I'd like to start this with a reflection.
What are you scared of?
Picture your fear.
The one that follows you in day-to-day life and in the worst times the one that leads you.
Sense how that diffuse feeling of resistance is pushing you.
How it moves you.
How you obey to it in the moments of despair as if you trusted your pain more than yourself.
Look at your fear in the eye.
What does it have to tell you?
What is the truth that lies behind it?
What is the belief that generates it?
Fear is optional.
It is one possible way of seeing one thing.
What really gets to us is the meaning that we attached to possible events.
The outcome that we imagine is usually a lot scarier than the actual outcome.
The thing is everything always finds its way.
Life always goes on.
When we think we reach the end of one path we are actually at the merging point of a thousand new possibilities.
There is always more to it.
More than we can imagine.
When our minds limit our comprehension of things all that is left is faith.
A bend in all your strong beliefs.
All your preconceptions.
And you won't see a world filled with fears but one filled with possibilities.
When you let go of it all here's what happens.
For one person that doesn't like you there will be thousands who loves you.
For one failure there will be a million victories.
In fact you won't see failure as failure because you know that nothing is ever lost.
And to quote the Dowdy Jane,
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself.
It takes some time to accept it but you don't have to accept it to make it true.
It is how things already are.
Often fears are like crutches that keep us from taking risks from making a move and we rely on them to maintain the illusion of a static position of things not changing.
Because we're scared of change but we are change whether we like it or not.
The Dowdy Jane part 4.
Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become supple as a newborn child?
Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
Giving birth and nourishing.
Having without possessing.
Acting with no expectations.
Leading and not trying to control.
This is a supreme virtue.
We join spokes together in a wheel but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
We work with being but non-being is what we use.
Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.
The master observes the world but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
Your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
You will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
What do we have to fear?
See the world as yourself.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as yourself.
Then you can care for all things.
Look and it can't be seen.
Listen and it can't be heard.
Reach and it can be grasped.
Above it isn't bright.
Below it isn't dark.
Seamless,
Unnameable,
It returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms.
Image without an image.
Subtle beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it,
But you can be it at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from.
This is the essence of wisdom.
Thank you for listening.
See you next time.
