rachael o'meara: hi, everyone. i'm rachael o'meara. i'm really excited today to behosting an authors at google event, talks at google. we have marianne williamson heretoday, and she's here to talk about her latest work,"how to overcome financial stress and live a lifeof abundance". marianne, if you aren't familiarwith her work, is one of our greatest spiritualleaders right now, motivator,
a lecturer, in general, someonewho is making a big difference in the world. so if anyone here is familiarwith her work, that's awesome. and if not, hopefully you'llcome away from today learning a few things about how you canlive a life of abundance. her latest book-- it's called"the law of divine compensation"-- is available in the back. and "return to love", which isone of her earlier works, is
also available in the back. and i'll just leavewith this comment. i think it's really importantat google that we bring in authors that challenge what wethink, and speakers who have open agendas and really justmake a difference in our culture at google to really bepushing the envelope and figuring out what's best, whatwe can do and how we can help. so marianne is here forthat reason today. and if anyone saw the movie"coach carter", she has a
quote in there that i reallyenjoy and i wanted to share with you before weget started. so what is in the movie is thefollowing, and this is marianne's quote. "our deepest fear is notthat we are inadequate. our deepest fear is that we arepowerful beyond measure. it is our light, notour darkness, that most frightens us". so with that, i'll leaveyou with marianne.
thanks. [applause] marianne williamson:thank you, rachael. thank you. thank you so muchfor having me. i tell you, i forget that i hadtold rachael i would be talking about abundanceand financial stress. we'll get there, because i'mgoing to instead go with what, since apparently i wrote thatemail, i've been thinking
about that i want toshare with you. but as you'll also recognize,it's all one big conversation anyway. so let's start with thisconversation about creativity and leadership. creativity, the way the westernmind usually thinks of creating something, we thinkof ourselves as being generative. and we think, i need togo create something.
certainly at a company likethis, you're thinking about that a lot. we got to create something. now a lot of this has to dowith, you could talk about it as a worldly perspectiveversus a more spiritual perspective. in a very real way, it's amore western perspective rather than an easternperspective. the idea of creativitybeing generative is a
very western concept. it's like the thought that ifyou bring a blank document up on your screen and you'vegot to figure out what to write on it. what am i going to createon this document? a more spiritual or metaphysicalprospective says, there's already a file. and your job is to downloadthe file. and it is an undelete-ablefile.
and it is creativity itself. hemingway was famous for havingtalked about how unless the story was writing itself,he put the pencil down. he would write, he said, everyday for as long a period of time as the story seemed to bewriting itself through him. once he felt that that was nolonger happening, he put the pencil down. and of course, in that fabulousbook, "letters to a young poet", the poet rilke,when asked by the young poet,
how do i know if i shouldbe a poet even? rilke's response was, onlybe a poet if you have to. only if it is the calling thatis within you that is undeniable. also in the eastern religions,in zen buddhism, of course, whereas in the western mind wethink of learning everything i need to learn so that then i canmake something happen, the highest creative moment in zenbuddhism is the empty mind. the zen mind in buddhism iscalled the beginner's mind.
so the practice of the east,or the practice of spirituality, is to take allthat you've learned, you learn it just so that thenyou can forget it. now it's still there, so that'snot a reason to not become educated. it's not a reason to notread the books and get the skill set. but the practice of the creativemind is to enter into the moment withoutthat clutter.
in the i ching they talk aboutpresenting an empty rice bowl to god. an empty rice bowl. now it's the same thing., theidea of an empty rice bowl, because it's said in theeast that the dao will fill the rice bowl. but if you enter in the momentthinking you already know, then that higher force ofcreativity, by whatever you call it, cannot workthrough you.
it does actually have acorresponding metaphysical principle in the new testament,when jesus said, be as little children. because in the course inmiracles, he says, what that means is little children knowthat they do not know, and so they are teachable. where adults too often walk intoa situation thinking that they do know, and so they're notteachable, which i think, by the way, is even more of apsychic crisis for males than
females in our society. because men are so bred-- we're all embarrassed to saythat we don't know, but men, particularly, it's almost likethey must act like they know. and that particular aspect ofthe mind is actually very detrimental to us. because the mind that thinks itknows is not the mind that ultimately knows. because the mind that ultimatelyknows is the mind
that, as it were, is receptiveto a higher vibration of knowledge. now leadership fitsin to that. because in the dao to ching,lao tzu said, to be a follower-- the way tobe a leader of men-- is to be a followerof the dao. so if you think of yourself--it's counter intuitive-- if you're thinking of yourselfas here to follow something higher, you manifest as a leaderamong other people.
