Welcome,
Welcome,
Welcome.
Welcome to this additional episode.
On the theme of The Great Surrender and.
.
.
Getting out of your own way.
And that is through the examination of humility and arrogance.
And this is a favorite topic of mine,
Even though as I say that.
I recognize I say that all the time.
Let me put it this way,
Whatever I'm talking about in that moment is my favorite topic.
That's why I'm talking about it.
In today.
The topic of humility and arrogance.
I think it points towards.
What we might call the mechanics of spiritual virtue.
And how they are not something that you do or make happen.
But rather they are something that flows effortlessly.
The more you see.
The truth of what is.
Which is really beautiful because.
.
.
We might have a perspective that thinks we must.
Align with such virtues.
Whether It's a question of how do I be more loving?
How do I be more compassionate?
How do I be more patient?
How do I be more humble?
And my conclusion is that these are not things that you do.
These are things that happen naturally.
As you see and align yourself with what is simply true.
And so therefore,
To be with a humble heart.
Or to move with humility.
Is simply a natural expression.
Of surrendering to the truth of life,
The truth of experience.
Likewise,
The experience of Arrogance.
Is to move in opposition to that truth.
We can look at the expression of humility.
And in one way,
We can see that it is.
The absence of pretending to know.
And just being honest about what is known or not known.
It's the absence of pretending.
It's the absence.
Of a facade.
It is what's real.
Do you see where I'm going here?
Like to be humble,
Is simply to acknowledge the truth of things.
I don't really know.
I can't take credit.
Like,
For example,
For me to be humble about the work I do.
Is simply to acknowledge the truth of things.
Which is,
I cannot take credit.
For this work that I do and the things that come out of my mouth.
Or the depth of clarity or nonsense,
Depending on your perspective.
Of the things I talk about.
It is given to me.
It is something that moves through me.
I cannot honestly say.
That this character of me called Tiger is making it happen.
Much like the artist.
When the artist Paids.
There's a creativity that moves through the artist.
And so the more honest the artist is.
They see that they can't actually take credit for it.
Furthermore,
You can't even take credit for your breath.
That is something that's given.
It's moved beyond any of your personal will.
It's just happening.
And if you can't take credit for the breath that allows you to be,
How then can you take credit for anything that comes after that?
Likewise,
To be arrogant.
Is the opposite.
To take credit for everything.
Edits to position one's idea of self.
As the creator of that which is.
In a way of being arrogant about my work.
It's like saying that.
I know.
And it's because of my own doing that I know,
Which is actually quite funny as it relates to the expression of my spirituality in the world.
That which I seem to do that is spiritual in nature.
Isn't because I pressed the right spiritual buttons.
Did the right spiritual practice.
It's just simply what happened.
It is the natural expression.
Of what moves through me?
The more I get out of the way,
Actually.
I cannot take credit for it.
I did not do it.
I did not make it happen.
I got out of the way.
And it could be easy to assume or to project.
A subtle arrogance.
Which somehow says,
Tiger did something right.
Tiger made this happen.
He's special.
He created it.
Do you see that sort of projection?
And you can see that that projection comes from.
And I have to say this gently with words.
I don't really know how to say it.
It comes from.
A inner arrogance.
Projects it's possible for that which is separate from life.
To have dominance over life.
Does that make sense?
That's an interesting way to look at it.
And as we project that onto others,
We often secretly desire it for ourselves.
Like,
Case in point,
And I get this all the time in the work that I do,
Like just projections,
Right?
Put it this way.
People can assume.
That I as a separate someone.
Have so much control.
Over my life.
And they want that.
They say,
I want the experience Tiger has.
As if he has something I don't,
This thing called control.
But yet from my perspective.
Is the complete opposite.
I don't feel like I have control at all.
Which is kind of like a humble perspective.
And maybe you can see in your own life where there's this illusion of control.
Or sometimes it looks like you have control.
But it's an illusion?
But more deeply and more honestly.
You see how,
If you have control now,
But you don't have control in five minutes from now.
Then you don't really have control.
You have what looks like a moment of control.
And what looks like is the illusion of it.
It looks like control.
And this can create all sorts of illusions for our lives,
Which where it looks like,
Oh man,
I had control yesterday.
Why don't I have control today?
Something's wrong with me.
No,
You had the illusion of control.
And now it doesn't look that way right now.
And because you believed in the illusion.
You think you lost control,
But you never really had it.
I think that really illustrates comparison between humility and arrogance.
Or we believe the illusions about ourselves.
That we as a separate something are doing something independent from the whole.
