64. Living Your Truth: How To Be True To Your Authentic Self

What is ‘truth’? Most of the truths we believe are usually derived from our personal experiences and perceptions–so are they really true? Does ‘absolute truth’ even exist? Listen as Monica & Michael share how we can always ‘live our truth’ by letting go of the ego-based illusions the world hurls at us and instead, reveal our potential by behaving in accordance with our soul in deep authenticity. "In our world, truth is concealed by veils–our work is to pierce through these veils." – Michael Berg

Transcript

According to Gabalo,

The truth is everything from the soul,

Right?

In the realm of spirituality,

Things that are true are things that bear fruit,

That have longevity,

That have continuity.

If you're not seeing fruit,

If you're not seeing growth,

If you're not seeing greater joy from day to day,

Greater fulfillment from day to day,

I would question your truths,

I would question your lies because that's kind of an indication that your balance of truths and lies is more weighted towards lies.

You should question everything,

Even your own thoughts that you think are truth and see where they're coming from because they can lead you to a dark place,

Really.

Basically,

You're going to see what you want to see in a person,

Right?

If beauty is important to you,

Then you might not want to look any further,

Only later at some point probably to find out that there was so much more.

If your truth is leading you towards hurting another person,

It can't be the truth.

And certainly the biggest truth that every single one of us is missing is a true understanding of who we are.

Welcome to the Spiritually Hungry Podcast,

Episode 64.

So those of you who are avid followers,

You know we spoke last week about lies and we can't speak about lies without speaking about the truth.

So that's what this week's about.

As we said last week,

Every truth,

Every lie has a piece of truth in it.

Correct.

What is truth?

Is truth subjective or is truth simply truth?

Yes and no.

Like lies,

It's a widely disputed topic with some widely different viewpoints.

Here's a great example of something we think of as absolutely true.

Solid objects can't pass through each other,

Right?

I would say that's probably true.

Okay.

You place your hand on a table,

Your hand doesn't go through the table.

It's true.

Obviously.

We perceive as truth that our bodies are a separate entity from the table and that both our body and the table are solid.

Not so.

Not so.

The table,

Like all material things,

Is made up of atoms,

Which are 99.

9% empty space.

Which is like so,

I mean this is not new information,

But it's really far out if you actually take a minute to think about it,

Right?

Since atoms are mostly empty space,

Why don't objects pass through one another?

Let's see.

What?

Eighth grade science,

Honey.

Seventh grade.

What did we learn about this?

I didn't make it through seventh grade.

The electrons on the atoms repel other electrons on other atoms when they get close.

Something feels either hard or soft depending on the strength of the atoms repelling each other.

While it's true that my hand cannot pass through this table,

It's not true that the cause is because they are solid.

They only seem solid.

It's like such a perfect analogy for the illusions that we believe are both lies and truth.

Truth is not a new conversation.

Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle,

Socrates,

And Plato thought about this idea.

They discussed it,

They argued about it,

And they wrote about it.

From their thoughts,

They derived the correspondence theory of truth which traces back to Aristotle's well-known definition of truth.

I like this.

Let's say it for a second.

The say of what is that it is not or of what is not that it is is false.

While the say of what is that it is and of what is not that it is not is true.

I like the expression on your face and I'm sure our listeners have the same expression.

Yeah,

Because first the question is who decides what is and what isn't.

Exactly.

And that's part of what we're going to discuss.

Well,

For example,

If a cat is on a mat,

It's true if and only if there is in the world a cat and a mat and the cat is related to the mat by virtue of being on it.

Right?

So now we're getting all philosophical.

But the point is this is a commonly accepted form of knowing what the truth is.

We think that seeing is believing and it's our default setting.

I think perhaps that's where we get into trouble at the get-go.

So let me give you a story here because it's not straightforward and I want to kind of get heady about it because I think that we'll get to this part eventually but like all I hear lately is,

You know,

I'm just speaking my truth.

I don't know what that means.

So here's the story.

There's a leader at a convention.

What it usually means I'm saying something hurtful.

