Release Yourself From Harmful Inner Voices GF Live 6-6-26

Key Lesson: Whatever storms you are given to face on your long journey back home, work to remember this truth…and be assured the day will dawn when you will know the unconditional freedom you seek: Your struggle is with yourself, and yourself only.

Transcript

We need to explore some important ideas. And I trust you'll use the time. That you have taken. To be as attentive as possible to what it is that we're going to look at together. I'm going to. . . Explain some things that while on One hand should be fairly evident to us, But on another unfortunately is not. And I'm going to use a couple different devices today to. . . Help clarify and strengthen the main lessons intended. So I beg that you will be patient and. . . Put down whatever may be occupying you because I know whether you understand it or not, Your mind just tends to be ceaselessly occupied. And that's part of what we're going to look at together is what is it that's going on? That keeps us so occupied and yet. So empty at the same time. So, Kate, Let's. . . Let's get underway. If you'll put up the talk title. There it is. Talk title is How to Recognize and Release Yourself. From harmful inner voices. So let's just start with that. How many of you realize that One way or another, You are visited. Day, Night, And even in your sleep by inner voices that you don't understand and yet that you lend your attention to. Regardless of the consequences of that relationship. Just to be clear, I think it's important. We're not looking to judge ourselves. Those voices do that for us, Don't they? But we're gonna look at them together in a very meaningful fashion. So we'll bring up the key lesson because It is a principle that runs through every true teaching and in particular what we're going to look at today. So read along with me and then we'll get into the material. Whatever storms you are given to face on your long journey back home. Work to remember this truth. If you do, You'll be assured the day will dawn when you will know the unconditioned freedom for which, The unconditional freedom for which you seek. Your struggle is with yourself and yourself only. Your struggle is with yourself and yourself only. We just can't quite believe that, Can we? Because for one thing, We can't believe that we could be set against ourselves and not know it to be so. After all, We think we're rational creatures. That we have a right mind most of the time and we're able to perceive what we believe is in our way on this journey that we are all on. And yet, In spite of all of this understanding we profess to have, We keep running into these same situations. That's what we're going to look at together. So nice deep breath, And let's see where we can go. I asked for your agreement not because I need it, But because I want you to participate in the principles we're going to present. Will you agree to some extent that most of us don't pay too much attention to what, For lack of a better term, We would call voices from out of the shadows that are almost always whispering, If not actually shouting. That, Hey, You need to listen to me. You need to follow my direction. Because if you do. . . Without really saying so. There's a promise that our life will get better when we arrive at and drop anchor in whatever that promised harbor is that they point to where everything will be the way we want it to be. So that's the first important point that we are. In the constant company of what we believe is our own consciousness talking to us. And ideally guiding us in these problems and places where we have so much suffering. And we know that what they do is they push, Point, Prompt, Pull. They say, Here's what to do. Here's where to go. And as a rule, We obey. Without question. An important transition, What we usually find when we arrive, That is if we do. Where they've promised we will be at peace. We find only at best a place of temporary anchorage that's circumstantial at best. And as conditions, Circumstances change, Suddenly the waters of this peaceful harbor are turbulent. And we're out to sea again, Trying to figure out what we didn't see that we could see better next time. Everybody following me? So that we follow what seems to be these helpful guides, Only to find ourselves time and time again marooned on some reef of some unseeded stress or grief that's popped up and there we are stranded. Yes. I'm using this language because we're going to look at something in a few moments that will help you better relate to what I'm going to present to you. So even after we follow these voices. Prompted as we are by a sudden need that we feel for guidance because we're confused. We have some conflict. We'd listen to them over and over again, And in spite of the evidence, We never pause to consider that whatever is talking to us, Calling us to follow it again, We never consider that it's not there to guide us anywhere other than in what appears to be the clutches of some dark, Unconscious nature from out of which these same voices have appeared. We think when we're listening to something talk to us that it is we who we are listening to because we're so used to identifying with the direction it gives us or with the way it judges us. So never suspecting this. That every time we're