0:15

Welcome to Season 3 of the Michael

0:17

Singer Podcast. Michael

0:19

Singer is the author of the widely

0:22

influential New York Times

0:24

bestsellers, The Untethered Soul,

0:27

The Surrender Experiment, and

0:29

most recently, Living Untethered,

0:32

Beyond the Human Predicament. Produced

0:35

in partnership with Shanti Publications,

0:38

the Michael Singer Podcast brings

0:40

you select recordings from the Temple

0:43

of the Universe, a yoga

0:45

and meditation center that Michael

0:47

founded in 1975. This

0:50

episode is on letting go

0:52

of reactive

0:52

energies. Sounds

0:55

True would also like you to know about an

0:57

extraordinary eight-part video

0:59

course that we've created with Michael

1:01

Singer. It's called Living from

1:03

a Place of Surrender, The

1:06

Untethered Soul in Action. It's

1:08

an online course many people report

1:11

to be utterly life-changing.

1:12

You can find out more

1:15

at michelsingerpodcast.com,

1:17

and you can save 15% off any Michael Singer program

1:21

available through Sounds True

1:23

when you use the code SINGER15

1:27

at checkout. That's Singer, numeral

1:30

one, numeral five. And

1:32

now, letting go of reactive

1:34

energies with Michael Singer.

2:05

The

2:10

center of consciousness is

2:14

the most essential thing to

2:17

spiritual growth. If

2:19

you cannot sit consciously,

2:22

you can't do anything. You

2:25

just become reaction to

2:28

what's happening around you. You're like a machine.

2:32

Somebody says something, you react. You

2:35

see something, you react. This

2:38

may seem natural and spontaneous,

2:42

but in truth it's all pre-programmed. And

2:44

there's nothing natural or spontaneous

2:46

about reaction. It is just

2:49

reaction. So

2:51

the first stage in any

2:53

spiritual progress is

2:56

the ability to stay centered

2:59

and be present in between action

3:03

and reaction. You can't

3:05

even begin to work at the core. You're

3:07

not even working at the periphery if

3:10

all that happens is

3:12

you react. This

3:15

work of keeping

3:17

the center, keeping the consciousness is

3:20

begun in meditation, but

3:22

it's really practiced in daily life. It

3:26

is possible to remain

3:28

conscious every moment all day.

3:31

From the time you wake up until the time you

3:33

go to sleep, do not doubt

3:36

that it is possible to constantly

3:39

effortlessly be aware

3:41

of what is happening outside

3:44

of you, what are the reactions

3:47

that it is hitting and responding inside

3:49

of you, and you can see

3:52

what impulses and urges would

3:55

have driven you to say or

3:57

do behavior of

3:59

reaction.

4:00

But you're perfectly capable of

4:03

sitting there, breathing, relaxing,

4:05

and just being aware that

4:07

this is the dance of creation.

4:10

Things are happening. People are saying things. Things

4:14

are going one way or another. And

4:16

as they come into your world, they

4:18

cause the change in the energy

4:21

fields inside of you, which

4:23

create the tendency. They

4:25

don't create action. They create

4:27

tendency toward action.

4:30

They cause your thoughts to start to

4:32

manifest a certain way. They

4:34

cause your emotions to begin to express

4:37

a certain way. And normally,

4:39

they would cause your mouth to move and

4:41

certain words to come out. They would

4:44

cause you to walk toward or

4:46

away. They would run your life.

4:49

The truth is that if you do this,

4:52

you go nowhere. You have to understand that. That

4:55

reacting to the environment

4:57

outside of you

4:59

keeps you in the karmic patterns

5:02

of the way that you work. There is a

5:05

reason that certain stimuli

5:08

cause certain tendencies

5:10

of reaction. Do not

5:13

call this natural. That

5:16

is a misuse of the word

5:18

natural. Nowadays when we say

5:20

it's natural, it

5:22

spontaneously came up in me, it was

5:25

what I felt really. Somehow

5:28

we place something holy on that. It's

5:31

your karmic

5:31

patterns. If a

5:33

certain stimuli happens, almost

5:36

everyone in this room will have a different reaction. There

5:38

are some, like a lion jumps out or something.

5:41

We all tend to have the same reaction. But

5:44

most stimuli that happen during

5:46

the course of the day, we think

5:48

that everybody is having the same reaction.

5:51

You're crazy. It is all

5:53

dependent upon the past patterns

5:56

and some scars that you have

5:58

stored inside of you.

