{"id":25501,"date":"2026-05-17T20:44:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/?post_type=transcript&p=25501"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:44:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T02:44:01","slug":"e184-acceptance-for-everything-there-is-a-season","status":"publish","type":"transcript","link":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/transcript\/e184-acceptance-for-everything-there-is-a-season\/","title":{"rendered":"E184: Acceptance\u2014For Everything There Is a Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_print\"Print Transcript<\/span><\/a><\/div>

Tami Simon:<\/b> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Singer:<\/b> Jai guru dev, jai masters.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s interesting how the human mind compartmentalizes things, and sometimes you look and you say the thing they don’t like, presented another way, is exactly the thing they do like. We teach surrender and acceptance, and not everybody teaches that. Very deep teaching, surrender and acceptance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first problem is people think that acceptance is about the outside \u2014 that an airplane’s coming at you, a car’s driving at you, just stand there. Accept the consequences of standing there. Acceptance has nothing to do with that. Acceptance has to do with things happening outside. They come in. That’s why you have senses. So far we’re fine. What’s supposed to be happening is happening. It’s coming in. You’re experiencing it. Acceptance means can you handle that? Can you handle the reality that unfolds in front of you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Who says it’s reality? Reality does. It happened, therefore it’s reality. How do you define reality? That which already happened. Can you change it? Can anybody change what already happened? Answer me. No. It’s reality. “But I don’t like it.” I understand, but it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s reality. So surrender and acceptance are about what comes in. Reality comes in. It comes in. Can you handle it? I didn’t say you don’t do anything about it. But can you handle it? Is your first response, “This is reality. I’m at peace with reality because it’s reality. I have no choice”? It’s binary. I either accept it or I fight, and fighting does no good because it came in. It’s there. So acceptance is that. It’s not some outer thing. Don’t make it that.<\/span><\/p>\n

And surrender is that. What do you mean? Are you supposed to be surrendering what’s happening outside? It’s deeper than that. You’re supposed to be letting go, surrendering the resistance that you’re experiencing inside because of what came in from outside. If you get that, you’ve got the teachings. It’s much deeper than whatever happens, you just let happen. However, whatever happens, you better start by accepting that it happened. Why? Because it did happen. And if you don’t accept that it happened, you’re going to do some psycho mumbo jumbo stuff about it. You’re going to suppress it. You don’t even suppress the event. You suppress the resistant energy that comes up inside of you. You push that away. You can’t suppress what happened outside because it happened. It’s already over. You don’t have to suppress it. It’s already gone. The snake crawled away. The person said what they said. There’s no touching it now. Not in the first instance. The first instance, it came in, you experienced it. Can you surrender your resistance that’s coming up inside of you? That’s what surrender means.<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually I talk like that at the end of a talk, but I want you to get it first. Do you understand the difference? So you’re in there resisting reality. Who says it’s reality? What does your Bible say? “Let those who have eyes to see, let them see. Let those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” What did happen? If it didn’t happen, don’t worry about it. How about that? I say, “You know it’s reality.” Okay, it didn’t happen. Okay, then you’re fine. But it did happen, and I can’t handle it, so I suppress my resistance to the event, and I deny the event. I practice denial or resistance or repression or suppression. Those are all psychological, Freudian terms of what you are doing inside when you can’t handle the reality that came in.<\/span><\/p>\n

So surrender means let go. Not let go of your will. Use your will. Use your will to accept reality. Then you will find out that if you do that, you can look outside and see some openings. You can see some things that you might be able to be doing, or maybe not, that will help the situation \u2014 but not help you. It’s not about, “I can’t handle it. How can I make it be a way that I can handle?” That is so selfish. That is the epitome of ego. All that matters is me and how I’m doing as this event took place. It has nothing to do with the person who did the event. It has nothing to do with what’s going to happen tomorrow. It has nothing to do with what happened in the past. It just has to do with, “I can’t handle it. So I need to figure out a way to neutralize it, to suppress it, to deny it, to rationalize it, to do something about it so that I can handle it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

You didn’t fix anything outside. You didn’t solve what caused the thing to happen. It was solely so you can handle what happened. So you lie, or you deny it, or you rationalize. “Oh, she didn’t mean that. She couldn’t possibly have meant that.” Why do you say that? Because I couldn’t handle what she said. How can you tell if she meant it or not when you know you can’t handle what you thought she said?<\/span><\/p>\n