Yeah,

It means I'm going to be unkind now and it's my truth so basically you have to hear it because it's true to me.

Because it's true to me,

It has to be true.

Which again,

Truth is subjective.

Okay,

Here's the story.

A leader at a convention who happens to be blind was approached while on stage by someone who needed change for a $20 bill.

On stage?

Yes,

I know listen to the very specific details of the story Michael.

Yes,

He was on stage.

Can I continue?

I'm thinking about Allison.

I know I was going to name him Allison.

He was able to and exchanged the 20 for four $5 bills.

About an hour later he was again approached.

This time he was told that an attendee had left the hotel restaurant without paying.

And the hotel staff was angry.

The person who had eaten and left was developmentally disabled and did not understand what she had done so again he reached for his wallet.

You're following so far?

I think so.

Okay.

Later in the day there was a contest in which chapters competed to raise the most money.

Do you know what a chapter is in reference in this reference?

I'm afraid to say.

You tell me.

I'll believe you.

No,

If you're following you're following.

The chapter.

.

.

I'm trying and trying.

Doing my best.

The chapter that ended up winning about $20 more than the second place winner and the leader was accused of giving money to change the results.

When he denied that he had made a contribution to either chapter he was told you have to realize that not everybody in this room is blind.

Other people can see and we saw you right there on the stage exchanging money.

The argument was that his denial of throwing the contest was provably untrue because he was seen pulling money from his wallet.

And there's that famous Kabbalistic fable and Madonna and her children's books and Mr.

Peabody's apple,

She uses a story like that as well.

Do you remember that story?

Right.

I'm still lost.

Are you really not following?

The lunch lady is what I missed.

The chap.

.

.

What lunch lady?

Somebody said somebody left the develop.

.

.

So he reached in his wallet and he gave money.

What was that for the other two stories?

Oh my God.

The point is he thought.

.

.

He said he did not change the results,

Right?

He didn't put his hand in his wallet.

He didn't take money out to change.

.

.

For that purpose.

Right.

He didn't savor that purpose.

It didn't even dawn on him.

All he was responding to was the accusation that you somehow changed the results by putting your hand in your wallet.

He's like,

No,

I didn't change the wallet.

I absolutely did not put money.

I didn't take the 20.

He didn't think about the other two times earlier in the day,

Much earlier,

Where he was still in fact on stage and he affected.

.

.

Yes,

There happened to be lunch on the stage.

You know what?

I'm sorry.

I apologize.

I'm sorry.

Clearly my point stands still very true.

I'll give you another simpler example for you to follow.

Would you like to hear that?

I would love to hear that.

Back to Mr.

Peabody.

Oh my heavens.

So he stopped at the market every morning and while he was there,

He would prepay for an apple.

So that later in the afternoon when he was walking by the market,

He would just grab an apple and go home.

He was seen doing this by a child who thought that every day Mr.

Peabody was stealing.

Of course,

He went and told all the other kids that were on part of the league and then everybody went against him and blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And then eventually,

Obviously,

But he redeemed himself by pointing out the fact that you didn't see all of the picture doesn't mean that you understand the truth of something.

So we really can't trust what we see.

We can misinterpret what we see.

There are all kinds of optical illusions like the oasis in a desert that's only a mirage or the sleight of hand pulling quarters from behind the ear or sawing ladies in half.

We love illusions.

They're interesting.

They're fascinating.

And philosopher Frederick Nietzsche,

Who is a famous atheist,

Which I'd like to do a podcast on that by the way as well.

Just putting it out there.

And he said,

Truth are illusions,

Which we've forgotten are illusions.

Some could argue that we can't discern what is truth from illusion because everything we know and understand is filtered through our experience,

Our senses and our perceptions.

Our senses and perceptions are subjective and therefore everything we know is subjective.

So I want to ask you,

What is truth?

How do we derive truth and what can we believe is an absolute truth,

If anything?

And I think out of all those three questions,

I liked the last one the most.

That's a very good question.

