Today we ask you to understand that you have a choice.

You do not have to live lives of struggle and unhappiness.  Truly, you do not.

You have a choice.

You do not have to do the things you do.  It is very unlikely that someone is holding a gun to your head, telling you that you must work at your particular job, or be married to that person, or raise those children.

You have a choice.  What you do, you do by choice.  You do these things for a reason.

You can walk away, if you choose.  It is always possible to walk away.  You do not have to do these things.  You do them by choice.

You also have a choice in terms of how you do things.

You can do things in an energy of tension, fear, and struggle.

Or you can do things in an energy of relaxation, play, love, and joy.

You really do have this choice.

It doesn’t matter what you do.  You have all met the grocery clerk who is joyful, and you have all met the grocery clerk who is pinched and miserable.  

It’s not the job.  It’s you, believing you have no choice, that you are a victim.

But you are not a victim.

Even if you have a gun to your head, you have a choice.  You always have a choice.  You are not a cog in a machine.  You are not a robot.  You really do have a choice.

So choose wisely.

Do not do things that make you miserable.

Do not do things that make other people miserable.  This does not mean, martyr yourself for other people.  If you are miserable, you are creating misery for the people you love — it is a fact.  You cannot martyr yourself for your loved ones without creating misery.

You have a choice.  If you do things, it is because you want to do them.

And if you are doing things in an energy of tension, fear, and struggle — perhaps it would be good to get clear about why you are doing these things.

If you are incapable of doing something in a spirit of play, love, and joy, then perhaps you should not be doing it at all.

Choose wisely.

Today we ask you to know that the majority of the suffering you experience is unnecessary, and to a large degree occurs by choice.

Many of you were raised to believe that virtuous people suffer.  Many religions promulgate this idea.  Even if you were not raised in a religious household, this idea has seeped into the deepest wells of human consciousness.

It is a poisonous, false idea, and the cause of much unnecessary suffering.

There is nothing particularly noble or special about suffering.

There are times and places when suffering happens.  One experiences physical pain, or sickness.  One may suffer a loss, and feel grief.  It is a normal part of life.  But there is nothing particularly noble, or virtuous about it.

Associating suffering with virtue causes people to actively make choices that increase and prolong their suffering.  If any part of you believes that suffering is noble, virtuous, and makes you special, you will create unnecessary suffering in your life experience.  It is inevitable.  You will unconsciously, or even consciously, seek it out.

You all know people who actively play the “martyr” role.  Chances are, you do it, too.

Suffering is not virtuous.

Do you know what is virtuous?  Ending suffering.

If it bothers you to watch people suffer, look to yourself.  If you wish to end other people’s suffering, first end your own.

Much suffering is unnecessary.  But where suffering is linked with virtue, people seek it out.  Devout Christians used to mortify their flesh to show their virtue, abusing their bodies.  Such abuse still goes on today, in only slightly less visible forms.

Suffering is not virtuous.

Do you want to do good?  Look at the ways in which you believe virtuous people suffer.  Question your beliefs about suffering.

Only then can you end suffering — for yourself, and others.

Today we ask you to know that there is nothing to fear.

We do not expect you to believe this.  Nonetheless, it is the absolute truth.

There is nothing to fear.

All human fears are rooted in the fear of death.  There is a belief that energy can be lost, or annihilated.  Snuffed out of existence.

This is not true.

Nothing in your reality can be lost, annihilated, or snuffed out of existence.

Because of this, nothing can really threaten you.

Moreover, the underlying nature of reality is good.

You do not live in a broken, or defective reality.

Hell exists only within the human mind.  It does not have any existence outside the human mind.

It is the human mind that creates “Hell.”

Perhaps some of you have witnessed a crazy person, talking to himself.  The crazy person mutters and rants.  He is often in a very fearful state.

As the observer, you can perceive that the crazy person is hallucinating.  He may be in a state of extreme terror over his hallucinations.  Nothing can talk him down out of his delusions.  He believes they are real, even if you know they are not.  It is like someone on a “bad trip.”

Many of you dwell in similar states.  It is only a matter of degree.  When you are in the grip of anxious fears — even when nothing bad is actually happening to you in the present moment — then you are very much like a crazy person.  You are afraid of imaginary things, yet you are experiencing real physical fear.

You are like the child who fears the monster under the bed, or in the closet.

