Overcoming The Tyranny Of Self

November 7, 2004

Samuel: Well, greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: Well, I’m glad too. It’s really nice to come in and see your energy so bright and big. [It] makes a big difference, it really does. So, how are you?

Great.

S: Aye. And what makes “great” out of “all right”? That’s always an important question, you know. It’s just an automatic habit when it’s “How are you?” “Oh, fine.” But when you change it, it’s important to know why you do. What is it that turns “Oh, I’m fine” to “Great”?

Well, for me, since I got back from the trip, and even on the trip, I noticed that when I would think about something or a person, they would appear or, you know, the thing would appear in my life within a couple of days. And, you know, sometimes

. . . 

S: Sort of scary, isn’t it?

Oh no. It was like, last night I was flying back from North Carolina, and a guy that I hadn’t seen that I taught with at Henry Clay [High School] who was a former teacher, and he had left, so I hadn’t seen him in six years, and he is now a colonel in charge of a tank division, and he just got back from Afghanistan and Iraq. And he’s somebody that I think about a lot because of my nephew, Phil, and so I think about Scott in the same way. He comes up into my mind. And so he’s come up recently for some reason.

So I get on the plane in Charlotte, and the plane is not full, and my seat is 16F, and he gets on, and I say, “Scott!” And he goes, “Suzie!” And he goes, “ Hmm, my seat is 16E.” So we talked, it was wonderful. It was just a great gift.

And so the gifts happen as quickly as I can think of them at their rate for me.

S: It’s a really good sign, a really good sign. The thing you’ve got to be careful about, though, is that the very same thing that has you manifesting the delightful and the good is also the same thing that manifests not so delightful, and not so good. What does it take to avoid that one?

Attitude and thinking about the good things in your life, rather than fear and looking to the things you can fear.

S: Well, that’s very definitely an important part of it.

[To Frank] What are you doing up front?

There was a space.

It was empty.

S: Well, aren’t you lucky? Watch him.

What is it that makes it just a little bit dangerous? Yes, what you’re thinking about, but another step beyond that. Paula?

Well, it’s perception. It’s when you recognize that it’s the same. You can see it in either a negative or a positive way, and when you train yourself to see it in a positive way . . .

S: Consciously, you are choosing to turn situations into the most positive that you can. Very good.

Steven.

One thing that could happen is that it could become an expectation and then you could judge yourself by it.

S: You’ve got to be careful of that. You’ve got to be careful of it. And, just in case you wondered, a comparative-judgment experience—what’s a better way to say that? Those times in which you find yourself in a comparative judgment are always because, instead of looking at the most positive, you are expecting the negative. And in your head you may be saying, “Oh no, I’m not expecting the negative,” but you would not be in a place of comparative judgment if you were not functioning with a negative underlying intent. Can you see how that works?

Now, what is a comparative judgment? Somebody, quickly. Not an example, but generally it is . . .

Well, it’s when a judgment is about oneself in comparison to a judgment about someone else. And it can either put you lacking, or finding someone who you’re judging that you can feel better about yourself, because you are putting yourself over the bar there. So it can work both ways.

S: “I’m better than this, I’m not as good as that.”

[To the puka Titi] Hello, I did not mean to knock on you like that. Will you be all right in spite of it? Must be stunned. Not saying a word there. Stunned.

And that leads to the word intent. And that’s particularly what I was looking for. It is your intent behind what it is you’re putting out there that is the manifesting key—your intent. And that intent for positive, for right, makes a big difference. And you can use comparative judgment as a self-test to be able to figure “Am I really coming from a place of fear that, therefore, is going to make this produce negatively, even though I am wanting to see it as positive?

And comparative judgement is one of the things that fits right into what I’m talking about tonight, which is tyranny. But we’ll get there in a bit. All right. So, David, you were going to add?

Then you came in with a question. I was going to say that we’re like magnets and we get whatever we focus on, so if we focus on positive, that’s what we attract. If we focus on negative, that’s what we attract.

