True happiness and spiritual fulfillment come not from acquiring external desires or avoiding discomfort, but from learning to remain open and unblocked internally, allowing one's natural state of ecstatic energy (Shakti) to flow freely.
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Some people say find your passion in
life. I say find out why you're not
passionate about everything. The moment
in front of you is not bothering you.
You're bothering yourself about the
moment in front of you. Stop it.
>> We have a really special treat. If you
saw the untethered soul or read the book
The Untethered Soul and Mickey Singer is
just such a beautiful person and he
doesn't really go out and do things and
we're just so grateful.
>> The world is not stealing your
happiness. You are. You wake up every
>> Mickey, thank you for joining us.
>> Hello, Mickey. Hi, dear.
>> Hi, Sage.
>> What a delight.
>> I'm ecstatic to be with you.
>> We are ecstatic to have you, Mickey.
Mickey is a dear brother on the path and
a dear friend and has the most beautiful
mind and heart and wisdom and
understanding. And every time that we've
had the privilege to have you, it's just
such an extraordinary gift. So,
>> no doubt.
>> Thank you, Mickey. Thank you. We love you.
you.
>> So, it's all yours, Mickey.
>> Thank you. What an honor.
I've never been in Abu Dhabi. Now I'm
there when I didn't have to.
So, I love the fact that Tony, who's
known for being so strong and so
powerful and pushed through everything,
has spiritual retreats. And I already
know how spiritually he is. I've been to
his house. I've been in his meditation
room. But a beautiful soul know what a
tremendous amount that he and sage are
giving to the world, not just you all.
But this particular seminar grouping is
about happiness, joy, ecstasy,
a life that's filled with enthusiasm.
My my view of what it means to be happy
that I want for all of you is as
follows. You wake up every single
morning and you say, "I'm back." All
right? Every single moment of every
single day when you brush your teeth,
when you're eating breakfast, it's
blowing you away. You are so enthused,
so excited about absolutely everything.
I get to take the garbage out today.
Please, it's my turn. It was yours
yesterday. No, I want to do it again.
Wash the dishes, go to work. I get to
sell things. I get to do things. Every
single thing is filled with enthusiasm,
passion, joy. Some people say find your
passion in life. I say find out why
you're not passionate about everything.
Imagine if every single thing made you
as passionate as anything ever has love
this special moments. Every moment can
be at that level. And people don't
believe that that every moment can be at
that level. But what about terrible
things happen? You enjoy at a deep level
the sorrow, the pain of death, of
sickness, of compassion, but it moves
you so deeply that it's like I talk
about let's say you you're driving down
a road and you turn turn for a corn turn
a corner and there's this gorgeous
sunset just magenta. It's so beautiful.
You never seen anything like it in your
life. You tell people right it touched
me to the depth of my being. I felt like
I was in the presence of God, which of
course you were. Why? Because you
touched you so deep inside. You touched
your own divinity. Every moment can be
like that. And people don't believe
that. So the question is, what do I need
to do for it to be that way? And why is
it not that way? Well, I believe that
the mind, people think meek is against
the mind. Michael's not against the
mind. There is a use of the mind that is
so beautiful and so spiritual and then
there's a use of the mind that is so not
so beautiful and not so spiritual. If
you understand deep truth, deep wisdom
and your mind is capable of doing that.
Your mind can help you go to the place I
just talked to you about. It's not about
shutting down the mind. The mind is a
beautiful instrument if used properly
and it can help you get into a state of
permanent ecstasy, permanent joy,
permanent enthusiasm. So the question
becomes, if I ask people, what makes you
happy? What do you mean
happiness is to you? They sit there and
say happiness is falling in love. It's
having a beautiful relationship.
Happiness is taking a vacation that just
is so beautiful and the weather's
perfect. Happiness is a meal that just
touches you and feels so so well. In
other words, happiness is getting what
you want. And you have to take a breath
with that because that's what people
think that happiness, joy,
enthusiasm is getting what you want. If
you get what you want, you feel happy.
If you get what you want, you feel open.
You feel energy, you feel enthused.
Well, happiness is also avoiding what
you don't want. Cuz but if you get what
you don't want, it closes you down. You
feel closed. So you start h
understanding this relationship that if
I get what I want inside, I feel
wonderful. If I don't get what I want,
what I want, I feel disappointed. If I
get what I don't want, I feel terrible.
And if I don't get what I don't want, I
feel relieved. And that is what I call a
truth table. We used to say this in
school, truth tables. That is a truth
table about happiness. And no one will
disagree with that. No one disagrees
that if you really want something and
you get it just the way you want it, it
blows you away. I don't care who you
are, conservative, liberal, no matter
what you believe, if you're getting what
you want, you open. And if you're
getting what you don't want, you close.
Well, that becomes the first clue that
you have a choice in life. One is to
decide what you want and go out and get
it. Don't let anything stop you. Don't
take no prisoners. Just go out and do
not stop until you get what you want.
Right. The other is to sit there and
say, "Wait a minute. Yes, getting what I
want opened me and I felt joy." A whole
another path
other than fighting with life to get
what you want is to ask why do I close?
Why am I not open anyways? Why isn't
that natural? Why is my natural state
not completely open? Why when something
happens outside that I want do I open?
And why when something happens outside
that I don't want do I close? And that
now starts to get spiritual as opposed
to worldly. And there's nothing wrong
with worldly. Worldly merely means that
you believe the answers outside.
Spiritual means you believe the answers
inside. Roomie once said, very beautiful
quote from Roomie. Yesterday I was
clever, so I was trying to change the
world. Today I'm wise, so I'm changing
myself. If you believe that the only way
you can be happy, the only way you can
feel love, the only way you can feel
passion, enthusiasm is to get what you
want, then you're going to go out into
the world and you're going to try
techniques and try different things to
try and get what you want. If you
understand that what it's really about
is whether you're open or not inside,
you you've had experiences where things
turned you on and then 10 seconds later
they turned you off. All you have to do
is have somebody behave the way you
don't want them to that you you didn't
expect them to and you close
immediately. You can be filled with love
and tell somebody, "Oh, I love you so
much. I've never loved her so much." And
they say, "Yeah, I love you, too." Just
like that. Yeah, I love you, too. And
you don't feel love anymore. So it
doesn't take much to open or close you.
So spirituality is not about getting
what you want. They teach you that.
Attract what you want. You can bring
anything into your life that you want.
Do mantras. That's wonderful. It's
beautiful. By all means do it. But
deeper is to ask why does the outside
affect the inside? There's no law saying
the outside has to affect the inside.
They're are totally different worlds.
The outside's made of atoms. The inside
is not. So you start questioning why is
it that I close? Why is it that I open?
Why is it that something that I decided
I like opens me? And then if I decide I
really don't like it, then it closes me.
You've been around people, people get
divorced. They didn't think about it
when they were getting married, right?
They were filled with love and filled
with joy and then all of a sudden
something goes wrong and now you have
trouble being around the person. What
happened? You were open inside, now you
closed inside. A wise person, and you
all are wise, you wouldn't be there at
this retreat, understands you are never
ever going to get everything you want.
Period. Anytime you ever got what you
wanted, that means you never wanted
anything else. Never. And anytime you
got exactly what you wanted, it meant it
stepped that stayed that way. Every
single time you had that meal, it turned
you on. every time you met this person,
it blew you away. It's not true. You
know, I went through a doctorate all
dissertation in economics. I'm
embarrassed to say. I mean, I'm proud to
say. And they had this law, which is a
universal law. It's called the law of
diminishing returns. You've probably
heard of it. See, I'm going to do
business with you. The law of
diminishing returns means the more you
get something that you like, the less
you care about it. And you know it's
true. You get a new car, it blows you
away. For how long? Then it's a car just
like any other car. You use it to go to work.
work.
