23:58

52 - Melting Problems

by William Cooper, M.Th., Licensed Professional Counselor

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Often we are haunted by old emotions and thoughts. We can't seem to release them. We explore this phenomena of being stuck with our "past". And then we explore some simple steps to dissolve our troubles. We are multidimensional Beings and each dimension requires and responds to a different kind of tool. In this podcast we explore one of these deep and powerful tools. This is not psychotherapy or a substitute for it.

Mental HealthHealingConsciousnessEmotionsThoughtsBody Mind SpiritTensionResponsibilityPainSelf DeconstructionHealing Through AwarenessConsciousness AwarenessSpiritual GrowthPsychological ThoughtsBody Mind Spirit ConnectionPhysical TensionPersonal ResponsibilityEmotions Structure AnalysisSpirits

Transcript

Hello,

This is William Cooper.

Welcome to Awakening Together,

Relaxing into Happiness.

How are you doing today?

I trust well.

Today let's talk about how we can deal with problems,

How we can deconstruct problems.

I'd like to start with an example.

Let's say we have a kitchen table,

And it's got plenty of sugar,

Little grains of sugar all over the table,

And we can sweep them into a little pile,

And we happen to have a mold,

A cube.

We're going to make a sugar cube.

So we take all these grains of sugar,

And we put them in this little cube mold.

Maybe put some water in there,

Just a drop or two,

And let it set.

After it's set for a while,

We can peel the mold off,

And we have a sugar cube.

We've put all these grains together,

And now we've created a structure,

A cube,

A sugar cube.

Now that we have this sugar cube,

Imagine it's in front of you,

And I'd like you to imagine a couple things.

If you take this cube,

And you really don't want it in your sight,

Let's say in this example,

We find out that this particular sugar cube has some sort of noxious quality,

Something that would make you ill or feel uncomfortable.

So you don't want it in front of you.

If you put it way over to your side,

And you then don't see it,

And it's out of your horizon,

Is it still there?

Does it still exist?

Yes.

You can think of other things.

Perhaps you even forget about that sugar cube,

Because it's not in your line of sight.

But it's still in your sphere,

And it still affects you.

It still can make you ill or cause trouble.

It's only that you don't see it,

And it's not creating conflict,

Because it's not in front of you.

Yet it's still there,

To the side.

Let's do another example.

The sugar cube is in front of you.

It still has its noxious properties.

So you take a t-shirt,

And you put it on top of it,

And now you don't see that sugar cube.

You don't see it.

So you go about your business,

You think about other things,

It's out of your consciousness,

You don't see it,

You forget about it,

But it still has the ill health effects.

It still affects you,

And you get sick.

You just don't see it.

But it's still there,

Right?

It's just underneath the t-shirt.

We all know where it is.

It's right there.

Okay.

Let's take a third example.

Let's take that sugar cube,

And there's a giant lake right next to your house,

And you drop the sugar cube in the lake.

Now what happens?

It completely dissolves and disappears,

And is absorbed and spread out over that entire lake.

It no longer exists as a cube.

The structure of a cube is gone,

And therefore it no longer has its cube-like noxious effects on you.

It's gone.

Problem solved with the third example.

Well,

Let's look at consciousness.

Beingness is consciousness.

Your being is awareness.

Everything is made of this awareness.

And what are the equalities of awareness?

Well,

Think about when you don't have structures that you've created,

When you don't have emotions and thoughts all running through your mind and tensions.

For instance,

You're in a very relaxing setting,

Maybe watching a sunset or lying on a hammock or walking on the beach.

You don't have thoughts in that moment,

Let's say.

So nothing clouding you.

What do you feel?

Peace.

Happiness.

Well-being.

Love.

These are the qualities of consciousness.

Joy.

Bliss.

This is consciousness.

And like the sugar on the kitchen table,

We can take consciousness and we can shape it into a structure.

That's what the mind does.

When we hallucinate thoughts,

Some thoughts are helpful tools,

Like how to add or how to start a car or how to build a house or how to bake a cake.

These are helpful thoughts.

But 95,

98 percent of our thoughts are psychological thoughts.

We hallucinate in a direction trying to work things out because we feel separated from ourselves.

We feel hurt,

Fear and anger.

And we've talked about that plenty in some of the other podcasts.

If you're just listening to this podcast for the first time and you haven't listened to any of the others,

I invite you.

If some of this sounds strange,

Go back to the earlier podcasts and work your way forward.

I think we've covered it all fairly thoroughly in the past.

But when we take consciousness and we run it through our mind,

We can hallucinate structures.

