Go Beyond Guilt And Illusions Of Ugliness

Want to relax, learn and feel uplifted? Join Tiger as he dives into profound yet accessible discussions about life, spirituality and human nature. He explores thought-provoking topics like the root of violence, freeing ourselves from self-criticism, and seeing beauty in all things. Through insightful reflections and humorous anecdotes, he illuminates deeper truths in a gentle, engaging manner.

Transcript

My goodness,

My goodness,

My goodness,

I'm just here to hang out and find some way back to a beautiful space of sanity that recognizes the inherent wellness of all that is.

That's a good idea Hannah.

Maybe you could help to guide us back to rest in the stillness of our true self.

Yeah,

To rest in the stillness of our true self.

Can we just do that for a second?

Maybe in the busyness of scrolling through social media,

In the busyness of a thousand things to do,

Can we just be here right now and recognize the sweetness of what is real and true about what we are?

Rather than maybe unconsciously running away from all of the illusions about what we are,

What does that mean to rest in the stillness of our true selves?

You know,

In the sweetest and maybe most direct way,

It's asking the question,

Can we just be here?

Not be here thinking our way out of here,

But just be.

And the funny thing about our true self is it's not something that you can think about.

In the recognition of that,

We can just stop thinking if the intention is to rest in the stillness of our true selves because the thinking isn't going to find it.

So we can just be.

You can breathe in to the stillness of your true self and that true self is just here.

It's a very simple meditative invitation to just be.

One of the doorways into the true self is to realize that everything that the mind says,

It's not that.

The mind can only see its images,

Its imagination,

And the truth of what you are is not imaginary.

And so we can set aside all of the thinking just for a moment and just be.

Can you just connect with me here in that space?

Just be.

It doesn't have to be awkward if we just sit here and stare at each other.

But let's just be and maybe honor the silliness of it all.

And I'm right there with you in all of that silliness.

And it's okay that there is that silliness of who we think we are and our 10,

000 thoughts racing in all directions.

That's fine.

But right now we're just taking a moment to just be and sense that stillness.

And it's the stillness that's always there even when you're lost thinking.

That's what I love about that stillness is it's just here.

Always.

And so blessed we are to take a moment and just recognize.

And then when you forget about that stillness,

You go on a great adventure into the noisiness of the mind.

And that's fine too.

It's fine because the stillness never actually leaves.

In the same way that when you fall asleep at night,

It's fine that you dream whatever you dream because you're fine.

It doesn't matter what you dream.

The reality of what you are is still here,

Whole and complete,

Untouched by the dream.

And you see that's the stillness I'm talking about.

That no matter what you think,

No matter what you dream,

You're still here.

The truth of what you are.

Untouched by it all.

Just breathe.

With each breath you can just allow the release of whatever anxiety might be there into whatever degree that you can.

You're just inviting more stillness.

You don't have to reach the ultimate stillness.

Just invite a little more stillness.

Isn't it amazing how this stillness is just always here?

The same stillness.

It's like you can remember the same stillness when you were a child.

Just this presence that's been unchanged the whole time.

And simply on top of that presence,

There's just been new stories,

New patterns of thinking,

New adventures.

And yet the stillness remains.

All right,

Are you a little bit more relaxed?

For me what always helps is just recognizing the humor in it all.

How lost I can get.

How captured I can become by the mind's content thinking that what I'm thinking is really happening.

And then to say,

Oh it got me.

I thought it was real.

Oh my goodness.

Thanks for sharing that moment with me.

Deb asks,

How is it living in Crete?

How is it?

It's a direct reflection of how I'm doing inside what I am.

So what I'm doing well inside of what I am,

What I'm not beating myself up,

What I'm not criticizing myself,

What I'm not exercising some form of self-violence,

Then living in Crete is wonderful.

Just like any other place I've lived.

And as of recently,

It's been going really well here in Crete.

I moved out here with a special someone to explore a dance of relationship,

And that is going incredibly well.

We spent Christmas together yesterday in a very spontaneous and magical way,

And it was just so sweet.

So sweet.

Let's see,

What do I want to dive into here?

You know,

I could speak to some of the questions I got about my course,

30 Days of Conscious Living.

I love seeing people's questions as they journey through the daily content,

And sometimes,

Man,

That content can really trigger people.

But in a beautiful way because it just really challenges our assumptions,

Our whole worldview that we think is our worldview,

But we've just been told.