And you’re going to find out that the reason you can’t handle it is your past patterns. You’ve learned from the past that if somebody talks to you like that, it hurts and it causes problems. Your mother did it. Your father did it. Your formative years did it. You understand that? You’re programmed to look at what got said or done in accordance with your past. And so now you’re sitting there saying, “I can’t handle it.” And what I need to do is manipulate people, places, and things so that I can handle it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know whether you see it, but that is a non-starter. If you’re in there doing that, I assure you you’re in trouble because you’re only doing it to manipulate the energy around you so that it changes. “Apologize. Say you’re sorry. Say you didn’t mean it.” To which the person says, “What didn’t I mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You get embarrassed that you heard it wrong. Nobody said it that way. The person doesn’t even know what you’re talking about. If you shove it out with the negative resistant energy that you’re experiencing inside, you’re just dumping that into the world. It’s polluting. You’re dumping negative reactive energy from inside of you that you’ve stored from the past, something hit it, and now, bam, you need to do something to make yourself feel better, and that’s what you’re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I can’t believe you said it to me. I never thought you would say something like that to me. I don’t ever want to see you again.” “But we’re married with three children.” “I don’t care.” That’s really a good thing to say, right? It makes a lot of sense. No. I need to learn to handle what you said. I need to learn to be at peace, to be open, to be surrendered inside. Then I have a chance of actually hearing what you said as you said it and meant it, not as I took it. See the difference?<\/span><\/p>\n

So that’s where we’re starting \u2014 to say that things happen outside, they come in, and we have a problem with them. And everything you do from then on, you’re in trouble. I’m telling you. You want to talk about karma? I don’t like the way you all understand karma. But if you take that energy, it came in, you at least interpret it as dark and troublesome, and you throw it back out at somebody or something \u2014 it already came back. That person is going to react accordingly. They’ll get defensive or they’ll never talk to you again. You just dumped that. It doesn’t lay karmic seeds. It’s just instantaneously cause and effect takes place \u2014 very scientific \u2014 but you’re going to get back what you threw out.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what does one do with this now that we understand that reality is a problem? Back in the ’60s or ’70s, The Byrds sang it. It’s called “For Everything There Is a Season,” a time for every purpose under heaven. A time for love, a time for hate, a time for war, a time for peace. You’ve heard of that, right? It came from the Bible. What does it mean? It happens to be the truth. It’s not about right and wrong. In the winter, the leaves fall off the trees. You okay with that? At certain times, Saturn is further away from us, and it’s tilted in a way that even with a telescope you can’t see the rings. You okay with that? These things are called reality. If you’re not okay with them, there’s something wrong with you, because for everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those impersonal things you feel okay with. “Sure, let Saturn do what it does. Let the leaves fall off, as long as I don’t have to rake them up too much.” You know what I mean? You’re making it about you. Everything’s about you. It’s not, “For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Now, you know who said that? “Not my will, but thy will be done.” They can be a song, they can be a teaching of surrender and acceptance, and they can be spiritual teachings of great masters, because that’s what it says. Not my will, but thy will. If it be the will of creation that the leaves fall off in winter, at least in the north \u2014 in the south they bud \u2014 is it okay with you?<\/span><\/p>\n

At some point, you stop and you say, “Gee, you know, it’s really true. If I get it out of the way, for everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.”<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, you had a bad experience at night once. You were walking down the street alone, and something happened, and it left very bad impressions on you, and you don’t like when it’s getting dark. There are people who get uptight when it starts getting dark. Do you understand that? And there are people who start getting uptight when it starts getting light. It’s based upon the experience that you’ve had during the morning or the days or the evening and the night. It’s completely personal. Why? I teach you this, and I know you don’t like it, because it has nothing to do with you, whether it’s day or night. You think it does because it hits your stuff in there that you stored, and it makes you feel weird. And you don’t say, “For everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose.” You say, “Everything should be the way I want.” And you’re going to go out there and make sure that you say what I want you to say and don’t say what I don’t want you to say.<\/span><\/p>\n