Same thing with everything. So
eventually you wake up and you realize
it is not about getting what I want. It
is not about avoiding what I don't want.
It's about finding out why I open and
close. That is something I am doing
inside myself. Can I learn not to do
that? Can I learn not to close? Can I
learn to stay open? And the answer is
absolutely. And that learning, that work
you do on yourself is the essence of
spirituality. Many beautiful teachers
are out there. They teach many, many
different techniques. In the end, it's
the same. They're teaching you how to
learn to stay open, learn to breathe, do
pranayyama, learn to do positive
thinking, all kinds of stuff. All right?
They're all in the end about how do I
get open and how do I stay open and what
do I do if I start to close. In other
words, somebody once asked me, Mickey,
you don't teach techniques like other
people do. All right, you talk about
staying open. How do I stay open? How do
I be open? And I said, don't close. I
have found over 50 odd years that you
don't know how to open. You need
something outside of you to stimulate
the opening process. But you do know how
to close. You do that very, very
comfortably inside yourself very
quickly. All right. Can you learn not to
close? And that becomes the essence of
all spirituality. Learn not to close.
Right? How do I do that? Well,
it's so beautiful. I like to say, don't
close. You will feel yourself start to
close. That's something you feel very
regularly. Somebody says something, the
weather bothers you, the driver in front
of you bothers you, and you're going to
feel your heart close. It's a natural
experience. Everybody has it, not just
spiritual people. You feel that closing.
You feel that tightening that's
happening inside. So if you want to be
happy, truly happy, I call
unconditionally happy. That is you're
happy regardless of what's going on. Not
just because something special is going
on, you have to learn how to close. So
the way I teach to do it is you don't
start with big things. You don't start
with the fact that you're having an
argument with somebody, you're having
trouble at work. You start with the
simplest thing. I call it the lowhanging
fruit in my new book, Living on Tether.
What is the lowhanging fruit? You walk
outside, it's hot out. Well, you're
going to find that you start to close.
It's too hot. Oh my god, I'm sweating. I
don't like when I sweat and my armpits
get wet and this happens, that happens.
You start getting embarrassed, etc.,
etc., etc. So, you can't even handle the
weather. Or you're driving somewhere to
deliver something and it's a nice day
and it starts pouring rain and you have
to get out of your car and you close. I
don't like this. I don't want to do
this. That's where you start your
spirituality in the everyday moments
that are unfolding in front of you every
moment of your day. It's not just some
big meditation retreat or something
you're doing. It's something you do
every single moment of every single day.
If you see yourself start to not like
something, you look at it and say, "Can
I learn to like this? Can I learn not
Let me start this way. Forget liking it.
Can I learn not to close cuz it's
raining? Can I learn not to close?
raining on my birthday. Why does it have
to rain on my birthday? Can I learn not
to close? Because as I drive down the
street, I catch every single red light,
one after the other. Oh my god, how
could this happen? They should be timing
these lights with computers. But I'm
getting every light. And I'm telling
you, you will close. You don't have to.
You start to work with yourself. You
start to ask yourself, is it worth
giving up the joy, the enthusiasm of
life because the light turned red or
because the driver in front of me is
driving 15 miles, 15 mph below the speed
limit. Come on, buddy. Don't you see the
sign or isn't using their blinkers? Nice
blinker, buddy. All right. You don't
realize these things are teaching you to
close. These things are teaching your
heart to not be open during these
different situations. So you start to
work with yourself. All right. How I say
what I have found is you relax.
Relaxation is a tremendously powerful
tool for learning how to close. In order
to close, you have to tense. It is an
act of resistance. And resistance
requires tension. When you're relaxing,
it's like judo. When you're relaxing,
you can't resist. If you relax every
muscle in your body, you can't resist
anything. And so when you start to
close, relax. Just deeply relax. Don't
do anything else. You don't have to
think about it. You don't have to judge
yourself. And you just start relaxing.
And people write me from all over the
world. All I did was that and it changed
my life. They write, "I'm having trouble
with my family, with my wife or husband.
We're not getting along. And I I really
am not comfortable in their presence,
but I want to be." All right. How about
this? Here's here's a technique. When
you sit in the presence of that person,
watch yourself close. Just notice that
you're closing and then ask, "Do I want
to close? Not just because I want to
love this person or be with this person.
Do I want to learn not to close?" Well,
here's your opportunity. So, what do I
do? Relax. But I don't want to relax.
Good. Relax around the fact that you
don't want to relax. Just keep letting
go. Keep relaxing around your heart.
Relax your shoulders. Relax your arms.
Relax in the face of the problem. Relax.
And you will learn to relax. You will
learn how to be open when you would have
normally closed. When when you want to
learn the piano, you don't start with
Beethoven or Mozart. You start with
scales. When you want to learn a sport,
you don't start by playing, you know,
the top tennis players in the world. You
get a ball thrower or a coach and you
start learning how to do these very
basic things. Why don't you learn not to
close? If you want to be happy, learn
not to close. And don't think it's
trivial, cuz you'll find out you can't
do it. I want you to wake up in the
morning and say, "I'm not going to close
today." Oh, boy. It turns me on. All
right. I'm not going to close today. I'm
going to go through this day. I'm not
going to manipulate it and make it be
such that it doesn't close me. I'm going
to allow the day to unfold cuz believe
me, it's going to anyways. And I'm going
to practice not closing throughout this
entire day. if you and you won't be able
to do it. And at night, you sit down,
you say, "How'd you do?" But don't
judge, right? Just like if you're
playing tennis, you hit hit the ball
into the net a few times. Good. You'll
learn how to hold your wrist
differently. You'll learn how to do
stuff. Or if you make mistakes on the
piano when you're playing the scales,
that's not a bad thing. It's a good
thing. It means you're learning. So, you
sit down at night. Did I close? Of
course you close. Of course, you resist
it. Learn to let go now. Why? This is
where it gets real. Why am I not happy
all the time? Why is it not my natural
state that I feel joy and ecstasy? Why
did God create the universe such that it
bothers me so it closes me? Why can't I
just be in the Garden of Eden all the
time? The answer is very simple. You
take take a look at it. Throughout your
life, things have happened to you that
were not comfortable. You saw things,
heard things, experienced things. They
went anywhere from somewhat
uncomfortable to traumatic. really
really difficult things that you went
through. Every single person went
through them. It always happens at some
point. All right? And the little things
happen all the time. The weather, the
this, what somebody says, you say hello
to somebody, they don't say hello back.
Why not? Why didn't they answer me?
Don't they like me? Just everything
bothers you. Okay? And you sit down and
say, "What did you do with those things
ever since you were little? What did you
do with the things that bothered you?
Cuz I know what you did. And I don't
even know you. Cuz everybody does the
same thing. I don't want to feel them.
They happened. They came in through my
senses, but I don't want to feel them.
I'm not going to let them in here like I
let that beautiful sunset in here or
like I let that beautiful hug of the
person I love so much and I melted in
their arms. No way I'm letting this
rattlesnake that I saw or this word that
this person said to me that that that
dissed me. I'm not letting that in here.
Or or I I raised my hand in class and
what I said was wrong and people
laughed. I'm not letting that back here.
I don't want it in me. I don't want that
touching me. Just like you protect
yourself from it. How do you protect
yourself? You have hands in there. You
have to understand that you have this
thing called will. You have the ability
to push things away that you don't want
coming in. And you have the ability to
relax and allow things to come in. So
when things come in, have come in
throughout your life that were not
comfortable to you, I'm telling you, you
pushed them away. You did not welcome
them in. You kept them at a distance.
