The Scarcity Delusion - Eliminate Mankind's Biggest Fear

Scarcity is our biggest fear. It strikes right at the heart of need to feel safe and, consciously or unconsciously, we are always engaged with this fundamental assumption. But consider this... What if scarcity was a delusion?

Transcript

Welcome to The Flow from Ohm School Live.

The Flow is a profound mix of wisdom and humor as student Lisa Berry asks spiritual teacher G.

P.

Walsh questions you would ask an elder,

A wise man,

Or a sage,

And receive direct,

Simple,

Comprehensive,

And deeply human lessons and teachings.

Step into these conversations with a master spiritual teacher and discover that you are way more than you think you are.

You are The Flow.

And there we are.

Take it away.

Welcome everybody to The Flow.

Yay.

So we are live,

Ohm School Live that is.

I love that name.

I got to say that name earlier on my live.

And I just feel,

Oh,

I'm wearing Ohm on my shirt today too,

Actually.

But good day,

Good morning,

Good.

Hello everyone.

Today,

I didn't let you know this G.

P.

,

But I just got the sudden urge to do this.

Today because of the topic,

Because it is scarcity delusion,

I feel like I want to open this one up.

I definitely open this up to some more comments throughout the show because I,

Yeah,

There's a lot of energy around this one,

Even from poaching this morning and just our conversation.

And I was like,

Oh,

Here we go.

It's your show.

You're the producer.

I'm just,

I'm just a talent.

I just read the weather.

I love it.

I love it.

So,

Oh,

Right.

We titled this one scarcity delusion because at first my thinking was around money,

Wealth,

Abundance,

Poverty,

And all that.

But then when we really dove deeper and you guys will please share your comments on this one.

Scarcity is so much more.

It's status,

It's relationship.

It's how we view ourselves,

How we show up and how even what we think of others.

And I was kind of thinking of this G.

P.

This morning.

I wanted to ask you right off the bat here,

Because we it's our perception of life.

Our life is our perception.

Is it us who are,

Are we holding others in scarcity if we believe them to be?

Well,

Ultimately we're only bound by our own beliefs.

But when your own view of it is rooted in scarcity or,

You know,

Some kind of an idea you have about how you might get out of it is weak and you're completely being bombarded constantly with the message of scarcity by the crowd you're in,

By the media and by everything else,

Then,

Yeah,

We do hold ourselves in that.

And there are systems in place that do on purpose,

Right?

I mean,

The hoarding of the hoarding of wealth or greed is just as much a symptom of the scarcity delusion as is poverty.

It's motivated by exactly the same thing.

I'm just going to grab as much as I can for me.

And I really don't care what happens to anybody else at the expense of anybody really.

It's dog eat dog,

Right,

Survival of the fittest,

Law of the jungle,

All of that kind of stuff.

So the answer is ultimately no,

But it takes a while for somebody to get to the point where there's enough inner strength and conviction that they can turn against the general tide of human thought.

And it takes a lot because these beliefs operate,

Obviously on the conscious level,

But they operate through the media.

It's more subliminal.

And just the general level of belief that people have does set up kind of a psychic field,

That we all kind of swim in,

But we're not aware of.

And so all sorts of thoughts would come to us,

Even if we were completely disconnected from media,

We would still be picking up on the general tenor of belief,

Energetic beliefs around the world.

We can't help it.

It's just part of the soup we happen to be living in.

Swimming in a soup of scarcity.

Got it.

Thank you for that alliteration.

Well,

It's funny you were saying that because I would like to think that I am not a greedy person.

I'd like to think that I am a sharer and I would give my last crumb of bread and all that.

However,

It rise question here.

I got a little nervous in the last year and I have stocked up on cat food because I haven't brought my- Not toilet paper.

Not toilet paper.

Cat food.

Go outside.

And in my thinking,

I thought,

Oh my gosh,

Because even when I'm buying it off the shelves,

I'm like,

Ooh,

I don't want to take the last of this can because maybe somebody else's cat only eats this can and now I've taken it.

And I thought I should let them know I have it and they could let me know.

And I was like,

Oh my God,

I'm getting way too into this.

Because there's survival and then it can cross over a line of,

Does it make it wrong or greed when we won't share it?

So we can have lots of it,

But if we're willing to share it and not hoard it,

Is that okay?

Well,

Yeah.

Wow.

Greed is a subject in and of itself.

And I look at it from the perspective that Buddha looked at it,

His definition of greed,

Which is not the hedge fund manager and the billionaires going into space and that sort of thing.

That's just,

I don't know what the word is for it.

It's just an invidious display.

When Buddha referred to greed,

Any desire,

Any notion that something external to us can bring us happiness and peace is greed.

So the person who's shopping for the bargains,

Right?

The person who's hoarding the toilet paper or the cat food.

So our entire consumer culture is based on greed.

We only think of it in terms of the guys who are up at the top or some TV preacher or something like that.

But it's something that affects all of us and it is based on the idea of scarcity and my own incompleteness.

If you look at it from the spiritual perspective and Buddhist perspective,

It was simply the idea that I in and of myself was incomplete and therefore needed something external to satisfy me.

And the moment I do that,

I create the internal environment that will feel as if lack is a real thing and I'm completely ignorant of the fact that I myself had just created it because of my belief.

And that's why the three poisons are ignorance,

Delusion and greed.

Right.

And we have scarcity,

Delusion right now and which brings me to the biggest point of this show and then I would love to open this up because I do want to take in questions from you guys.

We just talked about,

We've brought in the word lack from scarcity.

So scarcity is like,

We think there's not enough and I now I lack it so I need to have more.

But then we've created a new,

A brand new,

Wonderful eat away at your stomach kind of problem which is I can't lose it.

I have to hold onto it.

And now I have a fear I'm overprotecting.

I don't want this person to come in.

I'm setting boundaries.

I'm setting control.

I'm sending reprimanding people who are trying to get it from me.

Or worse,

A reprimand would be nice,

You know,

Better than the artillery.

And so,

And then that to me,

Like right now I'm thinking of like,

Gosh,

I wouldn't be able to sleep with any of it.

You know,

First I can't sleep because I don't have enough or I think it's going to go away.

Then I think I'm going to lose it.

Like,

Oh my gosh,

There must be peace here.

There must be.

But how many places in our lives does that show up?

It's not just with it.

It's all external.

