0:14

Welcome to Season 3 of the Michael

0:16

Singer Podcast. Michael

0:18

Singer is the author of the widely

0:21

influential New York Times

0:23

bestsellers The Untethered Soul,

0:26

The Surrender Experiment, and

0:28

most recently, Living Untethered,

0:31

Beyond the Human Predicament. Produced

0:34

in partnership with Shanti Publications,

0:37

the Michael Singer Podcast brings

0:39

you select recordings from the Temple

0:42

of the Universe, a yoga and

0:44

meditation center that Michael founded

0:46

in 1975. This

0:49

episode is on navigating the

0:51

ocean of life. Sounds

0:54

True would also like you to know about

0:55

an extraordinary eight-part

0:58

video course that we've created with

1:00

Michael Singer. It's called Living

1:02

from a Place of Surrender, The

1:05

Untethered Soul in Action. It's

1:08

an online course many people report

1:10

to be utterly life-changing. You

1:13

can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com,

1:17

and you can save 15% off

1:19

any Michael Singer program

1:20

available through Sounds True when

1:23

you use the code SINGER15

1:26

at checkout. That's Singer, numeral

1:29

one, numeral five. And

1:32

now, navigating the ocean

1:34

of life with Michael Singer.

2:05

Hmm, dry-credence. Someday,

2:09

when you get deep enough within yourself, you

2:12

get out of the noise enough, you

2:15

will see that your life is

2:18

like a ship on

2:22

the open seas in

2:24

a voyage. You

2:26

are a separate individual at this stage,

2:30

different from the other boats, completely

2:33

different. It's your boat. It's

2:35

the boat of your life. It

2:37

has its launch point, which is your birth. It

2:40

has its docking ending point, which

2:43

is your death. And it's always

2:45

going to be that way. Your birth

2:47

is what it was, your death will be what it is. In

2:50

between,

2:51

you are on

2:52

the choppy seas. You're

2:54

on exactly the same environment

2:57

as a sailboat would be in the ocean. There

3:00

are forces all around you that

3:04

if you don't do something about it,

3:06

will determine where you go. It's

3:09

not a matter of,

3:12

there's nothing for me

3:14

to be doing here.

3:16

The winds will blow you according to the

3:18

wind. Where will you end up?

3:21

Irrelevant. There's no place meaningful.

3:24

They will just blow you wherever they blow.

3:27

Whatever causes the winds to blow will

3:30

just catch your sail. And that's

3:32

that. The currents will

3:35

take you wherever they take you. They

3:37

are neither for nor against you. They

3:39

are just the currents. But between the

3:41

wind and the currents, you're not

3:43

going anywhere. There's nothing

3:46

wrong with the reality of

3:48

truth. It's the reality of truth.

3:51

There are forces of nature. They

3:53

will unfold and they will hit

3:55

your boat and they will hit your sails

3:58

and they will turn your rudder.

5:59

with one wing either. No

6:02

amount of self effort can take you there.

6:04

No, not a grace can take you there. It

6:07

is a balance

6:08

between the wings and the forces

6:10

of self effort and grace. Guess

6:13

what sailing is. We want to talk about

6:15

sailing.

6:16

Air sailed about

6:18

my sailboat, not a

6:20

motorboat sailboat. When

6:23

you sail, there

6:24

are a lot of forces.

6:27

Your job, your

6:29

job as the captain of that boat

6:32

is not to make the currents be where you want

6:34

them.

6:35

Are you kidding? Since

6:37

when is that the job of a sailor to be God

6:40

and make the currents go the

6:42

way they want them to go? It's not

6:44

your job. And it better not be your job because

6:46

you ain't going to do it. Tell you another thing is not your

6:48

job to make the winds blow

6:51

the way you want them to.

6:53

Is it?

6:54

It's not your job. You can't do it.

6:57

That's why it's not your job. Okay. I mean,

6:59

I guess that if we're really true

7:01

that I could just sit there and think when two

7:04

degrees north, four degrees, whew,

7:06

there it goes. Then, you know, I better learn that

7:08

sort of thing is that would make sailing very, very easy. But

7:11

that ain't what happens. The winds

7:13

belong to the wind. The currents

7:15

belong to the current. That is not

7:18

your job. You must be doing your job.

7:20

If you're going to balance this self effort, grace thing.

7:23

So there are forces, but they are not

7:25

under your control. What

7:28

is under my control? What is

7:30

under your control is how

7:32

taught you hold the sail

7:36

and what angle you hold the sail. Whether

7:39

you come about, which side of the boat is

7:41

a sail going to be on

7:43

as you navigate the winds. It

7:47

is

7:48

up to you to hold the rudder a certain way

7:51

so that both the effect of the winds and

7:53

the currents have an

7:55

effect. There are things that

7:58

are under your control.

9:59

intention, otherwise you have no

10:02

direction, therefore there is no way to sail.

10:05

In fact, the definition of sailing

10:07

is to know how to utilize

10:10

the forces of nature in order

10:12

to take you where you want to go. How's that? I wonder

10:14

if Webster calls it that. That is

10:16

what sailing is. The best sailor

10:18

that could possibly live

10:19

is the one that knows how to ultimately

10:22

optimize the way the wind is blowing,

10:24

the way the currents are flowing and

10:27

the way the boat has its strength to put

10:29

these together in a way that best

10:32

take

10:33

the sailor where they're trying to go. That's

10:35

what it means to sail. So

10:37

in your life

10:38

you must have this. You must have a direction.

10:42

Most people don't.

10:44

Most people don't. Most people don't do this. Most people

10:46

are not far enough back

10:47

to even begin to understand

10:49

this. Most people are drowning

10:52

or about to and what they are trying

10:54

to do is not drown.

10:56

Now

10:57

that's not sailing. If I

10:59

open up Webster and say what's sailing, managing

11:01

to not drown. Wow,

11:04

that's weird. It sounds like somebody did something wrong already.

