Great Pods
Doing the Real Work to Free Yourself | The Michael Singer Podcast
Key Points
Spiritual and personal growth are the same thing - just two sides of the same coin
You have issues inside yourself (fears, insecurities, desires, guilt, embarrassment) - not outside
These negative emotions are your roadmap to spirituality because they are the obstacles blocking your spiritual flow
Spirituality is your natural state - you don't achieve it, you remove the obstacles preventing it
Like rocks in a stream causing turbulence, remove the inner blockages and the natural flow becomes peaceful
First step: honestly recognize and acknowledge your inner mess without denial or spiritual ego
Practice witness consciousness - step back and objectively observe what's happening inside you without getting lost in it
Meditation helps you practice being aware of being aware, not about achieving special states
When disturbances arise, you have three choices: suppress it, try to fix it externally, or let it go
Suppressing creates karma and stored pain that will resurface when triggered
Trying to fix externally pollutes your environment and relationships with your inner garbage
The third option is to relax and release - let the disturbance flow through you without resistance
Every time you successfully let go instead of reacting, you build the power of your center/self
This practice transforms negative energy into spiritual power, making you stronger for future challenges
Always deal with what's inside you first before addressing external situations
95% of problems disappear when you let go of your inner reaction to them
This constant practice of letting go in daily life is the real spiritual work that leads to permanent liberation
Eventually this builds such inner power and joy that you become naturally drawn into higher spiritual states and union with the divine
Full Transcript
Language: en welcome to the michael singer podcast michael singer is the author of two widely influential new york times bestsellers the untethered soul and the surrender experiment both considered modern classics on the spiritual journey michael singer lives and teaches at the temple of the universe the yoga and meditation center he founded in 1975 near gainesville florida produced in partnership with shanti publications the michael singer podcast brings you select recordings from michael singer's at the temple of the universe this is on doing the real work to free sounds true would also like you to know about an extraordinary eight-part video course we've created with michael singer it's called living from a place of the untethered soul in action an online course many people report to be utterly life-changing you can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com that's michaelsingerpodcast.com and you can save 15 off any michael singer program available through sounds true when you use the code singer 15 at checkout again that's singer one five and now doing the real work to free yourself with michael singer as you become clearer in life you realize that spiritual and personal growth are exactly the same they're just looking at two sides of the same coin why is that spiritual growth supposed to be about god and personal growth supposed to be out making something good of yourself cleaning out yourself raising yourself i would prefer that nobody knew anything about god that they only knew about cleansing themselves because if you're not there yet god just can be a concept to you a which is of no use nothing if you work with yourself to raise you will come into a state where you will understand what they meant by the word god you don't have to use the word god use any word you want it's just describing a state of being so what does it mean to grow personally it means to notice that you have issues inside yourself you think you have issues outside no you have issues inside there are fears insecurities desires needs wants self-consciousness embarrassment guilt these are all words that describe things going on inside ourselves guilt is not something outside it's something inside need is not something outside it's something inside yes you're guilty about something yes you need something or you think you do but the actual experience is inside of those experiences these terrible things they just talked about that's how you go to god those are your you cannot ignore those you cannot run away from those they are literally the road map of achieving spiritual states but people don't want to do that they want to say well but those things are not spiritual guilt is not spiritual insecurity not embarrassment's not spiritual so how in the world can they be the road map to spirituality because they are what is in the way of spirituality and since they are what is in the way they're what you must deal with they are the obstacles you must remove well if i remove the obstacles how do i become spiritual wrong if you remove the obstacles you are spiritual there's nothing else to do period nothing all right if you have a river or a stream in which there's rapids and there's spray and there's currents and eddies and you look at it carefully and you say well upstream it's calm flowing nicely but here oh my god it's a complete message rapids and eddies and sprays and all kinds of things if you look what you're going to see is that there are rocks there are obstacles blockages in that stream that when this water flow is coming down they're hitting those things and they are then creating currents creating disturbance so if you ask me what should i do if i want to get rid of the disturbance and i tell you take the rocks out and you say to me well i understand i could take the rocks out but then what do i do to get rid of the disturbance that's what i just told you you take that stuff out of there there's nothing else to do period you take those rocks out it becomes absolutely still and beautiful in a beautiful flow there is nothing else to do on your spiritual path except remove the obstacles to spirituality once you do that and to whatever degree you do that it just is the natural state of things spirituality is the natural state of it is not something you achieve it's not something you strive for it's not something you do something there are no techniques to achieve god there are techniques to remove the obstacles that you put in the way of god right but there are no techniques to achieve god you see the difference all so that's where everybody goes wrong so the gida says of men who seek me there are some who reach very high states they're very reverent they're great one comes to know me as i am whoa that's right that's because of what i just told you you do all the tapasya and and renunciations and everything you want to do and all you did was become somebody who people respect because you did all these fire ceremonies into possession did mantras for 67 years and so without everything anything you want all right it is the removal of the blockages then the natural state really that analogy i gave you of removing those rocks from the water you can see that once those rocks are gone there is you don't have to get an and iron out the current you have to do anything to make it right it was the obstacles that were keeping the experience from being its natural is exactly the same inside of you that's these disturbed forces inside of you are the road map to spirituality they are the rocks period all right those things i described all those dirty little words embarrassment self-consciousness guilt it's just beautiful so what do i do with now the first is to recognize yes i'm a mess like hey my name is joe and i'm an alcoholic my name is making him a flaming mess you just sit there and look in there and be honest about what you see i don't care about what you want to see that's the biggest trap in the world that's spiritual ego that's like sitting here on the side of the stream i'm going to keep you i'm going to wear that analogy out sitting on the side of the stream the rapids and all the currents are going and you're sitting there saying i visualize calm i'm visualizing calm uh i don't see calm something wrong i'm not doing it right i visualize come what's the matter with you man remove the rocks but in