8. You Are Destined For Greatness!

The kabbalists teach that greatness is not reserved for a select few. It is, in fact, what we are meant to achieve in our lifetime. In this episode of Spiritually Hungry, Monica and Michael Berg discuss how we can manifest our highest potential by cultivating self-love and appreciation for our unique gifts.

Transcript

What I can do,

What you can do,

What each one of us came to this world to do cannot be done by literally anybody else.

So if I don't reveal my potential,

The world will always be lacking my part.

I think that even on a good day,

Right,

On our best day,

Our ability of what we can do is far greater than what we actually give ourselves credit for.

Validation is looking to another and saying,

Help make me okay.

Meaning somehow I am not,

I am flawed in some way.

Feedback is help make me better.

The act of living authentically,

The act of living and revealing who I am at my core,

That beautiful and powerful soul,

That bind within itself changes the world.

People don't often talk about this most important thing,

Which is finding your soul,

Your uniqueness.

Welcome to Spiritually Hungry Podcast,

Episode eight.

I am super excited to be here today and we are going to talk about a very interesting topic.

An important one.

Yes,

They usually are.

What if we came and we talked about bubblegum?

Something unimportant.

Yes.

So every one of us is destined for greatness.

And I think that most people go through life not feeling that.

They usually think that greatness is reserved for certain people,

Lucky people,

And that it's not something that everybody can certainly cultivate for themselves.

But what you and I know and what some other people know is that each person came to reveal something in this world that's unique to their own soul,

Which is such a powerful idea because if you look at it that way,

Then certainly greatness is the destiny for each and every one of us.

Right.

And the Kabbalists actually say this,

What I find so inspiring that what I can do,

What you can do,

What each one of us came to this world to do cannot be done by literally anybody else.

So if I don't reveal my potential,

The world will always be lacking my part.

It's so interesting because where most people get tripped up is that,

Oh,

There's already,

Let's say somebody wants to be a chef,

Right?

And there's already many great chefs.

Or if you look at,

And I did this for a while when I started writing books,

I was like,

Well,

Is what I'm going to say really that different than what somebody else has said?

And I thought about this,

Like if you are going to make a salad,

Right?

And I'm going to make a salad.

We're working with the same ingredients,

But chances are.

You make a very good salad,

By the way.

That's why I use salad as an example.

But let's say we have the exact same ingredients.

It's going to taste very different for sure,

Right?

Because it's what you put in it.

It's not only the ingredients,

But your essence,

Your creativity,

Your desire,

Right?

Your taste,

Your character that's going to influence what comes out.

So if we can only apply that to all things in life.

I think that's really important because I think what happens is,

Is we often,

Like you said,

Compare ourselves,

What we think we can do and compare ourselves to other people doing other similar things,

Or even the exact same thing when in reality,

And that's why I would actually challenge the salad example because you and somebody else would never actually be doing it in the exact same combination.

Not only your essence being invested in it,

But we are so unique in ways that sometimes our essence sometimes are not that it's so important to know that,

To really know that,

That each one of our souls,

Our essence is unique.

I think,

Again,

I think we either don't,

Sometimes we don't know that or we forget that.

Well,

I think we underestimate what we can do.

And I think that even on a good day,

Right,

On our best day,

Our ability of what we can do is far greater than what we actually give ourselves credit for.

For sure.

So if you walk through life and you think,

Yeah,

You know,

Sure,

I could try it,

But what kind of effect will I really make?

You know,

What dent will I make in the world?

And then we sometimes don't even try because that thought that happens to be negative is far bigger.

And also,

I think the other part of that is that we gauge what success would be for us often by numbers.

Well,

If I write a book,

Right,

Well,

I know these all kinds of authors and they're selling a million copies and five million copies.

I'll sell,

You know,

Whatever.

So is that successful?

Right.

I think when we understand that the view of success and the view of the unique life that I have to make in this world doesn't necessarily mean that 10 million people are going to listen to me or even five people will listen to me.

But it might be as I was reading yesterday about one conversation that this that this person had when he was younger with somebody who was very successful in their field changed his life.

One conversation.

And although I think for many of us is more than this,

Just that one conversation with that one person we're going to influence.

But I think it's really important that we frame success not in necessarily quantity.

Right.

But I might have my life needed to be revealed to five people in this lifetime.

Two of them might be my children.

Two of them might be my friends.

And the fifth person is somebody to meet when I'm 60 years old.

But the point is that that as long as I know that what I can bring forth by manifesting my soul,

My essence is unique and necessary,

Necessary.

That's the key.

And that I should never gauge it,

Certainly not compared to anybody else,

Because I can't compare myself to anybody else because nobody else is me or is meant to be me.

And success of manifesting my soul might be just that one person I influence.

And I often use this example.

My father,

As many of our listeners know,

Some who don't,

With my mother in the 1970s really created the organization,

The Kabbalah Center,

That has since that moment in time reached millions and millions of people through books,

Through teaching,

Through websites and so on.

My father's teacher had only one student.

My father's teacher's name was Robert Brandwein.

And my father began studying with him in 1962.

And in 1969,

His teacher passed away.