I think that when we met,

You spoke about this a little bit last time,

That we live in a world of lies and that's a very,

Very important concept,

Especially for those of us who are involved in the pursuit of wisdom or even the pursuit of truth.

If you are in the pursuit of truth,

Then the first thing you have to accept is that because we live in a world of illusions and our perception is always based on our unclear view of this world,

Then we can't come to absolute truth.

We can come closer to truth and that the purpose of life and any attainment of wisdom is not to say I have the truth,

But that hopefully I am getting closer towards the truth.

And I often use the example,

People often ask me this question around truth and what is truth?

And I've spent most of my life studying wisdom and I know that what I have learned and any wisdom that I have attained has gotten me closer to living in truth and understanding truth,

But it is not the absolute truth.

And when you have that humility,

And I think one of the greatest signs of wisdom is when a person has humility around that which they understand or even that which they believe to be true.

Now,

Of course,

That doesn't mean that our view and our truth that we hold are flimsy because they're not,

But that we don't mistake wisdom or greater understanding towards truth as being the absolute truth.

Don't you also think there's other factors and components like if somebody is searching for truth,

But it's to prove somebody else or something else as being wrong,

Is that really truth?

Doesn't it matter what you're pursuing and why and what kind of truth?

For sure,

Because you can live in a world of your own creation that you believe is I've attained truth and really it's almost all completely predicated on lies.

And I just want to,

Before I finish that thought,

There's something you said,

Which I think is important.

I would say that probably the pursuit of truth,

Which I think is a noble pursuit and really I think all study of wisdom is to get us closer to truth.

I think the clear understanding is the fact that we want to go away from lies and that wisdom or what we can call truth is the path away from lies towards something more true as opposed to saying I am attaining truth,

If that's clear.

So what that means is that if we accept that to the degree that we are enmeshed in what we call our ego,

Our desire to receive this stuff alone,

That is going to mean that my view of truth is going to be worse,

More clouded than if I'm stepping away from my ego,

Stepping away from what we call my desire to receive for the self alone.

And that that needs to be our path away from lies towards truth.

But it does go back to the humility with which any person who has attained any level of understanding and wisdom has,

Which is this is how as far as I've gotten and these are my current beliefs and this is my current truth,

But I know that I am still clouded by my ego,

By my desire to receive for the self alone.

So I can never say that I'm seeing 100% clearly.

I'm seeing clearer than I did last year or five years ago when I was even closer to my ego.

But I think it's important.

I think that's the parameters.

I want to be moving away from lies.

I want to be moving towards the truth and in that process gaining aspects of truth.

But the absolute truth is something that is basically unknowable for all people,

While we're in this physical body because we're still limited.

But as we move away from lies,

What our lies as we spoke about last time,

Anything really that's ego based,

Based on what others are thinking,

Saying,

And so on and so forth.

Use the example of a person saying that there are those people who like to argue.

And they will hold what they see as truth,

Especially because it goes against somebody else.

And it's very difficult to us to believe that one will achieve any level of truth if their purpose is really ego based,

Which is going away,

Going against somebody else's beliefs or thoughts.

So before we go deep into the spiritual aspect,

Which I'm excited to do,

I just want to cover a few other things.

So something called paltering.

And it's basically when truth becomes a lie.

And I hate to say it,

But politicians are known often for lying about certain things,

Or covering up.

But they often lie in a singular way simply by telling part of the truth or a truth.

It's not all of the truth,

But parts.

Parents and children have this dynamic.

So basically,

A parent says to a child,

Did you write your book report?

And the child says,

I wrote a book report on Ramona the pest.

She didn't answer the question if she actually wrote the report herself.

I think many times in life we do this because we cannot prepare for whatever reason or not able to say what is in fact true,

Right?

Because we don't want the consequences or we are not able to actually face that at that time.

And usually it's often just we don't want our ego to be hurting anyway.

Yes,

There will be some personal pain attached to that.

So misleading by telling the truth,

Right?

A truth,

Not the truth is so pervasive in daily life that this new term has come about called paltering.

Also science,

Right?

We know that scientifically you'll hear terms like reliable or accurate,

But never the word truth when it comes to science.