if you act like someone who'strying to be a leader, people kind of wonder whatyour game is. because like, what areyou trying to do? because particularly today, withthis switch over out of the top down model, we're movinginto the idea of-- we have moved into the idea ofleadership as someone who holds a space for the brillianceof others. now if-- that's whatleadership is. leadership is i holdthe space, i
assume you're brilliant. that's the best thing-- ifyou're a leader on a team, the best thing you can dois to assume that everybody there is a genius. now the notion, metaphysically. is that all minds are joined,that on a level of energy and mind, there's really no placewhere you stop and i start. everybody subconsciouslyknows everything. if i'm sitting in a room withyou-- this goes way beyond
behavior modification-- because if i'm sitting in a roomwith you, no matter how nice i'm being to you, if ireally assume you have some real limits, you know that onsome level, whether you even consciously know it or not. but if i'm assuming that you,like everyone, has only scratched the surface of geniusthat lies inside all of us, that is the word salute. that's what salute means.
i salute you. i re-cognize that, recognizethat in you. and in my presence-- it's kind of like when you goto therapy, and you might be at a therapeutic session and atthe end of the session, you say to your therapist, oh,thank you, thank you. this was so good for me. the therapist had hardlysaid a word. you ever had those times?
it was the quality of theircompassion and non-judgment. in the presence, that's whattheir skill set was. the quality of their compassionand non-judgment called you. and so if a leader is simplyassuming that you're a genius, assuming that genius lies withinyou, that you have the potential for greatness, itliterally, in the presence of that person who is assuming thebest in you, you will rise to that level.
now, once again, i wasn'tseeking to lead you. i was seeking to followan inner light. now you can talk about thatinner light or inner understanding in secularterms or religious terms, spiritual terms. it's so irrelevant, thelanguage that we use. the point is that we'rebeginning to understand that there are-- what did i say, weuse 10% of the brain cells-- that there are expandeddimensions of consciousness,
and that when we enter intothose dimensions of consciousness, whether it'sthrough meditation, mindfulness, which is like thepolitically correct way of expressing meditation today,prayer, whatever our practice is, the idea is that weliterally-- it's a conversion. it's just like convertingin electricity. you're converting intothe wisdom mind. you're converting out ofthe strategic mind. you're converting out ofthe formulaic mind.
and this is what people arefinally beginning to understand. when you're converting out ofthe rational, or beyond the rational, you're not going intothe irrational, you're just going into thenon-rational. the non-rational isnot irrational. look at nature. look at how naturealways takes care of its young, right?
what is rational about a societyof geniuses that spends so much more effort onkeeping people down, harming people we don't like,incarcerating if they mess up? what's rational about this? it is insane. so if you get a bunch ofrational, so-called rational, people together who do nothave a sense of serving a higher good, you come up withirrational actions and irrational behavior.
and that is where we have cometo in our society and in our civilization, even when youlook at something like technology. technology, the idea of thematerial plane from a spiritual perspective is thatthere's nothing on the spiritual plane that is eitherholy or unholy, high minded or low minded, except as the mindascribes purpose to it. nobody needs to be reminded inthis room the incredibly good things that technologycan do for the world.
but nobody needs to be remindedin this room either the very destructive waysthat people can use technology, as well. this is where westerncivilization, particularly, is. this is where we are. we have all this, but the crisisnow is the crisis of significance and the crisisof importance. and will we use what we havedone in our society over the
last 40 years or so is that wehave taken the prodigious genius and education andcapacity of generations of americans, the most privilegedin a very long time, and used it primarily for unimportantends. and there are a lot ofsociological and political reasons for that, but theanalysis of how we got here is not as important as thatwe start anew. and in starting anew, we'rereally moving out-- many people are moving out of thesense of i don't know, i'll do
whatever i want to do. now the i don't know, i'll dowhatever i want to do-- when you look at the middle ages, themiddle ages was dominated by a church structure thatwas imprisoning and limiting to the mind. and it had a particular worldview, and anybody who didn't toe the line with their worldview was cast out, at best, and tortured and killed,at worse. the enlightenment,the 18th century
enlightenment, was so important. and this country was founded ofit. it was the idea of, no, the human being of themselves,without a church sitting on top of them, can usereasoning, can do whatever they want. but heidl said, it's thesis,antithesis, synthesis. because now we realized we hadtaken what is really a positive character, a logicalimage of the rugged individualist, and we've takenit so far that now we're like
the cancer cell whichhas gone insane. and instead of recognizing itsnatural intelligence which would lead it to collaboratewith other cells for the healthy functioning of theorgan, the cancer cell is a cell that says, i don'twant to do that. i'm want to go domy own thing. i don't want to just collaboratewith other cells to serve the healthy functioningof the spleen. i want to go do my own thing.
and that is malignant. and it just gathers othersick cells around it. that forms a mass, which is thendestructive, not only to that organ, but to theentire system and ultimately, to itself. and that is where the westernmind has gone. an individualist mentality hasbecome malignant mentality. it's one thing to be anindividual and to know that i'm a unique expression,as all of us are.
that's a beautiful thing. but even the rose knows it'spart of a larger garden. you have the rose and you havethe tulip and you have the peony and you have thedaisy and all that. but then there's this thingcalled the garden, and they all belong within the garden. the malignant thinking ofwestern consciousness is that we have thought, it'sjust about me. we've put competitionabove collaboration.
we have forgotten that there'sa bigger purpose here than just me getting what i want. so i think that's this eraof history that we're in. because we realize-- and i think that there is anawakening in our society, and i think, around the world, ofpeople recognizing that whatever mentality has beendominating things has taken us, literally, not figuratively,literally, to the brink of disaster.
