Your Pain Pushes You Until Your Vision Pulls You | Michael Beckwith

21:20Because the ego will just come in, me, me, my, my, greed. Stinginess, you know, I'm going to protect mine. That becomes the frequency. But when you start to grow, you realize it's really a we vibe here. It's not just a me vibe. Right.

21:37Lewis Howes:Two questions. One, why do you think we are here and why do you think you are here? I believe that everyone has the same purpose. We all have different missions. We all have the same purpose, and I'll say it in different ways. We can say we're all here to reflect the face of divinity, or we're here to reflect the cosmos in a way that only we can. Everyone is here for that same purpose. And we all have different missions. Some people's mission is to teach, heal, inspire, uplift, to create some level of art that's going to inspire, choreography. We all have different missions, but every mission carries that larger purpose.

22:19how was my life reflecting the entire cosmos? Because I believe all of us have the entirety of the cosmos in us and we're here to discover it, activate it, cultivate it and set it free. So we're all here to reflect the face of God for lack of a, just to bring it down. Not God, not a man in the sky. We're not that naive.

22:41Lewis Howes:Right, right, right, sure. But the presence that is never an absence. So everyone has the same purpose. Some people know their purpose. Some people don't.

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24:39Lewis Howes:How do you suggest people discover it if they don't know what it is? People grow into their purpose two ways. Crisis or insight. Right, right. Because sometimes when your back is against the wall, you're in a crisis, then you begin to ask different kind of questions. You know, why am I here? What am I doing this for? What's the reason? Why do I keep doing the same thing over and over? And then you start to open up that there's something bigger that has your name on it that's calling you. And sometimes people grow through, They have an insight. They get inspired. Something happens and they're able to see, wow, my life is more than what I thought it was.

25:17So I think we grow pain insight. One of my statements is your pain pushes you until your vision pulls you. Wow. So we're actually pushed by pain until we're pulled by a larger vision. And so unless an individual.

25:33Lewis Howes:Interesting. Yeah. So what if we're in the middle? where you feel like, well, I'm not pulled by anything. I'm not pushed by anything. I just kind of feel a blah. Is it like eventually you're going to feel pain? Yeah. So bad, you're going to be like, okay, I need to step up and do something. Yeah. Because the universe, which is the outpicturing of the intelligence of the presence, is progressive. We're here on planet Earth. The Earth is circling the sun. The sun is moving through its solar system. Every heavenly body has a rotation. Now, every time there's a complete rotation, the frequency of those heavenly bodies are a little higher.

26:08The earth is vibrating higher today than it was 10 years ago. So everything is progressing. So if you're the same person that you were 365 days ago, you're not really the same person. You've actually gone backwards. Wow. Because everything has gone forward. So since everything is progressive, it's creating a level of tension to create a level of uncomfortability and pain for you to grow. Right. So that blah will become a mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

26:37Lewis Howes:And it'll eventually turn into pain at some point where you're going to say, enough is enough. I've got to end this relationship, get out of the marriage, I've got to lose the weight, I've got to do something to change. The body temple will betray you. Your emotional body will betray you. Something will happen that will make you say, ooh, what's going on? I better read a book. I better be still. I better go talk to somebody. Yeah. What would you say is your mission then? Basically to help people wake up to the gift of divinity that's within them and to set it free. How do we set ourselves free?

27:13First of all, you have to break the practices, the habits of mediocrity. The practices of mediocrity.

27:19Lewis Howes:What are some of those? Mediocrity means I'm just living a life in which I'm protecting myself. Scarcity, protection. Scarcity, protectiveness, fear, worry drives my life. And we move into practices in which we ask ourselves, how can I give today? Serve. How can I serve today? How can I share today? If you ask the question, the universe will answer it. This is a principle that the universe, again, the universe is just the outpicturing of the intelligence of the mind of the infinite. If you ask a question, you'll get an answer. So if you ask, how can I give, rather than how can I get, then the universe is going to provide not only answers, but ways that you have something to give, you see.