And when his teacher passed away,

He went through a tremendous amount of pain.

He had only been studying with him for seven years.

He had great expectations of continuing to study with him for years.

And he would relate that when his teacher passed away,

He didn't really see his purpose as going ahead and teaching other people this wisdom.

He felt,

First of all,

That inadequate,

He had only been studying for seven years,

Even though he had been a great scholar in the Talmud and other studies before.

But in Kabbalah,

He had only been studying for seven years.

So he didn't necessarily even see himself as being worthy of being a teacher of this wisdom.

And more importantly,

He was filled with such pain and loss at the loss of his teacher,

Who he loved so dearly.

It wasn't obvious to him that he was going to do anything with the wisdom he gained.

And through that pain,

He chose the path that he did,

Which is to say,

Well,

There's nobody else in the world really bringing this wisdom,

This thousands of year old wisdom to the world.

I need to do it.

And through the pain and through the many,

Many,

Many challenges that he and then with my mother faced,

They continued doing this work,

Bringing this wisdom.

And because of that,

Millions of people,

Including myself,

Are able to have access to this wisdom.

But I always think two things.

First of all,

Where Brownwine is looking,

If he was looking at his life,

Right,

And he accomplished many things.

He wrote many important works,

But he could have all said,

Well,

How good of a teacher am I?

I only have one student,

Right?

And that student,

It wasn't so obvious that he was even going to do anything with what I taught him after I died.

But one person spending his whole life,

In my opinion,

Preparing himself to be a teacher to one student changed the lives of millions of people.

That's so beautiful.

And are you saying that you think that people,

Again,

They underestimate the power of their influence or,

And or are you saying that we tend to only see something as worthwhile investing in if it's going to be big,

Reaching masses?

And then my third question there is,

Is that been completely connected to our ego or are we still revealing the light within each of us?

So that's the first two questions is yes.

Meaning we it's a weird paradox.

On the one hand,

We underestimate our potential,

Which is far greater than any of us really sees,

Recognize,

Recognizes.

And on the other hand,

We overestimate sometimes I think what success would mean for me in revealing my potential.

And if we understand that,

Which leads us to give up,

Kind of to give up,

Not to invest enough time and effort in it,

When,

If the view is I need to be me,

The most perfect,

Elevated,

Beautiful,

Revealed me and how,

What that is going to do to anybody else in the world that not really in my control.

It doesn't even matter.

As long as I am really focused on revealing myself in the most powerful way possible because I know that it's there.

And then whether I touch 10 people where I influence a thousand people,

I even that's one person that life will show me that path.

But I think it begins with that basic understanding that I am both unique,

Necessary.

My light is necessary in not only in the world today,

But in the history of the world and nobody else will ever be able to do what I can do and reveal in my unique way what I can reveal.

So,

You know,

I totally agree with you,

But I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second as I can hear what many of people who study with me and follow me say that this sounds so lofty,

Right?

Like what I can do in the world is like change the world,

Help the world,

Right?

And most people,

I think,

Find themselves in the place of,

You know,

Am I even worthwhile?

Am I really even deserving of something good?

Right?

Because if you have these negative belief systems,

Even if you understand the spiritual concept,

Which is a beautiful one,

Right,

That we all have the power to affect great change in the world and in individuals as human beings,

That's part of our birthright.

But how do you get to that place when you're starting at such a low level space?

And a lot of it,

Look,

You know,

I often say we come into the world loving ourselves.

All of us,

Right?

If you look at children,

They're just like they look in the mirror and they're prancing around in their costumes.

They're just loving everything about them.

And then somewhere along life,

We learn to unlove ourselves.

And the great news is that we can relearn that again.

But that's usually where people find themselves.

I'm sure that's true.

For the majority of their lives.

I'm sure,

You know,

We often joke about this.

And even in preparing for this podcast,

We had this conversation,

You know,

That maybe because of the way my parents interacted with me,

Maybe who knows what the reasons are.

I don't recall ever experiencing that loss of appreciation for myself.

And but I know.

And therefore not loss of self,

Because that's the other thing that happens is that people lose.

They stop loving themselves and then they stop knowing themselves.

And then they start seeking validation external of themselves.

Exactly.

It's funny because I remember I remember having this conversation with a man who was he's since passed away.

But at the time I had the conversation,

He was in his late 70s or early 80s.

And he was a very,

Very successful business person.

And almost every time he would talk,

He would explain to me and tell me the stories of how his father never thought that he was a good businessman.

And I was sitting and I remember the first time again,

You know,

Often this happens in life when you have certain people in your life,

You often have the same conversation over and over again.

And I actually,

You know,

And I think they have pleasure in retelling the story in different ways,

But with the same story.

But I remember sitting there the first time and saying,

Oh,

Wow,

My God,

You are in your late 70s,

Early 80s.

You are very successful person.

But when you were five years old and eight years old and 10 years old,

Your father said these things to you and it has impacted you for the rest of your life.

I never said these words,

But I didn't want to be this poor,

But I wonder how much love for yourself your father stole from you by,

By telling you all these things throughout your life.

On that was the one hand,

On the other hand,

It was,

It was almost to my mind.

