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How Your Mind Creates Your World · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're discussing internal versus external reality. What is actually going on inside of us, and how do we respond to the physical world? How much of what we experience is just our own stuff, and how much of it are we actually experiencing? Life as it is? This is a really important thing because all the time we're interacting with the world, with other people, with the universe, and we have internal thoughts and perceptions and ideas and filters, and they are affecting how we feel, what we think is possible, how we respond to other people, how other people respond to us. And so if we don't understand what's going on, we can be trapped in a prison in our own mind and not even know that it's happening. So that's why we're talking about this today. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
• 0:57
  Speaker B: Hello, brother Michael. How are you?
• 1:01
  Speaker A: Fantastic. Fantastic. As far as I'm concerned, all is well in the world.
• 1:07
  Speaker B: All is well.
• 1:08
  Speaker A: How are you doing?
• 1:09
  Speaker B: All is well. I'm feeling the magic.
• 1:12
  Speaker A: The magic. Tell me about the magic.
• 1:16
  Speaker B: The magic I'm feeling today. Is that the wisdom that you ingest? Right? Like, we have a wisdom practice. A wisdom practice means every day we listen to the mural, and just by reflecting on it, just by churning it, that you transform. That was the deep secret I heard today is how do you go from where you are to transformation? And so first is knowledge. The first is receiving the right knowledge. Knowledge means, like your worldview about soul, supreme soul. You know, what's going on with time, all of that, right? And that is that things are eternal and not just temporary. Like, we get caught up in the world, that things are eternal. And when we stabilize, so that knowledge of eternity, right, that knowledge gets put into the soul, and the soul starts thinking about this knowledge, Just thinking about it, just reflecting on it, doing. Deeply churning. That's what we call it. Churning. Like you're churning butter. And so you're deeply churning it. And by doing that, we transform. So isn't that magic?
• 2:38
  Speaker A: It is magic. Transformation is any kind of transformation. To go from a confused, lost soul to someone who's in a higher state of consciousness is magic, right? Magic powers right there.
• 2:51
  Speaker B: You know, like if you have want a power. Let's say you want a power, pick a power you want. Tell me, what power would you like to experience right now?
• 3:02
  Speaker A: Clarity.
• 3:03
  Speaker B: Clarity. That's a really good power. So today, the magic is that we start first reflecting on ourselves as souls. Then we start reflecting on the supreme Soul, thinking about the awareness we bring into awareness. Who I am. Who am I? And who, who is my divine protector guide. And then you start thinking about clarity. What does clarity mean? And so all these three reflections can bring us clarity. That's the transformation from confusion to clarity.
• 3:49
  Speaker A: Yes, a meta level clarity.
• 3:54
  Speaker B: And you do like even in regular work, right? In regular things even. Yes, it's meta level clarity. But even in like mundane things, like what should I do right now? There's clarity in that too. You know, like we're getting a lot of work done here. And today something happened and the person, we paid them a lot of money, didn't do the job I thought they should have done for the money they got. And I was just going to go off on them, right? And then I thought, nope, let it go, right? But when to let it go and when not to let it go, that's the clarity we need. And I feel that even for things like that, we can, we can get clarity even though it's mundane, like flooring.