5:59

that determine how your

6:02

energy will change because

6:04

of a certain stimuli. It's an extremely

6:06

personal thing. So don't make it

6:09

so holy. You

6:10

have to be willing to let

6:12

it go if you want

6:14

to work at a deeper level

6:16

of your being. If you're only going

6:18

to work at the level of reaction,

6:21

you're not working.

6:23

It's just what naturally takes

6:25

place. And that natural is

6:28

not so natural. And what it will do

6:30

is keep you caught

6:32

within your karmic patterns. If you have

6:34

a certain fear due to past experiences

6:37

and somebody happens to touch it inadvertently,

6:40

whatever, they say a certain thing, they act

6:42

a certain way, they stand a little too close, they

6:44

take a step back when you're trying to talk to them,

6:47

even the tiniest little thing, this

6:49

will hit

6:51

that passive score. That

6:53

will cause a tendency

6:56

toward reaction, a shift in

6:58

your energy flow. What happens in there is

7:00

phenomenal because of the slightest

7:03

thing that happens outside,

7:04

it causes this change

7:07

in your inner being. Your reaction

7:10

to that

7:11

will always be in harmony

7:13

with that pattern. Therefore,

7:15

you will talk or act or do

7:17

in accordance to that pattern.

7:20

And you will then set into motion

7:22

behavior that will cause the other person

7:25

to respond in accordance to your response.

7:28

And you are creating your environment

7:30

outside in accordance to

7:32

your environment inside. It's a phenomenal

7:35

thing to watch. If you get angry,

7:37

you will cause the other person to get angry. If you

7:39

get hurt, you will cause hurt to take

7:41

place outside. And then you will feel completely

7:44

justified that this is actually

7:46

what took place in that interaction. And

7:48

you don't realize that it isn't what took place. It's

7:51

just the reaction that

7:53

happened in you. And that can

7:54

change. So there is no

7:57

work on yourself

7:58

until you can remain conscious. You have

8:00

to do whatever you can do, meditate,

8:03

anything that you possibly can do just

8:07

to be able to remain conscious

8:09

during the course of every single interaction

8:12

of every single day. There is never

8:14

a reason to

8:16

lose your center.

8:18

No matter what anybody does, no matter what

8:20

happens to you,

8:22

you have to be capable of knowing

8:25

that it is happening to you. Now

8:27

you have earned the right that most people

8:29

don't have is to figure out, now what

8:31

do I do? Because it is a frightening

8:33

state to become conscious of where

8:36

you are at. You will immediately

8:38

think that you are going backwards. The more

8:40

conscious you get in the beginning, the more you

8:42

think you are slipping on the path. Why?

8:45

Because you start seeing all this stuff

8:48

that you never saw before. You start

8:50

seeing all these reactive tendencies.

8:54

What in the world is going on inside

8:56

of me? How did I get so ugly?

8:58

How did I get so scared? How did I get so

9:01

fearful? How did I get so reactive? This

9:03

yoga is messing me up. That

9:07

is what you will tend to feel. I feel

9:09

all that reaction happen inside of them and

9:11

they think they are going the wrong way. Eventually

9:15

you catch on that this has been going on

9:17

inside of you your whole life and

9:19

you have been acting accordingly

9:21

based on how your mother treated you, your father treated

9:23

you to do anything that happened in your whole life, you

9:26

are just responding and reacting accordingly.

9:29

Once you meditate enough or you do whatever

9:31

it is that you need to do, then

9:33

stimuli happen outside.

9:35

They will certainly hit what is inside

9:38

of you and they will cause a change

9:40

in your energy. The difference now

9:42

is you feel that. You are aware

9:45

of that. The beginning of working

9:47

deeper within yourself is that

9:50

you don't go with that. I

9:52

think the beginning of spirituality

9:54

is self-discipline. That is

9:56

what all the masters taught. It is even the heart

9:59

of the religious.

9:59

teachings is until you

10:02

can master

10:03

yourself, you have no possibility

10:07

of going any deeper. So you're

10:09

taught to fast, there's a fear of fasting,

10:11

there's a silence, there's so

10:14

many different things that are taught. They

10:16

have no meaning in and of themselves. There's

10:18

no great thing in not eating. There's no great

10:20

thing in not talking. It is the ability

10:23

to not eat. It is the ability to

10:25

not talk when you want to talk. There's

10:27

the ability to sit in the presence of people

10:30

when you're uncomfortable and watch

10:32

that silent period that happens when nobody's

10:34

talking and your heart gets all weird

10:37

and your stomach gets weird and your mind starts

10:39

thinking a mile a minute of things to say

10:41

that will start a conversation up and you

10:44

start noticing how uncomfortable

10:46

you are. Spirituality

10:49

is being comfortable in that uncomfortable

10:51

state. Spirituality

10:53

is the ability

10:54

to not talk when you want

10:56

to talk

10:57

because you see that the impetus for

11:00

any words that you would say are completely

11:02

impure. You were coming from a place

11:04

of insecurity and therefore anything

11:06

that you say is not a conversation

11:09

worth having because it's just being

11:11

said for the wrong reason. And so

11:13

you learn to practice the discipline. It's

11:15

essential to be able to do this to

11:17

where when you most want to talk because

11:20

you're uncomfortable, you keep your mouth shut.