S: And that’s perfect. Yes. And a good example of that—you probably have several in your lives—but one good would be to see yourself in a foreign city, and you’re wandering around—what’s a really exotic place? New York City—and you’re wandering New York City that is known to be a rather unfriendly sort of place to . . .

Out-of-towners.

S: Out-of-towners. I was going to say podunk civilians, but I’m not really certain that was the right phrase to use, so I just . . . out-of-towners is where we’ll go. And yet, how many of you in a similar sort of place have found that the generalized “they are unfriendly” was not true? That you find everywhere you go that people are kind and good and loving, and, oh, sure, there might be one or two that are drawn by the bad mood you woke up with, but they pretty fast go down the way. And you’re very grateful to them, because they reminded you that you must have something brewing that needs to be taken care of or they would not have been magnetized to you. Right? [Sarcastically] Yeah, right. Well, that would be the ideal version of it, wouldn’t it?

You are what you think, and you are what you let yourself hear, and say, and do. And at this time, in this world, when your ability to manifest what you’re thinking about is coming so big, so fast, you’re going to find yourself doing an awful lot of self-examination and maybe some back-pedaling to try to get yourself straightened clearly, because you are going to be manifesting, bringing into your world, you. You are going to be meeting yourself in a hundred different ways every day. It’s important that you remember that.

Now, who was next? [Pause] It must be me. All right.

This is an important month, a month in which you have a holiday that I think is such a grand thing for you to be doing. It’s a holiday based on gratitude. Yes? Thanksgiving. Giving thanks. And actually that is what I’m talking about, but it’s coming in a package that might be a bit surprising.

[To Oma, the dog] Hello, darling. They let you out, didn’t she? [sic] She’s not going to hold you trapped. Cindy, love, I missed you and Oma a lot. We had to use [the infant] Sanat [as the “barometer”].

He couldn’t run nearly as fast.

S: He couldn’t run as fast, that’s right. Well, I think there were times he was trying to chase his tail. I’m not real sure about that, but . . .

So, back to gratitude and thanks, but the direction that I’m coming from is not “Oh, look at all the good things you have to be thankful for”; it’s the energy you have flowing into this world right now, and why getting it clear and functioning at your highest frequency will bring you to Thanksgiving.

It’s so easy to look at the small picture and let the small picture guide your life. And that’s all right if you want to remain a small person, but I will guarantee you—and I don’t guarantee a whole lot—but I will guarantee you [that] in this world of free will, if you let yourself focus on the small things, you are going to get off track and never make it to what you are truly capable of doing. And that’s dangerous. That hurts you. And as it hurts you, it hurts your world.

Tell me for a moment—I’ll use Sanat—just a moment ago I said that we had to use Sanat as the German Shepherd running around the room. Let’s see, is there such a thing as an Indian Shepherd, do you think?

And Sanat is a little baby. Yes? How many of you know Sanat? There, a very well known baby. How does he view the world—and I’ve got to be careful with this one. You’re going to have to play with me here, because the way he views the world actually is somewhat different than how most his age would. But assuming that he was a typical child, how does he see the world.

I’ll go with that. It revolves around him. It’s giving him pleasure or pain. It’s giving him food, or comfort, or not.

S: Precisely. Is that twice?

No, but I mean if that answered the question, I don’t need to add more.

S: It anwers it well, that’s fine. Yes. Absolutely. His whole life is based on his need at the moment, and as a result of that, everything that he experiences is experienced through how his needs are being met.

What separates a baby from a child, adolescent, teenage, adult?

It doesn’t sound like much.

S: And, for some of you, less than you would think. Aye, love.

A lack of judgment.

S: Explain that just a bit.

That for the baby his world is what it is, and when we get to a certain point, then we begin to make judgments about it, which ties in your whole emotional body, rather than being able to see it just is what it is.

S: And those judgments, ideally, are based on the experiences that you’ve had from the time that you were only seeing through the eyes of your body’s needs and what you have come to know works in your world.

