Welcome to satsang.

In our quest to improve ourselves, to become better, to have goals and ambitions, we find that after we have achieved what we’ve always wanted, effort brings more effort. The more we want, the more we want; the more we think about things, the more active and the more questions that arise.

At this point, we ask, “When does this effort stop? When does the wanting stop? When do we relax and just be?”

The question that started the whole topic today was, “When do we, when does effort in spiritual growth reach a point of effortlessness?” So the topic today is the effortless experience. We will begin to see that as we begin to grow in our consciousness evolution, that we are learning only one thing, only one thing: effortlessness.

See, there are stages in our evolution - revolutionary growth, consciousness growth. First we have survival. And all we know in survival is learning to survive. I know many people, as well, as all of you know, who live all their life working for a living. They get up in the morning, maybe they tend their store or their restaurant, or whatever, and there is nothing wrong with that! And all they think about is survival. That’s called the survival stage. Can these people help it? NO. They can’t help it. Please understand that word. Can’t help what is happening.

Then you might grow a little in your awareness and you begin to organize the survival into plans and goals. Your plan is to become a millionaire, or a very special person, or to achieve certain importance. And you may achieve these things. But you still feel something is missing. You still feel, “I am not complete, I want more and more.” And that’s when you become a seeker, called a spiritual seeker. So that’s where you say, there has got to be something I am not doing inside myself. After all, I have achieved a million dollars and I am still not feeling secure, I want more and more. Maybe security is in my heart, safety is inside. So you become a spiritual seeker.

Now, when you enter spiritual seeking we can call it the third stage. You are between the world and the spiritual life, and you separate the two. Many people come to satsang like this and they say, “Well, when I listen to you, Burt, and when I read these books, I feel great, I feel fine, so clear, and then I go to my job and a thousand questions arise! How do I live in the marketplace, how do I deal with people, how do I do my relationship?”

Okay, there is still this separation between what I call the marketplace and the spiritual life. This is called a separation, it is inevitable, it is a stage, and it can’t be helped. You can’t help it!

Finally, after you have listened enough, after you have heard enough, after you have become very devoted to what is real, you want what is real, what is truly important, more than anything; and you begin to realize what you’ve always wanted was always inside your heart. “I always wanted love,” but where is it coming from? Everybody wants love. “I want to be happy;” where is it coming from? You see? “I want peace;” where is it coming from? “I want energy, I want to feel alive;” where is it coming from? It is coming from the very heart you are, from the very core of you. And so you begin to understand that the very core of you, the very essence of you, is all the things you have always wanted.

And so now you are turning it and becoming aware of you. Of the very dynamics called “you” and who you are. This is called the fourth stage, detached awareness. And then detached awareness takes you, and this is also inevitable, into - what you’ll begin to see is that the things that you paid importance to weren’t as important.

Then it leads you to the fifth stage and the fifth stage is called effortlessness. Effortlessness is so interesting because that’s what the topic is all about. Effortlessness means this, and that’s what spiritual awakening is. When we say somebody is enlightened, that’s what it means. They have realized effortlessness.

Now, didn’t we say in the beginning that in survival they couldn’t help it? No, they couldn’t help it because it’s the instinct of survival. The second stage, which is planning, goal setting and all this - can’t help it either. It’s part of the evolution of consciousness, you can’t help doing this, it’s a drive that is beyond you. When you begin to see that this drive is not taking you to the place where you want to be, you begin to seek deeper spirituality. That, too, does not satisfy you because it raises more questions than you’ve had before - now you’re attacking a level that you still don’t understand. But still, still you want answers, so you’re torn. And then you realize that you have been seeking yourself.

The most important part is the fifth one that we are talking about, effortlessness. This is called awakening; this is called enlightenment. And how it happens is this: I was talking to a client of mine one time, and I said, “Effortlessness is what spirituality is all about,” and he said, “Yes, but I can’t help seeking. I can’t help wanting love, I can’t help wanting a relationship, I can’t help wanting this and wanting that.” I said, “Yes, that’s right. You can’t help it.” When you can’t help something, what is that? It means you are not living your life. Life is living you. Do you understand? You can’t help doing these things. On the fifth stage, you realize that you can’t help doing anything that you did before.

Now, you turn the tables. You give up trying to do anything and allow the heart to take over. That’s called effortlessness. You couldn’t help being on survival, you couldn’t help making plans and goals, you couldn’t help doing what you did. When you realize that you can’t help it, you also realize that you don’t live your life. You are not a doer. Life lives you. In the beginning, we think we do everything.

It is interesting that here we have young people who say, “I don’t have to go to college, I don’t have to do anything.” When you are a teenager, you build up your ego. You can’t help it. When you become a young man, you are ambitious. You want to feel important.

You want to make a mark in the world. Some people want to save the world. Some people want to go out and help other people. But there is one thing they all have in common. It’s all self-serving. All of it. None of it is unselfish until you realize effortlessness.