The only sane thing to do under the circumstances is throw open the closet doors, shine a light, and show yourself that there is nothing to fear.

There is nothing to fear.

Today we ask you to be gentle with yourself.

Most people are terribly hard on themselves.  

They continually push themselves, force themselves, criticize themselves.  Always they should be doing more.  Always they should be improving themselves.  They should be richer, thinner, smarter, and healthier.  They should do twice as much as they are doing now.  They should be more spiritual and evolved.  They should be more successful, and better known.  They should be getting ahead all the time.

This is an insane way to live.

Be gentle with yourself.

You can only do what you can do.  You can’t do twice what you can do.

There are times when it is necessary to push, yes.  But that cannot become a way of life.  You cannot always be pushing.  Human bodies and minds cannot sustain continual pushing.  Physical and mental illness is an inevitable outcome of such cruelty.

People often have a story that “taking it easy” equates with laziness and weakness.  This is simply not true.  Rest and relaxation are an essential part of any healthy existence.

Your physical bodies are no different from the physical bodies of animals.  Animals sleep.  If you observe animals, you will see that they sleep a great deal.  This is not because they are “lazy.”  They are simply attuned to their needs. Wild animals “work” — i.e. hunt, or forage.  They raise their young very diligently.  But they also play, and rest, and sleep.  

Be gentle with yourself.  Would you treat a child as harshly as you treat yourself?  Unfortunately, many of you do, usually unconsciously.  You would never consciously treat a child as harshly as you treat yourself, but unconsciously this behavior comes through.  So if you truly wish to raise a child with kindness and gentleness, you must be kind and gentle with yourself.

People who are gentle with themselves are gentle with others.  They are gentle with the world.

People who are hard on themselves are hard on others.  They are hard on the world.

Be gentle with yourself.

Today we ask that you appreciate your environment.  

All of you live in a certain space.  All of you have created an environment for yourselves.  Even if you have no fixed home, you live in an environment.  If some naturalist were to study you, they would find that you dwell, like all life forms, in a specific habitat.  

Recognize that you have a habitat.

You live in an environment that is very specific to you.

Many of you consider yourselves “environmentalists.”  And yet do you take time to fully appreciate that environment in which you live every day?

Many people do not appreciate their environments.  They would like a bigger, better habitat.  They fantasize about dwelling somewhere else.

Many people do not appreciate their co-habitators.  They wish the people they lived with were better — improved versions of themselves, if not different people outright.

On the most basic level, your physical body is your habitat.  Do you appreciate its many miracles?  Do you protect your personal environment?  Do you love your individual world?

Environmentalism starts at home.  How can you truly be an “environmentalist” if you do not love and cherish your own body?  How can you be an “environmentalist” if you do not love and cherish your personal space?

Appreciate your environment.  Take time to love and cherish your personal space.

Today we ask you to know you are meant to be here.

You are meant to be here.

Wherever it is you happen to be right now — you are meant to be there.

Whoever it is you happen to be right now — you are meant to be that person.

There is no other life you should be having right now.

So appreciate your life.  Appreciate your life.  Whatever life you are having — appreciate the good things in it.

And even if you feel there is nothing good about it right now — if you sit long enough, you are sure to find one thing to appreciate about it.  It can be so simple.  Just something that you feel good about.  Maybe it is a pet, that you love.  Maybe it is a favorite TV show.  There is nothing that is not worthy of appreciation.

So just find one thing, and sit with that.

If you sit long enough, you may find a second thing.  And a third.

And all of these things, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, form a pattern.  They are a reflection of you.  Whatever you love in your life — that is a reflection of you.  It is who you really are.

What you love — that is who you are.  

Not what you fear or resent.  Not whatever your dark self-image may be.  That is not you.

What you love — that is you.  That is the real you.  That is the real you.

So if you love an animal — notice how much you are like that animal.  Notice what qualities you share.  If you love a TV show — notice how the TV show reflects something about you.

The more you connect with what you love, the more you connect with who you really are.  And the more you connect with who you really are, the more grounded and rooted you feel within your present reality.

You are meant to be you, and no one else.

Today we ask that you feel and believe in your own goodness.

You are a good person.

Notice if resistance comes up as you hold this idea.  If a voice pipes up to say “No, you are not.”  It may start to give all the reasons why you are not really all that good, or perhaps not good at all.