You like that. You don’t say, “For everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose.” You say, “For everything there’s something I want happening that will make me happy, and things I don’t want happening that will make me uncomfortable.” Okay? Wow, that is very, very different, isn’t it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Now you understand what’s meant by ego, what’s meant by “I matter more than the seasons and the real purposes of the unfolding of life.” Life will unfold. Do you know that? Day will come, and night will come, and then day will come. People will be born. And people will die. For everything, there’s a season, a time for every purpose. “But I like babies, and I don’t like dying.” You’re in trouble because you just violated the statement that for everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re stuck in between the reality of what’s taking place, your preferences, your views, your opinions, which you made up. That’s why I think it’s just so funny. Where did you get your views and opinions? What if you went through a situation where somebody was pregnant and didn’t want to have the baby, they weren’t ready, and it messed up their life? They couldn’t take care of the baby. There were no finances. Then maybe you don’t like people having babies and getting pregnant, and it’s overpopulation. You come up with all kinds of reasons. And maybe you really experienced somebody suffering tremendously, and their death came quickly, and they didn’t suffer too much, and you felt that death was a gift. Well, then you’re very different than the other person.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Death is not okay. People should be left on life support forever till they naturally die.” Or other people sit there and say, “Why are you doing that?” Same with both birth and death, right or wrong. What’s the answer? You don’t like the answer. The answer is, it’s none of your business. Not your initial reaction. For everything, there’s a season and a time for every purpose. Are you okay with that? You know you’re not. That’s the problem. It’s not the problem that people die. It’s not the problem that people are born. It’s not the problem that there’s day or night or hot or cold or snow or rain. They just are. But you like one versus the other. If it’s raining when you want to stay home and miss work, you like the rain. If it’s raining \u2014 or even forecasted to be raining the day before the birthday party you’re planning on having outside \u2014 you’re neurotic the entire night. It didn’t even rain yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what happens if you don’t live by truth, and the truth is for everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. And guess what? You ain’t going to do squat about it. You worry all you want about the rain. You worry all you want about dying or about birth and overpopulation or this, that, and the other thing. Once you’re okay and you accept that for everything there’s a season and a time for every person under heaven, you are at peace. Now you can help. Now you can look and see, is there something I can do? Not because I’m not okay with it. Because I am okay with it. Is there some way I can help it, raise it, purify it, help others accept it? Can I bring peace? Because if I can’t accept it, I can’t bring peace. Because I’m not at peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, will everybody understand? Because what you’re taught is it’s all about getting what you want. And it’s not hard to advertise that. Why? Because when you get what you want, you feel good. When you don’t get what you want, you don’t feel good. And when you get what you don’t want, you definitely don’t feel good. So you just say, “Well, that’s just the way it is.” No, it’s not. It has nothing to do with you. Your inability to handle reality is not a trait.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s look at what happens. If you can’t accept things, you fight with each other. Imagine all the people sharing all… You know what happened, baby? Living life of peace. And that ain’t taking place. Why? Because you think it’s about getting what you want. That’s the core root of why there can’t be peace. There can be peace in you if you get what you want. There can be non-suffering in you if you don’t have to deal with what you don’t want \u2014 if nobody ever says what you don’t want or treats you the way you don’t want or looks prettier than you are or richer than you are. If everything’s the way you want, you’re okay. Is it that way naturally? Have you noticed that every time you wake up in the morning, the whole day is going to be the way you want and never be the way you don’t want? No, you have to fight for that. You have to plot and plan and figure it all out and then try to make that happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

People have plans 20 years from now. “I want to make sure that I have a baby before I’m 28, 30, because my biological clock is going to be ticking and I’ve got to make sure that I’m strong enough to pick the kid up.” Are you having a lot of nice thoughts? How old are you when you’re thinking those thoughts? Nine? And don’t think they don’t. Hear me. You just ruined your life because you get back to the word I use: preferences. If you have a preference, you’re going to suffer. Why? What if I get my preference? You’ll worry about losing it. You’ll outgrow it. You outgrew your dolls. You outgrew a lot of things, didn’t you? You don’t care about them. Who are they now? I don’t know.<\/span><\/p>\n