But particularly,

Something about this play of guilt and how we are convinced that guilt is a real thing,

Not recognizing that in the most innocent way,

It's just a social construct.

It's something that seems real and attempts to help us make sense of experience.

But what I'm inviting people to see is that for guilt to exist,

There has to be a separation that's real.

You can't have guilt without separation.

For the thing that you deem as guilty,

It implies that it's operating outside of the wholeness of all that is.

And one of the illustrations that I use,

Which I feel is a very gentle illustration that helps us look at this outside of the scope of the human experience,

And then if we can see it in this example,

Then maybe it can begin to make its way into our human experience.

And that example relates to lightning.

Actually,

I watched a movie last night called Pompeii.

It was an action-packed romance,

And it was illustrating the disaster of the volcano eruption Pompeii.

I think it was 79 AD where this volcano erupted,

And it completely wiped out an entire city in such a destructive and perceivably violent way.

And in one regard,

You can look at the subsequent disaster,

The suffering,

And you can say,

It's the volcano's fault.

The volcano is guilty as the source of this suffering.

And you see the projection there that says the volcano is doing its own thing,

And what it did created suffering.

And the assumption,

Of course,

Is that the volcano operates on its own,

That it's doing its own thing,

Not realizing that the volcano is deeply intertwined into the wholeness of everything.

The volcano doesn't do the volcano.

It's the wholeness of life that does the volcano.

It's not its own separate thing.

It's the whole thing,

Pretending to be this something called a volcano.

And so,

Maybe we don't see it,

But to blame the volcano is to blame the wholeness of life.

Another way we can say this is to blame the volcano is to blame God.

When,

In a more deeply compassionate way,

There's an understanding that in order for life to be life,

There has to be something called a volcano.

It is,

And I'm just making this up,

But it is some point of release for tension,

A required tension in the shifting about of Earth's structure.

It just has to be that way.

Does it mean we have to like it?

No.

But what's the reality?

The reality is that for life to be life,

The volcano must be free to be a volcano.

And further than that,

The volcano isn't doing the volcano.

And so,

In this,

The volcano isn't guilty for the volcano.

In fact,

There's nothing real in life called a volcano.

What is real is that one aspect of life,

One aspect of the whole acts as that something that we call a volcano,

But it's life that's doing it.

And this does something for me,

And I wonder if it does it for you,

But it relaxes my judgment toward that separate thing.

And if anything,

Inspires a degree of compassion in such a way that it's like,

Do what you got to do.

And I may not understand it.

I might not understand the intricate details or the science of why the volcano has to be the volcano.

But what I do understand is that everything that is has to be in order for life to be life.

And so,

I step aside from the assumption that thinks I know how things should be in order for life to be life,

Because so easily I can say,

Oh,

If only there weren't these things called volcanoes,

Then I could be at peace.

Then I could be happy,

Which completely misses the point that without this something called volcanoes,

There's no life.

It doesn't work anymore.

Just as important it is that the stars are the stars in order to maintain the balance of the cosmos that allows this moment on earth to be this moment,

There must also be the expression of what we call volcanoes.

It has to be that way.

Sure,

Again,

I can argue with it,

But what am I arguing with?

The divine organization that keeps it all together as if I know how it should be?

Because that's the truth,

Isn't it?

I don't really know.

I don't know that it shouldn't be this way.

And this is such a giving back life to life.

This is recognizing the sacredness in all of it.

And to go further than that,

My goodness,

What I recognize in my experience,

And again,

Understand I'm only talking about what I see here.

This isn't a discourse on what other people should believe or think.

I'm just sharing how I see.

But for me,

The sufferable agitation about what happens on earth or in life is intensified by my belief in a concept we call death.

And what's very interesting is that my idea of death is just my idea of death.

And so I'm not responding to the reality of death and people dying.

I'm responding to my perception of it.

I'm responding to what I think it means.

And if I step back from my projection,

Again,

It comes back to I don't really know.

But when I look at nature,

Then the play of what we might call death is required in such a way that it is a cycle of birth and death that allows the whole thing to be the whole thing.

And we could go even further and say,

Maybe nothing actually dies.

The reality of what it is doesn't actually die.

There's just a transformation that takes place.

In the silly way of when I cut my hair off like I did this morning,

We could say that's a part of me that I cut off and it dies.

But do I really die?

No.

What I am remains.

And we could draw this with the illustration about the body.