literally. there are so manystress points. there are so many very, verygrim probability vectors for the next 20 years. and i think that all that's-- i wouldn't say all that'sneeded, but really the primary foundational thing that'sneeded is that shift in thinking, from i don'thave these toys. you here--
if this were something happeningcenturies ago, google would be seen as a wizardschool, like hogwarts. you are carrying-- this is wizardry. this is what would havebeen called wizardry. but the issue that you wouldsee, if it was centuries ago, there would be a conversation,is it the dark arts or the light arts? and i think the blessing on acompany like this, from a
metaphysical perspective, isthat there already is the conversation, we want to makepeople's lives better. but even that, i think thenext iteration is beyond making just individuals'lives better. how are we going to keep thisship that we're on from hitting the iceberg? now rachael mentioned my lastbook, "the law of divine compensation". so in that i talk abouta principle i want
to move into now. from the metaphysicalperspective-- and meta means beyond. so there's the physical,as above, so below. the notion is that there areobjective, discernible laws of the internal realms ofconsciousness, just as there are objective, discernible lawsof the external world. gravity, thermodynamics. same with the internalphenomenon.
nothing in this world, eventhe mysteries, are not mysterious if youunderstand them. the notion of a self-organizinguniverse is that you see certainimprints in nature. the embryo, the wayit becomes a baby. the bud, the way itbecomes a blossom. the acorn, the way itbecomes an oak tree. a little acorn is programmedwithin. a little acorn is alreadycarrying a blueprint by which
it will one day turn into anoak tree, a huge oak tree. the embryo. you have one sperm. you have one egg. and even though we can makepictures of it, the mystery by which it is programmed, somehowthose cells are going to divide and become a brain andbecome a heart and become lungs and become eyeballs andbecome skull and become hair and become skin and becomea vascular system.
i mean, it's phenomenal. and it's going to be put in thistiny little package to come out through woman's legs. i mean, the whole thing is alevel of genius that is so beyond anything that wehave come up with. the metaphysical notion is thatit is not just the cells and an embryo becoming a baby. it is not just the bud becominga blossom or the acorn becoming the oak tree, butthat every single aspect
of nature, there is an imprintof self-organization. not only self-organization,but self-correction. what that means is, just as thecell is programmed, its own native intelligence,when it is sane. we've already talked aboutan insane cell. it's called a cancer-ed cell. but a sane cell is recognizingits natural programming by which it collaborates with theother cells to serve the healthy functioning.
from a metaphysical perspective,you and i are all cells, also naturally programmedto collaborate with others in order to serve thehealthy functioning of the total organism, which is lifeon the planet as we know it. we had been taught aninsane perspective. and that's what gandhi said. the problem with the world ishumanity's out his mind. so when we are not thinking,how can i serve, we are insane.
and when we do think, how can iserve, it literally performs a conversion in the brain. so if you go intoany meeting-- and this is what-- i love what's happening in theworld today, because what people are doing today is thatthey're casting on to what i'm about to say, it's woo woo. but actually ripping it off andturning it into all kinds of leadership seminars and stufflike that, and say, but
we're not woo woo. when actually, they're sayingthe exact same things that the people they call woowoo were saying. this projection onto loveand spirituality, it's just woo woo. it's light brain. it's fuzzy brain thinking. as though, like i said, it'sreally intelligent to just incarcerate everybody that actsout of their desperation
or bomb people who dare todisagree with you, right? so that's really saying. but the idea here is thatwhen your attitude, your perspective is, before you walkinto a meeting, that you just send your peaceto everybody who's going to be there. you send your love before you. for some people, that'ssaying a prayer. for some people, it'sa blessing.
for some people, just sendingpeace, sending good energy, wishing you the best,beneficent, namaste. that's another thingwith americans. if we say it in anotherlanguage, we'll accept it. [laughter] particularly in northerncalifornia. fine. whatever. whatever it does for you.
the love in me salutesthe love in you. the christ in mesalutes christ. god in me salutes god in you. the buddha within me salutesthe buddha within you. it truly does not matter. it's that the wisdom in me andthe love in me and the goodness in me-- you will literally havea different meeting. and what it does is it plugseverybody into their natural
intelligence. now the idea of the law ofdivine compensation is not only is the universeself-organizing, which means just as every cell in the embryois already programmed to turn into the baby, thatperspective holds that you and i are already programmed, eachand every one of us, to become fully self-actualized. the oak tree is the full self-actualization of the acorn.
and the blossom is the fullself-actualization of the bud. and the baby is the full self-actualization of the embryo. the person you're capableof being is your self-actualized self. and you are programmed to be theman or the woman that you are capable of being on thisplanet, this lifetime, no less than the embryo is programmedto be the baby. but the difference between usand the acorn and the embryo
is that you and i can say,no, i don't want to. that's what free will means. i don't have to. i don't have to think thethoughts of complete service and compassion and love. i can say, no, i'm onlyhere for myself. i'm only here toget something. and i have an idea of what ineed to make happen, which is always based on something thathappened in my past that i
need to compensate for,that's why i think i need to make it happen. therefore, my core belief isthat things really aren't good enough already. therefore, no matter whati do, i will recreate a situation in which things arenot good enough already. so the attitude of, i'monly here to love is hardly woo woo thinking. it's the most sophisticatedthinking.
