E169: The Spiritual Practice of Doing Your Best

And, chagrative, jambastras, is a very holy phrase, doesn't matter what language you speak it in, doesn't matter when you say it. There's a thing called the best that you can. There is nothing holy here in this world than doing the best that you can. There's nothing that what you're doing, there's nothing that what allot takes, and most importantly, has nothing to do with what comes back. If you're really doing the best that you can, that is by definition the best that you can. That's all. Here's a way to lift. The best that you can lift is 97 pounds. How do you know? Of course, I keep trying to do the best that I can in 97 pounds, what gets lifted up? What if it stays in 97 pounds? It doesn't matter. Why? Because it's the best that I can. That's a very holy phrase, the best that I can. What if everybody else can do 105 and I want 97 and say, give up. After the best that you can, that's all right. If you don't do the best that you can, you're not living the best life, you're not living the holy life, you're not even living the most spiritual life. So beautiful. The Bhagavad Gita is all about doing the best that you can without caring about the fruits of your action. You're not doing it to get something. You're doing it to give a gift to the universe of the best that you can. It's a very, very holy thing. And that's the Bhagavad Gita entirely about that. It's entirely about the best that you can. It's not about the fruits of your action, the results of your action. In fact, they say, renounce the fruits of your action. That's very confusing. Then why try? They're renounce the fruits of your action. Why do I care? Because you're not doing the best that you can. And if you do the best that you can, the results that come back will be the results of the best that you can. But what if I find out later that I could have done better? It doesn't matter. You couldn't do better then. And the fact that you do better later is because you did the best that you can. If you hadn't done the best that you can earlier, you would never do better later. They mean you're working on that edge. Lean on that edge. It is called renousing the fruits of your action. That is the essence of the Bhagavad Gita. That's the essence of the really deep teachings. And it is very non-western. All right? Western is about you measure the quality of your life based on what you got. If somebody is getting better than you, but you're doing the best that you can, you waste your time. That is not true. If you do the best that you can, why? Why would I do the best that I can for the fruits of what I'm trying to get compared to other people and so on and so forth? No. No, that's not. That's not the best that you can. That's the best that somebody else can. That's the best of what you wish was the best that you can. It's not real. You do the best that you can and you honor and respect what comes back. But what if it comes back as it's so good? You just keep doing the best that you can. You can't do better than the best that you can. You can in your mind make believe you can do better than best that you can. You can compare some of other people and say, "I can't do as good as them." That's nothing to do with you. You're coming from where you are. But what if I find out that where I was coming from wasn't so high? It doesn't matter. The reason you see it now is because you did the best that you can and you see, "Oh, I can do better." That's the only way that you see. You can do better as you do the best that you can and you start noticing, "Oh, the best that I can got better." If you do better next time, it's because you did the best that you could this time. You're not going to do better by thinking about it and you're going to do better by comparing yourself with the people. It's not going to do with that. You are getting the benefit of pushing yourself through the best that you can. Therefore you grow. You always grow if you do the best that you can. Period. But if you sit there and say, "One, I can't do that. I know I can't do that." You don't grow. If you sit there and say, "I tried, but I wasn't able to do good as somebody else." You don't grow. That's why people give up because they think it's about the actual fruits of the action, where the Gita says, "Renounce the fruits of your action." It's very difficult for a Western mind to understand what does it mean to renounce the fruits of your action? For the one I'm trying, because the act of doing the best that you can is the holiest thing in the whole universe. The best that you can is different than the best that you can is different than the best that you can. The best you can tomorrow is different than what the best you can. Yesterday, that means you're growing. That means the change is taking place. If you look back and you sit there and say, "God, you're a go. If I knew what I know now, I could have done so well. Don't ever think like that." There's so many things in the Gita. What it says is that if somebody else can do better than you, that is irrelevant. It completely relevant. If you are doing the best that you can, you will evolve. That's just the way it works. If you're playing the piano and then somebody's a child prodigy and you're not even close. I can't even get close. You can't even do your scales right, right? You're doing the scales the best that you can is as good as and as important as that prodigy who's playing Mozart at five. It doesn't make any difference. It's about your spiritual growth. That other person's spiritual growth that they've born prodigy has nothing to do with you. There's no comparing. You're comparing against, "Are you doing the best that you can?" If you do the best that you can, you have a solid foundation for doing better, for growing. If you look at somebody else and say, "I'll never be able to play like that." You don't grow. In that area, you're not willing to do the best that you can. The guided teaches, the deep teaching teach, always do the best that you can. Whatever you're doing, if you're washing the dishes, do the best that you can. That means I'm actually doing the best that I can to wash the dishes, get them clean, be efficient. I'm not thinking about what else I could be doing instead of washing the dishes. I'll be here now. They're all ties together at that point. It's about