 When my clients ask me What should I do? What should I do? There's an inner turmoil inside me. I Cannot cope anymore. It's too much. I'm overwhelmed What should I do? I give them the following advice Go to your desert Listen To your inner silence These are religious metaphors, and I'm not a religious man. I Don't believe in God. I don't believe in angels, and I don't adhere to any religion But I don't discard the baby with the path water There is unfathomable wisdom to be found in religious scriptures and God Is a useful metaphor for many internal psychological processes So in this video I'm going to make an exception and I'm going to talk to you about God and religion and going to the desert and Listening to your inner silence. I want to start with a quote From first Kings chapter 19 verses 11 to 13 He said Go out and Stand on the mountain before the Lord For the Lord is about to pass by now. There was a great wind So strong that it was splitting mountains this wind Breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord but the Lord Was not in the wind And after the wind an earthquake But the Lord was not in the earthquake And after the earthquake the fire But the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a Sound of sheer silence When Elijah heard it He wrapped his face in his mantle And went out and stood at the entrance of the cave Then there came a voice to him that said What are you doing here Elijah? What are you all doing here? At the point that you stand in your life Next to the cave that is your past What are you doing here? Are you waiting for the wind? Are you waiting for the earthquake? the fire Are you waiting for your for this phenomena to split mountains and break rocks in pieces? Are you waiting for a transformation from the outside? Some kind of force of nature Benevolent of course who will take care of you and save you and guide you and transform you This is not a Solution the Lord is not in this phenomena You remember where the Lord is? I'll read it to you again and after the fire a sound of sheer silence When Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out And he stood at the entrance of the cave Because he realized of course that God was in the silence Caves and deserts and mountain tops these have always been the haunts of holy men of saints and of prophets People who had claimed to be Indirect contact with God or the way he manifests on earth Theophany and epiphany This is where they went They didn't go to casinos They didn't go to libraries They didn't go to the city the big city They went to mountain tops They went to deserts They went to caves because there They could listen to the sound of sheer silence Isn't it amazing that sheer silence silence? has a sound Sound all its own God speaks through time through space through being But above all God speaks through silence God said When he was asked by Moses to describe himself. He said I Shall be What I shall be it is often mistranslated. I am what I am. That's all what God said. God said a year a share a year I shall be What I shall be In other words, God is a process of becoming not of Presence not of existence not of being only not of stasis not of stagnation Not of inertia. No God is flow Is motion is change is transformation is Becoming I shall be what I shall be and what shall God be ultimately The theophany of God the manifestation of God the sound of sheer silence so Here's my advice Just stop acting for a while stop it sit still For one minute Close your eyes for one second Don't even contemplate Just be Monks go to mountaintops and the big religious figures Moses Jesus Muhammad When they sought self transformation They did not act They did not act They went to the desert They escaped the city and its numerous distractions It's numerous temptations It's numerous offerings and the constant push to be active the curse of modern civilization act or not be They went to the desert Because in the desert even if you want to you cannot act There's nothing to act upon So you cannot do anything in the desert but wait Wait and be yourself and Wait for some bush to burn for you For some devil to confront you From some angel to talk to you The bush burn for Moses Jesus bested the devil and Gabriel angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad in a cave These are all transformational processes Moses who was a playboy Egyptian Prince learned humility God told him this is holy ground Take your shoes off humility Jesus Confronted his dark side his complexes possibly his insanity and overcame it the devil and Muhammad Was able to converse with angels In other words with the best part of himself and the best part of humanity and the best part of the world And to bring back a message of redemption and Absolution and hope There in deserts and caves and mountain tops with no one around You are faced with yourself There's no escape There's no excuse. There's no diversion There's no lie There's no pretension Just you and you and you There you can cope You can think you can change You can listen to the voice of God in the desert You're forced finally to listen To God by listening to yourself The sheer sound of silence outside Speaks to you from the inside and you go instead at the entrance to the cave And it is God who asks you What are you doing here? What do you want? Who are you Elijah? So if you want to heal If you want to transform If you want to hope again if you want to sing if you want to belong Create a mental desert around you in today's world It's difficult to find a real desert to be in all the caves are occupied and on the mountain tops They are television antenna the world has abandoned us Because we had abandoned nature But we can still create a mental desert our own private desert our own cave and Climb to the mountain top That is us our soul if you wish Close your eyes No social media No news No people No zoom conferences Nothing close your eyes and wait For this silence to talk to you Wait for what many of you call the voice of God you're in a God maybe Wait for the voice Wait for the voice don't drown the voice in action See who is talking to you Listen what you are being told with what is being said to you think of nothing else Think not at all actually Just let it flow through you We are not listening Even religion and I'm not an adherent of any religion as you know Even religion is a dialogue. It's not a monologue. It's a dialogue with God But all of us we're just talking all the time. We're not listening We're just talking Never ever receiving We are too busy being something even being religious. We're too busy being us And these us being us is a simulacrum. It's a simulation. It's fake It's a subtle called it inauthentic. We are not real We are renditions. We are phantasms We are figments of sick imagination And so we are not we are not listening we need to be passive for once Just be passive It's in Islam. It's a form of supplication the world the world Islam means kind of submissive supplication but also making peace with With this application with this submission to just be passive Submit yourself in a good sense Submit yourself by Emptying yourself by allowing a word anyone's word the word of God To flow through you Become a vessel In the Kabbalah Jewish mysticism. We have this concept of a vessel The vessel is a container Become a container Let the silence and the message of the silence Flow through you empty yourself if you are full of yourself if you're full of Information if you are full of distractions if you are full of Occupations if you are full of business and actions if you if you are full Nothing can come in Nothing can flow through you Your fullness Renders you empty Because you can receive nothing new and you cannot change you are dead when you are full full people people who have reached Up to the brim they're dead. You need to let this flow through you And you do not ask for reciprocal action from God or any other universal principle There's no reciprocal action It is a gift given on unto you tomorrow. I will discuss the rejection of life as A form of blasphemy and sacrilege But this silence is a gift given unto you and This silence speaks louder than any words and conveys more than any therapist can You want to heal? Create a mental desert Suspend yourself Cut off the world Sit back Close your eyes and listen to the silence