Alright,
So let's talk a little bit here about freedom of the spirit,
Which is really your spirit,
Your true self,
And how you find it,
Get to know it,
Access it all the time.
It's such a complex issue and one that is important to so many people.
And at the same time,
It's so simple to access if only people knew how to do it and more important are willing to put in the practice.
Over the years,
Many people have shared with me that despite lives that are busy in terms of experiences,
Relationships,
Money,
Job satisfaction,
Many things to do,
They also have within themselves a profound sense of emptiness.
They search for something that is fulfilling and that search is really very important to them.
It's also true to say that most don't know what this is and also what they're looking for.
And yet they know that they are looking for something.
So they look for it with their spouses or their families and they find that it isn't there.
They still feel empty.
So they turn their search to their jobs to find that working long hours still doesn't give them fulfillment either.
Some people,
Too,
Search for it in alcohol,
Perhaps illicit relationships,
Other addictive behaviors,
Which perhaps fill the gap temporarily.
And they find that when they're out of the stupor,
Whatever situation they've set themselves up in,
That the original void is still there.
It's as present as ever and probably worse because they have hangovers or the spouse is getting suspicious,
Starting to make life difficult.
When people are seeking something other than what they have,
They know there's something else in life to be experienced,
To be known,
To be understood.
They know that there is something there.
They know that it's important.
And yet they just don't know what it is.
All they know is whatever they do,
It's never enough.
And they're not happy.
Why do we think people do this to themselves?
Well,
The answer is that nearly everyone has been focusing their energies on their outer or their external world and they're ignoring their inner world.
Most people don't know what the true self is because they either ignore its signals and its messages or they don't know how to listen to them.
They don't listen to their real needs and to what they really desire to do.
They ignore their anger and their resentment when they find themselves doing things they feel that they should do instead of what they really want to do.
And in instances like this,
When they are not in touch with their true selves and their true desires,
They wonder why they get angry and are surprised when the anger surfaces.
So then many put their anger somewhere in the body and this often surfaces months or years later in the form of stress,
Distress,
Disease or some sort of a health disorder.
Most people haven't yet found their true selves because they've been looking for it on the outside and it's not there.
It's on the inside.
So why haven't people realized this?
Well,
Most of the time it's because people create so much noise and activity around them that they can legitimately be distracted.
They don't give themselves a chance to hear their own inner voice.
Some of the time it's because they're afraid of it,
Because they can only connect with themselves in silence.
And a lot of people can't bear that.
Why is this,
Do you think?
Well,
Partly it's because in society people are often taught that it's selfish to pay attention to themselves or that the real world is the one outside of them.
It's often considered infinitely more noble to pay attention to the people and things happening around them,
Constantly thinking about and or doing things for other people first.
In some instances this is taken to extremes when through doing things for others they take their self-worth or their own validation from these actions.
They often suppress their feelings because they think this is the noble thing to do.
And then they wonder why they aren't happy.
For whatever reasons each may have in so doing,
They repress getting to know their true selves by behaving in certain socially expected ways.
Many people keep themselves so busy justifying their existence with mundane errands that they never discover the joy of living.
I mean really living in their daily lives.
By doing so much to avoid the boredom they so fear with the associated quiet and solitude,
They often condemn themselves to lives of boring,
Repetitive action,
Daydreaming of a world that would be a better place for them to live if only,
Well,
You know.
And then they will come up with a hundred reasons why they can't have what they daydream about.
As a result they end up not living in the present.
They end up doing things like robots and then they're not able to live fully in the present because of it.
Moment by moment activities become automatic chores and life passes them by without them being aware of those present precious moments,
Gone forever,
Never to be regained.
And yet all of their lives still they search.
Sometimes people think that it might be easier to continue to search for their true selves rather than to express it,
Just to be it,
Because they secretly fear they might not be good enough to deserve this freedom.
What if people judge them and find them wanting or lacking?
Actually,
When they think like this,
In my experience I've discovered that it's their own judgments of themselves,
Not other people's judgments of themselves that cause them to fear in this way.
And so they get into a cycle of doing things they don't want to do again and again to gain and to maintain the approval of a society of which they are a member and to which they think they should belong.
And yet deep down they don't feel that they fit.
And yet they still feel a void.
There's a gap here,
They continue to say to themselves,
I'm doing everything I know how.
I'm very busy.
I go to self-help classes and yet I'm not happy.
What's missing from my life?
The answer really is very simple and many people are only half a step away from it.
This simple realization can start a complex chain reaction that often reverberates throughout the whole of people's lives.
Realizing it is simple.
Living it can often be quite challenging because of how most people have been trained in their respective culture and what their belief systems are.
For me,
Finding my true self has meant that I've had to learn true self-acceptance,
Taking a look at any and all aspects of myself that I might judge.
And then I give myself permission to be all of these things anyway and it's just fine.
Whatever,
However,
It's all great.
You see,
Many people do all that they think is required to be perfect.
They all behave in certain ways that they think will elicit approval from their peers,
Families,
Bosses,
Teachers,
Anyone,
Everyone else.
They don't let people see that they get hurt,
Angry,
Sensitive,
Fearful,
Tired,
Cranky.
They hide behind these masks because they believe that it would be more socially acceptable to swallow the hurt or the anger,
To keep smiling when they would prefer maybe just to have a good cry,
To be vulnerable or to be alone,
Just go to bed.