order to remove the rocks you better be honest about what you're looking at all right remember shakespeare this above all to know itself be true and it shall follow as a night the day thou shalt not be false to any man right this is the truth you have to be willing to look and see what you see do not try to put nice white lights around your garbage and sit there and say i'm pure all right it's not the right that is spiritual ego that is i want to be there i'm not there i'll use affirmation i'll use this i'll tell people i am i'll behave in a way i'll dress accordingly i'll do every single thing that a spiritual person would do then i'm spiritual no you're not it's nothing it's the biggest trap that could possibly exist is only one way out and that is to do the work of removing these obstacles that are in the way of the state of absolute beauty and ecstasy of divinity so okay first you recognize don't be afraid to recognize there's nothing wrong with seeing the rocks if you don't i'm gonna i said i'm gonna use this analogy if you don't like seeing the rocks you will never get them out right or wrong if i sit there and somebody told me there are rocks in the water and they're causing all the currents i'm so afraid of them because i don't like the currents i don't want to see rocks do you no i don't like rocks they cause trouble they must be of the devil or something all right so i don't want to see these well you're never going to see them you're never going to deal with them you're never going to do anything because you're afraid of them you understand that you're that's denial psychology denial fear etc you have to be willing to sit there and say i have now progressed spiritually to the point of understanding that i am blocking the flow of god the flow of shakti the flow of spirit from inside of me i am doing it i am doing it there that's your first point right nobody's making you drink go today right nobody's making you drink oh no she drives me to drinking no no no no my drive drive no no no go come back when you're ready you're the one who's drinking you're the one who picks the glass up and pour stuff in it and puts in your mouth and swallows right or wrong nobody else is doing it it's the same thing here you have put these blockages inside and you are holding these blocks inside of yourself so if you're not willing to look at them nothing good is going to happen do you understand that all right so you start with what we call witness consciousness krishnamurti called it the seat of objective observation but you will not be willing to look at yourself objectively while you are judging yourself do you understand and what that means is i don't want to see what i'm looking at that's what judging does you have to be excited i remember when i first got to the point that instead of thinking that stuff inside of me that was causing all this was what i don't want it's terrible it's keeping me from god i try to meditate above it i do anything i can to get rid of it and then i realize no this is what's keeping me from god therefore if i see something it's you have to change your entire attitude about yourself the worse it is inside the better the more trouble it causes oh my god i got myself a big fish all right you have to feel that i am willing to deal with this stuff i am willing to look at this stuff not get in it that's the whole thing psychology goes the wrong way they get you started right but we're going to see the difference between spirituality psychology as we go through this so first you have to be awake if you are not awake what does that mean i'm not awake we talk about it spiritually right they're awake not enlightened just awake what does it mean it means that normally the stuff that's going on inside is so overwhelming it is so not only do you not want to look at it and you can't deal with it but you are lost in it you're in the rapids drowning well you can't very well be outside looking at the you're trying to survive you're trying to keep your head above the water aren't you right you're trying to take a breath try to everyone not go down three times that's where a normal human being is is they are in the fear of drowning so they're not looking what's causing it they're just trying to stay keep their head above the water can you relate to all right the worse our times are the more we're like that you have to be able to get out of the water which is again witness consciousness your consciousness has extricated itself from being in it it didn't get rid of it but it can watch it it can see it all right how do you do that meditation meditation is great mantra's great see all of a sudden there's techniques but the techniques are not about going to the techniques are about first getting out of the water well why would meditation work because the noise that's going on inside of you is creating disturbance when you sit down to meditate what you're sitting there saying i don't care how you meditate your business when you sit down to meditate you're saying for let's say 15 minutes in the morning 15 minutes in the evenings but nowadays they teach you guys fine all right you sit down and for this 15 minutes it's not about going to god that's why people can't meditate because they just set these standards and then they burn themselves out it's not about seeing blue pearls it's not about seeing white lights it's not about going to god it's about i have set aside 15 minutes to practice being aware of being aware that's what it is don't come to me and say i can't meditate i why there's no such thing i understand why he said well every time i sit down my mind just goes crazy it won't stop it keeps talking i'm going to touch your feet i'm going to pronounce you bow down i'll touch your feet you'll have to come back three times where you figure out what i'm doing all right you just told me that for 15 minutes you were the witness of your my mind won't shut up it keeps talking about this somebody's watching so during that 15 you actually watched that your mind wouldn't shut up that's a very high do you see why people screw up meditation because they define meditation as the mind shutting up no that's not that's just a state that you can have there but if your mind doesn't shut up and you're aware that your mind doesn't shut if your heart is bothering you and you're aware that your heart's bothering i was trying to meditate but then this thing came back up from before that bothered me my i don't know why but happened years ago and my heart started hurting and i just sat there and watched like good good do you understand that right at least twice a day please for 15 minutes take the seat of objective observation notice what is going on inside don't judge what's going on inside don't decide what's supposed to be going on inside do you see that just notice that your job just notice who's not capable of doing that yeah truth is you have no choice you're gonna notice what's going on inside okay i'm not saying you can't use techniques such as follow your breath what does that do all right i noticed that if i just leave it alone it keeps talking very good at least you've noticed that believe me it didn't start talking when you sat down do you understand that people tell me that no when i try to meditate my mind gets worse that is a lie that is ridiculous right it's just when you sit down to meditate you notice that your mind is pretty darn all right it didn't get worse when you sat down it's going on the entire time you're just noticing it so yes notice if you have been given techniques such as following your breath is a very nice technique to use what is the purpose of that there's nothing spiritual about following your there is but won't discuss it there's nothing spiritual about following your breath what you're doing is taking your consciousness off of your mind and putting it onto something else like the movement of your or counting your breath that's why these techniques work because you are practicing being aware of what's going on in there then you are practicing what i call extricating your consciousness freeing your consciousness liberating your consciousness from having to watch what's going on in there you're not judging you're not