And if the body dies,

Does that mean what I am dies?

No.

It's just a transformation.

It's a change.

And so in the example of Pompeii,

Am I responding to thousands of people dying?

Or am I responding to thousands of people dying in the way of what I think dying means?

That they lost something.

I don't know that.

You see,

The question here is,

What am I responding to?

Am I responding to the reality of the unknown?

The reality of the divine symphony?

Or am I responding to my projections?

My stories?

That place impossible expectations and demands on reality that couldn't possibly be true.

Now in the world,

This isn't popular,

Understandably.

There's a lot of people that believe in death.

There's a lot of people that believe death is wrong,

That death shouldn't be,

That life would be so much better if we didn't die,

And yada,

Yada,

Yada.

And so when you talk about such things,

It touches on people's identification with their beliefs about these things,

Which is often why there's not really much to say.

People are allowed to see how they see,

Which is another important aspect of this inquiry.

And for the people who are taking that 30 days of conscious living course,

One point that I attempt to make over and over again is that,

Look,

This discovery,

This journey of seeing things more clearly,

This isn't about other people.

This isn't about what other people should think,

How other people should see.

This is a deeply sincere investigation into the I am,

Into the one that is perceiving,

And that's just you.

You thinking about what other people are thinking about is just you thinking about what you think other people are thinking about.

And even more than that,

It's who you think other people are,

Which isn't really what they are.

It's interesting to see that even our thinking about other people isn't really thinking about other people.

It's thinking about who you think other people are.

As you unravel all of these layers,

It just all comes back to you and what you think is happening.

And for me,

That allows for such a reduction in thinking.

It allows for a more focused thinking,

A more true form of thinking,

Rather than being lost in the nonsense of thinking.

This makes it possible for us to act out in such violent ways towards ourselves and for others.

And again,

What makes it possible is the misunderstanding of what you are.

And each person listening has a wealth of data in their own experience that will confirm this,

That you have never been unkind or violent to another without first being unkind and violent to yourself.

So naturally,

If you want to heal that unkindness and violence towards others,

You have to heal the unkindness and violence towards yourself,

Which is also an invitation to see yourself more clearly,

Which is,

Of course,

The invitation of spirituality.

All right,

Valerie says,

I like the phrase you just used,

Self-violence,

Starting to dig deep into my pain stemming from false beliefs about myself and its possible reasons.

My self-violence has reached a new level.

Can you speak more about this war against ourselves so many of us are engaged in,

Sometimes without even realizing it,

And what practices you have found help?

Yes,

Valerie,

I will speak on that.

Thank you.

Self-violence,

My goodness.

Well,

If we're going to explore self-violence,

Can we just look at the nature of violence?

You know,

Traditionally,

We look at violence as an outward act that causes direct harm to another human being.

And of course,

This harm can be expressed in 10,

000 different ways.

And we can also see that there are different degrees to this harm,

Whether it's to say something that's unkind,

To tear somebody down with our words,

To the point of ending someone's experience on this planet.

And you see these degrees,

Right?

Speaking ill of someone can be described as violent.

Taking someone's life can be described as violence.

And everything in between.

And I would suggest that it goes even further and more deep than just the things we say about people.

And that is in how we see people.

Do you see that you can see somebody in a violent way where you're essentially projecting,

Let's call it unkindness,

Where you're projecting violence?

And for me,

It's important to recognize and honor that in a simple way,

Violence is violence.

I can compare my violence to somebody else's violence and then feel good about my violence because it's not as bad as somebody else's.

But that just helps me escape the reality of the violence that's within me,

Which is why we so often compare ourselves,

To help us avoid taking accountability for what's going on inside of us.

Well,

At least I'm not as bad as that guy.

But it's important to be aware that all violence begins in how you see.

You can't act out violently without first seeing with violent eyes.

That's important to see because if we're wanting to heal acts of violence,

Those forms of violence that display themselves on the surface,

The invitation is to work backwards towards the root,

Which is to uncover the ways that we see violently.

Because if one is no longer seeing violently,

Then it's impossible to act out violently,

Which is quite beautiful.

Because when somebody is acting out violently,

It's obvious that they're seeing in violent ways,

Which points toward the confusion,

Points towards the misunderstanding.

And we can address that misunderstanding rather than just trying to control the end result.

It's very similar to punishing someone for their actions rather than seeking to understand how that action even came to be.