Can it ever show up internally?

Will that ever,

Ever show up internally?

Well,

Yeah,

It's all internal,

Right?

Because the drive to find something external is a belief within you.

So it all stems from our view of ourselves and our view of the universe,

Our view of reality.

It all stems from that.

And whether I'm somebody that is so skilled in a particular way,

In a particular culture that I can get a lot,

Right?

And then the culture can worship me like I'm some kind of hero.

When in fact,

I simply play the game the way it was set up to play.

And you didn't,

Right?

And it becomes an endless desire.

I mean,

It's an insatiable desire because the truth of the matter is,

Nothing out there can satisfy you.

That was the whole point.

That was the nature of suffering.

You're looking for something for satisfaction that cannot give you satisfaction.

And therefore you get something,

You get a high for a moment,

But then it's still there and you want to get more and more and more and more.

And then you want to hold on to it,

Right?

And hoard it and have more of it.

And there's been study after study done on the pathology of the extremely wealthy and they're less secure about it than you and I are.

Because the more you have,

The more you want,

The more you want and the more you want to hold on.

The more fear you have about losing it,

Right?

So you'll have a billionaire who's got 50 billion in the bank,

But he loses a billion and he wants to kill himself.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's all a matter of distorted perception.

And so whether it be my last can of cat food,

Right?

Or it'd be a billion bucks,

It's completely internal,

The perspective and the meaning that we have given it.

Now obviously the closer you get to poverty,

The more it intersects with the real fear of survival.

Yes.

Whereas it's totally imaginary if you're a billionaire,

Right?

At least within our culture,

Unless of course the economy collapses,

In which case now your billion is worth nothing.

But you can see it's all coming from the same place.

Yes.

It all has the common origin,

Which is ignorance of our true nature.

Yes.

And when you say about the true nature and then culture,

But about the true survival,

It leads me to think when little kids,

Maybe they're entering puberty and they can't go to the movies and they're like,

I will die if I can't go to the movies.

Oh my gosh.

And they feel this is death to their identity.

Death to the,

Like this external thing that I really have,

That this is a scarcity.

I'm not allowed,

I can only go out once this or that.

Yes.

This is a true death to that identity.

And this is where I wanted to open this up to everybody else because scarcity can come even scarcity of like,

Like I said,

A position in the tribe.

It can come as a scarcity of skills in a job.

You might lose your job if you become obsolete,

You know,

All these,

This,

This scarcity,

It's not just wealth and money.

I mean,

It,

It comes to value.

So I'm opening this question to everybody.

If somebody would like to ask a question about if,

If you're struggling,

If you're suffering with worrying about either maintaining your value,

Where's my quote there,

Value.

I still haven't got this camera down.

If you're,

If you're questioning and struggling with suffering,

Thinking you could lose your value and if you would like a little boost in or have a question about this because values,

You know,

Scarcity can actually,

I love the way GPU talk about the value.

Where did,

Where does value even come from?

Is it internal ever or is it always again,

External?

Well it's relative when you look at it culturally,

It's relative.

What's what's important to one culture's meaningless to another.

I mean,

Even our money,

You know,

You know,

If I walk into a grocery store here with euros,

Right?

It doesn't matter how many I have,

Right?

Because they have no value here.

Right?

And all of that's relative.

Everything we give meaning and value to is relative.

And the real quest,

The spiritual quest is for the,

Is for the,

Is to find the infinite value,

The value that is absolute,

That is not relative to anything else.

And you know,

That's really ultimately what we seek.

We want,

We want to know that we are inherently value,

Valuable.

Everybody desires that.

And because we don't know that,

It's because of that fundamental ignorance.

And that fundamental ignorance has created entire cultures based on the assumption of that fundamental,

That fundamental ignorance is actually true.

Layer upon layer and structured more and more complexity all based on this idea that what is valuable is what the culture says is valuable.

And I then have value depending on how well I fit into it.

Now if you look,

I mean,

It depends on the perspective.

If you look at,

You know,

A professional athlete,

Right?

You know,

Who's making $50 million a year,

Right?

He's got $100 million three year contract or something like that.

And when you,

When you,

When you take it out,

Take it,

Put it in the context of a,

Of a normal kind of community that needs to survive,

It has absolutely no value whatsoever.

It doesn't contribute anything.

The career,

The career.

Yeah.

Playing basketball,

Playing basketball.

Interesting.

Yeah.

It's very skillful,

But,

But it brings nothing.

Right.

So,

But what's the value of that?

Well,

It's entertainment,

Right?

Right.

Because the entertainment can make so much money from advertising.

All of those have value.

Suddenly the basketball player's a star and the school teacher is having to,

Is having to go out and buy pencils and paper for their,

For their own students and they can barely get by themselves.

So you can see the value system,

Right?

It's I mean,

It's there in black,

Black and white.

Teachers don't have any value.

And professional athletes do.

Which is,

You know,

Anybody with half a brain would look at it and go,

Man,

That's,

That's nuts.

That's crazy.

How about it though?

Why does it perpetuate if,

Because our culture is based on money.

Right.

Yeah.

Money.

I just want to highlight that.

Everybody get pulling in here.

Cause I can see some questions coming in about people pleasing,

Which is finding value and things,

But we really have money is a God.

We are worshiping it.

We need that.

Money is the central value of this culture.

It's even infected Christianity,

Right?

So,

You know,

You've got a TV preacher worth 500 million bucks.

That's that's,

That's insane.

It's obscene.

It's blasphemy is what it is.

Yeah.

And,

But that's,

You know,

That's prosperity,

Prosperity,

Preachers and the prosperity God gospel and all that money is the God.

Jesus was right.

The love of money is the root of all the money itself.

It's the love of it.

Cause whatever you love,

You've had that caught the value.

I mean,

That's what love is.

What we love is what we give the highest value to.

Yes.

Right.

And in our culture,

It is money.

Period.

I don't care how they try to slice it.

You know,

Oh,

There was a disaster in Nebraska.

And the first thing you say is three people died and it caused $50 million in damage.

In the same,

In the same sentence.

Right.

So you can see what the value is.

Right.

And for a lot of them,

I think they're forced probably to put money second.

I mean,

You know,

If I'm the insurance agency,

That's the first thing I want to know is,

You know,

And if they died,

Did they have a policy and somebody,

Somebody is,

Is any,

Is anybody I insured going to be liable?