Don't you realize what you've done?

Meaning accomplished,

Like you should have so much appreciation and love for yourself.

And to such a degree,

We don't even remember what your dad told you.

But it will never be enough as long as the voice in your head is,

Is something that good.

And even if it comes from a parent,

Right,

Because that's usually becomes our inner critic is the critic we heard when we were growing up.

No matter how successful this person became,

It will never be enough.

It will never be enough success and never enough money,

Never enough power.

Why?

Because they're not even doing it themselves.

In fact,

They're not even know maybe they don't even know why they're doing it.

They're just trying to prove and say,

Look,

I'm worthy of love.

It comes back to that.

Look at me.

Am I enough?

And when we talk about validation versus feedback,

Because I think this is a really important differentiation to make validation is looking to another and saying,

Help make me OK.

Meaning somehow I am not.

I am flawed in some way.

Feedback is help make me better.

Right.

Give me a suggestion.

Let me improve.

They're completely two different energies.

Unfortunately,

Most people look for validation.

And when you do that,

Then you will never be enough.

And by the way,

When your worth is based on somebody else's opinion,

Then when that ceases to exist,

Maybe they're no longer in your life.

And guess what?

You're going to go back to this empty feelings.

I could give this example with relationships.

If somebody felt not pretty right their whole lives and they meet somebody and he falls in love with her.

You're so beautiful.

You're the best thing that ever happened to me.

I love everything about you.

And now suddenly she feels worthwhile.

Well,

Let's say they break up.

Now she's going to go back to all of those feelings she had about herself in the first place.

Right.

I think that's that's so important.

And I actually,

As you were talking,

I thought to myself,

Really should take a moment here and pause.

And I think it's important for our listeners to really ask that question.

How much love do I have for myself?

How much appreciation do I have for myself?

How much of my self-esteem,

Self-worth is dependent on external validation,

Even from loved ones,

Like you said,

We should not even from our spouse,

From our husband,

To our wife,

For certain from our parents.

We should never base our self-esteem,

Our self-worth,

Our self-love on any external,

Any external validation.

And two things which I think are important to point out.

One,

Loving yourself doesn't mean that you're perfect.

Like you said,

None of us are perfect and none of us are ever going to be perfect.

And sometimes,

You know,

I think I think when we when we talk about loving yourself,

People say,

Well,

I can't love myself.

I just did this terrible thing or bad thing or not good thing.

And I look at myself,

I have flaw in this way.

Well,

People tend to think they're the last bad or good thing that they've done.

Right.

So if you did five bad things today,

Now suddenly you feel like a bad person.

And then there might be all kinds of self-punishing behavior that follows that,

Which we'll get into in a little bit.

And also,

Falsely,

We think we're the last great thing we did and we're riding that wave.

And then we crash when we do something that we don't like.

That's why that's all fleeting.

None of that is real.

That's right.

And that's actually a concept that I think is one that because you asked the question before,

How do you get to that self-love?

And sometimes really just coming to know that I am a beautiful and unique being.

But you know,

There's a parable that the Kabbalists often give,

Which is if you know that your soul,

Your essence,

Who you are at your core right now is both powerful,

Perfect and the essence that can never be mimicked by anybody else.

Now,

That doesn't mean that that's who you are manifesting yourself in the world,

Because you have,

I have,

All of us have throughout our lives put layers upon our essence.

So when I act selfishly,

When I hurt somebody else,

I put like a veil upon my soul.

It doesn't change who I am.

Almost like if you have an onion,

Right?

You have peels.

And if you get under,

There's many,

Many layers to an onion,

Right?

The core,

The core is the same,

But now you've covered it up through every action that you've done.

Well,

Negative action.

Right.

And to mix the metaphors,

They often use the example of a light or a candle or even a bulb that you put,

You know,

One layer that's maybe a little bit of.

.

.

What's wrong with the onion analogy?

No,

Because I think,

When I think onions,

It's funny because you know why I love,

It's funny,

This last night at dinner,

I was going to eat onion,

The salad came with onions and I really,

I really enjoyed the onions.

Monica does not let me eat onions.

So I'll tell you that it's true that it has nothing to do with what we're talking about.

So the salad,

It was a beautiful Greek salad and it had onions and I was so tempted to eat the onions and I ate one onion.

I did.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

And then,

But then I said,

You know what?

It's not right.

It's not right.

Because I haven't had onion in such a long time.

And when I bit into the onion,

I realized,

Wow,

It really is a very strong smell.

And you hated it now.

No,

I loved it.

I wish I could eat all the whole bowl of onions.

But I stopped for you.

I don't know why you switched into a light.

No,

But now I feel I have a negative connotation.

You ruined my onion enjoyment.

You should accomplish.

So anyway,

So back to the light.

So so yeah,

Onions are really great.

Only cooked.

No,

I like raw onions.

So right.

So to use the example,

If you have a beautiful light that's pure and perfect,

And then you put a veil around it and it shines a little bit out,

Then you put it on the veil,

It shines even less and so on and so forth,

Up to the point where you can actually make it so that there's no light coming out from that light or that candle.

The candle has never changed.

