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Welcome to the show. I can't say that I'm totally enthusiastic to be doing this right now. but I have a feeling that that's gonna change. But it is Tuesday. It is 12 PM, my time, Portugal.

So this is on the calendar. We're gonna do it. We've got a great topic to dive into. I really enjoyed writing the insight letter about this topic. and I'm excited to see what I'm gonna say about it.

The title is Something. My goodness. What was it? Life wakes up. Oh, no.

Here's what it was. The world wakes up when you wake up. And I was inspired to do this episode because somebody asked me to do an episode on this. They heard me mention once as it pertains to waiting for the world to become more conscious or human beings to collectively wake up as if that's gonna happen or if that's on its way. And then once it happens, then we can all hold hands in sing and have everlasting peace.

That sounds good. But my reflection on such things is that that's not how it goes down. How it really goes down and how it's been pointed to, even though misunderstood for thousands of years. is that there is something that wakes up on the inside of what you are, and what you wake up and see is that everything's already awake. that you were the only one sleeping.

And that's a little bit of a bold statement and could be a lot of fun to dive into. Let's see how we want to dig into this. You know what it reminds me of? You know what? Can we first acknowledge how many stories there are like this.

The story where something is coming in the future. And once that thing happens in the future, then there will be everlasting peace. Right? You can see this, whether it's from a Christian tradition, the 2nd coming of Christ. That's always right around the corner.

You have oh, we did the whole 2012 thing where that was coming in supposed to change everything. You have the next political election that if only such and such person gets elected, then everything would be be better. And then you have just your classic, if only's, Right? If only such and such happened, then it would somehow give you something. And for me, this is just no different.

They all tell the same story and the story of when the world becomes more conscious then we will eliminate all of the things which seem to create disorder and chaos. You know, I think one of the best ways to dig into the illusion about this is to look at the Christian tradition and its story, which I'm not like an expert in. So don't hold me to reciting it correctly. Yeah. But let's just say it's it's something into the effect of there's going to be the end of days where things are gonna get really crazy.

And then out of that craziness, Christ is gonna come back and take his followers with him and save them from the crazy. That's a good summary. It's the sec and coming of Christ. And in the most adorable way, I was, you know, raised in what you might call a Christian environment, convinced I was going to help. And I remember the old preachers who, you know, were rested there at death's door, but hanging on to dear life because they were really convinced Jesus was coming back.

Like, it was just, like, at any moment. And they wanna be around for that experience because They've been waiting for it. They've been believing in it. And, you know, they had their own conviction that it was gonna happen while they were alive. And I thought it was fascinating the certainty in it.

It was like, wow, you really believe this is gonna happen. And, like, in the litter real sense. We we read the things that the bible might say. We see the story, and we assume that it means it literally In such a way that if heaven is described as a place where everyone gets a mansion, then we literally assume that you go to this place after you die and you get a mansion. But what we are not seeing, which is understandable for the human being.

What we're not seeing is that fundamentally, spirituality and all the spiritual and religious traditions, they're pointing to an opportunity to connect with what we're going to say is just truth. Now you could also say, connect with God, and those things could be synonymous, but pointing to an opportunity to connect with the truth of life to see what you really are. And the challenge in this is that The truth can't be spoken. The truth is not an idea. And so in order to point someone in the direction of truth or in the direction of God, You have to tell stories.

And those stories could lead you to an opening within yourself. that sees something you didn't see before. And so this is why there's such a great diversity of religious tradition is because there's a great diversity in ways to point to the truth. And the human being confused by this, thinks that the story is what's true rather than what is being pointed to. beyond the story.

The reality of it. Maybe a good illustration of this is Human beings are arguing about what is the name of God. rather than connecting with God. Right? because every religion gives God its own name.

But do you see that a name is a pointer? A name is a story? Like, if my name is Tiger and you say, hey, Tiger, that's a pointer to what I am, but there's no reality that says what I am is Tiger. Well, clearly. But whatever your name is, if it's Bob, you're not something called a Bob.

Right? There's no truth to that. That what you are is something called a Bob or a Mary. the name is just really irrelevant as it relates to the truth of what you are. But you can see that I love that illustration where people can give God a different name and then argue over which name is the right name, right because they want the story.