the willingness to take your heart and your soul and your shoekty and the whole of your being and put it into whatever the universe has put in front of you and do the best that you can and never look back. Don't judge yourself. But if I don't judge myself, how do I grow? By doing the best that you can, the best that you can will improve. There's no way in the world that if you keep doing something that you can, I'm not saying you can become a concert pianist, but you will be better. Won't you? That goes for your job. That goes for every single thing you do. That's why it's not about what you're doing. It's about, have you let go of your personal self, the ego, that's saying, I'm not good enough. I don't want to be doing this. This is too low for me. This is too high for me. It's just mine. It's just stuff that keeps you from doing the best that you can and you don't grow. You can't measure the results of the best that you can. You do the best that you can as an act of giving to the universe. Here it is. You always start your starting position. You do not ever start where you want to be. This is so different. You want to teach you the non-western mind. The western mind gives up, doesn't it? It has to do with, are you willing to do the best that you can under every situation that's put in front of you without quitting, without getting depressed or without losing inspiration? It's necessary to say like this. Be sure you're right. Then go ahead. What does it mean? Let's talk about that. What does it mean to be right? You look inside. You look at the task that could put before you. I like the people say, "Well, how do I know it has to be so-so doing?" The one that's in front of you. "Well, I understand. I'm driving down the highway. Do it the best you can." Every single thing you're doing. You know, thinking, "What are you going to do when I get there?" You're just focusing. What is the best that I can? What can I do now? Whatever I'm doing, be here now. I understand, problem does the words, right? Be here now. Not be there then or later. Be here now. What does it mean? This is where you are. Where? Here in this moment, with this mind, with these emotions, with this body, with this surroundings, that is where you are. Right? That's where I want to be. Well, how did you decide what you wanted to be? You took one aspect of your whole being. I want a better relationship. I want more money. I want people to like me more. I don't want to die. I want to live for real long. Go and pick one and see how much of your life. Your life is the whole of your being. Be here now. Wherever you are, let go. Let go of not doing the best that you can with whatever you're doing. Well, what if I'm planning for a business meeting or for a party or something, right? We'll do the best that you can. But that's in the future. So what? That's what I was talking about. It's talking about right now, with what's in front of you, do the best that you can. You're there. You're always present, as present as you can be, and you'll do the best that you can whatever you're doing. You drive the best that you can, invest the best that you can, you do whatever you're doing, the best that you can. For what purpose, for the purpose of doing the best that you can, there's no judgment afterwards. It's not like, "I did the best I can to invest the money I have, I did the best that I can, I lost everything." It's okay. If you did the best that you can, now if instead, you went out there and tried to figure out what other people might have done, and what you want, and put yourself way outside the reality was taking place. You know, harmony with reality. It's mind making stuff up. I want such and such by such and such an age in my life. This is what I want, and I want to be married, and I want to be married with these vicious spirituals, I am, and that's what I'm gonna look, are you in trouble? Have you noticed? You will get disappointed, you'll get depressed, you'll stop trying all kinds of garbage that goes on, but that's state of mind. The spiritual state of mind is, I don't know squat. I'm here now, and this is what's been put before me. And you remember the spiritual? I am not even doing it for me. Is an act of service to the universe. What do you mean? By definition, what's in front of me is what got put before me. It is what is in front of you. Drive the best that you can. It was time to pass somebody, make sure it's safe, don't do something crazy, just let reality unfold and serve it to the best of your ability. That what I'm talking about right now, I want to be teaching about going here. That's the entire teaching, that holy, very holy scripture, the highest things ever written. And what it says is, renounce the fruits of your actions. But then why would I do anything? I didn't tell you not to act. I said, renounce the fruits of your action. Why? Otherwise, I'm not doing it for the task that was given to me to do. I'm doing this with my mind to decide what I want to happen. I'm projecting out, what can I do to get it the way I want it to be? And that sounds so Western for you and so right for you. That's how you get neurotic. That's how you get depressed. That's how you get afraid. You're afraid to do the best that you can. You're afraid to totally put yourself out 'cause you might fail. And you don't look like an idiot, you don't say anything, right? People are afraid to really put their whole heart and soul into whatever they're doing. 