There is no one doing anything, it is all being done through you. And when you begin to relax and you see this tremendous drive that did everything through you. As I look over my life, I find Burt never really did anything. It was consciousness through me that did it.

I used to be very, very physical, I went into bodybuilding and gymnastics, you name it - and I thought I did it all. No, I didn’t. It was my love for it that did it. Consciousness needed to express itself through me in that particular way. You see? Effortlessness is leaning back and realizing the genius and the talent that you are, and allowing IT to take you. Do you think there is effort there? No. Effort is only in desiring that which you already are. That is effort. But when you realize that you already are, you don’t need the effort, you need the unfoldment in the moment of THAT. Growth is effortlessness.

Ego, what we call ego - when we talk about ego here, we are talking about the personal self, the person you think you are. The person you think you are is made up of a name that your parents have given you, of a personality that you have acquired because of your environment, your religious training, your nationality. You can’t help that. But when you identify that that is who I am, you block your heart. You stop listening to your heart.

I had a medical doctor come to me one time as a client and he was actually crying. And he said he was not happy in what he was doing. He said when he was young all he wanted to be was a veterinarian. But his parents talked him into becoming a medical doctor. Talked him into it. But his heart was in being a veterinarian. He loved animals, and still does. You see? So what happened is, he didn’t listen to his heart. And he, through effort, wanted to achieve a certain goal, in other words, in being something other than who he is. That’s what seeking is.

All growth in the beginning is the realization that we are always trying to be what we are not, and forgot who we are. So it is a circle, a need to get back to who we are, to our natural self.

Effortlessness - every stage of evolution is an understanding of how it actually IS - not how you think it is, not how you’ve been brainwashed into thinking it is, but how it actually is. Life lives you, but you think you are living life. But you will find that everything you do is because you love doing it. It is love doing it through you.

What is talent? We talk about talent. Talent is not your ego; talent is not your personality. Talent is your heart. Talent is putting your heart into what is driving you and allowing it to express through you. That is talent.

Consciousness does it all. We never realized we never had a choice but to allow, accept, forgive who we really are. You know, spiritual words like “allow,” “accept,” “forgive,” - we don’t know, we think, even when we hear them from a teacher, we go about thinking, “Oh, I am going to ALLOW it.” You cannot allow allowance. You can only allow it. Like “forgiveness” - well, my mother was brutal to me, she was very controlling, but I am going to forgive her. That’s a game. A Course in Miracles says, “ Forgiveness is when you realize there’s nothing to forgive.” She did what she did because that’s where she was in her understanding. She wasn’t bad. She wasn’t bad, she just made the mistake of thinking she was in control instead of life acting through her. The moment she began to relax, a whole dynamic surfaces. Like a whole new life. Effort is the idea, “I am doing it all. I have so much to do.” It is the belief that the body action is your ego, instead of the action of the body acting through you.

So, like we said, ego is effort. It thrives on effort and struggle. When the struggle gets to be too much, it tries to control and overcome the struggle. That is the nature of the personal self or the ego. See, the ego loves struggle. The ego loves to control. But when the control becomes too much, it tries to control the control. OK? See, if you can see the contradiction and the dynamic of this play, this is when you begin to look at it. The moment you look at it, you activate the detached observer. It’s called the fourth stage.

You’re actually looking unbiased, from a detached point. And the moment you become an unbiased observer of what is going on inside you, you’re not going to be the same. You will NOT be the same. You will change just like that. OK? And the power that you will get, the peace and the strength that will come through you... because now, you are not a victim. You see?

What is a victim? A victim is a person who gives in to every impulse and every desire that comes through, which is of course from the outside. Let me give you an example: your parents abandoned you, or they controlled you. So naturally, if you had very controlling parents, there is one thing that’s going to happen to you. You are going to be scared silly of anyone controlling you. And if you feel the slightest thing that somebody’s going to control you, you have to get your own way. Don’t you dare talk to me like this! You know, you’ve got to keep on - and all the time all this energy is involved in trying to protect yourself. And you wonder why, in relationships, you’re in constant conflict.

Let me give you a slight example of fear of control. I am on the computer and someone comes and asks me, “Burt, can you show me how this is done on the computer?” And so I’ll go over, and I’ll explain something. And as I explain something, I put my finger on the screen and say, “Well, you put the mouse on ‘file,’” and as I put my finger there, the person reacts. And this person pushes my hand out and says, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” You know, they get upset because I put my finger on the screen. What was that reaction? The finger reminded them of being controlled, of telling them what to do. Got it?

This is very, very subtle. So when we have been brought up controlled, we see that everyone is trying to control us, and we become afraid of that. But what if we become aware of it? You see? The moment you become aware of it, it changes.

