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.
As you grow by letting go inside, you realize there’s never, ever, ever a reason for getting upset or having a problem with anything. If you have a problem with something, it’s because you want it to be other than it is. That’s it. It’s that simple. If things are the way you want, you don’t have a problem with ’em. If you don’t care how they are, you don’t have a problem with ’em.
The only time you ever have a problem is if things aren’t the way you want. We’ve talked about it over and over again. If you want to have a beautiful life, a high life, a spiritual life, a life of love, a. You have to question why you decided how you wanted things to be, as opposed to thinking, how do I get them my way?
The more I grow, the more I realize that is the crux of spirituality. That is the crux of the spiritual path to be working at that level inside yourself, where you see something is disturbing me, something is causing tension, something is causing anger. Something is causing insecurity. Something is causing something.
That must mean that it’s not the way I want it to be. That’s why those things happen and you have a choice. Your mind will always try to think how to get it the way you want it to be. Let’s talk about that for a moment and repeat that. Your mind, that voice in your head that I’ve taught you about will always.
Start talking about how to get it the way you want it to be. That is like saying, if you hit your finger with a hammer, it’s going to hurt. That’s just the nature of things. It is your mind that is expressing the blockages of some scars, the patterns that you stored inside that have developed the concept of how you want things to be.
You didn’t come down with those other than what you brought down from past lives, if you will, but in general, you learn these things and you learn them by resisting them. You learn them by not being comfortable with what was happening. And so you developed a concept and view and opinion and preferences of how you want things to be.
Those are mental. And emotional. That’s how it expresses itself. So it’s going to do that. Let’s get that straight. As long as you have those patterns, they are going to express themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re not going to stop that. That is the nature of things. The question is what are you gonna do about it?
The mind. Which is creating the discrepancy between what you want and how things are is going to try to fill the gap. That’s what it does. It doesn’t matter if you have a brilliant mind or not so brilliant mind. It’s going to think about ways to span the distance between how you want it to be and how it is.
And that generally involves manipulation, control, doing something on the outside with people, places, or things to try to get them to align with you, is that difficult to understand? Do you, do you see that? It does that? That’s what it does. It’s not your fault. It’s not bad. It’s not evil. It’s just what is, because the mind is patterned that way.
It’s going to think that way. Somebody else’s mind is patterned another way, therefore, they’re gonna think another way. Somebody else has experience of how to manipulate, what’s legal, what’s reasonable, et cetera, et cetera. And somebody else has totally different experiences. So when the mind tries to fill the gap, it’s called rationalization, tries to fill the gap.
That exists between what is and what you want. It may use a gun, it may use love, it may use sex. It may use this, it may use money, it may use anything. That’s what it does, okay? It manipulates and controls to try to get so that it aligns with what it wants. Now we can get quiet for a moment and think, do you really wanna do that?
Ever, ever? Do you ever want to use your will, your God-given will to manipulate the world around you to match what you decided you want it to be? Because that sounds very egotistical. That sounds very narrow-minded. That sounds like why should the world match the way you want it to be? I understand why you want it to be that way, because the discrepancy between how the world is and how you want it to be creates suffering, creates pain, creates disturbance, creates emotions, jealousy, insecurity, fear, et cetera.
It just creates disturbance. That’s exactly what creates the disturbance, the gap between what your mind has conceptualized it wants it to be, and then what you perceive is happening in the outside world. That gap stirs up emotions. That gap blocks Shakti, that gap hits your, we call it hitting your stuff.
That’s what happens. But do you really wanna live a life that says the world around me? Just the area around me that I perceive should be the way I want it to be. The truth of the matter. We discussed a million times that if you’re an intelligent person, you realize there are reasons. It is the way it is, and those reasons are way bigger than you.
Those reasons are science. Those reasons are history. Those reasons are the creation itself. God call it whatever you want. That has nothing to do with you. Things are the way they are because of the force that made them be that way. Do you really want to go to war with them and then to think so silly that you’re gonna only go to war with the ones that are within your frame of reference.