Those are called thoughts.

Again,

Some constructive and some not so constructive.

We can also hallucinate emotions.

Emotions are other structures and they carry a feeling with them to make them feel more real.

They feel more real and they go great with thoughts because they fill out a thought.

If you have thoughts and emotions and you put them together,

You really believe it.

You really get into it.

It's like watching a 3D movie or something.

It seems so real.

Virtual reality.

It's not.

It's just a structure we've created by shaping consciousness into that shape.

Just like we put the sugar into the sugar cube mold and made it in the shape of a cube.

We can do that with tension too.

We can form consciousness into thoughts and emotions and then direct it towards our body and create tension.

So we can make that structure too.

Let's say we've made one of these structures.

We've got great fear or anxiety or anger or something.

So with this structure,

It's hurting us.

It's noxious.

It's hurting our health.

I mean,

Let's say great stress or anger or fear.

It's hurting our health.

We're having health issues.

We can't sleep at night.

We're getting obsessive.

It's destroying our relationships.

It's hurting our life.

The structure that we have ourselves created.

So what could we do with it?

Well,

We could put it to the side and not think about it just like we did with the sugar cube.

Just put it over to the side and it's not in our line of sight.

It's still there,

But it's over to the side.

Would it still exist?

Yes.

Sometimes I've observed in India with some of these gurus,

Very powerful,

Very accomplished,

But sometimes because they don't understand the Western mind and psychology,

They don't even always understand their psychology.

They understand spirituality way deeper than we're used to in our culture.

But the psychological mind,

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't understand it so well.

So they put it to the side.

It's an illusion,

Nothing to get involved with.

Drop your baggage,

Put it to the side.

Don't think about it.

Focus on who you truly are,

Your being.

It's out of sight.

And indeed,

It is over to the side.

And because it's not blocking our direct line of vision and it is to the side,

Tremendous energy can flow.

But at some point it still exists and it's still affecting us,

Just like the sugar cube is still existing to the side.

And if something,

It's been working on us,

Working on us,

Working on us,

And then a dog looks at us funny and we explode because it's been going and working on us under the surface.

Does that sound familiar?

Well,

I've seen gurus explode.

You've heard even in the West,

Suddenly crazy things can happen.

It's rare,

But not that rare.

I mean,

It's happened a lot.

It's an area that has not been explored that much because we're just getting used to what spirituality is in the first place.

Sometimes positive thinking is like this too,

Isn't it?

Stinking thinking.

Keep it over to the side.

Let's focus on,

See at the top what the mind of man can conceive,

The mind of man can achieve.

A lot of our modern manifestation is that way.

Just put it out.

Don't think about it.

Let's do your affirmation.

It's sure,

It's over to the side,

But do your affirmation.

Yes,

This is powerful to do it that way,

Just like the guru in India is powerful,

But that thing to the side,

That structure is still there like a time bomb ticking and ticking and ticking and working on you.

Second example,

Sugar cube in front of us.

This case,

It's our thought structure,

Our emotional structure is now back in front of us.

We put a t-shirt over it.

In psychological terms,

That's called repressing it.

We push it under.

We just push it under the surface so we can't see it.

Is it still there?

Yes,

It's still there.

It's ticking and ticking and ticking and working on us.

We've repressed it.

Something rips the t-shirt off and bam,

It's right in front of our eyes and our consciousness and devastating.

Why do we do this?

Because we don't want to feel it.

We don't.

These structures that we're talking about are troublesome and we don't want anything to do with them so we either put them to the side or stick them under a t-shirt.

We repress them.

Because the third example is we could take that sugar cube or that emotional thought structure that is maybe killing us.

We could take that and drop it into the lake.

What is the lake for consciousness?

It's consciousness.

It's being.

That is the lake.

Here's the funny thing.

Consciousness is the sugar also.

It's what consciousness is what our mind shapes into the cube.

The cube is made of consciousness.

All objects in reality are made ultimately of consciousness.

Electrons are made of consciousness.

Protons made of consciousness.

Molecules made of consciousness.

They're made of peace,

Relaxation and well-being.

That's what all of creation is.

It's made of love.

So we've shaped consciousness into love,

Or excuse me,

Consciousness is love,

But we've shaped it into a harmful structure in this example.

We want to dissolve it and we drop it into the lake.

The lake in this case is consciousness itself.

Remember in other podcasts we've talked and explored so much about this thought that awareness is curative.

Why is awareness curative?