• 4:51
  Speaker A: Lots of mundane details in life we need clarity about. So we're talking about today internal versus external reality, right? So we're experiencing all the time things, aren't we? We wake up in the morning, we have perception and just to kind of clarify the actual situation that we're in, right? So we are spiritual beings. We're in a body and we're in the universe, this massive universe which is bigger than anything we can really. We can't travel to the edge of the universe because it's so big. So the universe is a real place. And the universe is sending signals. You know, there's like energy, it's being sent out. And so like for example, hot, hot weather or cold weather or light or dark. They're all signals right there, or energies. And so they're, they're being sent out from the universe like wind or rain or whatever. It's, it's there it is. And we are experiencing it through the five senses, right? Because like, for example, if someone is blind, even though the universe is there and there are colors or there are signals, they can't see anything. They're like, there are some people who used to be able to see and then they went blind. So they remember what it was like and now they can't. It says it's all dark, right? So does that mean the world disappeared? No, the world is still there, but they can't see the world because the senses of the eyes aren't working properly. Right? Same things. Like some people need glasses, some people don't need glasses, right? They're not seeing the same thing. Unless they put the glasses on, you know, so the universe is sending out energy. We are experiencing it through the senses. That's why they're called senses, because they're sensing information. And then it goes inside the soul, the mind. And in the mind there are filters and belief systems and ideas and all sorts of things going on in here which interpret that information. So that, that's basically what we're dealing with all day long. And that's why you can have two people standing next to each other looking at the same thing. And one, let's say someone looking at a sunset, one person goes, oh my God, it's so beautiful. It's just so amazing. The other person says, oh, I'm so bored of this nonsense. What, you know, I want to get out here. They just don't care. I mean, they don't see it as this miraculous, wonderful thing because internally that person's thinking about something else or they're not interested. And so this is going on all the time. And we think we're seeing reality as it is, but we're actually seeing an interpretation of it in our head. Like even when we see, for example, let's say somebody doesn't call us back, or, or let's say someone looks at us funny, they might have not done anything, but we might interpret it to mean something that it doesn't really mean and get upset about it or make a story about it. And so this is in essence what we are dealing with on a regular basis. So today we're going to be diving into how can we make sense of all this stuff so that instead of interpreting reality in a way that causes us pain, we actually find life to be amusing and entertaining.
• 8:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Speaker A: So how do we, how do we do that? Shireen, what's your thoughts about this? How, how have you experience changes in your perception over time, learning about these things?
• 8:38
  Speaker B: Me personally, I think, you know, when I asked myself the question, right, there was this time when I was super, super busy and I was not enjoying life, right? Not enjoying life at all. And one day I was going for a walk on the river. I used to live on the river and there was a river walk and I was going for a walk on the river and I was looking out, right, and there were these weird looking mushrooms and I was looking at those mushrooms and the thought occurred to me, so in this, it was not the best place to grow things, but these mushrooms were growing, they were like red and growing like a red, like I've never seen red mushrooms. But anyway, they were growing And I thought they're growing in very unusual circumstances. And the question I have to ask myself and, and I did ask myself, I asked myself the question, do I really want to be happy? Because if mushrooms can grow here, right, it was a really unusual too much water, too much, you know, not enough, whatever, right? It's not like a regular mushroom growing situation going on and they still manage to do it. And so I asked myself the question, do I really want to be happy? Like the mushroom asked the question, do I really want to grow? If I want to grow, then I'll grow wherever I need to grow, right? And so the question I had to ask myself, do I really want to be happy? And that's the question I keep asking myself, do I really want to be happy? Because if I want to be happy, then I will take everything that is in my environment and make it so that I can be happy. I can grow and thrive and be happy. Otherwise I will use every excuse not to. And I feel that is the reality is. Reality is where you can change it. You can change it based on your deep realizations of things. And if you think about it, reality and realization is very similar. So realization is nothing but we understand reality. And so when I, if I want to understand reality, if I want to change my internal reality, that's all. Do I really want to be happy? How about you, Michael?
• 11:31
  Speaker A: No, I want to be miserable.
• 11:34
  Speaker B: No, I don't mean that. I mean, what do you.
• 11:38
  Speaker A: It's. What do I think about reality?
• 11:42
  Speaker B: What do you think about reality?
• 11:45
  Speaker A: Well, it's. It's all just happening, right? Everything's so there's information being sent at me. I can interpret it however I want. And I think the key thing is, like, there's so much, so many filters, right? So things that come through and they're being filtered internally and we experience the filtered version of things, our subjective version of life. And I think the question is not like, do I want to be happy? Is a very profound question. And what we often do internally in the filter is say, do I want to be happy? Only if this, this and this works out the way I want. Do you know? I mean, like that that's normally what's happening. We're saying, do I want to be happy? Yes, but only if this is going well, this is going well, and this is going well, and this is going well. And if those things aren't happening the way I want them to, then I'm not let myself be happy. We have to have a, like a, a meta narrative, like A higher level awareness. Like for example, in. In our spiritual teachings, there's a. There's a phrase, there's benefit in everything. Right. That's like a belief system about the universe. So if I take that on seriously, then whatever happens, there's benefit. Right. So therefore I can be happy because there's benefit in that situation. But if I think I want it to be this, this and this and this and this and otherwise, I'm not going to let myself be happy, then chances of me being happy are fairly low. Because all sorts of things probably won't work out the way I want them to.