11:06

If that's the best you can do, is to

11:09

manage to not drown to understand most

11:11

people that's what they do with their life. They

11:13

manage not to get hurt too much and to have

11:15

some couple of good things happen. It's not going

11:17

anywhere.

11:19

It's all an attempt to avoid the negative

11:21

and make it through without too much pain. Too

11:24

many problems and every once in a while there's something

11:26

I want, but it's very short-lived. It's something, oh, I

11:28

want that. It caught my attention. But

11:30

in terms of having a purpose-driven life, in terms

11:33

of having an overall view, this

11:36

is where I would like to

11:38

go by the grace of God, meaning the

11:40

forces that exist. This is

11:42

where I would like to navigate my

11:45

life,

11:45

the boat of my life. Are

11:48

you there yet? Of course not.

11:50

That's why you're navigating to be there. That's

11:53

why this whole thing that people say, well, I'm not ready for

11:55

that yet.

11:56

I'm not ready for that. Well, that's absurd. Of course

11:58

you're not in Sydney.

15:59

is to sit here in the heat for a while. If

16:02

I pick

16:02

those up and say, well, there's a nice

16:04

wind going that way. It's

16:06

easy to say, and it's fun for a while. You

16:09

see why this is exactly life? It's exactly

16:12

what's going on. It is forces

16:15

and will bouncing together. And

16:17

what it boils down to is

16:19

intention, but

16:20

it boils down to is being wise enough

16:23

that during a time of clarity, I'm going to be

16:25

very, let's talk about that.

16:27

Well, how do I set my intention? Especially

16:29

Mickey, you always teach him. I don't know anything. I

16:32

only know the sum of my learned experiences. So how

16:34

can I possibly set my intention?

16:36

What's nice about this journey in terms of

16:39

self effort and grace,

16:41

you can only do the best that you can.

16:44

You can never do better

16:46

than the best that you can. That's all

16:49

that is asked of you in anything

16:51

you do, including this. So

16:54

at any given moment, you look

16:56

at the clearest that you've ever seen it.

16:59

Maybe it was during meditation. Maybe it was after a

17:02

clear meditation. Maybe it was a particular

17:04

day you had where it's just on a clear

17:06

day. I can see forever. You have

17:09

had more clarity sometimes

17:11

than other times. How do you know? You

17:13

know, don't you? You

17:15

know, there's no emotions bothering

17:18

you for or against. There's no personal

17:20

noise going on. There's just a sense

17:22

of I'm standing higher up on the mountain

17:24

right now. And I can see clear.

17:28

What do you see when you

17:30

look from there?

17:32

That's what I want to know

17:33

because that's where you should be headed. And

17:35

guess what?

17:37

That does not change everything. You

17:39

hear me?

17:40

It changes very slowly as

17:42

you become wiser and get closer

17:44

toward your goal. You know, when they

17:47

shoot the rocket ship up toward the space

17:49

station, they don't spend as

17:51

much time in the beginning as they do right at the

17:53

end. When they're lining the thing up, they

17:55

go real slow and they're lining it up. Don't you ever

17:57

see them dock the shuttle at the space station?

17:59

It takes a long time, those last five

18:02

feet. All right, it's just two degrees,

18:04

one, everything got targets, they got the whole

18:06

thing lined up. How come it doesn't take that long

18:08

when they take off? Because when you're on

18:10

this long journey, you can adjust

18:13

along the way.

18:14

It's not until you get to those final things,

18:16

it becomes subtler and subtler. So of

18:19

course you don't see where

18:21

you're going completely. And of course,

18:23

not all of your being wants

18:25

to go there all the time. And if

18:27

you wait around until the whole

18:29

of your being wants to go somewhere,

18:32

you're going nowhere because you have

18:35

many, many aspects of your being. All

18:37

these different impressions you've taken up during

18:39

your life are still influencing

18:42

what you like and what you don't like and where you want

18:44

to go and what you're afraid of going. There is

18:46

a thing called clarity.

18:48

Do you have absolute clarity? Absolutely

18:51

not. Do you have clarity all the time? Never.

18:53

Not until the end. Are there moments of clarity?

18:56

There are moments of clarity.

18:57

There are times in your life

19:00

where you are clearer than others.

19:02

That's when you make your decisions.

19:06

That's when you navigate. That's when you adjust your compass.

19:09

That's when you set the poll star is during

19:11

your clearest times. Nobody's

19:13

asking anything more

19:15

than what you can see during your

19:17

clearest times. Now what?

19:20

Now you need to learn to sail.

19:22

I said the first thing you need to do is to

19:24

set your poll star. Be an aim toward

19:26

it because otherwise it's meaningless. That's

19:28

the first act of sailing, is having a direction.

19:31

Then the second is, okay, I

19:34

can't control the forces of the wind.

19:36

I can't control the currents. I can't

19:39

control the weather.

19:40

Therefore my job

19:42

is to do the best I can with what

19:45

is underlying control, with what

19:48

is given for me to do.

19:50

How do you know it's given for you to do? Because

19:52

your hands on the rudder,

19:53

because you're holding the rope, and

19:56

because it's up to you to call coming

19:58

about when it's time to come about. And so

20:00

the question becomes how do

20:02

you sail to get

20:05

into that direction optimally

20:07

under all the forces and conditions that

20:09

are given to you? That is what's meant

20:12

by sailing. And that's what needs to be

20:14

learned. That's what you need to learn. Not

20:16

constantly changing, where am I going to go? Not

20:18

wishing the wind would go somewhere else. Not getting

20:21

mad at the currents because they're doing it. That's not your job.

20:24

You must sit within your job.

20:26

So it's not a matter of no will. It's

20:30

this whole thing about doing and not doing,

20:32

this whole balance of those two forces

20:35

of grace and self effort. So

20:38

you have a job in this.