suppressing it right if i'm looking at you and i'm having a problem i just look over here oh problem gone right just move your consciousness don't mess i don't have to change you right i just stop looking when you watch your breath your consciousness has now taken its awareness off of the noise of your mind and it is watching your breath or counting that's why mantra works right again these things have deeper spirituality also but i'm not talking about that right you do a mantra and what you've done is tell your mind i want you to guru on guru god god whatever the heck it is whatever you want to do for a right if i teach my mind to do that and then my mind starts talking about other things i now have a choice i can either pay attention to what my mind is saying on its own or i can pay attention to the mantra that's all you have to do and where do you see what you'll change your entire life you just gave your consciousness an alternate place to go as opposed to well okay my analogy when you are sitting on the mantra instead of in the mess you just got out of the water you still mess is still right but you extricated yourself you put your consciousness elsewhere these are the reasons that meditation works do you understand that right is there another spiritual thing that the guru touched you yes yes but i'm not interested in that none really all that stuff happens by itself you don't have to think about it don't even get involved in it you understand that if there are deeper layers of things just you know something a guru gave you a mantra and it's powered with every rishi that ever said it that's what they tell us right probably true all right it says all this stuff fine what's that got to do with you it's true anyways right you don't need to think about it you understand that so if you're sitting there following your breath and god forbid your breath stops and you go into somalia oh my god i hope you're all right right and you come back all right it's just what happened while you were doing your work that's not your work don't you ever try to go into samadhi don't you ever try to achieve these high spiritual states because all that what they will do is become part of your ego you understand that i went into samadhi mayor baba talked against samadhi one of the greatest master brought the face of the earth he literally he said i go to india i see these people they're totally breathless like you can put their finger under their nose they sit there for days they don't breathe all these people come around put flowers next to them they're bowing down to them right and then they come back and start yelling at everybody why are you over there you're sitting too close go over i'm not interested i'm in trouble aren't you have work to do do you understand that's where the focus should be so there are these techniques you all have different techniques you all have different personalities you have different tendencies fine find something that you feel comfortable with that works with you and just use it for the purpose i said to free first of all to start can you achieve a seat of objective observation where you are watching your mind and you're watching your heart now that people misunderstand even there because they say i'm watching my mind okay i'm watching my mind i'm watching my mind i said no no that's not watching your mind that's your mind watching your mind you understand that you created a layer inside your mind that thinks it's supposed to look at the other layer of your mind you are always watching your mind or you wouldn't know what you were thinking do you understand that do you have thoughts how do you know do you have to try to know that you have thoughts you wish you didn't know you are always the witness you are always there does your heart ever hurt anybody have a heart that hurt how do you know no i'm serious how do you know your heart hurts sounds like a stupid question doesn't it that is the witness the one that knows what's going on you don't have to try how hard do you have to try to see that your heart hurts how much you know better meditate for 20 hours so that you're conscious enough to know that your heart hurts no you don't have a problem your heart hurts you know your heart hurts who knows your heart hurts so don't ever misunderstand what's meant by objective observation or witness consciousness it is not something you do it is not an act of will it is not a place you go it is the state of being aware of what is going on inside your mind and what is going on inside your heart obviously you know what is going on in your mind what's going on your heart or we wouldn't be talking about it the problem is you get sucked in you get into you know the waters are tumultuous but they're so tumultuous that you dove in and you're drowning and so on all right the the highest analogy i can give you to witness consciousness is as you walk into a room there's people places things everything going on it's a nice place big party right and there's this little tv screen in the corner a little flat screen you know not a big one not 65 inch right just a 22 inch 23 inch right and sitting over there and all of a sudden you're walking around and something catches your attention what does that mean your consciousness focusing on what's on the tv screen instead of focusing what's in the room perfectly normal correct but all of a sudden it's really interesting like something you've always wanted to know about your whole life all of a sudden shows up on the tv screen you start to really get sucked in next thing you know and you don't even know how you're sitting on a couch and there's nothing else in this room there's no people there's no place there's nothing there's no party there's just what's going on a tv screen ever happened to you or a book you can do it right you get we say you got lost in the book you got lost in the tv program why'd you get lost because it was so interesting to you that your consciousness became fixated on it and was not aware of anything else all right so that is the state of being in the rapids you're now lost in the object the subject is lost in the are you sitting there on the couch yes are you in the party yes but your consciousness is not you have projected your consciousness your consciousness has been attracted or distracted any words you want to use so that it's now involved in the object of consciousness which is the tv screen what's going on there and not paying attention to anything else that's what happens when you get lost in your mind you're not in your mind you're sitting on the couch watching the mind just like you sit on the couch and watch the tv right you are aware of what the minds are doing aren't you all right all you have to do is be less interested and it has to be the essence of it if you are less interested in what's going on that tv you're going to find yourself back on the couch and oh it's boring a commercial came on oh oh what was joey do oh we're the kids oh how much time right you woke up that's what it means to wake up that's what it means to come back to the seat of self so if what's what's going on in the mind or the heart is so distracting it's so interesting you're going to be sucked into it so that's not witness consciousness you're still conscious you're still aware you're just too aware how's that you're fixated you're too aware not that you're not aware you got a little bit too close didn't you and the next thing you know you're lost in jealousy you're lost in fear you're lost in insecurity you're lost in heart pain and so on so you need to find out for yourself how it is that instead of trying to build another layer of mind that you say is be here now so to be here now okay i'm being here now am i being here now i think so no i wasn't there a minute ago maybe that's tiring you know that's tough man i grew up in the 60th something all we're doing when ron does put the book all right are you here now i don't know am i here instead you realize you are always there or you wouldn't know that you know that you know you just got too close so again it's not about coming back to the seat of consciousness it's about letting go of what you're paying attention to it's always about letting go do