Are there going to be lawsuits?

I mean,

That's what they're thinking.

Yes.

When people do die,

They oftentimes people will say,

What's my inheritance?

You know,

Or,

Um,

What am I getting?

The,

Um,

Yeah.

But we have to see that it is a value system.

It isn't just money.

It is our values.

It is the means by which we assign value and meaning to everything.

Didn't used to be that way.

Right.

I mean,

It had its place,

But things had,

You know,

There was more value.

There was more in the culture,

But over time it is deteriorated at the point where,

Particularly in the United States,

Which is the most extreme about it,

It is the only value there is.

Now,

How about the people now who are thinking,

Oh my gosh,

They're feeling that,

Okay,

Money,

I shouldn't want money.

I shouldn't need,

I shouldn't work with money.

How do they get,

How do,

How can we have inner reconciliation now?

Because right now a lot of different things in our body are talking to the other going,

Ah,

What should I do?

Doing what they love to be doing for real.

And they are making a lot of money.

Should they give it away?

Stop it.

Yeah.

To me.

Send it.

There's the address right below there.

Just send it,

Send it in.

Yeah.

I'll give you my PayPal account or Zelle or Venmo,

Whatever.

I take,

I take all credit cards,

Right?

Well,

That's the whole point.

We have to come to terms with it.

Just because it's become obscene in,

In its application doesn't mean it's inherently,

It's inherently bad.

But because of the power of that value system,

It just infects everything.

Right.

And you know,

It's not really possible.

You know,

Maybe it's possible there are some places in the middle of nowhere,

But there aren't many middles of nowhere anymore where you can go completely off grid and grow your own food and that sort of thing.

But you know,

I wouldn't last a week.

You know,

I've been,

I've been,

I was raised,

You know,

I was raised near the country,

Right,

Outside of Chicago,

But for my all adult life,

I've been a city guy.

Right.

So I just kind of walk next door to get Korean or Thai or whatever I feel like having,

You know,

The idea of growing my own food.

Jesus,

I,

I,

I kill every plant I have.

If I even drive by a nursery,

All the plants start to shake.

We're going to have to send you over dehydrator.

That's what you're going to do is dehydrate your food and store it.

Yeah.

But yeah,

I mean,

I think one of the key,

One of the most amazing things about the time we live in is there is no out,

There's no way out.

We're going to have to see this through.

We're going,

We're being forced to,

To look at these value systems and dismantle them from the inside.

Because because this value,

The value system of money is destroying the planet at an alarming rate.

The last prediction I heard is we have about 60 years left of topsoil.

Yes.

Yeah.

And that's it.

Then we're done.

We are done.

Yeah.

You can't replenish it.

You can't save it.

You can't.

If that isn't scarcity,

I don't know what is.

That's,

That's it.

Well,

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean,

You know,

The whole idea of scarcity,

It is,

It is real.

Right.

And we lived with it for millions of years,

Our entire evolutionary history,

Not just us,

But every critter before us.

Right.

And it was,

It was in this constant,

It was this constant struggle against,

With the environment to maintain,

To be life.

Right.

Right.

Because life is a processor of energy and therefore there's this,

This cycling going on.

The,

The earth under,

Without being strained is a perfect system of constant replenishment.

Right.

I mean,

I mean,

It's,

I mean,

It's just miraculous.

It's off the chart miraculous.

There's just,

You know,

I do,

No,

I don't believe in intelligent design and create the creator up there going,

What a good job I did.

Nothing like that.

Just just,

You know,

It's a miracle.

It's an absolute miracle.

It will actually last forever unless something comes along and stresses it to the point where it doesn't have enough time to reclaim itself.

Right.

And this is the,

This is the amazing position that humans find themselves in,

The arbiter of that.

And they,

We will decide whether or not we live or die and take most everything with us.

The earth will recover.

It always does.

Yes.

I love that word replenish.

That's a,

That's a,

Two words replenish and reclaim.

I,

I,

It's a renewed commitment and belief and in support.

You're,

You're,

You talk about money as being a system.

So we have a system which we can offer with our,

With our beliefs because we're creating this.

And so there's,

Oh,

I want to go back.

Where's the question.

Okay,

Wait,

We have Mark's question,

But I want to go back to people pleasing.

Where is it?

Can you talk to people and how it's rooted in fear to me that that speaks of scarcity of your own value.

And what needs to be reconciled?

What would need to be asked?

What question needs to be asked for somebody who's people pleasing and it's rooted.

It has to be rooted in fear.

Well,

Of course it is.

Yeah.

Um,

There's,

There's the fear that I'm not going to be loved.

Right.

You know,

You learned early on that the way to get you needed from the environment was to be completely and totally,

Uh,

Submitted to it.

You know?

And so you always pleased your parents and then you please the teachers and you pleased your friends and,

And it,

And it worked.

It was a strategy that worked.

You did get your needs met.

Cause if you hadn't it,

You know,

You,

You,

The nervous system would have found another way to do it or you would be,

It'd be dead and you wouldn't be asking the question.

I mean,

That's just,

That is the way it works.

So it is a,

You're simply the,

The,

You know,

The number one scarcity is access to our own selves.

You know,

We've been cut off from our own souls.

That's that's,

You know,

That the scarcity is I don't have access to the,

My own inner resources.

I have a huge bank account and I forgot the number.

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

That was so good.

Oh,

How true is that?

And when people say,

Um,

I'd asked you this question yesterday and I was a bit off on it,

But that's okay.

You rounded me back in.

I was like,

When people are feeling like,

Gosh,

I just don't feel like myself.

Um,

It's not so much loss that it's,

It's that access that you've,

You've cut off for these reasons.

So I believe it was Jay,

Jay,

That I thought,

Um,

So I liked that.

So this number one scarcity is that we've cut off our own access to ourselves.

And so we're back to self inquiry,

Which is,

Well,

Who is,

Or am I asking the right question?

Um,

Who is trying to please people?

It was that the question?

Very good.

Very,

Very good grasshopper.

So it's not why,

It's not always,

It's who is trying to please people.

The why is easy.

I mean,

It was the way you were trained to be.

It was a strategy that worked at the time.

Um,

You know,

When you normally express yourself and,

Am I the only one hearing you?

I think so.

I don't have an echo.

Does anybody else hear an echo?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm in a weird echo just as me.