20:40

So you do your job. These are

20:42

like the principles of life. You

20:45

do have a job in this. There

20:48

is self effort. There is a place

20:50

for will. You do have

20:53

the right to influence some of the

20:55

forces around you. Not as big as

20:57

the wind and not as much as the current, right? That

20:59

at any given moment, and that's a very

21:01

important part by the way, the only

21:04

forces you have any influence

21:06

over

21:07

are right now.

21:09

The wind is blowing right now a

21:11

certain way. How you hold that sail

21:13

and how you hold that rudder better not

21:15

be about how the wind was yesterday and

21:17

it better not be how the wind will be tomorrow.

21:20

That's why Be Here Now is

21:22

all the teachings because it is the only

21:24

place that your will really

21:26

has any influence. It doesn't make any

21:29

difference to me that you guess what

21:31

the current is going to be like later and

21:33

then you adjust and learn how to do

21:35

what they're going to be like later because 99% of the time

21:37

your guess is wrong and you capsize

21:40

because you weren't dealing with what's happening now. Now

21:43

is when the forces are happening and

21:45

that is when your interaction has

21:48

an influence.

21:49

What influence does your action have on

21:51

the forces that happened before? None,

21:54

right? The forces are already over. That's

21:56

why I always teach you. what

22:00

the past did, good or bad.

22:02

It's not now.

22:04

It's not affecting what's now

22:06

except in your mind.

22:08

So you better be conscious and be present

22:11

about what's happening now because that's

22:13

where your force and your influence can

22:15

have an effect. What I care about is

22:18

how the wind is blowing

22:20

right now and what you are

22:22

doing about it to head toward

22:24

where you decided to go. That's what it means to

22:26

sail. There's not a single part of sailings

22:28

about the past and there's not a single part of sailings

22:30

about the future. It is about now.

22:33

Everybody see that. Okay.

22:35

It's really neat to see how true

22:37

this analogy is. It will take you the whole way. So

22:40

now we have done the following things.

22:42

We have aimed our ship.

22:44

We know where we're going and now

22:46

we see we've come to the present and

22:49

we experience the forces that are blowing.

22:51

We're wise enough to be present, to

22:53

experience now, reality.

22:56

Now it's called reality. That's what it's called

22:58

and you better be sailing with reality. Why? Because

23:00

that's the only place there is. All right.

23:03

So now we're here. So I'm telling you there is,

23:05

and this is what I want to talk about now that we

23:07

framed it.

23:09

What is my job?

23:11

What can

23:11

I do? Well, first of all, you can only

23:14

do from within the envelope that is yours, right?

23:17

I can only do from within the envelope that

23:19

is mine, that is under the reach of

23:22

my will, that is under the reach of my interaction. And

23:24

what you're going to see is it's really very simple,

23:27

but we don't make it simple

23:29

because we don't adhere to all those things I just

23:31

said so far, even though they all are

23:33

the truth and you know it, we don't adhere

23:35

to

23:36

not wishing it was the past. We don't adhere

23:38

to not running away from the past or

23:40

trying to sail to the future. Like we don't adhere

23:43

to that. And plus which we don't adhere very

23:45

well to our pole star. That's why it

23:47

gets so complicated. But let's make believe

23:50

just for tonight that you have picked that

23:52

pole star during your time of clarity

23:54

and you see what it is

23:56

and you're able to delineate

23:58

the difference between

25:56

They're

26:00

blowing in the opposite direction. I'm trying to go

26:02

south. They're going north. Well, let's

26:04

see. You have two choices. You

26:06

have a few choices actually. One

26:09

is, eh, let's go

26:12

north.

26:13

Alright. In

26:17

other words, let go of your

26:19

poll star.

26:20

Why? It's easier. Yeah, it's

26:22

easier right now. You can't go anywhere.

26:25

We already talked about that. You will go nowhere.

26:28

You won't go anywhere. It will not optimize

26:30

anything. It will just be lost

26:32

at sea. So that's one

26:35

possibility is change your poll star and just go with

26:37

the flow and take the easy way. That

26:39

is never, ever the right thing to

26:41

do in terms of optimizing

26:43

your whole life, in terms of optimizing

26:46

what you achieve in the direction of your life. You

26:49

let go of your aspiration. You let go of your

26:51

intention.

26:51

So you can't get there. Basically, you can get

26:54

down to the fact where you will catch on very quickly

26:56

that

26:56

the wind is blowing the wrong way. I

26:59

am not willing to compromise

27:01

where I'm going. So the best I can do

27:04

is take down the sail. The best I can do

27:06

is batten up the hatches, sit this one

27:08

through. And there are times that that's the best that

27:10

you can do. And believe it or not, even

27:13

though you may not feel like you're going

27:15

towards your goal, you are. I

27:17

told you, you can only do the best that you can. Sometimes

27:21

non-negative is positive. Alright.

27:24

You're not going in the opposite direction. You're not going

27:26

away from where you know you want to go. Therefore

27:29

it's the best that you can do. And then you

27:31

sit that through and next thing you know, the winds come, you

27:33

pick them up. So those are the yin and

27:35

the yang. And then in between, there's all

27:38

these other, what if the wind is blowing a little

27:40

bit to the southeast and you want to go into the

27:42

south?

27:43

Talk to sailors. I'm not a sailor, I

27:45

don't know. But you talk to sailors and I guarantee

27:47

you, that's what sailing is. That

27:49

wind is not always blowing exactly where you want

27:51

to go. You don't let down the

27:53

sail just because it's not exactly north,

27:55

northwest, two degrees. There are ways

27:58

to angle that sail. to bring

28:00

up more sales, there are ways to

28:01

put the higher sales, not the lower sales. There

28:03

are ways to hold the rudder. There are ways to

28:05

do all kinds of things

28:06

so that you can offset

28:09

the fact that it's not blowing in exactly the direction

28:11

you wanna go and get the most

28:14

out of it that you can get. The point

28:16

is you are staying true to your

28:19

aspiration. You are staying true to the pull story,

28:22

staying true to your goal. Therefore,

28:24

what's gonna happen over time?