Well, that’s ridiculous. That’s all tied together. It’s one. So I trying to control part of the ocean and you wake up to this. That it’s silly. It isn’t good. It is the cause of all disturbance in the world is you’re taking the disturbance that’s inside of you and you’re dumping it, you’re polluting it. You wanna be an environmentalist.
That’s not environmentally sound. You’re taking the disturbance inside of you and the reason you’re manipulating, controlling, and. Conjuring and doing whatever you’re doing to the people placing things around you is you’re dumping your stuff there. You’re trying to get them to align with you. That is the cause of every problem in this world.
That is why we can’t imagine all the people living life at peace. Why? ’cause all the people are doing that instead. That’s what they’re doing. And nobody agrees. So they’re all out there messing up the world. It’s like polluting. Just take the factories and dump the stuff in the streets. That’s what everybody’s doing in the streets and in their homes and everywheres.
Okay. They’re just dumping and certainly in all the power places in the world, they’re just deciding how it needs to be. So it aligns with what makes them feel okay, and then they’re fighting with everybody and everything and using power and money and, and influence and everything. Anything they can. To try and make it be that way, and no one agrees that therefore there’s nothing but disharmony and there will never be anything but disharmony.
It’s so silly for people to sit there and talk. We should all get along well. When you stop doing that, what do you mean? Do it again? When you stop thinking that the world should match the way you made up, it should be. Based on your past experiences, it’s not true. It shouldn’t be that way. Well, what’s the alternative that you let go of yourself when the world starts to decide?
I should let go of myself. That was probably Blossom Me. I’ll get arrested or anti-American or something, right? I’ll let go of myself instead of dumping my stuff on the world. It takes two to tango. It takes you having the concepts and views about how you think it needs to be, and it takes the world to be the way it is.
Those two things don’t match, but you can use your will. You were given free will. You have the ability to manipulate people at least a little bit. They may resent it later. But you do all kinds of things. You can get people to love. You just dress a certain way, act a certain way, wear a certain perfume or cologne, promise things.
Say things, do things. That’s just, you can do it. They don’t really love you. They don’t love you. They love what you presented. You tried to present something or someone that they would be attracted to that ma if you knew what it was they wanted, you’d be that, but you’re not that. You’re just putting that out there to try and get what you want.
And every once in a while it aligns that both people are doing, manipulating each other the same way. I want you to love me. Well, I want, I want you to love me. Well, if I’m this way, you’ll love me. Well, if I’m this way, you’ll love me. Okay? Let’s make believer we’re this way, and then there’ll be, these two ships will cross in the night.
They, they won’t stay there. And a chance in the world, it’s all fake. So at some point you wake up. You sit there and say, either I’m gonna spend my life and all my will I have will to manipulate and control the world close around me to try and make it match what makes me feel better, what I think is needs to be, or.
I’m going to learn this very deep thing. It’s the ultimate, we’re talking like Daoist now, right? The ultimate, which is to say the world has the right to be the way it is. Doesn’t mean it’s right, but it has the right to be the way it is because it is the perfect reflection of everything that comes before it.
It’s the perfect expression of all the forces that made it be that way. It’s not just stupid philosophy, it’s science, it’s truth. It’s the law of cause and effect, which runs everything. And so you look at it and say, if I can’t honor, respect, accept, and be at peace with the way things are, there’s something wrong with me.
Not. There’s something wrong with it. There’s something wrong with me. That is the great awakening. That is the essence of spirituality, which is you catch on and say, I have no right to say the world is supposed to be the way I made up. I just dropped down here yesterday and I’m only in one little spot. I don’t have the right, it’s ignorance, it’s ego.
So I need to use my will to let go of this part of me that is causing this problem, and your mind will invariably get this straight. Your mind will invariably say, that’s not what’s causing the problem. She’s causing the problem, or he’s causing the problem, or the weather’s causing the problem. It will never, ever admit that it’s the problem.