Do you notice that this is true about everything in life?
Imagine if the tree said I did the thing called being a tree.
I'm taking credit for it.
Or the tree says,
These apples that are created falling from my branches,
I did that.
I am the Special Apple Maker.
And yet it takes a whole universe to create an apple.
Really there's the.
.
.
Humble tree that is a servant to life.
That holds space for life to do what it needs to do through the expression of a tree.
And produce apples.
Sometimes those apples are ripe and juicy.
Sometimes they're rotten,
Disgusting,
And full of worms.
Is it the tree's fault?
Did the tree do that?
Or was that an expression of the whole?
You know what this also leads into?
My goodness.
Is humility in how we see others.
How often do we look at others like we might look at the tree?
And then blame the tree for its apples.
As if the tree itself is separate from the whole.
Not realizing that the tree's apples are an expression of the whole.
Its information.
That points towards what's going on collectively.
In the environment.
If the environment is nurtured.
And well taken care of.
The likelihood of healthy apples dramatically increases.
If the environment is rejected and not taken care of.
Not treated well.
The likelihood of rotten apples dramatically increases.
Is it the tree's fault though?
And you see how we can do this with other people,
How we.
Perceive them with arrogance.
Project a sense of knowing something that we don't really know.
Which is the nature of a judgment.
And as it relates to the theme of getting out of your own way,
My goodness.
That's a good one.
Do we see how obvious that is in our human lives?
Our propensity to judge others.
And to cling to.
False ideas of knowing?
Which in a way secretly help us cling.
To our false knowing about ourselves?
Which is really an attempt to survive our separate sense of self-importance.
Which,
Again,
As I've spoken about a lot in this series.
Creates an agitation as we live life because we're terrified that we're wrong.
We're secretly pretending to know,
But deep down there's uncertainty,
Which is the truth.
And we don't want to acknowledge that truth.
We don't want to be humble.
Because what is it to be humble?
Well,
It's the same thing to be honest.
When you're honest,
You lose control.
When you're honest.
It opens you up to the mystery of what comes next.
Same with being humble.
Humble is to give life back to life.
What's best for the future.
I don't really know.
But if you proclaim that you know.
Do you really know?
Or does it just give you some sort of sense of security?
That says,
OK,
I don't have to face the unknown.
I'm OK.
And how often is that certainty that we seem to have.
Met with thee.
Stark reality of uncertainty.
That we don't really know.
How much as we travel through life.
Are we invited to face reality?
May be the truth of our humility.
The truth of how much we don't know.
The truth of how much we're pretending to know.
Which is how much we're hiding.
From what actually is.
This pertains so much to getting out of your own way.
And aligning yourself with what's actually real and true.
Which is the same as the freedom to live an honest life.
Do you see the contrast here?
Again,
The contrast between.
.
.
Humility and arrogance.
Is the same contrast between living an honest life and living a dishonest life.
And you can see the consequences of both.
If you.
.
.
Live a dishonest life where you're just constantly lying.
Life becomes terribly chaotic on the inside.
Hard to manage.
Hard to remember.
But when you're living in accordance to what is simply true.
There's nothing to really manage.
There's no lie to juggle.
It's a very different life.
And of course,
The difficulty in moving with that humility.
Is so closely tied to.
Being at peace with the unknown.
Being at peace with not knowing.
Which again is being at peace with the truth of life.
And I can be at peace with a truth that says,
It seems like this is true.
But I don't really know.
From my perspective.
This is what it looks like.
But I also know there's 10,
000 other perspectives.
So I don't really know.
There's a great surrender in this work that I do.
Which is from the deepest sincerity of my heart.
I see something.
That is so incredibly harmonious.
In that which is.
Life,
God,
Whatever.
And I can't escape it from my direct experience.
Which is,
It looks incredibly true,
And I can't escape it.
And I look a lot.
Is there a way out of this?
But then there's something else that I know.
Which is the words that I use can never actually touch it.
It's impossible to communicate with language.
Therefore,
Anything I say about it,
It's not that.
Therefore,
Anything I say I know isn't true.
In the realm of my words can actually touch the truth of reality.
Therefore,
No matter what words I use.
I'm never right.
The truth doesn't exist in that realm of experience of language.
Therefore,
Using these words isn't serious.
Therefore,
Using these words,
There isn't a fear of getting it wrong.
Using these words is an expression of poetry.
I don't know if you can see the correlation here.
But it's the same with living life.
It's an expression of art.
It is its own language.
And beyond all of that language.
There is no fundamental right or wrong about it.
There is simply what is.
And what is whatever it is.
