Michael Singer: guru dev, jai masters. Spirituality is not about getting things, not about achieving things, it’s about becoming empty.
The bottom line is while you’re still there at all, God can’t be there. You’re on the way, and that is a level of spirituality that very, very people, one understand, and two, wanna have anything to do with it. But it is exactly what Christ taught you. I taught you I had a nice Jewish yogi. Read the Bible once.
But the teachings are yoga. The teachings are, are the deepest Buddhists, the deepest spiritual teachings. Christ said, you must die to be reborn. You must be empty. Mary Bible said, man, minus mind equals God. That doesn’t mean you’re stupid. The mind is a very great thing. Just like your hand is a great thing.
Your foot’s a great thing. Your liver’s a great thing. Your pancreas a great thing. They all have their purpose. They’ll have their meaning in life. So does your wine, but it’s not the meaning of your life. It just, it has meaning in your life. You have the right to use it. It’s like you are not your car, but you can like your car, you can use your car, but don’t say, I am my car.
And people do that. They get identified with it and they get all upset if people touch it or talk about it. Mine’s fashion than yours, et cetera, et cetera. You’re projecting your sense of self onto an object. Well, that is what you’re doing. When you project the divine aspect of your being, your consciousness onto your body, your mind, your heart, none of those things are who you are.
They’re things you’re aware of. That’s the most fundamental of teachings. Do you have emotions? Do you have emotions? How do you know? How do you know you have emotions? I won’t let you answer me ’cause I know the answer ’cause I’m in there. A conscious being in there. And one of the things in there are these emotions.
They can be nice, they can be yicky, they can be terrible, traumatic, and they can be ecstatic, right or wrong, but they’re all just emotions. It’s like looking out at the ocean and seeing waves. They can be big, they can be small. They can go to the left, they can go to the right. They can have little mist on them.
They’re waves. You’re the ones looking at them. There’s absolutely no difference in reality between any wave and any other wave. They’re just waves. The difference is who sees them, who is aware of them, who notices them? You who notice it are greater than what you notice always. There are no comparison.
How do I know? Take away what you noticed and other things are there. There could be anything, take away awareness, and there’s nothing That is the essence of spirituality. You’re paying so much attention to things, which is fine, but why don’t you pay attention to how you know there are things. And the reason is because you get so involved and so distracted, who does your consciousness, your awareness of being your center, your essence gets drawn down into a diamond ring, into a car, into a relationship, into a pound I gained or lost.
Whatever it is you get so involved in it that you forget you are the one that got involved in it. You lose the perspective of subject object. Your consciousness is a subject and it’s only one consciousness. You who feels love and you who feels disdained and you who feels jealousy is the same. You. It’s just something different.
You feel you have nice thoughts. You who has X-rated thoughts. You have weird thoughts. I don’t care. They’re just thoughts. You’re the one that’s aware of them. Spirituality is always about you in there. It’s never about what you are aware of. ’cause then what happens is somebody lays a guilt tripping, Hey, you shouldn’t understand.
I can’t believe you swore. I can’t believe you wore that. Can’t believe you said that. Or all of a sudden you’re pulled down even further to say, oh my God, I must be the thing that this person didn’t like. No, you’re not. You’re that which came up in your mind. And you noticed it, but you didn’t do anything about it.
So it came outta your mouth and then somebody else criticized you about it. Then you felt guilty about it. What’s going on? It’s the same consciousness that’s experiencing all of this, but because you’re being pulled down into the object of consciousness, you lose what’s called your seat of consciousness.
So spirituality is about becoming empty. We’re so far from that that people don’t even understand it. In fact, they don’t even want it. Why would I wanna be empty? ’cause when you’re empty, something fills you. If you become the void, the empty, everything. Comes from a higher level. Let’s put it this way. You are here now.
You interact with people and you cause a lot of trouble. You know you do. Why? Because you’re in there busy being you. That’s ’cause you’re not empty. You’re full of yourself. You’re full of your thoughts, your emotions, you’re feelings, your desires, your preferences, your hopes, your dreams. You, me, I, me, mine.
That’s a very full vessel. Well. You can’t hold anything else as you empty that vessel from nowheres and you shouldn’t even discuss or try to figure out where, ’cause it’s none of your business. Something starts to fill the empty spaces from empty space. I don’t mean loneliness. Loneliness is an emotion.
Loneliness is a thought. It’s a feeling. I’m not talking about that kind of empty, I’m talking about as you empty yourself. Spirit Shakti, a higher flow of energy. Automatically. You don’t have to pray for it. You can. You don’t have to do anything. You have to go to Al and find somebody. Alright? You can. You can do what you want, but if you empty yourself, you’re gonna notice there’s an energy that comes in.
It’s much more subtle. It’s way more subtle than your thoughts. Way more subtle than your emotions. Way more subtle than your attachment to your body and has nothing to do with the outside world. It just is coming in and you start feeling it. We call it Shakti. They call it spirit. That’s fine. I like them calling it spirit.
In yoga we call it Shakti. What is Shakti? The energy that here. Nice stuff in Shakti. The energy that comes in when you’re not there. Well, what do you mean I’m not there? If you’re there, it stops. The more you’re there. The less it’s there. And it’s very rare to find a great bean that the eye’s not there, but the picture hanging on the wall.