Because what scientists often say is that things are forever changing,

Right?

One thing is proven until it's disproven and it can be something else.

I think that's a fundamental understanding when it comes to science because often there's a theory or it's a framework and that can change throughout.

So there's the example,

For instance,

Of the Earth is round theory,

Right?

So obviously it's been scientifically proven,

Michael.

Yet if you were to measure the diameter of the Earth across our equator,

It's 7,

926 miles.

If you measured the diameter from the North Pole to the South Pole,

It's 7,

900 miles.

So the Earth is not a perfect sphere in fact,

But rather a near spherical shape that bulges at the equator and is compressed at the poles,

About 26 miles wider at the equator than the poles.

The point is even in science,

There's no absolute truth,

Right?

Even with that statement that the Earth is round.

In fact,

It is,

Right?

But it's not exactly.

And science recognizes those other types of knowledge that people call truth that can't be investigated or measured by science,

Such as spiritual truths,

Right?

Beliefs,

Values of the nature of God,

This universe.

So I think that that's why truth becomes so tricky and it is so personal and it's also subjective to whatever your life experience is,

Has been or will be,

Which creates your reality and how you view it.

So I think that,

And we can look at philosophers,

We can look at theories,

But if we want to look at this from a spiritual perspective,

Which obviously you and I do,

According to Gabala,

The truth is everything from the soul,

Right?

In the realm of spirituality,

Things that are true are things that bear fruit,

That have longevity,

That have continuity.

Because you can't really argue that,

Right?

As a soul is endless,

Energy can't be destroyed and there are no endings in the spiritual realm.

You know something's true if it continues to bring blessings,

Continuously acts as a force of creation.

So I think that that's like kind of a good gauge of what is truth.

It's interesting,

Right?

One of my more favorite teachings is a section from the Zohar and it says,

Those of you might know,

They're actually just in the process every year we go through the cycle of reading the Torah,

Reading the Bible.

And the first letter in the ancient Hebrew Bible is the letter Bet,

Which is the second letter of the alphabet.

And there's a lot of discussion amongst the ancient sages,

Why wasn't the first letter,

The Alef,

Used as the opening letter of this ancient book of wisdom?

Why the second letter of the letter Bet?

A lot of discussion around that.

But the Zohar has a beautiful,

I believe a beautiful explanation that really touches upon this point.

The Zohar says that in this world,

Which goes back to what we were talking about,

Living in this world of illusion,

It is almost impossible to tell the difference between right and wrong,

Between truth and lies.

We live in a world where lies are as powerful and as convincing as truths.

The only difference,

The only test that one can use to really ascertain whether he or she is following the path of truth or following the path of lies,

Because again,

And I think this phrase,

And I want to go over too quickly,

Everything that can happen from truth can happen from lies.

Everything that we think is true can be a lie,

Everything that we think is a lie can be a truth.

There's only one test,

One absolute test about whether one,

And this is really the most important thing,

We can talk philosophically about absolute truths or not,

But I think our desire is really to help our listeners realize how do I know if I'm living my truth?

How do I know if I'm accomplishing or at least attaining understanding there's truth or living my life basically?

So,

The Zohar says that the reason why the letter Bet,

Which is the second letter of the alphabet,

Is the first letter in the ancient Bible,

Is because the only test,

The only true test,

Whether I am living more truth than lies,

Whether the path that I am on is more truth than lies,

Is whether I am seeing,

Whether it bears fruit,

Whether it has,

As you said,

Continuity,

Whether it has blessings.

If the answer is yes,

There's a good chance that there is more lies,

Sorry,

More truths than lies in my path.

If the answer is no,

I'm not seeing fruits from it,

Which means I am not seeing growth and transformation and continuity,

Then the chances are that whatever truths that I hold or whatever path that I am on is filled with more lies than truth.

And I think that is such an important thought for every one of our listeners because the first thing that we must accept is that every single one of us is made up of truths and lies.

Every single one of us,

No matter how developed,

Undeveloped.

The only question is the percentage.