'Cause it might not, I better hold back. I don't know, put too much in one area, even relationships. Do you ever feel you need to protect yourself? Protect yourself from what? I've made up how I want things to be. Has nothing to do with my best I can. I just made up how I want them to be. I set a life pattern, what I want, what I don't want, how to do it, and how they kind of stuff, all right? That's what your mind will do. And then you'll get disappointed. You'll feel rejected. It is not goal orientation. It's about the part of your being that's willing to give the whole of your heart and the whole of your soul and the whole of your mind into whatever's put before you. That is what's spiritual. Not oh, go boy, I got rich. Now I'm neurotic, trying to invest it. I'm neurotic to people. I steal it. I don't know what's it. People get neurotic. I got the perfect relationship. When you say, "Oh, jealous," you get. When you say, "Oh, fearful you are." How do I know what somebody's doing? And how can I keep it? Did I do right? Did I hurt somebody? It doesn't stop. You basically let the foundation of your imaginary thinking in your mind. How many different things do you think about? At the same time, by the way. All right? You can just get neurotic. To be centered and clear what the deep teachings are. And they're not the Western teachings. But the deep teachings are. There is no result that's better than any other result. Except for the fact that you did the best that you can to serve the moments in front of you. That is the key to. That is the deep teaching. And if you do that, where do you see what happens? Right? You're sitting in this situation. You're driving. You're talking to somebody. You're about work. You got a project to do. It works for everything. But you're not doing the project. Thinking about what you're going to get next. Thinking about an acolyte you'll get. Because you did so well. And you don't even look at that. You get to a point. You wouldn't even think about it. Are you doing the best that you can? Do you do the best that you can? For the holiness of the act of serving the universe by doing the best that you can for the task that was put before you. That is the Bhagavad Gita. That is Arjuna. And the back of that chariot, the Christian driving, saying, "Crisis, now come on, let's go." Twitch, Arjuna says, "No. No. I don't want to fight. It's not right to fight. I know. I don't even care about getting what it is that I might get by winning the kingdom. I don't want the kingdom. I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't want to hurt anybody." And he fell down as chariot and that despondent Arjuna and dropping his bow, he said, "I will not fight. Do it. The entire rest of the Bhagavad Gita is Christian saying to God, saying to him, "I gave you a task to do. And you decided what matters and what you want to do with it. What you think should happen. What are your goals? No, no. I have a university run. And you're a part of it. Get with the program. That's the Bhagavad Gita, by the way. The entire rest of the Gita is Christian telling Arjuna how to let go of yourself, to die, to be reborn, how to announce the fruits of your action, but that doesn't mean you don't have action. Your action is an act of service to who, to the universe. Well, how would I know what to do? It's in front of you. Literally, people used to come to me back in the 70s when people were starting to come out here. And I can't find a job. I can't find right action. I can't find something to do to earn a living. And I sit there and say, well, I'll tell you how you start. And he's just, he's just, I don't know anymore. Go out there on the field, take a shovel, and dig a hole to the best of your ability. Every single stroke, do it as much consciousness you possibly can, and offer the fruits of your action to God. You're not doing it to earn something. You're not doing it to prove something. You're not doing it for any reason, other than, I'm capable of doing the best that I can, and that's my gift to the universe. Imagine everybody did that, okay? Right? And he said, well, what will I do? Where do you see what happens? I'm telling you, you do that. There's this figuratively, I'm talking about that. But you do that. You put your whole being into it. And it's not about you. It's about you giving the gift to the universe of the best that you can actually cry. Giving the gift to the universe the best that you can do. As I stand before the entire, all the galaxies on this tiny little planet and a little nowhere, 1.3 million earths inside the sun. And that's one of three billion stars and one of two trillion galaxies. So what are you? You are that, which is willing to do the best that you can and whatever thing is put in front of you. You do the best that you can. Well, what about finances? Where do you see? Does that mean you'll be rich? No, but you will be rich. Well, good is money. All you can try to do, what do people say? Can't buy me love. All you can do is try to get it to buy you feeling going to be happier if you're already happy. You've already filled for filled. You've already filled just excited and foolish to get up in the morning to do the best that you can. The best that you can is a very, very holy thing. But there's no motive. The motive is, I'm in this, come on, how important are you? Come on, you're a beautiful person. You're one out of 8.3 billion people on a planet. And the planet, the entire planet, everybody in it, 1.3 million of the fitness I've won star. And there's 300 billion stars in your galaxy. How important is you? You have to wake up and say nothing. It says nothing. And you're only here for how long? 80, 90 years? You gone? You don't know, you came for it, there we go. But you're making this whole mishagas out of how important your life is. It is not important. What is meaningful is to say, I am part of the entire universe. Yes, I'm this little ants, not even an ants. I'm this little tiny planet. But so is everything. Every moment, every spot in the whole universe is important as any other part. It all is in balance, it's all gravity. It's all working together. Is it not? I'm part of that. Are you willing to be part of that? No, I have an ego, I have an I-me-mind, and I have how I want it to be, which makes me neurotic. The richest people in the world will you please-- it's so easy to see them nowadays. I love it. They have billion, billion, billion, 100 billionaires. Don't they look totally happy? Don't they look like they don't have a problem in their whole life? You're crazy. Why is not going to give it to you? Relationship is going to give Hollywood, their voices, relations-- oh my god, forget it. That is the biggest problem I can exist. What is it that is meaningful in your life that your heart is open, that your mind is clear, and you're inspired to give the whole of your being into every moment of the folding in front of you? That's not like these in life? That's what it means to be in line. That's what it means to be whole. That's what it means to be complete. You didn't limit yourself. I talked about that all the time. It says it's so clear to me, it's ridiculous. How limited is your life? Oh, I'm not. I went to college and I did this. I went there. And