28:11And many people are still within the reptilian brain of, I don't have enough. So they're trying to get, so they end up creating a very small package of themselves, rather than a larger package of, how can I be of service, how can I give?

28:25Lewis Howes:What happens when we give more in our living in service with every action we take? Obviously, we're going to do things for us and protect ourselves and pay our rent and, you know, have nice things. But when we have the intention of I'm here to serve in my career, my business, my team, my family, my mission is service. What unlocks for us? Now you've opened yourself up that the presence through the universe, which is always giving. It doesn't compromise its nature. It doesn't contradict itself. Now finds you worthy. I mean, vibrationally worthy. We're all worthy intrinsically. Vibrationally worthy to express more through you.

29:06Doors open. You don't even know we're there. You meet people that you never even heard about. Things begin to open up for you. It seems as if it's magic, but it's not magic. You've come into a vibrational alignment with the way things work.

29:22Lewis Howes:Right. You know, so suddenly you're in a meeting with somebody. You're meeting somebody. It's a chance meeting and something opens up for you and you're able to give your gift. You're able to share something. You're able to bring more prosperity into your life, more joy, more happiness because you're in alignment. How can I serve? How can I be more giving? How can I unleash the power that's within me? You see? Now most people, when they're living in the mediocrity, they ask disempowering questions. Like what? Why me? What's wrong? Who's to blame? Those questions keep you very narrowly focused.

30:02Everybody's looking for a scapegoat. It's his fault. It's my parents' fault. They shouldn't have gotten divorced. They should have gotten divorced. This happened. My teacher did this to me when I was little, whatever. They'll look for a very limiting, they have a very limiting scope of perception. But if you begin to ask an empowering question, how can I share? What's trying to emerge in my life? What gift do I have to give? How can I cultivate that gift? The universe would love to answer that question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the universe, the universal presence, wants you healthy, wants you prosperous, wants you happy.

30:42Why? Because it gets to express more through you if you are. It gets to come into its own as you. Now, when you've limited yourself, then you're wasting energy. That means you're constantly going to the doctor because you're sick. You're constantly bemoaning your fate because you can't have friendships in your life. You're constantly worried about all of its wasted energy that can be used for creativity, you see. So when you ask the right questions, as you indicated, you stabilize your structures first. You have a structure of prosperity, structure of good health, structure of ego management, so you can have good friendships.

31:20You mean structure, you mean habits, or? We live in life structures. There's a life structure of health, body temple. There's a life structure of relationships, you see. is the life structure of community, how you work with others. These are all structures that we stabilize, which means they're no longer liabilities, they're assets. So if you know how to be with other people without tearing people down and gossiping about them and stealing from them, you have a good foundation of friendships. It's part of your community. Take care of your body temple. Not going to the doctor all the time because you're sick.

31:56You're able to, as you say, pay your rent. You're able to have a level of prosperity. Now you're not here just to stabilize those structures. Those structures are strong enough so that you can now give your gift.

32:09Lewis Howes:Because if you're always focused on stabilizing structures or your structures are on breakdown, you're never able to create and give your gift. Right. So you've got to be able to have the structures down first, take care of your business, I guess, let's say. And then you can go beyond it. Yes. Now you're strong enough. Yeah. It's strong enough to do things that people would say are impossible if someone's got one of those structures that are broken Or they maybe they've been struggling with it for decades. Maybe it's the relationships. Maybe it's the prosperity. Maybe it's their health How can they overcome that to fix it or to stabilize it?

32:47Well two ways One you look at the area of your life that's working first because most of the time our focus is on what's not working and the vibration of that. So you take one area of your life that works and you feel into that vibration. And then you begin to what I call shape shift. You begin to take that energy and begin to feel that way about the area that's not working. And then you combine that with an articulation of a vision. what would it look like if this area of my life worked? You begin to describe it. Now, the law says that you don't describe what you see, you see what you describe.

33:32So, as you begin to describe what that area looks like, along with the feeling of an area of your life that does work, now you have the feeling and the description both working. And it's practice. You have to do that every day. You have to feel it, describe it, feel it, describe it, feel it, describe it. And then that begins to be a new baseline for you. And now you begin to manifest at that area.