i have no agenda. i'm empty. how can i serve? wow, you're incredible. and dear god, if there's anypart of me that can't see how incredible she is, please removethat obstruction, in whatever language. and then you are literallyin a parallel universe of possibility.
and that's what's happening onthe planet, i think, is that we are seeking, some inreligious and spiritual ways, and some in secular ways, toreturn to that natural intelligence, whether it'sthrough mindfulness, whether it's through meditation,whether it's through spiritual practice. and even more importantly thatwe remember that when you do meditate, when you do alignyourself with these kinds of ideas, the point is not just tobe there while you're doing
your practice, it's what happenswhen you open your eyes, you go backinto the world. so that if i'm in a businessmeeting with you, i'm looking at you, thinking, the love inme salutes the love in you. if i'm in a business meetingwith you, i'm thinking, wow, boy, my judgmentsare really high. that's blocking thepossibilities that could happen here. i'm really willing to seethis differently.
you train your brain. you train your mind into adifferent perspective. the universe is self-organizing,yes. it's also self-correcting. and that means that just likeonce that baby, once the embryo turns into the baby, oncethe body is born and the lungs continue to breathe andthe heart continues to beat, the body also has an immunesystem, so that if injury or illness enters into the system,the immune system is
there to take careof the problem. we also, the psychicbloodstream, as it were, of humanity, we also havean immune system. an immune system takes the formof conscience, remorse, moral concern and so forth. that's why it's such aconversation in a society about sociopaths. sociopaths and narcissists. they're cancerous cells.
it's a malignant mentality,because it's only concerned for self. there's a lot of talk in societytoday, don't feel bad. with some people in somesituations, feel bad. because only a sociopath wouldnot feel bad in this moment. conscience is therefor a reason. remorse is there for a reason. nature provides us with thesethings as a way of bells are ringing and lightsare flashing.
no, it's not ok. it's not ok that 17,000 childrenare starving on this planet every day. it's not ok. it's not ok that americahas 2.4 million people incarcerated, that there aremore african american men incarcerated today than therewere enslaved in 1850. it's not ok that onein four american children are food insecure.
that's not something that agoogle thing is going to come up on your computer andsay, it's not ok. but if you say it's not ok,then when you consider the wizardry of things like googleand the extraordinary technological advances that havecome about, then we can handle all those problems. and that's why a place likethis is so important. i heard a man say not too longago-- he is a medical doctor-- and he was dealing with theseextraordinary machines that
are doing all the stuff with thestem cells and the genome. and it's just amazing whatmedical research is coming up with. but he was talking about theirony, and he's so right. the work we do to save one life,and then we so casually destroy many. that is an insanity factor, andno machine can fix that. but when we allow our hearts andminds to be aligned and we become deeply rational--
there's a line in the coursein miracles where it says, love restores reason and notthe other way around. and we see that all thetechnological and material resources, such as a google,such as technology, are here to be used in service to that,then there's nothing that we cannot do. now the issue of abundance isthat that is the abundance. that is the abundance. this mentality isthe abundant.
and when you are living inthat internal abundance, martin luther king said, youare surrounded by cosmic companionship. when you're just trying to makethings happen, you're not creating anything. you're making something. you're staying on the mortalplane and you're at the effect and will continue to be at theeffect of the laws of chaos and randomness.
and good luck and ihope you do well. when you convert to, i'm hereno more and no less than any other human being for purposesmuch greater than my mortal mind has any idea, i carrywithin me no more and no less infinite potential forbrilliance and genius. i am programmed no more and noless than every other person to be the highest actualizationof my possibility on thisplanet, manifest creatively in this lifetime.
and that as i do that, i willnaturally just as cells find themselves in the presence ofother cells who know to collaborate with them to do whatthey do for the healthy functioning of the body, to theextent that i'm living at that higher frequency ofpossibility, i will then naturally resonate withpeople who also play in the higher game. and we are all programmed, notnecessarily through what our rational mind can determine, butthrough our hearts, with
the rational mind inservice to that. and then not only do weactualize, but we become a huge corrective forcefor a planet that is absolutely in trouble. many years ago, when i was ateenager, i was accosted in my house, a man who broke intomy parents' home. and when this happened, and iwas in my bedroom and he came in the door, i had anexperience where every cell was alive.
every cell was alive. and i really had an experiencehow the human is programmed when there is real disaster. every cell of me was alive. i was catapultedinto behavior-- and what 17-year-old girleven knows, right? and i think that that's what'shappening on this planet. i feel it. there's a quickening.
i used to think, just, god,we would all say, americans are so asleep. i don't think we'reasleep anymore. i think there's a criticalmass-- there's enough people who, like, get the-- it's like storm warnings. and now, for us, remember we areprogrammed to be able to handle this. an immune system knowswhat to do.