I married and I have three children. OK? There's 8.3 billion people on the planet Earth. You're one of them. So is your kid. And that's on the planet Earth. How important are you? And more. How important are you in Jupiter? How important are you in a galaxy far, far away? And you realize, what am I doing? I've limited my f-. frame of reference to me. What matters is me. What am I doing? What am I getting? What am I children doing? What's the husband doing? What's happening right now to me? How do I feel? How do I think? Pretty small stuff. And you're only here. A fact that's so small. Anyways, you're only here for 80, 90 years. How long has the earth been here? 4.5 billion. Figure out the percentage. I'm too old to do it on my head. It's pretty small percentage. Some day you wake up at that level, zero. It comes, it goes, and what influence did you have? Give me a break. But you made such a mishikas out of it as though this is the most important thing in the universe. What you said to me. How should you say that to me? How many words get said at any moment, even on the planet earth? How could you say that to me? It's like, look how small you made yourself. But you don't look at that way. You say, "I want to make so big. I want to succeed. I want to give money. I want to give important. I want people like me." That is so tiny to devote your life to yourself. You want to have 8.3 billion people alive now. How many of them on this planet? Hopefully you're going to do what with your time? Make myself important? Prove that I'm okay? To who? To what? You eventually wake up and you realize that spirituality is not about proving yourself in relationships with what? It is not a competition. It is you are special. Not because you're special. It is not because you're special. It is because you're a conscious being that is present in a moment that is unfolding around you and you get to serve it. You get to serve that moment. It doesn't tie back to any other moment. It is just, "Can you do the best you can? Can you take your entire heart and soul and mind in the moment in front of you and put your whole being into it?" It makes you cry and even talk about it. I've never talked to you guys this way. You take your being, your way of thinking, your way of feeling, your body, your actions, your world, there it is. Are you willing to wake up in the morning and say, "I am going to do the best that I can at the moment since I'm fully in front of me." You're going to interact with that moment as if it's God manifesting before me, saying, "Serve me." Serve this moment. Just serve the moment. And not look for any other way to come back. You're doing it for a reason. There's no motive. There's no motive. Other than doing the message again, taking the whole of your being and saying to the universe, "All right, you're enormous. Here's my part. Here's my part. How do I care how small it seems? This is the contribution that I can make. If I pick up a violin and I've never played the violin before, but I do the best that I can in that moment to make a sound, I just contribute to the universe the best that I can and it's always good enough. There's never a time that the best that you can is not good enough." You don't understand that because you are looking at the fruity reaction. You're saying, "What came back?" That's what I care about. I don't care about doing the best that I can. I care about what came back from the best that I can. That's the Western mind. And not just Western anymore, right? That's how human mind thinks. I'm trying to get something. I'm not okay. If you are okay, you don't need to get anything. You're giving. You're always giving. It's never an action of I'm doing something to get something. The very act itself is fulfilling. Go into the shower when you're feeling high and open and sing. Okay? I hope nobody hears you and I just like, has nothing to do with how good you sing. Has to do with how you feel and the expression you're being and the freedom to express yourself. Okay? It has to do with doing the best that you can. Always, under any circumstances, finances, relationships, beliefs, every single thing. What's the best that I can? How do I know it's the best that I can? Because there's nothing holding me back at that moment. I'm not saying, "Well, but if I sing in this way, here's me, it will be embarrassing." So I'll kind of do okay, but I'll check out. You hear me? Which is how we live. Is it not? We're not willing to do the best that we can because we want other people to think nicely of us. Well, that's not the best that you can. And that's a really important topic, by the way. If you're judging your life based on somebody else, you are in big, big trouble. Why? They are different than you. The best that they can is completely different than you. And in most cases, they're not doing the best that they can. Well, they are. They're the best that they can to get everything they can get. They're not for us to improve their action. Basically saying, "I'm going to judge you." And they're always judging. Do you understand it? You're always judging you. Aren't they? And you know it. You're afraid to walk down the street. You might be standing up straight enough. You're my cough, you're my sneeze. Get into an elevator. It's pretty crowded. Well, should I get in? I don't know. I don't push anything. You're just like, there was self-conscious, scared, little animal. So walk around the earth, okay? And then you judge everything based on that. No. The teachings are as follows. You're alive, check. You have thoughts, check. You have emotions, check. You have a body, check. And there's a world you're interacting with right now, check. Are you willing to take the whole of your heart inside your heart and mind and soul and serve the moments that some are falling in front of you without looking for any to come back? That the act of doing that you will find some day is the most filling thing you will ever experience. Doesn't matter if you're poor or rich or spoiled or male or female or older young. Doesn't matter. If you're giving the whole of your being to us and falling in front of you, there's this interaction of the shokti, the shokti of life with the shokti inside of you and they feed each other and you're going to get really high. That's when the essence of the key is renouncing the fruits of