Another thing that we do in being victims, and this is so common, is in relationships - being apologetic. “Oh, I’m sorry.” Do you know that every time you say you’re sorry, you’re thinking you are wrong? Do you know that when you think you are wrong, the ego is all hepped up because it’s saying, you know, well, I was wrong and I am sorry I was wrong. But what happens is, you begin to feel sorry for yourself because you begin to think you’ve done something wrong. And the moment you think you’ve done something wrong, you believe there is something wrong in you. And do this often enough, and before you know it, you actually begin to believe it. Your self-confidence is squashed. You become very self-conscious among other people because you think you are wrong.

I see this many times in relationships. “I won’t talk to you until you say you’re sorry, until you apologize.” Why do we want somebody to apologize before we forgive them? Because we feel so wrong in ourselves we want somebody else to feel wrong too. So that they can feel like we feel. We want them to be sorry - “Please apologize,” - see? Guilt thrives on guilt.

The Course is so beautiful on this because it says, “You are guiltless.” And you cannot do wrong, you can only make mistakes. You see? Please understand you never do anything wrong. You did what you did because that’s what you did from your consciousness at that particular moment in your thinking. You see? You don’t even need to apologize. You were ignorant at that moment, unaware. You made a mistake!

So somebody says something about your mistake and you say, “Gosh! Yeah!” You don’t have to apologize. You were not wrong. You were being yourself. And the moment you allow yourself to be yourself, you begin to love yourself. You allow yourself to be who you are. Now you relax. Now you feel like farting, you fart. Because it’s bad keeping the gas inside you. Got it? OK? I am being crude here but you get the idea. OK, in other words, you are learning to be yourself.

And the moment you are learning to be yourself, the best in you surfaces. It can’t be helped. You see? Because there’s no longer a defense, no longer being offended, no more a shield for protection. You become a totally here-now being. A beautiful, magnetic, pleasing, charming being without trying to be. If you’re suffering fear, anxiety, worry, and so on, this is effort. It is only because you are inviting it. You can make the choice to see there is nothing there.

Did you ever feel worried? Of course, everybody did. Everybody does at one point or another. Do you know that worry is about something that hasn’t happened yet? Do you know that it’s in the future, it has nothing to do with now? And do you know that worry aggravates things, not making them any better? DId you know that if you look for worry you won’t find it anywhere? Stop. Become an unbiased observer. Where is worry? You won’t find it. The moment you become the unbiased observer and you realize there is no worry there, except thoughts you might find in your head because of what you thought might happen, that very seeing itself will alter you. And now you become clear, in the moment. The moment you become clear in the moment, the next moment will follow the energy of that clarity. And chances are, what you feared might happen, which may be not what you wanted, will come exactly the way you had hoped it would. Because the moment you overcome the worry, your energy takes on a completely different expression.

You know, all the great teachings say something very beautiful. Osho said, “Become like a hollow bamboo. And then what happens - the air will go through you and fill you with its enormity, with its space.” OK? In other words, what he is saying is this, that the moment you empty yourself, like the Course says, be here now, totally. And the moment you do, you connect with the internet of the universe - the universal mind! Ideas and inspiration come to you because now you’ve given up your ten-percent consciousness - that’s what our average mind is! - ten-percent consciousness. The moment we look at it for what it is and just relax in the moment, we’ve opened the potential to that 100-percent consciousness. You see? We have tuned in to the allness that is.

Did you know what we call the “personal self” is a question? It’s a question. What you call “you” - not you the spiritual self, not you the love you are, the beautiful person you are, the beautiful being you are. You who you think you are, the ego, is a question.

Last week we had a person say, “But why do we have to have an ego? Why does it develop? Why do we suffer? Why this?” Who was asking the question? The ego! The ego raises all the questions and then the ego tries to answer them. And then you wonder why we get confused? Why we get perplexed? Why we get bewildered?

Relax in the moment, and enter the silence. And tell me where is the ego. See, when I look at myself, I see my body but I don’t see my ego, I don’t know where Burt is. I don’t even know who Burt is! Right now he is talking, he is using his vocal chords, but what is happening? What is happening? Look at me now, all you see is an animated protoplasm. Do you understand? You feeling it? I am just here!

And the moment you allow you “just to be,” just here, you’re just here! And allow the moment to be through you - you are clear, you are loving, you are relaxed, you’re being your best. Why? Because the best you can be is in the moment. You cannot be the best tomorrow or yesterday. You cannot try to be your best. You can only BE the best. And the best is now.

The personal is a question seeking an answer. The answer lies beyond the personal. The answer is its own being. The silence, the observer.

The ego is always asking, “Why, why?” For a moment, forget the “why,” and ask, “What IS?” It changes! Everything changes! For instance, say you are suffering. “Oh, why am I suffering?” Stop. What IS suffering? Ah, wow! The whole thing changes. You’re looking at it! You see? The moment you look at something, it changes. Because there’s clarity. Because you brought the moment into it, you’re no longer hypnotized, you’re no longer caught between past and future. You see? You’re no longer a victim. You brought clarity into it.