I think that Kotska Rebbe said,

Right,

There was nobody that ever told the complete,

Complete truth.

I think there was one person on Yom Kippur maybe for a few minutes or,

But in the history of the world,

There's not,

I think,

A single person,

Right,

Ever to have only spoken truth.

Interesting.

Yeah,

I don't remember that quote.

Interesting.

But I think that the idea is that we are all made up.

I think maybe this is one of the more important truths to accept,

That every single one of us is,

I sit here and I've been studying wisdom for many years and I am in the pursuit of truth.

I have to accept that I am made up of truths and lies.

I think this is connected to change.

Why?

Because if you,

For instance,

You take a piece of fruit and you eat it before it's ripe,

It's going to taste bitter.

Now,

If you think that that's the truth of what that fruit is,

That it's just a bitter fruit when in fact,

If you gave it more time and it was able to fully develop,

Mature,

And grow,

It's actually a quite sweet tasting fruit.

And you wouldn't know that if you just assumed and believed that what I see now,

What I'm tasting in this moment is an absolute truth.

That's a very important point.

And I think amongst the elements that lead us to accept lies as truth and one of the greater fallacies of our lives is the view,

The sliver of reality that we see.

So like you said,

Can it be truthfully said that that person tasted the fruit,

His or her opinion is this is a bitter fruit?

Well,

In the tiny sliver of reality they experienced,

That's true.

Is that true in the greater reality?

The answer is no,

Because that fruit when allowed to ripen becomes sweet.

And that's true of every moment of our lives.

Well,

I see that in friendships.

Some often be like,

Oh,

You know,

Either you changed or I changed.

I never remembered you like that,

Or I never experienced you this way.

And it's like,

Okay,

Because whatever your first taste of me was,

That was your impression of an absolute,

Right?

And nothing is that.

Right.

Every relationship,

Every friendship.

Right.

And I think I think one of the guiding truths that I try to live is this understanding that every person,

Every one of us is made up of truths and lies of light and dark.

And the only choice that we have in life is,

Am I majority truth and minority lies or is it the other way around?

And when you really,

And again,

The humility that comes with that,

That when you accept that we are literally made up of light and dark,

And that's actually the way we're supposed to be.

It's not a mistake.

It's actually,

It's not a bug.

It's a feature of the human existence.

But again,

That also should fill us with great humility about what we take as truth,

As our truth.

But again,

Back to what I was saying before,

If we realize that the only true test of truth or being closer to truth rather than being closer to lies is,

Do I see fruits from my life,

From these truths that I hold?

And if the answer is yes,

Then you're on the right path,

Closer to truth than and further from lies.

If you're not seeing fruit,

If you're not seeing growth,

If you're not seeing greater joy from day to day,

Greater fulfillment from day to day,

I would question your truths.

I would question your lies because that's kind of an indication that your balance of truths and lies is more weighted towards lies.

I do want to,

One related to all of this,

One more idea,

Which is also an ancient Kabbalistic principle,

Which I think is so important to help us create this humility around what we believe is truth.

And there's a word that is used,

The ancient Hebrew word is negia,

Which means that when I have a vested interest,

Sometimes an unconscious one,

Often a conscious one,

That will lead me to see,

To perceive a situation,

A person a certain way.

And it's subconscious.

I have no idea that the reason why I think that this person is doing a terrible job at whatever,

Because in the back of my mind,

I'm hoping for it to be my job one day.

There's a story,

There's an ancient biblical story about when the Israelites came to the border of the land of Israel,

They send 12 spies.

And the spies came back,

At least the majority of them,

And came back and said to all the millions of Israelites who were sort of being led by Moses to this promised land,

This land that we saw,

It's terrible.

And they go on to delineate a whole list of terrible attributes of this land.

And literally they got everybody to believe them,

That this was a terrible idea.

They shouldn't have followed Moses into the desert,

Into the promised land.

The promised land is not a great place to go,

And so on and so forth.

The Zohar says,

These were elevated souls,

And they were not lying.