you understand that so when you meditate or you do any of the practice you're doing remember the purpose is that you be there and you'll be aware that you're and you're aware of what's going on if you will do this and practice this during your practices and wake up your practices if you do this you're going to find out all by itself that as terrible as it is you're going to be there all day at some point you're just going to be there all day and you'll hate me for it you're going to notice that your heart goes through your heart loves somebody and your mind says oh my god they're my soul mate and they pick their nose and i'm someone who never picked their nose and my kids start watching this maniacal thing that's going on in there don't you right and it's not nearly as much fun temporarily as getting lost on the tv screen and believing that it's your life and oh my god we're gonna get a house and it's gonna be so beautiful right okay okay let me clue you in while those rapids are going on in there there's not a single place you can stick your head up oh i can breathe now don't worry it'll come back over you understand that you got to do the real so i've showed you what the real work is get out of that stream because you're not in it you're just projecting your consciousness into it sit on the side and then notice there are rocks this whole talk's going to do that and those that are rocks and then i'm going to teach you how to take the rocks out and then it's over you'll never have to do anything and no actual will no not what i need to do to maintain my spiritual state that's ridiculous you understand that there will be nothing left but the highest state that could possibly exist it will never betray you nothing all right that's what i want for you so basically first you need to achieve a state of what's called witness consciousness objective observation but now you understand what it means you're already you're already watching the tv you're already on the couch the problem is you have projected your consciousness into the mess so much that you lost your center we call your seat of self or your but you're still aware so my experience is that the highest way that you can come back to seat of self is not through an act of forceful spiritual will it is through an act of letting go of what you're clinging to so you're sitting there and somebody doesn't say hello to you when you call out hey sally how are you doing they don't say hello and all of a sudden you feel insecure inside is that just me or you know anything about that any of you know what the word insecure means i just made it up right you start feeling these weird things going on inside correct all right what you need to be willing to do is notice it got weird and the tendency is going to be i don't want it to be weird we thought we're still there right i don't like it i don't want it to be so notice it's very deep you're going to want to do something about do it hear me you're not going to want to sit there and weird you're going to want to do something about it and your tendency is to go running at either running after sally sally didn't you hear me right or to talk to george how come something wrong with sally did she not hear me what do you think right or call up later or or make a note or text somebody or do you want to do something to try to make the weirdness feel better anybody there this is your spiritual work this is right where the tires hit the rubber hits the road all right so you want a tendency to do that if you're not doing that because you're that's if you're a more assertive aggressive type person if you are somebody who's a little shy or a little a little more withdrawn you suppress you sit there and say well i don't know why she didn't call me i i don't know i don't care i just no i don't want to think about it and you'll push it away ever do that ever push away the ickiness i don't i don't want to feel it i don't want to feel this i can't have time for right so you are either fight or flight you're either out there fighting changing calling doing something or coming inside and pushing this away those are the two normal human reactions to yickiness and you do it all the time what one does is build up these suppressions inside of believe me push it away she didn't mean anything i know she didn't mean anything and push it away wait next time you see sally wait the next time you hear sally's name tell me what's going to happen you feel the ickiness again yes or no okay that's because you kept it inside of you you stored it inside of that is the most ridiculous thing in the world i don't like the meal i just ate it made me sick please give me more so i can take it home taste it every morning to remind myself how sick it made me that's what you're doing when you push geeky stuff inside of you and you push it away you're storing it inside of you of course it's going to come back up when it gets triggered triggered by the name sally triggered by a car that looks like sally's car triggered by anything you understand that you don't want that stuff in there all right what about if i run after it i call that being mr mr and miss fix it i'm going to fix it right i'm going to fix it fixer-upper right you're going to go yes run after sally find out what's going on or i'm going to write or no i'm going to text somebody and i asked george if he talked to could he talk to sally but don't mention that i got upset because it could have been nothing all right oh my god i don't care how tactful you are it's disgusting all right that's where karma comes from listen you guys use these words and very few people understand it if you suppress something you built the karma if you will inside yourself because you set up a spring that you push down with the potential to come back up so you're carrying the past inside of you triggered if you go outside because of the yickiness inside i guarantee you in the end anything you touch will get icky if you run off after sally and sit there and say why didn't you say hello you hit sally's stuff what are you talking about i didn't do anything you're the one next thing you know you get this whole shtick going you hear me and they never see that happen and it escalates up and it just gets absolutely ridiculous you know you're a lover right and he said i i love you and that night i love you they said yeah i love you too he's like oh but you know you're not gonna say anything right so three days later all right all of a sudden you go up to somebody and say you know i don't feel like you love me like you used to oh i do what are you saying why are you saying that well the other night god you're so insecure i i i can't even deal with you i didn't do anything that i never said you're in a you understand that anybody i'm sorry to be so personal right this stuff is terrible that's karma you took the garbage inside of you and you dumped it into your environment most of you like to think that you're environmentalist you understand that that you don't want people polluting and so on you're polluting every second you're taking this garbage that came up inside and you're dumping it out into the world and it will come back it will pollute how's that right pollution is its own karma isn't it it pollutes okay it makes a mess so it's not you don't if you're in there you're not comfortable you want to do something you it's mr fix it or miss fix it it's not going to do it it's going to make a mess this or mr suppress it is not going to do anything well one of my choices that's what nobody will teach you there's another choice when the yickiness comes up inside and you are conscious of it you are aware you're in a witness and you see that i'm not comfortable with it let it go but i didn't fix it that's right but i didn't push it away that's right let it go everything needs its day in the sun so this yickiness has come up your conscious and what you do is you don't resist it you don't go with it and you don't run away from it you just relax that's what i teach you relax when you see it you are the consciousness i am watching so my tv that's not comfortable it's just a damn tv it'll come it'll go i don't need to throw something at the tv i don't have to run out of