• 13:28
  Speaker B: No. You know, what I realized is. Sorry to interrupt. It's not only that if this and this and this happens, I'll be happy. What I've realized is if I don't answer that question. Right. Right. Even if this and this and this is happy, then I'll find something else. I'll find something else. I'll find something else.
• 13:51
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:51
  Speaker B: And so even if everything goes according, like let's say today you have 10 desires and you want 10 things to happen. And tomorrow you get those 10 things. In a month's time, you will learn how to be miserable.
• 14:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. It doesn't make any difference.
• 14:10
  Speaker B: Because it doesn't.
• 14:10
  Speaker A: If we can't be happy, we can't choose to be happy. Then we can't choose to be happy. It's quite simple really.
• 14:19
  Speaker B: Right.
• 14:20
  Speaker A: There's. There's an expression like you can either be happy and relaxed and peaceful, or you can be. Right. You can't have both. Because I think a lot of the time we. We can be so caught up in our opinion that how it should be, as far as we're. So that's our internal experience. It should be like this as far as I'm concerned. And if it isn't the way I want it, I'm not going to let myself be happy. And I'd much rather be right than happy.
• 14:48
  Speaker B: Right. Not only that, not only that, the choice we have to make is not only do I really want to be happy. Right now is the other question we have to ask. We have several questions we have to ask is if I'm not happy with what I have, what makes me think I will be happy with what I get?
• 15:16
  Speaker A: That's another question advertisements told you.
• 15:18
  Speaker B: Huh?
• 15:19
  Speaker A: For the ad said you'll be happy.
• 15:21
  Speaker B: Yeah. But what makes me think that? See, there's several questions I have to ask myself. The first question is, do I really want to be happy? The second question is, if I get whatever If I'm postponing my happiness in this moment, I'm postponing my happiness saying if I get this, this, this, I'll be happy then if I really get it. What makes me think I'll be happy if I'm not happy? Now there's several questions, but those two questions, what do you think? Because that day, right. I asked myself several questions and I really came back and said, no, I choose a different mindset. This is a mindset. I need to choose a different mindset because the choice is yours.
• 16:07
  Speaker A: It is. Yeah. This is, this is why the mind can be heaven or hell in our head, isn't it?
• 16:15
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 16:16
  Speaker A: We absolutely can misinterpret anything.
• 16:18
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 16:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. Anything can be seen as a problem potentially. Even if like. The most funny example is brother Peshan, he used to give this example. He's a spiritual teacher from England that I used to study with years ago. And he gave this story, I think it's a real story of some very wealthy woman and she, she was staying somewhere in penthouse suite in a fancy hotel in one of the major cities and she went up to her room and she went into the bathroom and there weren't gold plated taps which is what she expected of that kind of level of hotel. And she got really, really upset about it and it ruined her stay completely. I think she might have left the hotel actually and went somewhere else. So like I just thought that's such a funny story, right. And like another example, one of my wealthy clients, his. His father in law is extremely rich, right? And multi billionaire guy and they came out to Maui to. On vacation, right? And this wonderful vacation place and they got there and they're just there for like, for like a week or something. And they go in the kitchen and the previous people or the, the people cleaning have forgot to take out the trash from the previous people. Wrecked the stay, Completely, totally ruined the stay. He was going on and on and on and on about it. Do you know me? Like it's just. You could put it and take it. It's like two minutes, one minute. Right. But these sorts of things, I mean we can laugh about these situations but we're doing this on some level.
• 17:56
  Speaker B: Yeah. All of us are doing it. Why? To say something about who wants gold plated, whatever. We are also. Right.
• 18:03
  Speaker A: We are also easier to see it in those sort of situations.
• 18:06
  Speaker B: Yes. You know, this filter. So several years later I realized that what is creating my reality was you were talking about this filter that I'm filtering my thoughts through certain Things and I called them the seven deadly seas. Right? Like the seven deadly sins, but they all start with the sea. The first one is comparison, right? I'm comparing, I'm comparing what something should be to what it is. I'm comparing myself to someone else. I'm comparing, you know, whatever it is, right? Money, looks, time, success, everything. It's a comparison thing, right? So I'm filtering through that and so my internal reality is totally dependent on that filter comparison.