involved in this relationship, We find ourselves on the other side of it, Having run aground again. Having to abandon ship as it were, Which is really abandoning ourselves, Meaning abandoning what we know is good and true in the hope if we can just get through this moment, Whatever we have to do, That that's what we're going to do. So that we're in a constant state of abandoning ourselves. Because we have abandoned the moment where we could see that what is directing us to drop anchor in whatever harbor of peace it promises knows nothing about it at all. Can you see this with me in scale to some extent so that I can go on with the next important point? Because take a deep breath now. We're really going to look at something that I think is deeply fascinating, If not deeply promising in the right way. Because as I've been talking and teaching for these many 50 years. All of these teachings, These myths, These legends, The true ones are all connected in a way through which a kind of golden thread runs through them, Presenting lessons that we have yet to see because we don't see the entirety of our situation. So to understand this idea that I've just spoken to you about, I'm going to turn to Homer. Now, I don't know if you know who Homer is and God help us. I didn't even think about it. You know, If you went out on the street and you said, What do you know about Homer? And they would tell you about some idiotic cartoon whose key features name is some idiot by the name of Homer that we delight in looking at and then laughing at his stupidity. I'm not talking about that Homer. I'm talking about Homer, The legendary blind sage who somewhere around 800 BC wrote epic poems. Two of them which became famous classic called the Iliad and the Odyssey. Now, Whether blind or not, Because it's questioned whether Homer was actually blind, The symbolism of his blindness remains very powerful. Because the so-called blind sage. Is capable of seeing not the events that human beings struggle with, But the forces that create them. So the sage, In this instance Homer, Presents through his teachings, Through these stories. Tremendous lessons about an inner life presented in an outer form that all of us can relate to as ultimately some form of fantasy. And while it is a fantasy, The story told, It is absolutely true when it comes to how it depicts our inner life. So let's get going with this. Everybody making the transition with me? In the story of Odysseus, Homer tells about Odysseus' 10-year journey back home following the Trojan War. And I'm not going to go into the legend itself of Odysseus, But he was a master planner. He was very prominent in the victory of the, Of the Trojans over the, Of the Greeks over the, Uh, The, The, He actually invented the Trojan horse, So forth and so on at one leg on one leg of this story of Odysseus journey back home. Homer tells of his encounter with deadly sirens. And these sirens, I don't know if you're familiar with the word, Not the sound that comes from an ambulance. Are a description of a fierce creature. Half woman, Half hawk. Often monstrous in appearance. That inhabit dark waters, In this instance that were surrounding an island. That in truth represents something about the depth and breadth of unseen human consciousness. So this myth, Like all great stories, Survives the way it does because it teaches, It reminds us, If it can do so, Of forces that are alive within us today, So that the sirens of long ago are not there long ago, They were there then, Now, And always will be, Because they represent certain primordial forces that can't help being what they are. They weren't evil, They were just enacting the job they are given to do in this world accordingly. But the point is that these sirens. . . They sing songs. And the mistaken idea, Because it's so simple, Is that they promised pleasure to the sailors who, Because they were seduced by these sirens, Would either jump into the water where they would be drowned and devoured, Or they would follow these voices and their ships would run aground on invisible reefs. That weren't present on their way to where the sirens promised them their pleasures would be fulfilled. I don't want to spend a lot more time on this. Do you understand where I'm going so far, Everybody? Please. But that is not what the sirens promised, And that is not what Homer was talking about. In Homer's Odysseus, The sirens. Their songs promised a number of things, Knowledge, Prominence. They promised Odysseus that his name would be long remembered if he and their crew would follow them to this place where they could make all of these profound wishes come true. So the siren songs touch the mind, A mind that is asleep to its own desires, And promise to fulfill them. So that the siren's song actually promised to settle every unanswered longing inside of an unconscious mind that didn't even know its own longings until suddenly they were stirred and then the temptation was too great to ignore. Tell me you get that from what I've said, Please. Because I have so much to tell you. So in short. The siren's songs touch, Offer exactly what the troubled mind is always seeking. Which brings us to a big transition. Now I'm asking you to come into this. How often do you or I feel uncomfortable? Disturbed. And immediately begin searching