Eckhart Tolle, author of the bestseller The Power of Now, said the following: “The very structure of the little me, or ego entity, is based on saying ‘no’ to what is. It cannot allow this moment. It needs to be in a fighting mode with what is. It must have some enemy to sustain the sense of separateness on which its identity depends, whether the enemy is a person or a situation. It must be fighting something. The ‘me’ is always fighting the NOW. The NOW is the arch-enemy of the ‘little me.’ By opening yourself to now, those structures dissolve and cannot operate anymore. So, the greatest spiritual practice is to say ‘yes’ to what is, completely, because it is.”

And then you are free. And then you begin to feel a joy and happiness and clarity you might have never known before. In saying “yes” to any experience, a stillness arises.

We talked about it last week. Stillness. When you relinquish resistance to what IS in the moment, suddenly a stillness arises. When you talk about stillness, we are not talking about being like a stone. A stillness means that you are walking in the park and you feel this incredible energy and joy. When you see a bird, you almost feel the energy of that bird. You can almost hear its song in your heart. When you look at a flower, you’re alive, and you can understand it without words. That’s a stillness. That’s a silence. That’s a tranquility that’s called peace. OK?

The stillness is that essence of now. What happens when we keep resisting the now? What is the greatest effort of all, greatest effort? The greatest effort is the effort to overcome and fix the effort! Did you hear that? The greatest effort is trying to fix the effort.

OK. I enter a party, there’s a lot of people around. I’m self-conscious. What should I say, what should I do, how shall I act? Right? So there’s effort. So I smile, oh! I want to look my best, I want people to like me, EFFORT! Effort, effort! And then you find you’re acting self-conscious, you’re acting, you know, like this. And you don’t like yourself. And so you try to overcome the effort - I should be more relaxed, I should be this, I should be that, right? That’s the greatest effort. Creating the effort and trying to overcome and fix the effort.

OK, now, what happens through that which we do all the time? It creates what we call the pain-body. The pain-body is the whole psychology of emotional pain. Now please listen to this because for those of you listening to this tape, this could be an eye-opener. Because if you could see for a moment the futility and vicious circle of this effort, of creating an effort, and fighting the effort itself, if you see the absurd effort itself it will drop by itself like a leaf in autumn. All emotional pain, whether it is loneliness, confusion, anxiety, are created through resistance to feelings which are judged to be bad or wrong.

Did you know that in truth, there is no such thing as emotional pain? All it is, is resistance. A thought comes and I don’t like it. And I fight it. Or, I am walking down the street and among a lot of people, and a thought comes that people are laughing at me. “People are vicious. People don’t like me.” There is this thought, and I keep thinking and thinking and thinking about it. Because again, I am a victim, right? So what do I do? I go home and I take a gun. And then I shoot these people that were laughing at me. Do you think that this doesn’t happen? And then we call that person bad, evil. That person wasn’t evil, he was just ignorant. He made the mistake of identifying with thoughts that crossed his mind based on his conditions from the past. And based on that premise from his ignorance and unawareness, because he wasn’t a detached observer, he was caught in this dilemma, he did a vicious act, and he ruined his whole life. This is happening all the time.

The moment you judge something wrong, you have said a “no” to it. That creates the pain-body. This resistance creates the effort to overcome the feeling of pain through escape, control, and change. The moment a thought enters the mind that we don’t like, we try to control it, we try to fix it, we try to change it, or we try to escape from it. But any effort that you do with it only makes it stronger.

Let me read you also what Eckhart Tolle said because he is absolutely so clear and beautiful. He said, “Transformation of consciousness happens through effortlessness, through not doing anything.” Wow. Nobody ever told us that, right? Do, do do, more, more, more, right? Nobody told me not to do anything. Now, in this age, I don’t do anything. Even now as I talk to you and I wrote this script, it simply got written because I have learned to relax. OK? So anyway, so he continues, “Transformation of consciousness happens through effortlessness, though not doing anything.” Now, not doing anything doesn’t mean you stop doing. It means you allow it to happen through you. Got it?

Someone asked Nisgardatta Maharaj, “What do you mean, do nothing?” And he says, “What if I get up tomorrow and I don’t go to work and I stay in bed all day?” Nisgardatta said, “Try it.” He says, “Your body will act through you.” Try to stay in bed for 24 hours. You will be itchy, you will be restless, you will move around. You can’t help it. You can’t help it. The body has to act, it is the nature of you! But, you’re not doing it, it is beng done through you though consciousness. So you have to allow the energy to be. You might say, “Well, what if I don’t go to work because I don’t feel like it.” That means that you are doing work you don’t enjoy. There’s still effort.