And I have learned, and so did Freud,
that anything you push away stays in
there for how long? Forever. Until you
let it go, if you pushed it away, it
stays in there. No matter how small it
is. If if if you saw somebody and they
were, you know, let's say, holding hands
with someone, they they weren't
comfortable with that. All right? You
change your attitude about that person.
You didn't handle that situation. You
pushed it away. Now, the next time you
see that person, I'm telling you, it's
coming back up. Even the slightest
thing, if you were driving behind a car
that was a, you know, I'm old, I better
watch my years. A 2020 Mustang and it
was a certain color and the person was
driving. They kept stepping on their
brakes and it was driving 15 miles below
the speed limit. They didn't use their
blinkers. All right. Next time you're
driving, I don't care if you're in Abu
Dhabi and you see a car that looks like
that, your heart's going to close. It's
coming right back up. And you think
that's logical. No, it's because you
stored it in you. The other cars on the
road didn't come back. The white lines
on the road don't come back. The clouds
in the sky don't come back. The trees
you drive by don't come back. It's only
if you resist it. Otherwise, it comes
through naturally. You can still bring
it back from your memory. You still have
a memory. You know, mind has memory, but
it doesn't get stuck in there. But if
you resist it, I'm telling you, and
psychology does, too. All psych, if you
didn't do what I just said, they're out
of business. There's not a therapist.
There's not a psychologist. There's no
one out there doing anything because you
don't have a single problem. It's
because you stored your problems inside
of you that you don't feel joy all the
time. You pushed away every single thing
that ever bothered you and made a
storehouse out of it. And now it keeps
coming back up. Change remind you of it.
And you don't need something outside to
remind you of it. You can have a thought
that screws up the rest of your day. Yes
or no? Okay. Now, you can sit there and
say, "I need thought control so that
doesn't happen." That's not what I
teach. No way. What you need to do is
not shove that stuff down there. You
need to sit there and say, "If I shove
it down there, my thoughts can bring it
back up." Your words can bring it back
up. The problem is not your words. The
problem is not my thoughts. The problem
is that you stored this stuff down
there. I used to use the example, let's
say you went to a restaurant and you had
a meal and it made you sick. McDonald's
doing it nowadays. If you haven't, maybe
you haven't been local in the news,
right? Is people are getting sick. So
you ate some food, it made you sick. And
so what you did is you called the waiter
over and said, "Would you please give me
a doggy bag?" You took the doggy bag
home and you put in what you have
labeled in your house called the sick
room. And the reason you did that is I
want to make sure I never eat that
again. I want to make sure I don't have
that experience anymore. So I have to
remember what it was. I'm not I don't
want to forget what it was that made me
sick. So I stored it inside this room
and every morning I go in, I walk into
the room and I taste a little taste just
to remember what not to eat. All right.
Would you do that? The answer is no. Of
course you wouldn't do that. You're
doing that with every single thing that
ever bothered you in your life. You've
decided to store it inside of you so you
remember not to have it happen again. So
that you I don't know. I can't even talk
about it anymore. It seems so stupid,
right? You have made a storehouse of
everything that ever bothered you. I
asked the question, if you store
everything that ever bothered you inside
of you, what's it going to be like
inside? Oh, bothered. And that is what
it is like inside of almost every single
human being. And that's why we need all
this help that we need. It's not We
don't need help. We just stop doing
that. If you don't have that stuff
stored in there, let's do that for a
second cuz you guys are high, right?
What would happen if I didn't have all
that garbage stored inside of me that
I'm protecting myself from as I walk
through the world and then push it back
down when it tries to come back up. What
would happen? You will find out that
there's this thing that we in yoga call
shocki. It's a beautiful word. All
right. There is energy inside of you
that is beyond your comprehension. You
have felt it. In fact, Tonyy's really
good at bringing it up in. All right.
It's beautiful to watch him. Right. You
have 7 million times more energy than
most energy you ever saw Tony show or
have or that you ever felt from him.
Yogando once said, "You have so much
energy potential within you that it
would blow you blow you away. Your body
will blow up." Right? You have a
phenomenal level of shocki. Well, why
don't I feel it? Because you shove this
stuff on top of it. And I swear to you,
if you got that from my teachings, I'm
done. You understand? You have shoved
all this garbage on top of the shocki
flow. And that's why you don't feel it.
Well, sometimes I feel it when somebody
tells me they love me. If I love that
person, right? And they tell that's
because you open. That's because you it
finds the shi finds a pathway through
your blockages because you're more
receptive. If you're more open and then
you feel love and you feel joy when you
say you want you want something a
passionate job that you feel passionate
about. It's because a particular
situation people you're working with the
the facility who knows what the
particular job you we gave you to do you
open and then this shi comes up. So any
joy, any love, any enthusiasm or passion
you ever felt is shockti. Don't don't
think shocki is just you know the spirit
of god it is it is the spirit of god but
it's always there and it will come up
the moment you open it will come up pe
people feel shocki doing terrible things
you understand that don't don't paint it
white okay there are people I had a I
did 30 years of prison work max prisons
and I had beautiful beautiful men and
one very very beautiful black man right
he he'd miss the sessions sometimes he
wasn't big he was a small guy but he'd
miss the sessions And I asked him,
"Leon, why have you missed these
sessions? I know you love the sessions
and we only come in, you know, every
other week or once a week." And he said,
"I was in lockup." And I said, "Why are
we in lockup for fighting?" And like I
said, this is not a big man. And I said,
"Why are you fighting?" He said,
"Because it's the only way I can release
energy in here. I love getting in
fights. I don't care if I get beat up. I
don't care if I beat them up. I don't
care if I put get put in a lockup. When
I'm fighting, I'm feeling joy. I'm
feeling tremendous energy." So you know
it doesn't mean that only good things
will stimulate the shocki the shocki is
down there whatever opens you like
people do snm okay you're immature
people right all right they literally go
and pay money to to go through those
situations why it opens them whatever
I'm not judging it opens them and they
feel the same shocki the same love all
right it's just energy it's pure energy
so the question is why don't I feel it
all the time because you shove stuff on
top of it. You shoved all this stuff on
top of it. Well, why does some people
open about one thing and others open
about another? Cuz it finds its way
around what you shove down there.
Everybody shove different stuff down
there. Some people walk into a Catholic
church and they feel so open and so
passionate. Some people walk in, they
can't stand it. They won't even walk in
the church because of how they were
brought up. Different impressions that
were put on them. They were shoved into
have to go to mass or whatever it is.
Doesn't have to be Catholic. Could be
any religion, any tradition. So you have
these impressions inside that are close
you and then certain things can happen
and you open. That's all that's
happening. Nothing else is happening. It
is not about finding what you want. It
is about ceasing to be blocked. And that
is something you're causing your
blockages. No matter what happens
outside, it cannot cause blockages
inside. It requires you to resist. So
something that's very traumatic means
you really resisted it. You resist it.
You resist it. You resisted it so much
that you can't open. That's what PTSD
and these very serious psychological
issues are. What what about somebody
who's depressed? Do they have that
energy? They have just exactly the same
energy that Christ and Buddha had.
Right? Period. Exactly the same. Right?
But they've blocked themselves so
totally that they don't feel any energy.
I used to give the example I think using
soul that you your girlfriend or
boyfriend left you and they it was very
painful and and now you don't can't even
get out of bed. You don't take showers.
There's pizza crust all over the floor.
You're in a totally depressed state. You
don't even talk to your friends. You
just you you've lost it. You went down.
Okay. And you can't imagine coming back.
Therapy doesn't help. Nothing helps. All
of a sudden you need a phone call. Yeah.
I don't answer the phone. I'm so tired.