Put those two together. The judgment—or discernment, perhaps, might be another thing to say so that you don’t get it confused with comparative judgment—the ability to discern, the wisdom that comes from a process of revisiting your experiences and learning from them, which is to say—in a very simplified way—if you are only living for your needs to be met, no matter how important those needs are, because I will assure you the things Sanat wants in his life are very important things. It’s good to be fed. It’s good to be dry and warm, although you can be warm but not dry, you know, when you’re that age—sort of wet and warm. All right, so, as you focus on only your needs, you are functioning as an infant, and your growth requires you to move out of that narrow space that says it’s all about me.

And the reason that’s hard is the whole purpose of my talking to you tonight, because you are under tyranny. You are the victim, if you will, of tyranny. And I’m not simply making reference to your election. Not only that.

So what is tyranny?

It’s almost a disempowering control of others or your environment, or something like that.

S: Good. Good. Lisa, you’re phrase was . . .

Authoritative control.

S: Authoritive control, taking control.

I think a lot of it is the perception of those that are under the rulership, because in the past, in ancient times, you’d heard of times of the benevolent dictator. And the benevolent dictator generally wasn’t thought of as a tyrant, but they had total authority. So I think a part of it may be the intent and the focus of that leadership and how it’s perceived by those that are being ruled.

S: That’s important. That’s good. The perception of those who are receiving what could be considered tyranus commands.

Tyranical.

S: Tyranical. Thank you, dear. So let’s go with that.

I was going to say tyranny is the substitution of someone else’s free will for your own.

S: It is the perception of substituting somebody else’s free will for your own, and that works in there.

Tyranny is whatever stands in between what I want and me.

S: Yes. Yes. And as good as everything [that] has been said is, its bottom line is right there. And that’s filled out through the things that have been said. You are under a—well, I’d like to say that it’s a benevolent dictator, but you live in tyranny from the most powerful . . . I’m looking to find a word that fits—the most powerful office-holder, the most powerful . . . but I think I’ll just slip right under and get to the point—yourself.

You live in tyranny and you remain in tyranny as long as you do not realize that you are your jailer, you are your commander. You are the one who is making the decisions to be and feel what you are and do.

“But wait a minute, Samuel. I don’t understand how that has anything to do with Thanksgiving, and I’m not at all sure that I am a tyrant to myself because, you see, I only want what’s best and good for me. And I am willing to adapt and be flexible and—[to someone on the front row] do you think I’m going to knock it off the edge?

I just wanted to make sure it was stuck in there for you.

S: Thank you, love.

Compared to others you are not that tyranical.

S: There you go. Sure. Compared to Angela.

And yet the fact of it is, nobody can hold you in the bond that you hold you. And I’ll give you just a moment to see if you move to the reason why. I’m not going to have you just guessing, but why is it, what’s the key, why is it you are a tyrant to you? Why is it that your looking out for you and doing what is best for you, and keeping yourself alive and functioning in a world that is out to get you, why isn’t it that that is the tyrant? Why is it you? What does that tyrant keep you from? How does it manifest for you?

Heidi and then Kathy, and then Ken.

All of our reality is our perception. And anything that we perceive as being in charge of us disempowers us, and we fear change, and we don’t embrace change. And that’s the only way to embrace transformation.

S: Remember perception equals transformation.

It seems like the tyrannical part of ourselves is a product of our past that we let dictate our now, instead of going with what is, instead of being in the moment. We let the past guide us.

S: A very powerful dictator in your life that brings the tyranny that you need to avoid is the dictator of your past. When you allow your judgments needed today to be based on a fear of yesterday, you’re letting your past rule. And that’s a very hard one to move beyond.

Ken.

I think, for myself anyway, self-awareness is very important. So that if I’m not aware that I’m letting my past rule me, I’m in invisible bondage, and that can be carried on in a lot of different ways.

S: If you’re not aware of what it is that is running your life now, then you are in an invisible bondage to it.

And, yes, those are all excellent, excellent pieces of this—very good.

I’m going to move back to perception. You are moving along your life, doing what you need to do. You are working to live love, to be the best you can be in every situation, and then, don’t you know, you walk out across the street to come to a meeting like this. You’re just being so good and holy, and somebody almost runs you over with a car. And you jump back and you find yourself getting angry and upset and grumbling, because what you’ve done is you’ve let your fear have a very profound and negative effect on how you’re feeling, how you’re functioning in this now.