They they were told that God's name is this, and that's what they identify with. That's the truth. But what they're saying is the truth is a name. They're saying And and another important point to that is whatever comes out of the mind a name, a story, an idea. These are all products of imagination, meaning that they're not found in reality.

Like, in the same way with the name, you can be Bob, but there's not a reality of something called Bob. That's just a name. You could Tell a story about your life. But that story about your life isn't the reality of your story. it's not even close.

It's just a particular perspective in the same way, Another illustration of this is if you're painting a sunset, right, you're looking at a sunset, which we might call something that's real, something that's true. And then as you paint a picture of it, you now have this picture and you say, look, here's the sunset. But is that really the sunset? No. You've just created a picture that points toward the reality of something called a sunset.

But is that thing over there? really called a sunset? Like, is that what it is? No. That's just what you call it, to point to it, to point to the experience of this reality, which is so beyond the name, and it's so beyond your painting.

And to the degree that your painting is so far removed from the reality of the sunset, it the same as your name is so far removed from the reality of what you are, which is the same as your story about your past is so far removed from the reality of your past. And the spiritual and religious stories are so far removed from the reality of what they're pointing to. Case in point, any description of heaven, streets paved in gold, That is simply a pointer that says how lovely this experience is. but it's so far removed from the reality of it. And so in the story of Christ's return.

Like, one day Christ will return. and there will be this connection with gone, this connection with truth. It's trying to illustrate a story that happens within the human being. that is and again, I'm using silly words to point to something, but it's trying to illustrate what happens within the human being who wakes up to what's true. In such a way, just as I said, the world wakes up when you wake up, I can also say, Christ will return when you see that Christ has already returned.

Like when you see that it's done, then you will see that it happened. It's not something that is coming or in the future. It's something that's already happened and you haven't seen that it happened. You know what? A great illustration of this.

that just comes to mind. It's like the nature of self forgiveness. Right? You can struggle and struggle and struggle with forgiving yourself. But the spiritual insight, the seeing of what's true, is to see that you're already forgiven.

It's not that you become forgiven. It's you see that there was a misunderstanding that judge didn't condemn yourself, and you thought life or God judged and condemned you or withheld love. Right? These are all misunderstandings. And then you saw beyond the misunderstanding, and you saw that you were already forgiven.

The same with chasing love. What you realize is that, oh, What I'm looking for is already here. What I'm looking for is already done. and gosh, that's so simple and powerful for the one who sees what I'm pointing to. that what we are looking for, what we want to happen, has already happened, we just don't see that it has happened.

And so to say I want the world to wake up is simply saying I haven't seen yet that the world is already awake. To say I want to be forgiven is to say I have not yet seen that I already am forgiven. Now let's look at this in the context of the original title. The the world wakes up when you wake up. And maybe one of the ways we can illustrate this is looking at the assumptions that we have about what it would mean for the world to wake up.

One person might have the assumption that when the world becomes more conscious, then there won't be any more wars, which is no different from saying when the world comes more conscious, everyone will agree with each other. When the world becomes more conscious, there won't be any more conflict. When the world becomes more conscious, everyone will do what I think they should do. That's interest thing. When the world becomes more conscious, the world will be how I want it to be.

And then when the world is as I want it to be, then I can finally relax and know that I'm safe. And know that I'm secure. Let's just look at that because it's the same thing as wanting there to be peace in the world. And I always find this fascinating. that the wanting of peace in the world is is wanting the world to be how you want it to be.

Right? It's the removal of other people's experiences that disturb you. there are things going on in the world that disturbed me because I don't understand them. And if those things went away, then I wouldn't have to be disturbed herbed. So my idea of peace or my idea of a more conscious world is when there are are no longer things that disturb me, which points to a profound truth, but it's backwards.

It's thinking that these things out here disturbed me rather than seeing I am disturbed by how I see these things. And so, yes, I want the disturbance to go away but I'm thinking I'm disturbed by the outside, so I wanna change the outside. which is trying to be God, not realizing that you're not disturbed by any thing in the world, you're disturbed by how you see things in the world. Like, you're not disturbed by who or what you are, you're disturbed by how you see what you are. And you can see that in the example of seeing yourself with eyes of judgment.

