E169: The Spiritual Practice of Doing Your Best

Tami Simon: Welcome to the Michael Singer Podcast, presented by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. For more information about Michael Singer’s work, access to all prior episodes and information about upcoming releases, we invite you to join us at michaelsingerpodcast.com.

Michael Singer: Jai guru dev, jai masters. There’s a very holy phrase. Doesn’t matter what language you speak it in, doesn’t matter when you say it. There’s a thing called the best that you can.

There is nothing holier in this world than doing the best that you can. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing, doesn’t matter how long it takes. And most importantly, it has nothing to do with what comes back if you’re really doing the best that you can. That is by definition the best that you can. That’s all.

Here’s a weight to lift. The best that you can lift is 97 pounds. How do you know? ’cause I keep trying to do the best that I can, and 97 pounds is what gets lifted up. But if it stays at 97 pounds, doesn’t matter. Why? ’cause it’s the best that I can. That’s a very holy phrase, the best that I can. But what if everybody else can do 105 and I own in 97 and say, give up.

You’re doing the best that you can. Then are you? If you don’t do the best that you can, you’re not living the best life, you not living the holy life and even living the most spiritual life. So beautiful. The Bava Gita is all about doing the best that you can without caring about the fruits of your action.

You’re not doing it to get something, you’re doing it to give a gift to the universe of the best that you can period. And that is a very, very holy thing. And that’s the, Vicki is entirely about that. It’s entirely about the best that you can. It’s not about the fruits of your action, the results of your action.

In fact, they say, renounce the fruits of your action. That’s very confusing. Then why try renounce the fruits of my action? Why do I care? ’cause you’re not doing the best that you can, and if you do the best that you can, the results that come back will be the results of the best that you can. But what if I find out later that I could have done better?

Doesn’t matter. You couldn’t do better then, and the fact that you do better later is because you did the best that you can. If you hadn’t done the best that you can earlier, you would never do better later. It means you’re working on that edge, lean on that edge. It is called renouncing the fruits of your action.

That is the essence of the Baal Gita. It’s the essence of the really deep teachings, and it is very non-Western, right? Western is about you measure the quality of your life based on what you got. If somebody’s getting better than you, but you’re doing the best that you can, you wasted your time. That is not true.

Mm-hmm. If you do the best that you can, why? Why would I do the best that I can for the fruits of what I’m trying to get compared to other people and so on and so forth? No, no, that that’s not, that’s not the best that you can. That’s the best that somebody else can. That’s the best of what you wish was the best that you can.

It’s not real. You do the best that you can and you honor and respect what comes back. But what if it comes back isn’t so good? You just keep doing the best that you can. You can’t do better than the best that you can. You can in your mind, make believe you can do better the best you can. You compare yourself, other people and say, I can’t do as good as them.

It has nothing to do with you. You are coming from where you are, but what if I find out that where I was coming from wasn’t so high? It doesn’t matter. The reason you see it now is ’cause you did the best that you can and you see, oh, I can do better. That’s the only way that you see you can do better is you do the best that you can and you start noticing, oh, the best that I can got better.

If you do better next time, it’s because you did the best that you could. This time, you’re not gonna do better by thinking about it and do better by comparing yourself with the people. It has nothing to do with that. You are getting the benefit of. Pushing yourself to the best that you can. Therefore you grow.

You always grow if you do the best that you can, period. But if you sit there and say, one, I can’t do that. I know I can’t do that. You don’t grow. If you sit there and say, I tried, but I wasn’t able to do good to somebody else, you don’t grow. That’s why people give up. ’cause they think it’s about the actual fruits of the action.

The Git says, renounce the Fs. Your action. It’s very difficult for a westerner mind to understand what does it means to renounce the ffr your action. Well then why am I trying? Because the act of doing the best that you can is the holiest thing. The whole universe and the best that you can is different than the best that you can is different.

The best that you can and the best you can. Tomorrow is different. What the best you can was yesterday. That means you’re growing. That means the change is taking place. And if you look back and you sit there and say, God, a year ago if I knew what I know now, I could have done so well. Don’t ever think like that.

There’s so many things in the Gita. What it says is that if somebody else can do better than you, that is irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. If you are doing the best that you can, you will evolve. That’s just the way it works. If you’re playing the piano and then somebody’s a child prodigy and you’re not even close, I can’t even get close.

You can’t even do your scales. Right? Right. You are doing the scales. The best that you can is as good as, and as important as that Prodigy who’s playing Mozart at five. It doesn’t make any difference. It’s about your spiritual growth and that other person’s spiritual growth that they were born. Prodigy has nothing to do with you.

There’s no comparing. You’re comparing against are you doing the best that you can. If you do the best that you can, you have a solid foundation for doing better for growing. If you look at somebody else and say, oh, I’ll never be able to play like that. You don’t grow in that area. You’re not willing to do the best that you can.

So the Gita teaches the deep teachings, teach. Always do the best you can at whatever you’re doing. If you’re washing the dishes, do the best that you can, but that means I’m actually doing the best that I can to wash the dishes, get them clean, be efficient. I’m not thinking about what else I could be doing instead of washing the dishes.

Go be here now. It all ties together at that point. It’s about the willingness to take your heart and your soul and your Shakti and the whole of your being and put it into whatever the universe has put in front of you, and do the best that you can and never look back. And don’t judge yourself. But if I don’t judge myself, how do I grow?