and aids was a fascinatingmetaphysical, just as cancer is a fascinating representationof where consciousness has gone off, sois a suppressed immune system. we have forgotten, we arethe immune system. and when we see ourselves thatway and just have that action within, it sparks something. it sparks something in the heartand it sparks something in the brain, and it makesother people perceive us differently.
then what will happen,i think, is that we'll get going. and there is no doubt. i think we've already started. i just think we needto step it up. and obviously, companies likethis, and anything that has to do with technology, is part ofwhat not only can go right in individual's lives, but can beused in a collective way beyond anything you've even comeup with yet to turn the
ship around, so thatcollectively we do more than we're doing now. what we're doing now is that oneforce, people and forces in america, seem determined tojust throw us over the cliff. another force is trying hardto keep us from the cliff. what we need to dois just walk in a different direction entirely. and the universe is not onlyorganized and knows how to organize and it isself-organizing, but within
the infinity of spiritualsubstance, there are also the capacity to compensatefor any lack or any problem, when it exists. and that divine compensation notonly makes sure that you personally are taken care of,but something much more important happens than just thatyou are financially and career-wise taken care of. and that's that we become ageneration that saves the entire species from globalcatastrophe, which it is
absolutely not unreasonable toconsider possible, if not probable, at this time. does that make sense? so what i'd like to do, sincethere's a microphone right there, what i'd like to do withthe time we have left is for anybody who wants to, cometo the mic to either bring up a topic or ask a questionwithin this, and we'll talk about it. from a spiritual perspective,this idea of the shift, the
conversion, the shift from fearto love is nothing short of a miracle. because that miracle has to dowith the reprogramming of thought system so thatpossibilities exist within time and space that wouldotherwise have not existed. audience: so thank you for allof that great insight. for folks who are looking tostart that conversation, like you said, here at google, we'vegot a lot of analytical minds and outside of google,there's just
all types of folks. so how do you just start it,if there's a question that maybe you know others that mightbe interested or even not even close to where thisis right now, what you're talking about, they're justnot in that mindset. can you give us some tips onhow would you start that? marianne williamson: ok. now this is what'sinteresting here. self-organizing universe.
each of us are cells, soeach of us has natural each of us has a part to play. like every cell in the bodyhas a part to play. not only does it have its partto play, but no other cell has that part. so that's true of each of us. now, no cell says to theother cell, i know what you should do. because the guidance for everycell comes to that cell.
you start with the idea thatwherever you are, that's it. every situation you're in,whoever you're talking to, whatever the circumstance. if you are just standing there,there to be of service, there to be empty, thereto be of service, there to not have an agenda. because that's what we'vedone in our society-- you're taught that the way toreally handle a business meeting is to go in beforehand,what's your
intention, what's theresult you want, which sounds so lovely. it's so dark, because itreally means, how can i exploit you? how can i control you? how can i manipulate you,and how can i use you to get what i want? it has turned human interactiontransactional. there's nothing beautifulabout that.
there's nothing enlightenedabout that. so instead, we walk intoany situation-- and remember, i'm not tryingto generate anything. creativity, the intelligence,the higher intelligence of the universe, knows exactly howyou and i meeting in this conversation can best be used,how it fits into you learning what you need to learn, how itfits into me learning what i need to learn. if you and i trigger eachother, that's no
less, by the way. all i need to know is thatthis situation is an invitation to me to rise to thehighest version of myself that i can be, to be kind, tojust be available, to be in the present with you. and then life will take uswherever we best serve. and literally, it comes out ofquote-unquote left field. out of the blue. when people say to you, i justmet him out of the blue.
we just happenedto be talking. when you live that way and yousee it and things just happen, that's why it is hogwarts. it is. it's like, oh, justwhat i needed just happened to be there. why? because i wasn't trying to makesomething happen, she and i were just talking and beingkind and compassionate, really
caring about each other. and next thing i know, you, whois exactly what we needed, just happened to besitting there. the chaotic universe is the onethat occurs, ok, now what is it we need and how can we getit, and who can we find? i mean, there's an aspect ofthat, if it's of service to the higher. does that makes sense? so it's none of my businesswhat any of you
are supposed to do. it's none of your businesswhat i'm supposed to do. all we're talking about isshowing up in any room you happen to be in, knowing thatthe universe, whenever anybody's consciousness is howcan i serve and i'm available today, use me. use my hands. use my feet. and it goes without saying,the universe
can use smart people. a lot of them. necessary. now. doesn't that make sense? hello. yes. audience: i often find myselfbeing conflicted when a thought comes to my mind thatsay i need to serve.
for example, animals. marianne williamson:serve what? audience: animals. marianne williamson: animals. audience: or any gods,for that matter. the thought that comes to mymind is that a, yes, you are trying to be present and you'reworking on yourself. is this a calling that's comingfrom that truth or higher self, or whatever youmight want to call it?