Nonetheless, you are a good person.

The voice can say whatever it says.  That does not make it true.  If you pay attention, you will notice that the Voice is wrong about many things.  In fact, the Voice of Self-Attack is always wrong.

You may believe that the Voice of Self-Attack makes you good.  You may believe that it is only by cringing under the lash of the Self-Attacking Voice that you remain a virtuous person.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

You are good.  You were born good, and nothing you have done or not done since the moment of your birth has made you any less good.

All the Voice of Self-Attack does is create anxiety and stress, which in turn makes you prone to doing things that you may regret.  The Voice of Self-Attack does not make you virtuous.  It may make you into a pinched, tight person who clings to a sense of moral superiority — but it does not make you good.

You are intrinsically good.

Are you interested in being both good, and happy?

Then stop listening to the Voice of Self-Attack.  It is always wrong.

Today we ask you to understand that your life is good.

Whatever life you have been given — it is good.

And the more you know this, the better it will feel.  The more you believe this, the better it will feel.

Most people do not believe this.  They think life could be better.  Life should be better.  And if it should be better, that means it is not good enough.  And if it is not good enough, it is not good.

But it is all relative.  The grass could always be greener somewhere else.  There are many people who have very good lives, according to the usual standards — wealth, success, families, health — who are not really happy at all.  They too think their lives ought to be better.

And then there are some people who have relatively little, and yet are happy.

They are happy because they believe that life is good.

The joy comes from the belief — not the external state.  When you believe life is good, it is.

When you believe life is good, it is.

Reality is very simple this way.

Today we ask you to know that sometimes, when you experience crazy or destructive feelings and thoughts, the energy is not yours.

You live in a vast community of humans.  You interact and engage with them — even people you do not know, through the internet and TV.

It is actually very easy to pick up “thought viruses” as easily as one picks up the common cold — particularly when your defenses are low, i.e. when you are tired, lack rest, or are stressed.

Thought viruses increase your level of fear, and may cause you to experience anxiety, depression, or rage.

We say this not to make you feel paranoid about your interactions.  We say this rather to ease your burden of guilt around these matters.

Sometimes we feel very guilty when we act out, or behave compulsively and negatively.  There is a tendency to attack the self — to see one’s self as defective and bad for acting out.

If you recognize that sometimes the destructive thoughts and energy are not even yours to begin with, then perhaps this burden of guilt can be eased.  Insanity can spread like the common cold.  Look at places where a “mob mentality” takes hold — as in Nazi Germany.  Perhaps you will judge other people less harshly when you recognize insanity can be contagious.

Your main defense against this is to keep your body and mind healthy, strong, and relaxed.  A good psychic immune system can withstand even the most potent thought virus.

Today we ask you to consider how darkness can create light.

Normally one thinks of darkness as the antithesis of light.  Darkness snuffs out light.  Darkness is frightening.  It is an absence, a nothingness, an emptiness.

Emotional darkness feels bad.  Dark emotions include anger and despair.  Dark emotions are hot.  They are heavy.  They are sticky.  They may feel like a morass, a bog that you cannot escape, that drags you down and suffocates you.

But there is another way to think about darkness.

Good things happen in the dark.

Seeds germinate underground.  Life quickens in the womb.

One of the most magnificent things that happens in the darkness is the birth of a star.

Stars are born out of great, vast clouds of gas and dust.  The dust is dark.  It collects, it thickens, it becomes gravitationally dense.  It becomes hot, heavy, and sticky.  And it gets hotter, and heavier, and stickier.  

There is a sense of terrible pressure building.  Unbearable, suffocating pressure.  And it is dark in that dust cloud — so dark that all is blackness, and no stars can be seen.  

The dust swirls, and gets denser, and denser, until at last…

It ignites.  A star is born.

Darkness becomes light.  Light that blazes through the heavens.  Light that shines on worlds, and creates life.  Light that burns for billions of years, and can be seen across the universe.

That is how darkness creates light.

It is the same with human souls.  It is the darkness that creates light — the dark places, the dark emotions, the heaviness, the hotness, the stickiness.  This is all fuel for the great fusion reactor of the human soul.

Sometimes, when things get very heavy indeed, there is a chain reaction.  A human soul ignites, like a star.  This is what is sometimes called “enlightenment.”  It can happen to all of you.

So do not fear the darkness.  It is star stuff.