Because by doing the best that you can, the best that you can, will improve. There’s no way in the world that if you keep doing something the best that you can, I’m not saying you can become a concert pianist, right? But you’ll be better, won’t you? And that goes for your job, goes for every single thing you do.

That’s why it’s not about what you’re doing. It’s about have you let go of your personal self, the ego that’s saying, I’m not good enough. I don’t wanna be doing this. This is too low for me, this is too high for me. Right? It’s just mine. It’s just stuff that keeps you from doing the best that you can and you don’t grow.

So it’s, you can’t measure the the results of the best that you can. You do the best that you can as an act of giving to the universe. Here it is. This is my starting. You always start in your starting position. You do not ever start where you wanna be. This is so different. You wanna teach you the non-Western.

And the western mind gives up, doesn’t it? It has to do with, are you willing to do the best that you can under every situation that’s put in front of you without quitting, without getting depressed, or without, you know, losing inspiration necessarily. You say it like this, be sure you’re right. Then go ahead.

What does it mean? Be sure you’re right. Let’s talk about that. What does it mean to be right? You look inside, you look at the tasks that could put before you. I like that. People say, well, how do I know as I’m supposed be doing the one that’s in front of you? Well, I don’t understand. I’m driving down the highway.

Do it the best you can. Every single thing you’re doing, you are not thinking, what am I gonna do when I get there? You’re just focusing what is the best that I can, what can I do now? Whatever I’m doing, be here. Now I understand Ram. That’s the words, right? Be here now, not be there. Then. Or later be here.

Now, does it mean this is where you are? Where here in this moment. With this mind, with these emotions, with this body, with this surroundings. That is where you are. Right? But it’s not where I wanna be. Well, how did you decide what you wanna be? You took one aspect of your whole being. I want a better relationship.

I wanna earn more money. I want people to like me more. I don’t wanna die. I wanna live for a real long Go and pick one and see what happens to your life. If your life is the whole of your being, be here now. Wherever you are, let go. Let go of not doing the best that you can with whatever you’re doing.

Well, what if I am planning for, you know, a business meeting or for a party or something, right? Well do the best that you can, but that’s in the future. So what. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s talking about right now with what’s in front of you. Do the best that you can. You’re there, you’re present.

You’re always present as present as you can be, and you do the best that you can. Whatever you’re doing, you drive the best that you can. You invest the best that you can. You do whatever you’re doing the best that you can. For what purpose? For the purpose of doing the best that you can. There’s no judgment afterwards.

It’s not. I did the best I can to invest the money I have. I did the best that I can. I lost everything. It’s okay if you did the best that you can. Now, if instead you went out there and tried to figure out what other people might have done and and what you want, and put yourself way outside the reality of what’s taking place and if harmony was reality, there’s mind making stuff up.

I want such and such by such and such an age in my life. This is what I want and I want to be married. And a I want to, I’m married with, to be just as spiritual as I am. And that’s what I’m gonna look. Are you in trouble? Have you noticed? You’ll get disappointed, you’ll get depressed, you’ll stop trying all kinds of garbage that goes on with that state of mind.

The spiritual state of mind is, I don’t know, squat. I am here now and this is what’s been put before me and you really, my spiritual, I am not even doing it for me is an act of service to the universe. What do you mean? By definition, what’s in front of me is what got put before me. It is what is in front of you.

Drive the best that you can. If it’s time to pass somebody, make sure it’s safe. Don’t do something crazy. Just let reality unfold and serve it to the best of your ability. That what I’m talking about right now. I wanna be teaching a about. The entire teaching of that holy, very holy scripture are the highest things ever written, and what it says is renounce the fruits of your actions.

But then why would I do anything? I didn’t tell you not to act. Renounce the fruits of your action. Why? Otherwise, I’m not doing it for the task that was given to me to do. I’m doing it to my mind. Decide what I want to happen. I’m projecting out what can I do to get it the way I want it to be? And that sounds so western for you and so right for you.

That’s how you get neurotic. That’s how you get depressed. That’s how you get afraid. You are, you are afraid to do the best that you can. You’re afraid to totally put yourself out ’cause you might fail and you don’t wanna look like an idiot and you don’t wanna say anything, right? People are afraid to really put their whole heart and soul into whatever they’re doing.

’cause it might not, I better hold back. I don’t put too much in one area. Even relationships. Do you ever feel you need to protect yourself? Protect yourself from what I’ve made up, how I want things to be, has nothing to do with doing the best I can. I just made up how I want them to be. I set a life pattern, what I want, what I don’t want, how to do it, and how.

That kind of stuff. Alright. That’s what your mind will do and then you’ll get disappointed. You’ll feel rejected. It is not goal orientation. It’s about the part of your being that’s willing to give the whole of your heart and the whole of your soul and the whole of your mind into whatever’s put before you.

That is what’s spiritual, not oh, oh boy, I got rich. Now I’m neurotic trying to invest it. I’m neurotic. People wanna steal it. I don’t know what to. People get neurotic. I got the perfect relationship. What do you see? How jealous you get when you see how fearful you are? How do I know what somebody’s doing and how can I keep it?