When we use the word guru around here, we’re not talking about some person that has power and can do things and and so on, or has helps and has a nice life talking a saint. Somebody’s not there. Somebody who’s empty. Okay? And when you’re empty, the Shakti fills you and eventually there is no you. It falls away and what’s left is so holy, is so special.
It’s so beautiful that without doing anything, it heals without opening your mouth, without teaching, without doing anything. The power comes out through you, but you don’t own it. You don’t think, oh, I have Shakti now I can help people. I can do things. I really, once, if some great master or yogi came here and told you all, I wanna show you something.
And they took you outside on a clear night and they went, oh, Sri, I started, they raved their hand like that and a shooting star went flying across the sky exactly where they waved their hand. Ooh. Uh, boom. Did it again. It went in that direction. Did it again, went that direction. You know, what should be told to that person?
What are you doing? The stars are where they belong. What are you messing with the world of? What use is that otherwise to impress people gave me a being there. There was one of Roman Christus disciples, right? Ramo was his name, and he wasn’t a very good teacher. I mean, Robert Christian was a very great being.
Totally gone. Right? And his disciples that got brought to him were, were great beings. And basically after Roman Krisna died, the master died. Some of them used to go to Bra Bernard’s private house and have small sauce songs that he wasn’t, he didn’t attract a lot of people, but he was a very great being.
And one night they went there, a handful of them, and he didn’t come out. And they knocked on the door and I said, master, we’re waiting for you. And he was in there crying and he said, no, I can’t come tonight. The disciple said, why? He said, I can’t do it anymore. I can’t tell God what he should be doing.
That’s all. He saw who you were. He just saw the light of consciousness and he, how can I tell God what to do? So the great ones went out to the mountains, had the really great ones, but you won’t like this at all. Right? Through a poss maraj. If you came to visit him up in the Malleus, he threw rocks at you.
He sat in a tree and threw rocks at you. Those, these are great ones. In other words, they didn’t need anything. Ramo Krishna, I should tell you the whole story, but I won’t. But Ramo Krishna once said. Oh, these people, they keep coming. My ears are burning with all the talk of the world. They just all want things and right.
You just get to the point, you understand there’s nothing to get, there’s nothing to lose. You are whole and complete within yourself. You’re the greatest being that ever walked to face the earth, but you are busy. Letting your consciousness, your greatness get drawn down onto objects and thoughts and feelings, but on some feelings, good.
They’re all fine. It’s wonderful. Of course, there are feelings just like there’s form, just like there’s mine, but it’s not who you are. And when you wake up, really wake up. You never leave that seat of awareness. Yes, there are thoughts. I’m having a bad thought day. Ever have a bad thought day ever, A bad emotion day?
How do you know that’s what matters? Not what do I do about it? I don’t like it. It’s just how do you know you’re having a bad thought day? Or is there a bad thoughts? How do you know you? Alright. That’s a great question. Ram Maharshi great master. That’s all he ever asked. Who sees when you see who hears, when you hear who is in there?
’cause you who’s in there is what all the spirituality is about. But when you’re busy being distracted by your thoughts and your emotions and your body and form, that’s the fall of the garden. Just boom, hit your head each place, mind, heart, body form. Now you’re out there running around trying to grab form to do what?
Make your heart your mind feel better. You think there are things that you can get that will make you feel better inside? Well, of course there are. How would it last? Have you ever really wanted something really bad during your entire life? If I could have that, if he would just love me, if I could have that car.
If I could just have enough money to travel. Come on now. You get it. You didn’t want anything else the rest of your life. It’s hollow. I’m not teaching renunciation. I don’t even believe in renunciation. Why? Because to have to renounce means you’re already caught. I want you not to be caught. So there’s, it’s just all there.
It’s there. Yes. There’s men. Yes, there’s women. Yes, there’s this. Yes, there’s jobs. Yes, there’s money. Yes, there’s power. Yes, there’s this. Yes, there’s that. Yes, there’s everything in there. Is that okay with you? You’re gonna get older, you’re very pretty. You’re gonna get older. Don’t worry about it. It’s gonna happen.
Is that okay with you? That’s how you become empty. You don’t need it to be a certain way. You’re not renouncing it. That’s so oversold. Renunciation is about the fact that I’m caught and I’m really caught and therefore I keep, have it formed addicted to what I’m caught. I better get rid of it. Right. So struggle fight.
You will have to. Alright. Show me the being who says yes, it’s there, but I’m fine with it. Yes. There are women. Yes, there are beautiful women. Yes, there are handsome men. Okay. You okay with that? Yeah, I don’t need them. I’m not grabbing or clinging or hoping or wishing or praying. It’s just they’re there.
Yes, there are people that are rich. Did you know that? Is that okay with you? Yes, it is what it is. Everything is what it is. That’s the type of emptiness I’m talking about. Not that there isn’t anything, or you have to renounce it or run away from it, or not get involved in it. You’re in here. It’s there. Oh, okay.
That’s fine. Why? ’cause it’s there. Deny this is there. It’s there, and you catch on that you’re capable. It’s not as hard as hard you think it is. So when I say you become empty, I mean, oh my God, I would tear everything out and throw everything away. No, no, no, no, no. Just stop being attached first. Stop being attached.