• 19:12
  Speaker A: That'll be enough to ruin someone's life. Without the other six.
• 19:15
  Speaker B: Without the other six.
• 19:16
  Speaker A: There's more than this. They're only, we're only getting started.
• 19:19
  Speaker B: And this is all okay, we won't go into too many. We won't go into too many.
• 19:22
  Speaker A: No, no, no. We could. No, we can go into them.
• 19:24
  Speaker B: I'm just saying I don't remember, but. Because I really do, honestly, to tell you, I really didn't think too deeply about this topic because you said filters. I thought about this.
• 19:37
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:38
  Speaker B: I wanted it to be natural. Like we agreed.
• 19:43
  Speaker A: We've just, just so you know, we, we, we previously have taken long, long lists of notes, but we thought if it's just a conversation between us, perhaps you'd like it better because it's more real, you know, so. Yeah, so comparison is a major problem.
• 19:55
  Speaker B: Comparison is a major problem that can ruin our habits. Okay, second one major, major problem is criticizing this filter, right? This filt. I'm filtering all my thoughts through something called criticism. I'm looking at something and just criticizing it. It's like a deep habit, right? Like this lady that went in and saw didn't say gold plated. That's a deep habit of that, right? So criticism because they're criticizing or thinking it's not up to the mark or seeing what's wrong. Yeah, seeing what's wrong. It should be like this, not like this. All of that. That's major. It's a major deep habit. It just didn't happen because she walked into a hotel room. It's a build up over many a lot of time and maybe. And all of us, right, we have this entitlement mindset. I've noticed this. We feel very entitled. I used to initially think, oh, that's a western thing. We are culture of entitlement here in India. Maybe not. But now everyone everywhere feel entitled. So there's this entire. So there's criticism. That's another deadly sea. Condemning, condemning people, you know, whatever. Getting into, getting into it with them. That's one of the deadly seas confusion, right? Like we are confused about things, right? Like, and I feel that's not very good. Confusion. Because confusion happens when we have too many options. We have too many options. The first time, you know, culture shock for me when I came from India to here was I went to the store and saw the amount of choices, like, let's say maple syrup, right? You want to go to the store to get maple syrup? How many choices can you have in maple syrup?
• 22:03
  Speaker A: Seriously, you need at least 26 choices.
• 22:07
  Speaker B: Oh, my God. I was like, are you serious? Grade A, grade B, grade C, and this and that. And then, you know, vanilla infused and bourbon infused and this. I'm like, what? Maple syrup?
• 22:19
  Speaker A: I remember coming to America first time and like, the can. Because I. When I was. I was younger, the candy bars, they had like, Mars bar and Snickers bar. And then you come over here and you've got different kinds of Snickers bars and different kinds of Skittles and, like, they have like five versions of everything. I'm like, it was really fun, actually, when I first saw it. But it does get out of hand, doesn't it, when you. I mean, we get used to it now. I think we sort of. We kind of block it all out and go, like, give me the stuff I want. I already know where everything is, you know? But if. Yeah, it's a shock to the system. And it gets more and more and more and more and more.
• 22:55
  Speaker B: So confusion because we have too many options. And complaining. Complaining is such a deep, deep one. Oh, my God. Like today, right there was this work being done, and I walked in and my mind just started. And then I said, no, no complaining. You saw that gentleman work really hard. Like he. If he could have done it differently, he would do it differently. Why are you complaining? Right? Just stop right now. Just stop right now. No complaint. Complaining is a big one.
• 23:44
  Speaker A: They're condemning complaining. They're sort of. They're all related to some. Something being different from what we. Internally. Our filter says it should be. So we have. We're wandering around with a. It should be like this filter. You know, like we. It's almost like we have a picture in our head. It should be like this. It should be like this person should be like this. This wall should look like this. This thing should have happened. This thing shouldn't have happened. And then that image in our head is separate and different from the reality which is coming to us from the actual universe. And the difference between those things seems to cause distress, doesn't it?