So this concept that getting what you want is what life is about \u2014 it’s not true. Life is about, for everything there’s a season, a time for a purpose. Can I be at peace with that and then bring peace into the situation?<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay. I had a friend who was head of very, very strong organizations \u2014 Amnesty International, all kinds of different things \u2014 and very politically active, but he was very deep. During his most activist days, he was the head of one of these big organizations in D.C. And they would go down to some countries where a lot of human rights violations were taking place and people were being killed and put in jails for no reason and all kinds of things. And he himself would go down there and stand with a few other people and knock on the door of those prisons and demand that they see the inmates \u2014 to which they’d be threatened over and over again.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also would go over to some African countries where warlords were kidnapping kids so they didn’t have a life they could live except to fight for the warlords. And he would go there after some semblance of peace was taking place and bring the parents, the kids, and the perpetrator \u2014 the warlord \u2014 together, and bring peace in those situations. Imagine how much cleansing you have to go through. That’s what happens when you can accept what happened. When you can accept the reality, you have a choice and opportunity to bring peace to the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter how absurd the situation is \u2014 in your marriage, in your relationships \u2014 people are going to do things that you didn’t think they would have done. People are going to say things that you never want to hear them say. It may be as simple as because they had a bad meal the night before and they’re in a bad mood and they didn’t hold their tongue. Can you handle that? Or is that the beginning of the end of your marriage?<\/span><\/p>\n

See the difference? Did it take place? Yes. Can I handle it? It’s not easy, but of course I have to handle it or it’s going to stay stuck inside of me. So what do you do? First, you accept that it took place. Second, you accept that it hurts. I feel loss. I feel anger. I feel pain. You don’t leave anything out. It’s all part of reality. Did it take place? Yes. Do you feel sorrow about it? Yes. Can you handle that it took place? Yes. Handle doesn’t mean the sorrow goes away. I can handle this feeling of sorrow. What happens if you don’t? Well, if you don’t handle that the event took place, you’re practicing denial. You’re suppressing the whole thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suppression is the worst thing you can do. Why? It doesn’t go away through suppression. It stays inside of you. Go talk to Freud. Go talk to any therapist. Why do people lay on the couch and talk about what they couldn’t handle 10, 20 years ago? Because it’s still in there. Why is it still in there? Because you held it in there. That’s my talk on suppression. Doesn’t take long. Is that healthy? Of course it’s not healthy.<\/span><\/p>\n

What you would rather do is have an event take place that’s uncomfortable, and handle the period of time \u2014 because for everything there’s a season \u2014 that, okay, this is uncomfortable. In the Jewish tradition, they have what’s called sitting shiva, right? All right, eight days. It doesn’t matter. This is a phenomenal tradition. What it basically says is somebody died who you love. Of course you’re going to feel pain. Of course you’re going to feel loss. It’s part of the season right now. It’s a season of pain. It’s a season of loss. If you accept it, the sun will come up tomorrow. If you don’t accept it, you will store the season of loss inside your heart and inside your mind. That’s the entire science of psychology.<\/span><\/p>\n

I always tell you this at this point of the talk, which I really like: how smart is it to take the things that bothered you the most, that are no longer happening, and keep them stored inside so you can be bothered for the rest of your life? What a crazy thing to do. Those are the very things you should let go of. They’re over. The death took place. Did you feel sorrow? Yes, but it’s over. If you store it, it will never be over. It will always be a sensitive subject. You will always have trouble with it. If you see his picture or her picture or a thought, you’ll start crying again and be all hurt. Now you see the teaching \u2014 for everything there’s a season, including those feelings that don’t feel good. You’re not leaving anything out. Everything has its right to be. That’s not the question. The question is, can you handle it? Can I relax through it?<\/span><\/p>\n

You start with, “I can’t handle it.” Okay, you’ve got a long way to go. You start with, “Well, if I can’t handle it, I’m going to keep it suppressed in here.” Even the therapist will say, “Can you handle it? Can we talk about it?” Can we handle talking? So little by little, can we learn to handle it? Even though it happened a long time ago, can we learn to handle it now? Okay, they’re being very gentle with you. That’s not the end, though. Then you get to the point of understanding, well, if I store this stuff in here, I’m not going to be happy. I need to be willing to let this stuff go or I won’t feel joy, I won’t feel love. If I hold on to a lost love because somebody left or died, I’ll never feel love again. I’ll be so scared and keep the heart protected and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