This ridiculous. I had people calling
me. You pick up the phone and it's your
girlfriend or your boyfriend. Hello.
Hello. I am so sorry. The worst mistake
I ever made in my life was leaving you.
I didn't realize it until I had to live
without you. Please forgive me. Can I
come over? I love you so much. How you
doing? All of a sudden, you take an
energy pill. No. All of a sudden, all
this juice comes flying up inside of
you. You clean the room up. You take a
shower. You stay up all night talking
and loving. Are you kidding me? It is
because you're blocked that you don't
feel energy. Now, if you want to sit
there and say the only way I can get
unblocked is to have something outside,
person, place, thing, situation, drug,
have something outside of me, open me.
That's very conditional. You will never
reach the state I talked about where I
want you to be where you're just filled
with ecstasy all the time, sharing it,
giving it, handling all of life's
situations with openness and compassion.
You can't reach that state by
conditionally saying, "I'm only okay if
you love me. I'm only okay if you treat
me the way I want to be treated. I'm
only okay if I get the car I want or the
house I want or I get the job I want."
It's wonderful. Do it. I'm not telling
you not to do it. By all means, go with
your business. But understand that's
very conditional and those conditions
don't last or even sometimes don't even
happen. So the way to to spiritually
says learn to not shove this stuff down
there and you're going to find out that
there's this joy underneath and that it
will flow. And it's not an all or
nothing. It's not like oh it takes so
long to be enlightened. Remember my
sweet Lord I really want to know you. It
takes so long George Harrison. All
right. No, that's silly. Don't even dare
look at it that way. Every single time
that you don't shove more in there on
top of what's already there, you're
closer to that shocking. And what will
happen is if you do what I talked about
while you're driving the car or the
weather or what somebody said, what
somebody didn't say or what you think
they might have said. I like that one,
right? What did he mean by that? And
then you start making this up in your
head that closes you and bothers you.
Why are you doing that? You have to
stop. There's a line O Oprah said her
favorite line in my new book living
untethered was the following. The moment
outside of you is not the moment in
front of you is not bothering you.
You're bothering yourself about the
moment in front of you. I'll repeat
that. The moment in front of you is not
bothering you. You're bothering yourself
about the moment in front of you. Stop
it. Catch yourself and learn to let go.
I don't care how you do it. Breathe.
positive affirmation. All right. Use
mantra God's name. I I couldn't care
less. But I dare you to say, "I am not
going to close
about that moment that unfolded in front
of me." You keep letting go. And what
happens if you don't shove more down
there? I'm as a warning sign. I'm
telling you, the old stuff will start
coming back up. Why? Cuz those of you
who know business, it's called a LIFO
stack. Last in, first out. You shove the
stuff down there. That's what you going
to think about. That's when dreams tend
to happen at night, the surface level stuff.
stuff.
And then the other stuff can't work its
way up because it's it's got this
blockage in front of it. Don't put stuff
down there. I'm begging you, don't shove
the moments of the day down there and
you will be happier. Why? Because you
didn't make yourself unhappy. Right? You
didn't do things within yourself that
close you and therefore steal your
happiness. You're stealing your
happiness. The world is not stealing
your happiness. you are. The world comes
in. The question is what did you do with
it when it came in? And I told you you
tend to do with it is manipulate it,
control it, push it away or cling to it
because you liked it, push it away you
didn't like it. You're building a
fortress inside that's very small. And
so you cease to do that and what will
happen is the stuff will start coming
up. The shocki no the stuff you
suppressed. The first thing that will
happen once you go through the what we
call the honeymoon period where you
start, oh my god, I'm so much happier.
Of course you are. You're not letting
the weather close you. You're not
letting the driver in front of you close
you. So all of a sudden you feel joy.
You feel more openness. That's
wonderful. But then there's stuff down
there that's going to start coming up.
Why? Because you're open. You're open.
All right. Well, what do you do? You
start practicing letting it go. Your
next phase of your journey is to say, "I
don't want this stuff inside of me." But
you don't understand how bad you treated
me. I do understand. I do have
compassion, but I don't want that stuff
inside of you. It's already over. It
happened a long time ago. And yesterday
is a long time ago, by the way. All
right? There was 24 hours in between. I
don't want that stuff inside of you
because I know what it feels like to not
have it inside of you. And so, when it
starts to come up, you actually feel the
tendency to push it back down. You you
relax. That's what I found. Just you'd
have the tendency to push it away. The
minute you feel that tendency, relax.
Relax the inner arms. So, they can't do
that. But then it's going to come closer
to me. Yes, it is. And if when it
happened, you would let it come all the
way through. It wouldn't be in there.
You wouldn't have stored it. No matter
what it is, it would have passed
through. It would have kept passing
through. But you didn't. You kept it.
Can you let it go now? And it doesn't
matter how that it's injust. You don't
understand. It was just Nobody said
about fair or justice or right or wrong
or any of that. That's stuff your mind
is doing. Okay? You just sit there and
say, "I shove that down there. It is
screwing up my life. It's keeping me
from feeling the energy I'm capable of
feeling that I want. I use all this
energy trying to get what I want." Why
don't you use some energy to let go of
what's making you not be happy all the
time? And so, you turn that effort
You turn that effort inside by relaxing
and this stuff starts coming up. I'm
telling you, stuff's going to start
coming up. Don't don't write me and say
it doesn't work. Yes, it does work.
That's what's supposed to happen. The
stuff will start coming up. First the
the little stuff, then a little deeper
and you learn to handle it. You
practice. It's like practicing piano.
Now you can do scales. Oh boy, now you
can do Twinkle, Twinkle. Oh boy, now you
can do some simple Beethoven peeps. All
right, you just keep progressing of what
you're able to handle. And you'll
realize you can handle anything until
you close. If you resist it, it won't it
won't keep coming back up. But you have
to decide, I don't want that down there.
I want a life of joy. I want that. By
the way, I haven't used the word God
much. The more that energy comes up, the
more you know God. And I'll do that
before I close to talk about that
relationship. But basically, let go of
this stuff that is coming up. Do I need
therapy? Maybe you might. There might be
something down there. I love therapy. I
love everything. All right. There may be
stuff that's so far down there that you
don't can't even see it or anything and
the therapist can help bring it up. I'm
not saying there's anything wrong with
that. But I'm telling you that it's
going to come up by itself. Period. All
right? The only reason it doesn't come
by itself cuz you don't let it. You push
it back down. If you will handle the day
outside and let go and then the stuff
starts coming up inside. I know it's
tough. It was stored with pain. It's
coming back with pain. Do you understand
that? Why? Somebody asked me why, right?
Why does that have to come back with
pain? Because you stored pain. That's
what you stored. You stored the bad
food. Why does that have to make me sick
when I taste it again? Because it's bad
food. All right? So, if you don't like
pain and you push it away when it comes
back up, that's exact pain you saved
from your 5-year-old situation. Your
parents got divorced, whatever it is,
that exact pain is coming back up. The
question is, have you grown enough,
evolved enough to say, "I don't want
that down there." Yes, it hurt and it
hurts when it comes up, but I want to
handle that hurt. I want to let that go.
I want to relax through it. That's what
we call it. You relax. Just like you do
a yoga asa, a decent yoga teacher
doesn't tell you the moment you feel any
tension, get up. They say relax into it.
Just keep relaxing. Just keep relaxing.
No, relax more. I can't. Yes, you can
relax. It's the same thing inside. I
can't handle this. Yes, you can relax.
Don't resist and you can handle
anything. When you're resisting, yes,
then it then that that resistance is
pain. And so stuff starts coming up by
itself. That's my experience with this
path, right? It's a natural path. It's
not any extreme thing you have to do.