28:30

The story of the untethered.

28:41

Faced with life's challenges and

28:43

uncertainties, many of us

28:45

feel quite stressed and overwhelmed,

28:49

but does it have to be this way?

28:51

With his newest book, Living

28:54

Untethered, Michael Finger has written

28:56

a follow-up to the spiritual classic,

28:59

The Untethered Soul, taking

29:01

us within to our still and

29:03

liberated center.

29:04

To learn more about this

29:06

book and Michael Finger's other offerings,

29:09

please visit living-untethered.com.

29:27

How much time? Completely irrelevant. If

29:31

you are always doing the best that you can and

29:34

you're staying

29:35

true

29:37

to

29:37

the direction that you aspire to, it doesn't matter how much

29:40

time it is, it's the time it took.

29:42

It's what it is. You did the best that you can.

29:45

That's what's going on. You did the best that

29:47

you can. You did the best that you can. You

29:49

did the best that you can, and the goal is not

29:51

to stop at that. The goal

29:53

is to get the best that you can. That's

29:56

what's going on. You aim that way.

29:58

You are true to it.

29:59

best that you can do. By definition,

30:02

every moment you did the best that you could do. So

30:04

you

30:04

can't do any better.

30:05

So this mind that's sitting there measuring time

30:08

and worrying about this, you don't do that.

30:11

You just worry about that when you let

30:13

go of your aspirations or you do something

30:15

crazy. So instead you

30:17

look and you see what sailing of your life

30:20

is. You have a job and the

30:22

number one part of that job is to understand I

30:25

set a goal

30:26

long ago. It

30:28

is still the clearest that I've

30:30

ever been. Therefore,

30:32

I will make every decision.

30:34

I mean every decision

30:37

in sailing to

30:38

do the best that I can to

30:40

aspire toward that goal.

30:42

Well, what happens

30:44

if as you go and you get

30:46

closer, you notice that

30:49

your clarity becomes, oh, God, I didn't

30:51

see that there was this before. This is

30:54

how I should adjust that. That's what's supposed

30:56

to happen.

30:57

It's not a matter of being dogmatic. You

30:59

don't sit there and set a goal and never

31:02

budge. And when you get more clarity,

31:05

you adjust accordingly. Right?

31:07

In other words, there's nothing unholy

31:10

about

31:10

having more knowledge and getting more

31:13

clarity and making adjustments. Ultimately,

31:16

ultimately, what was your aspiration? To

31:19

go to the highest, most

31:21

beautiful place I can go with my life.

31:23

That was it. You picked it before the

31:26

best that you could. And now as you get more

31:28

knowledge and more clarity, which you should get more knowledge

31:30

and more clarity, if you're not, you're doing something

31:32

wrong. You get more knowledge, more clarity.

31:35

There's an adjustment. And generally not, you

31:37

know, a 360 or 180 is generally you get more

31:40

and you adjust and you see, I was headed to some

31:42

still headed that way, but now I see better how to

31:44

get there. That's what happens.

31:45

And if you were clear, you set your

31:47

aspiration for something very beautiful, but you

31:49

only, with a summary, you learned experiences. So you didn't

31:51

know it all. So as you get more experience,

31:54

especially as you get closer to your goal, then your

31:56

adjustments, you make the adjustments. So

31:58

it's easy. It's simple. if you

32:00

are willing to do your job.

32:03

Now, sounds so easy. You just say

32:05

all the best you can do where you want to go. What's so hard

32:07

about it? Because there's going to be

32:09

a wind that blows that

32:11

really looks like fun.

32:15

That looks interesting. That

32:17

catches your attention. How much does it catch

32:19

my attention? Enough to

32:21

distract you

32:23

from where you were headed.

32:25

Well,

32:26

what will happen?

32:27

Did I do something wrong?

32:30

If something blows across my bow that

32:32

distracts me positive or scares me,

32:35

I don't, I don't, I'm afraid to go that way.

32:37

Either one, either one. Did I do

32:39

something wrong? No. How could you have done anything wrong?

32:42

It is what it is. There's

32:43

no guilt. There's

32:45

no anything. It's just,

32:47

this is life. This is the unfolding of the forces

32:50

and this is the reaction that took place inside

32:52

of you, given the level of evolution and consciousness

32:55

and clarity that you now have. That's what happened.

32:57

That's what's taking place.

32:59

That's not the issue.

33:01

The issue is not did something happen,

33:03

did something catch your attention, did something

33:05

scare you? Question always is

33:07

what'd you do about it?

33:09

And so it comes right down to

33:11

how committed are you to that polestar?

33:16

That's what it comes down to. That's

33:19

more important than knowing how to hold the

33:21

sail. Why? Cause if you're not committed

33:23

to the pole star, it doesn't matter how you hold a sail. You're

33:26

not going where you want to go. So that's

33:28

why I laid them out in the order I did. You know, the

33:30

number one is that you are

33:33

committed to your clarity.

33:35

Well, what should that be? I wouldn't touch

33:37

that with a million football. Notice I have not

33:40

said one word about what that is. That's

33:43

for you to see. Cause unless

33:45

you see it, you ain't doing it. It's

33:48

not something the Bible said is not something somebody

33:50

taught you, right? You can get some clarity.

33:53

Others can help share their clarity. You

33:55

can absolutely be inspired and see

33:57

stuff, but you got to come

33:59

there. within yourself. There's

34:01

two things required here. One is that

34:04

you have some clarity and you all have

34:06

some clarity. Everyone has a relative amount

34:08

of clarity. That's not a matter that somebody has

34:11

more than somebody else. It's irrelevant. You could

34:13

have tremendous clarity in one area, way

34:15

more than him, and he could have more clarity in one area than you.