So the next step is I accept that it happened, I accept that it was difficult to deal with, and I accept that I’m better off dealing with it than I am not dealing with it. Better off not saying, “Don’t talk about that. You know I’m not going to talk about that.” I’m better off sitting here saying, “Now we’re at the next step. Bring it on.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Now you’re ready. What do you mean? If you talk about it, I don’t have to make you talk about it, but if you happen to talk about it and it hits me, thank you. Don’t tell them thank you \u2014 but thank you. I don’t want it in there. That’s where you need to be. The next stage: I don’t want it in there. I’ve already seen what it does when it’s in there. It destroys my life, determines where I can live, determines who I can date, determines what I can eat. Be madly in love with somebody, have them die, and they play your song, and see how you feel about it, because tears are pouring down your eyes. You used to love that song. Now it hurts. How about the restaurant you used to eat at all the time? Every time you drive by it, what happens? You stored the pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it’s not about denying the pain. It’s about releasing, handling, processing. How? You start with acceptance. I’m right back there. I accept. As you let it go, at some point you realize there’s joy down there. That’s what’s underneath there. You’re the one who shoved all that stuff on top of your heart, and so now your heart’s all screwed up, and your mind. Otherwise, your natural state, your natural state is ecstasy. Any time you want, wave your hand across your heart, across that chakra, and love will pour out of your heart as long as you want it to. That’s how easy it is to have love. But if you’re blocked, you ain’t got a chance in the world. You’ll find some reason that it’s disturbing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you listening? You are naturally filled with love. You don’t need to find it. You need to get rid of what’s making you not feel it, and that’s why you practice acceptance.<\/span><\/p>\n

So now we’ve got to the point where, okay, I can handle it. Okay, I don’t want it down there anymore. Okay, periodically things stimulate it. Good. Now I like you. Come see me at that point, where your attitude is, “Thank God. Thank God it’s not just sitting down there screwing my life up. I am ready, willing, and able to let this be its season.”<\/span><\/p>\n

See, everything has a season. A season for the stuff to come up. Is it not? A season for you to reach the point that you welcome the stuff coming up. And that’s not the highest state. You will reach a point where you realize, “I don’t want this in here, and I’m willing to go through whatever it is that liberates me from the garbage I stored inside. I wasn’t able to handle it before, but I can handle it now.”<\/span><\/p>\n

You keep doing this, and eventually you look down there \u2014 you’re not just saying, “I can handle it.” You’re looking down there, and you see that you stored this thing \u2014 they call it the inner child, whatever you want to call it. You stored that thing down there, and it’s hurt. It got locked in the dark. That’s what you did with that part of you. You said, “I can’t handle that. I can’t handle the pain. I can’t handle the loss.” So you pushed it down into the dark. You call it the subconscious, whatever you want. You pushed it down into the dark, and everything comes back up. Shoved it back in the closet. That’s not very nice.<\/span><\/p>\n

And you start having what’s called compassion. For who? For you. For what you did in there. You didn’t create the event. You didn’t create how you experienced the event. But there’s nobody else in there pushing it down. There’s nobody else in there but you, is there? You’re the one who couldn’t handle it. You’re the one who pushed it away. And you start looking down there, and you actually apologize. Everything you pushed away is a part of your psyche. It has memories. It has smells and tastes and feelings. You stored the whole thing down there, and it comes back up.<\/span><\/p>\n

You look down at it, and you say, “I’m sorry.” You’re conscious enough. You’re clear enough to look down at that part of your being that got blocked down there and apologize. “I’m sorry I shoved you down there. I will never do it again. I will do everything I can to learn to stay centered enough, clear enough, accepting enough to honor life as it is so I don’t have to sit there and suppress it inside of me and make this ego that has all these concepts and views of how everything has to be for me to be okay.”<\/span><\/p>\n

And there you go. How are you okay? Because for everything, there’s a season, a time for every purpose to happen. Now you’re really okay. How can you not be okay? Accept the reality of whatever has taken place. But don’t think that doesn’t mean you don’t deal with it. First, you accept, honor, respect the reality of the fact that things happen and things are because of all the things that cause them to be. Therefore, everything has its season. Everything has its purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay. Now, as you get clear, now you’re one of the clear ones. You’re one of the elders, one of the wise ones. You’re able to handle life. What part of life? All of life. Well, what about war? Does it happen? Has it always happened? Is there anything you can do about it? Well, to start with, you can be a little nicer to your neighbor. You don’t have to have road rage because somebody bumped into your car or was driving slower, or get all upset because it’s hot out. You go to war with all kinds of things, don’t you? What is road rage? War. “I’m going to war. I don’t like the way you drove.” What is anger? People throwing things around. “How could you say that to me?” War. That’s war. I couldn’t handle it. And so you find out that at a minimum, you can handle these things. And if you can handle them, you don’t have to throw them back out in somebody’s face. You can find ways to negotiate, to talk, to bring peace and so on. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth.”<\/span><\/p>\n