Most people don't know how to be real and gracious at the same time.
When they're angry,
They usually repress it until they can't any longer and it explodes from within them in some way.
And it usually then explodes outward at someone else.
Many people don't know how to feel and to express their anger,
Their grief or any other emotion in a response of a way.
So it doesn't get stored in their hearts or in their body.
And it's not directed at anyone else.
Most people,
Certainly the ones that I know,
Are very sensitive inside and equally insensitive towards other people.
If they are like this,
They may think they hear someone saying one thing and in reality it's intended to be interpreted in a very different way.
Most of the time they hear it throughout their own shields and then things are skewered and then you have issues.
Many people aren't in touch with their own inner being.
They don't know how to express themselves in the moment and it all gets jumbled up.
Once everyone has learned to accept all parts of themselves and that there is nothing good or bad or right or wrong,
Positive or negative,
It's just all parts of the spectrum of being human,
They find it's really easy to let go of the stress of striving to be the perfect human being.
And can start enjoying the perfection of the moment.
At that point,
Each one will be able to function in life as someone who knows who they are intimately and can live in the moment,
Secure in the knowledge that whoever they truly are is perfect for them at this time.
One of the abilities most important for being able to transition from unconscious unhappiness to conscious acceptance of self and ongoing happiness is your ability to be able to let go.
It's perhaps one of the greatest gifts that people can give to themselves,
Yet it is one of the most elusive.
It's not natural for people to trust that if they can just let go,
Life will just flow and things will happen because they are meant to,
Not because someone has kept hold of all the strings and they do their best to control all of the outcome.
When they're pulling all the strings,
Quite often they are too busy to enjoy life and too afraid that they might lose one of the strings and that one of the carefully constructed structures of how things must be or should be will come tumbling down.
When people are able to let go and trust that life will happen through them rather than to them,
They can then start to be spontaneous.
They can reach into their feelings and,
Guided by their own inner voice,
They can start doing what they feel like doing in the moment.
And then life can become very rewarding.
It can mean that they do things because they want to,
Not because they have to.
Most stress,
And that is the distress of performance,
Is removed from their life because they are just being themselves.
In turn,
Lives become filled with joy because people are happy.
Now joy and happiness are not the same thing.
Happiness is an emotion.
Joy is space and joy is peace.
And when you have space and peace,
You can allow all the wonderful emotions that colour life to just arise.
And living happily and in joy comes in being secure and complete in the knowledge that people have given themselves permission to express themselves,
Starting from the inside out.
Pain of bottling things no longer exists.
You don't need justification,
You don't need analysis,
You don't need discussion,
You don't need anything.
You just have an acceptance,
A very simple acceptance of your inner sense,
Which is how you feel,
What you do with it in any moment.
When people accept all the different aspects of themselves,
They give themselves permission to reach for their full potential.
They don't spend their lives trying to change or to become anyone other than who they are in that moment.
People then wouldn't come to spiritual mentors or to healers in search of healing.
They come instead because they've decided to grow,
To be better able to express and to experience the greatest,
Most wondrous aspects of themselves all the time.
In this way,
Everyone would be who they truly are.
Our spirit,
Which is your spirit,
Our spirit,
Would be truly in the driving seat of life.
And in so being,
Would we touch each other's hearts truly.
For me,
In my experience,
There is nothing else to life really.
I've learned that everything else is just window dressing.
It sounds so simple and it is.
Simplicity is what life is all about.
Many,
Many people create complications in their lives because they can't bear to face the simplicity of everything.
Or it's too simple for them to be able to comprehend for all of the reasons that we've just spoken about.
They could and do spend hours talking about,
Reading about,
Manipulation,
Control,
Judgment,
Jealousy,
Illusions,
Games,
Addictions.
Did they know what he or she did?
Depression,
Disease,
Emotions,
You know,
Whatever.
The body,
The mind,
Spirit as it should,
Could be whatever.
In short,
Life is about expressing yourself as fully as you feel in the moment and with love.
There's nothing else.
I believe and I teach that we are all designed to live together in cooperation and in community of spirit.
My dream has always been to one day live in a society where people are so in touch with themselves that these communities arise just by each person being who they are together and supporting each other to be the highest visions of themselves too.
These are communities of love and laughter and wisdom where individuals are mostly self-governing,
Where there is respect for all because each person has inherent self-respect,
Where each moment is regarded as sacred and lived accordingly because it's the only moment of its kind,
And each person is regarded as being sacred too because they are also one of a kind.
Many years ago when I first shared these concepts,
I said that I believed that this consciousness will not be long in coming.
And now,
As I speak to you in the summer of 2015,
I feel that more and more people are waking up to these basic constructs of life.
Every time we have a man-made catastrophe like a terrorist act or war and these are now coming more and more upon us,
I believe that more people awaken to their own inner voice.
And this voice is that the way of violence and conflict is not what we want to experience time and time again because I believe that every time we experience something that is so out of sync with our innate desire to live in peace together and just get on with our lives,
Have fun at the same time together,
That more and more people will take action.
And that each one will do this in their own way,
In your own way,
In my own way.
However,
Spirit moves them,
Moves you,
Moves me,
And moves us.
One person,
One step at a time.
Think about it.
Thank you.