And the more you uncover why that action came to be,

It makes perfect sense why that action came to be.

There was an innocent misunderstanding,

Which to go further,

We could say wasn't even their fault.

So to explore the root of violence,

My conclusion on this stems back to the perception of separation.

To see yourself as separate from the whole is the beginning of violence.

See yourself as separate from life is the beginning of violence.

And furthermore,

The expressions of outward violence towards others is only possible for the one who is first violent to themselves.

So much to say that you cannot be violent to others without first being violent to yourself.

And so if there is outward violence,

It is a reflection of an inner violence.

And it traces itself back to a perception that sees yourself as separate,

Which is the first violence.

And it's fun to explore how when you see yourself as separate from the whole,

How many different ways that can express itself in your self-perception.

If you look at all of the unkind ways that you see yourself,

You can see that that's only possible because you see yourself as separate from the whole,

Which is to not see yourself clearly.

It's not to see the truth of what you are.

It's to identify with the character that you've created in your mind that is a character that's separate from all the other characters you imagine.

And that just comes with a whole host of problems and difficulties.

Most notably,

To see yourself as separate from the whole implies that you have to struggle to survive,

Right?

Like the whole isn't there to take care of you,

Like you're on your own.

And that introduces quite a bit of fear.

And in that fear to take care of yourself,

You then have to take from others,

Which again,

Gives rise to that outward violence.

This makes it possible for us to act out in such violent ways towards ourselves and for others.

And again,

What makes it possible is the misunderstanding of what you are.

And each person listening has a wealth of data in their own experience that will confirm this,

That you have never been unkind or violent to another without first being unkind and violent to yourself.

So naturally,

If you want to heal that unkindness and violence towards others,

You have to heal the unkindness and violence towards yourself,

Which is also an invitation to see yourself more clearly,

Which is,

Of course,

The invitation of spirituality.

How does this contribute to the war that we often experience?

A war of self-violence.

Well,

It's a perpetual cycle that feeds itself.

Maybe to express it in a way that says,

You're trying to fix self-violence with more self-violence.

And I actually recently wrote about this,

But a great illustration is like in our effort to change or become better,

Or even sometimes to improve.

We are essentially looking at ourselves as we are now,

And we're saying that you're not enough,

That I don't love you,

And if only you were different,

Then I would love you.

Now,

As helpful as that might seem,

Right?

Like,

Clearly I don't like myself,

So dear self,

If you change,

Then I will like you.

Can you see the violence in that?

It's looking at yourself with violence and then holding a future version of yourself in the mind that holds your current self hostage.

And how's that going?

I play that game too,

It's not fun.

And this sets somewhat of a war against ourselves that says,

When you change,

When you become different,

When you look like this,

When you can do that,

Then I'll love you.

You see,

It also speaks to the battle taking place with the ego.

The ego,

Which is your perceived separate self,

Is trying to be whole and complete,

But it's trying to be whole and complete independent of the wholeness of life.

This is to say,

In some way,

Using silly words,

That the ego is trying to be God rather than letting God be God.

And so,

It's trying to complete its image of itself in the world by having this,

That,

And the other.

And it says,

Once you get there,

Then I'll love you.

However,

What you find out is there is no there there,

Because once you seemingly get there,

You find that there's more.

It's like you say,

Okay,

When you can do this,

I'll love you,

And then you're able to do that.

And you say,

Never mind,

I mean this.

I thought it was that,

But it's not that.

And so,

We gotta go chase something else now.

You see,

The ego has its fixation where it thinks,

Oh,

If only,

If only I look like this and not that,

If only I had this much money,

If only my parents approved of me,

If only someone loved me,

If only X,

Y,

Z,

Then I could be whole and complete.

But what the ego doesn't realize is that that's just all imagination.

There's no reality to that.

It's just story after story.

Which is kind of funny,

Because the ego's looking to be real,

But it's looking in the imagination.

It's not even looking in what's real.

The ego doesn't want to look at what's real,

Because then the ego will see that it's not real.

And the ego will be invited slash gently forced to give up its own illusionary self-importance.

And so,

The alternate approach here,

The more gentle approach,

I guess,

In a fast-forward kind of way,

Is to love yourself as you are.

Which is to put an end to the self-violence and just let yourself be as you are right now.

And maybe see the beauty in how you are right now,

Even in your adorable humanness that gets lost and confused.

Maybe that's just part of it.

Because again,

Here's the profound pointer.