33:55Lewis Howes:Obviously, you've got to take a lot of action probably in changing certain things. But you've got to do the foundation first. You do the foundational piece. And then what happens is you're kind of compelled to do different kind of action. Instead of procrastinating, you realize, oh, I can do this. I can do this one little thing and that shifts the whole fulcrum of being. What's something in your life you felt like you procrastinated too long on? Maybe something in your life at some point. Was there anything where you're like, I waited too long to... You know, when I started Agape, I procrastinated.

34:29Lewis Howes:You should have done it 10 years ago or something. Oh man, I just, I did not want to be a public person. Really? I liked my lifestyle. I was a spiritual therapist. So I had private practice. I taught at the university, faculty member, and I ran a prayer ministry. So I had these things going on, and I would do seminars. I thought that was enough. Yeah, yeah. So I kept being pulled into starting a community, and it was like, oh, I don't want to start a community. And so many things began to happen in my life. Breakdown. Really? Yeah. That forced me to say, okay, I'm going against the energy here.

35:09and then I called some people together some of my students some of my clients some of my friends I said okay I'm compelled to start a community and I started a vision group to start that so interestingly enough when that happened I'll always remember this I used to have a crook in my neck in which I couldn't turn my neck all the way to the right I had like partial rotation really yeah I could go all the way to the left but I couldn't go to the right and I go to a chiropractor. They fix it. It'd be temporarily fixed. For a day or two, yeah. The moment I said yes to the vision, my neck went pop.

35:46Really? I had full rotation. You were like an owl. Yeah, I was like, what? And I realized that this was a physical manifestation of my resistance. Wow. And so I look at that at times in my life. If I'm resisting something, let me just jump into the fire of it. And eventually, things are going to work out. Don't be afraid to jump into the fire.

36:08Lewis Howes:What questions should we be asking ourselves every morning when we wake up? First of all, when I wake up in the morning, when I turn and get out of the bed, I generally get out of the bed on my left side, I stand up, I put my hands up, and I just go into a sense of gratitude for being alive and awake. I'm just thankful that I exist, and that gratitude is not attached to anything. I'm not grateful that I have money. I'm grateful that I have health. Just grateful. Just being. Just being. Wow. And then I surrender to life. I just surrender my life to life. Now some people can you call that God, you can call it love, you can call it whatever you want to call it.

36:44I just call it life. And then I say, what's my assignment? I ask, what's my assignment? And then I ask for the strength to do whatever my assignment is. So then that's how I wake up. Then I go sit and I meditate and then I go to the gym. I'll come back and have a longer meditation. And then I'll ask the question is determined by whatever I'm working on that day. So I knew I was coming to see you today. Got in the shower and I was to say, how can I be a bright presence on Lewis's show today? How can I be an instrument of articulation and fluency and love and harmony? Let that happen. So I just live in that question.

37:25And then I let the question answer itself through me as we met at the door. You know, hey, what's going on, man? Like we knew each other for a long time. So there'll be a larger question, and then there's a question that's more pertinent for whatever's on my calendar that day. The larger question is always somewhere in the vantage point of how can I serve, how can I be an instrument of peace or love, or how can I reveal more prosperity in my life? Yeah. You know?

37:53Lewis Howes:When we are in flow and like, man, just everything's working, just like manifesting magic everywhere. Right. what questions should we be asking at that time? It's, you want to stay in the awareness of how does it get better than this? Right. When it feels like this is too good to be true. Everything is coming my way. Yeah, but listen, life is infinite. Yeah. So wherever you are is a new starting point. Yeah. That's how it becomes the ground floor now, right? You don't want to relegate yourself and protect that particular spot. It's like, and you can ask that question whether things are going good or bad in your perception.