Did I do right? Did I hurt somebody? It doesn’t stop You basically let the foundation of your imaginary thinking in your mind, how many different things have you think about at the same time, by the way, right? You can just get neurotic. To be centered and clear what the deep teachings are, and they’re not the Western teaching, but the deep teachings are, there is no result that’s better than any other result except for the fact that you did the best that you can to serve the moments in front of you.

That is the Gita. That is the deep teaching. And if you do that, where do you see what happens? Right? You’re sitting in this situation, you’re driving, you’re talking to somebody, you’re at work, you got a project to do. It works for everything, but you’re not doing the project thinking about what you’re gonna get next.

Think about accolades you’ll get, ’cause you did so well. You don’t even look at that. You get to a point that’s, you wouldn’t even think about it. Are you doing the best that you can? Do you do the best that you can for the holiness of the act of serving the universe by doing the best that you can for the TA that was put before you.

That is the, that is Arjuna on the back of that chariot with the Christian driving saying, Christians said, come on, let’s go to, which Arjuna says No. No, I don’t wanna fight. It’s not right to fight. Uh, no. I don’t even care about getting, getting what it is that I might get by winning the kingdom. I don’t want the kingdom.

I don’t wanna hurt anybody. I don’t. And, and he fell down in his chariot, despondent arjuna, and dropping his bow. He said, I will not fight to the entire rest of Avita. Is Christians saying to God, saying to him. I gave you a task to do and you decided what matters or what you wanna do with it, what you think should happen.

What are your goals? No, no. I have a universe to run and you’re part of it. Get with the program, right? That’s the Magnifi Gita. By the way, the entire rest of the Gita is Christian, telling Arjun how to let go of yourself to die, to be reborn. How to reannounce the fruits your action. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have action.

Your action is an act of service. To who? To the universe. Well, how would I know what to do? It’s in front of you. Literally. People used to come to me back in the seventies when, you know, people were starting to come out here and that’s, I can’t, I can’t find a job. I can’t find right action. I can’t find something, something to do to earn a living.

And I, I sit there and say, well, I’ll tell you how you start. And he, you, he used to teacher this. I don’t anymore. Go out there on the field, take a shovel. And dig a hole to the best of your ability. Every single stroke. Do it with as much consciousness you possibly can and offer the fruits of your action to God.

You’re not doing it to get something, you’re not doing it to earn something. You’re not doing it to prove something. You’re not doing it for any reason other than I’m capable of doing the best that I can, and that’s my gift to the universe. Imagine if everybody did that. Okay. Right? And he said, well, what will I do?

Wait to see what happens. I’m telling you, you do that. It just figuratively, I’m talking about that. But you do that and you put your whole being into it. And it’s not about you. It’s about you giving the gift to the universe of the best that you can actually cry. Giving the gift of the universe, the best that you can do is like standing before the entire, all the galaxies on this tiny little planet in the middle of nowheres, 1.3 million earths inside the sun, and that’s one of 3 billion stars and one of 2 trillion galaxies.

So what are you? You are that which is willing to do the best that you can at whatever thing is put in front of you. You do the best that you can. Well, what about finances? Where do you see. Okay. Does that mean you’ll be rich? No, but you will be rich. What good is money? All you can try to do is people say, can’t buy me love.

All you can do is try to get it to buy you feeling good, being happier if you’re already happy, if you already feel fulfilled, if you already feel just excited, enthused to get up in the morning to do the best that you can. The best that you can is a very, very holy thing, but there’s no motive. The motive is I am in this.

Come on. How important are you? Come on, you’re a beautiful person. You are one out of 8.3 billion people on the planet and the planet, the entire planet, and everybody in it. 1.3 million of them fit inside one star. And there’s 300 billion stars in your galaxy. How important is you? You have to wake up and say nothing.

It’s, there’s nothing. And you’re only here for how long? 80. 90 years, and you’re gone. You don’t know where you came from. You know where you go, but you’re making this whole mishigas out of how important your life is. It is not important. What is meaningful is to say, I am part of the entire universe. On this little ants, not even an ants on this little tiny planet, but so is everything.

Every moment, every spot in the whole universe is important as any other part. It all is in balance. It’s all gravity, it’s all working together. Is it not? Well, you’re part of that. Are you willing to be part of that? No. I have an ego. I have I, me, mine, and I have how I want it to be, which makes me neurotic.

The richest people in the world will you please. It’s so easy to see them nowadays. I love it. They have billion, billion, billion, a hundred billionaires. Don’t they look totally happy? Don’t look to have a problem their whole life. You’re crazy. Money’s not gonna give it to you. Relationships don’t give Hollywood divorces.

Relations. Oh my God, forget it. There’s the biggest problem that could exist. What is it that is meaningful in your life? That your heart is open, that your mind is clear, that you’re inspired to give the whole of your being into every moments unfolding in front of you. That’s how only decent life. That’s what it means to be enlightened.

That’s what it means to be whole. That’s what it means to be complete. You didn’t limit yourself. I talk about that all the time. It says, it’s so clear to me. It’s ridiculous. How limited is your life? Oh, I’m not. I went to college and I did this, and I went there and I got married and I have three children.

Okay, there’s 8.3 billion people on the planet Earth. You’re one of ’em, so’s your kid, and that’s on the planet Earth, right? How important are you on Mars? How important are you in Jupiter? How important are you in a galaxy far, far away? And you realize, what am I doing? I’ve limited my frame of reference. To me, what matters is me.