Don’t sit there and try to expect your ego to turn against itself ’cause it won’t your mind thinks. The lower level of your mind that the spontaneous level, the uncontrolled level of your mind is going to talk. The problem is outside. How do I know? Because if it would behave, I’d feel good. Therefore the problem’s outside.
If she would act the way I want her to act, I’d love her and I’d be perfectly happy. Therefore, she’s the problem. That’s how it thinks, doesn’t it? It will always think like that because lower mind is made up of this. So what has to happen is the will that you used to use to manipulate and control and try to make things be the way you think they need to be.
The exact same will gets drawn inside. That’s what Christ meant by, don’t worry about the splintering somebody else’s eye. Worry about the log in yours, physician. Heal thyself. Your work is inside and you come inside and you look at this and once and for all. You realize the only way I’m gonna be okay is if I work on letting go of this part of myself that cannot get along with the world.
I’ll repeat how I started. If you are having a problem with anything outside, it’s what you’re doing inside. The outside is not a problem. It doesn’t mean it’s right or good or just, it just is what it is. And you have to start with the acceptance of that. That is the teachings of deep acceptance. You can’t try to make your mind think it’s right.
It’s not right. That way it. Your mind is judging, right? Based on your concepts and your views and your opinions and your preferences, and it’s always gonna see it that way. And then there’s always gonna be the opposites. You have to sit there and say, it is what it is. If I can’t at least accept its existence, there’s something wrong with me.
I’m outta tune with reality. And so you do this work. This awakening and you, you never stop for the rest of your life. You can’t ever forget what I just said. I’m the problem. If I’m having a problem, I am the problem. I should not be having a problem with anything. This is what Christ taught you.
Everything. Everything. That’s all the great ones taught you. You start with acceptance that the God created the universe, science created the universe. It doesn’t matter. It is the way it is. And if you can’t handle it, there’s something wrong with you. So you do the work. How do you do the work? That’s the whole spiritual path.
It doesn’t matter. Everybody’s is different. What matters is do you understand what’s going on? Do you understand that you are the problem? That level of your being that’s busy, talking about how it should be and what to do about and how to get it that way, that’s fighting with reality inside and then dumping that ugliness, that tension, that that anger, that problem.
From inside, dumping it on the outside and wondering why it expresses itself that way. Until people stop doing that, we’ll do it this way. They say that true solution is, if everybody did it, everybody would be fine. If everybody decided to do that, don’t hold your breath. If everybody decided to do that and let go of the part of themselves that they thought it was supposed to be the way they wanted, there would be no injustice.
Because it is the cause of all injustice. It is in truth, the expression of evil. What is disturbance? Disturbance doesn’t want to exist, so it manipulates and controls and then it, it, there’s, can you see the disharmony it creates. So you have to decide as an individual that I’m not gonna do that. I don’t care if everybody else does it.
It’s not like, well, what will happen to me? No. You just sit there and say, I’m not gonna live like that. So how do you not? Well, you have to decide. You’re in there. You decide all kinds of things. You look how much you’ve manipulated and controlled in your life. Now, you come inside, you say, how do I not listen to this?
The highest way to not listen to it, believe it or not, is to not listen to it. When it’s all said and done, no matter what techniques you do, that’s the highest because it’s going to talk. It, its nature Now, as you let go your blockages more and more it will talk less and less, and it’ll be less strong about its opinions and about how it thinks everything should be.
Therefore, it’ll be less disturbed by the world. It will come to peace more, but it’s still gonna talk. Just like you hit the hammer, you get rationalize all you want, and it’s gonna hurt your finger. The fact that you have these views and opinions means things are gonna happen outside that don’t match them, and if things happen outside, don’t match them.
You’re gonna feel the tendency to do something about it. You do do something about it. You let go of the part of you that makes it look like things are not aligning with you. Again, it’s the third Zen patriarch. If you wish to know the truth, then hold no opinion for or against anything there. That’s the entire teaching.
