Stop Any Negative Reaction Dead In Its Tracks GFLive 1-17-26

Key Lesson: Have you ever talked yourself into a dark place — or watched someone else do it — by identifying with a negative reaction that wouldn’t be there at all if it wasn’t being fueled by the fear of some pain as imagined coming?

Transcript

We're going to look at three different stories in today's session,

All of which are intended to build on the principal lesson.

And I would just urge you pretty much as always to try as best you can to listen as fully as you are able to listen and to suspend as best you can,

Whatever thoughts or feelings want to come in and say,

Yeah,

That's right,

No,

That's not.

And just remain as present as you know how to remain.

So talk title is,

Practice these seven words and stop any negative reaction dead in its tracks.

What if that were a real possibility?

Some exercise I'm going to be given seven words and I can stop negative reactions dead in their tracks?

Yeah.

But back to the title,

Which is seven words,

Practice these seven words and stop any negative reaction dead in its tracks.

The word practice here actually means much along the lines of what Moses said to his disciples back in the day,

They said,

Yes,

We hear you and we will do what you say.

And he said,

No,

Do as I say,

And then you will hear me,

Which is an unusual twist.

But what he was implying is that unless you experience the principle,

Unless you understand through action,

Then all of their subsequent actions based just on what you think something means will prove fruitless.

So we're gonna look at one idea through the lens of these three stories,

But to set the stage for those of you who like scripture,

I would just say that this will help you understand with greater clarity,

A couple of things Christ said.

One,

Take no thought for tomorrow for the evil of the day is sufficient unto itself,

A strange statement.

And then what man taking thought can add to but to his stature,

Meaning what person being anxious about tomorrow is going to do anything to change the relationship to the present moment.

So this is what we're gonna look at together.

And if you're ready,

We'll get going.

Thumbs up over there,

Yes or no,

Let me see.

All right.

So here's the first key lesson,

Kate,

If you will,

Please.

Read along with me.

Have you ever talked yourself into a dark place or watched someone else do it by identifying with a negative reaction that wouldn't be there at all if it wasn't fueled by the fear of some pain as imagined coming?

Let me do that again.

First,

Have you ever talked yourself into a dark place?

I'd ask for yes or no,

But I know the truth.

Have you ever watched anyone else do it?

Of course we have.

But how do I or they talk themselves into a dark place?

It's by imagining and identifying this negative reaction that wouldn't even exist if it weren't for being fueled by the fear of some unwanted event coming your way.

Can you all see with me something of that truth?

That we get into these negative states because by and large,

We're listening to something in us,

Basically validating the feeling we have of being in a problem and then telling us everything that's gonna happen if we don't get it straightened out.

If we can agree with that,

Then we're on our road to the first story.

And the first story is a doctor story.

For those of you who don't know,

I tell a story about Christine,

A disciple,

An aspirant,

And her relationship to a good doctor who represents wisdom to teachings.

And she goes to see him when things get tough,

When she doesn't understand why the lessons that she has been working with suddenly fail her.

And let me add this,

As long as you're working with a lesson,

In quote,

Meaning that you're trying to remember what to do,

Which is good in the face of something telling you to harm yourself or others,

You will always find yourself coming up short.

The point of this work isn't so that you have a bunch of lessons to remember,

That's a nightmare.

The purpose is to use the lessons to transcend the nature that requires them to enter into a living relationship with the principle itself.

So it goes,

As Christ would say before you,

To make the crooked places straight.

Here's the story.

She goes to see the doctor and she says,

You know,

I'm really in a bad place.

I said,

Well,

I'm sorry to hear that.

Why don't you tell me a little bit about your life,

Your situation,

And we'll examine it together because that's what she do,

We do.

She said,

Well,

I've been invited to go on this weekend trip to some Caribbean islands with four of my best friends on another person's boat,

All expenses paid.

And he looks at her and goes,

Well,

Christine,

I don't understand.

That sounds like a tropical paradise.

What's the problem?

She says,

Well,

I haven't talked to you about this,

But over the last year or so,

And I don't know what's going on,

But within an hour or two,

Sometimes shorter,

Sometimes longer,

One of my pals will set me off.

