E158: Making the Paradigm Shift from Fear to Freedom

Chai Gurudev, Chai Masters. We humans make all of life very, very difficult. It never seems like we're doing it. It seems like it's happening to us. That's because of the seat that we keep, the perspective that we have. It looks like that. People tell you to be positive. People tell you to have hope. All of this is still sitting in that seat and saying from that seat where you sit, try to make it better. The real growth comes in what's called the paradigm shift, a much overused term because it uses it. You're down there in that seat and you're trying to see what it is that'll make you better. Your paradigm shift is she'll do it instead of her or him instead of her. You're just playing down there at that level. That's not a paradigm shift. A true paradigm shift is when you change your seat. You change the seat from which you are looking at things. They no longer look like that anymore. It's not lying to yourself. I've discussed that with you before. Am I holding water, H2O molecules, hydrogen oxygen atoms, electron neutrons or protons, or quarks, leptons, and bosons? You can't answer what I'm holding. You can't answer that. there are paradigm shifts there are different seats of consciousness you're looking at this truth they're all true it's just a question of what level you're looking at it the level determines everything determines all your thoughts all your emotions all your purpose of life every single thing is determined by the level where you sit so we've discussed over and over again if you were able to sit on the top of the earth like a big seat, like a throne that you're sitting on, the curvatures underneath you, and you're just looking out at reality, you're allowed to sit there just like you're allowed to say it's hydrogen and oxygen atoms, because it is. Sitting there and looking out over the vast abyss, over the greatness of just your solar system, You can't even see over that than the eight planets. And then you realize it's just one star. Come on, guys. It's one sun that you're sitting there looking at, 93 million miles away. There are 300 billion of those in your galaxy. And there are 2 trillion galaxies. I think that would change your thoughts. You would not have to struggle with your thoughts anymore. You would not have to use positive thinking. You would not have to do mantra. You don't have to do anything because you changed your perspective. You're looking at it from a very true perspective. Some would argue, like me, that it's truer, okay? It's truer that I am holding hydrogen and oxygen atoms in my hand than I'm holding water. Water is an illusion that your senses put everything together. Like if you look at the, we talked about it before the other day. If you look at the TV screen, the flat TV screen, and somebody says, oh, you're looking at a picture of a Western or news, and somebody says, no, you're looking at some pixels colored next to each other, that is truer. I'm sorry to tell you. You may not like it, but that's a truer statement. The rest is something your mind is putting together and averaging out with your senses. It's really not true. It's illusion. It's okay. It's okay to be at that level, but you must admit it's not as true. It's really going on. which is its pixels or its atoms. That's what's really going on. You have to distort that truth for it to look like water or to look like a TV screen. But it's the same thing with sitting on the top of that planet and looking out. If your mind is still telling you, why should I do that? Because it's the truth. That's why you should do that. It is a paradigm shift in your life. Why? Instead of only encompassing the things that you create an illusion of, you put the atoms together and they look like this. Then you make a little world of yourself that fits in there. You're looking out over a bunch of bigger scope, a whole paradigm shift. And it will change your thoughts. It will change your life. It will change every single thing about you because you have expanded and more encompassed a larger truth than this tiny thing called you. So that's a paradigm shift. And that's what it takes. Not putzing around, sitting where you're sitting and saying, well, I know I'm supposed to like people and I don't, so I'll work on liking. You can do that. You can do that. I know I shouldn't swear. It's not a nice thing to do but offend some people. Those are not paradigm shifts. They're nothing. They're just, you're caught somewhere. I told you, it's like you're watching the TV and you realize that it's not doing you so good, so you change the channel. You're still watching the TV. You didn't go anywheres. You can't call that a paradigm shift, can you? Paradigm shift would be to get up. Oh my God, there's a whole world here. It's not just the TV, 24 by seven. And you cease to be a couch potato and you have a whole nother life. That's what this is. That's what spirituality is. Spirituality is not about beliefs. Spirituality is never about beliefs. It's about the truth. And then some people will say, well, who knows the truth? It is certainly truer that those are pixels on the screen than what your mind has convinced you those pixels make. It's like those, you remember those pictures? I used to have trouble with them, that if you stare at them, there's a whole other thing in there, right? I forget what they call those things, all right? Is it in there or not? Don't answer me. There is no answer. The mind just sees it that way and therefore looks at it from that perspective. The truth is, the answer is, it's just a bunch lines on a piece of paper, just like the Rorschach test. Can you imagine a bunch of people getting together and realizing they're going to the same psychiatrist and they look at the same pictures on a Rorschach test and they're sitting there arguing and bringing in a mediator to find