34:17

Not could, you do. Everybody has different,

34:20

some scars to work through. Everybody has different blind

34:22

spots. Everybody has different impressions that

34:24

will cause them to see and not see. Each

34:27

man is within himself his own path. So

34:29

it's not like that. What it's

34:31

like is it's yours. You're in

34:34

there. What do you want to do in there?

34:36

Well, at least you better be committed to your clarity

34:38

or you ain't going anywhere. And so you

34:40

see this. And so the question becomes

34:43

based on what clarity you have seen,

34:45

where you set your direction, when

34:48

you hold on, when

34:51

you don't want to.

34:52

Will there be times

34:54

that your lower self

34:56

shadows, obscures

34:59

your clarity?

35:01

Yes. Yes. By definition, that's

35:03

why we call it your lower self because it

35:05

can do that. Right. It's not like the whole of

35:07

your being is committed to your clarity. There's

35:10

no way, right? Your goal was set

35:12

during one of those terrible moments of clarity.

35:16

Right. And

35:18

now you saw too much.

35:20

Careful.

35:21

You saw too much and you saw

35:23

that it could be very beautiful or whatever

35:26

it was. Right. And so you aim that way. Well, it's

35:28

not going to stay that way. It's not that it might not

35:30

stay that way. It is not going to

35:32

stay that way. You're going to go through

35:34

times of darkness, through times

35:36

of non-clarity, through times when fear

35:39

starts to overcome you and it starts

35:41

to cause you to question

35:43

whether you're willing or able. It

35:45

doesn't matter. It comes one of two ways. I can't do

35:47

this. I thought I could, but I can't do

35:49

this.

35:50

Or the mind's much trickier than that.

35:53

It says, I

35:54

didn't really ever want to do that. I was kidding

35:56

myself. This is really what

35:58

I want to do. I see it now.

36:01

Obviously, we've all seen all of it, haven't

36:03

we? That's what's going to

36:05

determine where you end

36:07

up.

36:08

What? How you steer

36:10

through that. Well, how does

36:13

one steer through that?

36:15

This is what all of

36:17

the entire spiritual path is about, is what we're talking about

36:19

right now. That is what sadhana is,

36:21

is the willful practices you do

36:23

to make it through and keep

36:26

your goal fixed. So, how

36:29

do I be sure, as much as possible

36:31

anyways, that I am doing my

36:33

best to stay true to the Paul

36:35

star?

36:36

Well, you start this way.

36:38

You start by understanding that

36:40

there are going to be times

36:43

when it doesn't look like you want to. Do

36:46

you understand that? I don't care how

36:48

much you wanted to once,

36:50

there are going to

36:52

be times that you don't want to.

36:54

Period.

36:56

There are going to be forces that unfold

36:58

that cause your mind to want to do something

37:00

else and look at it a different way, etc. So

37:04

the question becomes, okay, now I understand,

37:06

I'm a wise being. I really,

37:08

really have set my Paul star and I see

37:10

that's where I want to go and I'm going there. I

37:13

see

37:13

it and I am going

37:16

there.

37:16

Now, to do that, I have to understand

37:19

the forces that are around me and I have to

37:21

admit, there have been and will be times

37:24

in which I don't feel as much inspiration as I feel now.

37:27

I don't feel as much clarity as I do now. What

37:30

do I do now?

37:32

Now in the present, not later.

37:35

Don't ever put it off. What

37:37

do I do now

37:39

to assure that I have a higher

37:41

probability of making it

37:44

through those currents? You're

37:46

not living for the future, you're doing it now.

37:49

But it's still with the right understanding. And

37:51

so you start to understand, well,

37:53

this

37:54

is a tough journey. You

37:57

will be going through a lot of stuff. It's a lifetime.

38:00

And so you set patterns.

38:03

It's one thing to have intention. It's

38:06

another thing to apply that intention

38:09

by setting patterns now, habits.

38:12

Habits can help you or hurt you. If

38:15

habits are just the flow of the junk that's going

38:17

on, habits will destroy you. If you set

38:20

habits based upon

38:22

clarity, ones that will aim you toward

38:24

where you're going and you adhere to

38:26

those habits when you don't want to, that's

38:28

what will happen. You will have made it through the

38:30

choppy seas and you'll see, gee,

38:33

I don't know what happened. I just cut my head down, kept

38:36

doing what I was doing.

38:37

So you aim not just your vision,

38:41

you aim your environment. You

38:43

be sure to establish an environment

38:46

around you that should you

38:48

go through times of non-clarity, is

38:50

strong enough to carry you across. It's

38:52

like a bridge over troubled waters. You

38:55

understand that? Now you're understanding

38:57

how to sail. This is

38:59

sailing, right? You become an expert, right? So

39:02

there is stuff you can do now that

39:05

will help later, but it's stuff you do now.

39:07

During times of clarity where

39:09

you feel inspired and really clear,

39:12

those are the times to break the bad habits

39:14

and make the good ones. One because you see

39:17

the clarity so you can see how

39:19

your behavior patterns either will or will not

39:21

take you where you want to go, where you really want to go, not

39:24

where your little self wants to go, but where you really want

39:26

to go. So you have this clarity and you also

39:28

have the inspiration.

39:29

There are times you could take on a mountain.

39:32

There are times you'd be scared of a flaw.

39:35

Don't make decisions during

39:37

your times of weakness

39:39

and you get to start catching on. But

39:42

what about if I really get caught

39:44

up in something, is it a good time to change my habits

39:46

and my patterns and make decisions? What

39:49

if I'm really scared of something? I'm just scared to death

39:51

and it took over my whole being. I'm just afraid that I'm

39:53

going to miss something. Should I be adjusting my course?

