Can We Trust Our Feelings and Intuition?

can we trust our feelings can be trust our somatic reading of life are you able to say something about intuition which is not the same but interests me as well can we trust our feelings now often you hear people say trust your feelings I would suggest however that that's not necessarily true acknowledge your feelings yes be there as the observing presence for your feelings yes be aware of your feelings accept that they are there trust which means to take them to be the truth or the truth for you or using them as a guide to

correct or skillful action that may be doubtful because it depends where these feelings arise in you a little anecdote from my life to illustrate that when I lived in England in the country in that alternative town Glastonbury for three years I lived in a cottage and once a month I would travel to London or other cities in my beloved Russian made Lada car err to do a workshop and usually a weekend workshop called things like transcending time or be here now nothing much has changed except that might the average number of people had was about

ten and since of my income was not enough I had to rent out a room upstairs my cottage so I have over these three years three years a few people it was a second room which I also also cage near I thought anyway the room became vacant I advertise in the local local paper several people came to apply and and finally chose a young woman who had just been offered a job in that town she came she moved in and after the first night in her room she came down for breakfast into the kitchen which

was a sad kitchen and she said I can't stay here what's wrong it's just it's just a feeling and I've always listened to my feelings I just I just can't say it there's something not right so it's very nervous and I say okay that's fine and that she found that very disconcerting because she had it expected a more conventional response which would have been what I've to interview tour all these people have chosen you and now what you doing this to me and you're not getting your rent money back that you paid in advance but

I said okay I'll give you a money back it's fine so she was even more confused after that and I said oh he said I've spent one more night or two more nights she spends the second night and then in the morning she said no I think I'll stay I have a different feeling now and I said oh that's fine that's good and again she was a little disconcerted because the convention response would have been which I did too I just put another ad in the paper and now you're telling me this this this is

how to make the conventional responses are how to make life complicated for yourself and others but it's normal it's how the ego responds and so whenever somebody does not respond in that way life becomes simple but when life becomes simple people who expect the conventional responses become confused this is a beard person and so she decided to stay and a few weeks later when I got to know her better she explained to me that the that first night she was in her bedroom and she said I found you so weird that ice I thought you

might creep in in the middle of the night and murder here [Music] and later he said living in the same house with you is like living in a float tank I think she learned a lot not so much through me explaining things to her just by being there not that she didn't go through her episodes of neurotic reactivity which is quite normal for most people but that's fine so feelings you know where did have hurt the initial feelings that she experienced that she that she then believes that they were a correct guide for action of

course they were not because they originated in fear and they were also originated in a misinterpretation of reality which is so easy to do for the mind to misinterpret another person to misinterpret a situation you misinterpret because you see it through the conditioning of your mind you see it through your beliefs your prior experiences in childhood you see it through even other things that have conditioned your mind maybe even scary movies about weird people who don't say much and then just when you're having a shower they creep in so the it is not therefore it's

not that easy often to say where does this feeling that I have arise where does this feeling originate now does it come from a deeper the intuitive place the intuition comes out of being present intuition is not does not come out of the conditioning of your mind so if you have if you have an intuition also it is usually not tainted by negativity such as anger or fear so there's something certain about it there is a quiet strength behind your feeling a quiet strength there's not a nervous energy behind your feeling it's more you just

know this is this is right you may not be able to explain to yourself or others why as a different quality there's a more a peaceful quality to it now let's just imagine to come back to the the story that happened with this young woman of course it could have been that theoretically I could have been a psycho and actually could not be trusted not to kill her theoretically that's possible so I don't know what the what the answer to this is but the I know from my own life whenever there is a deep realization

of what the right course of action is it is always there's a peace with it and even if there's a cycle there you know in a you know with absolute certainty that this is not right for you there's an energetic imbalance which comes from a deeper place but I cannot really explain in words you have too few life experience you have to find out for yourself what a deeper feeling that comes out of presence and it is a true intuition how it is different from something that is that arises from the conditioning of your mind

now a lot of the time people misinterpret reality because they look at reality through the veil of their conditioning and that that contributes to a huge amount of conflict in life in relationships and so on and not only they misinterpret they add this what I call unnecessary baggage to situations through their reactivity which is an ego device in order to strengthen the egos always deficient sense of identity so coming back again to that story well it happened if I had reacted in the normal way becoming angry and accusing her when she said after one night

she couldn't stay and they that would have strengthened the it would have come from my ego it would have strengthened my sense of self the separate sense of self and again the if the reaction had been when she finally decided just after the second night decided to stay I could have seconds that I've just spent I mean it wasn't that much an ad in the local paper it was relatively cheap but the ego would have dwelt on that and said no I've spent that and all these people that I already said they couldn't come now

they have they have already found accommodation I would have again made summaries wrong and the ego loves that to make somebody wrong because when you make somebody wrong and you would be the ego could even explain you a totally justified because that's not fair the person shouldn't just change like that she's just but instead of saying of how people showed me a few just did this is what is you can either accept it or you cannot I could have said also in practical terms that when after the second night she said I've decided to stay

