The Buddha,
When he said,
The word Buddha means actually one who has awakened to their real self.
What does this mean?
Sometimes something is right in front of your eyes and we won't see it.
Because,
You know,
I work 10 hours a day with this times 40 years,
So I'm constantly seeing examples of it.
And the Buddha says something is right in front of you and you're not seeing it.
You might not see it for 40 years.
So I give you an example.
Imagine a high school reunion after 50 years and somebody's nervous walking into that reunion.
And the question is,
Why are you nervous?
And the person says,
I just know I'm going to be judged.
And I say,
Why?
And the person says,
You know,
Starting from 10th grade,
I started feeling like I don't belong in this group,
That they're judging me.
Now stay with me.
So then I become very emphatic with this person.
And then we go to the reunion together.
Okay.
And then I asked the person to keep breathing.
And it's like,
What is that going to do?
Are we talking about oxygen and carbon monoxide?
Stay with me.
We go into the reunion.
I said,
Just keep breathing.
Just pay attention to breath comes in,
Breath goes out.
Within like 20,
25 minutes into the reunion and people are coming up and giving her warm hellos.
And then suddenly tears.
I say,
Well,
What's happening now?
She said,
I'm too embarrassed to tell you.
I said,
Well,
Go ahead.
She said,
After 45 years,
I just realized that they never judged me.
All this time I was judging myself.
You know,
This sounds so Mickey Mouse and crazy,
Like 45 years before I see something that was right in front of my eyeballs.
And the Buddha would say exactly that.
You know,
Like when I went to Los Angeles from Manhattan,
I took my motorcycle,
My bathing suit.
I went to Marina del Rey.
So the first day I got up and I said to Cyrus,
My friend,
Let's go swimming.
He said,
We don't go swimming in LA.
It's too dirty.
It's like the ocean had been next to them for too long.
They weren't seeing it.
So 45 years,
This person is super sensitive to being judged.
25 minutes into the reunion,
She realizes,
Actually,
Everybody loved me in my class.
I started judging myself.
This is crazy stuff.
But you know,
If you were to talk to the Buddha,
He would say,
This doesn't stop.
It's an onion,
Layer after layer after layer.
And then,
Of course,
You have to stop judging yourself for figuring out something that simple after 45 years.
It sounds so Mickey Mouse,
But people don't realize it.
There are people who are very afraid of being judged.
You stay with them.
You take them into the simpler layers and say,
Oh,
It was me.
I mean,
Think back to your high school memories when the cool gene was important and peer pressure and being invited to the right party.
And then you ask yourself,
Okay,
Was it them who was judging you?
You know,
How important was your figure to you?
Who was judging who?