What am I doing? What am I getting? What am my children doing? What is the husband doing? What’s happening right now to me? How do I feel? How do I think. They’re pretty small stuff and you’re only here a fact that it’s so small anyways, you’re only here for 80, 90 years. How long has the earth been here? 4.5 billion.

Figure out the percentage. I’m too old to do it in my head. It’s a pretty small percentage, isn’t it? How important are you someday you wake up at that level zero. It comes. It goes. And what influence did you have? Gimme a break. But you made such a mickos out of it as though this is the most important thing in the universe.

What you said to me, how should you say that to me? How many words get said at any moment, even on the planet Earth? How could you say that to me, it’s like, look how small you made yourself, but you don’t look at it that way. You say, I wanna make so big. I wanna succeed, I wanna get money, I wanna be important.

I want people like me. That is so tiny to devote your life to yourself. You’re one of 8.3 billion people alive now, how many have been on this planet? Hopefully mackerel. And you’re gonna do what with your time? Make myself important. Prove that I’m okay. To who? To what. You’ve eventually wake up and you realize that spirituality is not about proving yourself in relationship to what?

It is not a competition. It is you are special, not because you’re special out of the 8.3 billion or not to mention on the planet Earth. You’re special because you’re a conscious being that is present in a moment that is unfolding around you and you get to serve it. Mm-hmm. You have to serve that moment, and it doesn’t tie back to any other moment.

It’s just, can you do the best you can? Can you take your entire heart and soul and mind and the moment in front of you and put your whole being into it? It makes me cry to even talk about, I’ve never talked to you guys this way. You take your being your way of thinking, your way of feeling, your body, your actions, your world.

There it is. Okay. Are you willing to wake up in the morning and say. I am going to do the best that I can at the moment that they’re falling in front of me. I’m gonna interact with that moment as if it’s God manifesting before me, saying, serve me. Serve this moment. Just serve the moment and not larena to come back and doing it for a reason.

There’s no motive. There’s no motive other than. Doing the best that you can. Taking the whole of your being and saying to the universe, alright, you’re enormous. Here’s my part. Here’s my part. I don’t care how small it seems. This is the contribution that I can make if I pick up a violin. And I’ve never played the violin before.

But I do the best that I can in that moment to make a sound. I just contributed to the universe the best that I can, and it’s always good enough. Always. There is never a time that the best that you can is not good enough. You don’t understand that ’cause you are looking at the fruits of reaction. You’re saying what came back that I care about?

I don’t care about doing the best that I can. I care about what came back from the best that I can. That’s the western mind and not just Western anymore. Right. That’s how human mind thinks. I’m trying to get something I’m not. Okay. If you are okay, you don’t need to get anything. You’re giving. You’re always giving.

It’s never an action of I’m doing something to get something. The very act itself is fulfilling. Go into the shower when you’re feeling high and open and sing. Okay. I hope nobody hears you, and it’s like it has nothing to do with how good you sing. It has to do with how you feel and the expression of your being and the freedom to express yourself.

Okay? It has to do with doing the best that you can always. Under any circumstances, finances, relationships, beliefs, every single thing. What’s the best that I can, how do I know it’s the best that I can? Because there’s nothing holding me back at that moment. I’m not saying well, but if I sing and this many hears me.

It would be embarrassing. So I’ll kind of do okay, but I’ll check out. You hear me? Which is how we live. Is it not? We’re not willing to do the best that we can because we want other people to think nicely of us. Well, that’s not the best that you can, and that’s a really important topic, by the way, if you are judging your life based on somebody else.

You are in big, big trouble. Why? They’re different than you. The best that they can is completely different than you. And in most cases, they’re not doing the best that they can. Well, they are. They’re doing the best that they can to get everything they can get right. They’re not pronouncing fruits direction, basically saying, I’m gonna judge you.

And they’re always judging you understand that people are always judging you, aren’t they? And you know it, right? You’re afraid to walk down the street. You might might not be standing up straight enough. You might cough, you might sneeze, get into an elevator. It’s pretty crowded. Well, should I get in? I don’t know.

I don’t wanna push anybody. He’s just like a self-conscious, scared little animal that walked around the earth. Okay. And then you judge everything based on that. No, the teachings are as follows. You’re alive, check. You have thoughts, check you have emotions. Check you a body check. And there’s a world you’re interaction with right now.

Check. Are you willing? To take the whole of your heart inside your heart and mind and soul, and serve the moment that’s unfolding in front of you without looking for anyone to come back. That the act of doing that you will find someday is the most fulfilling thing you’ll ever experience. Doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich or small, or male or female, or old or young.

It doesn’t matter if you are giving the whole of your being. To what’s unfolding in front of you. There’s this, this interaction of the Shakti, the Shakti of life with the Shakti inside of you, and they feed each other and you’re gonna get really high. That’s why the essence of the Gita is renouncing the fruits of your action.

Do the best that you can and renounce the fruits of your action. Well, why would I do the best I can if I don’t care about the first of my action? That’s sort of my, what are my things, right? I’m just not, why get outta bed? Why bother? Right. I’m not gonna get something back. Gimme a break. Alright. No, that, that’s, that’s what messes you up spiritually and, and your whole life is that you’re sitting a goal oriented saying, I’m only doing what I’m doing ’cause I’m trying to get something.

