didn’t say something you wanted? Or you have a booboo on your little face and loaf. You’re the whole universe. That’s what’s in there. Alright, so we had a nice talk about true spirituality anyway and how to get out, stop being distracted and for God’s sake, stop identifying what you’re distracted by. Work on these things. Jai.

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.