The things that you might not like about yourself that we might call violent and unkind are only there because you're violent and unkind to yourself.

And so,

What good is it going to do to add more violence in the hopes of getting rid of your violence?

Do you see the invitation to just surrender it all?

Right?

To just take a breath.

Like,

Whoa,

This is getting out of control.

Maybe I'm just a mess,

And maybe that's okay.

There's a real beauty to it.

There's a beauty to the self-violence.

There's a beauty to getting lost.

And the answer is not more self-violence.

You know what this reminds me of?

It reminds me of that classic Jesus quote that in some effect says,

If you do not let out what is within you,

Then what is within you will destroy you.

And if you do let out what is within you,

Then what is within you will save you.

And what this is speaking to,

From my perspective,

Is that the more you just allow yourself to be,

Which is only possible with honoring and loving yourself,

Then the less harm that will cause,

Which results maybe in what we can say,

A better life.

And if you don't let out what is within you,

Then it builds up and it builds up,

And it explodes out of you.

It's like it's coming out sooner or later,

Which is to really embrace the human experience and everything that comes with it.

And this is such an important point,

Because there can be such a tendency to want to pretend to be spiritual and not just let the human be the human.

Like in our spiritual exploration,

We can create all of these expectations of how we should be,

When that's not the point.

The point of the spiritual inquiry is to see more of what's true,

Which is also like saying to see with less judgment,

Which only allows what is to be what is.

The spiritual foundation of all is well,

If recognized,

Would result in a relaxation that just allows yourself to be.

And that's where the healing emerges,

When we can just allow ourselves to be.

But it's scary for the ego,

Because then the ego has to give up control in an effort to get what it wants.

If the ego has its idea that says,

Oh,

If only you were like ABC,

Then I can love you.

And what spirituality is saying,

I love you now.

And that's scary for the ego,

Because the ego says,

No,

No,

No,

No,

You can't love me yet.

I'm not there.

I haven't reached that version.

I don't look like this or that.

So you can't love me yet.

And life just says,

Well,

I love you now.

I don't care if you're like this or like that.

I just love you now.

Because life,

Or we could say God,

Recognizes that the only way that you're going to realistically improve,

Which is a further embodiment of expressing more love,

Only comes by way of seeing the love that you are now.

And so there's the invitation to surrender the expectation for who you think you should be,

And stop beating yourself up with it,

And just love yourself now,

And then let yourself flow into that expression if that's what's meant to be.

But again,

This is damn near impossible to do if you're convinced that there's a more lovable version of you.

Which again,

Is to say that you don't see yourself clearly right now.

Because if you saw yourself clearly right now,

In the same way that if you saw life clearly,

You'd fall in love with life.

When you see the immensity of life's beauty,

The interconnectedness of all things,

The depth and delight of the miracle we're swimming in,

You fall in love with it,

Regardless of the chaos and the noise,

Regardless of trees falling over.

It just has to be that way in order for the miracle to be the miracle.

And the miracle is so extraordinary and divine.

That when you see the whole thing,

You say,

My God,

You're beautiful.

And it's the same thing when you see the truth of what you are.

You know what this reminds me of?

This reminds me of that woman in my life that I love so deeply.

It's like in all of her silliness,

And all of her beautiful raw humanness that she might be embarrassed about,

Or she might be insecure about,

To me,

It's just the most adorable thing.

Right?

It's like,

I don't want her to be this photoshopped image of something.

I want her to be her.

And when I see the wholeness of her,

Like seeing the wholeness of life,

It's the most beautiful thing.

And so you fall in love with it as it is.

Not as I want it to be to satisfy some egoic desire that I have.

No.

Because to see the wholeness of what it is,

You can't help but say,

My God,

You're beautiful.

It is the same thing with the relationship with ourselves.

We're on a journey of seeing ourselves more clearly,

Which is also a journey of putting a gentle end to the self-violence.

And I understand that it can be complicated.

It can be confusing.

It can seem intense.

I get all that,

And I'm not saying that it shouldn't be.

It's just part of it.

In one way,

It's like you came here to this dimensional experience to forget yourself so that you could go on a journey of rediscovering yourself.

And so everything in between is fine.

It's part of the process.

And it's not going to be a straight line.

It's going to be a wild ride.

That is for sure.

Okay.

Angela says,

I find it hard to see how we fit into natural order as we choose what we do.

But the volcano is not choosing,

But we are.