If you wish to know the truth, then hold no opinion for or against anything. Doesn’t that sound radical, strong? No. It’s the truth, right? Because if you hold an opinion for against something, then you will go outside and it won’t match, and you’re gonna try and manipulate it and don’t bother meditating.
Don’t bother doing anything because you’re offsetting everything you’re doing by going out and fighting. Spirituality is about dying to be reborn. It is about waking up and realizing until I am comfortable with everything, I can’t go. Why? Because you don’t want to go. You don’t want to go. You want to make things be the way you want.
It’s like saying, I’m ready to go as soon as this and this and this and this. No, you can’t do that. You have to realize you have a problem. You have a personal mind that doesn’t get along with reality. Okay, whatcha gonna do about that? Understand that it doesn’t matter. Understand that your personal mind has no power at all except the power you give it because you are paying attention to it.
It seems like you need to do something about it. If the mind says, I don’t like that, and you don’t care that it doesn’t like it, it’s just like, so what? The wind is blowing, you know, so the rain is falling, so somebody’s walking this way. That way. If you don’t care what the mind says, it’s not going to create disturbance because you’re not buying into it.
But that’s not how we live. We live in a state where whatever the mind says, it’s God, I don’t like this, I like this. I don’t want that. I want this. This is wrong. This is right. And whatever the mind says, you just completely involve yourself in. And then go out there and try to do what it said. Try to make things match what it said.
Now, the truth is, and I always teach you this, once you are willing to let go of the personal mind of the. Skark mind is the right word to use ’cause it’s being made outta your some scars. Once you are willing to let go of that and at least take a breath and step back when it reacts, there may be work for you to do outside.
And I wanna talk about that. It’s not that because the great ways not typical, those who have no preferences and if you wish to see the truth and hold no opinion for against anything, it means you don’t do anything. So we’ll get into the down. Now that’s so hard for people to understand, why would I do anything?
’cause the reason you do things now is because they make you uncomfortable or comfortable. Therefore you manipulate to try to keep them or you manipulate to get rid of them. That gap between what you want and how the world is that disturbance ex created by that is the motive that you use for action, and that’s the only motive most people know anything about.
Not most people, everybody. They’ve never been driven by anything else. That’s what creates the urge tact, and they think, if I don’t have that, I’ll, I’ll just sit at home and do nothing. You know, might as well sit in the cave and die, not do anything. But that’s not what happens. What happens is, as you let go of your personal self, your preferences, hopes, and dreams and concepts and views, and just the garbage, they’re all garbage.
The garbage you collected inside and you no longer commit yourself. To living a life of trying to make the world around you match what you made up inside of you, but you use your will to let go of yourself. Then as you’re letting go, you’re gonna find out that you have more energy than you used to have.
Why? ’cause you used to waste your energy fighting with everything by trying to make it be what you thought it should be. Now because you stop doing that, there’s all this energy and time and freedom that opens up inside. You’re gonna find that when the world is unfolding in front of you and you’re not judging it, that there may indeed be something for you to do.
It may be asking something of you, not that you’re asking something of it. That’s the difference that I want to get across right now. You’re asking something in the world. Be the way I want you to be. Act the way I want you to act. Gimme what I want, right? You’re sitting there demanding of the world to be the way you want it to be.
When you stop doing that, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t. Doesn’t mean it stopped happening inside of you. That’s a natural tendency for the mind. To do that, to create preferences and based on its past experiences, you have to be comfortable with that tendency and not commit yourself to it. And when you do, it just comes and goes.
That’s what happens over time. There’s less of it. The less you get involved with it, there’s less of it, but it will always be there. There will always be some personal noise that’s going on there. There will always be some personal concept or view that’s not matching. You feel a little bit of disturbance.
Master said God, God challenged me till the day I died. There’s always a personal self. The question is, are you committed to it? Are you literally gonna devote your life to manipulating the world to match your personal self? All I can tell you is when you commit yourself not to do that, using whatever method you want, relaxing, mantra this, whatever it is, ultimately I want you to do nothing.