Right? It's not the self that you are that disturbs you. It's you judge yourself, and so that's what disturbs you. And when you wake up, yes, the judgment goes away, but not because something on the outside changed. The judgment goes away because you see that the judgment isn't necessary.

And I'm going to talk about the forest. Why not? Almost every time. how absurd would it be to look at the forest. And this is a very simple example that very much applies to human beings.

And I know some human beings have a difficult time with this comparison because they think it's different, but it's not. how absurd would it be to look at the forest and say the forest is not yet divine because the bugs are still fighting, because some animals are ripping apart other animals, because there are things that smell bad. because it's unorganized. All the lines are wiggly and crooked. There's no straight lines.

and the grass is mixed in with the rocks. And so it's clearly not conscious. Right? You can look at the forest. And from a particular perspective, you can think that it's not complete.

Right? You can think it could be better. You can think something's going wrong. In in that assumption, you can proclaim that it's not yet awake. but yet from a more total perspective, a perspective that sees the bigger picture, you start to understand that everything that's happening in the forest has to happen in order for the forest to be the forest.

You see that it's perfectly designed even though there are things that smell bad. Those things that smell bad make possible the things that smell lovely. In fact, you cannot have things that smell lovely unless you also have things that smell terrible. you cannot have the daytime without having the nighttime. You cannot have the cold without having the warm.

And everything in the forest we can say there's 10,000 things, which is just to signify an infinite number of things. They're all doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing in the most divine way that allows the forest to be the forest. And if you step back and you see the totality of the forest, you say, my God, that's beautiful. And so when you stop arguing with the forest, when you stop thinking you know better, especially with the limited capacity of the brain to not see the infinite variables at play. You start to recognize that life has designed something here that's brilliant.

Life has created a masterpiece that is awake in its functioning. that it's functioning the way it's supposed to be functioning so that it can do whatever it's here to do. Now the judgmental mind thinks it knows better than God, looks at things, and thinks that it's all separate pieces. It thinks that the flowers are separate from the trees. It thinks the animals are separate from each other.

It thinks the bugs are separate from other bugs. It thinks that there are 10,000 pieces that can do it wrong, might do it wrong, or doing it wrong rather than seeing that it's not 10,000 things happening. It's one thing happening. And and everything goes together. Everything is everything else.

And you see there's the waking up inside of yourself, that sees fundamentally, which might be a leap, that there's nothing to argue with in the forest. or maybe better stated as the argument has no solid ground to stand on. In in the dropping of the argument, is when you can step back and see what's actually happening. Because you can't see what something really is if you're also judging the something that you're looking at. And maybe this is just a great illustration as to why this isn't seen.

Like, to not see that the world is awake, of course, you can't see it because you're judging the world. 1 has to be open to the possibility that it's already awake. One has to be open to the possibility that God knows exactly what God is doing in order for life to be life. because if you're not open to that possibility, then you're looking through a lens of judgment that thinks something could be going wrong. And this is why, of course, our human struggle.

our suffering brings us to such a place of openness where we become open to set down our assumptions, set down what we think we know, and we empty ourselves out. and then life can show us a bit of the bigger picture. And in another note, I completely understand the human's perspective that looks at life and sees what it thinks to be things that shouldn't be and says, this can't be part of the design. because what I see disturbs me. Right?

Like this can't be of gaunt because what I see disturbs me. But let's for a moment, and I wanna talk about what I often refer to as the illusion of fear and see if this helps bring some clarity. Let's imagine Somebody has this judgment towards the nighttime. And the way that they would have this judgment toward the nighttime is it gets dark. And when it gets dark, they get scared.

And so because they're scared in the dark, they think that dark is misplaced. They think that life messed up with having the darkness and thinks that when the world wakes up, it won't be dark anymore, right, half the time. There's this fundamental assumption that because I'm scared, because I'm disturbed, then something is going wrong. and the nighttime shouldn't be the nighttime. And then they go on a quest to protest the nighttime, trying to get it to stop be in the nighttime.

And here's the fundamental confusion is in the nighttime, when you can't see, you think you're afraid of the nighttime. You're feeling disturbed. You're feeling scared. It's nighttime. And so you think, oh, I'm afraid of this thing called nighttime.