Just handle the natural experience
that's happening inside. And when it
comes up, let it go. Your first point is
you won't you won't be able to you'll
you'll protect yourself from it. You'll
try to do things to make it so you don't
have to feel it. Okay? Eventually, you
will welcome it up. I'm telling you, you
will sit there and say, "Come on up."
And then it will go to another level.
You'll sit there and I there's a
beautiful level you'll get to once you
let go enough and realize that beautiful
shock is underneath there. And you shove
this garbage on top of it. Right? When
the garbage starts coming up, you'll
apologize to it like you would do a
child that was mistreated. You say, "I
am so sorry. Here's this pain of your
childhood coming up." You say, "I am so
sorry I shoved that down, that I pushed
you into a closet, into a dark closet."
Imagine locking your kid in a dark
closet. That's what you did to your
psyche that you did to that energy that
tried to that happened that you couldn't
handle. You pushed it away and locked it
down there. It's dark down there. Ask
Freud. Okay, those all the teachings,
the suppression, right? You pushed it
down there. I want to try to come back
and you push her right back. If somebody
you you're in a party with a group and
they start talking about a subject
you're not comfortable with. All right.
You either walk away or you tell
somebody, "I told you I don't like when
you talk about that. I'm not comfortable
with that." You're just pushing it back
down. You're keeping it. Eventually, you
will apologize to that part of your
psyche for having pushed it down there.
You'll give it compassion. You'll give
it love. And you'll help it up instead
of not welcoming it. And the pain is the
pain of soul birth, not child birth. The
pain of soul birth. People go through
tremendous pain to have children. They
go back for seconds and thirds, some
fourths and fifths. All right? And are
you willing to go through what it feels
like to let go of this stuff as it comes
up inside? And eventually when you start
seeing what's behind it, which is this
this flow of energy, what energy? The
same energy you called love, the same
energy you called passion. That's where
it comes from. It's natural within you.
It's flowing up inside of you. When you
stop blocking it, you'll notice your
days are way more beautiful. You'll
notice you don't love Yes, you love this
person, a person very special, but you
also love everything. You It's almost
like you can't handle your love. What
What should it be like? Right? Take your
hand, wave it across your heart. Waves
of ecstasy start pouring through your
being. Enough to where if you want to
feel love, just lay down in the bed and
pass out. Just feel the love. That is
how it is available to you. It is your
being. Once those chakras are open, why
do I say chakras? Uh all right. I don't
teach chakras, right?
I don't have to teach you a thing. If
you do this and you keep letting go, you
will write me say they write me say I
don't understand how all this pressure
is happening at I'm on center of my
forehead and I feel a tingling on the
top of my head, right? and and and my
heart it's just it's bursting. What's
happening? Well, there are things called
chakras, right? You don't need to know
about them. You don't need to know their
names, their color. You can nothing
wrong with it, okay? But they're real.
And you're going to feel the shakti come
up and open those centers all by
herself. You don't need technique. The
technique is stop blocking yourself and
all of yoga, all of spirituality, all of
beauty will happen by itself. because it
is your natural state.
So you relax through it and then some
something bigger comes up. You let and
you decide, do I want to let this go?
What would it be like if you let this
go? But it's really hard. And this has
been some things will come up that you
forgot were in there. They were way down
there. And some things will come up that
you don't know how they got in there.
People talk about past lives. I don't
want to talk about it. Right? There's
stuff down there that's very big. Okay.
As it comes up, and it will come up, the
shocki will push it up. The shocki does
not want to be down there. She wants to
be pushed up. She wants to be free.
She's trying to let go. And you're in
her way. When you start working with
her, right? Welcoming her, apologizing
for blocking her. You start feeling more
and more. And then some big one comes
up. Really big people have big stuff
come up. And it's what be instead of
being red hot becomes white hot in the
center of your heart. It feels like I
could never oh my god I can't handle
this. But do you want to know what's on
the other side? You have to want to know
what's on the other side of your little
self because there's something very very
great. You are not a human being. You
are not a human being. That's a joke.
Right? You're a being of tremendous
power, tremendous energy, right? Christ
blushes when he looks at you. If you had
a vision of Christ and Buddha and
Muhammad coming down, you who's looking
at it are higher than what you're
looking at. Your consciousness, your
inner being is is pure divinity. So, but
you can't find that if you got this junk
in the way. And if you think that you'll
find it because you found the right job
or the right marriage or the right this,
those are wonderful things. And I'm not
telling you not to do it, right? You
work at both levels. By all means, you
work outside, do your best, but
understand it ain't going to do it,
right? The job that turned you on can
turn you off. The person who turned you
on can turn you off, right? But this
doesn't ever change. The amount that you
let go inside of you and you don't put
more in that shock is permanent. It
keeps flowing and it gets stronger and
stronger. And then what happens where it
gets interesting at some point you
realize I'm witness consciousness. I'm
the consciousness looking at this thing.
Ram Krishna used to call it this. That's
what he called his lower self. This all
right? The body, the psyche, the mind,
the emotions, they're just this thing I
hang out with. You start seeing it and
you'll realize that it it it runs your
life. Your mind runs your life. And your
I forgot to tell you why in the in in
the unted soul, I talk about the voice
inside your head. And that everyone
likes it for that reason, right? It
really wakes them up. All right. Why
does your mind say what it says when it
says it? The more you let go, the more
you realize it was this stuff trying to
come up, right? And pieces of it chipped
off and they hit your mind, they hit
your mental body and they created
thoughts. And that's why you think what
you think. And that's why what is your
ego? It is that which the mind
came up from underneath and you built a
palace inside of yourself. A fortress
that says I like this, I don't like
this, I believe in this, I don't believe
in that. This is my eye. They are
thought patterns whose roots are in your
in your heart in your blocked heart and
they just create an ego. As you let go
of this stuff, the ego melts. There
isn't so much I like this, I don't like
this, I like that. It's just love. You
just feel unconditional love because it
doesn't need to express itself in the
mind that way. And now you have pure
intellect. And you're going to find out
you're way smarter. You people have a
lot of respect for very smart people.
You are way smarter than you think you
are. And I don't even care if you're
very smart. Right? You're you're busy
taking all your energy, all your
inspiration, and using it to block
yourself. Using to push that stuff down.
When you let stuff up and it finally
lets go, you're way smarter than you
think you are. Your mind's sharp because
you're not, it's not all cloudy with
your ego. The intellectual mind is
brilliant and everyone has a brilliant
mind. When people say don't they think
they don't think they're smart, I say
compared to what? Compared to Musk or I
shouldn't use that word nowadays
anyways, compared to this person or that
person or Einstein, that's a better
word. But compared to Einstein, right?
And the answer is no. compared to a
possum, compared to armadillo, and you
realize you have a brilliant mind. And
so you've blocked it. And so more and
more you understand it's about relief,
relieving the blockages, letting go of
the blockages. They have to let go. You
have to be willing to let them pass
through you. There's no way out except
through. You've heard that. And so it
all comes up and passes through. Comes
up and passes through. And you start
becoming happy, filled with love, sharp.
Your mind becomes sharp. You have
clarity and then something happens. At
some point you realize I'm the
consciousness watching this happen. I'm
watching myself relax. I'm watching
myself be blocked. I'm watching myself
close. And all of a sudden you start
relating to yourself as the
consciousness that's watching instead of
what you're watching. Now you watch your
heart open and close. Who watches that?
You watch your mind be positive and
negative. Who watches that? Who is aware
that there are thoughts? Who is aware
that there's emotions? Who's aware that
there's a body that has feelings? Who's
aware that the outside world comes into
the senses? Who's the end user in this
game? And you start realizing I'm back
here. That's who I am. That I am not the
ego. I'm the one who watches the ego.
