GF Live 7-30-22 Wake Up! Stop Giving Your Life To Fear

I don't remember it in my lifetime,

And it's been a fairly long one.

I'm in my 70s.

A time when there was so much uncertainty in the world,

So much friction,

Conflict.

So many different things going on that,

Well,

When you look at them and listen to them and you see the so-called leaders of this world scrambling to try to hold everything together.

It just seems as if,

And I hope you can follow all of this,

It just seems as if a way of life has been fashioned around trying to hold things together.

I remember my mom and my dad,

God bless them,

They're gone.

Good people,

But torn left to right,

Up and down,

Trying to find some modicum of peace personally in the world with their professions,

The things they did.

And I just wonder where that ends,

Because I don't know about you,

But it's hell trying to hold on to a life that you just have to keep trying to hold on to.

We're so used to it.

We're so used to being afraid.

That's what I'm just trying to open up this conversation with you.

How did we,

As human beings,

Get to a place where we would rather live with the fear of losing what we call our security,

Which is essentially our sense of self vested in the images of the world that provide an identity?

How did we get to a place where we would rather live with this fear of losing ourselves than do the work of losing that familiar sense of self that's always trying to protect itself?

There's a song,

Stevie Wonder,

I hope that most of you at least recognize the name.

Brilliant songwriter,

Motown artist,

Wonderful man,

Actually.

He wrote this song called Superstition,

And the opening line essentially was,

When you believe in things that you don't understand,

Then you suffer.

When you believe in things that you don't understand,

Then you suffer.

When you believe in things that you don't understand,

Then you suffer.

When did it happen that we found ourselves,

Find ourselves as the case may be,

Always trying to make peace with some kind of fear?

Why is it so unexamined?

See,

That's the initial point I wanna make.

I have a story or two to tell you,

And I'll get to it.

I'll get there and start making these points,

But I just wanna ask a question.

How did we get to a point where whenever some event comes along and it seems to threaten what we have believed in and what we continue to believe in,

I might add,

That when something threatens what we believe in,

That we must have or do or be in order to be free,

How is it that in that moment,

Our interest is in protecting the thing,

Protecting the identity,

The sense of self,

Instead of realizing that we have been doing that for so long as to make it natural to us?

I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about.

And I am not judging,

Just asking you to look at what it is that I am saying and trying to show you through words to see whether it's true or not.

Does the shoe fit?

And it is humanity's shoe,

So I know that it does,

But I'm gonna leave it to you.

We believe,

For instance,

That appearance is more important than substance.

We believe that appearance,

The way people see us,

The way we see ourselves,

That it is more important than substance,

And by substance,

I mean the gravitas of a soul that has understood its purpose on this planet and is no longer serving fear,

Because when we believe that appearance is more important than substance,

We wind up serving a level of consciousness that just never stops trying to make sure that everything that is in place in our lives remains there,

Or at least doesn't shake visibly.

I mean,

If that weren't true,

Then why is it that so many of us spend so much of our time collecting what we imagine we need in order to be fearless?

Or for that matter,

Pretending that we already are fearless,

Because I get this so much when I'm talking with men and women,

Like,

Yeah,

You're talking about my brother,

My sister,

My mother,

My father,

But not I.

But you see,

It's fundamental.

Where is most of my time and energy spent every single day?

On what,

Doing what,

Thinking about what?

And again,

I say that most of us,

Though we don't understand it,

Because in some sense it seems perfectly practical,

In some ways it is.

I have to maintain my life,

Meaning I have to make enough money to feed myself,

God willing,

Good,

Clean,

Organic food.

If I can't,

Then the best food that I can find that's healthy for myself.

But why is my life taken up the way that it's taken up?

With so many anxious thoughts and feelings,

So many worries about things that I have to attend to in order to change or control,

So that in essence I don't lose what I call control of my life.

And I'm going to put this out there,

You'll do with it what you want to do with it.

But I tell you that any life that you and I have to control is a life that is being controlled by fear.

Because we're not on this planet,

You and I as human beings,

To control our life.

We are here on this planet in order to be part of a beautiful and divine,

I might add,

Creative process.

And there is no fear,

There is no psychological fear in this creative process that you and I are called to attend to on a moment to moment basis.