The candle has never changed.

That light has never changed.

All you've done is put a layer upon it.

I think it's so important.

I know that I use this for myself.

You know,

We do positive things,

We do negative things.

We're up one day,

We're down another day.

We often talk about consciousness is so important,

Knowledge of this is so important.

If I really accept the fact that there's nothing that I could ever do,

There's nothing that could ever happen that can ever negatively impact who I am at my core,

At my essence,

Then the work of life is okay.

Living with room,

We move more fails so that the perfect light that I am and the great wisdom that I have inside and so on and so forth can begin to shine.

Because I think again,

I think that whether we're conscious of it or not,

What often happens is that we don't really believe that we are at our essence,

At our core,

A pure and powerful,

Wise light-filled being.

No,

Of course not.

Exactly.

And by the way,

I think that people,

They go through like,

I was speaking to somebody yesterday and it was a session we had.

I've never met her before.

I still was on that phone.

And for the first 25 minutes,

She's like,

I can't get over the horrible thing I've done.

And she kept,

She didn't say what it was,

Like going in circles,

But she's like,

She sounded so sad and so heavy.

And I was like,

You sound,

And I told her that,

Like,

Do you want to tell me what you did?

And we often talk about this.

Nothing really shocks us anymore because we've heard a lot of things that people have done.

And some are really like,

Wow,

Right?

That are shocking,

But never,

Never,

I never judge because we all have good and evil in us and it's the one that you feed is the one that grows.

And what she had done was not even,

She hurt somebody and she married somebody else.

She's like in her forties and she is punishing herself.

Like she's just stuck in that loop.

Consciously punishing herself or subconsciously unconscious?

She it was,

It was subconscious.

And then she had a crazy back injury and was in pain for five years to the point where she wanted to kill herself.

So it manifested physically and now she has a new lease on life and they did some kind of surgery to relieve some of the pain,

But she's still stuck with that thought.

I'm like,

I'm begging you to change this now.

Right?

Cause she's lived her entire being,

Her whole existence in some sort of pain.

And after she told me that that's what she had done,

I was like,

Well,

We all,

I mean,

He didn't know better than,

Right?

She talked about her childhood.

There was so many things that led her up to the decision she made and she has such regret about it.

She's just punishing herself.

It's like,

So does she see her light?

Does she see her unique essence?

Does she think she's deserving of goods?

No,

Absolutely not.

She's just stuck there.

So we do this to ourselves,

You know,

We,

Especially we are the last bad thing we did and that's who we are.

Right.

And again,

I just feel the need to again,

Take a moment and pause because I think this is so fundamental for all of us,

For myself,

For you,

For our listeners,

Like to really understand that we want to take the time right now to think about,

To acknowledge,

To accept the fact that we are an unchangeably powerful and beautiful essence.

And then,

And then anything else we can think about that we've done today or yesterday,

All that ever does,

All that ever does is veil who I am,

But it never changes who I am.

It's such an important understanding.

And if you have that,

Again,

I think if you start living with that thought,

Then,

Then you can actually continue to begin or continue to reveal it.

Because obviously,

If you are not aware of the fact that you are this powerful and beautiful being,

Then there's no way you can allow yourself to reveal that.

What's interesting is I often give this exercise to people I work with also is to imagine or to look back at who they,

Their childhood pictures and look at that,

Right?

Because you look at a child and they're pure,

Right?

They're innocent,

They're curious,

They're excited about life and to discover things.

And I remember when I,

And I've talked about this as a child,

I felt very connected to the Creator.

I felt very spiritual.

I almost felt foreign here in,

Especially in my home.

I was like,

I might have come from like an alien place.

I don't recognize anything.

And of course,

My parents were loving,

But I just felt like,

And there wasn't a lot of spirituality in my home.

So I remember having tea parties with God and I would have conversations and I still remember them vividly,

Like age four and five.

And then I went through a period where I was rebellious.

I went to Beverly Hills High School and I started to act less like me.

I became less authentic to the point where I didn't even recognize myself.

I remember around age 17,

18,

I'd look at my baby pictures and I'd cry every time I looked at the pictures.

And I was like,

Why are you crying?

And I realized that I could not recognize,

I felt so far from young Monica.

I just couldn't even connect to that.

I missed her.

Right.

So for me,

And then subsequently,

Shortly after that,

I developed an eating disorder and I,

And that's like the lowest form of self love.

So I was able though,

To understand in that moment and hold onto that hope that I could find her again.

I understood that I didn't become something else.

I was acting with different parts of myself that I didn't feel proud of,

But I didn't,

I didn't,

She wasn't lost,

Which was inspiring because then I could find her.

Right,

Right.

It's interesting as you were telling that story,

When we said earlier that we have a unique light to bring into this world,

You're going to get it.

I think part of what sometimes hinders us from revealing it is we mentioned before,

But it's like,

What do I measure myself up?

You know,

What,

How many people do I have to reach in order for me really to be able to manifest it?

And the second,

Which I think is such a beautiful idea,

You know,

We have a friend that we both know we find,

She's such a beautiful and sharing person.

And we often say,

Regardless of whether we interact with her,

Just knowing that she's in the world makes us happy.