house screaming i can just let the moment pass and finish its flow through me that doesn't feel very natural does it someday it'll be the natural thing you have to train yourself to realize it is just the stuff that's inside of you that got hit the rocks that's why it caused the current if you will relax and release believe it or not the water will wash the rocks away if whatever is holding the rocks in place is not there the flow of the can cleanse itself if you will relax when this disturbance happens inside of you just relax relax breathe do mantra whatever you want just leave it alone which is the hardest thing to do isn't it right the hardest thing to do you're sitting there you're with your boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse and they're dancing with somebody and you think it's cute until all of a sudden this is a little bit too close a little bit too long and this jealousy comes up inside of you right i'm telling you it's the same thing as with sally if you do anything about it suppress it you're gonna you'll ruin your relationship you understand that you'll hold well i want to give her the space you know you push it down there you're never gonna love that person again the way you loved them before because you just blocked the flow of love with that garbage you just shoved inside of you do you understand that so you thought you were being high i don't want to dump this jealousy on them i've always been jealous i don't say anything but you pushed it down when you push it down you are stopping and blocking your shakti flow or i'm going to go out and say something i'll be cute right or i could walk by and accidentally spill my drink on him or something right anything like that just the noise that the mind makes about trying to fix it i'm telling let go what do you mean i don't want this stuff inside of me therefore i'm going to let it go if you don't want something you let it go you don't keep it all right so you relax if you will relax i assure you over time not once takes time took time to put all that junk in there over time you have created a space inside of you by relaxing into the seat itself where this garbage will get pushed up it has to come up it's going to come up you're going to feel it it will go through you're listening to the michael singer podcast produced by sounds true in partnership with shanti publications sounds true has also produced with michael singer an extraordinary eight-part video course living from a place of surrender the untethered soul in action you can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com and save fifteen percent when you use the code singer one five at checkout now back to michael singer on doing the real work to free yourself it can do what we call transmute it and when you release the stuff inside of you first it loosens up then little chips start to block off and next thing you know in the exact same situation somebody's dancing and you don't feel jealous and you go home and you say hey i used to feel jealous i guess i'm growing that's right that's growth you got rid of something inside of you that was causing currents and disturbances that's the way to deal with disturbances the buddha is called working at the root you're working at the root cause not the now are you willing to do that right that's the question of spiritual growth notice it doesn't sound all blue lighty and auras and chakras fun things all right that sounds like work all right that is your spiritual work that is your spiritual work that is your personal so what happens first maintain your seat of witness consciousness what does it things are going to happen which tend to pull you in i teach this in an untethered right you'll feel a tendency to get pulled in to the disturbance and that sounds silly why would i want to get pulled into the disturbance okay let's say you're perfectly healthy except a wasp bites you on your toe okay guess where your consciousness is going to go on your toe i like picked on her because she got bit the other day but all right it's like say you dropped a hammer on your toe the last place in the world you want to put your mind your consciousness is on the hurt toe but that's where it's going and then come on okay your consciousness gets drawn to the place of maximum disturbance whether it's whoa this is exciting okay conscious goes there next thing you're running away from your family with the golf bro or something right right or you drop something you tell your conscience goes there it's the same thing with your inner disturbances the tendency is because i mean look let's say a giant noise all of a sudden happened outside would you be listening to me or the noise i say a bright light shined all of a sudden now from outside you ain't coming back here for a while right your consciousness gets drawn to the place of largest distraction how's that your consciousness is that's that's what we mean by getting distracted my consciousness got drawn off of where it was onto something that was louder brighter or whatever it was distracting that neat turns out distraction is a very spiritual word all right it means your consciousness got drawn over there that's what's going to happen inside it's totally natural don't try to make it not happen if a disturbance comes up in your heart it determines something in your mind all of a sudden your conscience is going to be drawn to that just like it's drawn to the hurt toe and i feel better it's perfectly natural the question is what do you do about it not did it happen so what's going to happen you're going to start to see there's a shakti pull there's a pull of your pull on your consciousness toward the loudest thing the most painful thing the most comfortable thing the thing that's most distracting over time if you will work with yourself then i'm way beyond you now right this takes time if you will work with yourself there will be a moment just the moment in which you are aware that that is happening that something is like i'm sitting here a noise happened i was listening to mickey and right before my consciousness goes out to the noise i'm aware that my conscience is about to be drawn out to the noise well that's conscious you know a conscious being you understand that you're aware your consciousness stayed meditation gives you this it gives you that moment where i'm here i heard that this slow motion i'm here i heard that and now i'm going to be drawn over there all right you understand what i'm saying right that moment they talk about right that's the most precious moment in creation why because you now have the right to use free will and believe it or not your will now you listen to me your will and i mean by your will your will you in there okay the power you have is stronger than any force that can ever distract you or do anything to you period you are the strongest thing in will is the power of self it is the power of chi-chakti of conscious energy when an event happens outside and the consciousness starts to get drawn toward it you have every ability to relax and bring it back every one of you do don't tell me i don't have a very strong will every the fact that you took human birth that your will and your soul is evolved to be transcendent to every single force that can draw on it did you know that that's why people can do weird things you know people do all kinds of weird things like yakuza i hate to tell you this you ever see their whole thing if they if they insult their their master they sit there and it's japanese how am i telling you this i don't know because i'm showing you i'm showing you how powerful will is right and they sit before their master and their boss and they say i'm so sorry i'll show you how sorry i am they take a they put their finger down and they cut their finger off while they're talking and looking and staring at that and they they ceremonially batch up their finger and give it give the finger in a wrap claw this is true right it's true statement in a wrap clause they give it to the to their boss their master they have the mafia that kind of thing right to sit there and say that's how sorry i am that i didn't didn't live up to your expectations all right a lot of yakuza running around with that