Why do something you don’t love? You see? And when you do something you don’t love, you are not a service to humanity, not even to yourself. Because you’ll be miserable. When you are miserable, you are not good to anybody. Not even you.

So. Try to move through love, which is your heart, and it’s effortless. Because there’s no effort in doing what you love to do! Everybody likes to make love, right? Why? Because everybody loves it! We love it. Why? Because we feel joined. You see? It gives you energy, it gives you feeling, it comes from your heart, right?

“Transformation of consciousness happens through effortlessness, through not doing anything. [still reading] When something happens such as emotional pain, [so what?] it is happening. Instead of believing that ‘I’ need to do something about it, allow it to happen. Part of allowing it to happen is the simple thing that I call ‘allowing the present moment to be.’ This means open yourself up to the transformation. Allow whatever this moment contains. No matter what event, happening or situation, say ‘yes’ to it. Allow it to be. This allowing requires no effort at all. It requires no time.”

And you will find the whole dynamic changes. One time I was saying to a client, to allow. Same thing, I said, “Allow whatever is happening to happen. It requires no time and effort at all.” And this man said to me, “Ok, that’s wonderful. You know, that’s wonderful news that there’s transformation through that.” And in the same breath he said, “Now tell me, what do I have to do to get there?” [laughs]

That is so incredible, you know? Like, we don’t understand what it means to be. We have to question how to do it. OK? We think there is some technique, some doing, something. Spirituality isn’t learning to be who you are. So you see the absurdity of the ego mind. And it’s belief in struggle and effort.

Now, if you start seeing this clearly in the midst of it, you realize effortlessness. Once you realize effortlessness, you are free! If you are free, you are awakened. You are enlightened. Spiritually awake. Do you see the simplicity of this?

Now, the pain-body is the result of this futile and absurd struggle to overcome itself. It’s called the pain-body. What is the pain-body? Now, please pay attention to this, because if you want to understand psychology, metaphysics, or whatever, this is going to be a crash course right here. In brief, the accumulated pain that people carry inside themselves is called the pain-body. And because of our human conditioning, pain is inherited from our childhood and also genetically. OK? If your parents always worried, chances are that they are going to throw that on to you. You are not a victim! But to be aware of it is to be free of it. If you are not aware of it, you might start worrying like your parents did. Because they carry that karmic predicament, that atmosphere of your environment.

So, genetically you can be like your parents were. Your parents weren’t bad, it’s just that they didn’t know any better. They never came to satsang. (joke)

Every person comes into this world with a certain amount of pain. We all come with a certain amount of pain. And the most primordial pain, the most common pain of all, and the Course and all great teachings say it, is “I am not complete as I am.” I feel I am not good enough. There is something missing. There is something I am not quite getting a hold of. I don’t feel complete. So, I want to get to improve. I want to be better. I want to achieve specialness. I want to get somewhere. I want to be somebody. And that wanting to be somebody, which is also effort, brings pain.

The pain-body, understand, is not continually active. It goes through stages of activity and non-activity, the pain-body. Now 95 percent of the population have this pain-body. Some more intense than others. In its dormant state, the pain-body is, you are unaware of it, in its dormant state. But when its active, (phew!) you become irrational, difficult, and not knowing what you want, when it’s active.

But the pain-body cannot remain dormant for too long. Because it needs to feed itself. It goes hungry for pain. And it actually seeks pain. When it becomes active, the pain-body, it is looking for something to feed on. To add energy to its energy field which is a field of contraction. Of either heaviness, agitation, intense fear, or anger. It feeds on it just like the body needs to feed when it’s hungry.

That is the vibrational field of the pain-body. Oftentimes it looks around for something to happen and to blame someone or something for that happening. In other words, it is looking for pain. Now, the pain-body, in most people who are no spiritually awakened, is like a different personality living in you. And when you’re acting from it, you are totally different. At that moment you don’t know what you want. At that moment you are irrational, you are very, very difficult. And this comes especially in relationships. Because when it needs to feed, it will move into your mind and feed on your thinking. It will try to control your thoughts, and, 98 percent of the time, succeeds. And this is why we react without knowing why it was we reacted that way. And at that point you become the pain-body.

Anything could trigger the pain-body. Even a headache. Even being tired could trigger the pain-body. Even an innocent remark could trigger the pain-body. The pain-body becomes transformed from simple pain to a feeling, “I’m just unhappy. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Every negative thought feeds the pain-body. Why? Because it loves pain. Of course, if you talk to the person with the pain, they’re blaming you for the pain. They don’t realize that they’re feeding on it. But remember, in life there are no victims. Whatever you’re feeling, it’s because you want it there. But of course it’s unconscious! Because there’s not detached awareness, see? You’re not looking at yourself. You know, whatever’s happening inside your head, you think it’s real!