I want you to be so comfortable in knowing that what it’s talking about is bs. That there’s no benefit to what it has to say, that the minute it says I want or I don’t want, or I like, or I don’t like, you just relax. It’s like a little kid making noise. There’s nothing. It’s meaningless. There’s crickets in the background.
You don’t have to do anything about it. Then it leaves you alone to be centered within yourself. Now, when you look outside, I am telling you, you’re going to see a totally different world. It will not look anything like it used to. Look, nothing. When a thing can no longer offend you, it ceases to exist in the old way, a third name Patroon.
That’s deep stuff. When a thing can no longer offend you, it ceases to exist in the old way. What does that mean when. You don’t have a way you need it to be, therefore it’s not offending you. It is what it is, and you can see it for what it is not. You see it in relationship to what you want it to be or what you wished it was, or what you’re afraid it will be.
There isn’t any personal left in there and to the extent that there is, it’s like crickets. It’s not doing anything. You’re not paying attention to it. It’s a TV in the background that you’re not watching there. That’s the better one than crickets. It’s a TV in the background that happens to be on. And you’re not watching it.
You don’t have to turn off the tv. You don’t have to change the channel. You can play with it if one channel’s a little easier to not pay attention to. Right. But if you’re playing the game, I’m watching TV and I want on what I want and I don’t like when, what’s on what? I don’t like having all this trouble, forget it.
Then you’re not understand what I’m talking about. But it’s okay that the radio or the TV’s on the background, every once in a while you hear that it’s still there. Hi. I hope you’re doing well. Alright, but you’re not paying attention. Your attention is elsewhere. Your attention is centered on the Shakti.
Your attention is centered on the core of your being on awareness. Now, I’m telling you, when you look outside, it will look completely different. That which looks terrible to one person looks like God to you. It looks like, oh, here’s the universe unfolding and what’s going to happen, and I can’t touch it with words, is you’re gonna always know what to do.
You will always know what to do. There will be something unfolding in front of you and it will either ask something of you or it will not. And if it doesn’t ask something of you, it just comes and goes. If it asks something of you, it’s sort of like God is like God himself comes up and says, may I have this dance with you.
You don’t ask him, may I have this dance with you? No, no, no, no. You wait. It comes up and it says, may I have this dance with you? And oh, I forgot to tell you. That’s a rhetorical question. You always say yes. Alright, so you are not out there trying to create dances that you like and out there trying to avoid dance that you don’t like.
You’re just in there and you’ll see the tiniest thing could happen, the littlest little thing. And it’s calling on you, but it’s not because you want or don’t want, it’s because that’s what’s unfolding well, now that it’s unfolding, and God said, may I have this dance with you. Now I know what’s going on.
No, you don’t. That’s a place that very few people get that deep. You have no idea what’s going on. You only know that at that moment. He asked me, I dance with you. The next moment. It may not go where you thought it was gonna go. That dance may stop. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. He had no preference. Don’t ever think that because God gave you a task.
You tell me all the time, people, oh, I’m doing anything. And then this came and this person came to me like, yeah, that’s God. That’s the universe unfolding. And then they asked me to, called upon me and then he left town and. Left me standing there. That’s what God did. That’s what happened. It’s just as whole.
It says Gestalt as everything else. There’s no difference whether it stayed and took years of your life or whether it lasted for 10 minutes and then left, and then you found out years later that it changed the other person’s entire life. Do you hear me? Don’t ever think that you know what God wants of you.
You only know what is unfolding in front of you because you ceased to control it or manipulate it or ask for it or or avoid it. So now it’s unfolding in front of you. You put your entire heart and soul into the moment it’s given to you. It may not seem important, it may seem so important. It’s gonna be the rest of your life.
Don’t do that. Don’t let go of the personal self only to let it come and grab what God did, and that’s what it does. That’s what it does. You listen to me, alright. That’s what they all get caught there is they start seeing that there’s this force guiding them and then they decide what it said they were supposed to do.
