November 2016

YOU ARE NOT THAT
     See how you want people to like you, how you want approval, and then that tells you who you are. You seek compliments, favors, applause, and smiles. You are not that person who wants approval.
     Now tell yourself who you are not. This is the exercise: “I am not _____”; “I am not my body.” You can never again look in the mirror and say, “I am my body.” That's good news. (Laughter). You never have to look in the mirror and get frightened. “I am not my body.” If you were your body, you wouldn't be able to live forever.
     “I am not my thoughts.” If you were your thoughts, when your thoughts go away, you would go away.
     “I am not my experiences.” If you forgot right now all your past events, experiences, who would you be? You would be no one, which is what you actually are anyway.
     You are not your successes, you're not your failures. You are not good, you are not bad.
     Remember the “I am not _____” exercise. "I am not that friendly neighbor. I am not that go-getter business executive. I am not that poor pathetic left-out-in-the-cold waif."
     Will you please stop talking about yourself as if you're real! Realize that anything you tell yourself about yourself is a lie — good, bad, indifferent.

DISPEL THE DELUSION
     Troubles on earth have no real relation to you. You and the clamor and the hurting of this world are entirely separate; they are two different things. You don't see this but now you're going to work to see it. You are going to dispel the delusion that because you're here with troubles surrounding you, the surrounding troubles have power to enter and injure you. They have no authority at all.