your action. Do the message you can and renounce the fruits of your action. Well, why would I do the best I can if I don't care about the fruits of my action instead of my western mind things, right? I'll just why get out of bed, my bother. I'm not going to get something back, give me a break, all right? No, that's what messes you up spiritually and then your whole life is that you're sitting in a goal oriented saying, I'm only doing what I'm doing because I'm trying to get something and then you get disappointed, you get upset, you get jealous because somebody else got more than, all right? The whole ego is built on that. The whole personal self is built on the reason I'm acting is to get something, all right? So I always ask the question, why do you need to get something? Ready? Because I'm not okay. If you're okay, you need to get anything, you realize it, you're not okay, you're encouraged to not be okay. Go watch A as on TV, don't do this and smell it, don't you want to be this, don't you want to be better than somebody else? It's constantly battering you, right? With you can get stuff and you don't have it yet. It's not dealing with the best that you can. You're dealing with how do I get the most that I can and that leaves you drained, you get disappointed, you feel like a failure or something, you feel successful and then something happens and when we're able to press, all the garbage of the personal self comes from thinking that there's something to get and you're not doing enough to get it or somebody else got it and you wanted it. Come on, look at your emotions, look at everything. So the deep teachings are what we've been talking about. Are you in there? Yes. Are you in light? No. Right? But I'm in here. Are you okay in there? Depends on when you ask me. Come on, right? Are you willing to devote your life because you're not okay? That the foundation of your life is, I'm not okay. Money will be me be okay. Relation will make me be okay. Maybe another child will make me be okay. Getting active lays it work will make me be okay. Clapping when I walk in the room, I'm cheering, you need to get something. Why? Because I'm okay. That's what I've learned in my life. That the foundation of how we tend to live is I'm not okay. I need a better relationship, I need more money. I need to be in travel. I need more exciting things in my life. I need people to like me. I need to be accepted. I need to be rejected. I need to look a certain way so people will like me. In other words, you look at that as positive. I'll look at that as saying, I'm not okay. I'm not okay with things as they are. Therefore, I need you guys to behave in a way so it makes me feel okay. That's how the regular mind works, is it not? It's never okay. It's never okay. No, that's not true. That we short peers a time where it gets what it thinks it needs. Is it over? Where's the last time you got what you wanted? You have something you want. Relationship, job, money, something, parents, acceptance, approval, right? Something? How long will last? You never need anything else for us to live right? There's nothing like that. I mean, you can't even imagine something being like that. So you get to where you understand it's not about that. It's about questioning not how do I be okay. Why am I not okay? Why am I not Okay. You don't even think like that. It's always willing to do to be okay. Why am I not okay? Because I'm telling you, if you haven't heard it yet, you are so far past okay, it's not even measurable. You are the highest being that will walk the face of the earth, who's in there as a very great being. Who taught you that? Christ, the Kingdom is within you. It's not out here. Okay, so we now get down to it. Does that mean I were now out there? That's not what I said earlier. I didn't tell my renunciation at all. I told me, "Do the best that you can." Renunciation comes about because you sit there and say, "I'm not getting what I want, so I better find something else to do, but I won't have relationships, I won't deal with money, I won't ever touch anything, then I'll be okay." I bet. You know how long we've been doing this? You know, 55 years or so like that, right? I have met so many people that have met so many gurus, that have done so many things, that have tried everything. You know how many are okay? You can't have a counter on your hand. Why? Because that's not what it's about. It's not about getting it. It's not about asking, "What do I need to do to be okay?" That list is so enormous. If you meet a new person, you want them to like you, all right? How do you figure it out? You don't even know them. Maybe that would you think would make you, like you, they don't like it all. Is it getting neurotic? That's what it comes from. Have a full attention? Anxiety, neurosis? This is why. Because you're not okay and you're sitting there trying to be okay, but I don't know manipulating everything. It makes me laugh. How do you know what another person is oppressed by? You assume it's what you're oppressed by. And you project that out there and then you wonder why people don't like you or why they don't have it. It's an impossible life. It is an impossible life to try and get things outside of you. People, places, things, finances, to be a way that you feel okay inside. For a short period of time, yes. We're saying it, but not. And you let the time at all. And you know that. You have sometimes gotten what you wanted. You want anything else, right? No, it doesn't stop. It's endless. It's the silliest way of living your life to never exist. Okay? People live their whole life and their deathbed, they're afraid to die. Why? Why are you afraid to die? Because I had a bucket list. I didn't get to do it all. I should have for what you bucket list. That which I think if it were to happen would make me be okay. Listen to me and repeat that. That which I think if it happened or does happen will make me be okay. In my okay, your entire life, now you get this little list. You know what's on that list? Stuff that hasn't happened yet. You're going to squat on that list that you're retried. We please laugh at yourself, all right? So you're just like, I don't know. It's the struggle that's ridiculous. And so you get to the point where you realize it's not about the outside. There's nothing wrong with the outside. It's a place to practice