they leave their trigger finger last right because they're mafia right i'm in trouble all right but what i'm trying to show you is that's a lot of will that's painful that's serious okay right people do all kinds of things because they want to they want to enough to where their will is strong enough that they can apply it you want out see you're yakuza but for a different reason right you're a great being you want liberation you know where it's like don't have the garbage going on inside of you are you willing when you get consciousness awareness that the moment you see it's about to get pulled over here or over here are you willing to relax are you willing to just relax you let it go god i always explain it this way people think you have to be strong to do this you do not have to be strong to do this is not a question of strength let's say you're doing a tug of war with i always say the entire gator football team's on one end and you're on this end all right and you want to go home and have lunch but they're go they're pointed the wrong all right and you're pulling you're holding you learned every technique you learned how to bend your knees you learn how to do you know the karate stuff you learned how to dig your heels in you learn to wrap it around your waist and oh my god you've turned every single tug of war technique that could possibly exist and you're going they're pulling you all right and all of a sudden yoda shows up right little yoda sitting down there right luke let go and he says there he says let me let go but let go pull me face first let go of the rope whoa you see yod is very smart all right what do you mean i'm trying i'm pulling see where your hands are see where your hands are holding the rope yeah let go relax your hands what will happen many of you do go home to lunch do you understand that the minute you do that's why relaxation is always the answer so when this distraction the jealousy the insecurity the whatever it is right it starts pulling on you and you i just need you to have that conscious for one to where instead of saying the solution is to run after the solution is to suppress it right right they say you're attracted to somebody it's inappropriate all right you're married and all of a sudden you get attracted to somebody what are you gonna do i'm gonna suppress it that didn't happen no it's terrible oh my god yeah and you suppress it well you're in big trouble i'm telling you you're in big trouble you just destroyed your life you destroyed your relationship with your spouse you destroyed everything because you just blocked the flow of your energy with this thing you down there suppression is the worst thing you can ever do understand that all right or okay i'm gonna sit there and deal with it you express it or do what the heck it is try to fix it right no the right thing to do is if something comes up to relax and release and what you've done then is allowed the room for the cause to pass through you'll now love your spouse more you'll love everybody more because you release the blockage that caused the reaction am i does anybody understand what we're talking okay so this thing about the rope that's right you're there you're conscious an event takes place that triggers you and all of a sudden you start to get distracted starts to pull it's a pull it's like a water scheme if you ever water skied the boat pulls you that's what this distraction does it pulls your consciousness toward it relax relax and release i call it r r you need some r r right you relax and and what will happen is the energy will not pull the consciousness out and you will have transcended and transmuted the power of that energy now you listen to me right i'm literally saying the power that that had over you when you are able to relax your way through it that power comes back to self every single time and it builds the power of self next time your will will be a hundred times stronger than it was this time do you understand that all right so you're either giving your will to what's pulling on it if you if if you're trying to stop drinking every single time you don't drink you are more likely to not drink do you understand that every time oh but i had a bad day you get made it through it you didn't do it you built the power of will in the power of self and likewise every single time you do drink after five years of not drinking you got all your chips together go have one drink and tell me how easy the second one is does anybody understand the power of not doing it that you built over five years is almost totally overcome by drinking go ask aa they'll tell you the same thing goes with any of these habits because your neural pathways are carved to do it if you re-feed them they flow right back there so it's the same thing here if you are willing to let go that's what i'm talking about the deepest state i'm in the witness i see what's going on i've been given the grace at first it's just a moment just a moment but no one can tell me that they do not see what's going on i did 30 years of prison work those are not exactly the most self-controlled every one of max security murder rape everything that's they're in there for life okay and we would talk like this and every one of them everyone told me that before they did what they did there was a moment in which they were perfectly aware of what they were about to do if they started getting angered and just all of a sudden be there it starts somewheres it starts to build up and then it explodes you deal with it the moment it shows up let go and then you come tell me what's going to happen to you because i'll see it in your eyes the power that it had over you gets transmuted to you to the self and all of a sudden this tremendously powerful center of being is what exists and all of a sudden if if you do it with you've the power you built in letting go of jealousy is there for food it's there for this it's fair for everything you're building the power of your being that's why he's talking about personal growth all right this is the the talk about you know when you work out to talk about core building the core of your being this is the core of your being now you're doing core workout you're building the center of your being to be strong enough to let go of the pull that these habits and tendencies have over you every single time you let a piece of those rocks that are causing disturbance are purified and this is real spiritual growth and this is yoga right the reason you do all your practices is to learn to sit in the seat and let go well how often do i let go every single time but aren't there times i need to deal with something that's what you want to say don't you didn't they die they need to deal with something of course there are times you need to deal with something but you don't deal with what's outside until you've dealt with what's inside if you don't let go first of your anger your jealousy your insecurity your fear your need then everything you're going to be doing outside is for you understand that if i'm attracted to you right and i say i have to deal with that i have an attraction you're not dealing with that you're dealing with your attraction it's going to run your life it's going to determine what you say what you don't say right or wrong same thing with your fears and insecurities if you don't let inside the inside will run the outside does everybody see that i always use a terrible example your kid's 16 years old you get a call from the principal in the high school we found drugs in your kid's locker you need to come down here right away blah blah okay well that's not fun is it it's exactly what i'm talking about it's the same thing all your junk comes up inside what did i do oh my god my husband finds out he's already thought well our relationship is bad he's going to blame right or wrong okay whatever the neighbors think oh my god if i have to go down there people will see me they'll see me in the principal's office and i don't want to have a kid that does drugs and oh my god this is all right not a single word that went on inside you had anything to do with that child it all had to do with you right or wrong it hit your stuff okay what what did i do wrong that's what you say