So to the point that what actually threatens us in these moments is the things,

How do I say,

What actually is threatened in these moments is really the things that we believe in.

And please try to understand this,

Not the things themselves,

For instance,

As an example,

We believe that we must prepare in advance for everything that might happen to us.

This is a belief of ours.

That we must prepare for everything that might happen to us.

Now I get it,

You work for somebody,

You go to work,

You have to prepare.

But I'm asking you,

I ask this of myself every day,

What is doing the proper work,

Being prepared for what I am asked to do?

And by the way,

Asked to do doesn't mean commanded to do by some part of my consciousness that tells me I've got to keep everything in place or I'm dead meat.

What does fear have to do with what I'm asked to do?

Unless I believe that what I'm being asked to do is to prove myself over and over and over again.

See,

That's quite different.

I have certain things that I must do practically.

For instance,

I have to,

I want to give a talk,

I want to speak to you about fear.

Why would there be fear in me over talking to you about fear if there was fear in me?

It's because in that moment,

I want something from you and what I want is the feeling of delivering what I believe is a fearless talk and that you will confirm me as being a fearless human being so the whole time I would be talking,

It would be fear talking,

Wouldn't it?

Pushing,

Prodding,

Trying to make sure that everything comes off according to whatever this nature's idea is of a good delivery of a fearless life.

The world tells us it's wise to be afraid,

That it's wise to stress ourselves over every eventuality,

Regardless the cost to ourselves,

To our health,

To our family and we don't really know what else to do.

That's the point of spiritual teachings is that we are brought into a world,

We are immersed in a level of consciousness where fear is natural.

And I trust,

Especially if you've been listening to me for a while and I hope that you have,

Especially if we start to think to ourselves,

You know,

How many times am I gonna get in my car on the way to a family dinner or to work or sitting at home doing something,

Preparing a meal for friends or family?

How many times am I gonna spend doing that,

Feeling fear over not succeeding at what it is that I believe I must do if I'm to be a successful person?

Is a successful person someone who lives with fear and continues to control it?

Or is a truly successful person someone who has begin to understand their task in life is not to appease fear,

It is to enter into this fearless,

It is to enter into this consciousness where fear is a complicit partner in its day-to-day activity because it should be clear to us,

The more that we,

You and I prepare to be fearless,

The more afraid we become.

Have you not noticed that?

Here's a new action,

Something that we must see the value of and if we see the value of it,

Replace some of the things that we already value that we do in order to keep ourselves from feeling afraid.

Here's something that we must do if we want to find ourselves having a fearless life.

And I'm gonna quote here for a minute because this week,

Wednesday,

Last Wednesday and tomorrow,

When I stream my live talk,

As I always do,

And you can find out about that,

Go to my profile,

Click through,

Follow the profile,

I speak three times a week.

This week is a special week,

The end of each month is,

Because I always give a series of talks basically around a special talk on Sunday,

We call it a Sunday of Wisdom.

This week has been about fear,

About understanding the nature of fear,

Of what it takes for you and I if we ever want to have a fearless life,

What we have to do.

And ever so quickly,

I don't know,

I think it was today Saturday,

I think it was Wednesday,

It might have been last Sunday,

A young man runs into a brilliant young woman,

A sculptress,

A genius,

She's able to craft the most extraordinary things out of marble and he's so drawn to the art that she's able to exhibit,

To the character of her relationship between what she is and does and that which she meets and extracts from the marble from the moment the parallel would be,

What she's able to extract from the moment that is so beautiful,

So full of magic,

Art.

He says,

I wanna do that,

I wanna learn how to do that,

Please,

What do I have to do?

Thinking of course,

As we all do,

Because everybody wants to be a master just like that,

That all I have to do is ask and then someone will give me a little sheet of instruction,

Then I'll be on my way.

She hands him a little chip,

A little chisel and hammer and he says,

What's this?

He says to her,

She says to him,

Just do it,

Just do it.

What does it mean?

What was she implying?

She was saying that if you want to learn how to develop the art of a fearless life,

You're going to have to go into this rough material and start working at it,

Working with it,

Learning what it wants to teach you as you try to,

Through your intention to develop and make something come out of that moment that is noble and good and beautiful and not full of marred thoughts and feelings.

So I found this quote by Emerson and I'm going to use it for a moment here if you'll just listen to it,

Because just do it,

Here's what he says.