being the message you can. It's not something that will take care of you. It's something you can give to, not take from. And I see essence really of the gear. Everybody's trying to get something, aren't you? Hear me? You're trying to succeed. Trying to get things. Trying to get your findings. So try to travel more. Trying to see more people. Trying to, like I said, sure, sure. It's always about, I don't have what I need to be okay. And I'm going to go out and try to get that versus at some point in your life you wake up and maybe you wouldn't be here if you had not. And to realize that is a lot of work for very little reward. In fact, if you get what you want, you're afraid of losing in. If you really fell off somebody's so, oh my god, this must be my soulmate, watch it. Because you'll be a little clingy, a little grabby. And if the person doesn't act completely in the way that you think that they should be acted to prove that they love you, they're in trouble and you're in trouble. It's an impossible game. That's not the key to so deep, but the Western mind does one hear it. So what do you do? You just say, okay, that's not the game. The game is why am I not okay? I know the answer. I've been living my whole life. Why are you not okay? It is not because you've not gotten what you want. You've got what you want plenty of times. And then it's gone. In fact, did you got it? You don't want it anymore. And really, as I build it, you build a house out here, right? Okay. I got the right relationship. Okay. I got this kid. Another kid. Have a good day. One of the kids. I got this job. I got these finances. You're building something that is not going to be there tomorrow. I guarantee you. And you know that. You see people's houses fall apart. You've seen relationships fall apart. Oh, you've seen so much. And now what you end up with is fear. You end up with anxiety and fear and insecurity. That's what you got for that. Well, the deep life, the real life is a sinner and say the answer is not trying to compensate for the fact that I'm not okay. It's finding out why I'm not okay. That's a whole other ball game. And if your mind still is silly enough to say I'm not okay because I didn't get what I want. I hope you some people's search for teachers say, well, I hope you don't keep messing around with what you want. I'm not saying it. I hope you get what you want so much that you realize it doesn't work. It's not about getting things to make you be okay. It's not finding out why you're not okay because I'm telling you secret. You are so okay. There are no words for it. Well, why don't I feel that one? That's a pretty reasonable question. Instead of what do I get to compensate for the fact that I'm okay? To lay on top of that amount of okay makes me feel better. That's called compensating. Why don't the covesay friend go, I'm not okay. Why don't you learn to be okay? It's about letting go. It's about letting go of what you did inside yourself that made you feel like you're not okay. And that is the spiritual path. That's the entire spiritual path. Right? And what happened to be looking there is when I was teaching you, when you look in there, you're going to find out you're not okay because you made yourself not okay. I did not. I did. Yes, you did. Your sister got the blue bicycle and you wanted the blue bicycle and you were okay with that. And so you got upset and you suppressed it. You held it inside of you. I said, "Now you don't like your sister." You're like bicycles. You don't like her blue. Every single preference you have, every single preference you have was programmed in you by experiences you had during your life. Man, there's a sum of learned experiences. Well, you're in trouble because you didn't experience very much. I hate to fall back in the same teaching at any given moment in your life where you were experiencing something. How many things were going on everywhere else that you weren't experiencing? Give me a number. How about 700 billion zillion million? But you built your entire preference system, your likes, your dislikes, your preferences, your hopes, your dreams on that one experience that you had when you missed everything else. If you had had a different experience in that moment, would you want different things like different things? Of course. That's the deepest thing I gave you to wake up. Your program with these little meaningless moments just happened in front of you at that moment. You interacted with somebody. They were in a bad mood. And I knew you had to do a phone call. They had two hours ago. You don't like that person. I don't ever see them again. They're like me. I could tell. They're like me. You don't know anything. Do you? Okay, you can't possibly. I call. Will you picked up during that one moment statistically insignificant? Is there 800 billion things that could have been happening? That's the one that did and you build your life in each one of those? What is thing to do? But that's what's in there, isn't it? So you wake up and you realize you got some work to do. But it's not about getting things the way you want. You don't have to renounce them to be saying that. It's about realizing I stored all this garbage in me throughout my life. And so I can't be okay because I'm having to compensate for the stupid stuff I stored in there. This person heard me. That person didn't do what I want. That person didn't do what I want, but then they moved. Like, come on. Every experience left marks in there. If they're strong enough, aren't they? It's about getting rid of those. That's what spiritual is about. It's about cleansing the garbage that you built inside yourself because you couldn't handle the reality that was going on in that state of your life. Well, does the psychology say that you're stuck with that stuff? First of all, no, they really don't. Although pretty much everybody is. You understand that? You go to therapy for six years to let go of one of them. Oh boy, oh my God, I'm afraid of the awakening. Good. How many are still down there? I don't know. And you just get the point you realize your life is about letting go of the garbage you stored in there. How do you do that? You open up enough to realize that's where I got very early in my path. And the story in the experiment talks about that. There were probably in 71, 72. We have to meditate a lot, but