or is it just your mind, yoursmart cell in your mind just saying, just presentingyou another way of feeling fulfilled? so for instance, the thoughtmight say, ok, you need to-- you really like helping animals,so you should do it. but then, another thought comesthat that could also be an egoic thing. how do you know it's coming fromyour true self, or is it your purpose--
marianne williamson: it's lovefor another-- it's love and the end of suffering foranother sentient being. the ego does not want you togive yourself to love and the diminishment of suffering ofother sentient beings. any voice that is leading tolove and the end of suffering for other sentient beingsis the voice of spirit. now if you have some egoicmotivations around it, like, oh, those people who--like me if i do that, then you check that.
but the impulse-- and by the way, i wantto say this. you have now been in a roomwhere for 30 minutes, we've spoken these kinds of ideas. it's very difficult tolie to yourself. when you're in a room,ideas grow stronger when being shared. this is a good time tolisten to yourself. you said serving animalsthree times.
yes, that's what your heartis leading you to do. that's your assignment. and we all have differentassignments. some cells are supposed to beworking with the spleen, some on the liver, someon the heart. your assignment is animals. somebody else's assignmentis the environment. somebody else's assignmentis sex trafficking. somebody else's assignmentis hunger and poverty.
somebody else's assignmentis-- because every cell is directedto go where it could be best of use. audience: that's helpful. and also, if you could talkabout, a lot of texts, in different ways, say that nomatter what action you do, it doesn't matter. it all comes down to, again,the consciousness with which you do it.
so irrespective of whether ido this or not, should i always be centered on that? marianne williamson: only anentitled, narcissistic era of americans could saysuch a thing. 17,000 children on this planetstarve to death every day. in addition to that, there are15,000 adults who are dying. there are a billion peopleliving on this planet on a dollar and a half,and less, a day. there are a billion above thatliving on $2 and less a day.
this is why the world looks atus and can't figure out what we're thinking. it doesn't matter what we do. yeah, that's real easy for us tosay here, isn't it, because we're all prettymuch making it. see, that's the thing. the club in america, and in mostof western civilization, if you're in the club,it's a great place. i love the club.
the club's been good to me. not enough people can get intothe club these days. and some of the things that arehappening outside the club are genuinely horrific. so the last thing that we needto be saying to ourselves or to each other is that what wedo doesn't really matter, as long as we have what,loving intention. what does that even mean? and there are people gettingpaid to say that.
what? how easy can it get? oh, that's cool. i don't have to do anythingto help anybody. i don't have to do anything tostop oppression or injustice, or human suffering, becausei'm just thinking love. there is nothing spiritual,nothing spiritual about that, nothing high mindedabout that. there is no legitimate, seriousspiritual path that
ever makes you feel like youhave a pass, you get a pass, on addressing the sufferingof other living things. audience: what are somethings you do to maintain your presence? marianne williamson:well, i'm a student of a course in miracles. there are many, manyserious spiritual paths on this planet. some of them are religious.
some of them are spiritual. some of them arepretty secular. it doesn't matterthe language. if it's in a secular-- if it's in a spiritual orreligious context, it will, by definition, involve dailyprayer and meditation. because the idea here is thatthe consciousness of the human race is dominated by fear. and so enlightenment is anunlearning of the thought
system of fear and accepting,instead, the thought system that's actually natural to us,which is that we love each other and we want to connect. but we are taught from thetime we are born on this planet, we're taught, we'reseparate from each other, that there's only so much abundance,so we have to compete to get some, which iswhat that book, "law of divine compensation", is about. rather than converting to thethought system that there's
more than enoughfor everybody. and if you get the goods, it'snot like there's less than me. so for me to just bless you,if i don't rejoice that you got abundance, then what i'mprogramming my mind to self-sabotage any time abundancecomes to me. because once i realize there'sonly of us here, if i begrudge you, i'll begrudge myself. so you walk around knowing that there's enough for everybody.
but this is more than anintellectual shift, more than a rational shift, becauseit's so at odds. so it really is a retrainingprocess. just like you go to the gymto work your muscles. and let's say i'mworking my arms. ok. and i have to do accumulatedrepetitions. because after a certain age,my muscles are headed down. so i work against gravity forthe anti-gravitational force.
that's how you build yourphysical muscles so that you can move. spiritual exerciseis the opposite. you're working on yourcapacity to be still. so you do spiritual exercises,forgiveness, compassion work, meditation, prayer,transcendental-- that there's so many. here in this part of thecountry, they're everywhere. different--
and if you don't know-- many people in a positionwhere you know what your spiritual path is,but you know you haven't been doing it. a lot of people with theirspiritual paths are kind of like, i paid the duesat the gym. i just don't go. other people in this room mightbe thinking, i don't even know what mine would be.
if you and your heart makea movement towards i'd be interested, books willfall at your feet. and then when we dothat, we're honing our attitudinal muscles. we're honing our attitudinalmuscles, so that if i see you and i see somethingid be tempted to judge, i don't judge. or if i do judge, istop and go, oh. and then the interesting thingabout that is whereas physical
musculature gives you the youcan move, you can move, spiritual musculature,attitudinal musculature gives you the capacity to be still. you have impulse control. you don't say thatstupid thing. you don't send that dumb text. you don't push the sendbutton when my-- technology has really givenus more power to blow it. because, i'm going totell him right now.