And second, don’t get so involved. You have a business. Don’t be tough with you tonight. You have a business. It’s doing well. Okay. Some competitor comes in, you’re doing so well. Is that okay with you? Is that okay with you? It better be because that’s what’s happening. Does that mean you don’t do anything about it?
I didn’t say that. I just said, is that okay with you? Yes. Now, is there something I should be doing about it? Is there some service I can do to help the employees? To help my clients to help things, but not because I’m not okay about it. I’m fine with it. What if it goes outta business? I have an OUTTA business sale.
It’s like you’re okay with things. If you’re okay with things, it’s okay that they be there. It’s when you’re not okay with things that it’s not okay. Did you get that part? If you’re not okay with it. Then you’re not okay with it. If you are okay with it, then you are okay with it. That’s all it’s talking about.
Can you handle reality? And you start, I teach you this lately. You start when I can handle it. Okay? I don’t like it, but I can handle it. And then you get to the point and say, well, why wouldn’t I be able to handle it? It happened, it, what’s going on? How many different things are going on all over the world right now?
700 billion squillion. And you can’t handle one. Boy, you’re pretty limited. And so you sit there and say, I need to learn to handle things. Then I don’t have to worry that they’ll happen ’cause I can handle them. I don’t have to be afraid. No more anxiety, no more tension. People say, how do I get rid of tension?
Well exercise a lot. Take a drug, do something, take more vitamins. The only reason you have tension is ’cause you’re resisting reality. How much tension do you get over the white lines in the road? Sometimes they’re dashed and sometimes they’re solid, and sometimes they’re double and sometimes they’re missing.
Is it freaky out? That’s what it means to be empty. See the difference? It doesn’t mean they’re not there. It doesn’t mean you don’t experience them. It means you can be centered and calm and clear while you’re experiencing them. Now get that way about everything. But notice it doesn’t mean you don’t interact.
Life is an interactive sport. But now the reason you can’t hear the deep teachings like this is because you think the only reason you interact. ’cause you either want something or don’t want something. Either protecting yourself or attempting to get something for yourself. Come on, take a look inside.
Alright. It’s all about, yes, I get up in the morning, so I get up in the morning. I’m gonna make this happen, to get more of this, to get that. I get up in the morning, I have to protect myself, and there’s trouble out there. I need to fix it. I’m either trying to fix it or trying to get it. Can anybody relate to that?
Do you see that in there? I’m not trying to degrade you, right, but I’m telling you that’s a human being. So when I sit there and say empty, you think there’s no motive. There’s no reason to do anything. No, no, no, no. You are fine. And you’re gonna find it when you’re fine. When you are fine in there. Fine with what?
Everything. Oh God. He said it. You’re fine. No thoughts bother you. Why? Who cares? They’re just thoughts. But what if that happens? What have it done? What a stupid game to play. Alright. And you just start understanding, I’m fine, I’m seated in the seat of self. I’m conscious and there’s a mind. Doing its thing, there’s a heart doing its thing, I’m fine.
And if you’re fine with that, then you’re fine with the outside world. ’cause the worst the outside world can do is do something you don’t want or not do something you do want. I’m fine. That’s how it’s okay. What’s gonna happen then? What’s your motive? Why is there inspiration? Why would you get up in the morning if you’re fine?
Why bother? See, that’s how you think. They’ll originally get up in the morning. I want something or don’t want something, so that that motivates me. Right? No, it makes you a neurotic mess. It doesn’t allow you to enjoy your life. It makes you think, if I protect myself from this, I’ll be okay, but there’s always something.
And if I get this, I’ll be okay. But there’s always something. It’s like I see that hamster on the wheel. Come on, beanie Run. He ain’t going nowheres is he? Isn’t that where humans are? And that’s what causes the tension. That’s what cause the anxiety. So when you get centered enough and clear enough, and we’ll come back to how to, I want you to understand what it means to be empty.
Basically it’s unfolding inside and out and you’re fine. You’re fine. So there’s no anxiety, there’s no tension. There’s no fear. Somebody once ask Yonda you then was talking to his guru, you sure? He said, well, how do you become fearless? What if a lion’s jumping at you? You know what you should have told him.
Feel fear. That’s not the fear we’re talking about. We about psychological fear. I’m talking about concepts that aren’t working out, views that don’t work out. Hopes and dreams, you know, things you did with your mind that now you made a mess in there. So you’ll never be okay with everything, anything. I’m telling you, you will never, ever be okay if your mind is guiding you.
Ooh, what a statement to make. I may be okay for a moment. I’m talking about free life. You’ll never be okay. Why? You have inside a few impressions that you stored called some scars and impressions that you stored as you went through your life. Certain things were very uncomfortable, little bit uncomfortable, very comfortable, little bit comfortable, and you stored those.
Especially the really strong ones. They were very uncomfortable. We call ’em traumatic. Well, they’re still in there. Doesn’t matter what happened 10 years ago. Still in there, isn’t it? You stored it in there. I had this love affair when I was in, in junior high school and I’ve never felt love like that my whole life.
And I wanna have it again. Alright, where, how old are you now? 50. And I’ve been looking for it. Am I listening? So to me, the meaning of my life is to avoid these incidents that cause me so much trouble. Again, Matt, my past is determining my interaction, it’s determining my inspiration, my motive, every single thing.
If that event, that traumatic event didn’t happen when you were young, you’d be a totally different person. You’d want different things, act different ways. So it’s the stuff you stored in there that is generating your hopes, your dreams, your concepts, your views, all that stuff. And now you have to go out and try to make it happen or not happen.