And little by little, as the sharky
comes up, she's done so much already.
She brought joy into you. She helped you
stay open. You can have beautiful
relationships. And that's what she
thinks she's good for. Now you realize,
wait a minute, she's pushing me out of
myself. She's pushing the inner self,
the deeper self, the consciousness back
away from this little thing that I've
identified with my whole life, my body,
my thoughts, my emotions.
And you start feeling expansive, not
just happy within the container. You
start experiencing yourself as outside
the container because your consciousness
is only limited because you're staring.
You stare at your mind. You stare at
your thoughts. You know that. That's
what you do all day. All night. You
stare at your thoughts. You stare at
your emotions. And you stare that at
what your senses are bringing in. That's
the only reason you're limited. You're
not limited. You're completely
expansive. You're universal. Not you can
become universal. You are universal.
That's something I love teaching, right?
They say use it to go to God. I want to
go back to God. You are sitting in God
right now. Every single one of you are
merged in universal consciousness. But
you're staring at this tiny mind, tiny
body, and tiny emotions. You're addicted
to staring at that. Well, a drug addict
is addicted to a drug. That's all they
think about. That's all they deal with.
Their whole life is about the drug.
That's what you've done with your
personal self. You stare at it, but
you're really sitting in the seat of
universal consciousness staring down.
That's the fall from the garden. Don't
make it weird. Sins and all that stuff,
right? If I'm sitting in a seat and I
stare at a picture, a photograph, and I
never take my mind off of it. I keep
staring at it. That photograph is my
world. There's nothing else in my world
because that's the only thing my
consciousness is taking in. That's what
you have done. You're sitting in the
divine consciousness totally filled with
ecstasy exp.
But you're staring down at this one
little tiny person. Oh my god, there's
three and a half billion of you. Excuse
me, 8.5 billion of you guys, right? Just
on the planet Earth. And the planet
Earth is nothing. That's why I teach
this. I love to get in the astronomy
stuff. All right. It's like the 1.3
million planet Earths fit inside the
sun. And you're on this tiny planet,
right? And the sun is one of 300 billion
stars in a galaxy. And there's two
trillion galaxies, but you're busy
staring at this little tiny little
thing. And if you don't like my telling
you, then I'm sorry, right? I I know you
like to feel good about yourself, right?
Feel good about the self, right?
Otherwise, you're just staring at this
tiny little thing, caring about every
single thing that happens to it and
scared. It's so funny. All right. So,
you learn at some point the shocki will
push you up. It's an upward flow. It's a
natural. It's a waterfall in the
opposite direction pushing you up. It's
called the ascent. It starts pushing you
up and your consciousness can't stare
down comfortably anymore. It can do it.
You do your work, you do your job, but
you know that's not who you are. You
start relating to yourself more as the
energy than the energy of consciousness,
conscious energy. Then you do what
you're looking at and it pushes you
further and further back. And the
further back you go, the more ecstasy
you feel. And by the way, it's not
selfish. People say you're not selfish.
I just care about yourself. No, you
become a channel, a vessel to where all
that energy can flow through you. It
flows through you. You don't have to do
anything. People say, "Well, how can I
become a spiritual teacher?" I'm sorry.
You don't want to ask me because no,
you're not a spiritual teacher. Get
here. Die to be reborn. Let go of the
ego. Stop staring at yourself. And
spirit is the teacher. That's the only
teacher there is is God. Get out of the
way. People say to me, "How do I bring
up my child?" Right? I have trouble. I
want my children to understand all this
stuff. What can I do? Right? Let go of
yourself and let God be their parents.
Who do you want to be your your child's
parent? you or God. Get out of the way
and you'll see that every single thing
flows 7 billion times better than you
could ever do it. The ego can only do
what it believes, what it what it
learned, how it how it locked itself
into this tiny little place. The divine
spirit can change everything and do
everything. So the shocki is the answer.
Release, free the shocki. Let it come
up. All right? And it will start the
whole spiritual path. That's your whole
spiritual path. Eventually, in the
beginning, we say will is an important
part of the spiritual path. It is
eventually you will never use will. This
energy will come up and push you away
from yourself. And eventually the great
ones, the truly great ones merged. Mayor
Baba said Mayba was an enlightened
highly enlightened master consuming
avatar that his consciousness was like a
drop of water staring at himself
and that drop got pushed back and
dropped into the ocean. Take a drop of
water and drop it into the ocean. Go
find it. You'll never find it. Emerged.
You're capable of oneness of Christ
meant by my father and I are one. Right?
It's just it's real. It's literal. And
you're capable of that state. In fact, I
told you you're in that state right now.
But you're busy being addicted to your
thoughts, your emotions, what you like
and what you don't like and what turns
you on and what turns you off. Right?
You're addicted to that. As you let go
and realize that stop blocking myself,
you're going to find out you're not
addicted. You're addicted to God. Right?
Right. They say you might as well admit
you're addicted to love. Right? You're
addicted to this shocki. The shocki will
take over your entire life. So this is
spirituality. It is letting go of the
block. It's not finding spirituality.
It's letting go of the blockages that
keep you away from it. That's another
quote that Roomie had that's very
beautiful. I won't get it exact. It said
it is not for you to seek love. It is
for you to seek and find all the
obstacles you have put in her place.
That's exactly what we're talking about.
every moment of every day. You have the
ability and the right to let go of
yourself, to let go of what's blocking
you by accepting the unfolding of life
around you when it comes in. Notice that
it tends to close you. Okay? There's
nothing wrong with that. Don't get mad
at yourself that people say that I'm mad
at my lower self. Don't you dare. You
built your lower self. Don't you dare
get mad at it. Don't you dare get mad at
the tendency to close, right? You look
at it with compassion and understanding
and you do constructive things to not
close. And then what will happen? You
will feel the shocki. I'm sure you all
do. You wouldn't be there if you didn't.
Right? But I want you to feel all the
time. I want it to be something that's
constantly like people say, I meditate
and I feel pressure on my third eye. All
right? That should be there all the
time. Every second of your life. You
just feel a flow coming up to your third
eye. And and let's say you had to do a
presentation somewhere. had to do
something, right? Had a teacher, a
professor called me and said, "Okay, I
didn't tell I was going to do this. I
just impromptu do something." Right? You
don't have to plan. I don't want to tell
you this. I'll get in trouble. Right? It
will come to you. Inspiration comes from
above. The thoughts of the ego come from
below. The ego only knows what it knows.
It only knows what it's experienced from
above. It's part of the universal. It
has a attunement to everything. So
Europe, all I can say is you want to
talk about happiness. I hope that tells
you about happiness, right? Happiness is
ecstasy, right? What there's a name for
God in in the yogic tradition satan.
Satan, eternal conscious ecstasy. Guess
what? There's a name for the soul for
the for the indwelling soul in the same
tradition. You know what his name is?
Sachananda. They're the same thing. your
eternal conscious ecstasy to be begging
for some joy or begging for love. It's
just because you're blocked. Your
natural state is this complete openness.
Now, what about living in the world that
people say, "If I had all that ecstasy
and all that joy, why would I get up in
the morning?" Because love loves to
express itself. Because passion loves to
express and so on. Because creativity
loves to create. You're not doing it to
get something. You're doing it to
express what you already have. There's
the difference that and you become a
true giver. You're not a giver because I
have something and I really need it, but
I'll give it to you. That's not giving,
right? That's forcing yourself to to do
something nice. All right? When you no
longer need anything, you don't need
anything. You're whole and complete
within yourself. You think you need
things because you're blocked. You need
to compensate for it. You compensate for
your blockages. That's what you're
doing, right? If you let go of the
blockages, you will feel whole and
complete all the time. Now, when you
interact with the world, you're giving.