39:56

Are you crazy? This is how

39:58

clear it becomes.

39:59

It's almost as though you get to the point where

40:02

you say almost.

40:04

There's no absolutes. I can only say almost. I'm

40:07

watching my lower self. There

40:09

are times that it

40:11

is clearer than other times.

40:13

When it really wants something and needs something,

40:16

it ain't

40:19

doing so good. I might as well be drunk. I

40:21

am. I'm drunk with that. When it gets scared

40:23

and it's just anything I just don't want to do with that. I don't

40:25

want to do with that. I'm so scared. Take

40:28

it away. It's not very clear. So obviously

40:31

there are degrees of it. And so you sit

40:33

down and rule for yourself. This is what it means

40:35

to

40:36

be a great horse, a great sailor.

40:39

While that noise is going

40:41

on, nothing

40:44

will change.

40:45

I am not changing the patterns of my

40:47

life based on

40:49

what I know is not

40:51

going to take me where I want to go.

40:53

Fear and need.

40:56

Fear and desire. They'll never

40:58

take you where you want to go. They will take you away

41:01

from your long-term goals. Fear

41:03

is very short-lived and desire is very

41:05

short-lived. Need, need, desire,

41:08

whatever you want to call it. Attraction,

41:10

that sort of stuff. So you just catch

41:12

on. You say, those are the times

41:15

that try men's souls. Those are the times that

41:17

I can go into it here just

41:19

by rot. I don't know how else to say

41:22

it. Sometimes that's the best you can do. And

41:25

you just understand that noise

41:28

inside of me, I know

41:30

it has done nothing but cause trouble

41:32

my entire life and it will do

41:35

nothing

41:36

but destroy my long-term

41:38

goals of where I want to go. And

41:40

so I'm not going to adjust the ship. That's

41:43

why people do Sama. I understand why

41:45

that's taught as a core, keeping

41:48

regular morning and evening meditations

41:50

and regular times ultimately at the same

41:53

time during the day at various times,

41:55

not whenever I want to.

41:57

You don't want to leave things.

42:00

to your own personal self and to just the winds

42:02

that happen to be blowing right now. You want to

42:05

set the course where you want to go and you

42:07

hold on to that.

42:08

You hold to that. You don't hold to

42:10

it to the extent that if you get

42:13

some more clarity, that you're afraid of the clarity

42:15

because it could change your course, that's

42:17

dogma again. Path is

42:19

very dynamic. You've got to be willing to

42:22

keep your eyes open. But you don't ever change

42:24

those basic principles of,

42:26

I know that my lower

42:28

self and what

42:29

it's afraid of and what it wants will

42:31

never ever take me where I want

42:33

to go. It doesn't even want to take me where I want to go.

42:36

It wants to take me where it wants to go. That's all it

42:38

wants to do. What your lower self wants

42:40

to do is right now avoid fear

42:42

and right now

42:43

satisfy need. I don't want to wait

42:46

one minute. I'll make any adjustment. That's

42:48

what your lower self's got to say. It will never

42:51

ever take you anywhere. And

42:53

so you make no decisions based on that.

42:56

You hold on to that rope. It's

42:58

not a matter of how do I know exactly how to sail. I'm

43:01

telling you, well, someday get to the point. All you

43:03

have to do is not blow it

43:05

purposely.

43:06

How about if I go to that extreme, it's not

43:08

true. You're not clear enough. You

43:11

are clear enough. You just don't do it.

43:13

You know darn well that that thing's not

43:15

going to take you where you

43:16

want to go. You said it 63 times. You

43:19

know, you understand habits, you understand

43:22

how it works. That's something you

43:24

know is taking you off course. And 63 times

43:26

in your life you said, oh, just go off course a little.

43:28

I'll come back. And every single time you

43:31

went off,

43:32

it took you halfway away and

43:34

you never came fully back. It just keeps adjusting

43:37

you further and further away. And you've seen

43:39

this and you know this and you see other

43:41

people that sit there and you know,

43:43

good intention and then go off and

43:46

try to grab something that's off

43:48

course and think they can have both. Right.

43:50

You will find out you can never have both. Now

43:53

life might blow things a certain way that looks

43:55

to somebody else that you got everything

43:57

or got both. You can never have

44:00

never both aim toward where you're

44:02

going and also steer the other

44:04

way when you want to. It will affect

44:06

your course. So you just decide

44:08

each time. It's in the moment.

44:11

Things will come up. It's

44:12

not your fault.

44:14

The question is, what do you do about it? And

44:16

a wise person knows exactly what they're going

44:18

to do about it. Stay on course.

44:21

Why? Because that's what I decided. And

44:23

these little things are not going to take

44:25

me where I want to go. So as much as possible,

44:28

every time,

44:29

that's my choice.

44:31

And there's no more confusion. There's no more

44:33

anything. And you will have times of more clarity. And

44:35

you will know that there's more clarity. And you will adjust

44:37

your course. It's as simple as that. But

44:40

that will not happen due to fear

44:42

or desire. You want to know what the hardest

44:44

times on the spiritual path are?

44:47

The hardest times in this journey are

44:49

when you set your course and

44:51

you know how to get there and you know what you're supposed

44:54

to be doing. And for some ungodly

44:56

reason,

44:57

all the forces that are and all

44:59

the balance of going in

45:00

that direction is where your lower self wants

45:02

to go.