And there’s so many of them. And life is always changing that you never get to a point where you say, I’m fine. Just for short periods of time. And that’s why you do drugs. That’s why you do alcohol. That’s why you do all this stuff. ’cause you’re trying to be fine and I’m not. Okay. And so basically I said to you, you’ll never be okay.
If you’re allowing your mind to determine your life, your personal mind with all its hopes and dreams and causes of views and opinions and preferences and desires and likes and dislikes, is the reflection of what you stored in there from your past. You did not make those things up even if you really like.
So I met him, is love at first sight, but it really isn’t for. It’s impressions that you had during high school and here and there and so on, and this person reminded you of that, or a little tendency, or the name was similar to someone you liked before, all that together. And all of a sudden your heart opens.
Why? Because it matched the stuff you stored in there. Well, what if the next day he or she says something that doesn’t match? Oh man, I thought the right person. No way. I’m gonna, that’s what’s happening. And so if you’re following that, they’re not going anywhere. You just struggle. You keep trying and hoping and dreaming.
So basically you get to the point where you start doing what we call letting go. What does that mean? I usually do the end of the talk. We’ll do it now. It means a world’s unfolding in front of you. Check. Are you okay with that to achieve deep spirituality? The answer is yes, but that’s not your answer. No.
Your answer is no. I’m not okay with it. I don’t like how you’re driving. I don’t like the weather. I don’t like what you said. I don’t like that I gained a pound. I don’t like that I lost a pound. I don’t like how my hair came out when I had it tinted. It wasn’t what I had in mind. I. You are not, okay, let’s just get that straight, right?
And you basically look in there. I’m begging you to look in there and notice that getting your hair tinted slightly different is not going to change your life. They will be something else and it will happen immediately. Wow, I like it. Oh, hers is nicer. It doesn’t ever stop. It will never stop. The richest people in the world look at their behavior.
By God, they build these mansions. You’re not okay. Things do not make you okay. And if they do, be careful. ’cause it means they match the stuff you stored inside. Tomorrow they won’t match or something else will come up. It’s a problem of the day, isn’t it? It just keeps popping up. Why? ’cause you stored all the junk in there and so you wake up and you realize it is not renunciation.
It has nothing to do with renunciation. It’s about learning to be okay with reality, not rejecting reality, not denying reality, not suppressing reality, not fighting reality, just saying, oh, that happened. Are you okay with that? The answer better be yes. Let’s explore that. Let’s say your answer is no, it’s not okay that things have happened in the past.
What does that do for you? That makes you a total mess. Why? Because it did happen. And you’re not gonna make it not happen. Can you make it not have happened? Does it bother you that it happened? Yes. Well, then you’re bothered. Well, what if I can accept that it happened? That mean I don’t do anything about it?
Don’t do that. I’m talking about right then, right there. You have a thought, a feeling about the past. Can you look at it and say, oh, hello, Naty. I respect that it happened. What do you mean you respect? It happened? I have to respect reality. So you’re in there and you ask, okay, did this happen? There’s your checklist.
Did this happen? Yes. Are you sure? You bet I am. I’m sure I was there. It happened. Are you okay with that? The answer has to be yes. There is no no to that. All that does is say, no. I’d rather suffer. There are people who mistreat other people, prejudices, all kinds of stuff. Did it happen? Yes. Now watch these words.
Are you okay that it happened? It doesn’t mean do you like it, it doesn’t mean you won’t do anything about it. It starts with, yes, it happened and I better be okay. It happened. Why? ’cause it happened, but it wasn’t fair. I’m sorry, I, what am I gonna tell you? It is not just or unjust or fair, it happened. Why don’t you sit there and say It happened, but it was really unfair, so I’m gonna suffer.
I’m gonna suffer because it was wrong. Okay, fine. Suffer. Okay? I’m not here to teach you how to suffer here, to teach you how to not suffer. How do you not suffer by accepting the reality that took place? Now what? Now you’re clear enough, you’re not resisting, fighting, denying, suppressing. You’re just clear.
Now you look and see. Is there anything, there’s nothing you can do about the past. That’s over. You think that five years ago you got divorced and nobody said they were sorry and nobody got together. That if they come and say they’re sorry, it’s gonna change anything. It’s not gonna change that it happened.
It can affect how you feel about it now, but if you accept it that it happened and somebody comes up to you five years later, I’ve had that happen. So have you, somebody comes up five years. Oh, I was so sorry. And ever since I said that to you, I felt so bad to which you say, said what? You know, slice what they’re talking about.
You didn’t store the thing in there. They did. So if you sit there and say. It happened. That’s my starting point. You have the right to say now. Now, not five years ago. Is there anything I can do about it? Now that I’m clear enough and not freaking out over it, I can accept that it happened. Is there anything I can do to rage the energy?
Now it’s all about be here Now. It’s not about running around telling people you’re sorry, and that’s okay. It doesn’t always work out. Like I said, you go there, try to tell somebody you’re sorry that happened five years ago. They say, who are you? I forgot even who you were. Alright. Or they sit there and say, don’t you think you’re saying sorry to me?