Well, maybe you don’t even have to go so far to almost get run over by a car. Maybe all you have to do is knock your foot against the edge of the couch one more time, or get served the wrong beverage one more time, or . . . and the key that I’m looking for in all of that is, it’s how you choose to react, to respond. Are you reacting or are you responding? And what’s the difference.

Emotion.

S: Emotion. Yes. A little more to that.

When you respond, you choose to take charge of your actions. When you react, you just . . . 

S: They take charge of you. Excellent. Excellent. Which is to say that when you are faced with the unknown, when you have a situation come up in front of you that maybe was not expected, you find out what you’re really like. You find out what you really feel. You find out what you’re made of at that moment, because you find out by your reactions or by your conscious choice not to let that reaction be your first step into the manifestation of this thing. Instead, you choose to take a deep breath, center yourself once again, and keep going out there, choosing how you are going to put yourself out into the world.

Your greatest dictator is you. The most harsh voice in your life is you. And, you know, for some of you that’s understandable. Maybe you should listen a little more carefully. But a person who is ruled by their own negativity, when your judgments are based upon what you don’t have, what you are not, what somebody else is keeping from you, when your life is based on that, it is impossible to have a life of Thanksgiving, because that negative, automatic pain, which is fear—that automatic overload, overwhelm, which is fear—the automatic anger, which is fear—is not from you.

“All right, hold up a moment, Samuel. Would you explain that just a little, because you said it was me. So now you’re saying it’s not me. How is it possible for it to be me and not to be me?”

Big me and small me.

S: Again, Harvey.

Big me and small me.

S: That works perfectly. The big me. The small me. The big me is what? The pigmy big me. Stop that! It’s the front row. It’s the side rows. Many of you just took right up on that. I told you.

What is the larger self?

The entity.

S: The entity, all right, the spirit you are. What is the smaller self?

Personality.

S: The flesh-and-blood version of that greater self as it’s working in this world. It’s sort of like a hand puppet. You have this, well, you pretend, you’ve got this—Hello, Puff—you’ve got this outer version that all of the world sees. Lost my hat. And yet that smaller self has a big dog attached to it—that would be me—that’s pulling the strings and making the ultimate choices. Sorry. Your spirit self. The what you were before you got here and what you’ll be when you’re gone. The part of you that speaks softly and gently, guiding you to the best you can be and do. The part of you that causes you to know, without doubt, that there is more to this than this [flesh], there is more to you than what’s seen. The spirit is what you truly are. The costume that you think of as you is exactly that, a costume, the puppet.

Your greater self is limited by your smaller self. And that creates in you a separation of mind that causes you to respond in fear. Now I’m saying all of that very, very slowly, very carefully, because I need you to understand how that affects your life.

Ultimately, everything you fear in this world, that you resist in this world, that brings you pain or difficulty or hardship, every one of those things is a response to the smaller you learning to open up for the larger you to work. But, you see, that’s the problem. That’s not how it should go. It’s not the smaller you opening up to let the larger you work; it’s the larger you learning to balance and function through the smaller you.

Now, think about that for a moment. That is a radical change in the way most people visualize their greater self, their spirit self. That in fact—[Oma groans] she knows—in fact there is a tendency to excuse yourself because you’re just human. Now and again you have these glimmers of power when you allow your spirit self to work through you, and the problem with that is what you’re saying there is the power in your life, your highest function, the greatest you can achieve, the happiness, the love, is all bound by your physical experience—what happens to you in this world is all you have available to you. And that puts an end to positive creation and higher function in your life and in your world.

Your belief in your humanity makes your humanity your dictator, and limits you, in this world, to the lowest denominator you are capable of—not the highest, the lowest. Why would that be? Because when you are working with form first, you’re not capable of moving beyond the limitations of form, and the way you see and think and do, the way you are—and that should have been ‘be’ but it doesn’t work right, and Suzanne’s in the audience—and the limitations that are attached to that, your personal experience so far that Kathy reminded a few moments ago is not the way you should judge your life, but that become all you have if your life is based on the tyranny of your humanity.