out who sees it right. That would be very interesting, wouldn't it? Since it's just lines and your mind is making it look this way, that's what's going on at your level. So if somebody comes down and says it's really atoms, that's the truth. Or it's really just a quantum field of energy that is behaving in a certain way that makes it look like atoms, and then you, et cetera, et cetera. So there are deeper truths. That's what spirituality is about. It's not about beliefs. I think we're past the point that I believe it's pixels, or I believe it's really atoms. It is pixels, and it is atoms. If you want to go further down and say, no, it's just diodes of light or whatever. Okay, we can go there, but don't say that the deeper level is not truer than what your mind is doing with it. So if you want to be free, really free, we're talking master level stuff. We're talking about a real purpose of your life. You have to be willing to die to be reborn. Just like Christ said, you have to be willing to die at the level that this is my girlfriend, this is my wife, this is my car, this is the color I like, this is the color I don't like. That's a you you made up. You made that up out of the atoms. that are passing by in front of you and just passing by. They don't even stay for a moment. And you made up all this stuff. I know that's hard to hear. And most people are not even interested. They're interested in getting what they want and avoiding what they don't want. And their perspective of what they want is made up by their own mind. That's all. When I go to see the shrink, I hope he shows me that Rorschach test that I saw last time. It was really beautiful. I had such a good impression on me and I don't want to see the other one. Is that how you want to live your life? In the illusion. You're living in the illusion, delusion and error. Or you decide, no, I ain't living my life that way. There's not a deep enough truth. There are deeper truths. So one way I gave an example is you pull back, I do it all the time, and you just sit on the top of the earth. You're allowed to. You are on the earth. Okay, that's what you're doing. You just, you lost perspective. And so you just sit there and you use your sixth sense. Your mind is your sixth sense. It can look beyond your physical senses. Do you understand that? Like we talk about minds, some people think, they talk about something wrong with it. there's nothing wrong with your mind. There's nothing wrong with your car. There's nothing wrong with your computer. There's something drastically wrong with what you're doing with it. Okay? So basically, your mind is wonderful. You are to look at your mind as a sixth sense. You have these five senses that allow you to pick up all these different vibrations right around you. Your mind allows you to go beyond your senses. It allows you to know, well, these look like they're there, but they're really just atoms. Wow. You can't do that with your senses, but your mind can do that. And your mind at some point will understand that's important that it do that. It's able to look beyond the limit of their sense. Einstein talked about it all the time. He said human beings are limited by their senses because they can only see what their senses see. The mind can go beyond that. And so it's important to look objectively and clearly and use your mind that way. So like I said, one way to do that, and there's no reason not to do it because it's the truth, is to sit on the planet and look out instead of look down. When you look out, the things don't look so big anymore. How can there be a problem? There can't be a problem. You're just sitting on a little planet, tiny little planet. I told you 1.3 million of them fit inside the sun. And look how small that, 1.3 million Earths fit inside the sun. And you're worried about what happens in that little dinky thing? That's because you're looking down and you're letting that be your perspective. So this whole thing of the paradigm shift of perspective undercuts all spiritual practices. And you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Otherwise, you're down there in it trying to make it look a little bit nicer. And that's why you're struggling. There is no struggle. There's no struggle. There are no nice people, not nice people, things you like, things you don't like. That's just really getting right down to the tiny little things. You went to the day to enjoy the ocean. Did you enjoy it? No. Why? The waves weren't high enough. There was a spray. There weren't any seals. That's what you're doing. She said this, he said this. Oh my God. Can you imagine if you're sitting up there on top of the earth, looking out over reality and someone pulls on your little shirt and said, he yelled at me. Who? What? It's nothing. None of it is anything. So if you want to grow spiritually, you are not going to grow spiritually if you're operating at that level. You're going to stay caught in this tiny little minutia, which has no meaning. But let's talk about why it seems, just real quick. Why does it seem so important? Are you willing to look at yourself? And don't say it is important. It's not important what somebody says to you. It is not important that somebody smiles at you or not. It's not important that somebody wore the same dress as you to work. It's not important that you got some stain on your pants when you were at lunch. Now you got to go back to work. It's not important in the realm of things, is it? It's absolutely nothing. So why is it bothering you when you have the right to just sit on the planet and enjoy the journey of this amazing thing that you're spinning through empty space and all kinds of billions and trillions of things are happening and it doesn't matter what's happening down there. So why does it look so strong? That's what we usually talk about. But again, we want to start from the high state