"There is conditioning in our mind streams, but what we are drawn by, what has brought us here, is closer and deeper than any conditioning."

How is it possible to penetrate the conditioning of our minds, the play of ego and superego, and discover our true identity? What if we just give up the game entirely? In this exchange, Gangaji deconstructs the egoic habits of judging ourselves and others demonstrating how an egoic trap can become the open door into consciousness.

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"The real challenge is to include all, every aspect of yourself. Even the aspect that hates can be loved."

When we take a spiritual path, we may be seeking our enlightenment or our awakening. But perhaps what is truly wanted cannot be discovered in any spiritual technique or acquisition or achievement, but rather in surrender, in the surrender to love one another. As Gangaji shares in this episode, "if we are beginning in love then there is really nowhere to go but here."

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"We have overlooked what was actually innocent and was called stupid. We lost our stupidity and in that we lost our heart. Yet, we are haunted by the fear that we are still actually stupid."

We fear being stupid or foolish and try to be brilliant and clever. It is an aspect of our human drive for survival. In this episode of Being Yourself, Gangaji speaks to the unnecessary suffering that can be created through the mind's power to distinguish, delineate, and classify with ever greater subtlety. Without making that power wrong or bad, what if for just one moment, we give up that power and embrace our "stupidity?" What might be discovered?

"You cannot learn the Self, you cannot learn Consciousness, you cannot learn Love, you cannot learn Trust, but you can learn how you deny that."

"What deepens is the mind's surrender because the mind's whole job has been to never surrender."

Even in the midst of uncertain times, we can recognize that what is always at peace is, in truth, who we are. How is it possible for us to retreat for just a moment from our mental strategies rooted in survival to recognize what we are overlooking—the very spaciousness of being. Can you let go of what you're trying to get? Can you meet what you're trying to get rid of?

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"The way you can discover directly that your story is an illusion is to try it on as if it were real. The magic trick is exposed in that moment."

"Just as you are right now, present yourself fully, nakedly with all of your imperfections and no hope of cleaning them up. Then see what is, see what welcomes you just as you are."

As human beings, we have a natural egoic desire to improve ourselves. It is part of our survival mechanism, but when that desire turns into an endless search for perfection, we overlook what is already whole. What if for one moment you consciously choose to stop all efforts of self-improvement and simply meet yourself just as you are? What fear arises to be met? In this recording Gangaji reads a letter that dives into this essential invitation to stop. It is an opportunity to see through the lie that "something is missing" and recognize the true depths of who you truly, already are.