45:03

That's the most confusing of all times. It's

45:06

like you're sailing and used to sail

45:08

away from him or her. But for some

45:10

reason, God set it up to where that

45:13

what you're afraid of and you want to run away from is

45:15

exactly where you would

45:17

go is in the direction of where all

45:19

the forces towards your goal are going. And

45:23

you're, it happens sometimes. There, but

45:25

it does happen. What do you do? Hold

45:27

fast to the clarity that

45:30

you cannot. It's not a matter of

45:32

not doing what your lower self says. It's

45:34

a matter of sailing towards your goal. So

45:37

if it looks like

45:39

that's the sailing towards my goal, that's where I wanted

45:41

to go. But somehow my fear or my desire

45:44

happens to be lining up. Just turn away

45:46

from your fear or desire. Don't worry about it. Don't worry

45:48

about it. I know it gets confusing during

45:50

those times, but you just absolutely

45:52

to the best of your ability. That's

45:54

all it

45:55

takes. God asks for nothing more than that to

45:57

the best of your ability.

46:00

You aim that ship and

46:02

you stay firm on that course. All

46:04

right, what if I'm wrong? You can't

46:07

be wrong if you're doing it to the best of your ability The

46:09

rest belongs to nature the rest belongs

46:11

to God and you're gonna see that if you are

46:13

sitting there aiming toward your goal and Forces

46:16

are coming up. You're making the best decision you can and

46:19

you missed it Now for any reason

46:21

you are weak you didn't give in to something else

46:23

But it's just got a little cloudy and

46:25

you aimed a little bit. I'm telling

46:27

you every single time When

46:30

you know what's coming from a wind will blow you back

46:32

on course

46:34

You earned that right?

46:36

It's not a matter of you're doing

46:38

it It is the balance of

46:40

self-effort and intention with

46:42

grace now you see what's meant by that So

46:45

you don't have to worry about that.

46:46

Here's all you need to worry about

46:48

is that you purposely Don't

46:51

adhere to

46:53

the clarity that you see And

46:55

it will happen

46:56

Where you somehow play with fire

46:58

a little too much and the

47:01

desire or the fear Purposely

47:04

are confusing the clarity and you know

47:06

what's going on, but you don't want to say it Oh

47:08

Lord, Oh Lord make me an instrument of

47:10

thy peace, but not yet. Not right now

47:14

Teach me your will and how to do it, but not right now

47:18

That's what I'm talking about and you will see

47:20

that you understand that you will see

47:23

that that game will get played inside of you Right.

47:26

So it's not a matter of always getting it right. You

47:28

just have to not purposely get it wrong There's

47:30

a lot of room and every one of you know what I'm

47:33

talking about I'm hoping I'm taking

47:35

away your hiding spaces I can't

47:37

teach you anything other than what you already know,

47:39

but I could put a spotlight on That

47:41

which you'd rather not see and so

47:44

you just look at and so it strictly becomes a question

47:46

of How much trouble

47:48

do I want to cause myself? I? can

47:51

actually Remember the

47:53

stages of my growth where I saw

47:56

that clarity which was I

47:58

don't have to

48:01

be that strong. I don't have to always

48:03

listen, but I

48:06

sure suffer later because I

48:08

know I'm

48:09

not going to give up my course. I

48:11

know I'm not. I know that's

48:14

really where I want to go, period.

48:16

So this question of how much room is there

48:18

to play around, what you see is

48:21

if you don't stay on your course,

48:23

you go off course. And then there's

48:25

pain. It's hard. You

48:27

made it hard. It's always easier

48:30

to stay on course. You're failing. It's

48:32

always easier to stay on course. All right. It's

48:34

not really easier to go off course and then come back.

48:36

It takes a lot to do that. And so

48:39

going to me, that's what karma is. I showed you guys,

48:41

don't worry about karma. Just worry about doing the best you

48:43

can. Karma is that you

48:45

willfully win off course. Now

48:49

your penalty, your karma, your problem

48:51

is to get back on course. Well, it's hard. It

48:54

could be so hard. You don't do it. And then you go further

48:56

off course and you eventually get to the point

48:58

where you realize it's not worth going off course.

49:00

Really the cost benefit analysis

49:03

doesn't work out well. Therefore I

49:05

am better off doing the best

49:07

that I can.

49:09

Notice it's not the best I said you could. It's

49:11

not the best your parents said you could. It's

49:13

the best that you can. And

49:15

you know what that is.

49:17

I'm only asking for that, but you don't give that.

49:19

You understand? There's numerous times where

49:21

you see, I'm not going to do this. I can't.

49:24

All right. Yeah. It's hard to

49:26

admit, isn't it? Right? You just don't take

49:29

a breath when you're supposed to take the breath. You don't keep your mouth

49:31

shut when you're supposed to even mouth shut. You don't let your heart

49:33

go to a higher level and he's got a higher level. You

49:35

don't step back when you should. It's just,

49:38

you know, what's going on. It's just as

49:40

a part of you, your lower self, that's

49:42

a habit. It's a habit that it wants its way,

49:45

that it wants what it wants. And you will

49:47

eventually see that that's the only

49:49

thing that keeps you from selling. It is not

49:52

the way the winds blow. The winds blow the way

49:54

they blow. There will be in, there will be young, there will be favorable

49:56

winds. There will be unfavorable winds. There's still a way to sail.

49:59

It is not true. that the unfavorable wins blew

50:01

you off course. They can't blow you

50:03

off course. They can only slow it down

50:05

a little bit, but that's how it's meant to be. And someday you'll

50:07

find out that they didn't slow it down. You

50:09

know how perfect it is? When you

50:11

talk about nature and grace, you will

50:14

find out someday that there are favorable

50:16

wins.

50:17

And there there is grace for you to help

50:19

you along your way. And there are unfavorable

50:21

wins.

50:22

And so I know you'll find out that they are grace, and

50:24

they are there for you because you need

50:26

to go through and learn the talents that

50:28

are necessary during those unfavorable wins.

50:31

And that every single thing that took

50:33

place in terms of the currents and

50:35

the wind and the nature of things was

50:38

all the highest it could be to take you to the

50:40

goal. That if they had not taken place,

50:43

you would not have been able to get there as quickly as you did.