and say, why are you not there? Why can you just sit on the planet and enjoy spinning through space And whatever happening during the day is happening Whatever on TV is on TV It just a channel It doesn mean anything So the answer is very deep very deep Why you can't do that? Why can't I do that? If I know that it's not true, that it matters, all this stuff that happens, you know, I'm just born and going to die on the planet and it's just going to spin through space. Why do I get uptight? Why do I panic? Why do I get scared? Why am I insecure? Why? Why do I have needs? Why is any of that that way? That's the level you should be looking at this. Not what do I do about it or I'm right or something like that. It's just why in the world am I looking down instead of up? And it's kind of hard to look up, isn't it? All the time. Why? And you take a look. That's what witness consciousness does. You spend enough time there, you'll know. And you look at it and you say, not I have a problem. I don't have a problem, but I'm looking at something that has a lot of problems. It has a lot of problems. I'm looking at this psyche, this thing that's in front of me, not even in front of me through my senses, in front of me, inside, close to me. And it has a lot of problems. It tells me there's a problem. It says it's not okay that she said that. It's not okay that he wrote that. It's not okay that he dresses like that. It's not okay that he thinks It's this, that's my favorite. It's not okay that he thinks this way about me. Wow, how will you ever be okay if that's the level that you're paying attention? So the question is first, what do I do about that? It's obvious. You don't participate in it. You just don't participate. It's a meaningless thing. It's just nothing. It's nothing. That's how you have to look at your psyche. It is nothing. It has no meaning. It's illusion and delusion going on inside of my head. Why? He really meant it. No, the fact that you're sitting there trying to prove that he meant it means you're sick. There's something wrong with you. You're sitting on a planet, it's been in the middle of nowhere, and that's what you decided to do. Get involved in what people are saying or not saying and so on and so forth. So the question is, why am I doing that? I don't question that we do it. Why am I doing that? Why does that have a pull on me? That's what it boils down to. Why do I have to listen to this stuff? And you're going to see because you have a problem. You care about what goes on there inside of your imaginary self more than you care about the whole universe. Think about the amount of time you spend contemplating God, the whole universe, versus contemplating that little thing that's inside of you causing all this trouble. You're going to find that God doesn't get 1%. In most cases, he doesn't even get 0.1%. On Sunday, he gets an hour. Why? Why? what in the world hold? There's this stupid little thing inside of me. Who cares what it's saying? Who cares what it likes or doesn't like? It's just a thing. It's a thing in the universe. And it's very small. It's only around you. Okay? Why in the world am I so fixated and obsessed with what that thing has to say? That's what a yogi is. A yogi doesn't deny that it's there, but a yogi constantly looks at the size of that and the trouble it creates versus looking out over the universe, I don't think the sizes are close, nor is the reality close. The universe is way more real than this thing you have going on inside your head. So if you want to be free, I mean, truly free, not a nice person and people like you, no, you want to be liberated. It means liberated from obsessing over that. When you stop caring what's on TV, it's easy to get up and walk around. When you stop caring what that thing is doing or what it has to say or what reactions it does or whether it's happy or not happy, whatever it is, it's just a thing. How can you devote your life? Do you see the size of that thing compared to what I'm talking about? Compared to looking out over the reality of God, of the universe? It's so small, it's ridiculous. So why do we have so much trouble divorcing ourselves from that illusion, that tiny little thing? That's an important question. I shouldn't have to answer it for you. The very fact that you're willing to ask it will liberate you because then you're willing to say, am I going to devote my life to that? Why do we even have the tendency to devote my life to that? It's so meaningless and small. It's only noise about me. The other is God. The other is the universe. And I told you, we're human beings have gotten so lost that instead of letting go of themselves and devoting their life to God, they hold onto themselves and ask God to make things be the way they want. And don't tell me they don't do that. And they literally define that if you're really spiritual, God will make that happen and the powers of attraction will be there and you'll get what you want. A yogi does not ever do that. It wouldn't even dawn on a yogi to do that. A yogi looks at that thing that's pulling their consciousness down and says, I don't want to do that. That's what I don't want to do. All right? That's the only thing I don't want to do. I don't want to be limited to myself when there's so much more. And so you question, why am I? Why does that happen? Why, no matter how hard I try, I keep getting pulled down into this tiny little psyche with all its noise and likes and dislikes and preferences and judgments and reactions and so on. And what you're going to see is that there's a word one word fear that is what is underneath all of it is fear you say no desire no your desire is because of your fear you're scared very scared therefore you develop things that would make you feel better those are the things you desire it is not true that fear and desire at the same level that's the talk we're