38:34You know, if things aren't working out, this plan isn't coming together, you can ask, how does it get better than this? You'll get an answer. If you're in flow, how does it get better than this? And then you stay on the edge of becoming. So you're walking in the state of being and becoming. You're very happy about who you are. The state of being, I'm grateful. I'm in love with the state of being that I am right now. I appreciate it. And I'm becoming. There's more to me, you see. So if we ask the question, how does it get better than this? The universe will answer it. Yeah.

39:13Lewis Howes:My friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode. And the School of Greatness drops new conversations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around money, mindset, healing, manifestation, and relationships. And if you're not yet following the show, then you're missing all of them. Please tap the follow button right now and you'll get notified the moment every new episode drops because the next one might be exactly what you need. Now let's get back to the conversation. How many days does it take to go from total beginner to reasonably proficient at a new skill? Well, if you practice for a focused hour a day, then about 250, which also happens to be the number of reasons to choose T-Mobile.

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41:22Lewis Howes:There's definitely some moments where I have breakdowns and challenges and struggles and things like that. But over the last 15, 17 years, I just feel like magic occurs. Yeah. Magic occurs. You feel that way. I mean, your energy field is very big and it's very beautiful. I feel like there's, when I reflect back and think on it, like, what are the things that I've been doing? It's the things you're talking about. Every day I'm expressing gratitude all the time. When I wake up, I do a gratitude practice. Yes. When someone calls my cell phone and they get my voice message, I ask them what they're most grateful for and to share first with me before they ask what they want on the voicemail.

41:59Lewis Howes:That's beautiful. I'm just trying to evoke it out of people constantly. And at night, I'm always sharing what I'm most grateful for, whether I'm writing it down or I'm sharing it with someone. So gratitude has always been a part of my life. Just because I came from a small town in Ohio and like when things would happen, I was like, I mean, I'm so grateful for this. Yeah. The next thing I would focus on is really like the vision of what I want to be, what I want to become. I'd focus on that vision, kind of what you were talking about before. Just like where am I heading? Where am I going? At least where do I want to go?

42:29Lewis Howes:If there's a different plan for me, okay. But where am I going? And focusing on the direction as opposed to where I'm stuck. What I'm lacking. And then the third thing that I really focus on is just joy. Yes. Like being joy. Just when you came in, I was just like, open my arms. Like, hey, good to see you. And I think when we reflect on those three things, gratitude, a vision of where we're going, who we want to become, and being joyful, we start to attract and create magic, right? That's it. But sometimes we forget those things and we're stuck in our head or we're stuck in fear and anxiety. That's why we call it a practice.

43:07You practice and when you get off you come back to the fundamentals just like an Olympic athlete They get off they come back to the fundamentals the warm-ups Yeah, the warm-ups the steps or whatever it is whatever your particular You know area is you come back to the fundamentals and then you find yourself in flow when you're not in flow You come back to the fundamentals now We've all heard the statement from certain parents if you don't stop crying I'm gonna give you something to cry about right what the universe says if you don't stop being grateful, I'm gonna give you something to be grateful for.

43:38It operates the same way. So you staying in that vibration of gratitude, the universe is looking for something to give you. Oh my God, if he doesn't stop being grateful, I'm gonna give him something really to be grateful for. And it comes out of the blue, it comes out of your present paradigm. Like wow, you didn't even see that coming. Wow, so let me get this clear.

43:59Lewis Howes:When you were a teenager, you changed churches, You left church for a while, is that right? Or were you always been interested? From the age of 16 to I was a senior at USC, so somewhere in my early 20s. And so there was a stage where you didn't believe in God? I wouldn't use the word God because the way people taught God was like a man in the sky checking the list twice. You didn't believe in that version of God? No. My thing was more affirmative values. You know, be a kind person. Yeah. Don't mess with people. Don't steal. Be loving. You know, I didn't put that under any kind of religion. And it wasn't until I had that.

44:40I tell you, I was, when I moved back to L.A. from Atlanta, I was attending Morehouse College. I was a part of an organization that wanted to change the world by any means necessary. You know, it was a very revolutionary organization. And I was the propaganda commissioner for this organization. Really? Yeah. So I'm sitting, and we were closely aligned with the Black Panther Party, you know. and so I was sitting in this meeting. Was this in the 70s? Yeah, 70s. So I'm sitting in this meeting and someone behind me said, if you were to take over the world tomorrow, would it be any different? So I turned around to see who said it, but there was nobody there.