What is it doing? Okay? It’s making you feel better about the junk that you didn’t let go of. If you accept reality. You’re at peace. You’re at peace with what happened? How can I at peace? What happened? I hurt somebody. Did you or did you not do something to hurt somebody 10 years ago? Yes. Are you okay with that?
And the answer is, of course, it better be. Why? ’cause it happened. You can’t make it not have happened if I don’t like it enough, it didn’t happen really. Now you can sit there and say there’s a thing called remorse as opposed to guilt. Guilt and remorse are totally different things. Guilt is, I can’t handle that happen.
I feel terrible about it. I messed up. It ruined my whole life ’cause I did that. Right. Remorse is. I see the error that caused me to be that way in the past, and I would never, ever, ever be that way again. It’s not even close. Then you learned, you grew. It’s a great event. Celebrate you’re a greater being than you were before you got lost.
Okay? And this remorse, every baba said remorse burns the some scar that got left. ’cause of what you did. It burns it in the heart, it burns up the karma, and it’s a very holy thing. Not guilt. You see, dear God, we never talk about this. There’s a vastly of guilt and remorse. Guilt is a psychological state that you’re sitting there allowing these past impressions that are carried in you to cause more impressions, so you’re more screwed up.
Remorse is I am feeling the pain in my heart. For what took place in the past. I’m willing to feel that it helps go deeper inside of me to know I would never do that again. I grew I, that’s why I look at it. I grew, do you have the right to grow? Well, you better otherwise try to play the piano and make a mistake and quit, but I made a mistake.
So that’s why you practice. That’s all you do. There is no guilt. There’s no shame. I talked those before. There is guilt and shame. Here’s where it is. I know what I’m doing is full of bad, evil, stupid stuff. I’m angry, I’m hating and I’m gonna hurt somebody because of it. Now you got some karma that you better feel something.
I hope you feel guilty as hell before you do that. I hope you’re scared. You wanna take on some bad karma, go ahead and do that. That is totally different than I’m doing the best that I can later. I see there was a better way to do it. I didn’t have to say what I said. It’ll seem right at a time. Then it’s holy.
This is where you grew and now I see I have remorse about it. I feel not so good about it. Not guilt, just, oh, away. Fine. I can see it. It purified my heart. You became more empty because you did that event. You were carrying that around. Whatever made you do it, it burned off. So you’re basically, you’re a greater being.
That’s spiritual purification. We’re having deep talk, so there is no guilt. There is no shame unless you’re purposely hurting somebody, but that’s not what you do. Most people don’t do that. Some do, but not most people don’t do that. Most people are just lost. They just feel anger, they feel jealousy, they feel whatever it is, and they express that it comes pouring out.
Okay, fine. It will come back and you will realize at some point I could have acted higher. I could have been pure, I could have done that, but you don’t have a right to judge yourself based on that ’cause you weren’t there when it happened. It was like a different person was there. You should be a different person every single day.
You wake up in the morning, there’s somebody in there talking. There’s somebody in there feeling there’s somebody there going through this stuff. Alright, go through the day the way I just talked to you about doing the best you can. To be as clear, as high as loving, as open, as surrendered, as accepting as you can.
You won’t do perfect in any way, shape or form. Then you go through the day. When you wake up the next day, you’re not the same person who woke up the day before you learned something, didn’t you? You went through the interaction of life, these very great teachings, but they’re about becoming empty. That’s how you become empty.
Empty of what? Empty Of all the garbage you stored in there from your past. That’s screwing your life up. It’s making you do things now because of what happened back then. You try to get them again or avoid them. Right. As you burn through this, how do you burn through it? I said, I’ll give you the technique later.
Okay? It’s so real. Nobody wants to hear it. Life is a washing machine. Life is the guru life. Is God made visible? Can you handle that? No. No, of course. I can’t handle that. I can handle it if it’s the way I want and I can’t handle if it’s not the way I want. Okay, and this gonna beat you up. Why? ’cause it is what it is and it’s going to be what it’s going to be and you can’t handle that.
So life is gonna seem like a struggle. It’s not a struggle. What do you mean it’s not a struggle? Is life a struggle? No. How can life be a struggle? You know, I mean very much into getting off the planet. So I saw a picture the other day of a spacecraft that was on its way to some asteroid, and it turned around and took a picture of the planet Earth.
I’ve seen lots of pictures of powder Earth, but this one I keep, it’s really moved me. It’s bigger than the one I have over there. You know, opposite of the door. But you can actually see the continents, I mean, the whole thing’s about that big, about half an inch at the most, but you can see the shape and you can see some continents and it was, you know, hundreds of thousands of miles out.
It’s just a little ball of durst spinning around nowheres. Everything is so big and so vast. You can’t have a problem. It can’t be tough. It can’t be hard, and you’re only here for a few years. How can you make such a neurotic mess outta something so simple? You drop down on this planet. It’s a phenomenal planet.
There’s all kinds of animals and voyage and people and things to do every moment all over the place, and you suffer. What I like is you think you have the right to suffer. You think you have the obligation to suffer. You don’t know what he did to me. You don’t know what he said. You’d suffer too. If he had said that to you 10 years ago, and I’ve suffered every minute since you hear me.
There’s no reason for that. That’s something you’re doing because you didn’t empty, you didn’t clean out there. And so what happens? Life is here so that when you are interacting with life, it will hit your stuff. Have you noticed. It will always hit your stuff. Go on a date with somebody and really enjoy the date, and then go have them pick you up from the next date and have ’em wearing a bow tie or a mini skirt or whatever it is.