It'll be something they say,

Something that they do.

I don't know exactly what causes it,

But when it happens,

And it doesn't seem to matter when or where,

The smallest comment,

It feels like a criticism or like maybe one of them is belittling in me.

And then I look around and I can see everybody else kind of smirking and smiling.

And I think to myself,

What do they know that I don't?

And why are they in cahoots the way they are?

And before I know it,

She said,

I don't know what to do because I'm in the hands of something.

I feel like I'm burning up.

I'm so agitated.

And the more I sit there,

The worse it gets.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

Can you help me?

She said.

So before we go on with this story,

I want to ask if any of you know anything similar to that in your relationships with others?

Do you ever find yourself sure that someone else is poking at you,

Belittling you,

Trying to use you,

Do something,

Yes or no?

And then of course we know what follows.

Okay.

So he says,

You know,

Look,

Before I get to the diagnosis,

Because I have to tell you,

I already know the problem.

I wonder,

Why don't you come with me and we're gonna do something a little bit different than we usually do,

But you'll understand what's going on.

She said,

What are you talking about?

He says,

Let's go into the kitchen here in my house where I'm treating you and make some soup.

Make some soup.

Are you kidding me?

I didn't come here for you to make soup.

He said,

I'm not gonna make it by myself.

You're gonna help me.

She said,

Can't we just get to the diagnosis?

And the doctor says,

Who is the doctor here?

She understands immediately by his tone.

She says,

Okay,

Great.

So they wander out of the living room there where they're talking and into the kitchen and they start making preparations.

And at first she didn't know,

But he wants her to help.

And they're slicing and dicing up the vegetables and adding the stock.

And I don't know,

An hour later,

There's that beautiful bubbling pot of soup and the doctor sips it and he raises his eyes and he hands her that big ladle.

Says,

Taste it.

And she tastes it.

She goes,

Oh man,

That is good.

That's smooth.

He said,

Yes,

It is.

He said,

But you know what?

I don't think we're quite done.

He said,

And he reaches over and grabs us a container.

He says,

Let's add some horseradish.

Horseradish,

Yuck,

She says.

That has nothing to do with this soup.

It'll ruin its flavor.

He said,

Well,

Maybe you're right.

Okay,

Look,

How about these?

We'll grind up these almonds with some other fibrous of celery and we'll add that to the soup.

She says,

No,

I don't understand what you're doing.

You put that in there,

It'll ruin the texture.

And he goes through a couple more iterations,

Much along the same lines.

And finally says,

Look,

I don't know what you're,

I don't understand what you're trying to show me,

But everything you've suggested since we had good soup is going to add,

That we're going to add to,

It's going to ruin it.

And he looks at her and he takes that deliberate pause and he says,

Exactly.

Now,

He said that you can taste the difference in the simple living analogy.

Let's get to the diagnosis.

He says,

And Kate,

If you will please bring up the acronym that I've sent to you.

There it is.

He says,

What you're suffering from is tenaspitem.

Tenaspitem,

She says,

What in the name of heaven is tenaspitem?

He says,

It sounds terrible.

Is it fatal?

And she says,

He says,

No.

He says,

But it's critical that you understand it.

Well,

What is tenaspitem?

And he says to her,

As you can see written up there,

It's an acronym that stands for the need to add something personally painful to every moment.

Tenaspitem,

The need to add something personally painful to every moment.

Now,

I know most of us don't think that we are adding something that ruins the soup,

That ruins the substance of the moment.

But we're gonna look at this and hopefully be so clear that it'll be inescapable,

As you will see through the eyes of Christine.

She says,

Well,

If that's true,

That something in me needs to add something personally painful to every moment,

Why would I do that?

That makes no sense.

Just as most of you think,

It makes no sense.

He says,

You see,

That's the point,

Christine.

It's not you who's adding the painful touch to the moment and spoiling it.

She says,

Well,

What do you mean?

If it's not me,

Then who?

I mean,

Who is it?

And just assuming,

Because I can kind of see that somehow or other there is an involvement,

How do I stop her?

How do I get out of this strange relationship where I'm suffering from tenastatum,

That something in me adds something personally painful to every moment?