for an explanation to that disturbance. You can't count the times. That's basically all our mind is doing. Is trying to remember or resolve or reconcile something it says has ruined the moment or the future or the past. And then we begin to listen to these voices talk to us, Telling us that if we want certainty, It's available. All we have to do is listen and follow where these voices lead us. Still tracking with me, Everybody? So the sirens. . . Symbolize parts of us. Seeking thoughts. That hopefully when we can get a hold of them and use them like life rafts, I suppose, Will finally bring us to some peace. All we have to do is follow their voices. Into the dark waters from out of which they've come. But here's the point before I make the next transition. No thought can save the thinker that's responsible for creating the disturbance it promises to settle. I should have made a key lesson out of it. No thought can save the thinker that's responsible for creating the disturbance it promises to settle. This level of mind is insatiable. Speaking of which. . . It brings up another image that is critical to understanding this story and far, Far beyond it. And it's one that echoes from a profound teaching misunderstood in scripture in the New Testament. Let me know you're still with me and I'll go on. We're talking about the sirens. We're talking about the voices. We're talking about being misled, Though promised and tempted that we will be healed and be whole and arrive someplace safe. So in the New Testament, Christ speaks of a very troubled form of an unconscious nature. Saying, My name is Legion, For we are many. My name is Legion, For we are many. These words illuminate the deeper meaning in the older time of the idea of sirens. Sirens, The song of sirens is the voices of legion. This false self is never one voice. It's a parliament of competing identities. One voice says fight, Another says flee. One voice says you've got to prove your worth, Another says no, Withdraw and protect yourself, Prepare for another day. Legion, Like the sirens, Never stops talking. Legions, Sirens never stop singing. Their voice claims authority. Their voice points to safety, The promise of a time to come when we will transcend whatever pit we've fallen into because we followed those voices and believed in what they promised. So each of these voices, Though we don't even hear them, Do you know you don't hear a thought that isn't preceded by a disturbance? And the disturbances produced by a reaction to something that unconscious mind then formulates into a thought so it can understand the nature of what seems to be problematic. So each of these voices insists, And it is that, Don't you ever feel the insistence of a feeling of a thought that then formulates itself up, Gotta go, Gotta do, Gotta get? So each of these claims authority and promises safety if we'll obey it, If we'll follow it. To whatever freedom or fame or at least somehow to escape the flames of some uncertainty. If we just do so, Everything will work out. And yet every one of these voices belongs to the same low level of divided consciousness. The sirens in the Odyssey represent legion singing their songs to those who can't see their nature follows it and follows it always to their doom. Do you get the relationship between the sirens and the legion that Christ was speaking of, This insatiable nature? Why is it insatiable? Because it promises to answer a desire it created, And then finds that desire incapable of fulfilling its nature because it's divided and cannot be made whole, No matter what it does to save itself, Just as we cannot be saved by any of the sirens' voices that say, See, Here's where to go. You'll be safe. Do this. Everything will work out. And this brings us to the most remarkable lesson, If you will, Hidden in the entire story. And I'm going quickly. I'm already halfway through. It's up to you. I can't do this for you. You have to do the work. In the story of Odysseus, Homer goes through great pains to say how, When they reach this point, Where by the way, Poseidon, Who wants to punish Odysseus, Has ensured that these sirens are going to be there, Odysseus knows it. And he tells the men on his ship, Put beeswax in your ears so you can't hear. But I want you to lash me to the mast. And no matter what I do, Don't let me go. Why would he say, Lash him to the last, Last mass. Lash him to the mast. With ears unfettered. Because he wants to hear the sirens. He wants to hear their promises. He wants to experience them. That point can't be overemphasized. It's impossible to overemphasize it. So Homer's lesson, As presented through Odysseus, Asking to be lashed to the mast, Is that the task, Our task is not to avoid the sirens, The voices. But to encounter them consciously. So that we learn about them instead of live in fear of them, Or worse, Believe they can lead us to the freedom they promise. We must feel the pull. The push! The promise. Of an experience that will finally release us from whatever it is that has us bound. We must know that seduction firsthand. And I'm telling you, And I don't know how else to tell you, And I don't mean to go so quick. I just want to get everything. I have a big story to tell you. We don't know anything about the nature of what seduces us when we're in this