So in regard to disagreeable and formidable things,

This is language,

Emerson was quite the wordsmith.

So in regard to disagreeable and formidable things,

Translation,

In regard to those moments that we don't want that seem to overcome us,

He says prudence,

Meaning wisdom,

Does not consist in evasion or flight,

But in courage.

Wisdom does not come forth when we run from the things that we fear,

But rather wisdom comes when we go into the things that we fear.

He continues,

He or she who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution.

The man or woman who wants to walk through life,

Knowing that life never brings anything to that man or woman that isn't intended to enrich their soul,

Must gather himself or herself together with a certain resolution.

And that resolution,

Continuing now what he has written,

Let him or her front the object of his worst apprehension,

And his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless.

Let that man or woman go directly into,

Not just the moment they fear,

But the self that is sitting there producing the images of all that's terrible coming,

And let him through his stoutness,

Through that stiffening of the spine based in spiritual understanding,

Let him make his fear seem to be what it is in that moment which is groundless.

He wasn't a motivational speaker.

I certainly have no intention in motivating men and women to take on yet another identity when the cause and the source of all the suffering inherent in fear is because we already have taken on so many identities.

No,

The task is to search out for the cause and the source of all the suffering and the cause of all the suffering that is so captured by,

Identified with,

Whatever this dominant sense of self is,

That instead of taking on yet another identity where we're gonna pretend to be fearless,

March through life clinging to ideas that promise to prop us up when the stuff hits the fan,

No,

Let us examine that consciousness and no one can do it.

That's why she handed him the hammer and the chisel.

She said,

Just do it.

How?

Let's spend the last half of this talk looking at this together.

Can you see that all of our fear producing beliefs share one thing in common and that we can see it if we want to?

I'm sure that if you're joining me that we have all at some point thought to ourself,

I no longer want to sit at my desk and worry about the outcome of my finances,

The outcome of my health.

I no longer want to sit and try to figure out how to get through to someone who keeps irritating me but I'm afraid of what'll come up in me if I say something.

Just,

I don't wanna live with the fear anymore.

And no more do we set this intention that we're going to start living without this fear,

Then fear begins to tell us all of the things that we stand to lose if we stand up to it.

I don't know if you've seen this.

It doesn't talk to us.

This lower nature,

This unconscious nature,

It is quite the construct of various influences brought over through time,

Images,

Bodies of energy,

So that when we face a moment,

There is something in us that is measuring the moment we're in all the time.

And the thing that's measuring the moment is trying to decide what the moment offers us,

What we can take from the moment,

Or conversely,

Because it's looking to take something from the moment,

This consciousness is comparing what we might lose or what we might not get if we fail in that moment to get what we imagine we're supposed to have.

So it's just sort of like the La Brea Tar Pits.

I was born and raised down in Southern California.

All of California to me is kind of like a La Brea Tar Pit now.

All this stuff bubbling up and bubbling up from the past,

Pulling people into it,

Driving people forward,

Everybody trying to get away from the sulfurous smell.

Something is always trying to move us into a place where we will be able,

On one hand,

To protect what we believe we must have and who we are,

Making us unable to see that as we try to protect these very things,

It's fear doing the protection.

So ultimately what we're protecting is a consciousness that's always afraid.

So in essence,

What I'm saying is that we think from fear.

We actually think from fear.

If I'm trying to figure out how to come off right,

If I'm trying to figure out how do I keep everything in place,

If I'm worried about what you may say or do tomorrow or what the world might deliver to my doorstep that's gonna drop me into some terrible position,

I'm thinking from fear.

But I don't know I'm thinking from fear because this consciousness believes that the way to protect itself from what it fears is to do what fear tells us to do about it.

And I don't know if I can go back,

When you believe in things you don't understand,

You suffer.

We believe that our thinking about fear is the way to protect us from the very consciousness that lives in fear and it can't be done.

Fear should be clear to us.

But how do we unravel this?

So let me get into these stories quickly here.

There are certain things,

One of them,

And you might wanna write this down when it concerns fear.

I've been talking about it,

I will again tomorrow.

I'll take another angle at this.

You might wanna write this down.

When it comes to psychological fear,

The feel is real,

The why is a lie.

The feel is real,

The why is a lie.