I don't wanna do it anymore.

She says,

Well,

He said,

Let's go back into the living room with our soup and I'm gonna tell you a couple stories and I'm going to help you see the big picture.

You up for it?

She said,

Yeah,

I am.

I really wanna understand why it is that I'm so agitated and irritated and impatient,

Even with people that I love.

So now I'm breaking into the story.

Do you wanna go with the good doctor into the living room with your bowl of smooth,

Nice soup that hasn't been ruined and hear what's going on behind this tenastatum,

This terrible tendency that we all have to some extent to add something personally painful to the moment or at least to suspect that it's true?

All right.

So he says to her,

Imagine,

Two friends,

They've known each other a long time.

They're in their late 30s,

Maybe early 40s.

They love the outdoors and they go on a camping trip together up into the great,

Into the treasure lakes up there where these beautiful,

Pristine,

Deep blue waters.

They like to sit there.

They like campfires,

They like fishing.

And they get up there and they're not up there too long before Bill notices that on the way up,

Tom was kind of quiet,

Unusually so,

But he didn't say anything.

Maybe he's enjoying it.

So they get their camping gear out.

They set her out and Tom walks over and sits on one of these rocks where Bill can see from an angle that he's sitting there and his face is kind of twitching,

Grimacing in a strange way.

He's not gonna say anything for a while,

But finally it goes on for 10 minutes.

He says,

Hey,

Tom,

Dude,

What's going on with you?

I mean,

Are you okay?

And Tom turns to Bill and he snaps at him.

He says,

You just hang on a second.

I'll be with you in a moment.

For the life of him,

Bill can't figure out what's going on.

And he says,

But Tom,

With all due respect,

It looks like you're not doing anything at all.

Tom looks at Bill with a hard look.

He says,

Are you so blind that you can't see I'm in the middle of an important conversation and you interrupted it?

Now Bill's really confused.

He says,

I don't get it.

You're sitting there all by yourself.

Tom says,

Yeah,

So what's your point?

I hope you get the humor in this.

We're laughing at ourselves.

Have you ever been in a strange,

Dark conversation with yourself?

So much so that you drive by the off-ramp,

That you catch yourself in the middle of something that the more you engage in that dark dialogue,

The darker the moment gets for you.

And the more sure you are because of what you're listening to,

Is it going to deliver you into the fate of something terrible?

Are we understanding this story?

Because if we aren't,

Then I've got big troubles and I just have to go back to the top.

Are you so blind you can't see I'm in the middle of an important conversation and you interrupted it?

Yeah,

But you're by yourself.

Yeah,

Well,

What's your point?

Transition,

Have you ever wondered why it is that you can have such long conversations with yourself about something or someone that's bothering you?

I mean,

Really,

If you're honest,

What do you talk to yourself about?

You talk to yourself about problems.

Or you talk to yourself about plans that will distract you or relieve you or resolve those problems.

I need you to see whether this is true or not.

Long,

You lay in bed and your mind will just rattle on for days.

Why?

What is so fascinating?

What's taking place in these moments where though you can't see it,

Let's be quite clear,

You think you are able to understand your circumstances,

But you are involved in a chain reaction of thoughts that have completely blinded you to what they are delivering you to in that moment.

So what is going on that I can be involved in a conversation like Tom was with himself where his tense,

His shoulders are hunched,

His face is grimacing?

What is the bottom of that?

And the answer is,

Long story short,

In one respect,

Tom,

Like ourselves,

Is caught in an unseen kind of chain reaction,

But don't get ahead of me.

What is the nature of this particular chain reaction that drives these dark dialogues the way they do?

It's what happens when there is this initial negative reaction and you don't know you have it.

That's the other thing.

Human beings are so asleep.

We are so desensitized to the interior environment of our own psychological system that we're not even aware of this contraction that takes place where an impression,

Someone says something,

Your own thought comes along.

You're not aware of the fact that as it enters into the system,

It triggers a conditioned response to it.

And that conditioned response is this resistance.

And the onset of that sudden resistance does what?

It invokes thoughts,

Conditioned images,

Ideas that are seemingly there to tell you why you are feeling this kind of pain,

The nature of this misery.