to the kid what did i do wrong why'd you do this to me that'll help a lot right you're not even trying to help the kid you're trying to help yourself you understand that so when it hits it's going to come up inside you always let go nobody believes me you always let go always there is never ever a time that the highest dharmic right thing to do is not let go all right okay here it comes here's all the personal garbage do the best you can to let go of yourself every single time now what now that you are clear clearer anyways all right now then it's not perfect you're not going to be perfect but at least you didn't go with the initial reaction you stayed centered and clear now that you are clear look outside is there something to deal not that something to deal with is you you don't ever deal with you the only way to transcend the personal self is to transcend the personal self there's nothing to do about it what do i do about it nothing you let it go it's all right if it's inside of you let it go let it go that way you're using it to go to god every single thing you let go of now how the bigger it is the better and you just keep letting go now if you look outside and it's still there now sally not saying hello when you're done with letting go of your insecurity sadly not there anymore there is nothing to do i'm telling you my experience is 95 of these situations there's nothing to do it's just that it hits your stuff all right and if you let it go there's nothing to do you know well what if sally's mad at me you'll find out later what if she didn't hear me no one will find out it does doesn't matter it's completely irrelevant the only problem was you how's that right if the only problem is you let it go it's much easier it's great not only was it easier and better for sally and your relationship but it actually took you to god because you let go of a piece of the garbage that got hit it is always the highest thing to do to let go do you understand that right you're relaxed and you're released it's not easy is it right that stuff that's getting hit got stored down there because you didn't like it when it happened remember you pushed it away if it was stored with pain i am telling you it is coming back up with pain let's get this straight right there's no can't i purify it can't the guru come down and purify it so it's beautiful i love the guru i worship all the time all right literally mayor baba actually talked about that that amazing he was an amazing being the disciple raised his hand and said but mayor bob you're talking about getting rid of all this stuff the cocoon of karma that's built inside the same scar exceeds why can't the master just come down with a scissor and cut the cocoon and free the soul there you go that was a good idea all right and he answered very sternly and he said first of all the master can do anything if it's truly a master merge with god he has all the power in the universe he would never ever do it under any circumstances because then you did not evolve enough which is the purpose of life you did not evolve enough to liberate therefore you didn't come back to god you're not strong enough you didn't go that's like sitting there saying well i'm in third grade and i want to go to harvard and get a law degree okay could they give me the certificate well they could but i don't want to go for to you as a lawyer like there's this thing called learning that's supposed to happen in between you understand that evolving that's the exact same thing with the soul so it's not about the stuff not hurting it's about you weren't able to handle it when it happened you couldn't handle the salary and say hello come on give me a break there's seven billion people on the planet earth they didn't say hello to but you couldn't handle one of them all right that's how you have to look at it so there's something there's something wrong with sally that you didn't say hello there's nothing wrong with me that i can't handle the most simple things in the whole world correct all right so you let it go you use it wisely and you release it if you will do this like i said you will find that you stay centered what does that mean i don't get pulled away by the distraction now you have a definition what it means to be centered the consciousness remains in the seat of even though a distracting event took place and began to pull on it it came back to its center it didn't go all the way out it started to go out it's like whoop that's what it feels like inside whoop right it starts to pull out you relax you don't pull it back i'm telling you don't try to be stronger than the noise that's distracting you the key is to relax if you relax you stay that neat it is the relaxation that does it so you through these disturbances every one you relax through makes you stronger for any other one and eventually i shouldn't tell you this right it's not that there's this one moment that something starts to distract you it all gets into slow motion at a level absolutely ridiculous it feels like you have 10 hours to decide am i going to go out there i spent years and years i've invested look what i've sometimes you'll get to the point where you realize i let go of 7 000 things for all these years now something bigger happened am i willing to give up the pain the strength the work i did of letting go of 7 000 for this one that you see why i use the analogy of alcoholism of a i got chips five years worth of chips now i got this situation am i really willing to give all that up that i did what i went through exercising that will because this one thing is stronger and you'll start finding that you know you want to build on your investment so then goes into slow motion and all of a sudden you have all the time you need and then only a fool only a fool would consciously say ah but the hell i'll do it anyways i'm serious your mind will sit there and say well i don't want to be a goody-goody i just sit there and what's wrong with this is a good opportunity so opportunity we'll come back later right i can just go do this and have a drink i want you to equate it the going with the energy that's pulling you from your center i want you to equate it to going back on heroin after you went through withdrawal and got off i went now bigger than drinking okay it's like really you really want to do that do you because i'm telling you if you go with that energy right you will have given up it if it takes a 100 to not go with it once you go with it it offsets 600. i'm serious i'm not exaggerating ask a.a if you stop drinking ten times and then you take one it totally offsets the ten times completely and utterly doesn't it okay so you learn to work with your center i've taken you to a beautiful place which is i'm in i'm aware that i have crap in here with me how about you right and it can get hit that's stuff you stored from before it was stored with pain i wasn't able to handle it when it happened it's going to come back up am i capable of handling it now so sally went by now i hear the word sally obviously is not as big as the first time but i feel the discomfort the slightest discomfort i will not accept any not a tinge of it if it moves i'm letting it go if it happens in the heart or it happens in the mind first reaction relax and release right then look to see is there something i'm supposed to deal with if there is still something out there then you're clear enough to deal with what's out there instead of being distracted about what's going on inside of you does anyone hear me all right if you are distracted what's going on inside of you i don't want to be around when you're dealing with less outside because you're not dealing with what's outside you're trying to manipulate the outside to make you feel better inside aren't you okay so basically you learn this practice this is your spiritual practice what letting go when always every single second the driver in front of you is driving too slow let go been behind you beeped you were sitting there at the traffic light you're looking at your little smartphone and you didn't go with the traffic right i mean really obnoxious it was only two seconds of obnoxious beat all stuff's gonna come up and then right you're gonna say something