You're creating. You're just it's it's
ridiculous. And it's natural. Latu
called the Dao. Moments will unfold in
front of you. You will interact with
them out of love, out of peace, out of
compassion, out of giving. No need.
There's no need. You have no needs. Yes,
you need food, clothing, shelter. Not
much. Okay. Right. very basic and and
you're going to find out that such a
greatness is inside of you. So I'll I
have extra minutes. We'll do some more
questions. But basically, if you
understand this, you understand
spirituality. If you look at Christ's
teachings, you're going to see these
teachings are what he taught. That you
have to die to be reborn. Right? That
that I I you stand I stand at the knock.
I stand at the door and knock. Whoever
will open, I'll come in. That's a shocky
talking to you. Man does not live by
bread alone, but by word that leaveth
the mouth of God. All right? What does
that mean? You're not living off what's
coming in. That's not the only joy or
love you have by what comes in from
outside. There's this flow inside. Every
word that leaveth the mouth of God. So I
love you. I hope you understand these
things because every moment of your
life, you can become a greater and
greater being.
>> Not everyone's read your book. I wonder
if you just take a moment or two since
so many people are business people here
and tell them what you went through in
your business and how you learned to let
go in situations that seemed incredibly
difficult from a practical perspective.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Yes. Uh the first book I
wrote was uh the untethered soul and
that everybody likes it. Oprah said it
was her favorite book and she tells
everyone to read it so it's done well.
Um, living untethered, excuse me, the
untethered uh, surrender experiment was
the second book I wrote because I
figured I've been through so much and
I've seen so much. I want to share that
as opposed to making it just teaching
spiritual teachings. And so I I'm you
can read the book the whole story, but I
never had interest in money. I I'm not
saying there's anything wrong with it,
okay? And now I have plenty. But but the
net result is it wasn't it wasn't a goal
of mine. I didn't have interest. All
right. And what happened is I started
letting go of myself and different
things came and asked me to serve, asked
me to do things. Uh a a a sheriff came
out to my place in the middle of the
woods where I I dropped out, right? And
saw the temple we built. We built a you
know rough saw. It cost me $8,000,
right? In those days, a rough saw
temple. And he said, "Who built this?
Did you build this?" I said, "Yes." And
he said, "Would you build an additional
up? Would you close in my carport
because I I love the cedar that you
use?" I never thought of starting a
business, right? I didn't think I was
starting a business. I was just okay. I
said, "Yes." Why? Because I learned to
surrender. That's really what I should
say, Tony. But I learned I was
meditating six hours a day. I was doing
such intense sad. Oh my god. Crazy
little boy. All right. But I I was I was
doing it. It was the eye that was doing
it. And I realized at some point that's
not going to get it. All right. I have
to let go of myself. And so I decided to
surrender to life. Then it was a
surrender experiment that if life
brought something to me, whether I
wanted to do it or not, I would try to
surrender. I try to let go of the
resistance that I have to allowing life
to unfold. And so he asked me that and I
started building. I ended up with a
construction company. Not really big,
right? But it's just me and a couple of
people. But we were making money. And I then
then
I'm telling a story. I don't want to. is
I ended up walking to a Radio Shack
store in 1978
and saw this thing called a T80 model 1,
tiny little toy computer that Radio
Shack was selling, one of the first ones
out there and it fascinated me and I
never I took one course in college, an
introduction to Forran. It was on punch
cards by the way and so I knew nothing
about computers. I brought it home and I
taught myself to program. Why? Because
it was there and it was a challenge. And
long story short, you both don't read
the book. I ended up writing end up
writing a a practice management system
to run doctor's offices. And before it
was done, 33% of all independent
practices in the United States of
America running that software, we were
installed in the in the in the
Smithsonian for the contribution we
made, etc., etc., etc. It just went
crazy. 11 Blue Cross Blue Shields were
were uh private labeling the product and
installing it in all the doctor's
offices. It just went crazy. I didn't
ask for it. There were no meetings.
There's no planning. There was no
venture capital. It just all happened
step by step. I just served where I
could. In fact, and I I tell it because
that's what Tonyy's asking is how do I
end up writing people say said how did
you end up deciding to write medical
software? I didn't. I was writing just
little packages for a teacher's grading
system. Little tiny things. And I got
the same day I got a call from someone
in Jacksonville, Florida, a doctor and
in Gainesville asking if I had a billing
system that they could no one was
building were doing computerized
building in those days that I could do a
computerized building that would build
an insurance company. And I I didn't
want to do it. It was a lot of work. All
right. And I I said it could take two
years. Take a year and two years to
write something like that. All right.
And they said, "We'll wait." And I I had
already told them, "I'll try to find a
package." And I give them I think it was
a $3,500 bid each. I'll find a package.
There was something out of Miami
somebody had. I'll put it in. It' be
3500 bucks. It didn't work. It was filled with bugs. I couldn't do it. And
filled with bugs. I couldn't do it. And they said, "We'll wait. Will you write
they said, "We'll wait. Will you write it?" And I just felt this obligation. It
it?" And I just felt this obligation. It was so beautiful. I feel like crying
was so beautiful. I feel like crying now. There was no reason to say yes for
now. There was no reason to say yes for $3,500 each. All right. And I said yes
$3,500 each. All right. And I said yes because I said I'd give my word. And
because I said I'd give my word. And this is what life brought before me. And
this is what life brought before me. And I spent the next year and a half of my
I spent the next year and a half of my life writing this package and started
life writing this package and started hiring some people to help and so on.
hiring some people to help and so on. And that's how the whole medical marage
And that's how the whole medical marage came. And when it came time to put them
came. And when it came time to put them in to theirs, I charged them $3,500.
in to theirs, I charged them $3,500. Nothing else. That was it. And to me,
Nothing else. That was it. And to me, that's why it all happened because I was
that's why it all happened because I was letting go. I wasn't doing it for
letting go. I wasn't doing it for myself. I I just ran the business the
myself. I I just ran the business the best I could. I became CEO of a public
best I could. I became CEO of a public company. We went public. All right. Had
company. We went public. All right. Had 2,300 employees. were doing hundreds of
2,300 employees. were doing hundreds of millions of dollars of business a year.
millions of dollars of business a year. And I had never done anything like that.
And I had never done anything like that. I I didn't know anything about it. I
I I didn't know anything about it. I remember the first board meeting I had,
remember the first board meeting I had, public company board meeting, right? The
public company board meeting, right? The lawyers had to tell me how to behave and
lawyers had to tell me how to behave and what to say and what to do. I'd never
what to say and what to do. I'd never even been to a board meeting.
even been to a board meeting. So all these things happen and I just
So all these things happen and I just use them to let go myself and all these
use them to let go myself and all these different situations happen. And I won't
different situations happen. And I won't tell the punchline because Tony knows
tell the punchline because Tony knows what I'm talking about. Right at the end
what I'm talking about. Right at the end of the book where you get the last
of the book where you get the last section, you'll enjoy it very much. is I
section, you'll enjoy it very much. is I just used every single thing that
just used every single thing that happened to let go of myself. First let
happened to let go of myself. First let go, then do your best. First let go of
go, then do your best. First let go of yourself, then do your best at what the
yourself, then do your best at what the universe put in front of you. And that
universe put in front of you. And that that was a surrender experiment.
that was a surrender experiment. >> Michael, I just wanted to thank you
>> Michael, I just wanted to thank you because I I read your book in a time in
because I I read your book in a time in my life where I was deep in it with my
my life where I was deep in it with my fertility journey.
fertility journey. When I read your book, it really humbled
When I read your book, it really humbled me to a point where I was laughing and
me to a point where I was laughing and crying and I was like, "What in the
crying and I was like, "What in the world? Who is this man?"
world? Who is this man?" But your last chapter, I wanted to ask
But your last chapter, I wanted to ask you
you when that thing happened that we won't
when that thing happened that we won't reveal.
reveal. What was your
What was your >> talk?