Is perfectly placed as feedback.
That points to a deeper awareness about what's really true.
For example,
As the illustration I've used recently and many other times.
If you touch fire with your bare skin and get burned.
That is information.
It's feedback.
That invites you to live without putting bare skin on fire to avoid being burned.
It doesn't say anything about you being.
Fundamentally wrong.
It's just information.
But as human beings,
Which also comes from a place of arrogance.
We.
.
.
Proclaim this wrongness and this rightness.
Especially as it relates to our fundamental worth and value.
Which is then projected onto other people.
Rather than a recognition that sees that we're all just learning.
And we are all.
Gathering feedback for the collective.
We're learning together.
Some people are learning this,
Other people are learning that.
And to project some sort of guilt and condemnation.
My goodness,
Is to proclaim that I know something that I simply do not know.
It's just the truth.
The pointer here isn't to stop judging because judging is wrong.
The invitation that invites you to stop judging.
Is to see the futility of judging.
That it's not in alignment with what's actually true.
You are free to judge.
In the same way that you are free to touch fire with your bare skin.
It's the same thing.
But when you touch fire with your bare skin.
You are opposing reality and injuring yourself.
As information.
And so when you cast hate onto another,
And feel that hate within yourself.
It's information.
Do you see the ultimate humility?
It doesn't have anything to judge here.
Because the judge proclaims you know something that you don't really know.
And so,
Not only is there an invitation to Be with humility as you walk through this life.
But there's also the invitation to be with humility in how you meet yourself.
Because is that not the primary dilemma?
In our human journey?
The relationship we have with ourselves,
Which can often be so judgmental.
Proclaiming you know so many things that you don't really know.
But yes,
Sure,
You can acknowledge this is what it looks like.
Okay,
From where you're standing right now,
Your limited perspective that doesn't see the full picture.
This is where your attention is focused.
Therefore,
This is what it looks like based on all of your assumptions about reality that sees 10,
000 separate things and doesn't see the heart of God holding it all.
It makes sense that it looks like something to judge.
But what's really true.
There's so much I don't see.
Do you see the acknowledgement?
Oh my God,
I almost feel like I want to cry just about to say this.
The acknowledgement of this truth of this humility.
Is such a doorway.
That invites the heart of life.
Into your humanity.
It's getting out of the way.
And understanding.
That there is a glorious intelligence.
That holds this whole thing together.
And your mind struggles to see it.
It's too much for the mind to see.
Which of course is why the spiritual practice in some way is to come back to the present moment.
To be still and know.
To drop all the stories of separation.
To drop all the pretending.
And to truly be what is.
And stop hiding from it.
Stop pushing it away.
Stop pushing away life.
The truth of what is.
And see that it's all allowed.
And you know?
Understand that you live in an upside down world.
That looks down upon humility.
And puts arrogance up on a platform.
Celebrating those who take credit.
Rather than giving credit to God.
Because it reinforces our fantasy that one day,
Too,
We will be God.
Do you see how silly it is to put people on pedestals?
As if they're the one who did it.
And I have to speak in this way.
Using the word God.
Because it's such an ancient pointer.
And I understand we might have all sorts of different conditioning with that word,
And I hope that you see that I'm not speaking to that sort of conditioning of it.
The word points to a very real.
Coherence.
And all that is,
That is awake,
That is alive,
That is loving in nature.
That is the doer of all that is done.
It is this God that makes the tree possible.
It is this God that is the lightning that strikes the tree.
God is the tree and the lightning.
We have all of these.
Amazing.
Wild dreams in our mind about a world that is void of God.
That there can be something that happens.
Outside of the hands of God.
Which is us proclaiming we are God,
We know what happens.
We know who's to blame.
Therefore we will withhold love.
We will condemn.
Yet we are the ones who carry that condemnation around with us.
Because,
Of course,
You can only condemn others because you believe in condemnation.
Which means in some way you believe.
You are condemned.
Same with guilt.
We can only see others as guilty because we secretly see ourselves as guilty.
We believe in guilt.
Guilt exists through a lens of separation.
If it's all one,
Guilt is irrelevant.
And again,
I understand,
The world is playing its game.
You have 8,
000 people who think they're separate from each other.
And in that assumption,
We get these things called blame.
Yada yada yada And the world can operate that way.
It's fine.
There is not the agenda or even the hope that one day the whole world gets this.
It's not the point.
It's for the one who's willing to see,
And the one who's willing to see,
For them the world is transformed.
You don't need other people to understand this.
It's for you.
The one who has ears to hear.
Thanks for hanging out with me.