How many times can I say it? Can you see the absolute amazing truth when you start to accept things as they are? Here, I told this the other day. Go to a great Zen master, right? Pranam, and you walk in, and they’re sitting there, and they ask you some questions. All right? And before you leave, they say, “Grass is green, water’s blue, and flowers are red.” And then he says, “Go home.” And you say, “What kind of stupid teaching is that?” For everything, there’s a season. A time for a purpose. Are you okay that the flowers are red? You okay that the water’s blue? You okay that the grass is green? That’s what it’s teaching you. It’s the exact same teaching, isn’t it? Same teaching as “not my will, but thy will.” All the deep teachings are exactly the same. They are: why are you in there deciding you’re more important than reality?<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay. When you find out you’re not, something very beautiful happens. You start letting go of this stuff. And we were talking about you go down there, you apologize. That’s a very important step. You’re no longer pushing away. You’re no longer justifying, rationalizing, explaining anything. You’re just saying, “This is not good. I didn’t accept the reality of what took place in the past. Therefore, I stored it inside of me. So I am going to help it come up.” Apologize to it. Reach your hand down and help it up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gita has a line like that. The Bhagavad Gita says, “One should raise the self with self, not trample down the self. For self, which is self’s friend, can become self’s foe.” But it’s using Atman, capital A, for the higher self. One should raise the lower self with the higher self. Just raise it up, not trample down the self, push it away. This thing was written a long time ago. It’s pure psychology. Not for self, which can be self’s friend, can become self’s foe.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I talked about, you can become enemies, or you can sit there and help raise the lower self. What does one do when they have a lower self? Some psychologists just say cope with it. “You have to cope with it. It will always be in there. Learn to cope with it.” No, you don’t have to cope with it. You can let it go. You can let it come up. You can not just let it go, help it up. Raise the self with self.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what happens to the lower self? It becomes higher self. Not because you put a spiritual ego in front of yourself and said, “I’m a spiritual person. Don’t you see that? Don’t tell me I’m not, because I am.” No, no. You raise it up, and literally the energy that used to be held down there, because you let it come up, it transmutes. Next thing you know, anger becomes love. Fear becomes strength. It does. It transmutes because you’re not holding it down there.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so basically, that’s how you raise the self with self. And eventually there’s nothing in there \u2014 pretty much nothing in there \u2014 that has anything to do with the personal. It’s all about, you wake up in the morning and the sky is blue. You wake up in the morning and it’s raining. You wake up in the morning and you’re out of toothpaste. You wake up in the morning and the kid is crying. It’s just what it is. You say, “How can I help?” You become a servant, a servant of reality. The great masters talked about that \u2014 that in the end, all that’s left is a servant of God. How about all that’s left is a servant of life? How about this one? All that’s left is a servant of reality. That’s what acceptance does. It says reality wins. How can it not? It already happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

You understand? The fact that you didn’t like it and you want to fight with it, you just make a mess. So how do you practice acceptance? How do you work with “for everything there’s a season”? Can you actually work with that?<\/span><\/p>\n

You say, “But I’m not like that. I fight for what I want. I struggle and I suffer a lot. And I get disappointed, and I’m disappointed in people, all people.” Okay, well, then you’re not happy and you can’t deal with things. You can’t deal with people if you’re disappointed with them because you’re pushing them away.<\/span><\/p>\n