And so then I think, okay. Well, if there wasn't nighttime, then I wouldn't be scared. So let's get rid of the nighttime. What isn't recognized though is that you're not scared of the nighttime. You're scared of your imagination in the nighttime.

you're scared of the monsters that you imagine are there in the nighttime. But if you flip the light on when it's nighttime. You see that the only thing that's there in the nighttime is the same thing that's there in the daytime. It's just when you can't see you start seeing your imagination. And there's lots of scary things in your imagination.

And often, what comes up in that nighttime what you imagine that you're so afraid of. is more closely related to your fears about losing your self importance, if that makes sense. They are fears about losing what you're holding on to. And so your disturbance isn't caused by the nighttime. Your disturbance is caused by confusing your imagination for reality.

And blaming the nighttime for your imagination. This is what happens always as we go go through life. We experience disturbance, which is our response to our imagination, and then We blame the thing that's in front of us for our imagination. You know what? It was funny.

I was out at dinner last night with some friends. And I was next to a friend, and we were talking about something and a waiter came by. And asked us something, but she asked us right as my friend said something quietly that only I could hear that was really funny. And so right when the waiter asked a question, me and my friend started laughing. and it seemed like the waiter thought we were laughing at the waiter.

for whatever reason. And so it seemed like the waiter got what's the word insecure? And so in that situation, the waiter saw an experience to people laughing. and assumed it was about them, the imagination. And then they responded accordingly to their imagination, which is the waiter thought they were being judged and wasn't happy in at all.

And even if we were judging the waiter, it's still the waiter respond responding to to their imagination about being judged. But these types of things are happening all the time where life is just being life. and we are constantly seeing what exists on our inside. And so all of the insecurities we carry around, all the judgments we carry around, all the resentments we carry around, all the unforgiveness we carry around, all of that gets projected onto reality. and we think those things are out there.

But really, we're just constantly seeing ourselves. In the same breath, the assumption that the world is waking up is a reflection of how you see yourself. If you say the world is almost awake, who are you talking to? Who are you really talking about? Your expressing how you see yourself.

Because someone right next to you looks at the world and they say, the world is going to hell. To them, that's what it really looks like. Who's right? Well, the reality of this situation is the world is the world. Just in the same way that the forest is the forest.

you can look at the forest and see 10,000 different things from another human being. But ultimately what you're going to end up perceiving is some reflection of how you see yourself. You're going to see your inside. And so the world is neither waking up in the world is neither going to hell. It just is as it is, as it's always been doing what it's doing so that the world could be the world.

And I'm not talking about from, like, a societal standpoint. I'm talking about life. Like, life is just being life. And it's always just been life. so that life can be life, so that we can have the experience that we're having and same with everything else to have the experience that it's having.

in the same way, you could go buy a new car, and then all of a sudden, you start seeing that car everywhere. You didn't see them so often before, but because now it looks like that's your experience, you start seeing your experience everywhere else. It's not that everyone just started buying the same car. And so as you go on a spiritual path, it's going to look like more people are going on a spiritual path. That's not the case though.

It just looks that way. and it's not that that's wrong or shouldn't be. It's perfectly fine to See the world is waking up. That could be helpful, and I might be bursting your bubble right now. My apologies.

But for me, it brings some balance and sanity back to the equation because it shows me that oh, what I see is to see myself. And so I'm not relying on something out there to fulfill my fantasy of the world waking up before I allow myself to wake up. Right? because to say we're waiting for the world to wake up is kind of like saying, I'm waiting for the world to wake up before I finally wake up, which is also like saying, I'm waiting for the world to wake up before I actually let go into waking up. Right?

I need to first see that it's gonna be how I want it to be. before I allow myself to let go. Right? I first need to see that the bugs are gonna stop fighting before I allow myself to relax and let the forest be the forest. I gotta change a few things so that it does what I want, and then I can finally let go.

But the real gift of awakening, the real Miracle of it all is that what you see in my goodness Again, I'm using words. What you see is that Nothing, and I mean nothing, nothing, escaped the perfection of what God has already created. Nothing is out of balance. I mean, because if one thing was out of balance, it throws the whole thing out of balance. So it's impossible for it to be imbalanced.