So it feels unnatural against the natural order.

Well,

That's an interesting point being made,

Angela,

That we choose.

Because in one way,

We can say,

Yes,

It looks like we choose.

But here's what I invite you to explore.

Am I really choosing,

Or am I telling a story that I'm choosing?

You can also look at it in the way of conditioning.

Look at your conditioning.

Is that conditioning your conditioning?

Did you do that conditioning?

Or was it made up by the environment,

Which is also to say made up by the whole?

If your choices are a product of your conditioning,

And your conditioning was conditioned by the whole of life,

Then it makes sense that your choices are the choices of life.

Not you as a separate something.

And even further than this,

Comically,

We say,

I chose.

But who is this I that chose?

Because what we're saying is,

Who I think I am as this separate something made X choice.

But this separate something that you are,

This idea of you,

Doesn't exist in reality.

And so,

It's an imaginary character taking credit for what it thinks is a choice.

This person that we think we are can't actually choose.

Because the person that we think we are is a product of our imagination.

It can tell a story of choosing.

And it can believe that story.

Like I can say,

Okay,

Me,

This character,

Tiger,

Chose to do this video today.

Now,

If I step back and look at the whole thing,

It's more accurate to say,

This shit just happened.

It was the unfolding of all that is that I do this video.

And furthermore,

The character of Tiger,

What is that other than an idea?

Can an idea make a choice in reality?

No.

But can we tell a story about it?

Yeah.

And just like with the example of the volcano,

You can say,

Sure,

The volcano didn't make a choice.

But can you project a choice onto the volcano?

Can you tell a story that says the volcano chose to do that and then blame the volcano?

Yeah.

When lightning strikes the tree,

Can you project a story of guilt that says lightning chose to do that?

I mean,

It could have struck a different tree.

Couldn't it?

That seems reasonable.

Why did it have to strike my tree?

It chose to do that.

Now,

Did lightning choose that or did life choose that?

Did the whole choose that?

Just like when somebody else makes a perceived action,

Did they really do that action,

Or was it an expression of the whole?

In the same way that I can project responsibility onto another person who I think is separate from the whole,

I can do the same to myself.

And again,

Even when you project an action from somebody else,

Or when you project responsibility of an action onto somebody else,

You're projecting it onto your idea of that person.

So you're essentially creating a character for them as a separate something.

And you're saying my character of them did something in life.

No,

Your character of them didn't do anything.

Your character of them doesn't exist in reality.

And so when you say they,

Or even when you say tiger's talking right now,

Your idea of tiger is not talking right now.

And so it speaks to how much noise there is in the mind that's telling infinite stories about what it thinks is happening.

But yet to examine those stories,

What you'll find out is everything that you think is happening isn't happening.

Again,

It's fine.

It's part of the experience,

And it helps us communicate with each other.

It helps us play together.

But there's a deeper happening that is the happening of the whole thing.

Like in my experience,

The invitation is for me to get out of the way and let life do life.

Because that which creates an agitation in my experience and makes the human thing difficult is the assumption that I'm doing it,

Right?

This character of me is doing it.

But when I get out of the way and I see that this is all just happening,

Then there's less resistance and there's more flow.

Very similar,

When I do these videos or when I do my work or when I write,

It's so obvious that it's not me that's doing it.

There's something moving through me,

And it's certainly not the character of tiger doing it.

Now,

The more I think it's me,

This character,

Then the more I get in the way and the more difficult it is.

There's just a whole host of issues that arise.

Everything from wanting to take credit for it,

From being concerned about what people think,

All of these things are just in the way.

But when I get out of the way,

It just flows.

And my whole business slash spiritual practice of my work is a lesson in getting out of the way.

And so,

The way that I show up in service doing my work teaches me how to just live in life,

Which is show up and get out of the way.

Let it flow.

But again,

When the ego gets involved,

It creates this filter that only results in an agitation that doesn't want it to flow.

It's like it's trying to constantly direct traffic.

That would be like me sitting here wondering what the hundreds of people are thinking about what I'm saying.

Do they like me?

Do they understand me?

Yada,

Yada,

Yada.

You see how that just creates an agitation that doesn't just allow for things to flow.

And I see that I'm not necessarily choosing the words.

I can see that there's a play of choosing the words,

Where it looks like I'm choosing the words,

Where it looks like I'm thinking about what to say.

But that's just the play of it.