no, don't send that text. right, right. pardon? audience: we have "unyou send" at google. marianne williamson: good. good. yeah, i know. but then, doesn't it say-- thenit says that you undid something, so the person knowsthat you unsent it.
i've been there. i know what you weregoing to-- but the other thing about thatillness is not only impulse control, but the wisdom mind canget through the clutter. there's a term in both judaismand christianity, the small, still voice within. we meditate because the egomind, the voice of the world, speaks first and itspeaks loudest. and we meditate to cultivate acapacity for a wisdom voice.
it's that feeling of, oh, ijust got this great idea. i got it. i'm sure that happens hereat google every day. in various places, somebodysays, oh my god, i got it. well, hundreds of years ago,they would have said, the muse spoke to them. it's the same thing. this relates a little bit-- but it was fascinating to me.
i read an article in thenewspaper about a bunch of brain scientists from mit andharvard and all over, some of the greatest brain scientists,who got together. and they were having a meetingabout alzheimer's. well, not specificallyalzheimer's, about memory loss in older people. and they were workingon a theory. and this theory was the ideathat not all memory loss is a devolutionary factor in thefunctioning of the brain.
but rather, they were talkingabout the idea that as the brain gets older, in its geniusit would say, i don't need any more ofthose details. i get the pattern. i don't need those details. i already jumped to the higherunderstanding of what the pattern is. and all these brain scientistswere all excited about this. everybody at the table wastalking about it, because they
were all getting it, and theywere all recognizing this, and really turned on by this ideathat there's something in the brain that seems to be weaker,but it's actually stronger and it said that it dropped thedetails for a reason, because it's recognizing thehigher patterns. and they're all excited. and somebody said, oh my god,what do we call this? this is amazing. what do we call this?
and all of a sudden,it was just silent. because everybody gotit at the same time. somebody threw up their penciland went, wisdom. and that's what we're after. but we don't have time to wait'til we're old to be wise. audience: i want to know, whenyou talk about the law of divine compensation and youcompare it with the law of gravity, there must be somestrong conviction that you have that that's a real law thathas some basis for its
functioning and you haveconvinced yourself that that really exists andmay perhaps some mechanism by which it works. so i wonder if you could give ussome of that insight which you believe that this is atrue law that can be-- marianne williamson: the onlyarbiter of that conviction is experience. and i can't give that to you. so i would say to you, forinstance, why don't you try it
some time, just in case. now conviction is aforce multiplier. so a lot of people, forinstance, there might be some people in this room who, let'ssay, have been through recovery, the 12 steps ofalcoholics anonymous. there are many times-- i always say, in my work,people don't come to me because things are going well. oftentimes, when things aregoing well in people's lives,
they listen to people like meand think we're a bunch of woo woo crazy people. but then they get diagnosed withcancer, or their child is on heroin, or their wife goesthrough rehab, or they get divorced, or whatever. and there's something thathappens when we're like on our knees, and we're willing to hearthings that maybe we were not interested inhearing before. and then we recognize, becauseit cannot not happen, whether
it's the course in miraclesor 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous, these steps cannotnot work, any more than when you go to the gym. i mean, if you do it,it's going to work. if i do enough leg lifts, mythighs are going to change. it's going to not not work. you don't say that i havesuch faith in the gym. i just know how it works. if you go through enough in yourown life where you feel
you really messed up, and youtried to be a better person, you tried to clean things up,you tried to be more loving, you took responsibility foryour life, you made amends where you needed to, youapologized for it, you try to be more integrous, you try tobe more responsible, you try to be more reliable,your life changes. and then it's not just that youbelieve it, it's that you experience it. belief doesn't mean anything.
there are people who say theybelieve in god and kill people in the name of god. and there are people who don'teven believe in god, but they love each other and theystand on love. so they're conspiring withdivinity, even if they don't yet believe in it. it's not about belief. it's about experience. so where do i getmy conviction?
my experience. my conviction. my life. i notice that when i do mybest to practice what i preach, my life really works. and when i don't practice whati preach, those are the moments when i experiencechaos, disorder and unhappiness. so i'm pretty convinced.