• 24:28
  Speaker B: Right? And the thing I've Noticed about these is it's kind of like it makes you into a prison. You yourself are putting yourself in this prison and you don't even know you're doing it. Like, comparison is such a prison. Such a prison. I've noticed, right. Like how people, when they walk into the center, they compare. I'm like, they don't even know they're in, in a prison. They're, they're bars. You know, the bars have come like each, each time you do one of these things, the bars are in and you trapped yourself. And it's in our hands whether we want to release this or not, release ourselves from this or not. It's in our hands.
• 25:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, comparison is so, it seems to be, in essence, all these related problems are having one idea internally that is different from the actual situation. Because comparison is saying there's this other thing over here that I'm comparing it to. And then there's this thing and I am deciding to. It could be positive or negative comparison. Like some people, for example, they might say, I've got way more money than these people have, so they might actually feel good about themselves. But then they meet someone who's got more money than them and they, oh, I'm not very good. Or someone's more attractive, someone's lesser. So it can be either way, can't it? But either, in either case, we're not just seeing it for what it is.
• 26:03
  Speaker B: I've noticed we don't really compare with lower, we always compare with higher. Like, yes, downward comparison doesn't happen. Or even compare myself to what humanity, like what civilization was, let's say 100 years ago or 200 years ago, we didn't have fresh running hot water for a morning like today, which was so cold. That was very much appreciated. Right. Why am I not comparing and saying 200 years ago I had to take cold showers on this cold morning days. Right. Why am I thinking, oh, you know that, oh, this person has this fabulous bathroom, it's gold plated. Why am I thinking that? Because the comparison is always an upward comparison.
• 26:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's. We can't experience the joy of what is if there's comparison of what isn't. So this is, these are all filters, right? So we're wandering around and this is all happening and it happens immediately. Doesn't happen. We're not thinking, we're not making it happen. It happens by itself. And then we catch it and we have to say, no, no, that's not good for me. I don't like that, you know, so can we just see, see what it is directly? That's the, that's the big question, isn't it? Can we just experience life as a detached observer being okay with exactly what it is, how it is, the way it is?
• 27:37
  Speaker B: One of the things I feel is we all have choices and that's what reality is. One thing we are not understanding about reality is that what is today's reality is not going to be tomorrow. I mean, in the meta sense, right? Of course I'll always be a soul. I'll be an eternal soul, you'll be an eternal soul, all of that, right, that's true. But the way the state of the world is, or what is, what's going to be, what I'm accessible to, all of that's going to change. And so we need to make use of this reality right now. If I compare and I think, oh, this is horrible, then what will happen if things actually get horrible? You know, people say, like let's say people who have a lot of money who went into gold plated, didn't walked out, right? Didn't have gold plated. What if they lose all the money? And we know a lot of people who lost everything, it's not like, oh, always they'll have money and they can complain about gold plated faucets, right?
• 28:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. If you, if things are great and you still complain, then what's gonna happen when you don't have anything at all?
• 29:06
  Speaker B: Right? And I'm not wishing ill on anyone. We hope they always have their money and always everything. But we know things are going differently with life is changing, life is changing, reality is changing, is shifting. And the meta reality of course doesn't shift, but our everyday reality is shifting. And if I don't realize, if I don't realize that I am creating my own heaven and hell, then we are in deep trouble because that's the first thing you have to accept. You're creating your own heaven and you're creating your own hell.
• 29:51
  Speaker A: Absolutely. We're interpreting everything, aren't we, according to our perception? Like for example, if someone has a challenging relationship, they can make it worse by thinking about it in their head. Oh, it shouldn't be like this, shouldn't be like this. Why does she say that? Why did he say that? Why didn't this happen? Or we could say is what it is, that person's like that. And that's just how it goes. And I don't have to get upset at all about any of it. You know, it doesn't have to, doesn't have to lead to all this chaos internally just because something happened. So it comes back to what you were saying at the beginning, really. Am I gonna. Am I choosing to be happy, or am I having all these things in my head that have to work out the way I want? Otherwise I'm not going to let myself.