Right? The rotation of the earth is intimately intertwined with the rotation of galaxies. The rotation of galaxies is intimately intertwined with the weather pattern of this Earth. Also intimately twined with everything that you are. and it's such a beautiful thing to see at least the possibility of this, that there is nothing about what you really are that escapes this perfection of what life or god has created.

And the only thing that makes it problematic or difficult is the assumption of disharmony. Right? Like, put it this way. The only thing that disrupts the fact that you've already been forgiven is you questioning if you were forgiven. Right?

Like, having the possibility that life doesn't love you separates you from the reality that it's impossible for life to not love you. Right? It's like you question it when it doesn't need to be questioned. It's like you questioning your worth in value is a question that life doesn't understand. Like, you say, am I worthy?

And life says you're breathing, aren't you? What kind of question is this? It's like such a thing doesn't even need to be questioned. And you don't you don't go into the forest and start questioning the 10,000 different things. Are you worthy to be what you are?

Are you worthy to be what you are? Are you doing what you're supposed to be doing? Right? That's unending. What you realize is that it's all divine.

It's all spirit dancing, doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. And the beauty for me in this too is coming back to the disturbance thing. If I'm disturbed in my God. I get chills just thinking about this. If I'm disturbed, it's about my ego.

It's not about life. It's about me trying to hold on to my separate fantasy of myself. Thinking life is about me rather than life is about life. Right? because look at it this way.

Why is everything in the forest doing what it's doing? so that the forest can be the forest. So the whole thing can be the whole thing. Right? It's not doing what it's doing only for this or that creature.

It's doing it for everything, which is itself the wholeness of what it is so that it can keep going on. And but if you identify with a separate piece from that wholeness. Right? You're a little character. you're effectively saying you're not that wholeness.

And so you care more about your narrative, who you think you are, then you care about the whole thing. This really points to like the act of giving yourself to God, where in some way it's like, oh, this isn't about me. This is about God. And again, using words to point to something, to point to an experience of waking up and seeing that this is about the whole damn thing. This is about the miracle of life itself, which is beyond our ability to even adequately describe.

It can't be seen with the mind, but there's something in you that can see it. but so many people are looking through the mind. They're trying to find it in the mind, and it can't be found there. in the same way that the truth can't be found in the stories. You you can't it doesn't matter if you paint a 1000 pictures of the sunset.

You're never gonna find the reality of the sunset in your pictures. and this is all the mind is doing is taking pictures. This is what all the stories are. They're taking pictures. This is what all your beliefs are.

They're pictures. It's all product of imagination. In some something in you is looking for something that's real. Right? What's real?

That cannot be found in pictures. because the picture is fundamentally not real. Okay. I rambled about that. Wow.

That just went on and on. Alright. I'm done running my mouth. You guys got any questions? Now would be the time to Ask them in the chat for those watching live.

If there's anything you want me to speak to, then I can do that. If not or after, then we'll do then we'll do a shortened sweet guided meditation. So there must be wars so the world can be the world. Well, look at it this way. There must be nighttime in order for there to be something called daytime.

There must be conflict for there to be something called resolution. And in the experience of resolution, It presents a learning opportunity to be with less conflict. and in the same way that nations can go to war with each other, you could have a married couple going to war with each other. Right? It's the same thing just on a larger scale.

We could just call it conflict. In war is a particular degree on the spectrum of conflict. And so in order for the human experience to be the human experience, and it applies to other things beyond just human beings. But yes, there will always be the experience of conflict because there will always be the experience of resolution. which we might also call learning.

You could easily call war in expression of failure. And so if there is going to be something called success, then there will always be something called failure. But within the individual, One can have their own internal war, which leads to a resolution, which facilitates a discovery, which leads you towards waking up So your experience of war in yourself is part of the waking up. And so within every human being, there will always be the capacity for war to serve the waking up that's not going away. And since our experience is one of what we might call an evolution of consciousness, If there is going to be an expansion of consciousness, there will also be a contraction of consciousness.

because it's the contraction of consciousness that facilitates the expansion. Right? So easily, we could say, oh, when I wake up, there won't be any more contraction of consciousness. No. because even after one wakes up, there is still the expansion of consciousness.