shadowy world where thoughts and feelings are pushing and pulling on us. All we know is the familiar reaction and relationship to them. That tells us just follow, Just do, Just say, Just be, And everything will work out. If we don't enter into the world and experience the way they seduce us into that dark world firsthand, We will never understand our actual relationship to this world, Let alone how to be free from it. Wisdom does not arise from ignorance. It comes out of seeing. Clearly, These temptations. Next transition. These insights, As I'm giving them to you, They align with all true spiritual traditions. There isn't one that doesn't speak of this in one way or another. When Buddha under the Bodhi tree, And here comes Marla. Here. Can't think of it. Here comes the goddess and with the lead, All of these things, Um, Uh, Just blocking on these names for some reason. God, Um. . . Arjuna talking to Krishna. We're not transformed by avoiding what disturbs us. But by seeing the nature of the disturbance as it's revealed within us and understand. Accordingly. That that awareness is our freedom from these seeming temptations, These troubles. So the purpose of awareness isn't to escape the experience. That's why Homer wrote that Odysseus asked to be tied to the mask. It's not to escape the experience, But to illuminate its cause and what it creates in us as it goes on. So that whatever forces we come to understand no longer possess the same power over us. You blame the world for power over you, Or you hate yourself to prove that somehow or other you don't want to be powerless, But do nothing to examine the relationship to these false powers and their false promises. Because to do so requires to become fully aware of them with no with nothing in between the two of you. I got to keep going. I want to tie all of this together. I trust you're following me. I want to tie all of this to another story, But this is one that I'm going to share with you about another journey. Ahem. Here's a great king. In a kingdom of light. And he calls his son, The prince, To him and says, Listen, I want you. To go and visit this distant shadowy realm on the outskirts of the kingdom. So that you might initiate, Help the people, Bring them closer to proximity with what we know would relieve them and release them from the things that dwell in those shadows? So that they might come to honor and try to live from the principles that govern this great kingdom of ours. And he tells his son, Look, It's dangerous. Don't think it's not. The danger is mitigated and he hands him a small lamp. And he says, Keep this lamp with you at all times. And whatever happens, Stay in the circle of light that it emits. If you do that, Everything will work out. You'll see. So the prince, Being a good prince, Understanding something of what the king is telling him, Sets off and he arrives in that shadowy realm late that evening. He sets up his camp, As you would expect. And waits to receive guests who he knows, Must know he that he's coming, But no one shows up. But he does spend a very uneasy night full of fearful sounds and noises moving just outside and beyond that ring of that light. But later that afternoon, The next day, Just before the sun as it such as it is. From somewhere out in the shadows, Can't see, He hears a voice. And it says simply, I am the emissary. Of the great ruler of this land. And you. Young prince, Should please come with me. My ruler would like to speak to you of the treaty that you came to make with us. And he promises. You will be greatly enriched for your extra trouble and travels. And the prince is a little taken back here, But he does like the idea of not only making this treaty, But his father could bring home extra riches. I'm all on board. And as he sets out, The voice says, Best that you follow me. To ensure your safety, But leave that little light there. You won't need it. Because it may attract unforeseen dangers along the way. The prince's mind is still swimming with the promise of this prominence. Agrees and he goes and follows the voice. And no matter how close he tries to get to it, He can't see where it's coming from. Let me stop here for a second. How is it that we have never noticed, No matter how much and how constant something is talking to us, We've never seen who's talking? We've never seen what's talking, We just assume because it's in a familiar voice that it's us. So he just follows the voice and the next thing he knows. He wakes up the next morning having been beaten and robbed of his personal possessions. And he finds his way back to his camp. Takes care of himself. And two more nights in a row, The exact same thing happens, And the exact same condition follows it. Are you getting the drift of this with me so far? So the next time. . . The emissary returns. The young prince is not so easily deceived. Because he can put together. I followed you as promised. To the pleasures and prominence you said awaited me. To the harbor where I would be safe from anything lurking out in the darkness here. And instead of finding safety, I got Smashed! And he remembers what his father told him about the little light from the lamp. And how each time he didn't travel with it, And so he decides on a new action, And he says to that emissary hiding in the shadows, Okay, But