And I think,

You know,

There's,

There's a story from,

Ravashlagh,

The founder of the Kabbalah Center who passed away in 1954.

So it's told that before he passed away and he spent most of his life in study,

Writing,

And then teaching in the last few weeks of his life,

He was on a,

An oxygen machine.

He was in very poor health.

And the day before he passed away,

He was lying on his bed.

He sat up and he began speaking.

He began speaking and his student who was in the room with him was taking care of him.

Wanted to take off the mask to hear,

And he must've been revealing great secrets of saying such important things.

So he takes off the mask and his teacher says to him,

This isn't for you to hear.

This just needs to be revealed in the world.

And I think about that when,

When we talk about first accepting the fact that we are a powerful being that,

And my light is unique.

I think it's so important to divorce that completely from how anybody receives it.

Although I believe ultimately,

Yes,

There'll be one person of five people or a thousand people or a million people who will be changed by your light,

But it doesn't even matter.

The only thing I need to be concerned with is that my light is being revealed in the world and people might receive it directly or people might just be receiving it because I am that light that is revealing,

Being revealed in the world without anybody knowing.

And there's so,

So it's such a history of,

Of,

You know,

Great souls who nobody ever knew about.

There's actually a whole concept,

Right?

That in every generation there's at least 36 people that nobody knows that they're unbelievable souls and they actually are the ones that,

That sustain our world with their light.

And I think it's,

Again,

Going back to not needing external validation,

Knowing that I am powerful and unique soul,

Doesn't even matter who or if anybody ever acknowledges it or even receives from it directly.

My job is to reveal my light in the world.

I believe,

By the way,

Most of our listeners will actually,

If they begin reveal knowing it and therefore revealing it will,

Will,

Will impact one person,

10 people,

A hundred people.

But the act of living authentically,

The act of living and revealing who I am at my core,

That beautiful and powerful soul,

That bind within itself changes the world.

I think what you said is so key.

I think what the main takeaway,

The first thing is just the knowing,

Right?

Because if you know that your light is unique and you need to reveal it,

It's kind of like knowing that there's a treasure somewhere far out there and you know it,

Right?

You don't know how you're going to get it.

You don't know how you're going to get there.

You even don't know all the things that you're going to come against on your journey,

But you know that it's there and you're going to go after and pursue it.

And I think that we need to take that same approach with ourselves.

Far too often we put so much energy and things that are external or things that other people find or deem as important.

And that's what we now understand we should pursue.

But people don't often talk about this most important thing,

Which is finding your soul,

Your uniqueness.

When we talk about authenticity,

I think also many people misunderstand that.

They think that to be authentic means to be honest.

And that's not what we're talking about here.

What it really means is to be genuine,

Which therefore is entitled of acceptance.

Because again,

If we're going around looking for all these external ways to find who we are,

We're going to go in circles.

Being authentic is an acknowledgment that we are imperfect,

Yet still worthy of belonging.

Somewhere along the way,

As I said,

We learn to un-love ourselves so we can learn to love ourselves.

And I love this quote by psychologist David Schnarch.

I love his name also.

He says,

It's challenging to become an authentic adult because it means,

Among other things,

Soothing your own bad feelings without the help of another,

Pursuing your own goals and standing on your own two feet.

Most people associate these skills with singlehood,

But marriages cannot succeed unless we claim our sense of self in the presence of another.

So I talk about relationships a lot.

And I think that I do want to bring this up because I think that it's harder to do this work when you're in a relationship because we depend on the other person to provide for us in many ways and for many things.

But this part of really belonging means that you feel comfortable in your own skin.

It's not belonging into any other group or part of something else.

Right.

And that's your,

And I think this isn't something you can do.

I know you speak about really preparing yourself even before you're in a relationship,

Certainly before you're in a marriage to really accept yourself completely because you can't,

Just we spoke about,

You can't expect validation or even depend on validation external.

And it's unfair even to some extent to put that on a partner or a spouse.

There's a story about a great Kabbalah a few hundred years ago.

And the story goes that he was,

When he was a young child,

His parents sent him to school and we was meant to obviously study all day and he was goofing around,

He wasn't doing well.

And when he was around 12 years old,

He hears his parents talking.

He was going to sleep and he lived in a home and in a small house and the parents room was next door.

And the mom is like crying hysterically.

And she's sharing with her husband that the school let her know that they have to kick him out of school.

He's not studying.

He's not coming,

Coming into class most times.

And she's like crying in such pain to her husband,

You know,

What's going to be with our son?

You know,

We have such,

Such expectations of him.

I know that his soul is so powerful that he can do so much.

What are we going to do?

What are we going to do?

He said that when he heard that he felt his mother's pain and he made a decision that night that he was going to dedicate himself in school and to the work.

Years go on and he becomes not only a great pupil,

But he actually becomes a great scholar,

A great teacher.

And he actually tells this story at one of the Getting Together where he's printing one more of his books.

And he says to his students,

He says,

Because of that night,

I dedicated myself to study.

I became a scholar.

I write many books.

I have thousands of students.

And that's great,

But that's not why I'm telling you this story.