And if it's going to continue to expand, then it will also have moments of contracting. And so you can see here that what happens is We have these ideas of what it is, and it's not that. Right? Like, we have these ideas of what does it mean to be awake. and then you have your cute spiritual ideas, and it's not that.

Just in the same way, we can say when the world wakes up, there won't be any more war. maybe more accurately, when you wake up, you won't have conflict with conflict. you won't go to war with the war. Right? It's kind of like watching two people argue.

are watching a couple fight. And you can see that, oh, they're they are 2 different plays of energy trying to work something out. Right? There's a lesson here. There's a learning that's going on here.

And in this particular situation, I don't need to get involved with that. Right? I don't need to fix it. But you could also see, like, if you're disturbed or you have this idea that people shouldn't disagree, then you can try and stop that. And even if you stop it, if the conflict is still within the human being, it's still going to find its way out.

Right? So even if you stop it, you're not really stopping it. You're just delaying it. And this is something that happens quite often where we get involved in other people's business because we're disturbed by their conflict. And so we try and control the situation and suppress their conflict so that they don't act conflicted around us.

But sooner or later, if the conflict is on the inside, it's coming out. Bumpy says, while awakening, I noticed it is almost impossible to take the illusions in life serious, like playing a sports match and play for the win as if it matters of life and death. How can we awake while keep functioning in life? what I sense in that question, how can we wake up and keep functioning in life? is a fear that I might stop functioning.

And you can see that in that fear that I might stop functioning, the fear says it's more safe that I don't wake up. And this is often the ego's mantra where it it likes the idea of waking up, but it's not safe because waking up is like letting go. And It's not what the ego want. The ego wants control. And part of how it gets its control is by chasing the thing rather than surrendering to the thing.

Like, the ego likes the spiritual seeking, It likes to play the spiritual game, but it doesn't actually want the end result because it would be the end for the ego. But in some cases, the spiritual game gives the ego a sense of importance. Like, I'm spiritual now. I'm better than everyone kind of thing. But for the question of how can we wake up and keep functioning?

Maybe it would be wise to see that you've been functioning this whole time. and you thought you were doing it, but you weren't. Look at it this way. You can watch yourself breathe. You can make yourself breathe.

and it looks like you're doing it. Right? It looks like you are the 1 that's facilitating the function of breathing. And I'm sitting here telling you, you can stop trying. It will happen.

Let it happen. But the ego says, no. because if I If I stop trying to breathe, then I'll stop breathing, and then I'll die. And so the ego extends so much effort on trying to breathe that it misses out on the miracle of life. But yet, if it would just relax, it would see that the breathing happens on its own.

Right? This is something that life is doing. you know what? A great example of this is, like, in the work that I do in doing these talks. because I can recognize the same fear in the beginning of, like, there's an agitation that wants to know what to say, wants to know it's gonna go a certain way.

Right? Maybe there's a fear that it won't. but that fear is just about my ego. It's not about anything that actually matters. Like, I could totally sit here and be silent and not say anything and just hang out and silent with you.

And some people just like that even more than me talking. It's like it's okay. It's okay for it to be that. And so In recognizing that I don't have to try so hard, I can relax and give my breath back to life, which is like, stop trying to figure out so much how to do this. and just be here.

And let's see what happens. Let's see what life wants to say. This is the same for an artist. Right? Like, the artist gets out of the way, and then life paints through the artist.

and it's the same with functioning and life is the invitation is to get out of the way and let life function. because in the same way, someone can say, well, I'm afraid to wake up and let go because I might stop brushing my teeth or I might stop taking a shower. but yet these things that you do, this functioning that's happening, it's so much more effortless than we seem to see it, which actually shows us how much more difficult we make life just by our crying to function. And man, sometimes it's just so obvious, and it wears you down, you become exhausted, and you eventually have to surrender everything anyway. And then you have this great release, and then you maybe a little bit give yourself back to life, you let go, and then things keep functioning.

Yeah. But, you know, it's also just opening up to the great mystery. Because just like with these talks that I do, I have to let go of my outcome. I have to let go of what I think I want for me out of this. You see that that's what people's hang up is.