going to talk about atoms and water they're both there, but they're not at the same level. One's underlying. Fear underlies desire. If you do not have fear, you will not have desire. If you're fine with the white lines on the road, you're not afraid that they might have dripped some paint. You've seen them, haven't you, where they little drips on paint? You're not afraid that you're going to drive past one of those. If you're not afraid that you're going to drive past one of those, you don't have a desire that it not be there. You only have desires about places where you have fear. But I desire having a family. Why? Because I don't want to be left alone. I'm lonely and I don't want in my old age. And fear, fear underlies all of it. I want to have experiences that are exciting. Why? Why? What the heck do you care where you are, what you're experiencing? Because I am not doing well inside and I need something to distract me from that. I have fear to be left with myself. That's the last thing in the world I want to do. I told you once, I taught you. What is the greatest punishment that human beings have realized to instill upon another human being? Solitary confinement. You go into prison, you go to jail, then prison, then solitary confinement. The worse you behave, that's where they put you. Why? Because you can't handle yourself. You can't handle being inside of yourself. So your fear of being alone, your fear of this. Underlying desire is fear. When somebody asks you, what do you want to happen? You're basically saying that which will keep me from my own fear. What is the purpose of success? What do you care? Success is such a stupid word. It means while I'm alive, something will happen that I defined as success. Somebody else considers it a failure. Understand that. I defined as success. Why did you do that? Because I want to prove myself. I don't want to be left behind. I want to feel like I did something. I don't want to feel like my life was meaningless. Fear, fear, fear, fear. And so you sit there and decide what will make you not feel that fear. And then you say, that's the purpose of your life. Can anybody understand that? It's very important to understand that desire is created by fear. And that underlying all of this is fear. We've talked about it before. Master said, when the soul drops into the body, it gets all these stimuli and all this stuff. and it doesn't know what to do. It gets afraid. And so it starts building an ego and a psyche that it can hold on to so that if things happen according to how you defined yourself, you don't have to be afraid. It creates a false sense of security, of well-being. And then your desires come from that. Please understand that. Somebody once said to me, isn't it true? They were taught this. Isn't it true that your desires are God telling you what he wants you to do? I'm serious. They're taught that. Why else would I feel this desire? God's guiding me. I should do this. All right. Well, you would feel the desire because you have pain and fear underneath. And the desire is very powerful to try to take you away from having to deal with it. If she loves me and she stays with me and she's loyal to me, I'm okay. No, but I don't understand. The real question is, why are you not okay if she doesn't love you, is not loyal to you, and doesn't stay with you? oh, could you ask such a question? That's ridiculous. It is not ridiculous. It is the truth. Why are you not just okay? And then you can go out and give and have fun. Why do you have needs? Why do you have psychological problems? Why? I'm telling you, if you look, you will see. It's hard. You will see underneath at the bottom is fear. Therefore, your only way truly out is to learn to be at peace with the fear. That is what it boils down to. That's that white hot fire that goes on when you're going through something really deep. It's scary. It's freaky. That's the fire of yoga. You have to be willing to sit there and say, not I have to say, I want to work with my fear. No, if I do not let go of my fear, it will define the limit of how far I go. In the untethered soul, there's that whole analogy about a dog that has a collar on and they have a little wire thing area around the yard. And every time the dog goes toward the edge, he gets a shock. Okay. Well, if the dog cannot handle the shock, which the whole idea is that they can't, they are going to stay restrained within that yard. Okay. It is not true that the wire defining the border of that yard is what defines the limits of that dog's life. What defines the limit of the dog's life is their inability to experience the pain. If they had the ability to experience the pain, they would just walk right through it and they'd be out. It's the same thing with you. Please understand, you have these fires, these things, these trigger points that if anything in life, including your own thoughts, stimulate those. It is equivalent to getting shocked with your collar on. Therefore, you pull back. I don't want to talk to him because he gets me scared. I want to talk to him because I like hanging out over there, right? And you literally define your borders by what you're able to handle. And some people say, yes, I don't even want to talk like that. Of course I do. And I'm going to do that. Okay. Then you're going to stay within the restraint of your limitations. And your limitations are determined by what you can handle and what you can't, which again is fear. I'm afraid of going toward that edge. Go on, be afraid of going toward the edge And then you going to back off and they just locked you inside a cage Be afraid that your husband or wife are going to leave you It will determine your entire life Be afraid that you lose your job Be like somebody who year after year thinking I just getting fired next time Every time you call I getting fired next time It will limit your ability to express