And this is one of the ways the pain-body feeds on you, on your thinking. People have asked me, why do I suffer such pain? It keeps repeating no matter what I do. Well, the truth is not very glamorous. And so, if they ask me pointblank, I will tell them. The truth is this: you don’t want to get rid of your pain. You simply love it. That’s why it keeps repeating. You’re being identified with your pain-body, actually enjoy the pain, and you actually look for it. You start observing your thinking and you will see how you actually enjoy feeling sorry for yourself. This is the pain-body creating its own further pain.

This is how the pain-body feeds on you, feeds on your thinking. The only way to outsmart it is to do absolutely nothing, observe it, and start laughing at it. How ridiculous the whole thing is. Well, the moment you start laughing at it - you don’t have to say “he-he”, you know - just see how ridiculous, the moment you see the absurdity of it, how simple it is. If you do not take it seriously as it happens, see the dynamics of it, that very effortless seeing will bring a transformation.

The pain-body is not who you are. You are spirit, you are beautiful, you are love, you are guiltless. It is only your conditioned idea of who you think you are. That’s the pain-body. Remember that the pain-body becomes active so many times. It can become active twice a month, even once a week. And actually looks for a reaction from someone in order to blame them. It might start very slowly, as a need for approval. It might start for reassurance. Or for some minor form of irritability. Then escalates, on purpose, to fulfill its demonic plot. It says, when it’s active, “Please give me pain, I want pain, I want pain.” Of course, it doesn’t say it consciously. It’s inside.

The pain-body is most active in relationships. And, it’s in the relationship, you know sometimes it’s ok. But when somebody leaves you, ah! You suffer longings, you suffer loneliness, you suffer as if your heart is being torn apart. Why? Because it loves to feel longing. It loves to feel that pain of loneliness. It loves to feel sorry for itself. This is called the pain-body. It’s all illusion but it feels very real to the person. This is all ego.

Missing someone deeply, and so on, is part of the pain-body. And yet when they are with you, at that moment chances are you will take them for granted. The pain-body looks for its buttons to be pushed, and then blames and becomes furious for that pushing. This is the craziness of the ego. And that’s why the Course says that the ego is insane.

Pain-bodies love drama. They thrive on drama. Did you ever see the movies by the director Ingmar Bergman? Well, people in their pain-body love Ingmar Bergman movies because they are very dramatic, full of pain. They talk about, “Oh, I am lonely and looking into a world without love;” of course I never watched them but I know of them. (laughs) I am not saying anything against Ingmar Bergman, he is a great director; but we love dramatic stories. Why do we love dramatic stories? Because it feeds on our pain. We love the pain.

When the pain-body has suffered enough, has absorbed enough nourishment in the form of pain, what happens? It goes dormant again. And then for a few days it says, “Hah! It’s over! I think I’m healed! I think I’m OK!” A week later the cycle starts over again. Why? because you are still identifying with you. The pain-body is you - when it is healed you think you are healed.

You are not living your life; life is living you. Understand the difference. God is living you. If you don’t like the word “God,” consciousness is living you. And when you allow life to live you, you are free. The pain-body cannot exist in the realization that you are being lived. It can only exist as long as you think you are in control. Which of course, is the opposite of being in control. If you can see the absurdity of this as you listen to this tape, OK? You are already healing, NOW.

How do we break the cycle? The pain-body loves effort, loves struggle, loves drama. So, stop feeding it effort. What is the effort, in brief? You know what the effort is? So simple. Feel it out, please. What is that effort? - It is trying to figure it out. When people are fighting - “I don’t understand! What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? Why is this happening? Why?” - Right?

That’s all it is - trying to figure it out. Give it up! You cannot understand it anyway with your ten percent consciousness. Only your heart can understand the true stillness through silence. Allow that God in you, that talent in you, that intelligence in you, that 100 percent consciousness in you to understand it. But that means you’ve got to quiet yourself enough, be still enough, and listen. Stop and listen. And as you begin to listen, the answer was there all along. It’s just that you never gave it a chance.

Trying to get something, trying to fix it, trying to control it, trying to escape it, trying to get rid of it, it’s all pain - trying to figure things out. All effort is mental preoccupation. It is wanting to understand, wanting to figure it all out. It is wanting answers to questions the mind is incapable and impossible to get.

So give it up, and surrender to your higher knowing. To your heart. Pain-body is the belief in wrong. Do you know there is no wrong or sin or badness in anything? There’s only the mistake of thinking there is something there. When you look at it, there’s nothing there except your thought it’s there.

All sin, fear and suffering is a concept, a misperception, a mistaken idea. Learn to listen and see clearly that nothing is happening except concepts imagined real. I’ve had people, clients, they actually see, and I would say about as much as fifty percent, they actually see monsters. They actually see evil. Images. We get them also in nightmares. What are these? These are the fears that are unresolved within us. And they surface as this monster, as this image, see?