There's such a personal agenda of what I want out of it for me thinking it's about me that I don't get out of the way. I have to effort so much to make it happen, to make sure I get what I want. But again, the more you see the truth of what you are, you see that you don't need anything. You see that even the things that you think you want, you don't even really know if you want them. It's like you don't even know if that's best.

And so there's the relaxation and you say, okay, life. Let's let's see what you wanna do. That is the classic, value will be done. not my will, but thy will. Amanda says, what do you think about when people say it feels like everyone is sleeping, and I'm the only person awake.

I hear it sometimes and I feel the same sometimes. I can understand that. You know, gosh, this this takes me in such a different direction, which is just so much to say about it. You see you see when we say I, I am the only person awake. Who is this i?

Because that i is not awake. The i that is separate from everyone else is not a real something. Although that i, which is the character, can tell a story that it is awake and others are not, especially if there is some sort of deep scene within you. And again, this is so common and unavoidable that it's not a problem that this happens. Like, in a way, of course, it's gonna happen.

But what happens is there's a deep scene And then we think that I see that rather than this is being seen. through the lens of what I am. It's like the ego tries to take credit for it. A no other way of saying this is that there is no person that wakes up. because the person is a character.

There's aspects of consciousness that sees itself or sees aspects of itself, more aspects. And that illustrates a form of waking up. But the character inside the consciousness isn't the one that's doing that. Right? In the same way, where you can say I am awake.

You can also say I am the one that's breathing. I am the one that's beating my own heart. But this eye that you're referring to isn't doing any of that. Right? The same thing that's breathing you is the same thing that moves the ocean tide in and out.

It's the same thing that blows the wind. The same force that beats your heart is the same force that does everything else. It's just one force. It's one breath that breathes us all. But there's a character in your consciousness.

that we think we are that takes credit for it. And one way that it takes credit for it is to see itself as awake and see other people as not awake. That reinforces the idea that it's awake. Right? Like, if you wanted to see yourself as a smart person, you have to look and find dumb people.

Because smart people can't exist without dumb people. And so if you want to see yourself as a smart person, you will unconsciously or consciously look to judge other people as dumb. And so if you want and, again, the smart and dumb, they're not something that's real. That doesn't exist. In the same way, if you wanna see yourself as a conscious person, you will look for unconscious people.

That's how you will define yourself as conscious. But there isn't really anything called a conscious person or an unconscious person. These are all just ways that the character tries to define itself. It gives itself a label, and in order to survive that label, it has to identify the opposite of the label. And uses a lot of mental energy to do so.

Bumpy says, Do you see hosting this session, not as something you are doing, but something you are allowing to arise? Not as an achievement. Yeah. Totally. Totally.

But I can also I can also see the aspect of myself, like, down here in the corner that is afraid that it might not go. Right? Right? Like, that's just part of being human. That's just there.

The question is, How much energy do I give that? Like, how much do I trust that insecurity as opposed to trusting the way of life. It's like I can still see that part there, but I can see like, how false it is at the same time. And in seeing how false it is, it means I don't need to give it attention. But it's so obvious to me, especially I mean, I've done these talks for 13 years you know, times however many.

So so many times I've shown up without really knowing what to say and just said whatever was most sincere. And so through the practice of that, it kinda builds a trust that. Oh, okay. It's okay to just get out of the way. It's okay to just let this be whatever it's gonna be.

But still, even surprisingly, it's amazing how How insecure or how agitated I might be sometimes even though I have a lifetime of evidence. that says I don't need to me, which is the real funny part. Right? because how many times have you not trusted life. And life came through.

And you said, okay. I'm never gonna doubt life again. But, yeah, you end up doubting life again. It's super sweet. Super sweet.

Bumpy asks right now if Christopher Plowman would come in this room and give you the award for best all time teacher on IT. How would you cope with this situation? I find that an interesting question. How would I cope with it? I first realized that it's not nearly as important as my mind would make it out to be.

learn through experience, and it doesn't mean what my mind might think it means. And so it would just be adorable. And I'd say thank you very much. And I just go right back to doing what I'm doing. my expectations have been beautifully destroyed with this path of sharing.

because I I mean, I get lots of beautiful feedback and appreciation. but it doesn't mean anything as it relates to where the sharing is going. Like, okay. Would it be cool if there were a thousand people watching? Okay.