Not a you.

Oh,

Okay.

Yeah.

Are you able to handle that one?

Yeah,

I'll deal with it during,

It'll stop eventually.

Or I'll stop.

No,

Stacy heard the echo,

But now it's gone.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now it's gone.

That's weird.

Um,

What was the question again?

Ah,

Yes.

Who is it that's people pleasing?

You know,

The why,

See what happens is,

And this is,

It's so amazing the way it works.

And I talk about it in the videos.

You know,

I go into depth into it in the course,

Of course.

We create an identity to go with,

To solidify the various behaviors that have arisen in order to keep you safe.

Right?

So I express myself as a child,

My natural exuberance and enthusiasm,

Which has full access to all my inner resources,

Not being acceptable to the tribe puts me in the danger of not surviving.

Right?

And so that ability to express myself gets hindered and suppressed to the point where it's regarded as dangerous.

Cause it is.

Right?

So if I express myself and I get hurt,

I'm not going to do that.

So what do I do instead?

Well,

I,

I,

I,

I adapt behaviors that,

That will get me what I need,

Right?

The attention and the care and whatever it is I need the approval.

I get all the nice approval,

Which is what people pleasing is.

And you get really good at getting approval.

And that's one of the particular strategies.

Some people get aggressive and controlling,

Right?

It all depends on what worked for you in your environment when you're little.

And then as it develops,

What happens is as it solidifies is it becomes a sense of identity.

So it's no longer a learned behavior.

It's me.

Right?

Right.

Now that me,

That,

That behavior,

That,

That the programmed responses,

Which is completely robotic,

Right?

There,

There isn't anybody really there any more than,

You know,

This computer is hearing what I have to say.

Right?

So there's,

There's nobody there,

But there's the sense of identity about it.

So it is no longer just something that is happening or some behavior or some reaction that's going on.

It is myself.

And they become so identified that you can't tell the difference.

So now I say,

I am a people pleaser.

Not true.

You are not a people pleaser.

Your nervous system has simply adapted itself because it has found the most success it has at getting what it needs from the environment is when it pleases people,

Which means I get everybody's approval.

So I get,

I get love.

I get attention.

I get whatever,

Even though it's totally unsatisfying,

Right?

Because I know it's bullshit.

Deep down inside,

I know,

I know it is,

But this is,

This is,

This is the whole point of,

Of,

Of self-inquiry to discover that you are not the patterns of behavior that,

That the nervous system adapted,

Right?

But you became to believe that you were,

And therefore got compressed inside this sense of identity,

Which is also known as the ego.

You make me think of,

Um,

So I think this analogy is right,

But I don't know of a car who now senses when there's somebody in a lane or behind you,

And it adjusts to get the result that it needs for your approval to stay alive and driving it.

But we think the car is so smart,

It knows,

Uh,

Or it's,

It's,

We give it this,

Um,

As much as we give our own,

You know,

Systems that,

That checkmark,

Okay,

It did this,

It can go on and it's,

It's the behavior or tasks that it did as skills that it provided achieved a result,

A desirable result,

Because you're still alive and didn't hit a car.

But it's the same.

And I see what you're saying.

It's we almost,

Yeah,

We should,

We almost need to like pull back from those.

Um,

Patterns and what we do and realize,

Yeah,

That it's not realized,

But do the self inquiry work to say,

It's,

It's not,

It's not me to do this.

Yes,

We have,

We have to,

We have to sort out the,

What are reactive patterns in the nervous system?

What does it actually mean?

And it's not easy simply because everybody believes that those patterns are them.

It is also part of the way the nervous system forms,

Right?

The sense of identity is much a creation of the nervous system as anything else is.

I mean,

You didn't create it,

The you,

You think you are,

Was created by it,

Right?

Right.

Right.

And so it's like,

Whoa,

The entire,

You know,

The entire nervous system,

You know,

GP was not conditioned.

GP is the name given to the conditioning.

Right.

Yes.

And it's such a powerful insight,

But it's just kind of blows our minds.

It's not the way we're used to thinking,

Right?

Our entire world and,

And all of it,

Including all religions and everything,

Assume this persona is who I am.

And it is not,

It's just a,

It's just a mask you got stuck wearing and you haven't learned how to take it off.

I love that you used your name as that example,

Because women or men who take on the names when they get married,

You are now this new person,

Here's your new name.

Right.

And some of us,

You know,

People who have gone through,

I have not,

But a ceremony,

I am,

I am now star moon.

Yes.

Queen.

You know,

Because we're naming it after we have set this,

This pattern,

This,

The system that is working for it.

This is so interesting like this.

Now I'm going to read Mark's question.

It's a little bit jumpy,

But that's okay.

Mark is asking,

Do you think there will be a reckoning and a cultural transformation?

I'm hoping that's sort of positive,

But because,

Because of,

I'm going to link this to scarcity.

Is there,

Do we have to,

Because scarcity will eventually come to extinction or cultural transformation?

Well there is a reckoning coming obviously,

Right?

And we're either going to do it ourselves by waking up and beginning to work with life as it is rather than against it,

You know,

Hence the name of our show,

The Flow.

Work with the Tao,

Reconcile ourselves to simply the way things are rather than this idea that somehow we can just continually to continue to extract resources at just an obscene rate and it's not going to have any effect.

So either we're going to come to see that ourselves with enough critical mass that we reverse our course and change our whole character,

Or it will all collapse and most of us,

If not all of us will be dead.

And so there is a reckoning coming.

There is a judgment day ahead.

You might say there is an Armageddon.

Right.

And the word Armageddon just simply means rendezvous.

It's a rendezvous with destiny.

We have a rendezvous with destiny and the destiny is either going to be to awaken.

I mean,

It's going to come down to simply awaken or die,

But I'm such a hopeless optimist because I know life is immortal,

That you are immortal and therefore you can't die.

So what will die?

The dream will die.

The false sense of identity must die.

But for most people,

For everybody,

Right,

Something gets pushed.

That's why they refer to it as a dark night of the soul or some crisis moment.

It's like the ego has to be pushed so far to the wall that it just does not have any more moves.

Because even in non-dual teaching,

I'm working through non-duality,

Everybody's still trying to wake up and hold on to the dreamer.

They want,

Hope they want to hold on to the ego.

Right.

There's still something there that wants the fruits of awakening.