yourself. It will limit your ability to be comfortable with people. It will create jealousy because somebody else got a raise and you didn't. All kinds of stuff will go on because you're not able to handle yourself. The world has to be a certain way for you to be okay. If you do that, you're welcome to do that. You're defining your life by your limits and you will never be free. How could you be free? You've locked yourself into a cage of your own limitations. So a yogi is a great being. A yogi and yoginis are great being. They're different than this. They're sitting there saying, I don't want to be locked in a cage. I don't want to look at life based on my limitations and then have to stay within and figure out what to do and what not to do and so on. I want to sit on top of the earth, look out over reality and be fine. That's what I like. I'm going to be the fool on the hill. Sees the world spin around with the eye in his head. I want to be liberated from myself. So you have to look at it and say, why am I not? Not what do I do about it? Why am I not liberated? Because you're giving in to your fears. I don't usually talk to you this strong, all right? I guarantee you every single thing at the bottom is because you're giving in to your fears. If that dog does not give in to the shock that he feels as he goes toward that edge, there is no edge. It is because he gives in to that discomfort that he stays locked in. So it's not that I haven't realized God and haven't merged and gone to where the great masters go because you're not ready, because the masters haven't blessed you yet, because something you did yesterday or 10 years ago. That is not the reason. The reason is you can't handle the shock of your own fears. You can't go near that place where you start to feel the fear. The psyche freaks out and you lose your intention. You lose your ability to keep walking forward. That's why that analogy in that chapter is very, very deep. That's one of the best analogies in the whole book of that dog with a collar and backing off the shock or learning to handle it. And the moment they learn to handle it, they're out, aren't they? They're not limited by that any longer. That's what you're doing. You have fears in there and they're making you back up and they're causing all kinds of trouble. So you can't keep looking out over the universe. You'll see that when you're doing well, sometimes you can look out and it feels real freeing. And when you're not doing well, you don't even understand why you bother to look out. It's like if that dog starts walking toward the edge and gets closer and his yard increases, the area he can play increases because he's able to handle his comfort. And all of a sudden it really shocks and he runs back in. He don't ever want to go there near there again. I don't know why I was thinking about that. Do you understand that? That's what you're doing inside yourself. I want you to always think about those two things. You could be just looking out over the world, the universe spinning. Why? Because that's what's happening. You just drop down to a planet for a few years and you're experiencing, you don't even experience what's happening on the planet. Here's an experience he's sitting on the planet spinning through space. That's your experience every day. So the same thing here. Instead, you look down and you have these limitations due to your fears and you now try as hard as you can, as hard as you can to defend yourself, to protect yourself, to create an environment where you don't have to fill your fears. Do you understand that? If you don't understand that, you're wasting your time when this path. That's what you're doing, trying to get people to treat you the way you want to be treated so you don't have to feel that shock, et cetera, et cetera. It's all underneath based on, I can't handle the fear that's inside of me. And some people, it becomes catatonic. It becomes just totally, it just takes them over, takes them over. They can't move. They can't talk. They turn on everybody, just protect. They hide. They go cry somewhere. Do you understand that? It can get really messy in there, can't it? The question is, are you willing to take on the task of liberating yourself from yourself? That is the bottom line. Not what do you want to do with your life? Not who do you want to marry? Not how do you happen with your job? It's never anything like that. It makes me cry. Why would I talk about these tiny, picky little things that mean nothing? The only reason they mean anything is because you can't handle yourself, so you define their trying to find things that make it easier for you. That's why it matters what you do. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Do you understand that? Nothing's happening here. I'm not the first person to say that. Go listen to the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna, because that is exactly what Krishna says to Arjuna, is it not? What are you doing? But you don't have a choice. You don't have a choice to raise yourself above yourself. Why? Because you can't handle the shock that happens when you get too close to the barriers of your fears. That's it. And so you start looking at that and you start looking at life that way. Why am I not free? Why am I not just free to be with God, free to be with truth, free to be with the expansive universe? Why do I keep looking down, not even at the planet, at this tiny little three-inch part of the planet that I'm caught in? You are literally looking down into the planet, which is tiny, and there's 7.5 billion people, and there's one person who said three words. That's what you're looking at, isn't it? Isn't that funny? It's embarrassing, isn't it? Okay. You're looking at three words. How many words got said on this planet? And that doesn't even matter because the planet is so small, it's irrelevant. So