11:22

When you most want something

11:25

because it caused a reaction inside of

11:27

you and somebody said something you most

11:29

want them to say they're sorry or they better

11:31

take it back or say

11:32

that they didn't mean it. Every single

11:35

thing inside

11:35

of you is burning and just wants

11:37

to do something about it. Spirituality

11:40

is the ability to do nothing about it because

11:43

nothing you're going to gain

11:46

through that outer experience really

11:49

has any effect

11:52

of change inside of you. If

11:54

that's what you do is start

11:56

a conversation when you feel uncomfortable, not

11:59

walk into a room. you're afraid people will notice

12:01

you. If somebody says something that you

12:03

don't like, you find ways to write or

12:05

say or do things to get them to be

12:07

sorry so they'll never say it again. In other

12:10

words, if you manipulate your environment

12:12

so that you're feeling okay, that

12:15

is the epitome of working at the

12:17

surface. What's going to change? You've

12:20

by definition said not me.

12:22

I'm not going to change.

12:24

These energies are going to react the way that

12:26

they react. I'm going to honor

12:28

them as though they were something holy and

12:30

what's going to change is you. You're

12:33

going to change your attitude. You're going to change how

12:35

you talk to me. You're going to change when

12:37

you come. You're going to change when you go. Every

12:40

single person and thing around me is going to

12:42

go through some serious change, aren't they? And

12:44

I'm going to make sure that they do. I'm going

12:46

to let them know that they are not to talk to me that

12:48

way. I'm going to let them know that I will not

12:50

tolerate this, that this should not be this way, that

12:52

this is wrong. I'm going to argue with them.

12:54

I'm going to prove it to them, whatever it is. In

12:57

other words, nothing in here

12:59

is saying I will change. Everything

13:02

in here is saying I will not change.

13:05

I am fine the way I am. In fact,

13:08

I'm the highest one around here. I'm

13:11

the one who's clear. I have it right.

13:13

And everything out there is change.

13:16

Why? Just get it straight what you're saying

13:18

so that I don't have to change

13:21

because I am not going to change. That's

13:24

not even working at the surface, is it? That's

13:26

called not working. You've

13:28

decided not to work on yourself. Please

13:31

look at that. How can personal change

13:34

take place in that environment? So

13:36

you attempt to use all of this reactive

13:39

energy that comes up inside

13:41

of you to gain control over

13:44

the people, places, and things outside of

13:46

you so that you don't have to change. And

13:48

what you're doing is reinforcing these energies.

13:51

Every single time something comes up inside of you,

13:53

that you feel someone doesn't like you or that you feel

13:55

afraid or you want something, and

13:57

you respond accordingly to your outer and environment,

14:00

you are saying to these energies, yes, you are

14:02

right. I agree with you. You are

14:05

the way I want to be. Come up and express

14:07

yourself and strengthen yourself. And

14:09

you build habits of energy flowing

14:12

that way. So all of that

14:14

is not yoga. When you

14:16

want to grow, you wake up

14:18

and you realize growth is about me

14:21

changing. It is not about

14:23

me changing my environment. It is about

14:25

my environment changing me. If I

14:28

want to change, I have to

14:30

at least work with these energies that

14:33

react inside of me. Now you

14:35

get the first step down. And we've talked

14:37

about before, I don't think there's any

14:39

way to take that step inside

14:42

until you stop touching with the outside. You

14:44

have to be willing, like I said, to

14:47

not eat when you want to eat, to be silent

14:49

when you want to talk. The stronger

14:51

the impulses, the more fun it is. And

14:54

you get tremendously strong within

14:56

yourself to realize that

14:59

you're the captain of your own ship. You must

15:01

take control over

15:03

these reactive energies that are inside

15:05

of you. So the first step of

15:08

working at the deeper parts inside of you

15:10

is to not go with yourself. Under

15:13

what situation should you go with yourself when

15:15

you decide that you don't want to grow? When

15:18

you decide you're tired of growing, and

15:20

you want to stay the way you are, and

15:23

you really want these energies to be disturbing

15:25

you inside, then give them the right

15:27

to run your life and dump on somebody. Because

15:29

that's what you're doing. I can't handle the energy

15:32

inside of me and you're going to be sorry that

15:34

you're anywhere near me, not to mention that

15:37

I can blame it on you, that I can in some

15:39

way, shape or form say, you made

15:41

me feel this way.