And then you get disappointed, you get upset, you get jealous ’cause somebody else got more than right. The whole ego is built on that. The whole personal self is built on, the reason I’m acting is to get something right. So I always ask the question. Why do you need to guess something ready? ’cause I’m not okay.

If you’re okay, you don’t need to get anything. You don’t realize it. You’re not okay and you’re encouraged to not be okay. Go watch ads on tv. Don’t do this and smell and don’t you wanna be this, don’t you be better than somebody else? It’s constantly battering, right? With. You can get stuff and you don’t have it yet.

You’re not dealing with the best that you can. You’re dealing with how do I get the most that I can? And that leaves you drained. You get disappointed. You feel like a failure. Sometimes you feel successful, and then something happens and oh, you are depressed. All the garbage of the personal self comes from thinking that there’s something to get.

And you’re not doing enough to get it, or somebody else got it and you wanted it. Come on, look at your emotions. Look at everything. So the deep teachings are what we’ve been talking about. Are you in there? Yes. Are you enlightened? No. Right, but I’m in here. Are you okay in there? Depends on when you ask me.

Come on. Right. Are you willing to devote your life because you’re not okay. That the foundation of your life is? I’m not okay. Money will make me be okay. Relationship will make me be okay. Having another child will make me be okay. Getting accolades at work will make me be okay clapping when I walk in the room and cheering.

You need to get something. Why? Because I’m not okay. That’s what I’ve learned in my life, that the foundation of how we tend to live is about, okay, I need a better relationship. I need more money. I need to travel. I need more exciting things in my life. I need people to like me. I need to be accepted, need to not be rejected.

Alright. Need to look a certain way so people will like me. In other words, you look at that as positive. I look at that as saying I’m not okay. Mm-hmm. I’m not okay with things as they are. Therefore, I need you guys to behave in a way, so it makes me feel okay. That’s how the regular mind works. Is it not alright?

It’s never okay. It’s never okay. I mean, no, that’s not true. There be short periods of time where it gets what it thinks it needs. Is it over? When was the last time you got what you wanted? You have sometimes got what you wanted. Relationship, job, money, something. Parents. Acceptance, approval, right?

Something how long it lasts. You never need anything else fresh. Your life, right? There’s nothing like that. It’s not, you can’t even imagine something being like that. And so you get to where you understand it’s not about that. It’s about questioning. Not how do I be okay? Why am I not okay? Why am I not okay?

You don’t even think like that. It’s, it’s always what I need to do to be okay. Why am I not okay? Because I’m telling you, if you haven’t heard it yet, you are so far past, okay? It’s not even measurable. You are the highest being ever walked, the face of the earth. You. Who’s in there is a very great being.

Who taught you that? Christ, the kingdom is within you. It’s not out here. Okay, somebody now get down to it. Does that mean I renounce out there? That’s not what I said earlier. I didn’t talk about renunciation at all. I’m talking about doing the best that you can. Renunciation comes about. ’cause you sit there and say, I’m not getting what I want.

So I better find something else to do. But I won’t have relationships. I won’t deal with money. I won’t ever touch anything. Then I’ll be okay. Wanna bet you know how long I’ve been doing this, you know, 55 years or something like that. Right? I have met so many people that have met so many gurus that have done so many things that have tried everything.

You know how many you’re okay. You can’t even counter on your hand. Why? Because that’s not what it’s about. It’s not about getting, it’s not about asking what do I need to do to be okay? That list is so enormous. If you meet a new person, you want them to like you. Alright, well, how do you figure that out?

You don’t even know them. Maybe that what you think would make you like you, they don’t like at all. You get neurotic. That’s where it comes from. Ever feel tension, anxiety, neurosis. This is why, ’cause you’re not okay and you’re sitting there trying to be okay by, I don’t know, manipulating it makes me laugh.

You don’t, how do you know what another person is oppressed by? By you assume it’s what you are impressed by. And you project that out there and then you wonder why people don’t like you or why this hap It’s an impossible life. It is an impossible life to try and get things outside of you. People, places, things, finances, to be away that you feel okay inside for short period of time.

Yes, we’re saying, but not and length of time at all. And you know that you’ve sometimes gotten what you wanted, but you didn’t want anything else. Right. No, it doesn’t stop. It’s endless. That’s the silliest way to live your life that never exists. Okay? People lived their whole life and on their deathbed, they’re afraid to die.

Why? Why are you afraid to die? Because, uh, I had a, a bucket list. I didn’t get to do it all. I. I said before, what’s your bucket list? That, which I think if it were to happen would make me be okay. Listen to me. I’m gonna repeat that. That which I think if it happened or does happen will make me be okay. Am I okay your entire life?

Now you got this little list, you know what’s on that list? Stuff that hasn’t happened yet. You don’t got squat on that list that you already tried. Mm-hmm. Will you please laugh at yourself? Alright, so you’re just like, I don’t know. It’s a struggle. That’s ridiculous. And so you get to the point where you realize it’s not about the outside.