45:17I know I heard it. So I'm in the meeting and it says it again. If you were to take over the world tomorrow, would it be any different? But it was coming from inside of me and I said, oh my God. Wow. So I looked around the room. This guy sitting next to me, I said, this guy's a big ego. He always thinks he's right. This person is very territorial. This person is always contentious. And I started looking around the room, and I realized if we were to take over the world tomorrow, there'd be no change. So I left the meeting.

45:52Lewis Howes:The middle of the meeting or afterwards? No, after the meeting, I left. Never came back. the next week at that meeting somebody in that meeting shot somebody no way in the meeting in the meeting no way they got into an argument a guy pulled out a gun and shot somebody no way but i wasn't there to be a part of that legal situation wow i enrolled in the usc shortly after that because i had taken a break from and i remember going to usc I hadn't had the awakening. That was the beginning of the awakening. Right. And then things began to happen. So I was having visions. I started seeing things. I thought I was losing my mind.

46:34This was right at the beginning of transpersonal psychology. It wasn't popular the way it is now. You're 21, 22. Yeah, yeah. 23 years old, 22, 23. And then I had a lot of experience. I would leave my body all the time. Wow. But I didn't know what that was. Now we know it's astral traveling or lucid dreaming. But back in those days, it was very new.

46:57Lewis Howes:Right. And so I started having this dream. And in this dream, these men were chasing me, three men. And every night, I would wake up right before they would get me. But every night, they were a little bit closer. So one of the things I did, I stopped smoking weed as a good college student. and uh i said this must be cannabis sativis all these experiences and dreams and visions but they intensified everything got when you stopped yeah more more more brilliant dreams more visions and i didn't tell anybody because i i'm in the psych i was a psychobiology major so i'm in the psychology department there's no way i'm going to tell my professor no i'm i'm leaving my body.

47:45He's going to put you in a mental hospital. I'll tell you a story about that. Matter of fact, I had an internship program. I'll get back to the dream. And we had to go into the mental hospitals as a part of our internship program to work with the people there, write up our diagnosis and give it to our professor, all of that. So I'm playing ping pong with this guy. He's in the mental institution. And we're talking and I'm asking why he's there. And he's saying, well, I've had these visions and dreams. and he's describing some of the stuff I'm going through. Wow. We're playing ping pong and then I realized for the last five minutes, we haven't been talking.

48:20It was all telepathy. No way. Yeah. I put the ping pong paddle down and checked myself out of there. I said, I don't know what's going on with me. So fast forward, I'm in this dream. Three men are chasing me and I say to myself, this is a dream. I'm not gonna force myself to wake up. I turned around, there was a small tent with all these people lined up to go into this tent. I mean, thousands of people. And I knew every single person in line. And I said, these guys can't hurt me. My friends are with me. One by one, they turned their back on me. Two men held me down, and another one plunged a knife in my heart.

49:02Holy cow. The pain was excruciating, physically and emotionally. And I screamed out. I mean, like a blood-curdling scream. And I died. And when I woke up, I could see the presence was everywhere. The beauty that's here is beyond description. The love that penetrated every cell of my being was beyond any love. I get emotional. Any love that you'll ever experience, the love of God just poured to my body. The light and the brilliance was everywhere. and everything was different. And from that moment on, I went on a path of discovery as to what had happened to me and the process of integrating that into my life.