He says,

Imagine had I not heard my mother that night.

My soul clearly came into this world with the potential to be a great teacher,

To be a great author,

To write important works.

Had I not heard of that night,

I would have lived my life and I would have been,

By nature,

I'm a good person.

I would have been a good person.

I would have lived my life well.

I would have married,

Had kids,

Raised them probably pretty good.

And then when my soul left this world and in the interest of the supernal worlds,

It would be asked,

Where are you thousands of students?

And I'd look around like,

What are you talking about me?

I could read and I could write.

And I was a pretty good businessman and I was a nice person,

But there's no way.

I couldn't teach anybody anything.

What are you talking about thousands of students?

And then they would say,

Where are the tens of books that you were supposed to author and bring into this world?

And again,

I'd look at them shocked.

What are you talking about?

But they would be right,

He says,

Because my soul's potential came into this world to be a scholar,

To teach thousands and to write books.

And had I missed out on that night crying of my mother,

I would have missed on the opportunity I saw.

And I think it's so,

The Kabbalists say that one of the worst aspects that we accept from,

We call it from the ego,

From the negative side is diminishment of appreciation for who we are and what our potential is.

That's probably the biggest failing of any individual.

It's so interesting because I think that we all have two parallel worlds that we can live in.

And I think it could be different versions of myself,

Depending on just a series of choices I've made.

And some people might still pick door A,

Let's say,

And be relatively happy and somewhat successful.

But it doesn't mean that's what their soul came to reveal.

And you can pick another universe and another,

Right?

To really be able to find that thing,

That unique thing that you were meant to do,

I think you have to constantly be asking yourself the question,

Not what am I comfortable with,

Not even what am I good at,

Right?

I think it's the thing that's kind of hard for us.

That's always without,

Not in our reach.

It's a little bit further away,

But that we keep chasing that.

Yeah.

And that makes us uncomfortable.

I remember a number of years ago,

I was giving a lecture in Mexico and at the end of the lecture,

Somebody raised their hand and they asked the question,

You know,

How do I know that I'm doing what my soul came into this world to do?

What's an indication of that?

So really my answer was three points.

One,

That it begins with what we've been talking about until now,

Which is you have to know,

You have to really know,

And this doesn't come by listening to a podcast and accepting it.

You have to be reminding yourself every day.

Right.

The knowing.

That I am by my core,

My essence,

My soul,

It's a powerful,

Powerful force that is meant to reveal great light into this world.

Second,

You have to take an inventory of equalities.

Some people speak well,

Some people write well.

Some people are great communicators and some people are great socially.

Right.

Everybody.

And of course,

The naturalist goes on and on and you have to match up your qualities.

We begin with the core of knowing that you are a powerful being.

Then you really look at your qualities and then you ask yourself the next question,

Which is probably,

I would say either the most important,

But the trickiest,

What makes me uncomfortable?

Can I just challenge you for a second?

Sure.

If you look at your qualities,

Some of them are untapped or unmet.

Right.

And so you don't think that you could,

You could be good at it,

But you,

You might not be right.

If you look at us,

For instance,

I know when we got together and we became married,

You were very much introverted and you preferred reading versus speaking.

And you would have been happy reading and probably writing all day.

Right.

But that you're,

You had the potential to be so much more.

And for me,

Naturally,

I'm more social and active to sit in quiet study was a stretch for me,

Certainly to public speak.

I mean,

I remember when I started,

I was like,

I was so nervous.

I don't think I slept for a whole week or two leading up to that.

So again,

That's the discomfort.

But I think that I didn't know that I was necessarily good at that.

Right.

I think it's things that you have the potential to be good at.

It's not the things that you're naturally.

Right.

And that's why I think the third,

That's what I was saying.

So you can't have the second without the third.

You can't have the second without third meaning.

You can't just look at what naturally comes.

Oh,

For sure not.

For sure.

Because because some qualities are either nascent or not even you can't even see them at that time.

But I think I think what you said is true,

Which is if you look at what is uncomfortable for you and start pushing yourself that direction,

Then you will actually reveal things that you didn't even necessarily know existed.

Exactly.

And that,

I think,

Is when you really hit on what you're meant to do.

Right.

But it's a gradual process.

You do have to start like you did and I did.

You start with what you see and are aware of your qualities.

And then you slowly progress.

If you're pushing yourself,

Constantly living with the knowledge of who you are,

Pushing yourself to be a little bit more uncomfortable.

Like you said,

For me,

It's kind of like if somebody were jumping rope.

Right.

And you jump and you really you're very athletic.

Jump with two feet.

Then you want to challenge yourself and you want to jump with one foot.

Then you want to try it.

Right.

And then you start pushing yourself to what you can do in ways that you don't even think are possible.

For sure.

For sure.

And like you said,

Let me often use this phrase that the person I am meant to become is somebody that the person I am now can't even conceive,

Can't recognize.

And if you know that,

So because it makes no sense to think that I could possibly know myself right now who I am because and this is for me,

The exciting thing is I know and I,

You know,

Not to brag,

But I've done a few things.