You’re not into. You won’t like them anymore. You don’t understand. My Uncle George wore bow ties. I don’t like him at all. I do not like bow tie people or mini square people. It’s just hitting your stuff. Life. Hit your stuff, is it? Purposely hitting your stuff, is that what’s happening? God and Guru are somehow rearranging earth’s molecules and interactions so that it hits your stuff.
That’s ridiculous. They don’t have to be that busy. If you have stuff, everything’s gonna hit it like the bow tie. They didn’t say, oh boy, she had, uncle George had a bow tie. He didn’t like it. Let’s bring her stuff up. No, somebody’s going about their business. You go about your business and they end up interacting with each other and hit your stuff.
In essence, you’re wearing your stuff on your sleeve. Everything’s gonna hit it. Here, go to some town and have some pizza somewhere and it wasn’t good. I don’t know what it was about it. I don’t know. It wasn’t good. Be two months later driving through a town and have your friends sit there and say, oh, what do you wanna eat?
There’s a pizza place. No, no, I don’t want pizza. Once you have one slice of pizza and it left an impression on you, you don’t have pizza anymore. That’s just hilarious. So you had these impressions that got left in there, and so of course life’s gonna hit him. He’s not doing it purposely, he. It’s going about its business.
You are projected here. It is not that life is coming in and hitting your stuff, it’s that you are projecting your stuff onto life. How’s that? My mother used to yell at me, be, she thought I was gonna get fat and so I don’t need it. I gained a pound. Oh, I feel so guilty. What if mommy didn’t do that? What if some person told you look more beautiful?
When you have some more weight on all of a sudden a new impression, you’d be held totally different. All of these impressions got left in there. Becoming empty means they’re gone there, forgetting there slowly but surely, you don’t have to carry that junk in there. If you don’t carry the junk in there, you won’t project it out to life.
Life’s just going about its business. It’s not purposely doing your stuff. The one they used to show all the time is some people just went to rob a bank to bank robbers. When they get out of that bank, they are so paranoid. They’re looking everywhere. You don’t. You don’t do that when you come outta the bank.
Why? They’re projecting themselves. Nobody else knows what they did, but they know what they did. Alright, so life is just unfolding and you are projecting it out and therefore it is causing you trouble and hitting you. And you think the solution is to manipulate life. So it be the way I want it to be.
That is so funny. That is a no win here. Get divorced from somebody and they have certain behavior patterns and sit there when you fill out your sheet for your dating game, right? And say, not what do you want? You’re gonna fill the one that says, what I don’t want, I don’t want this, I don’t want that. I don’t want this, I want that.
I don’t want this, I want, I want that. Okay. Now everyone you meet is being judged against. You’re projecting the experience you had with your ex onto every person you meet, and you don’t know how not to do that, do you? How do you do that? By becoming empty now you’re getting a feeling what empty means, they call it purifying.
But purifying. You had to wear white and never swear and do stuff like that. Don’t call it purifying, call it becoming empty. Otherwise you’ll pick and choose what you wanna let go of. This one I like, I’m not letting it go. It was nice. It made me happy. Yeah. Or your suffering is not happening again. Yeah.
So you start understanding Life’s purpose is to go about its business and your purpose is to let it hit your stuff. Now it’s not. I can handle it. That’s the first thing I can handle. Reality that’s very big of you. ’cause you’re never gonna ever change it. Okay, now it’s, I welcome the unfolding of life because it reveals what’s inside of me.
It shows me where I’m not empty yet it shows you where I’m caught. We had a saint came visit us. Very, very great pain. They one to give us a DGA statue. This yo Shati very beautiful soul. And she once said the first time she was here to get her visit us, I was stuck in the early seventies. I don’t understand it at all.
She said, problems are the nectar of life. I wonder how many of you agree with that, why they cause you to become empty. They make you deal not with them. He’s sitting next to you. You’re having a problem with something. He’s not. He didn’t even know why you’re having a problem with it. You are projecting yourself onto life, and it’s hitting your stuff, and you think the solution is to attract to yourself that which doesn’t hit your stuff.
Okay, let’s not grow. So you sit there and say, I am willing, not just, I can handle it. I’m in harmony with life. The purpose of my birth is getting this stuff out. And anything that happens that hits the stuff. I’m gonna do the best I can to participate in letting it go. That’s what letting go means. That’s what acceptance means.
It doesn’t mean anything outside. It means in here I am awake enough to realize everything I let go of in here. I’m happier by definition. I don’t care. I wear the same, not the same shirt, it with smell, but the same shirt. And the same pants every single day for 40 years. You go into my closet, there’s about six of those shirts and few those pants.
You change ’em. Okay? I don’t care what you think about what I’m wearing. It doesn’t even cross my mind. I have to pick which blue shirt should I wear? No, I don’t have to pick it. Just take one and it becomes so much easier. So concerning clothing. I’m empty. It doesn’t do anything. It’s fine. How would you like to be that way about your house?
It’s fine. Okay. There’s not enough storage. We’ll clean it every once in a while. Right. You just get to the point where you say, getting things and needing to have things is a real hassle. You have to maintain them and achieve them and keep them and fix them. And so you, no, not that you can’t have things, but I’m telling you don’t have them ’cause you need them or want them.