And the next thing you know, they’re saying things like, well, he told me to build a church and I was building the church and so on. And then, and then I couldn’t get the money. I didn’t understand where the money was. So I went out and I did this and then I sold that and I did this kind of thing and I called these people and I had to give up my time.
’cause I, I’m serving God no, you’re not. You’re not serving God. If it’s supposed to happen, there’ll be money, right? Every single thing will unfold, and there’s no time that you take ownership. There is no time. You take ownership and people sit there and say, but they write me all the time, but aren’t I supposed to be committed to things?
Yes, you are. You’re supposed to be 100% committed to what I’ve taught you so far. I’m committed to not going with my stuff. That’s what I’m committed to. I’m committed to letting go of my personal preferences, concepts, and views, opinions and hopes and dreams, and all this garbage that the mind is talking about.
I’m 100% committed. Okay, now what? Now I look outside and I’m committed with the intent of service. Doesn’t mean you know. How do you know? Just your intent is as pure as the day is long and you look outside. My intent to service. This thing appears to be asking something of me. I don’t claim it’s anything.
I don’t claim. I know anything. It’s just my intent is clear, therefore, I interact with it. And that’s what you’re a hundred percent committed to. That’s not what they mean by being committed. They mean you decide I wanna start a business and I want it to be like this, and I want it to do that and unfold like that.
I want a relationship and I want him or her to be exactly like this and have this kind. You understand that? And then I’m not gonna quit. I will move. I’ll try. That’s what they mean. How long should I be committed to doing this? Right. That’s not what you’re committed to. And how long should be committed to that?
A billionth of a second ’cause Those are your opinions and preferences and hopes and dreams and concepts and views. However, the exact same thing could call upon you outside and call on you to serve. That’s different than you being committed to do what you decided to do. You are serving the energy. And the energy.
It has its own life. It knows what it’s doing. The question is, are you willing to stop with this mishegas of. If there’s a discrepancy between what I like inside, what I want, how I view it, and the outside, my job is to line them up. Because the only way you’re gonna line those up is to manipulate and control everything around you, and that’s where you build karma.
The universe was unfolding in accordance to the patterns that set it. That way you decided to interfere with it. And so you let go of that. You look outside and you’ll see, well, it doesn’t, it’s not telling me to do anything. Meditate, use the time it’s giving you to come in tune. I’ve seen that happen lots of time with people where they say, there’s nothing happening.
There’s nothing me to do. Well then do your inner work and then in time as they get clearer, things open up and they’re glad that they took that time to universe knows what it’s doing. It just as a whole. It all falls together. It is what it is. It is perfect unto itself, and you will never understand that perfection because your mind is so small.
How in the world, if your mind, I’ve taught you this, if your mind is only picking up the little bit that you see in front of you every moment, how much credence do you give to what you saw A lot. I know what she’s like. I know what color this is. I know what this looks like. I know how to build this. What did you miss in that moment that was going on everywhere else in the universe?
Everything. Then how can you think your mind can understand God? How you think your mind can even begin to comprehend anything when the only thing it knows is nothing? Does anybody understand that God is everything eternal and infinite at all times? How much you hold up to that? It’s not a candle against a sun.
A candle against a sun is 7 billion times bigger than what that junk is you got inside your head compared to God. So you can’t know what God wants. You can’t understand it. You never will. And so basically you don’t play that game. You don’t look outside and think you know what’s supposed to be. You become this, this tremendously humble, clear being who’s just here, and the only thing you have going is letting go of the part of you that knows it doesn’t know anything, and then being present for the unfolding of God, of the universe of reality.
Call it whatever you want. Unfolding in front of you and just looking to see, is it calling upon me to serve in this moment? It could be if you’re an appointment scheduler person, it could be making an appointment if you’re a student. It could be learning what’s in front of you. If you’re anything, whatever you are, whatever you’re doing, is it act of service?
’cause the universe puts you there if you’re not supposed to be there. It will move you. The universe is perfect and you are part of it. The trouble is you decided to devote yourself to yourself instead of to the universe. The moment you stop doing that, it will ask of you. It will guide you along. It will give you works to do.