instead of holding your consciousness where it belongs on truth, and your mind says, yeah, but they really said those words. Why does that matter that you're same, but they really said them. It's only because of what you're doing inside. But it really did, the Rorschach test really did look like that. See? See, imagine arguing. No, doctor, what are you talking about? Look, look at this curve's over here. It looks like that. Really? The more you talk, the more trouble you're in. That's right or wrong. That's a perfect analogy, isn't it? But it really does. Shut up. There's no question it really does to you. And yes, there's a curve. The very fact that you care that there's a curve and the very fact that it looks like that to you and the very fact you're not willing to understand that that's because your mind is putting it together that way doesn't mean there's not a curve. But the fact that you want to argue about it, the fact that you want to put your heart and soul into it is because you're scared. You're scared that I stand on this and I have to trust what I see and you're telling me not to and I can't do that. How am I going to trust any? And you start freaking out. Please listen. This is as deep as it gets. Well, how do you get out? First, you have to want to. I've always taught that. The number one requisite for liberation is wanting to. You are never, ever, ever going to be free of yourself if you don't want to. It's going to look reasonable that you're looking down and getting caught in those three words. All right? So the question is, what do I do about this? You do what's called work on yourself and free yourself. What's the first requisite? You have to put your freedom above everything else. When you're most clear, set your goals, set your aspirations. And they're not going to be physical. They're not going to be in the world. They're going to be liberation. They're going to be the freedom to love, the freedom to be open, the freedom to merge with God, the freedom to look at the universe as a whole and be part of it. Those are going to be your aspirations when you're truly open, especially you guys that are yogis and yoginis. That is what makes you a yogi. Not whether you can do asanas, not with you meditate, not how many mantras you say. What makes you a yogi or a yogani is that the entire purpose of your life, your heart, your soul, your intentions, everything is you want to be free. You want to be able to sit on a planet. Here, how about that? You want to be able to sit on a planet and enjoy the journey. Not so complicated, is it? Why? Because that's what's happening. You're sitting on a planet and you're not enjoying the journey. Why? Because you're looking down. I pointed this out to you. Has it ever happened to you that somebody says three words and it totally obsessed over it, freaks you out completely, can't even stop thinking about it, they echo in your head forever and you make a big yes or no. Is that kind of ill? Can we look at that and say that in relationship to reality, whoa, it's like you just start to look at it and say, do you want to be that little? It's not a question of right or wrong. Do you want to be that little? And eventually, you will catch on and say, oh, that's what's going on. I used to teach there's levels of right. Doesn't matter whether that's right. What matters is, is it right in relationship to reality? No, it's absurd, isn't it? And so you decide, I don't want to be like that. I don't want to live like that. First, you say, what do you want? I don't want to be like that. I want to be free. I want to be free to live my life and enjoy spitting on the planet every single minute of every single day. Why? Because that's what's happening every single minute of every single day. There is no exception ever. That's what's happening. Why can't I keep that consciousness? Because you have not worked through your fears. You have not worked through the tremendous power, the maya. That's what maya is. The tremendous power that draws your consciousness down into this tiny little thing called you. And your psyche and your preferences and your hopes and your dreams and your values. And just that whole thing. This little package. I see this little package. All right. And so basically it pulls you down. If you want to grow, once you've set your main thing is I want to be free. Why is that the main thing? If somebody comes here and they don't want to be free, why are they listening to this? It won't make any sense to them. It won't have any purpose, any meaning. But if somebody's tired of this constant pull down into the minuscule of the mind and then what it likes and doesn't and what it says, I told you three words or one instance. I used to tell that story about the boy, the girl and the brother and sister driving down the street, down the road, and there's an accident. And the boy happens to look that way for a second, a second, and see some terrible bodily damage. And that's the end of his life. Can it happen? Is that reasonable? Is that how you want to be? That you're sitting here spinning through outer space and you happen to look down for a moment and that's the end of your life? Just sign it off? It bothers you? You'll never ride in the car again? You'll never have children. And you're going to argue it makes sense. It didn't happen to you. If it happened to you, you'd be just like me. What are you arguing about? You're arguing it to be the tiniest little thing that ever walked the face of the earth. And you're saying it's right. Nobody's denying that you saw that. But would you please put it in perspective to what else is going on in the universe at that moment? And so you see you have a problem. The universe doesn't have a problem. The universe doesn't have any problems. You have a problem. And now once you decide, I don't want to devote my life to not seeing this and not