There’s nothing wrong with the outside. It’s a place to practice being the best that you can. It’s not something that will take care of you. It’s something you can give to, not take from, and that’s the essence really, of the gto. Everybody’s, you’re trying to get something, aren’t you? Hear me trying to succeed, trying to get things, trying to get your finance over, trying to travel more, trying to see more people trying to, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It’s always about, I don’t have what I need to be okay, and I’m gonna go out and try to get that. Versus at some point in your life, you wake up and maybe you wouldn’t be here if you had not. And you realize that is a lot of work for very little reward. In fact, if you get what you want, you’re afraid of losing it.

If you really fell in love with somebody, so, oh my God, this must be my soulmate. Watch it because you’ll be a little clingy. A little grabby, and if the person doesn’t act completely in the way that you think that they should be acting to prove that they love you. They’re in trouble and you’re in trouble.

It’s an impossible game. That’s why the G is so deep. But the Western mind doesn’t wanna hear it. So what do you do? You just say, okay, that’s not the game. The game is, why am I not okay? I know the answer. I’ve been living it my whole life. Why are you not okay? It is not because you’ve not gotten what you want.

You’ve got what you want plenty of times and then is gone. Matter of fact that you got it, you don’t want it anymore, really. It’s like build it. You build a little house out here, right? Okay, I got the right relationship. Okay, I got this kid. Oh, another kid. Have a good day. Have another kid. I got this job. I got these finances.

You’re building something that is not gonna be there tomorrow, I guarantee you. And you know that you see people’s houses fall apart. You’ve seen relationships fall apart. Oh, you’ve seen so much. And now what you end up with is fear. You end up with anxiety and fear and insecurity. That’s what you got for that.

Well, the deep life, the real life is to sit and say, the answer is not trying to compensate. For the fact that I’m not okay. It’s finding out why I am not okay. That’s a whole nother ball game, and if your mind still is. Silly enough to say I’m not okay. ’cause I didn’t get what I want. I hope you, some people’s search for teachers say, well, I I hope you don’t keep messing around with what you want.

I, no, I don’t say that. I hope you get what you want so much that you realize it doesn’t work. It’s not about getting things to make you be okay about finding out why you’re not okay. ’cause I’m telling you a secret. You are so okay. There are no words for it. Well, why don’t I feel that one? That’s a pretty good, reasonable question.

Instead of what I get to compensate for the fact that I’m not okay to lay on top of that, I’m not. Okay. Makes me feel better. That’s called compensating. Why don’t have to compensate for why I’m not okay. Why don’t I just learn to be okay? It’s about letting go. It’s about letting go. It’s about letting go of what you did inside yourself that made you feel like you’re not okay.

And that is the spiritual path. There’s the entire spiritual path, right? And what happens when you look in there is what I always teach you. When you look in there, you’re gonna find out. You are not okay. ’cause you made yourself not okay. I did not. I did. Yes, you did. Your sister got the blue bicycle and you wanted the blue bicycle, and you weren’t okay with that.

And so you, you, you got upset and you suppressed it. You held it inside of you. I said, now you don’t like your sister, you don’t like bicycles, you don’t like color blue. Every single preference you have, every single preference you have was programmed in you by experiences you had during your life.

Someone learned experiences. Well, you’re in trouble ’cause you didn’t experience very much. I hate to fall back into the same teaching. At any given moment in your life where you were experiencing something, how many things were going on everywhere else that you weren’t experiencing? Gimme a number. How about 700 billion zillion quillian, but you built your entire preference system, your likes, your dislikes, your preference, your hopes, your dreams on that one experience that you had when you missed everything else.

If you had had a different experience in that moment, would you want different things? Like different things? Of course. There. That’s the deepest thing I give you to wake up. You’re programmed with these little meaningless moments. There’s happened to be in front of you at that moment. You interacted with somebody.

They were in a bad mood, had nothing to do with, you had to do a phone call they had two hours ago. You don’t like that person? I don’t ever see ’em again. They don’t like me. I could tell they don’t like me. You don’t know anything, do you? Okay. You can’t possibly. I call where you picked up during that one moment.

Statistically insignificant. 800 billion things that could have been happening. That’s the one that did. And you build your life in each one of those. What a thing to do. But that’s what’s in there, isn’t it? So you wake up and you realize you got some work to do, but it’s not about getting things the way you want.

You don’t have to renounce them. Nobody’s saying that. It’s about realizing I stored all this garbage in me throughout my life, and so I can’t be okay because I’m having to compensate for the stupid stuff I stored in there. This person hurt me. That person didn’t do what I want. That person did what I want, but then they moved like, come on.

Every experience left Marks in there. If they’re strong enough, weren’t they? It’s about getting rid of those. That’s what spirituality is about. It’s about cleansing the garbage that you built inside yourself. ’cause you couldn’t handle the reality that was going on at that stage of your life. Well, does the psychology say that you’re stuck with that stuff, first of all?

No, they really don’t. Although pretty much everybody is, you understand that you go to therapy for six years to let go. One of them, oh boy. Oh my had a Freudian Awakening. Good. How many are still down there? I don’t wanna talk about it. And you just get to the point, you realize your life is about letting go of the garbage you stored in there.

How do you do that? You open up enough to realize this is what I got very early in my path, and the starting experiment talks about that. They were probably in in 71, 72 after I was meditating a lot. But I started to see that basically life. Real. It does its own thing, doesn’t it? We’re taught you shouldn’t let it do its own thing.