Now,

Let me tell you a little story because we all think we get that immediately but we don't really.

It all happens so quickly in this unconscious construction of this nature.

Imagine a man wakes up,

All of a sudden finds himself in a room and it's completely dark.

An example,

It doesn't it seem as if an unwanted moment when suddenly it crashes down on us,

That for a moment we don't know where we are,

What to do,

And for that matter,

Even who we are.

There's just a quick sudden sense that something has happened.

We can't see what it is yet,

We don't really know,

And so we are in the dark as something in us tries to formulate what it is that's happened.

More on that tomorrow,

But for now,

Here's the man,

He's in the dark.

Now,

Intuitively,

He starts to realize I'm in the dark.

What am I going to do?

How do I,

There may be something in this room with me,

That I need to be afraid of.

Now this is,

People want to know,

Why are children afraid?

Children are afraid,

Not because fear is natural,

But because already part of this consciousness,

And in some ways it might be something they bring with them into this life,

Or it may be that they were,

Unfortunately as all of us were,

It seems so innocent to watch frightening movies,

Horror films.

Seems so natural to play these games on video where people are killing each other.

To us,

That's part of life,

But it's not life.

So these children,

Their minds,

Our minds,

Our little mind is filled with all of these images of things that are frightening,

Terrifying,

Dangerous.

So when suddenly the lights go out for a child,

The reason the child's afraid is because the only thing the mind has to call on to deal with the moment it's in that fear are the images and the content of itself that's already sitting there.

So it looks at what it thinks and believes may be in the room,

And then seeing the thing it fears,

Now it is afraid of what it believes is in the room,

Not knowing that what it's actually afraid of is its own belief and identification with it.

Now,

Take that one step further.

Here I am,

A man wakes up in this room,

It's dark.

I know I need light,

Because there's probably something in this room to be afraid of.

Something's going to happen to me.

So he's stumbling around and he comes to a table,

Can't see anything,

He's looking for a candle or a match or something,

And his hand comes across a large stretch of rope.

And when he touches the rope and runs his hand on for a minute,

The first thing that happens to him,

Oh my God,

It's a snake.

Oh my God,

It's a snake.

Now,

Why does he suddenly have the fear of a snake?

Because he cannot see what he sees the moment later when he strikes a match,

And it's a rope.

And the minute he sees that what he believed was a snake isn't a snake but a rope,

In that moment his fear is gone because his mind has been given the light it needs to see the difference between a snake and a rope.

It's a simple illustration,

But it points to something that you and I must begin to work at,

Which is we must bring into our consciousness a certain kind of light.

We must align ourselves with a certain kind of awareness that as we enter into it instead of thought,

The light of that awareness shows us clearly that what we are afraid of is only as real as our identification with it.

In other words,

The light of awareness reveals to us that we've picked up a thought that we're clinging to an old feeling because that thought,

That feeling is connected with an established sense of self that doesn't want to give itself up,

But the awareness shows us this.

Here's an example to put all of this together.

Here's a young man.

I don't know how old he's gonna be.

We're gonna make him 14 or 15 year old.

And his family goes to the state fair.

And he's just at that age,

I don't know when it was for you 13,

14 years old,

Where the certain parts of his physical development and ultimately psychological and finally spiritual development are asking him to be into more deeper relationships.

And so he's wandering around.

He's a little bit tired of the rides,

Not completely,

And he's looking for a different experience.

And there he runs into a beautiful young girl.

She's getting cotton candy.

He's over there getting an apple,

What do they call it,

Candy apple.

Their eyes meet,

You've seen it in the films,

Boom.

There's a connection.

He feels it,

She feels it.

Now for the sake of the story,

We'll make him,

Or her either way.

So they come together,

They exchange a few words,

They talk,

And it's obvious they'd like to see and know each other more.

And he says to her,

Where do you live?

I mean,

Would you like to go to a movie or something sometime?

And she says,

I'd love to.

She said,

I live,

And she names the county that she lives in.

And when she names the county that she lives in,

His little spirit falls.

And the reason his spirit falls is because he's on the opposite side of that county,

And the two counties are divided by what is reputed to be a very dark,

Almost haunted forest,

Where it is said through the generations that people have gone into that forest and disappeared altogether.

And he's not old enough to drive.