having that or blaming this or figuring that out or hanging out with people that agree with me. Are you catching on? You're not going to get free if you don't want to. You're not going to win the race if you don't want to. You're not going to get free if you don't want to. You have to look at it and say, I don't want to live that life, the tiny little sick stupid thing. I want to be able to be free to look up and grow and experience God. and everything. That what I want I not there but that what I want Okay that first Your first requisite is it has to be the meaning of your life Okay So you set that down It the meaning Now you have to look and say, why can't I do it? Don't lie to yourself and say, I can. Don't. Let's look at it. And I'm telling you, I'll cut it short. You're going to see fear down there. You're going to see fear. If I don't defend myself, it'll happen again. So what? If it doesn't bother you, who cares if it happens again? If I don't get all concerned about the white lines, who knows what I'll see? Well, if you're not concerned about the white lines, it doesn't matter what you see. Isn't that funny? If you're not all uptight whether people like you or not, you're not all uptight about what they said or didn't say or better defend yourself in case they'll do it again. It's all the same. It's now that you've decided what you want to do with your life, you will see that there is a part of your being that for a very, very long time has not devoted itself to what you want to do with your life. It's devoted itself to itself. In fact, honest, it has devoted itself to its fears and the whole tree it built to try to avoid those fears, desires and preferences and none. All right? So you look at it and you say, if I want to be free, that's what I have to deal with. Have to deal with what? That fear. What fear? Fear. The fact that you can't handle what is generated by this one fear develops another fear. You're afraid of being alone. You see your wife or husband walking with somebody else. You start to feel jealousy. Now you're afraid that they might have a relationship or they might be lying to you. Look, one fear generated the other and then it splits up into a million of them like maggots. Everybody see that. So you come back and you say, okay, what's the answer? I got to deal with these fears. Not hide from them, not avoid them, not try to build a world that I don't have to feel them because then that world is within that fence line of that dog. If you're building a world where you're comfortable and you're just trying to make everything be the way you need it to be so you don't have to face your fears, you just define the side of your yard that you get to go in and you can't go outside of that. Is that really what you want? And so you look at it and you say, I got to deal with these fears. That's what I have to do. I got to deal with fear. I got to be able to be like that dog that can walk through that fence. All right, how do you do that? Little by little, little by little, don't run away from the fear. If something happens, somebody says something, somebody does something, you're afraid. Where do you start? You want to start at the beginning? Nobody did anything except you had a thought that maybe someday they will. That's a really good starting point, isn't it? You start with the simplest things. I always teach that low-hanging fruit. You are creating fears for yourself, right? How do I know I'll be okay if they put me in a nursing home? I don't have any money left when I'm 80. You're 12. What are you doing? You can create a lot of fears like that, can't you? So you start working with yourself and saying, if my intention is to liberate myself, and if the reason I'm not liberated is I can't even do anything about all this fear that's inside of me, and I try to solve it through desires and getting and running and spending and whatever the heck it is, and drugs and alcohol, and all that tells the drown that fears too. So basically, I need to deal with this. I want you to start with the simplest thing. I have a very nice teacher. You start with the easiest, simplest little thing, and now you're going to find out that the simplest thing is that which isn't even happening. If it ain't happening and you're afraid, I think we can start with that because you're creating the stimulus and the response. Okay. So you don't play around with this. It's not a game. It's the meaning of your life. You start watching your thoughts. You start watching that there's fear in there and you're stimulating it and you're saying it's okay because you're stimulated so you can avoid it. If you don't have to deal with it, you don't have to avoid it. That's the answer. The answer is not avoiding it. The answer is learning to not be afraid. You're sitting on a planet spinning around a little nowheres. So you start by not creating your own fears and then being afraid of them. And so how do you do that? That's where mantra comes in. That's where meditation comes in. That's where chanting comes in. That's where positive thinking comes in. You start working with, at least I'm not going to create my own fears and then be afraid of them. Catch yourself creating your own fears of something that might happen that isn't happening, that something, maybe this is what somebody meant. I don't know what they meant, but what if they meant this? I better, don't do that. You have enough trouble with reality. And so basically, use affirmations and you use positive thinking and you just start cleaning up in there that yes there's fear in there yes there's fear in there yes there is fear in there so basically you look at it and you say if i want to be liberated if that's the meaning of my life i need to use every moment of my life to let go of these fears to let go of what is limiting me to stay within the boundaries of myself and you do that by little