Right.

Right.

But doesn't,

You know,

Everyone wants to go to heaven.

Nobody wants to die.

Yes.

I also remember that time or that time you said a few times,

I love it that you about waking the dream.

Oh,

What is it?

Darn it.

Um,

The guy in the dream doesn't wake up.

Right.

Right.

The guy in the dream doesn't wake up.

That's why I'm going to be so,

I love it.

Yeah.

Muji puts it beautifully talking about self-inquiry.

He says the one who starts the inquiry does not finish the inquiry,

But is finished by the inquiry.

Yes.

And that is perfect for this,

But you said,

You know,

Something we must die,

Like something we must die.

And we use the word,

Use the word dismantle.

It's one of my favorite words actually,

Because that it's a little,

It feels a little more gentle.

Like let's just dismantle this.

Let's just neatly take it apart and organize it.

Yeah.

Not slash and burn.

Yeah.

And that way you can choose,

Well,

This piece will save,

Just I'm not ready yet just to get rid of this.

Um,

And as we go in,

I will read the Facebook users,

A question or comment.

I don't think it's a question about it.

And the question that came up for me is,

Um,

Sometimes we think of scarcity.

If I have enough skills,

If I have enough,

If I have enough,

If I have enough or have more than I'll be okay.

But sometimes some people also go the opposite if I am weak,

If I need help,

If I'm a victim,

People,

The tribe will help me.

And as soon as I can do it on my own,

They'll push me out of the nest.

Right.

You know,

So can scarcity also come from,

Um,

A system working for you that when you come from the lack,

You are assisted and helped.

Well,

Victimhood is another identity that because you,

Oh,

Woe is me and you get attention.

There's the echo again.

It sucks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it sucks.

Okay.

Well,

Nothing I can do about it because it's not,

It's not here.

It's nothing I've got going on here yet.

It's the way it's being transmitted.

So,

Um,

But yes,

I mean,

If I'm a child and I find that if I,

If I get sick or,

You know,

If the only way I get attention is when I'm in an,

When I'm in an extreme state,

My nervous system will learn to keep me in an extreme state.

And if that persists,

It will become so,

Um,

It'd be good.

Some,

Uh,

So much of my identity that it will,

It will continue into adulthood and I will become a victim and I will seek out victimhood and I will want to,

You know,

And I will,

And I will,

Oh,

Woe is me.

It'll always be that.

And of course I will deny it.

I'm not a victim.

Right.

Take care of me,

Please.

Take care of me,

Please.

And again,

Everybody recognizes,

Oh God,

I victim,

You know,

The little smarmy little victim.

Um,

It's a strategy that works.

Period.

We have to see it.

It's all happening automatically and naturally in your nervous system.

The problem is simply identity,

Identifying with it,

Not being able to tell the differences as to how you were programmed and who you actually are.

The computer can be programmed and it doesn't have any issues with it because there's no consciousness there.

It is not a self.

It has no,

It's not sentient.

We are sentient.

There,

You know,

There's somebody here.

Whereas there's nobody in this computer.

There's somebody who's here who is aware of,

I want to take these two opposing identities,

A workaholic and a victim.

I have no skills.

I can't do anything.

I'm dumb.

I'm sick.

I can't let you know,

Please help me.

Or feel sorry for me maybe or any of those I'm poor,

Please give to me,

Um,

To workaholic.

I need nothing.

I can do everything on my own.

Meanwhile,

They're working themselves to death.

The conscious that's there that is now witnessing.

How do they,

How was peace arrived at how to end that conflict?

Because if they,

If they,

Even if they recognize that that is the identity that's working for them,

But they don't,

It doesn't make them feel good or satisfied.

How do you start dismantling that?

Well that is the,

That is it.

Well first off,

There has to be sufficient suffering to warrant the attempt to do it.

And,

And the sufficiency,

And it has to do with all this,

The current systems that we have in place in the world,

Right?

They don't work anymore.

They haven't for a while,

Right?

The current economic structure has utterly failed.

And COVID made that plain as could be,

Right?

That you know,

When we actually had something that stressed the system,

It completely broke down instantly,

Right?

It couldn't,

You couldn't survive,

It could only survive good times,

Right?

Take suffering to make that happen.

And individually we face the same kind of things.

My life isn't working.

And then I'll try this and then say,

Oh,

Try this.

And I may try a hundred different things and it still isn't working.

At some point you go,

What the hell is going on?

And if that pierces you deeply enough,

Something inside will open and the right answer will start to come,

Right?

But something inside you has to open,

Something has to break open.

The ego has to yield somewhat,

Right?

Even a tiny bit.

And even if there's a crack,

You know,

Truth is always hanging out outside the door.

You know,

It's just,

You know,

You hear,

Oh,

They're coming to the door.

Oh,

They walk by.

And just sits and waits and eventually the door kind of,

They kind of open their door and it goes.

That is so encouraging,

By the way.

I love that.

We're not alone in this.

Yes.

I mean,

We're deeply loved.

The reality,

The nature of all of being is pure love.

We are just loved and adored and we don't know how to let it in.

Yeah,

It is.

It is that I remember,

I have to share these stories here.

I remember being young and my,

I would,

I fought with my mom quite a bit and it wasn't very nice of me to do so because she was a sick lady,

But I did fine with her.

And at the end she would,

Oh,

This poor moment.

It breaks my heart.

Still the only regret I have.

She used to say,

Can you not give me a hug?

And I was like,

No.

She said,

Well,

Why?

I said,

Cause you need the hug.

If you just wanted the hug,

It would be different.

I was such a mean kid,

But,

Um,

And cause,

Because I couldn't let,

I didn't,

Yeah,

It was,

I wouldn't have the crack.

I didn't want the truth to come in.

The truth really was she just wanted a freaking hug and I was just gonna,

You know,

Feel the love and everything,

But I wasn't,

I like that.

That if you just like,

If the,

If the ego would just yield a little bit,

Just flip that that you don't need to stop.

You just,

It's a,

It's a,

It's an Amber.

This is the Amber light.

So yes,

It's Amber Amber light.

Yeah.

And you know,

The workaholic may just,

You know,

Take a meditation class or something.

Right.

Yes.

Right.

And that could be just enough of an opening because they think,

Oh,

I take a meditation and ease some of the stress and I can work harder.

Right.