And he's thinking to himself,

How am I gonna,

Because ordinarily I could take my bicycle,

I could find a way,

But there is no road through this haunted forest.

How am I going to establish a relationship with something that I'm drawn to in this way?

I'm drawn to want to be an artist.

I'm drawn to want to be a patient human being.

I'm drawn to wanna know more about love.

I'm drawn to whatever it is I'm drawn to because there is something not only in me that draws me to that particular possibility,

But that possibility is drawing that possibility in me to it so that there can be a marriage,

So a union could take place.

And through what I'm drawn to develop the understanding,

Not of the thing,

But of myself,

Because that's why we're drawn into the relationships we're drawn into,

That we might develop ourselves through the discovery that our consciousness already contains those characters,

Those qualities.

We discover ourselves through our relationships.

That's what this represents between the two of them.

He wants to discover himself through it,

And he is drawn to her.

So they part ways,

And he promises that come hook or crook,

He'll get over.

And so what do you think happens the first day?

I hope that you're following me.

He gets up,

He's kind of pumped,

Excited.

He's gonna do it by God,

And he goes across the farm where he lives.

He gets to the edge of the dark woods,

And he looks into it,

And maybe there's,

You know,

In the movie,

Woo,

Woo,

Some strange sound coming out of the forest.

A shadow moves,

Something cracks a branch.

And what does our young hero do?

You know what our young hero does,

What our young hero does?

His intention is to go through the dark woods so that he can be drawn to and develop this relationship called life,

Called love.

And he hears the sound,

And he wants to go in,

But he's too afraid.

Turns around.

Now how many times have you turned around,

Said to yourself,

You know,

I'm not gonna enable that person anymore.

I swear to God,

I'm not gonna sit here and try to figure out what to say.

I'm not gonna go through all those machinations of trying to figure out how if this happens,

I need to do that,

And then if that happens,

All that business,

In those moments,

We are drawn to want to understand ourselves instead of letting fear tell us what we have to understand so we can be safe.

There is no such thing as a human being who lives in fear,

Who is spiritually safe,

Period.

So he gets back home,

And he's just walking through the kitchen door.

Imagine one of those old screen doors,

You know,

Opens it up,

There's a creek.

He hears the sound,

And he thinks to himself,

You know what,

I can't,

What am I gonna do?

And the natural need he has to develop himself turns him around,

And he goes back to the woods,

Judging himself mercilessly for having been turned around by a little screech owl.

And he takes the first step into the woods,

And as fate would have it,

His first step into the woods corresponds with the sun just setting on the horizon of the forest,

And the shadows starting to creep across the forest floor,

And he sees the shadows,

And suddenly,

The thing in him that wants him to be afraid,

That is telling him,

You cannot do this because something bad is going to happen to you if you step into this darkness,

Turns him around,

And he goes home.

He has a fitless sleep that night.

Why does he have a fitless sleep?

Because something in him knows that he's not meant to serve fear,

And the only way he really knows that he's not meant to serve fear is because something corresponding to a higher level of himself is telling him he needs to get over and to get to know this girl,

To get to know himself.

Hope you're following this metaphor.

And he sits in bed,

And he beats himself up.

Why do I keep saying yes when I want to say no?

Why do I keep handing myself over to that smart mouth of mine that makes that cutting comment when somebody does something that triggers me?

Why am I afraid of that man at work,

Or that woman,

Or what someone's gonna say about me?

Why am I like that?

You see,

The feeling we have that we're not meant to be like that isn't a form of judging ourselves.

It's the realization that we're not meant to live in this world,

Go through our life afraid.

We're meant to be able to take the material of this consciousness in which this fear dwells because of all the past content collected there,

Forever measuring and comparing everything to itself.

We're meant to be able to take that and begin,

As I showed,

I think it was Wednesday or Sunday,

The prisoners,

These Michelangelo statues of men emerging from this marble,

We're meant to emerge from this consciousness,

Not let it immerse us in its will.

So there's the boy,

Back to the story.

He gets up the next morning,

And what do you think he feels?

Same thing you will if you are following me.

I'm not gonna be turned back this time,

Meaning I'm not going to let this fear that I feel tell me what is real about me and what I'm capable of doing.

So he begins to understand that he has this feeling that's real,

But he begins to doubt the reason why the fear feels that way.

