- Hi, family.
So welcome to Conversations,
and here I am this time of year, again in red it seems
and just jingle bells just moving through my head
and seeing it everywhere.
How can you see sound, how can you see sound?
So Thomas from Germany, there he is, hi Thomas.
- Hi Katie.
- Good to see you.
- So Thomas, read what you've written, please.
- Dear Katie, I'm very thankful
that you brought The Work to us.
I have a problem with which I struggle again and again.
Things are the way they are I know,
but I have done many years of psychotherapy
and I've learned that I should live my life
in an active way.
I should actively change my life,
and I have to take responsibility for what I do in my life.
You say decisions are made by themselves
without my intervention.
Does this mean that I wait passively
until my life is changing by itself while something happens?
And does it mean the act of changes are wrong?
I'm a little confused here,
maybe you can help me to find some clarity here.
Thank you, Katie.
- Oh, thank you for writing.
Let's see if we can look more closely at this.
You say things, you realize that things
are the way that they,
things are the way they are.
But in my life, I'll say things are the way they are
because they are the way they are.
And it's a truth, but I can say more to that.
Things are the way I believe them to be
and without inquiry, I'm stuck with that.
But no matter what happens, I am judging what that is.
And if I believe my thoughts,
that is the world I'm stuck with.
So I'm successful or I'm a failure,
as I believe me to be.
The world is only,
it can only be what I believe it to be.
You understand?
- Hmm, I can see.
- Now in the meantime, until you're just really,
through inquiry is the only way I know,
but as you continue inquiry,
it's like you continue
to live your life in an active way.
Good, and that you're proactive, good.
And also, you say I should actively change my life.
Good, change your life.
And you say, and I have to take responsibility
for what I do in my life, and I say good,
but also consider taking responsibility
for what you're believing about life
at least at the same level you do about what you're doing
with your life, or in your life.
Now as you are striving to accomplish,
if you accomplish your goal, then your ego is,
I am the one that did it.
And so it gives no credit to what,
it's like in my life, I invite, I invite you to,
as you're accomplishing these goals or failing these goals,
you know, just to look at those areas
where you claim you as the doer.
And just to consider, I'm not the doer.
So as I accomplish something in my life,
only an ego would take credit for it.
And that's not right or wrong,
but if I don't accomplish my goal, then my ego is deflated.
Either way, it's false identification in my experience.
And this is something that we eventually come to,
that it's a truth that rings in some of us as right.
And inquiry continues to show us in the apparent,
and you know, individually for ourselves.
Now I can't take credit to coming into this studio now.
I can't say I brought me here, well of course I can say it,
I'm saying it, saying the words.
But I brought me here on time, you know, oh good for me,
I accomplished my goal, you know, because all the proof
that I'm telling you is simply, it's nothing more
than what I'm thinking and believing,
and false images in my head
that would show me driving my car,
getting out of the car, walking into the studio.
You know, that's a dream in my head.
Now when we're asleep, we see these images
and what we're believing about those images,
and they happen (snaps fingers) so quickly,
and you can say how did you get here, Katie,
to this event?
And those images in my head,
I would be talking out of those.
And that's okay.
It's just do I recognize that it's all false?
Let's say I'm late.
It's the same thing.
So I'm inflated or deflated, false self, false self,
I hope I'm not confusing you.
(Thomas and Katie laugh)
- No.
- You seem to be tracking very well, you know,
and that's just how I see it.
In truth, I can say it is and it isn't.
What I speak isn't my experience.
And what I speak is my experience.
So let's see what else here, Thomas.
Does it mean that you have to wait passively
until your life changes by itself or something happens?
You know, you don't have to wait.
If you just look at it, your life is always changing
whether you're changing it or not.
As mind changes, life changes.
And we think it's life changing,
and the mind catching up with it,
but it's the other way around.
And no, active changes aren't wrong.
(Katie laughs)
Any other questions?
- That was my whole question at this time.
- It's nice hanging out with you again, Thomas.
- Thank you, Katie.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you for inviting me.
- Oh, my privilege.