And so you have what seems to be a natural thought.

It's going to explain,

Resolve,

Direct,

Handle this thing for you as it appears to rescue you from this sudden pain.

So that resistance appears to rescue you when it is the extension of that resistance you've had.

And here's the point.

As you have this thought to the feeling of resistance,

That thought does what?

It doesn't appear by itself,

Just like the thought that triggered the initial resistance.

Now there's something in you analyzing the thought that it brought up.

And as the mind begins to analyze each subsequent thought that seems to be there to rescue you from the reaction,

It is actually driving you into deeper and deeper relationship with a chain of unconscious reactions.

So one thought brings up the next,

The thought tries to analyze or resolve the flame of that anger,

Whatever the pain may be.

And the more we identify with every subsequent thought,

The more we add to the weight of the misery that we are experiencing because of being handed another thought,

Of adding another thought to that first reaction.

Were you able to follow me with that?

I want to make it so clear you can't miss it.

So that what I call my thinking process isn't my thinking process at all.

Keep in mind now the doctor's talking to Christine,

You're in the doctor's office.

Of course,

It's not my reaction.

Why would I agree to identify with something that restricts every form of happiness I know,

That remands me or commands me?

No,

There is a unconscious nature that takes thought,

That worries about tomorrow,

That tries to protect itself from what?

From something that has brought up out of that darkness,

That unconscious nature,

Some corresponding thought or feeling that is the moment it appears,

Oh my God,

Now comes the resistance to my own potential conclusion.

I start to solve,

The minute I start to solve,

I'm split because this might work,

But that won't.

And the more I take thought,

This is why Christ said sufficient under the day is the evil thereof.

Sufficient under the day is what happens when a person unconscious to the activity of their own thoughts and feelings participates in these dark dialogues where every last thought they add to the reaction they have had that they didn't see exacerbates the chain of that conflict and puts them into deeper and deeper confinement in their own unconscious nature.

So all said and done,

We're complicit in a darkness that cannot never will end as long as what?

As long as we keep stoking the flames.

So he asked Christine,

As I ask you,

Can you see that's at least possible?

I mean,

Experientially,

Can you see that that's possible?

That there is in fact something that always adds something painfully personal to every unwanted moment.

It goes looking for something from the content of this persona to otherwise change the moment of conflict that only exists because the condition felt,

Fell on some part of this persona.

Until you see this,

You won't be able to even begin practicing real spiritual work.

Because as long as it's an idea,

You're dead in the water.

But if you see that all of the ideas that you come up with,

That you're given to think belong to a dead nature,

Then you have the possibility of beginning to die to yourself to that nature,

Because it is not going to die without you being there.

Bringing it to the hill.

Without you doing what is necessary so that it no longer has the command over you that it does.

So if you're still with me on this,

I will tell you the last story.

The doctor will tell you the last story.

So he says,

So Christine,

Still tracking?

She said,

Yes.

She said,

But I still don't know exactly what to do.

He said,

You see,

That's part of the process.

That's part of the problem too.

I could sit here and write you volumes of books.

Over the millennia,

Tens of thousands of books have been written that have truths in them.

And yet human beings on this planet still suffer from what they believe is the truth they're telling themselves in the moment when they have a problem.

You have to see it.

He said,

Let me show you through another story.

So a young monk comes to the Abbot and he's been to see him for the last six months once a week,

And it's basically always the same.

He's full of complaints about how he can't,

No matter what he does,

He can't seem to free himself from his negative reactions and his dark thoughts and feelings about the way the kitchens run,

The way the other monks handle the distribution of responsibilities,

Everything.

This,

That,

And everyone else.

He says,

You don't know how bad it is,

He says to the Abbot.

Everybody is so trapped,

He said,

In their little lives.

He said,

They can't see themselves at all.

And the Abbot says to him,

Well,

You know,

We've been talking about this for some time.

He said,

Perhaps we need another kind of lesson.

He said,

I'm anxious.

Whatever I need to do to liberate myself from these fools and their foolish actions,

I'm on board with it.

You ever said,

No matter what,

I'm on board?

And then comes the real moment.

So he says to the young monk,

He says,

All right.