And he begins to doubt it on two levels,

One because a little light is dawning on him that is helping him to see in some respects how pitiful it is that a young person,

Any person,

Can be turned into something that produces fear and explanations for it instead of using the fear to produce an understanding that makes him fearless.

So there he goes to the edge of the woods again,

And he takes 10,

20,

30 steps in.

And because I'm gonna run out of time here,

I'm hoping you'll get the point.

Every single time that he,

What did Emerson say?

That he screws himself up to resolution to object,

To front the object of his worst apprehension.

Every time he decides to meet that fear,

He learns something more about the fearful nature responsible for it.

That's where the liberation is,

Not in controlling and changing the world,

But in bringing this consciousness into the light of an awareness that begins to show us the fact.

I'm so used to this feeling of fear and its explanation for why I must do or be what it is compelling me to do or be that I've never questioned the consciousness that produces that feeling,

Let alone the identification with it.

And that's what he does.

Like the young woman told that man,

Just do it.

Step by step by step.

And with every step that that young man takes into that fearful consciousness,

Into that jungle,

That forest that represents that,

With every step he takes,

He's that much freer from the grip of the fear that was keeping him on the outside.

Why?

Because he has begun to see the truth.

That it weren't,

That if it weren't for these beliefs,

When you believe in things you don't understand,

You suffer.

Our whole sense of self,

That's why the true teachings on this planet,

That's why it's so difficult to us,

It's so challenging to us.

The identity is formulated and almost endlessly formulated.

Imagine that La Brea tarp it,

If you've ever been there or any tarp it,

Bubbling up,

Bones coming up,

Stuff bubbling up all the time.

Our consciousness in its sleep state always has something because something's always touching it.

Something's always moving it.

To be alive is to be disturbed.

Something's always producing in this consciousness something that's coming up in it.

But we're so used to identifying instantaneously with what bubbles up,

And we identify with it through what our beliefs tell us that thing that just bubbled up is.

So we're almost caught in an,

We are almost caught in a condition that is hopeless except for one thing.

And that is that we can see the condition that continues to produce this identity.

And the seeing of this identity is the beginning of freeing ourselves from it,

Because that which can see this bubbling up of old content,

The appearance of these beliefs telling me,

Well,

You know what,

This is different this time.

You know,

The woods are extra dark,

Or there's so much more at stake,

Or what if I get halfway through the woods and there really is a monster in there,

Now what am I gonna do?

And thought,

Fear never stops talking.

Fear never stops talking.

Fear never stops showing you something that you need to be afraid of.

Whereas at the same moment,

Living in this consciousness is a light that wants to show you this punishing projection of negative imagination so that you can begin the process of separating the wheat from the chaff,

Of separating this fearful consciousness from an understanding that who and what you are is not meant to live with fear,

Let alone with what fear does to us because of our complicity with it.

And when that young man finally steps through on the other side of that dark forest,

And believe me,

Actually don't believe me,

Find out,

When he steps through on the other side of the forest,

What do you think he's won?

Bring the talk to an end.

What do you think that,

Yes,

Of course,

And that's what all these stories of prince and princesses,

You know,

Heroes,

What do you think he's won?

Sure,

He might win her heart,

But he's won his own heart back.

He's won his God-given right to understand the idea of just do it is the same as understanding it's already done.

I just have to go through that.

I have to go through seeing that it's done.

I have to go through seeing that not only am I not meant to live with fear,

But the very fear I've lived with can be the door,

The gateway into a fearless life if I'm willing to step into it.

I think that's probably good enough.

If you can find me,

Join me tomorrow.

I'm gonna go into this even more deeply.

And remember it,

You don't fail if you step into a fear and you find yourself running backwards.

You fail if you keep stepping backwards out of fear of what you might find if you step into it.

Take each step,

Don't try to be a hero,

Don't try to be some spiritual muckety-muck,

Some insane image that you have of yourself as being someone who's this or that or the other,

That's all insanity.

Just find out,

Test it.

If you do that,

You will be given a triumph that cannot be described because God himself,

Because the divine intelligence itself will show you that perfect love casts out fear.

And it is perfect love that gets us to take these steps after steps after steps,

Because what do we find on the other side of the forest?

We find out that we've always been free.

Be safe,

Do your work.