Make it do your thing. Well, that’s what wars are about. That’s what disharmony is about, isn’t it? If I’m in some of my learned experiences, either some of your own experiences, I think you had different experiences than me, did you not? Therefore, who wins? Alright? And so you wake up and you realize that that’s not the game.

It’s not about getting what you want, it’s about letting go of the reason you want it. Even the deep things in your life, I’ll, I’ll do too deep for you. Relationships. Why do you want relationships? I’m lonely. I don’t feel whole. I need the support of somebody else. What do you mean by that? They agree with everything I say and everything.

I think whatever I wanna do, they wanna do the same thing. Other, I got no use for you. Relationships work out real well, don’t they? Ha ha. They can. They should, but not like that. And you catch on. It’s not about getting what you want. It’s about being willing to look at what’s outside and inside and say, I wanna do the best that I can.

With the energy that’s unfolding around me, to be the clearest person, to feel the most love, to feel the most compassion, to feel the most giving to care, care about others, the more you care about yourself. I want to be open enough to have it not be about me. ’cause when it’s about me. I’m grabbing, I’m taking, I’m controlling.

I’m just trying to take care of me. I would like to be bigger than that. And so what you do is, I, I remember about that point, I remember exact moment in my life where I realized I need something stronger, bigger than me, so I’m not living for me. But basically you realize I have something in my life. This is a great realization I had when I was like 23 years old.

I do have some force in my life. That is stronger than me. Life. Life itself, the unfolding of life itself. I get in my car, I try to start it. It doesn’t start. That’s life, isn’t it? It’s called reality. It’s life. Is it what I want? No. But it’s there. Can I serve it? Oh, it made me cry that it took me the whole way.

Can I serve the reality as it falling in front of me? Doesn’t matter if I like it or don’t like it. It’s not about letting go of the outer action, so letting go. Whether I like it or not, it’s none of my business to like that. The car didn’t start. I have no right do I? I mean, it’s just ridiculous, right?

Why did a car start? I told you because somebody over, they said, I German. I have a VW van. Hippie hippie guy. So somebody over in Germany had a fight with their wife, you know, 10 was an old van, you know, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, and they didn’t tighten down a part as much as it should be, torque down. And so now after 14 years, it loosened up.

And so now the head, you know, doesn’t, isn’t tight enough on, on, on the block and it’s leaking. And so the car didn’t start. I ain’t gonna do with me. I got about to do about 800,000 million different things. Can I honor and respect the reality of the moment that’s unfolding in front of me more than I totally am addicted to what I want?

I don’t want the car not to start. I have places I need to go. Why did God do this to me? See, it’s I, I, i, I. And as long as it’s that you’re caught in the ego, you’re caught in result orientation ’cause you played it out that way. So it’s not about not doing the best that you can, it’s about doing the best you can about the realities unfolding in front of you, not about what your mind decided three years ago that you want to happen by now.

Which will drive you crazy and everybody around you, I love you so much. I just feel so much love for you and and so on and everything I do, you’re dating, you’re getting along, it’s wonderful, right? And then you kind at one point say, oh boy, I can’t wait to have a first child. To which the person says, what do you mean?

I, I have no intention of having children. You never told me that. I’ve always wanted to have children. There you go. It’s all about you in it. It’s all about you. How you think and what you want. It was like, well, how come he doesn’t want children? You do. Or the other way? Well, how would that happen? Just, I don’t know.

When I was growing up, my parents got divorced. It was really painful for me and I, I don’t wanna have children make them go through something like that. We’re just basically taking the one experience I had and then building all these concepts and views and hopes and dreams and values based on that. But I can’t talk to you this way ’cause of whatever he does, and I think it’s perfectly reasonable.

It’s not reasonable. It’s ridiculous. You have to be willing to let go of yourself and harmonize with the reality it’s unfolding in front of you. Does that mean that if he, you wanna have children, he doesn’t that well, you look, God, it’s so simple. It’s so easy once you catch on. It’s not about do I do it or I don’t.

It’s about why. Why don’t you have children? You’re embarrassed enough to look and say, because because of what happened to me when I was five years old, I’m 25 years old making a decision on a relationship based on what I felt when I was five. They say you do that all the time. They call them your formative years, don’t they?

Well, doesn’t that sound a little crazy? Mm-hmm. And so you wake up and you realize, I, I’m in here. And yes, I have this programming of the some learned experiences. I don’t want to live based on that. So limited at any moment what you feel so strongly about and another experience can happen that change how you feel about the whole thing.

For the rest of your, for your entire life, have you felt about it? Ever change your mind? Be one more fact, the sum of your learning experiences, and eventually you look at that, you say, I can’t live like that. I don’t want other people to have to deal with me that way. That’s, that’s crazy. What I did was sit there and say, all right, life’s gonna unfold in front of me.

I don’t care whether I like it or don’t like it in here. I don’t care. It’s gonna unfold. So I’m gonna do, I’m gonna try to see what it’s saying, what it’s doing, and try to serve it well. What happens if, if the next one changes, I’m open. If I see more later, I’ll serve to the best of my ability. I’m not holding on clinging to some fixed thing, but I’m looking inside my heart and inside my mind, and it’s not like looking to see what I should be doing.