15:43

Therefore, these are your energies, not mine.

15:45

And I'm going to let you know what they feel like. And

15:47

you sit there and try to dump the energies out.

15:50

So you stop doing this, you just

15:52

stop it. How? I won't answer

15:54

that. If somebody comes to me and

15:56

says, I don't understand everything you're saying, and I really

15:59

think I need to work with

15:59

myself, but I don't know how to do it.

16:02

That's a lie.

16:04

Because the truth of the matter is, you

16:06

want to do it, you do it. You don't

16:08

want to do it. You don't know.

16:10

You're sitting there, you start feeling uncomfortable, it's

16:13

no conversations taking place. Your mind

16:15

says, God, the weather now I don't want to talk about the weather

16:17

that's doing this. I want to assist. How's

16:19

your sister? Okay, that's about no, I don't want to support our sister.

16:21

She'll know I'm just making covers. Anybody

16:23

ever have any night that go on there? Then

16:25

you just you take superglue. You

16:30

put it on your lips. And

16:32

you sit there and say, sooner the sun

16:34

and moon, and the Yukta Shorisha said, sooner

16:37

the sun and moon should change places than

16:39

this mouth is opening and this tongue is flapping.

16:42

Because I know that

16:45

I'm full of it. I see where I'm coming

16:49

from.

16:50

And I don't want to be that person.

16:54

I will not be that person. That is not

16:56

denial, you're not suppressing. That

16:58

is called consciousness, awareness.

17:01

And you are using your willpower in

17:03

order to at least start an environment

17:06

of transformation. So when

17:09

you want out, you will do this.

17:12

If you don't want out, you will

17:14

find that a thousand million excuses

17:17

not to do it. And don't you dare go

17:19

anywhere else when you're finding excuses not to

17:21

do it and expect someone to do it for you,

17:24

or teach you how to do it or come up with some magic

17:26

technique that's going to make it so you don't have

17:28

to do it. You have to want out

17:31

more than you want to make it

17:33

be comfortable for yourself. So you keep

17:35

your mouth shut. And now what happens?

17:38

Now you begin to work deeper

17:40

inside of you. And what you end up

17:42

with is you end up working with yourself.

17:45

Never is the work with other people. Don't

17:48

ever get caught thinking you're somebody else's teacher,

17:51

or in this situation, you have to make sure

17:53

somebody understands. If

17:55

you work with yourself, you

17:57

will change the vibrations all around. you

18:00

and everybody will grow, not just you.

18:03

If you decide that you're right and

18:05

others are wrong and you use

18:07

these energies inside of you to

18:09

change other people, wait till you see

18:11

what happens. Nobody changes.

18:14

All you do is fight. You end up

18:16

fighting with people.

18:18

There is no reason to fight.

18:34

Faced with life's challenges and

18:37

uncertainties, many of us

18:39

feel quite stressed and overwhelmed.

18:42

But does it have to be this way? With

18:45

his newest book, Living

18:47

Untethered, Michael Singer

18:49

has written a

18:49

follow-up to the spiritual classic,

18:52

The Untethered Soul, taking

18:54

us within to our still and

18:57

liberated center.

18:58

To learn more about

18:59

this book and Michael Singer's other

19:02

offerings, please visit living-untethered.com.

19:31

Lao Tzu says, a wise man never

19:33

argues. For what purpose?

19:36

Why would you argue?

19:39

The only reason you would argue is

19:41

because the energies inside of you are making

19:44

you do it. They are causing so much

19:46

disturbance inside of you that

19:48

you have to end this conversation

19:50

through being right or through winning

19:53

or by getting an apology. And so

19:55

you end up fighting outside

19:58

because in reality you're fighting.