Sure. Would that change my experience in this moment right now? No. Like, I would still be in this moment, and it would just be an idea. Right?

Like, if there's a thousand people watching, if there's 10,000 people watching. Okay. Cool. But that's just an idea. And it would be easy to interpret that, oh, that means I'm more than Does it really mean that?

No. Right? And if I thought that, if I believed that a thousand people watching means I'm more lovable than what I'm also saying is that I'm less lovable because of the amount of people that are watching now. Is that true? No.

And so as it relates to my worth and value, as it relates to what I am, it's fundamentally irrelevant how many people are watching. What's actually relevant is the enjoyment that I get with showing up and getting out of the way, and letting life use me in a way that feels resonant. It's like that's the prize. The prize is not getting to a place where ten thousand people are watching live. The prize is for me to keep showing up doing work that I love doing, being of service, and letting that be enough.

And wherever that goes is wherever it goes. And again, would it be cool? Sure. It'd be cool. but it would be a cool idea that doesn't really mean anything.

But again, just because the painting isn't real, doesn't mean I'm not gonna paint. Right? So just because the cool idea doesn't mean anything, doesn't mean I'm going to not enjoy cool ideas. Right? It's not gonna mean that I don't have visions for I would like to experience in the expression of what I love to do.

And that's the freedom in it. It's like because it doesn't mean anything is a freedom that allows me to play rather than take it seriously. previously. Pumpy says you were so real, I guess so. Seems easier than being fake.

That's exhausting. Yeah. because, like, when I'm real, because I can I mean, I can totally recognize maybe we won't do a guided meditation. I don't know. I'm just hanging out.

I can totally recognize the allure of being fake. Like, showing up here and pretending, like, I'm a super spiritual person and that I'm being super professional. Maybe that's not pretending for some people. But if I was doing that, then I'd totally be pretending. But I can see the allure, like, oh, well, if people will think on this or think on that, then I'll get this and then I'll get that.

And but it just sounds so exhausting. It sounds like I couldn't show up consistently if my job was to be fake. like I'd be so much more afraid to show up. And so I like how in the business that I built in doing this work. It's built around the permission for me to just be myself.

And if people like that, great. And if they don't like it, that's great too. And then the people that come and hang out are the people that appreciate me just being myself, which is the kind of people I wanna hang out with. And so it works really well that way. because if you set it up where you're pretending to be something that you're not, then those people are affecting you to be that pretend something, so you're always having to be something that you're not, and that's exhausting.

But we pretend to be something we're not because we want an outcome. And so we exhaust ourselves in hopes of getting something that we don't really want anyway because what we really want is to just be ourselves. And somehow, it's amazing that when you just be yourself and show up and do the best that you can, you learn and grow and somehow you're taken care of. It doesn't mean you get what you want. but you're taken care of.

I just wanna invite you to just be here with me. in the most non fancy sort of way. No meditation bell. No music. Can we just be here?

Whether you're happy or sad. Anxious or excited. It's okay. Let's just be here. It might be amazing for you to see how the mind can house so much noise when all we're just doing is being still.

and that's okay. If we notice the noise in the mind, we can just come back to this moment and look at each other. Maybe we'll find some stillness there. Maybe not. But let's just hang out.

So adorable to me. And we get so scared sometimes. When nothing's happening? That's what's great about this moment right now. Is that regardless of what we think is happening in our lives?

We can just take this moment and just be still. Is this awkward? Just sit here and look at each other? No. and maybe you're hurting, maybe you're having a tough day.

And I'm sorry. I know what that's like. But I could imagine that somewhere underneath that pain, You're just feeling like you're not enough. I know what that's like. And maybe we can realize we don't need to pee enough.

Maybe we can stop trying to be enough. Maybe we can see that life is enough. This moment is enough. Maybe. Maybe all that trying and seeking and thinking.

Maybe it's not necessary. Maybe we can just show up and do the best that we can do. Maybe. Alright. Thanks for hanging out with me.

Enjoy your day if you can. till next time. Bye bye.

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