49:53And then that's led me step by step by step into where I'm at today. If people could only see what's really here, but we have paradigm blindness, the perception is so small, most people only see a fraction of reality. And it's their beliefs, it's their perceptions, it's what they've inherited from their parents, societal fantasies. When all of this is available, we only see this. What is really here? The presence of abundance, infinite joy, beauty, love. Wow. Sometimes a sound effect we have to do. To experience it, yeah. It's just all here. And we're using so much energy to block it. why do we block this abundance of love and joy and the ego does not know the difference between transformation and annihilation it doesn't know that outside of the known in the realm of the unknown there's so much good and so much power so much abundance it tries to eke its joy out of what's known whereas our good is actually outside of the known you know matter of fact it was krishnamurti that had a book called freedom from the known and he would i used to go see him live and oh hi every year because he was one that i could listen to and i realized he was authentic he knew i could just listen i could look at him and i you know i can go to any spiritual community and i can tell you in five minutes if they know or if they know about it's a difference between knowing it and knowing about it knowing about it can motivate knowing it it's different different feeling yeah yeah yeah so So Krishnamurti, I said, ooh, he knows.

51:39Yeah, but so, you know, I don't know what question you asked me, but. Why do we block the abundance of love? Yeah, it's just, it's fear. We want to live, we want to basically. Because it's uncertain, right? It's uncertain. Yeah, we need to control our life within the realm of the known. The good is in the unknown. If I hadn't said yes to Agape, I wouldn't have known all the beautiful people I've met and the things I've got to experience. I had a chance to facilitate the synthesis dialogues with the Dalai Lama four times. Crazy. I got a chance to meet and give Nelson Mandela the Season for Nonviolence Award.

52:17I got a chance to hang out with Bishop Tutu as we were inducted into the Martin Luther King Order of Preachers. I got a chance to run with and hang with Dick Gregory. You know what I mean? And so many beautiful people that have been a part of my life I wouldn't have known any of that I've just got to go to the United Nations And speak at special assemblies many times But all of that would have been locked into potential You know And I don't share those things as a brag They're just part of my It wasn't about me It was about the people I got a chance to meet And hang out with I wouldn't have met you We wouldn't have been here I'd have been on my couch

52:57Lewis Howes:You know I grew up in a small town in Ohio Predominantly white neighborhoods but my parents had, they had seven exchange students when I was a kid. So I had people from Japan and Brazil and France and Philippines living with us, teenagers, you know, for six months at a time. That would kind of like bring the culture and country to me. Right. And then as I started to expand outside of my neighborhood and play sports, I was more of the minority as one of the white people, right? in that context. So for me, I never really understood racism. Right. Like, I'm sure there's moments where I'm judgmental or racist in some ways.

53:43Lewis Howes:I don't even know if I'm aware of it. But everyone to me is a brother or a sister. Right. Right? It doesn't matter what color. Right. Or where you're from. Just because I grew up with these older brothers and sisters from all over the world. Right. Where does the root of racism come from for us? and why is it so hard for us to get past seeing color? Yeah. Well, a lot of it's obviously it's learned. I mean, you don't see a racist or homophobic baby. You know, so it's actually learned. Wow, okay. And there are people inadvertently or on purpose that teach that because they're living in the perception of they are the other.

54:28They're darker, they're lighter, whatever the other is. They're from that country. Different language. Different language, different culture, different religion, whatever the case may be. So people live in the context of other. And they haven't yet matured into realizing there really isn't any other. There's only variations on a theme. It's all music. You know what I mean? Some's jazz, some's classical, some's R &B, whatever the case may be. Just variations on the theme. So it's not other, it's just we're the same inside, but we get to express. Now why is that? Because the infinite is infinite.

55:08It doesn't repeat itself, it doesn't do do-overs, and it doesn't make mistakes. So all of us are unique expressions of the infinite. It would be boring. If we all look the same. If we all look the same, you know what I mean? And we were all the same. I mean, first of all, can you imagine going through eternity being exactly as you are right now without any growth? No. It's called hell. You know what I mean? So if you can imagine that if everyone was exactly like you or exactly like me and we just stayed the same forever, that's called hell. So the presence, which is infinite, recreated itself after its own image and likeness according to its infinite nature.

55:49We have such a variety of beauty and love and joy. And that's what we want to celebrate. And people that are in fear are bigoted, racist. They're mainly living in fear. And then they promote that fear. You know, oh, the Mexicans. Oh, the Arabs. Oh, the black people. Whatever. You know what I mean? They promote that fear. And they end up living in a very small world.