I've taught a number of people,

I've written a number of books,

But the exciting thing for me is that I know that no matter how much I've done,

What is yet to be revealed of myself is so much greater.

So there's no way I can possibly know what the perfect revealed me in 10 years is.

But I do know that if I am constantly living with the knowledge of how powerful my soul in essence is and I am constantly pushing myself to be a little bit more uncomfortable in revealing that,

Then things will be both in what I can do and even who I am to myself will become even more revealed.

That's funny.

Somebody interviewed me once and they said,

So when did you arrive?

And I actually laughed out loud.

I said,

Arrived.

I said,

I never want to arrive at anything or anywhere.

I hope that tomorrow I'm a person that today I can't even recognize because we only see things in the realm of what we know,

Right?

What we know today is limited,

Right?

We're going to know something tomorrow that's different and in 10 years from now and as we expand our consciousness,

We're meant to expand our vessels,

Right?

And become far greater,

Which I think is what inspires us to do the work that we do.

Right.

And that's right.

And to plug the name of our podcast,

That's why it's so important to be spiritually hungry.

What I think is so exciting about this is this.

I know,

Like I said,

That what I am meant to be next year and in five years and in 10 years is so beyond who I am now.

So I have to keep pushing myself.

I have to keep studying.

I have to keep knowing how powerful I am.

And then hopefully,

Not hopefully,

I know that it will be revealed to me my next step and my next revelation and my next revelation.

If you don't start off and live every day with the knowledge of your powerful essence,

Then all the other steps can follow.

So let me ask you one question as we leave our listeners today.

What would you like to tell your 20 year old self?

Like,

What is it that you understand today that you wish you had known then?

And I know you never think in these terms,

Which is why it's fun for me to ask you this question.

My 20 year old self.

It's funny because not to be boring,

But I think I would say everything I said until now,

Which is this.

And by the way,

I can tell my 47 year old self the same thing I would tell my 20 year old self.

And I'm assuming my 67 year old self would tell my 47 year old self.

Well,

You don't know.

You haven't met him yet.

Right.

That is that you are powerful.

Your essence,

You can't even begin to imagine the influence you're going to have on this world and the light that you have to reveal in this world.

It's not going to be easy.

And unless you are both constantly challenging yourself to grow in uncomfortable ways,

You're not going to be able to reveal it.

And this,

I think,

Is is is such an important idea that that,

You know,

The capitalists often say that our ego will let us do many things except the one thing we came to this world to do.

And the way to know is the question,

Is it a little bit difficult for me?

Is it a little bit challenging?

Am I pushing myself?

Am I?

And that's why I love the phrase that used to being a chain junkie.

Right.

That unless that that that's a constant driver.

Then yeah,

You could be a good person and you can be,

You know,

Even a successful person in levels,

Spiritual,

Physical,

But revealing your essence,

You have to challenge yourself all the time.

Challenge yourself all the time.

And I think when you live in that way,

At some point you start to go backwards because you've already achieved the things that you understood and that you knew.

And then what?

We get bored.

Where do you go from there?

And I find and find that,

You know,

Sort of,

You know,

We call the creator of the universe will give you what you need.

So if you feel the need to do more,

You'll be given the tools,

The inspiration,

The people to do more.

If you don't really have,

And it depends on,

And that's why desire is really the essence of our soul.

If you have a lesser desire,

Then,

Then what you need to do will be impossible for you.

The people won't come,

The thoughts won't come,

The inspiration won't come.

And it's,

It's a very,

It's a very interesting paradox because,

And this is something that we haven't gotten into yet,

But in order for me to accomplish what myself came to this world to accomplish,

I'm going to have to do a few impossible things.

A few things that I,

As of today,

Don't even have the strength to do.

But if I keep pushing,

If I keep being hungry,

Spiritually hungry and learning more and sharing more and asking myself those questions all the time,

Then people will come to assist me.

Inspiration will come to assist me.

And those kinds,

The universe will conspire positively with me to help manifest.

Which doesn't mean it will be easy.

Oh,

It won't be easy.

Right.

Because people,

When they are positive,

Oh,

This,

You need all the support.

And then suddenly we think it's,

You know,

Rainbows.

It's not,

But it feels like it.

Right.

Right.

And,

And there's actually one other point which,

Which might be a little deep,

But I think it's such a powerful one.

And again,

One that I,

A consciousness of thought,

The teaching that I often use for myself.

Rilash,

Like one of my favorite teachers,

The founder of the center said that a person has to know that he or she is in constant contact with the light of the creator,

Constant contact with the light of the creator.

What does that mean?

The force that created this world,

The force that sustains this world,

The creator,

The light of the creator can do anything.

That light can change anything.

And if I understand that I am a,

In constant contact with that source,

That means that together with that force,

I can do anything.

There's nothing that can stop me.

He says,

Though,

That knowledge is what differentiates him.

He uses the example.

Imagine you have a lottery ticket and you won the lottery.

You don't know that you won the lottery,

But you had bought a ticket,

You put it in your pocket,

And now you're a millionaire,

Right?

As you go through your day,

You don't think you're a millionaire.

You are actually right.

Right?