50:46

So it's not even true. Even when you're sitting there

50:48

in the doldrums and the wind's not blowing, you

50:50

will later see

50:52

that that was the highest thing that could happen to you at that time.

50:55

When it's all

50:56

said and done, every

50:59

single force of nature,

51:01

of life

51:02

that unfolds around you is

51:04

for the purpose

51:06

of you going beyond yourself. The

51:08

trouble is, you don't

51:09

know, you use it for that, do you?

51:11

And so you start to set certain

51:14

rules which don't sound interesting

51:17

to you. But once you get inside of

51:19

them,

51:19

they're very beautiful.

51:21

Little things like, if

51:24

it's just for me,

51:26

I ain't touching it.

51:28

Your lower self will not

51:31

take you where you want to go. It's

51:33

not a matter of a balance. It's

51:35

not a matter of don't we have to adjust spiritual,

51:37

non-spiritual, and you know, don't I have natural

51:40

needs or am I human? That's how

51:42

people talk that will never ever reach their goal.

51:45

It's called compromise and weakness. You

51:47

just sit there and say, I can see

51:50

whether this is part of the forces

51:52

of nature and unfolding of things, or this

51:54

is just my some scars, it's just me. It's just

51:56

something I want. And you'll really start to taste

51:59

it when it starts saying, I don't know. care what the penalty is.

52:01

That's

52:01

how lower self talks. I don't care. I don't

52:04

care what happens. I don't care what happens. I

52:06

want this. That's a two year old's talk.

52:09

It's now. All right. And you

52:11

just look at it and you realize this

52:13

is not going to take me where I want to go. There's

52:16

no way

52:17

it's going to take me where I want to go.

52:20

And so do you have the will, see

52:23

self effort? Do you have the will

52:25

to at least not go where you know you

52:27

don't want to go? Forget anybody else.

52:31

And you know what the answer is? No. That's

52:34

what Sautness is gaining that

52:37

commitment

52:38

and that self effort and that strength.

52:41

And it does it by doing mantra. It does it by keeping

52:43

thoughts on it. Does it by whatever

52:46

all these things build within you a strength

52:49

that says, yes, I

52:51

may not always know where to go, but I know where not

52:53

to go and I ain't playing around with it,

52:56

especially when I want to,

52:58

especially when it says, Oh, this time play around with it.

53:00

And you just get to the point where you build

53:03

the strength and commitment inside yourself

53:05

where what you are about is that's

53:08

where I'm going. And then all of a sudden,

53:10

five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years

53:12

go by. You look around you and everything

53:15

around you is in harmony.

53:17

Everything, your entire environment,

53:20

all the people, everything around you is

53:22

a force of vector that's taking you where

53:24

you want to go.

53:25

God did that. You did that.

53:28

If the forces of nature weren't helping

53:30

you, you're just going to sit there and go nowhere. If

53:33

you weren't willing to let

53:35

go of yourself and hold on to that commitment

53:37

and that clarity, you're not going to go either.

53:40

Ninety-two of Boba men, grace and self

53:42

effort. Those two wings. All

53:44

right. So I hope you understand some of these things

53:46

and you become great sellers. You

53:48

are the captain of your ship. See how

53:50

beautiful it is. It's not that you're not the captain

53:52

of your ship. It's just not the captain

53:54

of the wind. You're not the captain of the current. You're not

53:56

the captain of the weather. You're not the captain of the temperature.

53:59

captain of the ship. But it's not

54:02

that you're not the captain of the ship. You

54:04

see the difference? All right. So

54:06

there's no guilt. There's no shame. There's no

54:08

this. There's no that. There's just, are

54:10

you or are you not willing

54:13

to pick that goal? You

54:15

have to set it beyond yourself. You have

54:17

to set it. It has to be an aspiration, an

54:20

intention. It has to be something great. It

54:22

has to do with what's the greatest part of your being

54:24

that you've ever seen. Same it at

54:26

that. If you saw it for

54:28

one second, aim that that

54:30

be where you end up fully and totally. The

54:32

purest you can reach, always reach beyond

54:34

yourself to reach the unreachable star.

54:37

Right. So you have

54:40

to decide, do

54:42

you want to do something great with your life?

54:45

Do you want to do something great? Do you want to make

54:47

yourself into something great? There is

54:49

no end to how great you are. Do you understand

54:52

that? But if you aim below

54:54

yourself, then how could you ever

54:56

achieve? I want to give a talk on this.

54:58

It's all about how high you aim. If

55:01

you aim high, you don't get there.

55:03

You still reach to the

55:04

highest. If you aim low, you'll never

55:07

get there. You can fall a little short

55:09

of the high you aimed, but you can never

55:11

go above where you aimed because that's where you

55:13

aimed. It's not going to happen. So

55:16

always reach for the highest. Always

55:19

dream the impossible dream in terms

55:21

of what you can become and in terms of who

55:23

you are, which is something very great. And

55:26

you just aim toward that. And then you learn how to sail.

55:28

I hope you learn something tonight about sailing.

55:48

You've been listening to the Michael Singer

55:50

podcast produced

55:52

by Sounds True in partnership

55:55

with Shanti Publications. Sounds

55:57

True is the co-publisher of Michael

55:59

Singer's newest book, Living

56:02

Untethered, Beyond the Human

56:04

Predicament. We've also joined

56:06

with him to produce an extraordinary

56:08

eight-part video course. It's

56:10

called Living from a Place of Surrender,

56:13

the Untethered

56:14

Soul in Action. You can

56:16

find out more at michelsingerpodcast.com

56:20

and you can save 15% off any Michael Singer

56:24

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56:26

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56:31

That's SINGER,

56:31

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56:34

at checkout. The music you heard

56:36

on this podcast is the song

56:37

Giving It All by Be

56:40

Still the

56:40

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56:42

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56:45

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