first. . . Please step into the light that I might better see you. And all he hears from the shadows are crickets. He repeats his invitation, Please step into the light that I might better see you and then we'll go. Off forever! Three times, He says it three times, No response. And when he takes his little light and he moves off into the shadow where he thought the voice was coming from, Nothing's there. The dark emissary is gone. And now he's gone, But he never returns. So a couple of days later. The young prince realizes very clearly why his father not only gave him the little lamp and instructed him as he did to never step outside the circle of its light, He also understands that whatever is dark in nature can't enter into that light. And won't enter into that light. Because there is no dark shadow that can enter the light without being revealed and dissolved by it, Which makes the light his safety. And so wisely, The young prince departs that part of the world and moves on to visit the next, Which, By the way, And where he is successful with the mission that his father gave him. Happy ending to the story. Happy ending for you if you see how these troubles begin. What did the young prince say to the. . . Dark Emissary. Please step into the light that I might better see you. Pretty simple, Isn't it? This is what we must say when we start to hear, Sense, Feel the sirens of suffering, These legions of dark thoughts hiding out in the shadows that promise to end what is pressing in on us. When the truth is what's pressing in on us is this attraction we have to something that promises but cannot deliver. The safety. The security. The peace. That it says awaits if we'll just do so. So these sirens are always, As in Homer's Odysseus, Trying to draw us out and onto, If you want to use these words, Unseen reefs. Conditions that we have no over control over that that in one respect are there in this consciousness and we are being drawn to run into them and In doing so then blame the shipwreck on everything outside of us instead of seeing we we we lowered the sails and set the rudder to run directly into that condition because why because we thought when we got into that condition all of our conflict would be over when the condition that produced it is the conflict. So the mast important transition. So the mast that Odysseus lashed himself to represents the light of this lamp. Called awareness. The masked Odysseus lashed himself too, So that he could be fully present. To the promptings, The seduction, The pulling and the pushing of the sirens. Trying to get him to go into the water, Or at best, At least steer his ship, Steer the content of himself onto a reef that they know is there, So that that ship runs aground, They're lost, And as happens with narcissists, Starve to death. Not an accidental connection, Incidentally. So Odysseus survives to make it back home. Not because the sirens' songs have lost their power, But because he has learned to transcend the nature of those creatures. So what changed? Is his relationship to them. His new understanding. Of lesion. Of its voices. The new understanding of the melody of the tones of those touches that belong to the sirens beckoning the human being. To join them? All of that has changed as we become awake and aware of that relationship. The Sirens were not merely trying to destroy Odysseus. The Siren's task was not to destroy Odysseus. It is their nature to try and prevent him from coming home. That's the deeper symbolism inside of Homer's tale of Odysseus. Their goal isn't to destroy, But to distract him from fulfilling his divine destiny. Are you able to see this with me? To some extent, Can you at least feel the truth of this? How true is that of us? How many times has your mouth spoken the words given to you by a siren song, Telling you, Here's how to deal with this trouble, With this dark situation. And then you become the instrument of something that before you became it had seen to the destruction of that moment and potentially of the soul stuck in that constant repetition of those moments. So there comes a moment in every serious inner life. And I hope it's come for you. When we realize we're not alone. I've meditated till the cows come home. I breathe, I eat, I drink. I do all of these things. I can't stop the appearance of these thoughts. I can't stop the anxiety from coming up inside of me when it looks on the horizon that there may be a storm coming. I can't keep myself from falling into these old patterns and temptations that I'm drawn into, Believing that if I do it right this time, I won't end up wrong. But we can see these states, These voices, These thoughts and feelings for the lie that they are. That we can do, But only if we lash ourselves to the mast of that awareness that allows us to experience the totality of that moment without being totaled by it because we lent ourselves to what those voices told us. This is where the little lamp. Odysseus' last to the mast become a single symbol. Awareness sees. Hears, Understands without a voice. Awareness sees, Hears, Understands without a voice. Without a motive. It can't be compelled or captured, Let alone seduced by any promise or threat. Which is why if we want to continue this. Journey home. Which it is. You look at every story, Every hero, Every