So you do… Now we’re going to talk about the essence of the teachings. You practice being okay. Don’t worry, you need the practice, because you’ve been very busy practicing not being okay. If anything is not the way you want, you’re not okay with it. The tiniest thing. “I’m having my breakfast cereal and I ran out of milk. What kind of day is this going to be? I only have a tiny little bit of milk left.” You just sit there and complain. For everything there’s a season \u2014 a season to run out of milk. How do you know? Because it’s right here in front of me. You start taking a totally different attitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m saying it over and over again. There’s a reason you ran out of milk. You forgot about it last time. They didn’t have it in the store. They didn’t have the type you want. Your husband or wife drank it all, fed it to the cat, didn’t tell you. I don’t know. But those are all reasons that for everything there’s a season \u2014 a season to run out of milk. The question is not to complain and argue and blame. The question is, is that okay with you? First, you accept the reality. And then you start looking at it and you realize it is not worth not being happy because I ran out of milk. I heard the expression “Don’t cry over spilled milk.” Well, don’t cry when you ran out of milk. In fact, it’s good you ran out of milk, now you can’t spill it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Start practicing being okay. “But what if I’m not okay?” Understand what it feels like to not be okay and see if you like that feeling. You were happy in the morning \u2014 “Oh, boy, I get to have my breakfast with blueberries and I saved them.” You’re all excited. But now you’re not because you’re out of milk. Was it worth it? Not being excited because you ran out of milk? I found a long time ago, the answer is no. I’d rather be excited.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re having a good relationship with somebody, on a date, whatever it is, and they say or do something that didn’t fit within your frame of reference. Your heart starts to close. Which would you rather have \u2014 the feeling of love, attraction, and acceptance or a closed heart? Maybe it was okay, what they said, and then I can deal with it. Maybe I need to say, “Well, fine, it’s really beautiful, but what led you to say that?” Or maybe you look at it and say, “It doesn’t matter.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter. I reached that point a long time ago. He would sit there and say, “Well, ask or talk about it.” And I ask him, I say, “Well, what are you going to do? What if they give you a bunch of junk about it and you feel worse?” Could happen. What if they apologize, but you’re not sure if they really meant it? And you start saying, “Why do I need to know why it happened? It happened. Why can’t I honor and respect that whatever the reasons were, they were?” And the reason is you’re afraid. You’re afraid it’ll happen again. You don’t paint it that way. You don’t paint it as, “I’m afraid it’ll happen again.” You paint it as, “I’m not okay that it happened.” But really, if you knew it would never happen again \u2014 if God came down and said, “This was a test. You did great. Just handle how you feel” \u2014 you’d be fine. You understand that? You just want to be okay. And so you’re just sitting there saying, “I don’t want it to happen again.” So instead, you sit there and say, “I don’t care why it happened. I’m not coming down over this. What I care about is am I going to react to it? Do I end up not feeling love and not getting along with this person and complaining about the driver and the heat and this and that? Or do I just sit there and say, ‘It is what it is,’ and I understand that everything has a season? That’s the end of it. I’m fine with it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to investigate it, you go have some fun, but you won’t. You better be careful because you’re going to start looking into it. Your mind will figure out, “Oh, I know why he said that. He told me once his grandmother did this, the other thing, and so on. So I’ll just ask him.” And he comes back and says something totally different than what you were thinking. Now you’re hurt twice as much, three times more. Ever happen? Of course it happens. It’s never what you think.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any reason you think somebody did something \u2014 you don’t have any idea why. Your thought patterns are the sum of your learned experiences. His or hers are the sum of their learned experiences. They did not have your experiences. Of course you’re going to put it together your way. It is not that way. It can’t be that way. Psychology says you’re the sum of your learned experiences. Well, so is he or she. And you did not have the same experiences ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

This can liberate you, understanding this. So you don’t even care. You get to a point where you don’t need an explanation because it really doesn’t mean anything. It’s just me trying to feel better about what happened. I need to look at it and say, “Do I want to come down over this? Am I willing to get neurotic about what took place?” And you start saying, “No, I don’t need an explanation.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s what Meher Baba said. Meher Baba was a fully enlightened, great being. He said, “Understanding has no meaning.” I just told you why. “I don’t understand why you did that. I don’t understand why it had to rain today.” Okay, what you’re basically saying is, “I can’t handle it. Give me a decent explanation so my mind can feel okay with the rationalization of what you said,” as opposed to “understanding has no meaning.” Things happen. You’re welcome to study them if you’re in school \u2014 study biology, meteorology, do your thing. But if you have to understand everything, you’re in big trouble, especially human behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, I gave you a way to understand. You don’t realize how deep what I just gave you is. Total liberation. Ready? Why did this happen? Because for everything, there’s a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. Isn’t that good enough understanding? It turns out that the answer that we used to make fun of \u2014 and the kids said, “Why is the sky blue?” \u2014 the answer is “because.” Why did you say that? Because I don’t need an explanation. It’s not going to last anyway. And it’s just trying to make me feel better. So you skip the mind part by saying, “It’s okay. I don’t need to understand. I need to accept.” That’s a different thing. I don’t need a reason to accept. I have a reason because it happened. That’s the reason. That’s sufficient reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fair enough. Okay. He said, “Understanding has no meaning. Love has meaning.” In other words, if you have a choice between closing your heart because of what somebody said or because of a thought you had or something reminded you of something, or keeping your heart open \u2014 I wonder which one’s better. So you choose. You choose to feel love. How? By not closing. I had a whole talk the other week about not closing. How do you open your heart? By not closing it. And that’s the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