Around 11 a.

M.

Tomorrow,

After you've done your chores,

Meet me at the front gate,

Bring a blanket with you and some food of your choosing.

We're going on an overnight camping trip.

What?

Overnight camping trip with the Abbot?

First,

He's kind of excited,

And then he's thinking to himself,

I'm gonna spend like 24 hours with the Abbot?

And he's already afraid.

He's asked the Abbot for help,

And now he realizes he's afraid that the Abbot may see things about him that he doesn't particularly want to know.

But he says,

That's great,

I'm on board,

Let's go.

So they meet at 11,

And they hike for what seems to be forever,

And the young monk's thinking,

How,

God,

I wish you could see these things.

How much longer am I gonna have to hike before we get to whatever it is the Abbot wants to show me?

How much longer am I going to have to endure putting up with whatever it takes to put me in the right place so that I can finally transcend the idiots and the people that are troubling me the way they are?

That's what the mind does.

It asks,

And then it rejects when it receives what it has asked for,

Because it cannot see that it's being given that.

Every step of this journey,

The Abbot has planned in a way so this young monk might see something.

So anyway,

They finally get someplace.

Sun is starting to go down,

It's getting dark.

And they get busy,

They hurry up,

They collect some wood,

Put up their little area they're gonna sleep in,

Put down the tarp.

And the Abbot says,

We better hurry up and build a fire.

The monk says,

Yeah,

I agree,

But I see a little bit of anxiousness in your eyes,

Abbot.

What,

You seem a little excitable,

More than usual.

Is there something I don't know about?

And the Abbot says,

You don't know what?

You don't know that in this part of the woods lives the most ferocious aditomies that ever existed?

Aditomies?

What in the name of God are aditomies,

He asked?

What are they?

Oh,

The Abbot shakes his head,

He says,

Oh my God,

Really?

He says,

They are terrible predators,

Meat eaters,

The aditomies.

I can't believe you've been here for this long and don't know about the aditomies.

Well,

You could be sure the young monk,

He's running around as fast as he can,

Do what he can to get the fire going.

And finally it's going.

And just as it's going,

It's pitch black.

And they're sitting there together,

The Abbot's quite composed,

And the young monk,

What's he doing?

He's looking around,

Looking around into the darkness,

Trying to see past whatever that flame is casting.

And the Abbot says,

What are you doing?

He said,

Well,

You said the aditomies are out there,

And I thought I heard a branch break just a few moments ago.

You didn't hear that?

No.

He said,

Well,

Do you see that?

See what?

He said,

I see some eyes out there,

And they're big eyes.

The Abbot kind of laughed.

He said,

The better to see you with.

He said,

It's not funny,

Sir.

This is frightening stuff.

Thank God we've got this fire.

I think I'm made to make it bigger.

And the Abbot says,

No,

You don't need to make it bigger.

So as the fire starts to go out,

And it does,

You understand that,

The young monk gets up and he goes to the wood pile,

And he brings some wood over to throw on the fire.

The Abbot says,

No,

No,

No,

No,

Not now,

No,

Not now.

Abbot,

Okay,

Sir,

Puts the wood down.

Five minutes later,

Fire's getting lower.

Young monk thinks to himself,

Surely we've got to add to it now.

He gets up,

Goes to put the branch on.

Abbot says,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

Not now.

This happens for 30 minutes.

And the whole time,

If you're in the mind of the young monk,

I don't know what's going on with the Abbot.

I can't behave him.

I can't ignore him,

But how am I going to actually accept what he's saying?

The additives are gonna come in and get us.

Maybe he's safe,

I'm not.

Finally,

The fire's almost out.

And the young monk looks at the Abbot,

Says,

Now,

Can I put it on now?

No,

No need.

Young monk loses his temper.

But if I don't add wood now,

The fire's gonna go out.

Said it just like that,

Too.

The Abbot says,

Exactly.

Exactly,

What are you talking about?

And the Abbot says,

If you don't keep adding thoughts to whatever your present negative reaction brings up in you,

Whatever its nature,

That negative reaction will go out in exactly the same way.