19:59

inside. So the work

20:02

starts

20:04

when you stop doing this with the outside,

20:07

when you're willing to own everything

20:09

that's going on inside of you as yours,

20:11

and you're not rationalizing or blaming

20:14

or doing anything outside. Do you see

20:16

that? Now you can begin

20:18

to work at a deeper level. What happens

20:21

if you manage to attain that state? That

20:23

every time these reactive energies

20:26

try to force you to do something, you're

20:28

conscious and you remain centered

20:31

within yourself. Now you end up

20:33

with a hot potato. Now I have all

20:35

these reactive energies inside of me and

20:37

I'm strong enough to not let them out. Now

20:40

what? I'm going to cook. They're

20:43

going to drive me crazy. All right? And

20:45

you start noticing some really great things.

20:47

You become very wise. First, you notice

20:50

that your mind goes crazy.

20:52

I love it.

20:53

People come to me and they say, since I've been meditating, my

20:55

mind goes crazy. This is good. It's

20:57

because you're not letting it do everything

21:00

it used to do to not go crazy. And

21:02

so these energies inside first

21:04

try to express themselves through the mind. Have

21:07

you noticed? Has anybody noticed that? If

21:09

you do not let it express itself outside,

21:12

it first finds the next weak link.

21:15

Your strongest weak link or your weakest link is

21:17

your outer expression. It just happens just like

21:19

this. You just dump the energy through your mouth

21:22

or your actions, whatever. If you don't do

21:24

that, then it goes to your mind and your mind

21:26

starts talking about what it would say. If you

21:28

let it say, just try and do his silence a little

21:30

bit. It just starts saying everything it would have said,

21:32

it carries on both sides of the conversation. How

21:35

often do you carry on both sides of the conversation? It

21:38

is wonderful. So it all goes into the mind.

21:40

That is this reactive energy that

21:42

was stimulated due to your karmic patterns.

21:45

Don't you dare think that everybody's mind

21:47

is the same. Everybody's

21:48

mind is the same as all neurotic. That

21:50

I agree, but not everybody's mind is saying

21:53

the same thing.

21:54

It's all based upon what your karmic

21:56

patterns are and you're some scores. Yours

21:59

is completely Everybody wants to be unique.

22:01

You're already unique. You don't have to prove

22:03

yourself at all. Your mind says

22:06

totally weird things different

22:08

than anybody else's, all

22:10

right? But it doesn't know that. And

22:12

it literally thinks

22:14

that it is in there saying the same thing

22:16

that everybody else's mind is saying. Watch how

22:18

you think that. You assume that. That

22:21

everybody's the same as yours. You've never been

22:23

in anybody else's, so how do you know? All

22:26

right? And you're inside of yours so much that's the

22:28

only frame of reference that you have. So

22:30

now you watch these reactive energies. You

22:32

see that the mind is trying to convince

22:35

you to do something. The mind

22:37

wants to do something to make

22:39

these energies get calmer. You

22:41

have to learn to not do this. You

22:44

learn to be able to sit there consciously,

22:47

even though the mind is saying all this, and

22:49

you start to then notice that there are feelings

22:52

underneath all of this, that

22:54

were causing the mind to do it and would have

22:56

caused the actions to happen. Notice every

22:59

step you're taking, the way

23:01

to take the step to the root

23:04

is by not operating

23:07

at the level in front of it. If

23:09

you operate at the level in front of it, then that's

23:11

where the energy goes.

23:13

You either

23:14

exercise through action or

23:16

what you do with your mind, I'll spend one second, you know,

23:18

the main thing people do with their minds is they're

23:20

rationalized.

23:22

They get it together. They sit there and

23:24

make it all make sense. So they

23:26

go in there, they say things like somebody says something

23:28

that bothers you, you want to argue back. But

23:31

you keep your mouth shut. That's really good.

23:33

And now what does your mind do? Does it get totally

23:36

silent the minute you do that? There's just absolute

23:38

silence, not a word is being said. The

23:41

universe of silence passes through. Never. Instead

23:43

it says things like, my

23:45

God, I wonder if he even notices what I have to say.

23:48

If he knew if I gave him a piece, he's lucky

23:50

that I've learned to shut my mouth. All right.

23:53

Next time, he does this next time, I'm

23:55

not keeping my mouth shut. And it just goes on

23:57

and on. And then it says things like, boy, am I going

23:59

to do this. getting high. I am really, I can't believe

24:02

I was able not to say that he was so wrong.

24:04

I mean, I am so high. I have

24:06

got it together so much. This is unbelievable.

24:09

If he had any idea how great I am

24:11

that I'm in this world and

24:14

it just goes

24:15

on and on and on.

24:17

What it's trying to do is find

24:20

a way to balance these

24:22

energies. Yoga teaches something

24:24

much, much deeper. Yoga says it

24:26

is good that these energies

24:29

are building up inside of you so

24:31

that you can see them.

