You cannot change the past.
You can change what it is starting now
and make sure that it gets changed in the future.
But right now what is is the truth,
and all you could do is accept that or reject it.
You can't change the past.
What the world throws at us
is not necessarily your choice,
but what you make out of it is entirely your choice.
Yes?
What you make out of it is entirely your choice.
Your experience of life
this much you must come to every one of your young people.
If you want your potential to open up in the world,
one important thing that you must fix in your life
is your experience of life
either peacefulness or agitation,
either joy or misery, blissfulness or suffering,
whatever it is, your experience,
your experience is entirely made by you.
A lot of people think that other things
make them the way they are.
They will blame their past,
they'll blame their parents,
they'll blame the economy.
they'll blame the Aya Tola.
They'll blame somebody for things
that are going wrong in their life.
And one of the favorite things that we have
to blame for why I'm upset at a particular moment
is something called traffic.
Traffic made me upset.
And I've always reminded myself
when I'm in a jam or when I'm on the freeway
and I'm trying to get someplace.
The traffic doesn't care,
that you have within you, the opportunity
in this moment to really work on these things
that are perhaps debilitating
or creating anxiety or stress in your life.
That these are tests, these are opportunities for you.
Traffic doesn't care.
Your anger is your choice.
And you can always choose to be happy, angry,
depressed, miserable, upset,
or you can choose to be fulfilled and do something positive
in this moment.
It's always up to you.
First of all, every time we have a thought,
we make a chemical.
And if you have an unlimited thought,
you will feel unlimited.
And if you have a self-depreciating thought,
you'll feel unworthy.
And your brain instantaneously fires circuits
that signal another part of the brain to release peptides
or chemical messengers that signal hormonal centers.
And when we get that arousal from the thought
that we think,
those thoughts sometimes weaken,
the response weakens the physical body.
So, turns out that,
the emotions that are created from the thoughts
are the signaling mechanisms of the body.
Thoughts of the language of the brain,
and feelings are the language of the body and how we think
and how we feel, creates our state of being.
To me, I think enlightenment is
letting go of all the things we believe
that are not benefiting us, us in life
or that barriers to our life, to the good things in life.
And to release them one by one and to think,
I don't have to believe that anymore
or do I wanna believe that anymore?
And making a conscious choice.
When we can understand
that every single thing we believe has been a choice.
You're in a job you don't like.
If you're in a relationship you don't like,
if you're in a house you don't like
and you want something new begin to bless with love
where you are.
And know that you're releasing
your current situation with love.
If it's a job, release it with love
to the next person who will be delighted to have it.
If it's an apartment, do the same thing.
If it's a relationship, release that person with love
to happiness, which is meaningful to them.
and that leaves you free
to create and accept happiness that is meaningful to you.
You see, I believe that life is really very simple.
What we give out, we get back
and what we believe about ourselves becomes true for us.
Our thinking creates our experiences.
There is a law of thinking like everything else,
like all of nature.
There is a universal energy or law of mind,
or subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it,
but to me it means the power that is within me
and around me transforms my thoughts into experiences.
You see, I believe that we are all
responsible for everything in our lives.
Every thought we think, and every word we speak
is creating our experiences, our future.
And it's almost as though every time you think a thought
or you speak a word
that universal intelligence or energy
is listening or responding
to what you are thinking or believing or saying
without judgment or criticism
totally accepting us at our own value.
Whatever we choose to believe becomes true for us.
We have to be ready to do it ourself.
Remember, each person has come
to this planet to learn a lesson.
You have your lessons.
I have my lessons.
You have your lessons.
They're all different.
We cannot learn the other person's lessons.
We are not here to change other people.
We are here to change ourself.
That is what we've come to the planet for,
to change ourself.
If we try to do it for someone else
or learn their lesson or make it nice,
they don't get to learn it
And even if we fix it,
isn't it amazing how they turn around and recreate it again
And we all know people like that.
We've paid their rent
or we've gotten them out of some mess,
or we've done this for them or that form,
and two months later they're in the same problem
because it's their pattern.
It has nothing to do.
Teaching them how to get out of it.
It is much better if they're willing to learn
So it's like, you know, the student must come to the teacher
and when the student is ready,
the teacher is there always.