Because when you shine awareness on any structure,

Any thought structure or emotional structure that's causing you harm,

Any tension that's causing you harm,

That structure will melt just like the sugar cube melts into the lake.

The lake is the awareness so as you put your awareness on any object that you've created it begins to melt.

The sugar cube melts,

The thought form melts into infinite consciousness.

It melts away.

It melts back into its basic form which is consciousness.

It's unshaped consciousness.

When we've shaped it into a harmful structure,

Harmful psychological structure that we're hurting ourselves and possibly others with,

It's still consciousness but we've shaped it into a harmful structure.

Now,

In the light of awareness,

It falls back into its basic structure,

Unformed consciousness,

Which is love,

Peace and well-being.

Ahhh,

It's that simple.

But why don't we do that?

Well,

Let's get back to what I just mentioned a little bit earlier.

Because to take it out from underneath the t-shirt or to bring it into our line of consciousness,

Into our line of sight and put awareness on it,

It means we have to see it,

We have to feel it.

And we don't want to because we don't like pain.

Because this thing that's falling apart is held together with pain.

That's what shaped it into the cube,

Into the structure.

I've often said that a good analogy,

At least in my mind,

Is water.

You can put water in a ice cube tray or a form and you can freeze it and theoretically you could freeze it into the shape of a knife that you could stab people with.

But you leave it on the table in the sunlight and it melts back into life-giving water.

Consciousness is like that water.

It's life-giving peace,

Love,

Well-being,

Happiness,

Everything we cherish.

That's what everything is made of.

Even our most negative thoughts and actions are made of that.

And they will fall back and revert back to their basic qualities under the light of awareness.

But as the ice cube melts or as the structures melt,

The thoughts and the emotions,

They release what's holding them together.

And what's holding them together is pain.

That's why we shaped it.

That's why it's in the shape of whatever shape it's in because of the pain.

And the reason we've hit it to the side or under the t-shirt is we don't want anything to do with it.

So to just let it sit out in front of us and melt,

We have to feel it.

And we don't want to do that.

So,

Well,

It's a catch-22.

Guess what?

If you want to be a master,

If you want to be happy,

If you want to have a good relationship and not be burdened with all of these troubling structures,

You have to take responsibility.

We all do.

And what do I mean by that?

If we shaped it into pain in the first place,

We have to be responsible enough to unshape it.

We have to sit with it.

It won't kill you.

We just like to do other stuff.

And sometimes it is painful,

But it won't kill you.

You don't go up in a ball of flames.

You survive it.

But if it's still too much,

It's just too hard on your nervous system.

Well,

Baby steps.

Take it easy.

This reminds me of a story I'll tell you about.

I was in India and maybe I told you this story already in another podcast,

But it's funny to me.

So I was in India and I was working with a particular teacher.

This guy was from Germany.

Very powerful,

Very deep and clairvoyant and insightful and all sorts of things.

He had a big crowd that followed him around and was famous in his own right,

In his own sphere.

And I went to one of his workshops all week and it was wonderful.

It was it was difficult.

All these workshops are difficult because you really get down to the bottom to the brass tacks.

But a German guy came up to him and said to him,

You know,

I asked the same question that he did.

And he pointed to me,

But you gave me quite a different answer.

You were very tough with me.

And with him,

You just you kind of just told him it was OK.

Referring to me.

Told me that basically it was OK.

So why?

Why did you give us two different answers?

And he was upset.

And the guru or the teacher said to him,

He said,

Well,

His nervous system,

Referring to me,

Isn't so strong.

It's not.

It's not very strong.

He says,

Your nervous system is much stronger so I can talk to you in a deeper way.

And it was true because I didn't like I and I had been working on all this pain for decades,

But it's hard.

And so I talked to the teacher later,

Of course,

And he said,

Yeah,

That's the way it is with you.

I said,

Well,

How can I get stronger?

He said to sit with it as long as you can and then take a break and then sit with it again.

Let it come up.

Don't hide it under that shirt.

Don't push it to the side.

Be with it.

And it will begin to dissolve.

But more importantly,

Your nervous system will get strong and then you can dissolve lots of things as they come up.

OK,

Another story.

So I was up in Andhra Pradesh.

It's up in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

It's one of the states,

One of the many states.

I often go to Tamil Nadu where Taravanamalai is.

But I went to see my guru up in Andhra Pradesh and one of the monks and there are hundreds of very enlightened monks there.

One of them,

Radhakrishna,

Was outside and I was talking to him.

And all of them are radiant and so powerful.

And I said to Radhakrishna,

Oh,

It's hard.

I'm working on my stuff.