to that guy he don't hear you you know you hear a word all right nothing going on in there right let it go there's an excellent opportunity you understand that you're you're driving you need to deliver something and it starts pouring and you have no time frame you have to get there and it's raining and there's nothing you can do you are going to get wet let it go let well go like getting wet you wish you could let go of the resistance to the reality of the situation that's in front of you do you hear what i'm saying why not why do you want this garbage and i know i talking to me and always reigns i have to go somewhere god doesn't like me what are you doing let it go it's not a work with yourself constantly relentlessly a yogi works with themselves every single second you work with yours you work with everybody else every second everybody it's a full-time job to get everybody to be the way you want isn't it right you're out there manipulating controlling doing anything instead you work with yourself and you just keep letting go and wait do you see what happens i'm telling you what will happen i laid it out i've never talked to you this way before i've laid it out for you at first it's hard right because you want to fix it either suppress it or fix it right no you'll learn to do it you'll practice just like learn a piano or learn to play practice practice just practice don't get hard on yourself don't worry if it fails right what if you play any piano you make a mistake i don't want to well that's ridiculous right it's good means you need to learn things right if you sit there and you're trying to let go and also you didn't you get caught somewhere and you like oh my god i should have let that go don't get guilty don't get this just you were practicing the piano and you made a just get back up say next time i'll be a little wiser next time all right and it helps you you just keep letting go your whole life every single second and then like i said what will happen is you'll get used to feeling from inside this tendency to for the consciousness to be drawn away from the center toward the distraction i love that i taught you that that's what's happening it's being pulled toward the loudest distraction relax it'll come back relax it'll come back and every time it comes back the power of the distraction gets invested into the seat itself and all of a sudden your center you can't even talk about it you become what's called the being of power and you feel it that power you build this is shakti you're building the power being of yourself back to the center of well if i start coagulating and consolidating power in one place it gets powerful doesn't it all right and you'll that's where all the power comes from so sure healing comes from where shaktipat comes from everything comes from it's from building that center and not letting pieces of it get drawn away by the distractions doesn't mean you have to go into the mallus and not get distracted i would rather have you work in your everyday life and not get distracted i'm not impressed if you can go into a sensory deprivation cave and not be distracted right i'm impressed if you can stay in your everyday life and not be distracted by this garbage going on inside of you and the growth is way better too you understand that this is how you use every moment of your life to go to god it's fun in it all of a sudden it's this exciting journey of transcending yourself as opposed to getting what yourself want so you don't have to transcend yourself it's happening now your needs your desires your liking and dislikes are the reflection of where you're caught something bothered you before saying that something happened doesn't bother you you saw somebody had a nicer car than you and the girl or guy went with them in high school and all of a sudden you got this thing about a nice car it's just you're just reliving your garbage with your likes and dislikes instead you relax and release reaction release reaction release relax release all right then it will build your center like we talked about and it gets stronger and stronger and eventually you will reach a point where the joy the love the power is feeding you from inside and there's nothing that can come in from outside that's more beautiful than what's going on inside every one of you have that right yogananda said there is a river of flowing inside of you find it go there get in and drown that's yoga this is how you find it that's how do i find it don't go looking for it don't get a map all right you like a keep that don't understand i want to know letting go you see the power of that the power of relaxing and releasing to allow the chi the shakti to build back into your center and then eventually it starts flowing up that's what it does because you're not going with the pull down it changes direction literally changes direction and starts flowing up and feeding you now if you're smart you realize this is more beautiful than anything i ever experienced i'm gonna hang out with this and now you really really building a center inside yourself and you would never let it let anything take it away from you and then it gets stronger it just does nothing but get stronger all the time and eventually it gets so strong what does the joy the beauty the bliss the ecstasy flowing up inside of you that you can't stand it literally can't stand in his presence it starts pulling you into it you're not doing anything it's not an act of meditation it's just pulling you into it it's so that you want to just melt you don't want to exist you want to just melt into it now you're being pulled into the higher states you fall into a breathless state with that going on now that's very honorable you understand that because you're purified those states don't come and go now you become that's where the great masters they merged they just released the personal completely and now of christ saying my father and i are one so it notice i started with the personal garbage that's what you get from this i started with the dirty stuff didn't i your laundry and we ended up in god but permanently in god not some experience i had it's my state of being because you let go of the rest so this is quote i've talked to you about which is i've never really talked to you this way before right that is called the evolution of the soul that entire process i just talked to you is the evolution of the soul it is becoming stronger and stronger and because it's able to let go of what was pulling it down it becomes healthier and healthier and eventually there's not a single thing in this world nothing which had to show i'm to mcgee in the morning there's a line that says the man that has tasted the bliss of the may move amongst objects of sense without fear his mind never clings to the world's misery his heart is with god and his soul is set free how's that sound like what we just talked about all right and you it's called jivan mukta you're now a liberated being you are beautiful beautiful people you wouldn't be here right you turn to yoga you turn to easter teaching turn to meditation that's really beautiful never forget what we just talked about because that is the evolution of your soul that's the reason you took birth on this plane earth is a place that souls are sent to you understand that so this is what you're doing you're doing your dharma people say what's my dharma i just told that's your dharma the rest will happen naturally by itself oh thank you thank you for being interested in these things however you're listening you changed the world when you change yourself do you understand that jagrative diamasters you've been listening to the michael singer podcast produced by sounds true in partnership with shanti publications soundstrew has also produced with michael singer an extraordinary eight-part video course called living from a place of surrender the untethered soul in action you can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com and save 15 percent when you use the singer 15 that singer numeral 1 numeral 5 at checkout the music you is the song giving it all by be still the earth thank you so much for listening sounds waking up the world
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