So that’s what Meher Baba was saying: understanding, you’re wasting your time with your mind. Just look at your heart. Do you want it to close? No, it doesn’t feel good closed. Then don’t close it. Do you close your heart to protect yourself if you don’t like something or you’re afraid you might not like something? You get to the point where you say, “I ain’t going to do that anymore.” That’s spiritual growth. It’s deeper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then he went deeper than most people will ever understand. He said, “Deeper than love is…” He used the word obedience. It really meant commitment. Let’s call it commitment. Why are you not closing your heart? Because I’m committed. I’m committed to you. I’m committed to my job. I’m committed to God. I’m committed. That deep, willful commitment is more powerful. Love is fine while you feel it. Are you willing to be committed when you don’t? Because for everything there’s a season. The love will come, the love will go. But the commitment means it goes past that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve never said it like that. You understand that? For everything there’s a season, a time for every purpose. “I don’t understand the purpose. It’s not making me feel love, but I committed.” Doesn’t matter. Are you committed? Boy, that’s powerful, isn’t it? Committed to what? Committed to being present. Committed to not giving in to the lower part of your being.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then the last one he said was, “Deeper than that commitment is…” It’s like a dress that they wear. He said, “Hold on to my domin. Just hold on to the hem of my domin, and that’s the highest thing you could do.” In other words, just completely surrender to the highest thing around you \u2014 Christ, Buddha, the masters. Ram Dass talking about becoming nobody. There’s nobody in there anymore resisting reality. I’m not trying to not resist. It’s over. You’ve let go completely.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, phew. I don’t always talk at that level. It’s very deep, very strong stuff. But don’t even bother with that level. The level we really talked about is: can you handle reality? It comes back to that. Can you handle reality? You don’t want to look at it as reality. “I don’t like that it happened. Of course I can’t handle it.” So start practicing with little things, with the weather, with the toothpaste, with the rain, with the driver in front of you. There are these little things that happen every day. They are obviously reality. I want to go 55 miles an hour. It’s the speed limit, and this guy’s going 35, and I can’t pass. Can I handle that? Why should I? Because for everything there’s a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. There’s a time for a 35 mile an hour driver to be driving in front of you. Can you handle it? How do you handle it? By not resisting, by relaxing. You learn to relax. You learn to let go of the tendency to resist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you have a tendency to resist all the time? You resist your thoughts, you resist your feelings, you resist everybody else’s thoughts around you because it’s not the way you want or you’re afraid it won’t be. Just practice relaxing during those times. Like I say, the new book really goes through this stuff. All my books do, but people are saying that this one goes very deeply. So you just practice under all circumstances, relax to the best of your ability. If you can’t do it and you fall, get back up, don’t judge, just do better. Just do better next time.<\/span><\/p>\n

And practice, practice surrender, practice releasing, practice acceptance. And eventually you’ll get to the point where you realize, well, of course, for everything there’s a season. And you’re just so at peace. There’s just this deep, deep acceptance and surrender \u2014 a very great state. And then you become a blessed person walking on the earth because you’re bringing peace, bringing harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

All right. Work on these things. Jai guru dev.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tami Simon:<\/b> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"class_list":["post-25501","transcript","type-transcript","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nE184: Acceptance\u2014For Everything There Is a Season | Sounds True<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"E184: Acceptance\u2014For Everything There Is a Season | Sounds True\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tami Simon: Welcome to the Michael Singer Podcast, presented by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. 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