Your humanity is a gift to your spirit. It is a vehicle through which your spirit functions in this world, because what you are is a remarkable, powerful, beautiful being of spirit power, in this world to learn and grow and teach and create, to create a prototype—“Well, if Sharon can do it, I can do it,”—and if that’s in your neighborhood, or in your city, or in your family, you are there as spirit functioning through, not as, form.

And when you are coming from a place that recognizes that you are spirit working through form, then you have accessible to you the full function of spirit as your form can put it out there. Your manifestation is no longer based on what you had for breakfast this morning, or ten years ago. It’s not based on who almost ran you down on your way to work. It’s not based on what your parents did to you when you were five, or the neighbor. It’s about—wait, I’m going to come up with another piece of metaphor to go with it. Tonight when you got dressed, you put pants on, yes? Aye. Are you your pants? What are your pants?

Covering.

S: Yes. Covering.

Costume.

S: Costumes. You don’t think you’re your pants, though, right? You don’t see the world through your pants.

That’s a scary thought.

S: I might should have come about that one differently.

It’s really understandable, though.

S: I suppose I could have said your shoes, maybe. If I’d said your shirt, you would have done the same thing.

The point’s in place. It’s something you put on to enable you to do what you need to do at that particular time. Are the pants that you have on tonight different than the pants you’ll have on tomorrow night? Maybe. If not, try not to be around the same people. They might try to avoid you. Because that’s all it is. It’s a means by which you allow yourself to be appropriate for the situation, as you understand it.

And that’s what your physical experience is, a means by which you are allowing yourself a way to function here, in the way that seems most appropriate. And when you stop fighting that and learn to work with that, you are going to find that spirit dictating your life is a totally different grounds for growth than your humanity limiting your life. When your spirit is doing the manifesting, you draw a fully different card. You have available to you wholly different actions. You manifest your day-to-day experience in a fully different way.

You are a tyrant, and now you’re pretty well aware that what I’m saying is you are a tyrant to you. But, you know, sometimes you are a tyrant to others as well. Did you know that? Have you ever been accused of that—maybe not in those words? Maybe the word that was used was something like controlling, or what might be another word?

Authoritarian.

S: Authoritarian, that works.

Bossy.

S: Bossy. That’s the one I was looking for, yes. Yes. Focused. Disciplined. There’s a whole lot of nice ways to say it as well.

Obsessive.

S: Obsessive. Perhaps so.

Bulldozer.

S: Bulldozer, yes. That’s one of my favorite ones. And they represent fear. In the largest picture, you are manifesting fear when you are seeing the world through your human experience. You are manifesting fear.

Now, what does that mean. That means you are ensuring that you are going to have nightmares, right? No. What am I saying? It means that you are going to draw to you those things that amplify what you are afraid of. In the very same way, as David pointed out using the magnetism example, in the very same way that you draw to you what you need to prove what you believe—that’s bad science, but good living; well, all right, not good living, because it usually gets you in trouble if what you believe is that you’re not enough, you don’t have what it takes, you don’t have enough what? Education. Height. Language skills. Whatever.

[Oma moans] She’s channeling me.

Aye.

I’m having a hard time reconciling this with something you had said earlier about the problems being us, not necessarily being the little us letting the big us in, but the big us being able to come through. And it sounded at some point back then that the issue wasn’t us allowing through, but it sounds like now that’s what you are saying. So, okay, you’re a Democrat—flip-flop. That’s a joke.

S: No, no, no. I am saying ultimately, when you are basing your life on the small you, then you’re basing your life on fear, because you function in this world safely by making this world what you believe you are, can handle, can do. If you believe that you can run for thirty miles, you get into the New York marathon, yes? If you believe you can only run one mile, you don’t get into the New York marathon. You’re basing your life on what you believe.