I could have said oh it's too late I've already had found somebody else or it said no it may be but it maybe it's better if you do go because tomorrow night you might again from after tomorrow you might again not wants to stay all these things are possible but the situation remained simple because of non reactivity and this applies to so many cases whenever there's some kind of things do not go smoothly because a person does not do what they're supposed to do and then immediately the ego constructs a narrative and you know it

when you start telling other people about it it strengthens it so I could have picked up the phone and said you know I had this this girl I've I'd rejected five other people for her know what she's done to me under listenin tell the story it's so satisfying to the ego and then we personally are the other answers oh my god you search through and then of course the you and I could have gone into thinking oh maybe she's she's totally neurotic maybe she's a psycho all the spinning tales in the head all kinds of

things this a whole fictitious narratives that are taken from reality that's how simple things can actually be if you don't add unnecessary reactivity to it but in order to do that it requires you to be present not to be a part not to be there's a person because a person feels easily offended so if you're there's a person you get offended a lot if you go on the internet you'll find that the world is full of people who are deeply offended and they can explain mine it looks sounds totally reasonable the ego loves being offended

I'm not denying that there may be some remarks that are truly offenses but that's a relatively small thing and if it is something truly offensive again what could she have said what that was truly if and she could have said I can't stay with you because you are too ugly now to the ego that would be offensive or she might have said well she happened to be white but you've not been watching it I said I've just I finally I have this feeling I cannot stay with a white male okay vigilance is required in your

interactions with people what is the question am i adding something to the interaction that is unnecessary that is just there to strengthen my fictitious sense of self to justify some to make somebody wrong big thing for the ego because if I if I can make something wrong there's always an element of victimhood when I make somebody wrong in relation to myself there's always an element of it may not be the main focal point but there's an element of me being the victim if I make you wrong and the ego loves that because it strengthens itself

through that and if I make somebody wrong you know what he said and what he did then let me tell you about this oh how can somebody do something like that and this means unconsciously I'm always superior to the other when this happens when you're telling the story about what somebody didn't say to you you do it because the ego when you're telling when you're making somebody wrong because when you are right now you prove you probably all know people in your life when they talk when you tell when they tell you things it's always

others who are wrong it's never then it's very strange why is it that I am always right and others are as long they never asked that question but that is a mystery of human existence one of the great mysteries of life is why I am always right and others are always wrong I think philosophers haven't explored yet in detail enough and nobody has resolved this mystery and everybody should ask themselves how is that I must be really superior to everybody weird so if you think back the last year or two or three in your life

well I'm actually talking to a group of people here who are more much more conscious than the average human but nevertheless even here some of you may find if you look back the last few years that whenever there was some kind of argument or conflict perhaps it was was it always the others who were wrong it's very easy to deny somebody's perspective if it conflicts with your own and make them totally wrong you can also make a group of people totally wrong an entire group entire nation an entire religion you can make everybody wrong it's

great field strong guidance of morally superior now does that mean there are not people who are deeply wrong because they might give them maybe people out to deceive you you might go and want to you might go and wise buy a second-hand car into the person is so friendly and kind and he sells you some that's just break stuff down the next day and you get clearly lied to you what do you do then and even then it's important not to amplify what has happened by going into your mind and creating a whole string of

narratives in your mind of what an awful person that is and coming to all kinds of conclusions about that and tell the story to yourself and to others and amplify it in that way and then you go back to him and and then you you tell him really what you think of him rather than keep it simple what what action can I take to remedy this even if you go to court you can do it in a detached way I'm not society saying never to do anything just put up with anything in anybody it's just

it's not what it means even if you go to court in order to rectify a situation that is obviously too wrong you can do it in a way that is detached and just keeps it to thee just the essentials of the situation practical without the whole superstructure of you are the evil one you are wrong you all I won't repeat it here but I think you may all remember the story I told I believe it's in a new earth about the Zen master who was accused of having fathered a child and what his responses were

at every stage of the process is that so now that's an interesting so did you if you may remember the parents accused him that he was the father of their daughter's child and then the pranced brought the baby to him and at each stage when he was the parents told him something you are the father you is that so you bring the bit now you look after the baby we don't want it you're the father and he had lost his reputation etc people were commenting about him on the internet and he did not participate in

the story making and he didn't defend himself and he didn't interesting ok so it means a total refusal to go into any kind of story cut is that so yeah and finally it all became resolved resolved itself the daughter confessed that he was not the father and so on and the parents came wanted to baby back please give us the baby back we now know that oh you're not the father please forgive us we did a terrible thing by accusing you terrible thing is that so ok that is that whether this story actually ever happened

I don't know whether it's just a teaching story or actually happened but it doesn't matter it's it shows you in the extreme form of not being engaged in a story not engaging in the story making that is that is ego strengthening so you can practice that in many many situations in your life refrain from calling up people or telling our people what other people and tell them about what other people did wrong or how they failed how they were deficient how somebody lied to you most dishonest or expressed an objectionable opinion and then conflict becomes

almost eliminated from your life or 90% of it [Music]