It's like the more serious I take that,

The more I believe in it,

The more agitated it becomes.

But really,

Beyond all of that noise,

It's just this divine play of it all just happening.

V asks,

How does seeing only the beauty reconcile with all the ugliness of war,

Hate and violence going on?

I find it hard to focus only on the beauty with all of that going on because it is part of us.

That's great V,

Thank you.

Oh my goodness.

In some way,

This is like saying,

How do I reconcile all the separation that I see?

How can I just focus on the wholeness when there's so much separation?

How can I focus on the beauty when there's so much ugliness?

And I'm making assumptions about what I assume you're saying.

Let me just ramble a little bit about this from my experience.

You know,

Something that I've recognized time and time again is that what I perceive to be ugly is only my perception of ugly.

Just because I perceive something as ugly doesn't mean that's what it is.

As I'm looking out the window here of my front door and there's a tree with crooked branches,

I can perceive that tree as ugly because it's got crooked branches,

But that doesn't mean it's ugly.

Now,

If I perceive it as ugly,

Then I feel ugly.

Right?

Do you see that?

I feel the perception that I give,

But that doesn't mean it is the perception that I give.

And so,

As I look out into the world and I perceive ugly,

Does that mean it's really ugly?

Or is that just how I'm seeing it?

And there's an interesting thing that happens when you can perceive without the projection of ugly or beautiful.

If you can perceive without turning it into something.

Oh my goodness,

This actually goes so deep.

And maybe we'll fast forward here,

But look at it this way.

When you look at another human being without telling a story,

You are infinitely more inclined to see beauty than you are ugliness.

Because the perception of ugliness – I'm saying this loosely – but the perception of ugliness requires judgment.

And in the absence of judgment,

You're more inclined to end up at a beautiful result,

Even if that beauty is communicated as compassion.

And this is why the whole world becomes beautiful to me when I see it with no judgment,

Is that what arises is compassion.

And you see what happens when you feel compassion,

It's a beautiful feeling.

So,

I might see something that is unsightly,

Or might smell bad,

But to see it without judgment,

There's a compassion.

And that compassion feels infinitely more beautiful than does the ugliness that comes with judgment.

Because the question here is,

Okay,

These things that I see,

What is it really?

Because as I'm observing life and circumstance,

I'm seeing how I see it.

I'm seeing what I turn it into.

The confusion is to believe that the way that I see it is the way that it is,

Filtered through my filter,

My conditioning,

My judgments.

But when I look past all that noise and see it without giving it a name,

I see that it's part of everything.

I see that it's not its own thing.

It's not separate.

And so,

When I'm looking at the tree,

I'm looking at life.

When I'm looking at the flowers,

I'm also looking at the stars.

It all goes together,

Which is also to say,

I'm looking at myself.

That one goes deep too.

And so,

This,

Again,

And I have to repeat myself here,

This is not an expectation about how one should see.

We're not hearing these things and saying,

Oh,

Okay,

Well,

I should see things as beautiful.

No,

No,

No,

No,

No.

We're just taking a step back and asking what's really true.

Because as you see more of what's really true,

The natural byproduct is to see less judgment.

When you see more of what's true,

The natural byproduct is to see less fear.

And where there is less fear,

There's more love.

We're not trying to see with more love.

We're just seeing more of what's true,

And love is the natural byproduct.

So,

We're not trying to look out at life and see things as beautiful.

We're questioning our assumptions.

We're questioning what we think is true and realizing that,

Oh,

Maybe it's not really true.

And in your example,

V,

Of war,

Hate,

And violence,

Do you see how in a way it's like,

What about the 10,

000 things?

And those 10,

000 things are unending.

It's like,

You're not going to be able to go through all those 10,

000 things and find the beauty in them all.

The invitation is to step back and see the whole thing,

Because those 10,

000 things aren't really 10,

000 things.

So,

It's a bit of a trap to think that we have to work out each of these 10,

000 ugly things,

Where we are essentially saying,

Okay,

But what about this,

And what about this,

And what about this,

And what about this?

There's 10,

000 of those,

But what about?

And we can investigate some of those,

Like we did with violence,

And see how that applies to everything.

You simply see it where you can see it.

And not everyone is able to see it right now to the degree that other people are able to see it.

You see it where you can see it.

It's kind of like you trust the process.

All right,

Lovelies,

My hour is up.

Reviews

Whoa ~ I'll be back. I am going to listen to this again.