If you don't keep adding thoughts to whatever your present negative reaction is begging you to add,

Think about this,

Do that,

Whatever the question is,

If you don't do it,

It's gonna go out exactly in the same way that this fire goes out.

Now,

You gotta understand the young monk,

He's torn.

I mean,

He kinda gets the lesson.

He sees that he adds on and adds on and adds on,

And that the minute the first resistance starts,

He's wrapped up and rolls away in all of his personally painful thoughts that wouldn't exist if he weren't caught up in that first tide.

But he also says,

But sir,

What about the anatomies?

If we don't fuel the fire,

We're gonna be in mortal danger.

And the Abbot smiles at the young monk,

And he says,

Son,

There's no such creature as an anatomy.

Just as there's no such thing threatening you when you've had a negative reaction,

Except for what your mind adds to it,

Telling you what you need to think about to protect you from a fear you wouldn't even have if you weren't imagining the meaning of that reaction and everything your thoughts are telling you about it as being true.

How many of you live in mortal fear of the anatomies?

And every time something comes up where somebody or something's responsible for this fire inside of you,

The only thing you ought to do is anatomy,

Is add on yet another thought,

Pick up another reaction,

Follow that chain to its inevitable end,

Which is nothing but more misery.

So let's look at this a little bit and spell it out,

Spill it out a little bit so we can understand with better clarity.

What are the seven words that bring an end to these negative reactions to their continuation?

We've been alluding to it,

But then I'm gonna come back and cover it to you.

Write it down.

I have nothing to add to that.

I have nothing to add to that.

Isn't that what the young monk was doing?

How about Christine,

What was she doing?

They were adding personally painful thoughts and feelings that came up trying to resolve the reaction only ensuring that it was incarnated and reincarnated and then it rolled on indefinitely.

So what happens?

Now I need to bring you in.

What happens when a person,

God willing you,

Actually begins to become aware of the fact that by adding any negative thought to the moment does not do one thing to change the moment that that thought has come to clarify,

But rather actually confuses your relationship with the reaction so thoroughly that you can't see literally that that painful sense of self that always,

You don't have a thought in the midst of a reaction that isn't the continuation of the painful sense of self having it.

And so what happens is up comes this reaction,

Some form of resistance to it.

I don't wanna feel this way.

I wanna know why I feel this way and my mind says,

Well,

He,

Her,

This,

That.

And the minute my mind gloms onto whatever that conditioned thought or feeling is that has come to reconcile that reaction,

That thought has its own content.

It brings up the name of someone or an experience in the past.

It brings up a problem similar to the one that's triggered the reaction.

And the minute that that thought which comes complete replete with all of the things it brings with it,

Now there's something else to resist.

So it didn't save you,

It sunk you.

It didn't reconcile the reaction.

It made sure that it rolled on and on and every subsequent thought creates the next resistance built into that unconscious nature.

And a person just goes on and on and on without knowing it.

And they don't know that they're suffering from tenaspitum,

The need to add something personally painful to every moment.

Now,

We wouldn't be complete if we didn't look at this in some way so that we can start to see what some of these tenaspitum,

I can't even pronounce my own acronym.

How that works.

So I'm gonna ask you,

Have you ever had a negative reaction and you didn't hear the words but something inside of you goes,

I knew it.

Ever had that feeling?

I knew it.

You're getting ready to go visit a family or whatever it might be.

And your mind,

Listen,

Your mind has had some form of resistance come up to being with this person or those people because they tend to snipe or pick.

They are your anatomies.

So as your mind begins to resist what hasn't even happened yet,

It has a thought about what to do.

And then as it has that thought about what to do,

Now it's a thought based in fear and now you begin to resist your own fearful thought and you begin to go through what?

This constant reintegration of an unconscious nature bringing you into these personally painful thoughts and feelings so that when you get there,

I knew it.

I knew it was gonna happen like that.

How about this for a moment in which you add something personally painful to the situation.

Why does he do that?

Why is she that way?

Doesn't it seem when you ask questions about someone's behavior that's disturbed you,

Doesn't it seem to you that that's a natural question to ask?

Failing to see that the nature that's asking that question already has the answer ready to give you and it'll be more painful because all it's bringing up is the confirmation of the conflict that started that dialogue to start with.