’cause that just creates anxiety and tension. I would rather live in a hut and have no anxiety, no tension, feel love all the time and appreciation than live in a mansion. How about you? ’cause I guarantee you. So the answer’s yes, even though you don’t know it, you are just not okay. ’cause all the stuff that’s inside and you’re sitting here saying, if I can get the house, I wanna get the relationship I want, get the children I want, get the job I want, then I’ll be okay.
Are you okay? Well, when I first got the job and they gave me a raise, I was, yeah. Well what about when somebody that’s got a bigger raise, what if we found out somebody’s got a bigger raise? How you doing? Well, that’s not fair. You can’t win by trying to offset the mess that your stuff is creating. Only through emptiness do you become a whole, that’s very zen, right?
That’s the Dow. Lasu taught the Dao Lasu taught the following. If you ever standing the, the concept of the deep depth Dao Lasu says that the empty bed of the ocean with nothing in it is more powerful than the highest mountain. Wow. How can that be? What he said was, when it rains, guess where the water ends up.
The mountain can’t even hold onto the water. It naturally flows into the ocean bed, doesn’t it? Right. Its called empty. That’s empty. They’re empty, right? That’s the doubt. If you’re in harmony with the flow of life, which you’re talking about, I don’t wanna go backwards, which you’re talking about. If you’re not desire and fear and anxiety, and then why are you getting up in the morning?
Why are you doing anything? Because when you’re empty, you don’t do anything life does it? Do you keep the planets in orbit? Heat, sun shining. Do you keep the sun shining? No. Do you, there’s what? I don’t know, 35 trillion cells in your body. You make sure they’re okay. You check ’em all out. Tell ’em what to do every morning.
Do you make your he beat? Do you make your lungs go in and out? Well, if that stop, man, you’re in big trouble. You’re not doing anything. It happens naturally. It’s part of the flow of life. All the forces, the, the atmospheric pressure has to be perfect for your lungs to work. Everything is in balance.
Everything is the nature of things. It’s all in balance. So you’re telling me that I’ll get up in the morning even if I don’t need to run through a fear, and yes, you’ll get up and there’s something to do. How will I know what to do? It will be in front of you. Well, why would I do it? Because it’s in front of you.
It’s not complicated. There’s no motive. Well, I’m talking deep to you. There’s just openness. Why does the water from the mountain fall into the ocean bed? There’s no answer. It’s the nature of things. Well, you are that. You are the greatest thing. I’ve walked the face of the earth. And when you’re in harmony.
It will flow. They will unfold. Things will come and they will go and you’ll honor them and respect them. So first you start off with, can I handle it? First you start off with, I can’t handle it ’cause I can’t handle, I’ll manipulate. Good, have fun ’cause you won’t. Alright. And then second you say, okay, I can handle it.
You start struggling and learn how to handle it and eventually see the effect of honor and respecting reality. Like, wow, okay. I got married and we got divorced. It didn’t work out. Did you learn anything? I learned a lot. My next relationship is gonna be way better because I learned what part of I mess I made and I learned how to work with people and I learned how to accept better.
I learned everything. Therefore, I honor the divorce. I honor the relationship. What if you don’t talk to each other? I don’t care. It has nothing to do with me. I have honor and respected and used the situation to get rid of what I would’ve stored inside, and all of a sudden I learned and it grew and I love it.
So if you start with I can’t handle it, then you start with working with, I can’t handle it, then you start with, I respect it. I appreciate it. I love that it happened. I would not be the person I am today if I did not go through that messed up relationship. How’s that? But that’s your responsibility. ’cause maybe you’re a hard and scarred person and hard and can’t have good relationships anymore ’cause they left this junk inside of you and that’s your fault.
A great being doesn’t not go through the situation. They went through it. Well, I guess they went through it. They didn’t purpose. Okay, I’m gonna find, people ask me sometimes, do I need to find things and so I can get hit and make me grow? No, don’t worry about it. They will happen. When was the last time you had to make yourself not feel good?
Life will do its thing and you just have to respect it and honor it and appreciate it and say thank you. Imagine saying thank you. I would love. I care so much for you guys that you could look back at your entire past and every single thing that happened from childhood all the way up and say thank you, Naty.
Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to grow. Thank you for the situation you created. Thank you. Thank you. If anybody got hurt, I’m sorry, but boy. Did you use your life? Well because you became empty. Now you I had to talk around it. I started off talking about empty. That’s a tough thing to talk about.
’cause you think no feelings, no anything. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with, there’s no stuff that you stored in there that’s defining who you think you are. ’cause it’s not who you are. You’re the great being that’s in harmony with all of creation and it unfolds around you and through you.
And by the way, I was talking about Christ. It’s exactly what Christ taught. He said, if you get called into court, don’t even think about what you’re gonna say. Don’t prepare. The words will come to you. Alright? The words, the words of which I speak come not from me, but from the Father. All, every single thing he taught is because it was empty.
How empty to have to be to go through what he went through without saying a word. And he said words, forgive them Lord. They don’t know what they do. Will you please don’t reject the greatest being to walk face the earth and think, oh no. And they made me go to church and just understand what he’s teaching you.