Logically and in reality,

You are a millionaire,

But you have no idea about what's sitting in your pocket.

If somebody comes up to you and says,

By the way,

Do you know that you have a ticket in your pocket that won the lottery and you take it out and you look,

Oh my God,

I'm a millionaire,

Right?

In that moment,

What changed?

Nothing changed.

That you were a millionaire before the person pointed out the lottery ticket in your pocket and you are a millionaire afterwards.

You're understanding.

The knowledge of it,

The knowledge of it.

And Surabashis says the same thing.

If you are aware of the fact that you are in constant contact with the creator,

The light of the creator,

The force that created everything,

And because of that,

Together with that force,

You can do anything,

That knowledge allows you to do anything.

If you do not have that knowledge,

Even though it's true that you are in constant contact with that essence,

With that light of the creator,

You can't do anything.

Which I think,

Again,

As I said,

You know,

There's a joke that they tell.

People tell it better than I.

It's not a very funny joke,

But it's about an elephant.

Should it be called a joke?

Well,

I guess some people would be… I have a high bar for,

I think,

I have a high bar for jokes.

As you know,

I keep a list of jokes that I think are really,

Really funny.

And at some point,

Maybe we'll tell the… You might have to tell it after this bad one.

No,

It's not a bad one.

It's just a story of an elephant and a mouse.

The mouse is sitting on the back of the elephant and the elephant's running through the desert.

And as he's running through the desert,

You know,

It's bringing up all kinds of dust in a huge plume of dust behind him.

And the mouse turns to the elephant and says,

Look at all the dust we're bringing up,

Right?

The point is,

Of course,

The mouse is doing very little to do that.

But in his mind,

They're doing this together.

And that's what we can do with our lives,

Which is that me and the light of the Creator,

That endless force,

That powerful force that has brought this entire universe into being,

That sustains it,

Me and that force can do anything.

And if I'm aware of the fact that I'm in constant contact with that force,

I can do anything.

Well,

Then,

But I don't want to open this can of worms.

Then the next question is,

Then how do you make sure you're in constant contact with that force?

Well,

No,

The point is you are.

You are.

But you have to know it.

You have to know it.

You have to know it.

As we sit here right now,

As you sit there right now,

As I sit there,

As our listeners are standing or sitting,

Whatever they're doing right now,

They are in constant contact with that powerful force.

But it's like my tea parties with God.

It's the knowing.

It's the knowing.

And I think that if everybody's honest with themselves and they take a minute right now,

Think back when they had that feeling or that understanding,

They'll find it.

Yeah.

Just sit with it.

And it's it.

And remind yourself all the time.

That's why I think,

I guess I think it's so important.

This is not something neither for myself,

Who's been working at this for,

You know,

There over 30 years,

Nor for yourself or for any of our listeners.

This is not something that either comes easily or is retained easily.

You have to,

You have to be,

I have the words fighting,

But awakening this consciousness all the time,

This thought all the time,

You know,

There's,

There's a,

A story in the teaching in the Talmud that says that before we are born,

While we are in our mother's womb and the angel comes and teaches us all the wisdom of the world.

And as we exit the womb,

It says the angel hits us,

You know,

In the,

In that mark on the upper lip,

Between,

Between the upper lip and the nose.

And we forget everything that we learned.

And so the Kabbalists ask,

If you're going to forget everything,

All that great wisdom that you learned,

What was the purpose of,

Of learning it?

They say,

Because there's a concept called the Reshima,

Which means residue.

So even though I don't remember all of that wisdom,

It's first of all already in that perfect soul that I have.

And I have a sense of it.

You just need to reveal that.

And then as I go through life and I do what I can to study,

To grow,

To change,

To know,

That becomes revealed to me.

So this knowing that we're talking about,

This is what is so powerful about,

You know,

When it's true wisdom,

This that we're talking about,

You know,

This whole podcast about the power of our true essence,

We all,

Every single person knows it.

You need to take the time to think about it and to really,

You know,

Come to that,

To that knowing and live in that knowing of how powerful you are.

But you know,

This already your soul knows this and that residue is there.

It's there.

It's been there even before you came into this world.

And I think all of this again,

Hopefully gives us the strength to live in that.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

And as I said,

All the time,

I hope that our listeners enjoyed listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Please keep sending your questions into Monica and Michael at kabbalah.

Com.

Monica and Michael at kabbalah.

Com.

We will try to get to as many of them as possible.

And please share this podcast with your friends and family.

Go to Apple podcast,

Wherever you get your podcast and read it and write reviews.

Of course,

Only the positive ones.

And we look forward to sharing with you again next week.

Bye

Reviews

Thank you. Received at exactly the right time. 🙏🏽

thanks for making this recording! y'all are inspirational!

What a great “accidental” find at the perfect time for me! Thank you😀 So I learned and your words, knowledge gets passed on to me and from me to others!! Thank you😀🌈🦋🌹

Great podcast! Thank you a lot. I have one question though, which may be a dumb one, but I need to ask. What would be that essence that you talk about, that power? Would it be what you can do for others? Or just what you can do, produce in this world? Or what you are good at?
I’d appreciate it so much if you could answer this. 🙏🏼