They did not make this calculation in their mind,

This is a great place,

But let's make up lies,

Let's make up lies and come back to the Israelites and get them upset.

But they were unconsciously tinged by the thought,

And again,

This was not conscious.

When this group,

These were the 12 leaders at the time,

When this group entered into the land of Israel,

There'll be new leaders.

They will lose their position.

And because of that unconscious thought,

They saw what they believed to be truth,

Which was all the terrible things about this land.

So when they were coming back and telling their truth,

They believed that they were telling their truth.

And it was what they saw,

But the way they saw it and the way they perceived it was all influenced by the tinge of this unconscious thought that if these people come into the land of Israel,

We will lose our position.

So many of our actions day to day are because we have underlying thoughts that we don't have access to.

And they're usually rooted in the desire to see themselves alone,

As you said.

You know,

That famous book that we've quoted a lot,

But the Daniel Kahneman book- Thinking Fast and Slow.

Thinking Fast and Slow is really predicated on this idea that we believe we believe things because of reasons that we believe them,

When in reality,

It's almost never the truth.

What's interesting is when I find myself coming across something challenging or something that might make me really uncomfortable or scare me,

I stop and say,

Okay,

I don't really believe that to be true.

What influenced that thought?

Did I watch a show on that subject matter that's making me?

And now visualize this thing that could happen because I know it's not my thought,

Right?

So I think the first thing is to really understand that you should question everything,

Even your own thoughts that you think are truth and see where they're coming from because they can lead you down a very dark,

To a dark place really,

Where you make choices that are not aligned with your soul.

And how many times,

I do this often,

How many times do we go through the day and suddenly you're not feeling great,

Right?

You're upset about something.

What's that?

What happened?

What happened?

And you think back,

Oh,

I just got that text or this person says this.

Right,

Yeah.

But that's- But it's a training that you and I,

I mean,

I remember it used to take,

And I tell my students this a lot,

You know,

Look back.

If you can't look back,

You know,

10 minutes ago,

Look back an hour,

Three hours.

Some people,

They're never,

Right?

So for now,

You and I think it's like automatic because it's like what just happened?

What switched?

What shifted?

And you can really get that good at it.

But I think that's a really good place to start.

And again,

Not to delve too deep because I do recommend for all our listeners to read that book with Daniel Kahneman,

Especially around this topic.

But where we were born,

Where we grew up,

The family that we were born into and so on and so forth,

All those hundreds,

The school we went to,

The school we didn't go to and so on,

They all make up our perceptions.

And everything we see about ourselves and about other people and about this world are all an effect of that.

And the silliest thing would be for any one of us to say,

No,

I see the truth.

I see what I see based on hundreds of things that have happened to me and how my life has developed and so on where I was born and so on,

Where my friends were.

When people tell me they're so sure they know,

I take a step back and I'm like,

Okay,

Wait a second.

I need to really look at the whole picture here because for the person that's certain they're sure they know,

Really,

I mean,

Even the things I've been certain about,

I'm really quiet about it and I kind of like test it out and to see because we are,

We're some of all the things that have ever happened to us from the day we came into the world.

Yeah.

I would just add one more thing to this conversation,

Which is that if you're going to do harm to somebody else,

If you're going to speak unkindly,

If you're going to reprimand them,

Question deeply.

If your beliefs lead you towards doing good to other people,

Don't question so deeply.

But I think- Yes,

If they're steeped in kindness,

You know,

Okay.

Then okay,

Even if you're wrong,

Right?

Even if you've made a mistake and you didn't see right and you shouldn't have shared with that person,

Okay,

Let's make those mistakes in life.

But the other side,

Which is if your truth is leading you to hurt another person in small ways or great ways,

Question,

Question,

Question.

And I've seen too many times people in the name of their truth,

Which can only be a subjective truth,

Hurt other people in small ways,

In unkind ways,

And also in great ways.

So there was an example I wanted to bring earlier and I think it's connected to judgment a little bit,

But it's the same with the illusions of what we see.

So it says in the Zohar,

Come and behold,

There is a dress that is visible to everyone.