This is what the Course says, “Sometimes a sin can be repeated over and over again with obviously distressing results but without the loss of its appeal.” Because it’s very attractive - you go to it more and more and more. And the Course continues, “And suddenly you change its status from a sin to a mistake. Now you will not repeat it. You will merely stop and let it go.” It’s just a mistake, got it? See how it changes? Don’t see it as wrong, don’t see it as evil. See it as a mistake because you were not aware. And the moment you have that mentality, that awareness, it changes.

It is only guilt that makes us feel bad, makes you feel you’ve done something wrong. And all it was was a need for answers that your ego was asking. Remember, your personal self is an unanswered question because it lives in the surface of things. It wants to understand from its surface concepts, afraid of going deep within itself. It doesn’t want to look at itself. It doesn’t want to listen to the truth of here-now.

What is the truth of here-now? What is the truth of here-now? Here we are. Nothing is happening. Is anything happening? Right now you are listening to these words. And you think something is happening. Where are the words? Sounds, right? Sounds that your brain is interpreting according to your conceptual viewpoint and you are making something out of them related to experiences you have had.

But if you see all this even as you listen, something wonderful happens. Despite all this, you don’t try to figure it out. All of a sudden you become very silent right now. You become very alive right now. You become very intense, very alert. You see? Because it takes you back to here and now. There is only silence. There is only stillness. And stillness can be very active physically. It can very loving physically. But there is no effort. Are you understanding effortlessness now?

If you like a person, really like them, and they kiss you, and you kiss them back, is that an effort? No, it’s a pleasure! It’s lovely! Because it’s coming from love; there’s no effort in it. It was effort if you pushed somebody you loved away! That would be effort because you said no to what you wanted. You see?

So when you listen to your heart, you begin to live your utmost best. Because when you live in the moment, in the very moment itself is the best you can be. Because what lives you is your energy, not your ego. The ego always lives in the past and future.

What you’re hearing now are words in the now. They have nothing to do with Burt; they have nothing to do with what Burt is or what Burt does. It is simply the expression of now. Nothing is ever happening. There is only here. You’re at peace. There is only silence appearing as movement. When the silence is allowed through listening to it, then the highest good comes into it automatically.

There’s a beautiful woman, Byron Katie. She was extremely dysfunctional. The husband and her children could not put up with her, she was so difficult. She was overweight but she was always struggling and fighting. So they had to put her in a halfway house, but then again, she was so difficult. And they put her in a small cell on her own. One day as she was sitting in that cell, a little cockroach crawled up her leg. And at that moment, she felt like she was the cockroach looking at her body. She became totally detached. It was an experience that changed her so completely. Her name is Byron Katie. She’s going to be here another month from now in Vancouver.

That experience changed her so completely she realized she was not the personal self. She was not her ego. She changed so completely that when they brought her home, her very appearance brought healing. Being with her alone, her joy, her love, she was so here-now that she overcame all ideas of past and future or achievement. Just being with her, people change.

This is what she said, the beautiful and wonderful Byron Katie, in her inimitable and very unconventional way, because she never studied spirituality, she never even read a book on spirituality. She said, “The highest good will only come when you wait and not try to figure it out, when you let that highest good come forth in peace. Because when we let go, it leaves a vacuum that the universe has to fill. It has to - it’s a law. As long as you are in contraction, in fear, it cannot move in. But through the letting go of the mind, something higher automatically comes in, and that will be perfect.”

What Byron Katie has said was given by all great teachers. Nisgardatta Maharaj, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, Jesus, Buddha. They all said the same. We keep asking why the ego does what it does, why do we have to suffer, why do we have to give up anything, why why why? It is this trying to figure it out that is created by the very ego itself, trying to figure itself out.

Give it up - there is only here and now. The ego is just an idea that you’ve acquired in thinking that it’s true. It’s not. You are this higher consciousness itself. You are this moment, pure, clear, and simple. And when you allow yourself to be lived that way by that purity and that oneness, and it takes over, you begin to say things and do things that will even amaze you. That’s how your talent takes over.

You know Einstein went through so much trying to figure out things mathematically. One day he just reached a point of exhaustion and he relaxed. He gave it all up. The moment he relaxed, the theory of relativity came to him out of the blue. He opened himself up and it came. You see?

All personal involvement means effort. If you think you are right, you are personally involved. If you think you are wrong, you are personally involved. You are neither right nor wrong. You just are.

Each time you are personally involved, there is stress. For example, someone might say, I have heard many people say this to me, “I’ve been reacting much less lately, since I’ve been coming to the satsangs. And I can see the progress in my behavior. I feel that I am accepting what is every moment more and more.” Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Sounds great.

This statement is very common. But there’s a problem with it. There is pride in it. And because of that pride, thinking that you, the ego, is progressing, there is a downfall the next week. “Oh, I lost it!” You see? You don’t lose or gain anything, you just ARE! You are this instant, you are this moment, you are that being. You see, we want to gain, or lose, or achieve, or progress - nothing!