24:33

You are a conscious being.

24:35

You should be able to work with your energies.

24:38

They shouldn't get stuck inside of you

24:40

and cause all this trouble. So

24:42

the first thing you will see is that the easiest

24:45

way to release the disturbed energies

24:47

is through disturbing the environment around you.

24:50

Second is through playing this mind

24:52

game of finding ways

24:55

to think about it that makes you

24:57

feel better.

24:58

Anybody ever do that? You

25:00

just find ways to think

25:02

about it

25:03

that somehow if you think about it just right

25:06

then it all gets quiet, doesn't it? You are

25:08

rationalizing thoughts so

25:10

that the energies get balanced. If you

25:12

are on a spiritual path, they are very

25:15

much like the ones I just told you. That

25:17

if you are disturbed by something, you are jealous,

25:19

somebody did something, you feel jealous, you find

25:22

so many different clothes to put on.

25:25

So you say things like, it

25:27

is his karma. Let God take

25:29

care of it. He will find out and by not reacting,

25:31

I am being so good. This is so

25:33

unbelievable. Like I said, I never thought you would

25:35

do such a thing. God will be so pleased with me. Someday

25:38

he will see how good I am. He can't see now, alright?

25:41

But I will stand by him and I will do this

25:43

and it

25:43

says all this stuff. And what

25:45

it does is it says just the right thing

25:48

in just the right way.

25:50

All of a sudden it feels much better.

25:52

It talked itself out of its

25:54

disturbed energy. It was able

25:57

to manipulate and move

25:59

the energy. through manipulating

26:01

the mind instead of manipulating

26:04

the outer situations. Does anybody

26:06

else do that? You ever see how when something

26:08

is disturbing you that you try to use your mind

26:11

to fix it? What do you think

26:13

you're doing? Just watch

26:16

this process. It's what it means to be conscious.

26:18

Why is this not a good... It's okay to do

26:21

this, all right? Like I said, each layer

26:23

that you come in closer is at least closer

26:26

to the root. Ultimately it's not good

26:28

to do this. How do I know? Because

26:30

if you sit there and you get it all packaged right,

26:33

I'm really getting high and I and God will show

26:35

him and someday he'll know how good I am and so on,

26:37

all right? You've built a self-concept.

26:40

You built a world

26:42

to find and if anything

26:45

doesn't fit that and match that, if

26:47

all of a sudden he turns around and says, I know

26:49

what you're thinking, you're thinking that someday

26:51

I'll find out that you're right. Where

26:54

do you see what happens to you? Everything

26:56

will go berserk again. It's like somebody actually

26:58

took away your hiding place. Can

27:01

they do that? Can something happen

27:03

outside that stops you from being able to think

27:05

about it the way you did and then all of a

27:07

sudden the energies go crazy again? Instead

27:10

of fighting with this, you should learn from this.

27:13

It proves to you that what you're doing

27:15

is trying to use the world or thought

27:18

to get your energies together. They are not

27:21

good places to work with things.

27:23

Though your

27:24

mind starts going crazy, it starts saying

27:26

things. What do you do?

27:27

You don't listen to it. That's very hard. Most

27:30

people have a lot of trouble with that. It was hard enough

27:32

not to react outside.

27:34

Now you let the mind say whatever it wants and

27:36

you don't put yourself into it. You

27:39

don't let it fix you. How do you like that? If

27:41

it finds a place that feels comfortable,

27:43

you kick the chair out from under it. You

27:46

do not let yourself sit

27:48

in the comfortable little world you

27:51

built in your mind because you're

27:53

just building a fictitious place that

27:55

makes your energies feel more balanced.

27:58

You don't want that. It will get destroyed

28:00

soon enough, don't worry.

28:02

So if you don't listen to your mind,

28:05

why do you see where you end up next? You

28:07

keep coming closer and closer to the

28:09

root of your being. The next place you

28:11

end up is your heart. This will happen

28:14

very naturally, you don't need any teachings. Just

28:17

don't go with

28:18

the thing in front of it.

28:20

Use that discipline and you will

28:22

find that the energies go closer to

28:25

their source. Once you get

28:27

to the heart, you will find it feel tremendous

28:30

disturbance. You will see that you're, oh

28:32

my God, what a mess you are. You're very

28:34

insecure, you're afraid. It's

28:37

unbelievable what is going

28:39

on inside the heart. That was what was

28:41

causing the mind and causing the

28:44

outer actions to take place. Don't

28:46

be afraid of it. It's going on inside

28:48

of everybody's heart. You know me?

