Your Life as a Gift - Sept 2005

At all times it is good and well to

remember that life is a gift and that

you are the steward of that gift. You

are the steward of that gift. Steward.

So all gifts. I was told that when I was

young, just the boy. And I really didn't

like other kids too much. So they took

me to the psychologist.

And she said, "Well, he's got a very

high IQ and he'll have to get used to

it. [laughter]

just born that way. Born that way.

So here you the attraction is to be

negative.

You don't want to let go of your

position. You want to shrink and hide

instead of being visible.

You see yourself as worthless. Affirm

the gift of life. So whatever assets

you're born with. So that was an asset

that the priest said it's a gift from

God and it's your responsibility to the

utilize it for the good of of mankind

life others etc. So now instead of

something to be like egoistic about on

the contrary it was now a

responsibility.

So if you have musical ability, if you

have athletic ability, if you have good

looks, whatever you have, money,

[clears throat]

capacity to be really super nasty, the

world can use you.

That's your gift. That's your gift.

One guy said, "You're a liar." I said,

"I'm the best in the world. You want to

hire me?"

That was his gift being glib. Yeah. All

right. So if you see your assets then

instead of a source of pride or egotism

instead of feeding the ego now you see

it's a responsibility

great wealth it's a heavy duty

responsibility I know people have great

wealth and frankly their anxiety was how

to best use it for mankind they really

were concerned about it they built whole

empires you know Rockefeller all these

great foundations have a huge stamp of

people who just researched the most

propitious and beneficial way to use

this for the good of mankind. People uh

don't realize that rich people can you

know feel a great deal of responsibility

obligation

to the world. Huh? to see it then as a

gift instead of yourself as worth or you

know affirm that your your life itself

is a gift and how can you best use it to

be of service to yourself and others you

know as the Dalai uh no um the skinny

Indian guy

>> Gandhi said you know

or was it the Dalai Lama I don't know

one of them skinny foreigners I don't

>> [laughter]

>> said it is not enough you know to just

seek enlightenment on your own and to

pray for yourself on the contrary but to

to use whatever you can for the

betterment of mankind in the meantime.

So that's mahayana rather than hinana uh

in which enlightenment is uh for the

good of of all. Yeah, they're the good

of all. So your enlightenment whatever

talents you have IQ genius good looks

strength physicality the capacity for

endur end endurance and the capacity to

break through barriers that's your gift

and so uh you give thanks for the gift

you're grateful that keeps you humble

that way you can be rich famous handsome

and good-looking like me

not have it go to your

>> [laughter]

>> It doesn't go to my head, does it?

Yeah.

Whatever, however you are, you you see

the gift in it and then you are thankful

and acknowledge the gift. You say,

"Thank you, God,

um for that disaster. Without it, I

would never become humble enough to

realize such and such. Therefore, no

matter what happens in life, in due time

with reflection, wisdom will show you

that it was something to be thankful

for. I am thankful for every event that

has ever occurred in my life. Although

at the time it was exquisite, painful,

shameful, guilt-provoking,

anxietyprovoking.

But in retrospect, you'll see that every

experience serves. It's because of your

intention to see in what way that it

serves that it's revealed to you in what

way it serves. If nothing else,

catastrophe shows that your life is

totally dependent on God and not on the

human ego because the human ego in the

middle of the desert

with no water and the truck on fire is

pretty powerless.

Pretty powerless. So all right those

lessons

the ri here the view of shame is a rigid

doesn't want to change it and become

correctable doesn't want to accept the

gift of life doesn't want to be

responsible that he is now the steward

of his life and to stop wallowing in

guilt and shame. It chooses to condemn

itself rather than forgive. It seeks

mortification

rather than affirming selfworth. It

likes to denigrate itself instead of

honoring itself. You see, once you see

your life as a gift from God, you have

to honor that. I honor thy presence in

me, oh Lord. And I do give thanks. And

thereby you sanctify your life. When you

sanctify your life, you've already

brought in a different spiritual context

and your experiences of life now become

confirmatory of that reality. So instead

of saying I am a worthless worm,

I don't go for wormism.

Why? Because it's v it's it's a it's

rejecting the gift of God. It's

rejecting God's gift as life. I am a

worthless worm. How can the how can you

stand me God etc. is playing a game with

divinity. self-hatred instead of self

forgiveness to be severe with yourself

instead of benign to be imbalanced and

see both sides. Yeah. So we'll move to

the next

and we'll get as far as we can within a

few minutes. The next uh slide next

slide please. Okay. [laughter]

You blame yourself instead of the ego to

identify with the ego. You see

you say you can say the mind thought

that or the ego thought that but I

myself don't know because the inner self

is innocent.

Instead of blaming the ego, you blame

the self. You exaggerate your faults.

You take a partial selective view. How

could I been so stupid? Instead of a

balanced view, you see yourself as loser

instead of corrected.

You saw yourself as losing instead of

learning a painful lesson. Yeah, you

lost on that one, but you're not going

to bet on that one again. The end of the

road. This is it. We're at the end. It's

all over. Doesn't see that loss is the

beginning of the new. You cannot begin

the new until you let go of the old.

Here, of course, you see yourself

unlovable,

which is again a violation of truth and

a negation of your worth as a child of

God. Huh. Here

you think the error is unforgivable.

Here you see the error is a lesson.

Legion. Now that's correct too.

That is a legion. That was a hell of an

error. I tell you this was a hell of an

error. I tell you

[laughter]

that's good legion. Anyway,

anybody can spell correctly.

narcissistic concern. hear your concern

for others instead of oh help me help me

it's how can I help you and by helping

them are you you're the one that gets

saved

indulgence instead of letting go self is

the center of life self is the

participant in life focus on the self

instead of others I should have done

this and the reality is you are not able

to we'll go to the next slide

I should have this or should have that

is dealing from the hypothe

hypothetical. The hypothetical is always

wrong. Anytime you hear your mind saying

you should have or ought to have