by little i'm telling you starting position is stop creating the fear for yourself. If somebody takes a gun and sticks it to your head, okay, you're going to have some fear. But if you sit there and think maybe someday somebody will, it's like that's no, no. Okay. Maybe somebody meant this. And if I don't protect myself from it, no, no. You stop creating your own fears. Do you understand that you create your own fears so that you can protect yourself from them. You think about things that might happen that would scare you so you can figure out what you would do if they happened. That is letting your fears define your life. And so a great being starts to play with this. They sit there and say, I'm not going to create my own fears. If I deal with the fears, I'll deal with them. But I'm not going to create my own fears. You're the dog sitting back there 30 feet from the fence. Nothing's happening. And And the dog is saying, I ain't going over there. I won't be able to handle that. I don't want to get shocked. You'll never get out, will you? You'll never get out, ever, never. You have to be willing to say, I'm going to stop creating my own fears. That's a big job, but it's fun because you made them. They're not really there. If you start to do that, you're going to find out you get stronger. You're going to find out you're not a baby. You're going to find out that you can feel some little fears or insecurities or jealousies or whatever it is. I'm okay with that. It's just a psyche. It's just a leftover problem that the mind is creating for itself. And you relax. As I teach you, relax your way through it. Always relax your way through it. Let go. Now you see why letting go is the teaching. Now you see why relaxing is the teaching. You let go. Don't start with the big things. Just these tiny little things that you're creating yourself. Let them go. Dare to let them go. And you're going to find out, just like that dog, that you can step closer to that wire. And you're okay. You just expanded your life by being okay with your own fears. Then what's going to happen, and I'm not going to go the whole way because you'll get scared, is things will start to happen that you didn't create for yourself. And they will hit stuff inside of you that are fears that you've had for a long time. I wonder what you're supposed to do with that. Run away, back off, get scared and have all your neurosis come back up. See, I know I should have fought with. No, no, you let go. That's right. That's what you should feel like. I can't let go. Of course you can let go. Just don't let the fears run your life. And you just relax through them. And you're going to find out, as I've taught you over and over again, that 99% of your fears are nothing. They're nothing. He might not like me. So what? So he doesn't like you. If you're looking up at God, believe it. I'm going to say something straight. God likes you. I'm serious. And then I question it over. God likes you. God is you. That's what you are. Some people are athletes on steroids. You're God on fear. So you can't experience your divinity. But you are God. I've discussed that with you before. So there's no way God doesn't like you. You are God. You just got lost. God will be very happy for you to come back into union and experience himself as himself. So basically, you more and more let go of your fears. You just let go. You don't have to plan or do anything. Just if they show up, the moment they show up, You realize the purpose of my life is not to limit myself to these fears. The purpose of my life is to be free so I can look up and never down. Always look up, experience the divinity, the greatness of your being. And so I'm willing to take a chance, to take a risk, to let this go. And it's not a risk. It's not a risk to stop caring if there's some dripping white paint next to the dotted line. I know it seems like it is, but I'm going to tell you right now, it's not a risk. You know what else is not a risk? It's not a risk to not exactly know what somebody meant by the three words they said. And it might be something really bad, but I'm not sure. It's not a risk to let that whole thing go. It's not a risk. You're going to find out. It goes right through. And you didn't cause the other person trouble. You didn't cause yourself trouble. And you don't even know whether it happened or not. And you couldn't care less. That's where you should be. What do I care? I told you what I care about. Free. That I can look out over the universe. and these fears are not going to pull me down into this stupid place that's so small. And you're willing to live there inside the yard of the smallest fence that could possibly be. You've got to work on being free. So this is a paradigm shift, isn't it? What's the paradigm shift? You used to devote yourself to your fears and desires, your likes and your dislikes, all of which are generated by the patterns of limitation of fear that you have inside yourself. A paradigm shift is not deciding how you're going to do that different. I used to think it was money. Now I think it's traveling. No. It has to be an entire paradigm shift of saying, I'm not going to live with the power of these fears that are inside of me. I can't break free of them right now, but I can break three of the edges and I can deal the best of my ability with the ones that happen. I can let them go. I just keep letting go. And I'm telling you, if you let go, those fears will go. They will go because they're not real. you're just sitting on a planet spinning in the middle of nowhere they're only real because you said they were this is yoga and by the way this is what Krishna taught Arjuna inside that Gita keep your head up on me I'll be your charioteer and you start letting God be the meaning of your life work on these things Jai Gratav 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. Thank you.