It will teach you what you need to know in order to do the works. It’s giving you. It’ll give you stuff to do, and you’ll never say, why do I need to do this? You’ll find out three years later was the most important thing you ever learned or person you ever met, or whatever the heck it is. You can’t know anything and you have to be comfortable.
I don’t know anything. The little part of you thinks it knows everything. That’s why you have to not listen to it because it doesn’t know squat. And then now that is the spiritual life. I couldn’t tell it any better, but it isn’t like I already let go of myself. You are always letting go of yourself. It is a constant thing that you’re doing.
This noise maker inside your head is going to talk as though it knows what it’s talking about. It’s going to tell you things, but everything it’s telling you. The personal part anyways is how to get the world the way that makes it more comfortable. And you don’t ever want to do that. Shouldn’t I sometimes do that?
No, you never do that. There is another part of your mind. That’s what makes this complicated is discrimination. There’s another part of your mind that’s strictly analytical. It figures things out. But it doesn’t figure them out to make them the way you want them. That’s what you have to be careful about is the tendency will be for the intelligence of the mind to try to figure out how to get everybody to be the way you want them to be and that you’d never listen to.
You’d never listen to that. But people don’t know how to let that go. It’s almost like a safety thing that they have that if I have, I’ve talked to you about that, about control. That’s all about control. You’re trying to control it so it doesn’t disturb you. You’re trying to control it so that it feels better to you.
There’s nothing in that. It won’t take you anywhere’s. Great. You let go of yourself and then you look. Then you serve and you will know what to do. It will unfold in front of you. The right person will show up and it will be obvious what you need to say to them. Then can you let it go? Or do you have to carry with it?
Oh, did they understand what I meant? What did they think about me? All that stuff. That personal stuff is gonna continue being there. The question is, are you interested? Are you interested? Or are you just willing to say, there’s the personal stuff, let it go. Let it go. And then keep yourself focused on service.
People use the word service. This is service. They have no right to use the word service. ’cause what they mean is I don’t feel comfortable with my life. I don’t feel meaning I need something to do. I think I’ll go out and serve poor people, not service. It’s selfish. You’re doing it for yourself and it will create disturbances.
If people don’t say their thank you, you’ll get offended. But I helped you. Did you see me help you? You’ll get your name in the paper. It’s adorable. Let go. And I’m taught, I’m not gonna get into the detail tonight. How do you let go of the personal self? You realize it is not worth listening to. I gave you an example.
Once before, you have a financial advisor and every time you go to him, he loses all your money. At some point you don’t listen to him. Do you have to shut him up? No. You sue him? No. Just don’t listen to him. The next time he tells you what to do, that’s how you treat the personal mind. You don’t listen to it.
All it’s committed to is itself. It is the epitome of selfishness. It only wants things to be the way it wants ’em to be so that it doesn’t get disturbed about the way they are. Can I repeat that? That’s the only thing it wants. It wants everyone and everything to be the way it wants it to be so that it doesn’t get disturbed by the way it is alright.
Instead, you just look at it and say, oh, I don’t need to listen to you. But I don’t need to shut you up. I’m just not gonna listen. And instead, you look higher and the world will call to you, makes me cry. You won’t even understand it’s doing it. It’s just every part of your being will be pulled and everything will come together.
It will be this perfect dao, this perfect harmony of oneness with life. And it’s God. It’s God using you. It’s God being you. And so you allow this to happen. You serve and I taught you something deep. It may stay going that way. It may go away. It may have just been a stepping stone. You don’t know. You don’t want to know.
You just do your best to let go of yourself and serve what’s unfolding in front of you. The most blessed person is the one who knows what they’re supposed to do. There are some people spend their entire lives on a project. Artists do that. Scientists do that. So scientists spend 20, 30 years trying to solve a problem, trying, trying, studying stuff that’s so beautiful.