I mean,

That might be,

That might just be the only thing,

But that may be just enough of an opening for something to begin.

The light's getting in right.

Fresh energy is getting in and it's inevitably going to have an impact.

It's going to,

It's going to spread.

One of the things I've become,

I've become aware of is since COVID and,

And people are since COVID more,

A huge number of people that before were just okay with their jobs are really consciously unsatisfied with the jobs they have.

And,

And you find these there's,

There's people in like middle management and lower level executives.

Right.

The guys up at the top,

The chief executives,

The board of directors,

They're not,

They don't really even care what the business is.

All they're interested in stock price.

Right.

Right.

And positioning and all that kind of,

That kind of stuff.

But you get down a little bit and there's the guys that actually have to deal with stuff,

Right.

With the reality and people's lives and their dissatisfaction,

You know,

And you know,

Some woman who's been there for 10 years and her boyfriend broke up with her.

Right.

And now she's,

You know,

She's crying at work every day and her productivity is going down.

What do you do?

Fire and replace her.

Right.

From the point of view of the stock price.

Yes,

That's what you do.

Just get rid of and replace her with somebody who's emotionally competent right now.

And if she breaks down,

Get rid of her and get somebody else.

But to anybody else who's at this level who has a heart,

They're going,

You know,

How can I do that?

What can I do?

How can I help?

Right.

So it's,

This has actually become quite exacerbated.

It's becoming really,

Really obvious that for the most part,

These places have not been human places to live.

Now,

It takes a disaster like COVID for us to discover that.

It takes a disaster like that for us to discover that our systems are completely corrupt and incompetent.

Right,

But it does bring it about.

Not enough yet to for us to really transform the whole thing.

Right.

But that,

But that is that that power that awakening is growing.

I mean,

It's growing.

Look,

Absolutely.

Look at this.

We have people listening to this conversation.

Right.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

I mean,

I marvel at that.

I get people every week on my satsang.

Absolutely.

That wouldn't have happened 30 years ago.

It wouldn't have.

Yeah.

I mean,

I talked about this stuff 30 years ago.

Not like this.

Right.

But it was like,

Yeah,

Nobody was.

Yeah.

It wasn't the same 50 years ago.

Forget it.

Yeah.

The self inquiry is a whole new thing.

Well,

A year ago,

I was I just heard the word term self inquiry.

And I think I yes,

I love that the truth is always the truth.

There's no start.

There's no end.

And maybe we always had something going on about the truth in our lives,

But we didn't help it the way we're doing this with self inquiry.

It is so helpful.

And in a reconciliation,

Which I do want to bring that up about the course coming up,

Because this is an opportunity to really go into these things like,

Oh,

My gosh,

Just you know,

I get sex.

I'm like,

I got the breakthrough,

And then I get it.

And then something else comes up.

And I'm like,

Darn it,

I can't get that again.

But it just because it takes time,

It takes support,

It takes constant conversation,

Not conversation.

But do it yet in our work just asking the right question.

Because if you ask the wrong question,

GP,

You can certainly go the wrong way.

Like it's another door.

The wrong question is the another door.

So if you say why am I doing that?

Wrong door guys.

So I wanted to make do an invitation.

Because today is Tuesday.

And on Q&A day is on Thursday,

Correct?

Yes.

No,

Thursday is another live demo day.

Okay.

I hadn't really said today,

I was thinking like Friday to just do a Q&A.

Okay,

Okay.

Okay,

Well,

Let's go with the demo because then they can all meet Evan as well.

So a senior facilitator teacher for the InterReconciling Group and GP.

This is so cool,

Because I've got to sit on the last one.

If you guys are thinking I,

This is good,

I'm listening,

I'm hearing,

Reading some comments,

I'm putting some questions in.

But if you want to actually do some of this work with GP and Evan,

And get,

You know,

Back and forth and do some work,

This is an exercise,

You'll be able to walk through an exercise and have some,

Some stuff happen,

Some stuff revealed.

That was really fun that we did the last one.

And I would love for you guys to know,

They don't need to sign up,

They can just simply go to it's going to be on YouTube.

So yeah,

Just go.

We'll put the link in below or can do it after I guess they know where to go.

Just youtube slash GP Walsh.

That's super easy.

And that's Thursday,

Thursday at 1pm Eastern Time.

Yeah,

That's such a benefit.

So to be able to actually experience it,

Then you think,

Yeah,

I would think this is a this is a course that I think I know I would benefit from.

And so that's all coming up.

But yeah,

You guys got to show up for that one.

I'm going to just read this Facebook user if this kind of talk,

This wisdom,

These topics were covered and if of interest in the millions,

I think we just said of people,

Humanity,

Such a wonderful,

Powerful momentum for the betterment of the experience of all beings.

And yeah,

Well,

It's got to start somewhere.

Yeah,

Might as well be here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No,

It's true.

I mean,

You know,

If I if I thought I was really the guy who created this,

I would I would be I would be so full of myself,

Nobody should listen to me.

You know,

This is,

I am the recipient of the awakening.

Yes.

Consciousness is awakening.

Right.

And it's happening all over the place.

And,

And I'm the recipient of it.

I may not even know my story.

I wasn't seeking,

You know,

This path,

Anything,

Anything but the only thing I knew was that what I wanted,

And,

And I was miserably unhappy.

I had no idea why I didn't know what to do about it.

But it was it was I was miserable enough that,

That something inside cracked.

And of course,

Truth was waiting there,

You know,

To say,

Hey,

Kid,

Let's talk.

And and,

You know,

It was just so powerful and overwhelming that I,

You know,

That I couldn't help but recognize the profundity of it.

And,

And,

And just coming and then coming to understand is not just me,

And I've been borrowing from a lot of different disciplines and stuff,

As I've been to discovering this whole idea of how conditioning works,

How identity gets created.

And but it was non dual self inquiry that actually revealed to me the actual nature of identity.

Right.

Because even those who are aware of conditioning still think of themselves in terms of that personal identity.

Right.

And psychology isn't capable of taking that next step.

There's some some degree of it in transpersonal psychology.

But that,

That gap,

That misunderstanding of who we are is the source of all human suffering.

It is the cause of all lack.

And when that initial schism takes place,

Where I get cut off from my soul,

And that false sense of identity begins to be created,

The seed for that is planted.

The two things we experienced that we did not experience prior to that is the fear of death and the fear of lack.