Now, that large view is surely in there saying, while you’re thinking one mile, it’s saying, “Start going for the marathon. You can do more. You can be more.” And that starts putting into your life conflict that starts showing itself up as chaos in every area of your life. I am not saying that that’s what you want when you are listening to the large you. I am saying the large you working through the small you. And what does that require? What’s the difference there? Sure.

You need to be aware of your limitations.

S: Yes.

And accept your limitations, not begrudge your limitations and see them as bad, or evil, or negative, but work through them and do the best you can. I may not be able to run the marathon, but I may be able to sculpt this beautiful sculpture or paint a picture or sing a song.

S: All right, that works. I’m going to keep it in that particular example though and say, instead of saying, “Oh, I can run the marathon. I’m going to go do it,” and kill yourself, you take that information and you say, “All right, what can I do with it now?” You’re not letting your limitations guide you, you are saying, “For this to work together, that’s going to mean I need to start pushing my boundaries a little bit, and a little more, and a little more, until I have built up the ability to run that marathon.” Only spirit would say “do it now.” Only the small self, pushing its agenda, which is proving itself right, would say, “I can run the marathon? I don’t think so. I will try and fail and shut you up from here on.”

Frank.

Would that be then how the human self, the small self, uses the spirit self as a justification for sabotage?

S: it sure would. It sure would.

Because the spirit self is saying, “You can do it. You can do it. And you can do it.” And the human self says, “I’ll show you.” And does it right away.

S: Yes, yes. Why is it you think spirit works through your form? What is it form offers spirit other than feet, hands?

It’s teaching spirit.

S: Explain that.

What is possible.

S: It’s teaching spirit what is possible. Good. How? How?

Well, it’s teaching spirit what’s possible through a specific set of limitations, and those limitations teach through being able to take something really big and focus it into something smaller, but appropriately, so that that part that’s big can function through that part that’s small.

S: And what are the keys in what she’s just said there?

It’s teaching creation with love.

S: Very nice. Nicely said. Very nicely said. Specifically Mary Claire said . . . [Oma groans] Didn’t say it quite that way. She’s saying that rather than being used by what you cannot do, you learn how to do more. Form activates fear with its survival mechanism. Spirit activates manifestation through that survival-oriented form. If you let either one of them do all of the leading, you’re going to be out of balance and unable to function. Letting the spirit lead and the form shape allows you to bring into your world what you are best capable of doing in such a way that it doesn’t flatten you out, throw you off, trample you down, leaving you alone and in pain.

You have your human self—the puppet part—you have human self here to transform spirit’s energy into physical activity. I’m going to say that again. You have this form in order for your spirit to function in this world. And what that means is, you need to keep your physical self out of danger zones that are going to put it into security mode and thus limit what your spirit can do in this world. And how do you put your form into danger mode? You’ve said it five different ways tonight.

Lisa.

By the choices that you make.

S: The choices that you make, for instance . . .

Well, by reacting instead of responding.

S: Absolutely. Absolutely. When you put yourself in a situation where you say, “Well, I can run the New York marathon. Spirit told me that. So I’m going to go.” And on that fourth mile you fall in cramps and exhaustion and pain, and you’re hurting, and for the rest of your life you say, “I cannot run. I cannot do. I am incapable of because . . .” Or worse. Or worse, “I cannot listen to my greatest, highest self. I cannot be what I am here to be, because I tried it once and failed.”

Your physical self has limitations, but when your limitations are your dictator, it’s because you’re not functioning as you are here to function—as spirit working through form. It’s easily said: you’re not a human being trying to be spiritual, you are a spirit trying to be human, but at this time of Dragon power, that’s not fully accurate. You are spirit working through human.

You have the ability to bring into your life, particularly now, the highest aspects of what your spirit is about. You have the ability to bring into your life now those things that will allow the spirit you are to manage and work best in this world. You have in your life, right now, promise, potential, power, and if you let the tyranny of weakness rule you, you will not find yourself moving out of the place you are right now.

Where do you find the balance between being afraid to try and then trying too much?