Any personal involvement is like saying, “I am living life!” No - life is living you. You know, in my particular case I have to be very vigilant because the part in Burt says, “Oh, Burt! You are writing these scripts. They sound very good! Mmm! Bravo!” It’s so easy to think that. But if Burt were to think that he did it, for one simple moment, it would put a wall there, it would put a veil there. It would cover it up. It would be finished. You’re understanding me?

You never do anything right; you never do anything wrong. You just act through the life that you are. There’s no right or wrong, there’s just consciousness acting out according to your awareness. You do what you do because that is being done. Never identify with it as being wrong or right. You did what you did. If you catch yourself reacting, so what? It’s okay. “Oh! I made a mistake.” Be aware of it, be detached, observe it. And don’t get caught in it.

You don’t do wrong; you only make mistakes based on limited awareness So to repeat, like Osho said, be a hollow bamboo, totally empty of self, and then the divine presence will enter you. This is inevitable and this is the law. This is the truth.

Why did Byron Katie become enlightened? Because she became a hollow bamboo. The moment in that cell, in that confined space, she became detached and saw herself there. She realized that who she thought she was, she wasn’t. Complete shift.

You know Eckhart Tolle? Same thing happened to him, a tremendous shift. He said, “I can’t live with myself any more. I can’t stand myself any more.” And then he had to stop and see what he’s asking. Who is myself that is saying “I can’t live with myself any more”?

In that detached observation, all of a sudden, there was that moment. And that moment changed him. It could happen suddenly; it could happen in a year or two. You could listen to these satsangs and (snaps finger) boom! It could happen just like that. But every time you listen to talks like this, something is happening inside you. You’ll never be the same. To the extent that you listen, really listen, to that extent, that shift will happen. But if your mind starts figuring it out, you lost it. The heart has to open totally to the point where the mind is not there at all. Be like a hollow bamboo.

How much effort does it take to be who you already are? One time I had a woman who kept telling me about her fears. And then I found myself saying to her, “Why in heaven’s name don’t you want peace?” She replied, “But I do! I can’t help feeling these fears. They are so powerful!” Then I said, “But of course they are powerful. You’ve been giving them all your power! Isn’t it time to claim your own divine power?”

She has made those fears into such a reality that they had power over her, while in truth they only existed in her perception from the past. She didn’t listen to what was really happening. She was caught in the past. She just reacted through control, escape and change.

When conflict and struggle subside because we begin to really look at what is happening, we find peace. A peace that has never moved; it was always there. But we find that we’ve always been seeking it. But all we’ve ever been seeking is ourselves. We sought it because we thought it was other than ourselves.

A Course in Miracles describes how through a lack of conflict comes peace, and through peace comes the realization of effortlessness. This is what the Course says, “Out of His lack of conflict comes peace. And from His purpose comes the means for effortless accomplishment and rest.”

So, what is the secret? Most people would ask, “How do I live from who I am effortlessly? After all, I don’t know who I am. So how can I start, if I don’t know who I am.” Start - by realizing who you are NOT. Got it? Start by realizing who you are not. You don’t have to know who you are. Just have to know who you are not. You have a body. But if you say, “I have a body,” are you the body? No - you HAVE it. Who is the one saying, “I have a body”? It couldn’t be the body saying it! Right? “I have a mind.” Who is it saying “I have a mind”? Who is that “I”? OK? Find out all you are NOT. You have a body, but you’re not the body. You have a mind, but you’re not the mind. You have idea of time and space, but you’re not those ideas. You have beliefs and conditioning and religion and upbringing and all this - you are not those! They are around you, but you are not that.

Who you are is this moment. But who am I this moment? Maybe I am greater than my mind could ever conceive. Don’t even think about it. Keep realizing who you are not, and who you are will come through you as you empty yourself. And you’ll have those glimpses that will shift and change you. Because as you uncover who you are not, who you are will emerge effortlessly and in full glory.

Every time you react, you’re not being yourself. Every time you’re struggling to improve, to be better, trying to understand, you are stepping out from who you are and trying to be someone else. Let life live you because it’s okay to be you, life itself.

So whenever you catch yourself self-seeking or experiencing some pain-body, stop! And ask yourself, “Who is experiencing this pain?” And you’ll find that it’s nothing more than the ideas of your past. It has nothing to do with you. You are here! Experiencing it - not being it, though. Please know the difference.

And then comes a feeling-knowing. And that feeling-knowing, no words can give you. You’ll come to know without a shadow of a doubt. Now you know for certain; now you know beyond a doubt.

I have peace of mind. But I cannot prove it. I cannot tell you how. I cannot show you, but it’s there. And that peace of mind is a clarity. It’s a feeling-knowing.