The fools,

When they see a person dressed beautifully,

Who appears to them distinguished by his clothing,

Do not observe any further.

They judge him according to his distinguished apparel.

And consider the dress as the body of a man and the body of the person like his soul.

So you don't ever look past what you think.

But basically you're going to see what you want to see in a person,

Right?

If beauty is important to you,

Then you might not want to look any further.

Only later at some point probably to find out that there was so much more.

But I do want to bring it back to this because I think this is where we kind of are in terms of truth is what I hear from most of the people in the world.

Again,

Back to behaving in truth.

It's really to act,

Speak,

And think in accordance with your true nature,

Which is your soul.

It's who you are.

The problem is most people don't know really who they are.

It's acting in a deep level of authenticity.

And again,

One that's steeped in kindness and love for others.

So I think as a rule,

Right?

If you're going to have this conversation in your truth,

Make sure that you check all of those boxes and make sure that you're coming from that space.

And then finding my truth,

Right?

That's the other thing.

People often say they're looking for their truth or they desire to find their truth.

Unfortunately,

Most people mistake finding their truth as something external,

Something that needs to be discovered.

The Kabbalists say truth resides in our soul.

It's unchangeable,

Unmovable essence already within us.

And I think our job is really just to discover it.

I was with our youngest Abigail last week.

We were walking and she said,

She was talking about a friend of hers who wasn't behaving really kindly.

And then she said,

You know,

I don't think that she or I don't think anybody ever loses their kindness.

They just can't find it anymore.

It's still inside of them,

But they just can't see it.

And I think it's really appropriate for this podcast.

I think it's exactly that.

Your truth isn't something you need to go study to look for,

To find.

You need to be able to remove all of the lies,

The illusions,

The noise to really find deep within you what was there all along,

Which will always guide you in the right way.

For sure.

And there's two ideas that came to mind as you were saying,

As you were quoting that section in the Zohar about the mistake that people make by looking at the external clothing.

And that section in the Zohar there was speaking about the way people miss interpret the Torah,

The Bible,

Religion.

Same thing.

If you just take the stories you read at face value.

And I hope not to offend too many of our listeners,

But the Zohar specifically uses the word,

Which I know some of our listeners.

Oh,

Maybe don't go there.

The word stupid to apply to anybody who reads the Bible literally.

And the idea is that everything in this world is clothed.

Our soul is clothed by the body.

Our body is clothed by clothing.

Our clothing is clothed by the house.

Everything's set up that way.

This is a world of veils around all truths and that you have to endeavor to pierce through the veils.

That that's our work in this world.

So using that example too often and certainly throughout history,

Religion,

For example,

Or the perceived truth of religion has led people to kill,

To do terrible things to other people.

So regardless of whether one can come or not come to truth,

I think the first thing has to be that if your truth is leading you towards hurting another person,

It can't be the truth.

You might've taken a shard of truth and mix it up with the rest of the lies that we all have within us.

And that has led you there.

But if you're hurting another person,

Certainly the name of religion,

Certainly the name of truth,

A complete misperception of truth,

Of the Bible,

Of religion and so on.

And then you touched upon the idea of finding our truth.

And I think maybe this is the most important truth that we all miss.

And this is something I speak about.

And you cannot,

I was actually,

Over the past few weeks,

I've had the opportunity to talk to many in our community.

And certainly the biggest truth,

The biggest truth that every single one of us is missing is a true understanding of who we are.

It can be said that you and I and every one of our listeners,

Even those of us who have a healthy,

True understanding of who we are and what we're meant to do in this world,

Don't even come close to appreciate the power,

Influence and purpose that we are.

And if we leave our listeners with just that one truth,

Which is you want to discover truth,

Start with the acceptance of this truth.

Who you are is so far beyond,

And therefore the responsibility that comes with that,

What you're meant to do in this world and so on,

But who you are and the power that you hold within you is so far beyond anything that you have a conception of today.

And that I think is probably the biggest truth,

The biggest truth that most of us are missing and the biggest truth that we need to discover.

But I think also often people accept other people's truths as being true.