It was that last chapter that inspired me to to declare that my 40s were going
me to to declare that my 40s were going to be a big surrender experiment. And my
to be a big surrender experiment. And my question to you was in that last chapter
question to you was in that last chapter when you were when you were served,
when you were when you were served, what
what had you surrender? Like how did you Cuz
had you surrender? Like how did you Cuz when I was reading it, I was just like,
when I was reading it, I was just like, what the heck? How? And the way you
what the heck? How? And the way you described it was just so like seamless,
described it was just so like seamless, but I I know that there's a human here.
but I I know that there's a human here. How did you fully surrender to it?
How did you fully surrender to it? So, so what happened talking is I got
So, so what happened talking is I got arrested
arrested and six year
and six year six the entire company got arrested but
six the entire company got arrested but a six-year journey for them to find out
a six-year journey for them to find out nobody did anything and they dropped all
nobody did anything and they dropped all charges
charges other than the one person that had done
other than the one person that had done stuff and lied and said we all did. In
stuff and lied and said we all did. In any event, it's a very interesting
any event, it's a very interesting chapter and it it six years worth of the
chapter and it it six years worth of the FBI and the entire Justice Department
FBI and the entire Justice Department doing everything that they can to put
doing everything that they can to put you in jail even though you don't even
you in jail even though you don't even know what they're talking about.
know what they're talking about. It was it was very interesting. So, you
It was it was very interesting. So, you asked a question, a serious question.
asked a question, a serious question. How do you go through that? Well, I
How do you go through that? Well, I remember and I I I say in the beginning
remember and I I I say in the beginning of that chapter in the book, I'm minding
of that chapter in the book, I'm minding my own business, go to go to work and I
my own business, go to go to work and I get a phone call from from one of my
get a phone call from from one of my lawyers at the company saying, "Uh, you
lawyers at the company saying, "Uh, you need to come home right away. Come to
need to come home right away. Come to the office right away." I said, "Why?
the office right away." I said, "Why? I'm in town." Said, "No, no, you need to
I'm in town." Said, "No, no, you need to come to the office right away. Drop
come to the office right away. Drop everything you're doing. Come to the
everything you're doing. Come to the office." Why? Well, the FBI is here. Why
office." Why? Well, the FBI is here. Why is the FBI here? It's a raid, right? It
is the FBI here? It's a raid, right? It was literally a raid, right? So I drove
was literally a raid, right? So I drove home, came there. I had no idea what was
home, came there. I had no idea what was going on. None. No one no one in the
going on. None. No one no one in the company had any idea what the heck was
company had any idea what the heck was going on. And so there was cop cars all
going on. And so there was cop cars all over the place and sheriffs and FBI
over the place and sheriffs and FBI agents and took over the entire place
agents and took over the entire place and they had guns. Oh, it was very
and they had guns. Oh, it was very exciting. All right. And they took me
exciting. All right. And they took me into a back room and I said, "You sit
into a back room and I said, "You sit here. Don't touch anything." And I
here. Don't touch anything." And I realized once I got some idea what was
realized once I got some idea what was going on that somebody had had lied and
going on that somebody had had lied and and tried to blame stuff on on the upper
and tried to blame stuff on on the upper management and basically this what I'm
management and basically this what I'm going to go through. And the moment I
going to go through. And the moment I realized it, I'm telling you the truth
realized it, I'm telling you the truth cuz I treed all these years. The moment
cuz I treed all these years. The moment I realized I said, "Okay, this is the
I realized I said, "Okay, this is the next thing that's happening.
next thing that's happening. >> I I it's not fair. It's not right. It's
>> I I it's not fair. It's not right. It's not just it's not anything, but it is
not just it's not anything, but it is what's happening. How do I use it to go
what's happening. How do I use it to go to God? How do I use this to be the
to God? How do I use this to be the final nail on the cross to let go? All
final nail on the cross to let go? All right. And I just determined that's what
right. And I just determined that's what I was going to do. That no matter what
I was going to do. That no matter what happened, I was going to let go of
happened, I was going to let go of Mickey.
Mickey. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> This this this would be a good one. If
>> This this this would be a good one. If God wants to get rid of him, this is a
God wants to get rid of him, this is a good one. Right. And and I had to be
good one. Right. And and I had to be honest. I had to let my mind think I
honest. I had to let my mind think I don't know how this going to end up.
don't know how this going to end up. This could end up in jail. And I knew
This could end up in jail. And I knew jail. I I did 30 years of prison where I
jail. I I did 30 years of prison where I mastered prison, right? It's not like I
mastered prison, right? It's not like I didn't know what it was like inside. And
didn't know what it was like inside. And so I accepted that. I said, "Okay, if
so I accepted that. I said, "Okay, if that's what happens, then that's what
that's what happens, then that's what will happen. I will be fine. I will be
will happen. I will be fine. I will be fine no matter what. Period. I will use
fine no matter what. Period. I will use it for my growth. I will use it for my
it for my growth. I will use it for my growth. I will use it to get rid of my
growth. I will use it to get rid of my ego." And that's how I went through that
ego." And that's how I went through that whole thing.
whole thing. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Beautiful. Thank you so much. Your book
>> Beautiful. Thank you so much. Your book is truly a gift. Thank you.
is truly a gift. Thank you. >> Hi Mickey. I remember uh hi love uh I
>> Hi Mickey. I remember uh hi love uh I remember we had the privilege to sit
remember we had the privilege to sit with Mickey at our home and we were
with Mickey at our home and we were going through a challenging circumstance
going through a challenging circumstance as well uh certain things in our
as well uh certain things in our business certain circumstances in the
business certain circumstances in the media Tony's health we had a there was
media Tony's health we had a there was you know just a unique acute stage of
you know just a unique acute stage of life and Mickey just said that he said
life and Mickey just said that he said just keep letting go and there'll be a
just keep letting go and there'll be a day where it just all goes away
day where it just all goes away And uh the notion uh what you just said,
And uh the notion uh what you just said, what Mickey just said is just so
what Mickey just said is just so profound and powerful and a reality that
profound and powerful and a reality that it's like, oh, and this too to use this
it's like, oh, and this too to use this to get that much closer to one's nature,
to get that much closer to one's nature, to God. Uh Mickey, you uh I can't can
to God. Uh Mickey, you uh I can't can thank you enough. Uh the untethered soul
thank you enough. Uh the untethered soul is our Christmas gift every year
is our Christmas gift every year because it's such a powerful uh it's
because it's such a powerful uh it's such a powerful experience. Chapter 17,
such a powerful experience. Chapter 17, living our life as if it was our last
living our life as if it was our last day. Uh you were just ever so lovely.
day. Uh you were just ever so lovely. But I just wanted to share that Tony and
But I just wanted to share that Tony and I uh we practice this and continue to
I uh we practice this and continue to you just keep letting go in the name of
you just keep letting go in the name of your own peace and it truly truly works.
your own peace and it truly truly works. And then and oh and this too. And this
And then and oh and this too. And this too. I'll say that inside my own mind's
too. I'll say that inside my own mind's eye. Oh okay God. and this to to let go
eye. Oh okay God. and this to to let go of to simply let go of it all in the
of to simply let go of it all in the name of our peace and happiness. So, uh
name of our peace and happiness. So, uh I just I'll never forget that
I just I'll never forget that conversation, Mickey. I'll never forget
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