28:50

It's very scary in the heart,

28:52

isn't it? If you ever really go

28:54

in there, you will see that you are scared.

28:57

If you don't see that you're scared, you have not gone

28:59

there. You're scared when people talk to

29:02

you, you're scared when people walk up to you,

29:04

you're scared when people walk away, you're

29:06

scared when you talk to people that maybe you said something

29:08

that will have bothered them or they don't think nicely

29:11

of you. It's very touchy

29:13

and

29:13

sensitive. You know, they say like romantic,

29:15

the heart is sensitive.

29:18

The heart is real sensitive. And

29:20

you will find that it's very difficult

29:22

to live in the heart because it's

29:25

a mess. So you will see that that

29:27

is where the reactive energies come from.

29:29

What do you do? Same thing you did with

29:31

everything else.

29:32

If you can sit in that heart

29:34

when it's throwing these things up

29:37

at you and not do anything, remember

29:39

I said consciousness was the whole thing.

29:42

Now you're sitting here watching this stuff burn

29:45

in your heart. You don't do anything. You

29:47

just sit there. The next

29:50

step back is where you want to be.

29:52

This next step beyond the heart is

29:55

the witness.

29:56

Nothing's left to watch anymore

29:59

except the watcher.

30:00

And you will find yourself more and more being

30:04

the being who is aware

30:06

of this process of reaction

30:09

until eventually you will never react again.

30:12

You don't ever go with reactive energies. And

30:15

when you can sit in the self and

30:17

watch this tendency to

30:20

react, a very beautiful thing happens.

30:23

We've discussed this before. By the way, that is

30:25

the root.

30:26

When you are down in the heart,

30:28

watching these energies get created

30:31

and aware of what they would do

30:34

if you let them, but yet you are sitting

30:36

in a state of clarity, of awareness.

30:39

You watch the trees move. You hear the

30:42

sounds around you. And at the

30:44

same exact time, you're aware

30:46

of every single thing that

30:48

is moving inside of your heart and

30:50

of what you would be thinking.

30:53

Thought doesn't come.

30:54

You're just aware of what

30:57

would come. The tendency is there.

30:59

This is what we call the causal body. You're

31:01

at that point working in the causal body.

31:04

The things are not manifesting, but

31:07

your awareness is so present that

31:09

you can see what they

31:12

would do if they were

31:14

permitted to. And so from this

31:16

state of awareness, all

31:19

things are available to you. The

31:21

outer world is seen and the whole

31:24

inner world is seen. And you will

31:26

see that they have a relationship with each other.

31:29

They dance with each other.

31:31

They are interactive and integral.

31:34

And if you don't react,

31:36

you get to watch all this. And

31:38

what you will see is that they balance

31:40

each other. That you don't have to do anything

31:43

about anything. And everything

31:45

you do about anything will

31:47

cause disturbance. And this is

31:49

the state the Gita talks about, the deep,

31:52

deep states of non-duership.

31:55

Have you learned that yet?

31:57

That you don't have to do anything about anything?

32:00

You don't have to do anything about anything. It

32:03

all naturally unfolds as

32:06

it passes through you

32:08

if you don't react to it.

32:10

If people are walking toward you and

32:13

you want them to come toward you and

32:15

so you start reacting, you go running toward them,

32:17

they may run away.

32:19

If people are walking toward you and you're afraid

32:22

of them and

32:23

so you start resisting, then you

32:25

run away, you cause disturbance. If

32:27

people are walking toward you and you really

32:29

don't want them to walk past you because you don't know

32:31

what will happen, at least if they're in front

32:33

of you, you have some control. So you put

32:35

your hands out and you hold them in front of you,

32:38

you get really tired and you have to spend

32:40

your whole life holding these people

32:42

in front of you. Anything you do

32:45

messes things up.

32:47

If you just sit there, they

32:49

will come toward you and eventually

32:52

you will find out their intention. You

32:54

don't have to guess it, you don't have to protect

32:56

yourself,

32:57

you don't have to grab, you don't

32:59

have to pull, you don't have to push. You

33:02

permit energies

33:03

to unfold in their own time,

33:06

in their own way.

33:07

That is the definition of non-reactive.

33:12

You permit energies to

33:14

unfold in their own way,

33:17

at their own pace, in their

33:19

own course. You let them go

33:21

where they must go and not

33:23

go where they don't go. And

33:26

what will happen is eventually you will come

33:28

to peace because you will realize that

33:30

all these reactive energies were not necessary.

33:33

That all that's happening is the universe is unfolding

33:36

and you have the honor of being aware of it. And

33:39

there's no reason to bring all

33:41

of your past fears to the party.