Why is she that way?

Why are they like that?

What's gonna,

What does that mean?

You ever been out to,

Ever been with people,

Casual conversation?

I see it happen all the time.

And you can actually see like I story,

Like that story I told you about Bill and Tom,

You can actually see their face start to steel up,

Their eyes go kind of blank.

If you could actually see it,

They roll into the back of their head like some possessed creature because now they're not present at all.

They're looking into this mind that has had the reaction for a way to get out of their own mind that they are attending to through their resistance to that experience.

So resistance follows,

Here I resist,

Am I actually resisting you or am I resisting what I believe you are?

And I wanna add,

Even if the person is the worst human being that ever lived,

What does that got to do with you being caught up in a moment where you are absolutely adding to yourself,

However you wanna put it,

This tenacity,

This need on the part of this unconscious nature to add something painfully personal to the moment as if it's going to rescue you from the moment it has come to do that.

So getting to the end of our time together,

Assuming we're all on the same page,

I wanna get back to the seven words that will stop any negative reaction dead in its tracks.

You must have only one answer to any negative reaction.

And let me clarify,

You must practice it enough so that one day the light of your awakening awareness will end that dialogue for you before it gets started.

But if you don't practice,

You will be bombarded,

Flooded,

Swept away by everything telling you,

You know what?

This negative reaction,

This moment is different.

You don't know the history I have with that person.

You don't know how bad it was back then.

You don't know how terrible what's ahead of me looks.

Oh my God,

People.

How in the name of heaven did a human being get to the place where they are willing to participate in a dark dialogue that they believe is going to rescue them from their own negative reaction?

And I'll tell you why it happens because you don't think the pain is because of your negative reaction.

You think it's the person that triggered that consciousness in you.

If that unconscious nature weren't there,

It couldn't be triggered.

So come hell or high water,

And that's where you have to get to,

And you're not there.

You have to make it so clear to yourself.

If I add one thought about tomorrow,

If I add one thought about what this means or where it's gonna take me,

I am complicit in the continuation of mammon.

I am a partner with the devil.

The very pain that I believe I'm trying to escape.

And you will not practice in earnest those seven words.

I have nothing to add to that.

That means it stops there.

Not it stops there and then as it will because that's the pernicious nature of this unconscious self that can't wait to bring you into that chain so it can bind you to a life that isn't yours.

I have nothing to add to that.

And let me clarify that last part.

This is not a statement of resistance.

This isn't something you say to yourself to get rid of what's bothering you.

I have nothing to add to that means that I am going to as best possible recognize the true need here to separate the wheat from the chaff,

To separate what is whole and good from what is dark and not good.

Not because I don't want it there but because I see it wants something from me and if I'm complicit in that moment,

I will become a captive of that reaction and everything that it leads to.

So this isn't about resistance.

It's about realizing that what's required in this moment is not new thoughts and feelings but the presence of a new order of mind that knows better than to add any form of misery to the moment regardless how personally painful it seems to be needed in that moment.

I have nothing to add to that.

Wait until you begin to practice that and then see something says,

Well,

I'm not done with you yet.

They won't talk to you like that but that's exactly what you'll see.

Well,

That's good but what about this?

I have nothing to add to that.

Are you kidding?

Have you really thought I have nothing to add to that?

And you're not answering with words but if you answer with words for a while in your head,

I don't care,

That doesn't matter.

The point is the practice and in the practice,

The discovery of where it is,

There is this continual temptation to add something personally painful to every moment and then blame the moment for what you've added to it.

To see this is the beginning of liberation and the more you practice this kind of liberation that begins with presence of mind and a new understanding of your situation,

The closer you will be to canceling,

To bringing an end to these negative reactions,

Stopping them dead in their tracks.

Seven words,

I have nothing to add to that.

You know how you get done with a conversation with somebody and you wanna go over the conversation?

I have nothing to add to that.

Find the examples and then make them part of your life on a moment to moment basis.

Reviews

Thank you so much.

Always enjoy the wisdom and insight shared here. Definitely will remember to apply this in my life. I can remember so many instances as such & looking back there could have been so many moments of joy than irritation. Thank you ✨️