It is inherent in the sense of a separate self.

And then it gets magnified,

Because it becomes it's an assumption,

Right?

It now enters into everything human beings do.

Right.

Yes,

Because I can,

I think I can remember,

I don't know if I can,

But if we look at children,

Babies,

They're not crying,

Thinking I could die.

They're,

They're just,

They're hungry.

They need to diaper change.

So they're not,

They're not thinking,

Wow,

This poop on my bum could hurt me,

I could get an infection.

Nothing like that.

I hope there's enough diapers.

Yeah,

Yeah,

That's right.

I hope there's not a diaper shortage.

Right.

Right.

It's only till later.

Yes.

When we start putting all these,

Well,

I know it's a silly one almost to bring up,

But why do you think parents,

Because not everybody went through this,

But when they'd say you better eat all the food on your plate because these people are starving.

They don't have any,

You have some,

Eat it,

Use it.

Eat it all.

Right.

And first of all,

You've put this,

Like,

Don't be so selfish and wasteful,

You know,

Because you're causing other people suffering if you throw that away,

You know,

Like that,

Oh,

There's so much wrapped up in that one.

But there's so many messages there.

Yeah.

My parents did not do that,

Thank goodness.

But I just,

But that I can only,

Like,

My,

My heart actually aches when I think about that and what a child must have,

What they hear at first and immediately what identity they have to create now to either eat the food because maybe they're full or sick or they don't want to eat it.

They,

They're now thinking,

I've got to turn that off and consume.

So is it,

This is almost like hoarding or greed or,

Or keeping things and not being the attachment perhaps.

Yeah,

It is.

Such a delusion.

It,

It,

It,

Yes,

It is a delusion and it distorts our natural appetite.

Yes.

Ooh.

It distorts our,

Our own,

Our own inherent sense of I'm full.

Right.

I have,

I have enough.

Right.

And then it,

And then it can end up being eating disorders and emotional eating and that,

Right.

You know,

It can turn into all sorts of complete distortions,

Which is simply,

We have,

Again,

The disconnect from ourselves that doesn't allow us to simply measure our own,

The functioning of our own body.

Right.

Right.

You don't,

You don't,

You don't sleep when you're tired.

You push yourself to exhaustion,

You know,

You eat too much or you eat too little,

Right.

Everything gets taken over by,

By the mind,

Right.

Which it has no reference point,

Right.

You know,

The body is a reference point.

Am I hungry?

Do I actually need this food?

Is it my body needing this or am I just wanting something to compensate for something else?

Yes.

Right.

Right.

And let's not forget that there was a time when food could get scarce.

And so this is not,

This is not something that is just completely made up.

It's just been amplified and distorted in our,

In our modern culture.

And the fact of the matter is,

I think it was Buckminster Fuller who pointed out that it was like in the mid seventies that the,

The,

Our technological sophistication had,

Had had gotten to the point where we could easily feed,

Clothe,

House,

Educate every man,

Woman,

And children on the child and plant.

I do believe this.

I believe this.

I know,

I feel like I know it.

So in fact,

In fact,

50 years ago,

The need for scarcity has been ended.

Yes.

And at this point it persists only as a delusion.

And because of that,

You have greed and hoarding.

So you create lack where in fact there isn't any.

Yes.

Yes.

I,

That was so perfect.

And I almost feel like I'm wanting,

I don't want to go backwards on this to bring it up because that was like a perfect ending,

But it was so perfect.

But I am going to bring this back because we still have seven minutes.

Exactly.

One more question.

If people are thinking,

So there's two things that came to mind,

Money,

Money specifically,

Jobs maybe,

Maybe that's what jobs and money right now when people are in this world and this current climate.

I mean,

Nobody's hiring,

There's not enough money,

Everybody is charging more because we have less of,

Or we're unable to get all like supply demand.

Let's go with that's a delusion.

Let's just go with that.

Okay.

It's a,

It's a delusion.

We're being fed that we're told that right now.

Where do we need to go with that to have comfort and peace and move forward?

Well,

It's,

It's,

It's,

It's huge because there are some genuine threats to us.

Yes.

And the awakening that's being experienced is realizing that all of these,

All of these threats to our wellbeing are all made by us.

And now we have created this monster and we don't know how to dismantle it.

We basically conjured up the devil and he's not behaving like he's supposed to.

He's a very misbehaving devil.

And we created it.

It's that simple.

Everybody asks us,

This is the,

You know,

This is the system.

Everything we're experiencing now is man-made and we could change it in a heartbeat.

And in fact,

We have the technology to turn all of our problems around in an extremely short time,

Less than a year.

And we would solve crime with all of it.

All of it.

So this puts us in a precarious position,

Right?

If you're the majority of people,

You're not even awake to it.

Right?

And so you think that,

You know,

It's Mexicans or it's Muslims,

Right?

It's immigrants.

That's the,

You know,

The thing in the United States.

They took my job,

Right?

So not being awake to it,

Right?

Obviously it just perpetuates itself.

You're a part of it.

And it's very uncomfortable in the early stages when you become one of those who are awake to it,

But in fact are completely powerless against it.

Yes.

Right?

Because it does have a momentum,

But we have to,

We have to first come to terms within ourselves of our belief in and our fear of scarcity.

Right?

And when I say that,

I don't,

I'm not just talking about bravado or everything's going to be okay.

I mean,

Obviously the less,

The less belief there is in something,

The less you will experience it.

Right?

But you can't at the same time,

You take that to one extreme,

You get like the law of attraction and like,

I can,

I can manifest that,

Manifest that for myself.

I won't be touched by all of this.

Right?

Which is utter nonsense because there's a certain aspect of that is correct.

And then there's another aspect in which you are an integral part of the whole and cannot be separated from it.

And therefore all lack is your lack.

Right?

Yes.

It's what's meant when Christ took on the sins of the world.

That's what it really means.

Right?

Do you taking on the,

That's the Bodhisattva vow.

You're taking on the suffering of others because you can transmute it.

Right?

So you will,

It is absolutely essential that we see through our delusions,

That we see that scarcity is sustained by our belief in scarcity.

Now,

I mean,

It sounds totally crazy,

Right?

But it is not an objective reality.

It is being sustained by our belief that it is an objective reality.

And that's the first place.

That's the first thing we have to deal with.