It’s looking to see the quality of why I’m doing what I’m doing. What is the motive? What is the intention? It’s much easier to see dirt. Than it is to see clean ’cause it can always be a small dirt somewhere. You understand that. But if you’re looking in there and you see, wow, my entire basis of what I’m about to do is based on how, to me, five years ago, that freaked me out.

I don’t want that to happen again. Well, that’s a hell ofa way to live your life based on what happened to you five years ago, that one moment in your life and you start letting go of yourself and you start catching on. That’s what it’s about. And there’s no action. That’s pure and impure. It’s what’s going on inside of you as to why you would carry out that action?

What’s your motive? What’s your intention? Not easy to see, ’cause we hide from ourselves. We don’t wanna see what’s down there. We just want to appease it and make it feel better. But at some point, that’s not how you live. You sit there and say, my life is about looking inside and coming from the deepest place I possibly can at the time.

Well, what if it turns out that later? I thought it wasn’t very deep. Congratulate yourself. Say, thank you. You learned, and that’s the opposite of what we do. I made a mistake. You did not make a mistake. If you do the best that you can at that moment, you’ve got the honor of learning and you have to say, thank you for that.

You should always look back at your earlier person. If you do the best you can, if you’re always doing the best you can, that’s the key. You’re always doing the best that you can with what you see, not what somebody else does. The best you can, what you see. Truly, honestly, you’re the best you can. You don’t judge you appreciate the part of you that helped you grow into the higher part of you.

You used to be about two feet big. Well, don’t be embarrassed. Say thank you. It grew, right? This is how you live the deep life. And so in essence, the essence of where we started, you’re announcing the fruits of your action. You’re not doing it to get something. You’re doing it to give something and eventually you’ll realize you’re giving to the universe.

You ever place in the universe We are here. Here. It’s alright. And then as you give and totally let go of your personal self, something amazing happens. You start to grow. What do you mean? I’ve already grown? Not that kind of grow. You used to be small ’cause you made yourself small. This is what I want.

This is what I don’t want. This is what I like. This is what I don’t like. This is what I believe in. This is what I, I told you. That’s the something you learn. Experiences that’s so tiny. It’s ridiculous as you let go of yourself by serving what’s in front of you. Serving the reality of life to the best of your ability, that you see it and you serve it.

You’re gonna find out that that other part starts to fall away. You start to realize there’s a beauty in doing the best that you can not ’cause of what comes back. Can you play a sport and you’re not very good at it, but just have a great time doing the best that you can. It’s not about the fruits of your actions, it’s about the action and the base of your action, which is I wanna give to the universe the best that I can.

And you just keep doing that. And the more you do that, the higher you get for no reason, just because you weren’t doing it based on trying to compensate for the blockages you have. You let go of those and all of a sudden there’s all this Shakti is pouring inside of you. You start understanding that you’re a very great being.

But you’ve held yourself back by yourself by making yourself this tiny little person. And the more you do this, the higher you get, and then all of a sudden you just realize, I’m really big me in here. Who’s in here staring at the garbage if I don’t stare at the garbage? The one who’s staring at it, they’re looking at it, it’s totally expansive Christ.

Say, my father and I are one. That’s your entire spiritual journey. But look where it started. It started by not saying, it’s all about getting what you want, avoiding what you don’t want, living for yourself, you know, compensating for the fact you’re not okay. And it starts to be by giving yourself away to the realities unfolding in front of you, and then doing better.

And they’re doing better. Just always do the best you can and be willing to grow. Don’t sit there and ever judge back if you do the best that you can. Don’t ever judge yourself afterwards, no matter what happens. If it comes back, it’s your teacher. If you do the best that you can, the results are the best that you can are the holiest thing.

I write this and the they’re living in tether. The results are the best that you can, are the holiest thing you’ll ever interact with. They’re your teacher, it’s your guru. ’cause you learn from it, won’t you? Oh, I see what I was looking at. Good. They’re no guilt, no shame, no guilt. Just constant growth. And so you end up where we started talking about, which is.

How can I live life? That’s completely fulfilling and it’s about giving. You do that by letting go of yourself. You do that by I, my case. It was saying, is there something stronger than Mick? And he was pretty strong, right? That you can surrender to. It may sound funny. The answer was yes. Life. You fight with it all the time, don’t you?

Right. You fight to make it be the way you want. What if instead you learn from it? Well, if instead you give up yourself, but you always do the best you can. Always do the best you can. Okay? And then you will learn. Alright? A topic I haven’t talked about you guys a lot, right? It is the essence of spirituality, alright?

It’s about wake up in the morning. I’m not trying to look and hear what I want. I understand there’s issues in there. I’m not trying to make people, there’s not, it’s not spiritual ego, but I’m willing to be open and look and see what is life unfolding, what can I do to serve it as opposed to serving myself even.

It’s just a little bit each day. Somebody yells at you and you look at it and say, okay, I can handle it. I, I don’t need to throw it back in their face. You hear me? That’s how you do it. Until eventually, there’s nothing else going on. There’s nobody else in there, all that’s left. You just keep letting go of it.

You become a servant of the universe.

Tami Simon: You’ve been listening to the Michael Singer podcast, produced by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. For more information on Michael’s body of work and all back episodes, please join us at michaelsingerpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening. Sounds true. Waking up the World.