And the Buddha taught you the exact same thing. Exact same thing. Zen Buddhism, Christianity, the ancient kaba, Jewish teachings, they all teach the same thing. Alright. And I, I’m very, very. Uh, religious Baptist friend who I love very, very much. We don’t have a lot of interaction, but he told me it’s called dying to self, becoming empty.
You understand that letting go of what? Of your life? No. Of money, no of relationship, no. Of yourself letting go of that which is in here, and you know it’s in there causing all this trouble. Okay? The outside’s not causing you trouble. The inside’s causing you trouble about the outside. When you start accepting and letting go of the junk you’ve collected inside, that’s not what it’s like.
The outside unfolds and it fits in you. Why? Because you didn’t say it didn’t. I’m gonna go on a vacation. I’m gonna go to Hawaii. Oh my God, I’m looking forward to fine. Look forward to it. And when I got there, a volcano went off. We had to move ’cause it would’ve burned up the place we were staying. Wasn’t that exciting?
Isn’t everything exciting? Isn’t it challenging? And growthful not if you don’t want it to be, not if you don’t accept it. It ruined revocation. Somebody else buy this amazing vacation. I never saw a volcano before. And so that’s what it means to become empty. It means you let go of the garbage that you built up inside yourself over the course of your life.
How do I do that? Little by little. That’s what I teach. Little by little. Start with the driver in front of you. Oh my God. He even uses blinkers. He keeps stepping on his brakes. Oh, he’s driving 15 miles an hour below his speed limit. He’s supposed to be in the right lane, so low in Florida. You have to get into the right lane.
Is that what you’re doing with your head when you’re behind somebody driving because you’re making yourself very anxious about nothing. Remember the little planet out there in the middle of nowhere? Woohoo baby. Let’s get ourselves upset about the fact that there are these things called cars and that they could not go to speed.
They want them to, right? And you sit there and say, no, I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna have fun. I’m gonna have fun accepting that. The same thing if it’s really hot out, what does it mean to be hot out? It means the sun is hot. It’s a star. You don’t like stars, but you don’t like stars. You look at the twinkle, twinkle, you make songs about ’em, and yet when you’re close to one, you get to know you have a, you have a personal relationship with a star.
Did you know that? You have a very, very personal relationship with the Star. If your husband doesn’t do what you want, you have a personal relationship, don’t like it, well do okay with you. The stars doing what? Once? Well, they’re far fff away and they just twinkle a little bit. Sure. But if I actually have a relationship with it, if it gets hot, if it sends out solar flares and my computer goes down, you have an interaction with a star.
That’s phenomenal. And so you start using your mind and your intellect to accept and honor, respect, and eventually you’ll stand out in front of that star and you’ll say, wow, look how hot it is. It’s 93 million miles away. They were asking me about this circumference of the earth. It’s 25,000, by the way, but basically it’s 93 million.
Alright, that’s a good one. The entire circumference of the earth, we just looked it up, was 25,000 miles, 93 billion miles away. And you’re complaining about the heat. How hard is that thing? Can you imagine? Have fun, will you? And that means that you, you’re emptying yourself of the garbage you stored in there.
Okay, and then this happens because you can do that. You became more open. Now somebody says something you don’t like and you think, okay, there’s 8.3 billion people on the planet Earth. They’re all talking. One of ’em said something. So what? They’ll say something different tomorrow. Don’t worry. And you just learn to let go and you.
Now I’ll stop. That’s what it means. Now get what? Empty means. Becoming empty. That’s what spirituality is about. Becoming empty. Becoming empty. You just keep letting go. Keep letting go of what? Not of life. You don’t let go of life. You let go of the garbage inside it. It won’t let you come in harmony with life.
And the more you let go, where do you see what happens? Where do you see the bel? But don’t think, oh, I’ll get what I want. That’s what’ll happen if I let go, if I’m good and I pray and I worship and I keep sat saying all the time, and I do my mantra, I’ll get what I want. You still have motive. That’s ridiculous.
Why do you let go? Because there’s garbage in here. And I wanna know what it would be like if there wasn’t. I’d like to know what it’s like to become filled with spirit filled with Shakti pouring inside of me all the time, feeding me what did Christ say? Man does not live or bread alone, but by every word that leaveth the mouth of God.
The spiritual person who’s emptying knows exactly what that means. Yes, you can get juice from the outside. That’s your bread. Man. Does not live by bread alone. All the energy that pours inside every word. Alright? Every vibration, you start becoming filled with shati in spirit and who cares what’s happening outside.
You can handle anything. Alright, so. I never know what I’m gonna talk about. I don’t ever think about it ever or nothing. Right. But you’re talking about something I never talked about before becoming empty. I mean, it really is the same as I always talk about, but, but the topic was based on do you understand what it means to become empty?
Do you understand what the great sin teachers teach? And the Buddhists talk about void? Emptiness. It does not mean there’s no feelings. It doesn’t mean there’s no thoughts. It means there’s nothing behind them. There’s nothing investing in them. There’s just life unfolding. Hit your stuff muzzles tough.
Congratulations. Great. You can have it here. I’ll offer it to you. And the more you let go, the higher you get. The higher you get, the more you let go. If you come to see Ascent, it’s called the ascent, the upward Spiral. Alright.
Tami Simon: You’ve been listening to the Michael Singer podcast, produced by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. For more information on Michael’s body of work and all back episodes, please join [email protected]. Thanks so much for listening. Sounds true. Waking up the World.