It’s so beautiful that you know what you’re supposed to be doing. You know why you got up in the morning, but it’s not personal. It’s just the text. There’s a word in Sanskrit in India that we don’t have a translation for that here. It’s called your Dharma. What is your dharma that which was given for you to do when you let go of what you wanted to or didn’t want to do?
That’s it. Tell Webster, somebody tell Webster, right? That is the definition of Dharma, that what you end up doing when you let go of what you wanted to do and what you didn’t wanna do. Well, why would I do anything? Because it’s presented to you. If the wind blows, your hair moves. If a leaf falls off the tree, it follows all of the forces of the universe, humidity and gravity and wind and velocity in its fall to the ground.
It is the epitome of dharma. It is completely in harmony with every force in creation. Yet it doesn’t have a desire or a way it wants to go. You become that leaf. That’s the doubt. That’s how you go through life. That means that you need to deal with yourself. Nobody can do it for you. You need to deal with this tendency to say that things should be the way I want them to be, so they don’t bother me.
I started to talk by saying a spiritual being is not bothered by things. They understand that things can’t bother you. All that can happen is that you bother yourself about things. The weather does not bother you. It can’t bother you. It’s just the weather. It’s going on everywhere. You can bother yourself about the weather.
A person can’t bother you, but you can bother yourself about them. You have no problem if you wanna. You can bother yourself about anything, can’t you? That’s the essence of spirituality is instead of committing yourself, that’s the purpose of this talk, instead of committing yourself to manipulate and control the world to make it match so you don’t bother yourself about it.
You commit yourself to stop bothering yourself about what’s none of your business. It’s the unfolding of creation. Serve it. Serve it. See how you can help and enjoy doing it. Feel like you’re dancing with God. God gave you a task to do. Boy is that fun. This is the Gita. The Gita talks about. It’s better to do th your own task than do it imperfectly than to decide to do another person’s task and do it perfectly.
That’s literally a line in the Gita. Let go of yourself. Listen, see, feel, sense. You don’t have to think about it. There are no thoughts involved in this. You’ll find yourself studying. You’ll find yourself nursing. You’ll find yourself writing. You’ll find yourself claying. You’ll find yourself doing whatever you’re doing.
Just do it. Just stop thinking about it and just do your best. And if there are hurdles, enjoy going over them. Enjoy doing them for God. Don’t ever think, Hey, it’s just too hard. I’m gonna quit. No, that’s you. That’s your personal self interfering. I’d rather do something else. I don’t like doing this. I’d rather do something else.
You don’t get to think like that. You have to let go of that part of your being. Then. Put your whole being into what’s unfolding in front of you as an act of service to God as the dance of creation and you’re part of it, and it may take you somewhere’s different. You don’t know where you’ll be in a year or in a week or a month.
Anything. You don’t know anything. Don’t think you know anything and don’t want to know anything. Basically be willing to listen. Stop, look, and listen. Rhondas used to say, stop, look, and listen. Love, sir. Remember? So basically, remember these teachings. Remember every day of your life, you’re making a choice.
Am I out there trying to manipulate and control so it matches what I think should be, and thereby fighting with everybody and everyth. Or am I letting go of these concepts and views and opinions and preferences and hopes and dreams and all this garbage that I collected and built inside my mind, and now I’m having trouble with the world.
It’s just, just hilarious, right? I, I took glasses and I made them dark and purple and this and that, and I put ’em on. Now it’s dark. This is terrible. I need to get lights. It’s all. How about we take the glasses off and that’s what you decide to do and you keep relaxing through that. But then I went the next level service.
Remember Krishna said, when it’s all said and done, all that’s left is the servant of God. The rest went to God. The rest is an ecstasy. What’s left is the servant. You become that servant by serving what it is that’s unfolding. That has nothing to do with what you like or dislike. No more thoughts, no more decisions, no more confusion.
Just let go of yourself. Serve what God is putting before you. That life is the spiritual life and that life leads to liberation. It leads to unity Union with God. ’cause you let go of yourself, help you understand these things. Work on this.
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.