• 30:45
  Speaker B: Actually, the question is slightly different, Michael. Do I really want it? If I really want it, let's say Olympics, right? Many athletes train six hours a day to go to the Olympics. The question they ask themselves is, do I really want to go to the Olympics? Yes. Do I really want a medal? Yes. Do I really want a gold medal? Yes. And then they tailor their training to that. Because life is questions we answer, and we live those questions. And so if I ask myself, fortunately for us, very few people can get Olympic gold medals, but pretty much everyone in the world can choose to be happy. And so everyone in the world can make that choice. Do I really want to be happy? Right. I'm not talking about people who are in slavery or who are human trafficked. Like, that's a very small percentage. I'm talking about people who have the option of putting on, right? Putting on, you know, getting your phone and putting this podcast on. That's a choice you have, right? Like, if you were in slavery or you. Then you wouldn't have those choices. And so many times we get sidetracked. Oh, but what about this person? This person? No, but your life, right? Your life is your life. In your life, you have choices. Forget about other people. And so we all have choices. And we can all answer that question and ask ourselves that question. But the second question is, right. Many questions need to follow this. Do I really want to be happy? And then the second question is, how can I flush out all of the aspects that are giving me sorrow? I'm giving myself sorrow. The other person, let's say someone is punching me in the face. Me choosing to react to that punch is giving myself sorrow. The other person is not giving me sorrow. And so how can I flesh out all of the different aspects of life that I'm taking sorrow from? If I were to ask someone to do something, right, that's the first thing. Write down all of your different modes of sorrow. How are you taking sorrow?
• 33:25
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's. It's the expectations, the comparison. They should be. This being right, I think, is a large percentage of it for a lot of people. You know, I. I want it to be this way. My opinion is the correct opinion, and therefore the world is wrong rather than it is what it is because we can't change the destiny of the great game. The great game is the way it is. And our opinion about it is neither here nor there really. So that's worth thinking about for everyone listening. You know, what it, what is going on internally, Just next time you find yourself getting upset, what is the thought pattern? What is the belief system? What is, what is going on there that is leading to negative feelings? Because one of the practices that we have is being a detached observer where you, instead of saying it should be, should be, should be, you say it is what it is. Like a spectator, like someone watching a, a sports game, they might have an opinion, they might want one team to win, which is fair enough, but still they're there for entertainment purposes to watch the game. And if we can watch the game of life, then it just is what it is, you know, and we're kind of curious about what, what's going to happen. But we're actually okay internally. But if we need it to be a certain way for our own well being, then we are limiting our happiness again and again and again. Because chances are it's not going to work out the way we want it to, is it? So heaven and hell are created by all these things floating around at the back of our mind. And, and also it's very useful to just have the humility that we're not seeing things as they are, we're seeing them in some warped perspective of it even. For example, like apparently the actual eye itself, right? Like a, like a camera lens, we actually see everything upside down. Like if you know about photography, right? And people who studied the eye, light comes in and it's all actually upside down and the brain flips it the other way around. And they've given people glasses where they put the glasses on and the world goes upside down, right? So they're actually seeing like the sky below and this, the floor. And after about, I think, I think it's about a day, they, it flips. So then now they see it normally again. And then when they take the glasses off, the world is upside down for them. Isn't that interesting, right? Physically. So we're not seeing things as they are. We're seeing a blueprint in our head based on all these things. And you can decide what you're going to do with that.
• 36:23
  Speaker B: You know, about 25 years ago my parents came to visit me. This was a while back. And my mom was cooking in the kitchen and she was cutting cauliflower, so I never cooked in India. So I only started cooking when I came here, and I was just cutting away the cauliflower and she's like, no, no, no, no, no. Hold on, hold on. We have to make sure there are no bugs. And I'm looking at her, I'm like, what? What bugs? Right? And these bugs in cauliflower white. And they're very tricky, okay? In India, I realized that after I went there and I saw the bugs. But here, the only time I really saw insides of a cauliflower was here. Because in India, there was no need to look at the insides of a cauliflower. I mean, it came in the plate as subji. And I ate it, but never really cooked with it or cut it or anything. And so she said, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. Right? She saw. And she. And then she realized that there were no bugs. And she said, oh, my God, this must be heaven. And I thought about that for a while, right? I thought about that for a while. Because let's say 200 years ago, if you were to ask someone, describe your heaven, it would be, oh, my children, all my children that are born live. You know, this infant mortality is not very high randomly. You don't die of diseases that you have, you know, good health and health care and you have unlimited access to whatever, whatever. You know, clean drinking water and hot showers and AC and heaters and whatever, Right? That they would have said they are living in heaven. If you showed them 200 years ago, you showed them this life, that's what they would have said. These people are living in heaven. So what are we doing with the heaven we are living in? We are making it into a hell by our thoughts, by our expectations, by our comparison, by our complaining, by our whatever, whatever. We are making it into hell. And so it is in our hands.