33:44

If you bring your past fears to the party,

33:46

you will not let the universe unfold. You

33:49

will react to it and you

33:51

will cause disturbance.

33:53

So from this state of

33:55

work, which to me is what

33:57

it means to work at the root,

34:00

When you are just aware

34:03

and all things are unfolding and

34:06

if there's work to do, it's

34:07

to not react. I

34:10

want to know you when you have

34:12

at least come to the knowledge that

34:15

all reactive energy

34:18

causes disturbance. All of it.

34:20

But

34:21

there are no conditions

34:23

in which reactive energy

34:25

is not your past karma

34:28

being brought into the present moment

34:30

and that you do not need that,

34:33

that the universe will unfold better

34:36

than

34:36

what you can do with it. And that's

34:38

when the miracles start happening.

34:40

When you're not doing it, God

34:43

shows up and it becomes a reality.

34:46

There are no conditions in

34:49

which you have to get into that reactive state. And

34:51

I say it again and again because the mind does not

34:54

believe that. The mind believes

34:56

if I don't do it, it's going to be a mess.

34:59

And what I'm saying in my experience is if you

35:01

do do it, it's a mess.

35:03

And there are very few people who have ever seen what

35:05

it would be like if they didn't do it.

35:07

And so the energies come and

35:10

there will be natural

35:12

interaction.

35:14

What is meant to happen will happen. And

35:16

you just experiment

35:18

for what it would be like to let this take place.

35:21

So the working at the root

35:24

is to sit within the consciousness and

35:27

let the dance of life pass through you. And

35:31

if you do this, what

35:33

happens to you is phenomenal. The

35:35

state of peace, of joy, of

35:38

serenity, as well as the grace

35:41

that happens all around you because

35:44

you're permitting God to do God's

35:46

thing. We say, not my

35:48

will, but thy will.

35:50

I wonder who's willing to live that.

35:53

The reason people don't see that is because

35:56

what is happening is God's will.

35:59

How hard is that to die?

35:59

What is happening

36:02

is God's will. Whose else's

36:04

will did you think it was?

36:06

There is only God.

36:08

All that there is in the universe is your consciousness,

36:11

God, and what's left of you.

36:13

And what's happening is God is happening,

36:15

and you're reacting, and your

36:17

consciousness is losing its center. When

36:20

you let go of you, there's nothing but God

36:22

and consciousness. And like I said,

36:25

that's when the miracles take place. So

36:27

this is your work. Spirituality is not

36:29

so complicated. It doesn't take

36:31

a million techniques. It doesn't take

36:33

books upon books upon books. All

36:36

it takes is the willingness

36:39

to remain conscious and centered, and

36:42

to not go with the reactive energies

36:45

when they come up inside of you. And if

36:47

your mind is even asking, how

36:49

do I know if these are the reactive energies,

36:52

then you don't want out yet. Because

36:55

it is so obvious that these

36:57

energies are jumping up inside of you

37:00

and causing these actions that

37:02

it's impossible for me to believe that you don't

37:04

know what's happening. It's just

37:07

that you don't want to let go of this one. And

37:09

so you find reasons that this one's different.

37:12

And then you say, it's not reactive. I'm

37:15

doing what I should be doing because the

37:17

other person was wrong, and you go to

37:19

this whole thing. But

37:22

if you're sincere, you will get past this,

37:25

and you will learn to let go of all of these

37:27

things, and you'll attain to a very

37:29

deep state.

37:31

Mm, check.

37:48

You've been listening to the Michael Singer podcast,

37:51

produced by Sounds True, in

37:53

partnership with Shanti Publications.

37:56

Sounds True is the co-publisher of

37:59

Michael Singer's new album,

37:59

newest book, Living Untethered,

38:02

beyond the human predicament. We've

38:05

also joined with him to produce an extraordinary

38:08

eight-part video course. It's

38:10

called Living from a Place of Surrender,

38:13

the Untethered

38:13

Soul in Action. You can

38:16

find out more

38:16

at michaelsingerpodcast.com.

38:20

And you can save 15% off

38:22

any Michael Singer program available

38:24

through SoundsTrue when you use the

38:27

code SINGER15 at

38:29

checkout. That's Singer,

38:30

numeral one, numeral five

38:33

at checkout. The music you heard

38:35

on this podcast

38:35

is the song, Giving It All,

38:38

by Be Still the Earth. Thank

38:41

you so much for listening.

38:42

SoundsTrue, waking

38:44

up the world.