I'm letting it come up.

It's very hard.

How do you work on it?

He says,

Well,

What happens or what happened to him is he has become so bright and radiant when it comes up now,

It just burns off.

It just kind of vaporizes.

It just zaps and it's gone.

Because when these structures come up,

Let's say like they're like sugar cubes and two things happen.

They're my awareness.

But then from the structure's point of view,

From the thought and emotional point of view,

When it breathes in my consciousness,

When it breathes in peace,

Relaxation and well-being,

When it soaks it up like a dry sponge.

It melts.

So you need two things.

You need to keep it in awareness and then it needs to soak it up from its vantage point.

Just soak it up like a dry sponge.

And when it does,

It falls apart.

Now,

As you get more powerful and more radiant like Radhakrishna,

It pops up and it's in such a powerful energy field that zap.

It just soaks it up and it vaporizes.

So light begets light.

As you vaporize more of these things,

More light shines through your formerly crusted up self.

And because more of your natural light is just shining more radiantly,

What's left zaps off very fast.

It just soaks it up and zap.

So I would recommend,

This is hard for all of us,

But start with baby steps.

Just do what you can do.

Don't brutalize yourself because then you'll shut down and you'll never want to do it.

And it'll just cause more tension than what you're burning off.

So don't do it that way.

Just listen to yourself and do what you can.

What's the end point?

The end point is we just radiate.

That's what we do.

We don't work at it.

It is what we are.

We are light.

That's the end point.

We just radiate our own natural light through our life and through the world.

And thoughts or emotion structures just burn off and we don't need them.

When we want to make a thought,

We do it consciously.

It's like a computer.

We turn it on.

We make a tool.

That's what a thought is or an emotion.

But we don't sit and incessantly hallucinate in order to distract ourselves.

Hallucinate thoughts and get lost in our daydreams,

Which are thoughts,

And lost and ruminate over our emotions.

We burn all that stuff off and instead we live and move much more through our intuitive self very easily.

Maybe we'll talk about this in a later podcast,

More about our radiant self from that perspective.

But in this one,

We've talked about how to dissolve our problems,

Our structures that we've created.

And I hope that helps.

Well,

I wish you a good week and I look forward to talking to you again very soon.

Meet your Teacher

William Cooper, M.Th., Licensed Professional CounselorTallahassee, FL, USA

4.8 (51)

Recent Reviews

Lucy

July 3, 2025

Loved this. I’ve found the awareness talks so so helpful. Incredibly insightful and this has been slowly helping me to heal broken relationships and broken ideas that were probably not as broken as I thought. Thank you so much πŸ™

Nina

February 8, 2025

I picture my sugar cube dissolving into vat of Persian tea. I'd love to build my nervous system to melt more efficiently. I had something come up during your talk and I'm excited to sit with in. I will practice noticing thoughts/emotions, delusions/illusions, and let them go...to sweeten life's tea πŸ’›

Alice

December 22, 2024

you’ve talked about this a few times but i like having a talk where this topic is focused on and then i can return to it when i need that refresher to simply sit with whatever is coming up- thanks πŸŒ™πŸ¦„πŸ’•πŸŒ™πŸ¦„πŸ’•πŸŒ™πŸ¦„πŸ’•πŸŒ™

Alexandria

September 20, 2024

Perfect talk for what was coming up for me. I have some feelings of resentment and I think I am to replace those feelings with love, compassion, generosity and so on. But rather, when I lean into the feeling and let that part of me express itself, it fades and disperses. Despite understanding and utilizing parts work for years, I didn’t really get the leaning in part until I listened to you and another teacher on this platform explain the leaning in and feeling the emotional content move through the body. Thank you so much for making all these podcasts and building one on the next and circling around again. You have accomplished an extraordinary thing here and I appreciate you very very much! ❀️❀️✨

Barbara

December 11, 2021

Love your sessions. Always triggers a lot of thought. This one left me wondering how radiating works with living a responsible life both physically and fiscally. Can one live an awakened life while at the same time struggling with physical or financial issues. πŸ€”

Jennifer

November 11, 2021

Thank you πŸ™ William. This was fantastic and very helpful. Terrific and deep insight into what is at the core of day to day healthy and spiritual living. Still, it’s hard - at least for me… thanks again for the direction. I look forward to the next. ~ Jennifer

Michelle

November 11, 2021

Thank you πŸ™

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Β© 2026 William Cooper, M.Th., Licensed Professional Counselor. All rights reserved. All copyright in this work remains with the original creator. No part of this material may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

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