myth. Always a task. Something to do in order to complete the journey. We must remember the words of the prince. The actions of Odysseus, The words that helped the prince remember and reveal the character of the, Helped him reveal the character of the creatures that sought to capture him or cause his downfall. We must remember the words because when we remember them and act on them, We see in that same moment, And this is so important, What are the words? Please step into the light that I might better see you. Do you ever get in an argument with yourself or with someone in quotes? Do you ever have a restless night? Not just listening, But talking to something, Telling you why you should regret this and how that reality is more, I mean, Just rattles on and on these songs, This, This legion that the minute you answer, One takes on another character and that character becomes something that convinces you. And then you identify and then, And you're caught in this whirlpool. Like Odysseus lashed himself to the mast, We must remain anchored in the light of that lamp that we have been given to help us successfully make this journey home. Please step into the light that I might better see you. Do you know when you address, I mean, You might have to say it. I would prefer that you didn't. It's an attitude. Here I am and I'm troubled. What am I going to do today? What's going to happen to me? You don't hear those voices, But you're filled with the sensation of it. Yes or no? Only then do you hear the voices, Well, You might do this or this might be better. How about that? And you're engaged in this conversation with something you can't see and never have seen. Because if you were to see it, You would never lend your mind and heart, Let alone your own voice to it. Please step into the light that I might better see it. See you. That's what you that's what you emit. Because when you do, You'll be stunned. Just like the dark emissary never responded, Neither will anything respond to you. Nothing will talk to you when you say, I want to see you. I want to understand you. Because the moment that you do that, You bring an end to that unconscious fundamental division that's going on in the sleeping nature, Because now you are present. And when you are present, It cannot present itself as you. It can't pretend to be you because you know that you are asking to see it and understand it. I'm here. It can't be if I'm actually aware of myself. So when we hear or feel compelled to give ourselves over to any thought, Or in this case, Mostly these sensations that course through us, Sensations that push and pull and draw us, Try to draw us where? Try to draw us into its world. Here I am. Follow me. Do as I say! You'll see! There's safety. It's just around the corner. If you'll just steer your ship this way and then crash again and again and again. You remember those 11 words. That the young, Please step into the light that I might better see you and you live them. It's a lot to ask and probably more than you can do, But if you could even one time in the midst of that restless night. In the middle of that disturbance that tells you, Oh, I don't understand. Do you ever hear that voice? I don't understand. Please step into the light that I might better see you. Whoever's talking, I want to see you before I talk one more word with you. The minute you do that, That conversation's over. And with it, The conflict that you were in. The great challenge is not learning, As people try, Not learning how to silence these voices. That's nonsense. Legion tries to silence Legion. Sirens try to bring an end to any resistance to their songs. No, That resistance is futile. It's impossible. You can't silence these voices. The more you try to silence them, The more drawn you are into the world that they have built. Seduced you into through resistance. The challenge is learning how to see and hear them for what they are, As Odysseus did. Because only then do we gain. Maybe not the right word. Only then do we enter into a greater body of self-knowledge within which we are already free of their influences because we can see them for being the false nature they are. Then. As you do that work, Something extraordinary starts to happen. And you have to go through this yourself. But in essence, What happens is we begin to discover there is a strength. In this seeing, In this light that exceeds the power of whatever is calling us to identify with it. If you don't identify with the siren, If you don't identify with one of the voices that Legion uses, Then what is the power of that siren or of It has none. And as you understand its power over you was that you got pulled into its world, Then you step out of that world and you are able to continue your journey back home. And it becomes more meaningful. And you'll learn to love that meaning because you first agreed to go through whatever was required of you. To lash yourself to the mast of that moment. And all that it is doing and speaking and producing. Because in that action, You have acted from a nature that can no longer, That is not divided, And that wants to understand the nature of the darkness that it has always been deceived into entering.

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Thank you. Exactly what I needed to hear and listen to. 🙏🏻