• 39:00
  Speaker A: So can we enjoy our lives or are we gonna carry on complaining about the little ridiculous things? Oh, I went to the store. They didn't have my favorite nut milk that I really like. The brand that I like, you know, oh, gosh, it's ruined my life. We're so blessed. So it's so we can have the attitude we're spiritual beings. This is all a fascinating game. And not only is it a game, we're in an amazing situation where all these opportunities are here for us and are we taking advantage of it and giving thanks? So this is thoughts to churn about, Food for thought. Write down the ways in which you cause yourself mental misery so you know what it is. And the next time you catch yourself, just remember you're Interpreting everything. It just. It's just happening. We're the ones creating the meaning. We're the ones interpreting it. We're the ones making up stories about it. And we don't have to do that if we don't want to. Yeah.
• 40:07
  Speaker B: Yay. We have a choice.
• 40:10
  Speaker A: What a wonder.
• 40:11
  Speaker B: Sorrow is a choice. Suffering is a choice. Suffering is a choice.
• 40:19
  Speaker A: Yay. Blessings. Pick one at random.
• 40:23
  Speaker B: Decisiveness. Huh?
• 40:26
  Speaker A: Oh, Decisiveness.
• 40:28
  Speaker B: Decisiveness. You have mastered the art of viewing situations with clarity and understanding. This emotional detachment has sparked an awareness, leading you down the right path. No matter the challenges. Your stillness and composure fuel your wisdom.
• 40:54
  Speaker A: Interesting. So how does that relate to what we're talking about? Do you think?
• 40:59
  Speaker B: I like this? You've mastered the art of viewing situations with clarity and understanding.
• 41:04
  Speaker A: Mm.
• 41:05
  Speaker B: And you were talking about detachment. Detachment. Detachment. Detached observer. Right. Detached observer. Of course, you watch life as a game, but also this emotional detachment, right? Like, don't get. Let your emotions get the better of you.
• 41:22
  Speaker A: If you can see it as a movie, this is. We can have a whole session on this because it's a big deal, but just to. To watch a movie happening, you know? I mean, movies are designed to get us emotional, actually. Like, with music and, you know, everything's designed on purpose to get us. That's why people watch movies. But you still know it's a movie. And from a spiritual point of view, Detached observer is a bit like stepping back and saying, there is a movie of this person's life that I'm sort of looking through the eyes of this character who's so wandering around getting things done. And the more. The more invested we are. There has to be a certain way. The more upset we get if it doesn't work out. But the more we're. We're. We don't need it because we're okay internally, then we can actually enjoy it. Like we were talking about last time, fun and easy. It's. It's very hard to have fun and easy if we're not detached and observers. But the more detached we are, the more fun and easy it feels. Oh, this. This person's sort of made a mess of this thing. How interesting. I mean, I personally go through this process with my work because I've been doing a lot of annoying, annoying technical stuff, right? And, like, I. I oscillate between getting frustrated and being amused. It's like I go, what? Let's go. And then I'm like, you know what? This is actually quite funny, really. It's. It's so. It's that's just depends how detached I am, isn't it? It can either be really annoying or really funny. And it feels better for it for it to be funny because I have to deal with it anyway. You might as well be amusing to me. So this is all going on. We have a whole world inside of us and that whole world is causing all sorts of emotional reactions and we can choose what they are. So, Shireen, thank you so much.
• 43:17
  Speaker B: Thank you, Brother Michael. It was fabulous.
• 43:23
  Speaker A: Fantastic. Look forward to connecting soon and many, many, many blood.