“The world and the ego teach that there is always something on the screen that is the cause of your upset, and not only that, there is always something on the screen that is the cause of your happiness, like that giant hot fudge sundae; I am happy tonight because I get to eat my hot fudge sundae. Or, I got the woman I was chasing all my life; she finally fell in love with me so now I am happy and we go into the sunset.
No matter what it is: I have the right job, I got the right promotion, I have the right car, and I am living in the right area. No, no, our peace of mind and our upset has nothing at all to do with what is happening on the screen, but it has everything to do with our interpretation of what is happening on the screen.
You are always reading into things all the meaning that you are feeling. All the feelings you have watching a movie, for example, are coming from within you. You never react to what happens directly– you always react to your interpretation of what is happening.
What you need to work with is correcting your interpretations and perceptions. How many of us have tried to correct things in a behavioral sense? I am too fat; I will go on a diet. I do not have enough money; I will go get a better job. I have a certain kind of illness so I will go to a specialist that does an operation or that gives me a particular kind of medicine. Or behavior modification: I want to be a good Christian like Jesus and be kind so I am going to try to be a kind person.
Meanwhile inside there is anger or rage, but we are trying to put on a nice mask because we think we want to do the kind thing. Forget about your behavior. Behavior will follow automatically from your thoughts and perceptions. Do not try to fix things out there with your behavior but follow me inward with this. Look at perception and raise up the false beliefs. Then you will have a transformation of your mind.”
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