They don't ever really consistently stop and say,

Okay,

Is this true for me?

What do I think about it?

What would be different?

We just go along,

I think,

Accepting a lot of information or facts from other people who are so sure they know.

So the illusion just keeps getting more and more strong and cemented where we never really just stop and say,

Okay,

I am powerful.

There is truth within me,

Which I just need to rediscover.

Absolutely.

And I think,

And this is again,

Something that is spoken about a lot in the ancient texts that we have to accept that many of our thoughts,

And this relates to Kahneman's book,

But it's also found often in the ancient writings that we have to accept that we are influenced by the world,

Whether we like it or not.

Our consciousness,

Our thoughts are swayed by the world.

I mean,

We spoke and we touched upon this,

I think,

I'm not sure if we mentioned this,

But just now in the past few weeks came out this whole idea that the effect of Facebook and Instagram on young kids,

On teenagers,

Young teenagers,

That it's actually proven at this point,

The level of depression and suicidal thoughts affected by what's happening,

What they're seeing on Instagram,

What they're seeing on Facebook.

I really think they need to catch up to that illusional world that is just completely impossible and unrealistic.

And that is true for all of us.

We are all swayed in conscious and more in unconscious ways by what the world is thinking,

What the world is doing.

And unless we come to accept and grow,

This has to be a constant state of growth of the truth of how powerful I am and how strong the truth is within me that I need to.

.

.

That's where I need to go.

I don't need to go to Instagram or to Facebook.

I need to go inside and discover how powerful I am,

How powerful the truth that I hold within me is.

That otherwise,

And this is why I believe strong listening to this podcast,

Reading spiritual books,

Having conversations with your friends around these important topics is so important because otherwise,

The flow,

The rush of the consciousness of the world will influence us.

Absolutely.

And most of it's rooted in ego.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

To start shattering that illusion,

You need to have conversations to create cracks.

Because again,

Just to make this point really clear,

If you sit at home,

You don't look on Instagram,

You don't look on Facebook,

You sit at home from the moment you're born,

From the moment you leave this world,

You will be swayed by the shallow ego-based consciousness of this world.

That's a fact.

Again,

Even if you never heard about Instagram or Facebook,

Just sitting in your home,

The consciousness,

That ego-based thought will take over you.

So therefore,

There has to be a battle,

Literally a battle,

A constant battle,

The tools for which are,

Again,

Hopefully this podcast is part of it,

But spiritual thoughts and books and conversations to help take us out of that flow,

The rush of the consciousness of this world.

And most importantly,

Delving inside and understanding that I have to discover my truth and that my power,

My soul as we refer to it,

Is so powerful and so filled with truth.

That real truth,

But that I have to battle to access it.

I have to battle to stay true to me.

So I want to read,

This is actually from one of our listeners in Canada.

She writes,

This podcast is godsent.

I started getting pulled more and more towards Kabbalah this last year and this podcast,

In quotes,

Magically showed up at the perfect timing.

The wisdom you both share,

How you share it,

And the simple tools you give to move through these seasons of change and ways of being that we need to transcend for true happiness and fulfillment is in-freaking-credible.

You get it?

It's a plan words.

Thank you for taking time to share this wisdom and put your energy into this podcast.

Much love,

Jenna.

So thank you,

Jenna,

For that great and inspiring review.

And as always,

I want to remind our listeners to share this podcast with everybody that you know,

Especially after what we just shared,

And also to go to Apple Podcasts and write amazing reviews,

Five-star reviews,

And anywhere else you get your podcast because we are both inspired by your reviews or your letters and questions and comments.

Continue to send them to monicaandmichaelatkabbalah.

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As we said,

So many of our podcasts are based on the questions and the stories and inspiration that you send.

And when you do send them,

We share them with our listeners.

We know that it inspires them as well.

So please continue to send questions,

Comments,

Stories,

Inspirations to monicaandmichaelatkabbalah.

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And we hope you enjoyed listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording.

Bye.

Reviews

Dear M&M,
As always you open up my eyes.
Thank You! :- )