I sort of see that basically life is real. It does it something. Doesn't it? We're taught. You shouldn't let it do something. Make it do your thing. Well, that's a worser about. That's what this horror is about, isn't it? If I'm a some of my learning experiences, you know some of your learning experiences, I think you had different experiences than me. Did you not? Therefore, who wins? All right. And see you wake up and you realize that that's not the game. about getting what you want. So letting go of the reason you want it, even the deep things in your life. I'll do it too deep for you, relationships. Why do you want relationships? I'm lonely, I don't feel whole. I need the support of somebody else, but even by that, they agree with everything I say and everything I think, whatever I want to do, they want to do the same thing, otherwise I got no use for you. Relationship work out real well, don't they? Ha, ha, ha, they can, they should, but not like that. You just catch on. It's not about getting what you want. It's about being willing to look at what's outside and inside and say, I want to do the best that I can with the energy that's unfolding around me. To be the clearest person, to feel the most love, to feel the most compassion, to feel the most giving, to care, care about those, more you care about yourself. I want to be open enough to have it not be about me. 'Cause when it's about me, I'm grabbing, I'm taking, I'm controlling, I'm just trying to take care of me. I would like to be bigger than that. And so what you do is, I remember that point, I remember the exact moment of my life where I realized, I need something stronger, bigger than me, so I'm not living for me. But basically you realize, I have something in my life. This is a great realization I had. I was like 23 years old. I do have some force in my life that is stronger than me. Life, life itself. The unfolding of life itself. I get in my car, I try to start it, it doesn't start. That's life. Isn't it? Correality, it's life. Isn't what I want, no, but it's what's there. Can I serve it? Oh, it made me cry. Has it took me the whole way? Can I serve the reality as a falling in front of me? Does it matter if I like it or don't like it? It's not about letting go of the outer action. So letting go was I like it or not. It's none of my business to like that the car didn't start. I have no right to do it. I mean, that's just ridiculous, right? Why did the car start? I told you, because somebody over there said, "I'm German, what I have a VW van." He'd be a hippie guy. So somebody over in Germany had a fight with their wife, and she'd go, "10 years ago, I was an old van, 10 years ago, 12 years ago." And they didn't tighten down a part as much as we tore down. And so now after 14 years, it loosened up. And so now the head, you know, doesn't tighten up on the block and it's leaking. So the car didn't start. I don't know of me. I got about to do about 800,000 million different things. Can I honor and respect the reality of the moment that's unfolding in front of me more than I totally am addicted to what I want. I don't want the car not to start. I have places I need to go. Why did God do this to me? See, it's I, I, I, I, I. And as long as it's that, you're called an ego, you're called an result orientation, because you played it out that way. So it's not about not doing the message you can. It's about doing the message you can, about the reality of unfolding in front of you. Not about your mind decided three years ago that you want to happen by now, which will drive you crazy and everybody around you. I love you so much. I just feel so much love for you and so on and everything of you, dating and getting lost. Wonderful, right? And then you kind of want to point say, oh boy, I can't wait to have a first child to which the person says, what do you mean? I have no intention of having children. You never told me that. I've always wanted to have children. There you go. And it's all about you and it's all about you, how you think and what you want. And I was like, well, how come he doesn't want children to you do or the other way? Well, how would that happen? Just I don't know when I was growing up, my parents got divorced. They were really painful for me. And I don't want to have children to make them go through something like that. We're just basically taking the one experience I had and then building all these causes and views and hopes and dreams and values based on that. But I can't talk to this right, 'cause it's what it really does. And the thing is, it's probably reasonable. It's not reasonable, it's ridiculous. You have to be willing to let go of yourself and harmonize with the reality with the unfolding in front of you. Does that mean that if you want to have children, he doesn't, that you look. It's so simple. It's so easy when you catch on. It's not about, do I do it or I don't? It's about why? Why don't you have children? Are you embarrassed enough to look and say, because of what happened to me when I was five years old? I'm 25 years old, making a decision on a relationship based on what I thought when I was five. They say you do that all the time. They call them your formative years, don't they? Well, then that's not a little crazy. And so you wake up and you realize I mean here, and yes, I have this programming of the someone learned experiences. I don't want to live based on that. That's so limited at any moment, which you feel so strongly about. And another experience can happen that changed how you feel about the whole thing for us, for your entire life. How do you feel about it? Have you changed your mind? One more fact, the sum of your learning experiences. And eventually you look at that and you say, I can't live like that. And I want other people to have to deal with me that way. That's crazy. It's what I did, but sit there and say, all right, life's going to be fuller in front of me. I don't care whether I like it or don't like it. In here, I don't care. It's going to unfold. So I'm going to do, I'm going to try to see what it's saying, what it's doing, and try to serve it. But what happens if in the next moment of changes? I'm open. If I see more later, I'll serve to the best of my ability. I'm holding on, clinging to some fixed thing, but I'm looking inside my heart, inside my mind. And it's not like looking