S: How do you establish a balance between being afraid to try, lest you get your hand smacked, and pushing too much? What’s the difference between saying “I cannot run at all because I have fallen before,” or saying, “Well, I can run the marathon”?

You’re either looking too much to form or too much to spirit. Spirit saying “push, push, push,” and form’s saying “don’t try.”

S: That works. That’s good. Look for that balance. That’s good.

And in a practical way, I’ve found in my own life—because I’ve fallen on my face many a time because I’ve pushed too hard—is I start out with baby steps and see what my ability is. And if I think, “Well, you know, I’m not challenged enough. I can go a little further,” and then make my stride steps in accordance with what works for me.

S: Good. That works. That’s good. Heidi.

Along with what Mary Claire said, with small successes.

S: Pay attention to the successes, not just the steps, but the successes that go with it. That’s good.

Also, for me, sometimes I’ll do too much, but then I know that what’s needed is for me to back off a little bit. And I’m thinking in particular of the metaphor of swimming. You know, if I’m swimming and trying to build up to a certain amount, and I do too much one day, then I know that that next time I swim that I don’t want to do quite that much. So sometimes it’s just trying it, and you might do too much and then you just have to back off a bit.

S: And it’s allowing yourself the ability to evaluate the experience so far. Take it out, look at it, turn it around. “What could I have done differently? What worked here? If I take five more steps beyond this one, what will it do? Well, what if I just take two? What if I take one backwards.” You’re looking at it. You’re looking at yourself. You’re paying attention, but one of the biggest things you‘ve got to pay attention to is what’s ruling me here? Is it fear? If it’s fear, is it fear of failure, of hurting yourself, of. . . . The only fear that should be ruling your life is the one that comes out as fear that I’m not doing all I can be in order to be what I am, doing what I’m here to do.” That’s a legal fear.

When you’re looking at your life and what you see are extremes, that’s how you know that it’s time for balance. When you are in a place in which “I’ve got to run the marathon or stop altogether”—hello, that’s extremes. When you are in a situation in which you only have yes or no, that’s extremes. The master is able to see the options. And when you see them, you are then able to choose, not be stuck with the actions that come with it.

How do you know that you’re either letting go and quitting or giving too much? You look at what your options are looking like in front of you. Any time you’re in a situation in which it’s this or this, that’s a really good time to stop and take a look. Spirit sees more, because spirit is not looking through the eyes of fear.

But—and I’m going to move back to it now, and I want you to understand it carefully—but form is not capable of everything spirit would be capable of, and so it requires that balance. And when your life is at the extremes—well, you have a lot of phrases for that—when you’re burning the candle at both ends, well, I think those ends are extremes. What happens is you get to find out how powerful form really is.

Working through is going to be your challenge. It’s what you’re looking at right now. You are in a remarkable time, a time in which you’re going to have the opportunity, not only as an individual but indeed as a nation, in which you are going to allow your fears to limit what you believe is possible and bring to you the children of those fears. Whether that be the dictator of your personal past, the dictator that is cultural convention, the dictator that is what you think you’re worth, it’s a dictator, and you’re living under tyranny. And you’re living under tyranny because you’re afraid not to.

And so, of course, there’s very little you’re grateful for, and it’s particularly hard to bring into your life those things that bring you the sort of success that means the most to you—the sense of being love and of loving; the awareness of functioning, and doing and being your best; the power that comes from making a difference in the world.

Tyranny obliviates [sic] [obliterates] Thanksgiving, because when you are living under a tyrant—yourself—you are narrowing your focus down to that infant level, “I know what’s best for me and it’s not this.”

I’m going to close with something that I want you to think about anew. You’ve heard it so many times that you probably don’t hear it anymore, but based on what I have said tonight, try to hear this without the tyranny of your fears leading it. I want you to think about, as I say it, things going on in your life right now, going on in your country, going on in your world, and how you feel in the midst of all that. And open your heart and hear the power and the promise of this: You can change this world, but you can only change the world by changing yourself first, and the only way that you can change yourself is through love, with love, by love. One by one by one, you can change this world turns into one with one you can change this world with love, Thanksgiving.

Glochanumora.