It's the it's the third Bodhisattva practice that was given by Buddha perceiving the non-existence of external existence.

Oh,

I like that.

Okay,

Hold on perceiving the non-existence of external existence.

Nothing exists externally.

Everything is a projection of the mind,

Which means I take it back into me.

And I don't have to fear anything out there because there isn't anything out there.

My belief that it's out there is what's causing me the fear.

And it's causing me my experience of it.

That's where it starts.

That's where the stake gets put in the ground.

And how that's going to manifest in your life.

I don't know.

Will it eradicate every everything you see every you never ever see scarcity?

Well,

Only sunny days.

Of course not.

Of course you wouldn't want that either.

No,

You wouldn't.

Trust me,

I try and I go there a lot that sunny.

I'm always on the sunny side of the street.

That's for space.

But they can sure give it a good try by coming to the demo.

And I think it's worth a shot.

I think it's worth a shot.

Going inward is such a fun.

It's so interesting.

Like,

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

It's like opening this like treasure chest that you found in the attic and going,

Wow,

I actually really like what's in this chest.

It wasn't all scary and it's mythologically,

It's that's what it's always there's always that there's always that treasure.

It's at the bottom of the ocean or it's deep in the cave or the top of the mountain.

And you know,

It's it's treasure,

Right?

And then the culture will project on that whatever it values as treasure.

It's it's gold,

Right?

Or it's the Virgin,

Right?

And the Virgin is the symbol of your own pure,

Innocent energy,

The reality of you.

That's what the Virgin symbolizes the untouched you.

And it's always somewhere obscure that you have to cut through the weeds to get there and on the way you get dragged down to a in a pit by a troll or dragon picks you up and throws you around.

And there's there's all of these obstacles.

But that's mythologically the what it's doing is it's presenting what we have to go through internally to reclaim the treasure.

Yes,

It isn't just handed to us anymore.

Right,

Right.

We have to we have to claim it.

And this is what we're all experienced.

This is the universal experience right right now.

And we have these things to help to help guide us through the process.

So we're not.

So we're not completely lost in the sauce,

Which our culture is because it has completely severed all its ties to the past,

To all mythology,

It's become very reductionist to perfunctory and it's,

It's,

You know,

It's in the name of the objectivity of science.

Or money,

Right?

Right.

You know,

What's the bottom line here?

What's the bottom line?

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

My worst thing ever to hear was,

Um,

I would share with a good friend or something.

Oh,

I got this amazing contractor job.

And I just I love my clients so much.

Am I thinking that well,

How much you're making?

I don't care.

I'm not even gonna tell you now because it's not about I would get a little bit thing.

I'm gonna just if I said so it's either Anya or Anja,

But I'm gonna go with Anya.

I would love to.

I think that's correct.

Yeah.

She's,

She's in Germany.

Yeah,

I would love to personally invite you to if you can make the demonstration and be able to to ask that question Anya that the scarcity that your experiences I'm not loved.

We can touch on it just for a minute and then we'll both have to scooch.

But um,

But that one,

You know,

That was a big one because that is a big scarcity.

And if I may GP,

This is the most important time to go inward because,

Because I'm not loved if you're judging from the external.

That's you can't win there.

Right?

Well,

Yeah,

The love is the value,

Right?

I mean,

Love is value.

We love what we value that you're there.

They're one and the same,

Right?

So the love of money is the valuing of money above everything else.

And and,

And so when they're that the the original,

The big scarcity is the sense that I'm not enough.

I mean,

That's what happens.

And that's what happens when the sense of a separate self gets created.

And um,

And,

And we don't,

We don't feel loved anymore.

And you can't feel loved.

If the real you comes out,

And it's not allowed and has to go to the basement and you have to create a false version of yourself,

You cannot possibly feel loved.

You'll always feel something is off,

You will never feel as if you're adequate.

You'll always feel unlovable.

And and you'll feel like a phony and you will be eternally unsatisfied.

And that dissatisfaction is suffering.

I mean,

That's what Buddha said suffering is simply discontent.

And it will be there until we find the cause of that suffering.

And that that that the cause of that suffering is that original schism that that disconnected you from your soul.

And in that gap,

All the scarcity,

All the lack,

All the pain,

Fear,

Sorrow,

Death,

Shiva's wheel emerges.

And a beautiful invitation to not only you Anya,

But everyone else.

When you reference that about the basement,

You know,

Not coming to the basement,

GP has an ebook that is free to everybody.

If you go to gpwalsh.

Com,

And you sign up for the light letter,

Which you do want to get anyway,

So you know,

When all the fun shows are on and all the courses,

But you can also get a free copy of that.

It's I'm trying to guess if I can't remember about 39 or between between 40 and 50 pages.

But it's about yeah,

Angels in the basement.

And it's such a beautiful read a helpful read.

And Anya,

I think you would absolutely if you appreciate that if you have not yet read it,

Maybe you have comment or reread it.

But let's close off with that.

I think this is just such like a massive topic,

Because it's just everything.

It's like you said,

Everything,

Number one scarcity is cutting off or not having access to our own self.

And so everything and anything.

This is what GP does.

This is the work that you do is what you show up and help teach people and guide and point people to this is inner,

Sorry,

It's self inquiry.

And then when we do the self inquiry,

We're like,

Hey,

Ah,

There's a problem.

We need to do inner reconciliation.

And you're invited to as many things as we can possibly do.

We're here every Tuesday,

GP satsang every Sunday.

But more importantly,

We're really trying to build up invite people come on over to the demonstrations with Evan and GP on Thursday.

Yeah,

I'm doing this right Thursday at 1pm Eastern and just very good.

I should have a little list here,

But a little calendar.

Any questions at all,

Just put the comments here.

We're going to get them and then we're going to be able to answer and hello to everybody always shows up and joins us and we don't usually run this much over but that was it was worth it.

Thank you so much GP.

This is always tough.

Thanks Lisa.

Thank you everyone.

Until next time.

Bye bye.

You've been listening to The Flow from Home School Live.

Join us each week as we dive deep into the flow of life and self discovery.

To learn more,

Visit gpwalsh.

Com and download GP s free ebook,

Angels in the Basement.

This is your host,

Elisa Berry.

Thank you for joining us and remember,

You are not a thing.

You are the flow.

Reviews

This is a brilliant conversation with so much to take away. I'll be returning to listen again for sure.