to see what it should be doing. It's looking to see the quality of why I'm doing what I'm doing. What is the motive? What is the intention? It's much easier to see dirt than it is to see clean, because it can always be a small dirt somewhere. So you know, I said that. But if you're looking in there, you see, well, my entire basis of what I'm about to do is based on how to be five years ago that freaked me out. I don't want that to happen again. Well, that's the hell of a way to live your life. Based on what happened to you five years ago that one moment in your life, and you start letting go of yourself. And you start catching on, that's what it's about. There's no action that's pure, impure. It's what's going on inside of you as to why you would carry out that action, what's your motive, what's your intention? Not easy to see, because we hide from ourselves. We don't want to see what's down there. We just want to appease it, make it feel better. At some point, that's not how you live. You sit there and say, my life is about looking inside and coming from the deepest space I possibly can at the time. Oh, whatever turns out, then later I saw it wasn't very deep. Congratulations yourself. Say thank you, you learned. And that's the opposite of what we do. I mean, it would stay. You did not make a mistake. If you see the best that you can at that moment, you've got the honor of learning. And you have to say thank you for that. You should always look back at your earlier person. If you do the best you can, if you're always doing the best you can, that's the key. You always do the best that you can with what you see. Now, as somebody else says the best you can, what you see truly, honestly, you're the best you can. You know, judge, you appreciate the part of you that helps you grow into the higher part of you. You used to be about two feet big. Well, don't be embarrassed. Say thank you. It grew. Right? This is how you live the deep life. And so in essence, the essence of what we started, you're announcing the fruits of your action. You're doing it to give something. And eventually you realize you're giving it to the universe. You have a place in the universe. We're here, here you are. Right? And then as you give and totally let go of your personal self, something amazing happens. You start to grow. What do you mean? I'm already growing, not that kind of grow. You used to be small because you made yourself small. This is what I want. This is what I don't want. This is what I like. This is what I believe in. It's like, I told you that's the sum you learned experience. That's so tiny as ridiculous. As you let go of yourself by serving what's in front of you, serving the reality of life, the best of your ability, that you see it and you serve it, you're going to find out that that other part starts to fall away. You start to realize there's a beauty in doing the best that you can. Not because of what comes back. Can you play a sport in a very good at it? But just have a great time doing the best that you can. It's not about the fruits, your actions. It's about the action and the base of your action, which is I want to give to the universe the best that I can. And you just keep doing that. And the more you do that, the higher you get. For no reason. Just because you weren't doing it based on trying to compensate for the blockages you have, you let go of those. And all of a sudden, this all this shuckty is pouring inside of you. You start understanding that you're a very great being. But you've held yourself back by yourself. By making yourself this tiny little person. And the more you do this, the higher you get. And then all of a sudden you just realize, I'm really big. Me and here who's in here, staring at the garbage. If I don't stare at the garbage, the one who's staring at it, they're looking at it, it's totally expansive. Christ, then my father and I won. That's your entire spiritual journey. But look where it started. It started by not saying it's all about getting what you want. avoiding what you don't want, living for yourself, you know compensating for that, you're not okay. It starts to be by giving yourself away to the re-hours and folding in front of you and then doing better and then doing better. Just always do the best you can and be willing to grow. Don't sit there and ever judge back. If you do the best you can, don't ever judge yourself afterwards. The matter of what happens if it comes back is your teacher. If you do the best you can, the results of the best you can are the holiest thing, all right, this is the living and tether. The results of the best you can are the holiest thing you'll ever interact with. There you teacher, it's your guru because you'll learn from it, won't you? Oh, I see what I wasn't looking at. Good. There's no guilt, no shame, no guilt, just constant growth. And so you end up when we start talking about which is how can I live life that's completely fulfilling as about giving you do that by letting go of yourself. You do that by my case, it was saying is there's something stronger than mech and he was pretty strong, right, that you can surrender to. That may sound funny. It was, yes, life. If I was with all the time, are you all right, if I had to make it be the way you want, what if instead you learn from it, if instead you give up yourself, but you always do the best you can, always do the best you can, okay, and then you will learn. All right, a topic I have talked about you guys a lot, right, it is the essence of spiritual life. All right, it's about wake up in the morning, about trying to look in here where I want. I understand those issues in there, about trying to make it, there's not. That's the spiritual ego, but I'm willing to be open and look and see what is life unfolding. What can I do to serve it as opposed to serving myself, even just a little bit each day for me, I'll sit you and you look at it and say, okay, I can handle it. I don't need to throw it back in their face. You know what I mean? That's how you do it. You're about to eventually, there's nothing else going on, there's nobody else in there. All that's left, you just keep letting go of it, you become a server to the universe. Jai Guranaff. You've been listening to the Michael Singer Podcast, produced by SoundsTrue 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. [Music]