audience: thank youfor all you are. marianne williamson:thank you. audience: and for allthe inspiration you bring to the world. and i've seen you already. and so my question isabout presence. but the question is more abouthow do you deprogram yourself from fear to love, fromscarcity to abundance? enlightenment, the course inmiracles as alignment, begins
as an abstract intellectualconstruct. we all know these principlesby now, love, compassion, blah, blah, blah. but that is so counter to thethinking of the world. it's easy to sit in a roomtalking about how we should all love each other. it's when we go out of thisroom, that life is constant temptation. so the spiritual journey is theabstraction, taking the
journey from the headto the heart. and that is what that attitudewe're honing, you're honing new attitudinal muscles. and just like with the physicalgym, the repetitions, the accumulated repetitions ofthat which opposes gravity, after a certain age, whetherit's your physical muscles or your thought ones, if you'renot working on keeping them up, they're headed down. and you accumulated repetitions,and that's what a
serious spiritual path is. and that's what meditation is. and that's what prayer is. i'm a student of thecourse in miracles. the course does not claimto be for everybody. if it's for you, you know it. there is some pathfor everybody. there are the world's greatreligions that have, they all have their mystical teachingswhich are at the core, so
separate from the organizeddogma and doctrine. there are meditation paths. every person-- there is, like i said, if you'reinterested in it, it'll occur to you. it'll be at somebody's house. it'll be a book on thefloor, whatever. but it does takedaily practice. and i think that a veryimportant issue that's also
very similar to physicalexercise, you never get to a point where you've done so muchphysical exercise that you look in the mirrorand go, cool, i don't have to do that anymore. on any day that you stopdoing it, the muscles will head back down. and the same until you're, iguess, the level of the avatar or the enlightened master orsomething, which i'm not, so i can't know.
but i know at the level beneaththat, the fact that you did it yesterday, thenmaybe you ought to do it today, because today will be awhole new set of temptations. and the higher you get,the higher the study. so the way life operates, in myexperience and everybody i know, is hey, you'redoing really well. god, that was really nice theway you handled that. that was really great. you were really dignified,elegant, wise.
how's that? because it comes from leftfield, you get triggered, and then you go later, oh. but in a real spirit journey,the word try is not a bad word. we all fall off thespiritual wagon. we say things. we do things. not our best moments.
we get up, and even thatbecomes part of what teaches us. because we really want to do itbetter next time, and life will always give usthe opportunity. but that's where the whole ideaof atonement comes in. the atonement principle is anamazing principle that you get a cosmic reset when you admitwhat you've done wrong. you acknowledge, you take responsibility for your mistakes.
and then-- this is where in a religiousnarrative, this is where buddha came 500 yearsbefore jesus. buddha talked about actionhas a reaction. every action has a reaction. and then jesus said, yes, butin a moment of grace, the karma is burned. so the eastern religions arereally into the recognition that every actionhas a reaction.
every thought createsform at some level. every thought determines howyou will then behave. every action will havea consequence. and that is the great gift ofthe eastern perspective. the western perspective is, andi can do something about it if i don't like that, thati can, that i can interrupt the pattern of karma throughatonement, through recognizing the mistake i made, throughasking forgiveness through whatever the practice is.
and that's really where-- andwhole nations need atonement sometimes, just likeindividuals do. and that's very much wherethe united states is. germany really-- you have to giveit to germany. germany flat out owned it. and i say that as a jew. so jews are veryaware of that. they owned it.
from the reparations to themuseums, to the everything. and that, i think, from themetaphysical perspective, is one of the reasons why germanyis doing so well today. the universe supported it. the united states, for whateverreason, takes this corporate, never apologize,never explain and never apologized. terrible. but whether it has to do withour refusal to apologize for
slavery, our refusal toapologize for vietnam, our refusal to apologize for iraq,we won't allow ourselves. as individuals we will, but thenation has some terrible karma, because of this infantilebelief that if i accept responsibility,i'm somehow-- that that's weakness. when in fact, spiritually, foran individual and for a nation, that's strength. audience: thank you so muchfor coming today.
you've come up in my lifeoutside of work and it's really special to haveyou here at work. marianne williamson:thank you so much. audience: i wanted to actuallyask about your experience of integrating or speaking thislanguage in environments or communities where the languageisn't spoken. how do you practice that? what has your experience been? marianne williamson:so much has changed
in the last 30 years. i mean, when i started mycareer, people would hear the things i was saying and go,oh, my god i've never even heard these things. i've never even thoughtabout these things. today people go, oh, that'sexactly what we were talking about yesterday. that's so interesting. it has become a mainstreamconversation.
now, your friends, if youcan't talk it, now you're like, so-- and then, whether you talk aboutit in spiritual terms or secular terms, it's not thatdifficult, because it's just about love. it's about compassion. so for people for whom the wordgod would seem like a freak, you don't usethe word god. god himself doesn't care.
it's just a word. it's love. it's the experience of ourloving each other. like in "les miserables" whereit say to love another person is to see the face of god. so more and more, i find iteasier and easier, because it's really hit a tippingpoint in the culture. it's mainstream, which is, ithink, a very good thing. don't you find that?
sometimes we have to justchange-- if you can't drop your jargon, then you'renot deep enough into the inquiry, anyway. audience: i was curious, irecently started learning about viktor frankland logotherapy. and he talks about the purposeor meaning in life. so i wonder how much of that hadan experience or influence on your thoughts or not? marianne williamson: very muchso, of course, as i think it's
a classic in anybody'sdevelopment of this understanding. there's only one truth spokenin many different ways. and i think viktor frankl isone of those people who, because of his own personalexperience and his own personal suffering, has hadtremendous, obviously, moral authority and effecton generations. and yes, he has been on mine,as there's nothing like someone who's been there andsays this stuff works.
audience: thank you somuch for coming. god bless, everybody.
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