56:15Lewis Howes:Yeah. Yeah. How much of a role does religion play in creating fear in each religious community? of people that aren't in those communities? It depends on the maturity of the spiritual teacher. Religion itself means, the word means to return to the source. So religion itself is supposed to be a vehicle that brings people back to the source. Back to love. Back to love, back to connectedness. However, it is sometimes used as a sense of separation depending on the maturity of the spiritual teacher. So it's supposed to bring you, it's a boat, or a boat or some kind of vehicle to bring you to an encounter with the transcendent, once you have an encounter with the transcendent, you can celebrate the growth that brought you there, but you're not trying to hang on to it.

57:07So it's like, sometimes we'll say things like, inadvertently, well, he was a Jewish mystic or he was a Christian mystic. Now, actually, when a person becomes a mystic, they kind of transcend the boat that got them there. There's no such thing as a Christian mystic. There's no such thing as a Buddhist mystic. There's no such thing as a as a is as Islamic mystic because once you become a mystic That means you've transcended The boats and you realize we're all one right you sure send it to religion religiosity Yeah, yeah, and you can still honor of course you honor it the principles and the foundation Yeah, you honor where you came from but you're not trying to convert everybody to that anymore so so religion in its highest practice brings people together.

57:49In its lowest practice, it separates people. And you have people that become fundamental and they'll say things like, this is the path. If you don't walk this path, you're going to hell. That's a very limited perception. Now, how does a person get there? And there's fundamentalism in every religion. A fundamentalist simply believes that what they believe may or may not be true. So they have to convert you because they're afraid they might be wrong.

58:18Lewis Howes:Right. You see? But once you know something, you don't convert. It's like, you know two plus two is four. Yeah. So if you go into a room and your teacher is teaching and everybody's talking, no, two plus two is five. No, two plus two is eight. You're going to back out of that room. You're not going to get into an argument because you know two plus two is four. You know the truth. You know the truth. So you just say, peace and blessings. You do your math and I'll do mine. But if you're fundamental, if you just believe 2 plus 2 is 4, if you don't really know 2 plus 2 is 4, but you just believe it, and you become a very high believer, 2 plus 2 is 4, I'm going to hurt you.

58:59But then you run into trouble there.

59:01Lewis Howes:Yeah. So our religions take us beyond belief, which we practice, into a deep knowing. And then you have tolerance and appreciation and compassion for people who are stumbling along their path. What if it's a family member that has a strong belief? Yeah. And you're like, gosh, that just doesn't make sense or that's not the truth or that's not the knowing. How do you have compassion for someone that's so aggressively? Possibly, I don't have this in my life, but I'm just curious. No, but it's pretty common. Right? Where it's like family members or friends or partners, where they're so against a different belief and it tries to pull you apart.

59:42Lewis Howes:How do you have that type of compassion or what do you say to those people? Well, first of all, if they're so against something, that means there's fear there. So we have to understand what compassion is. Compassion, I define compassion as the understanding of the lack of understanding. Interesting. Yeah. The understanding of ignorance. Or the understanding of a black guy. You don't agree, not in alignment with it. But your heart stays open and you bless. And you realize that you cannot assist an unreceptive mind. You can't convince. You can't convert. You can't do anything. So you just leave them alone.

1:00:22You just love them. One day, and you live your life so good that you're shining. You're glowing. And then one day they may ask you, why are you so happy all the time? I just heard that this bad thing happened in your life and you're still grateful. What do you have that makes you strong enough to do that? Now that's a receptive mind. Now you can go back and say, well, you know what? I wake up every day with gratitude. I'm an appreciation for life. But if you try to teach somebody before they're receptive, they will take what you teach and use it against you. And so compassion means I understand the lack of understanding.

1:00:59I'm not going to argue with you. It's going to let you be. When have you felt the most loved in your life? Well, besides that moment of the encounter that continues to undulate through me a lot. I'm very fortunate that I came from an unconditional loving family. My brothers and I, we could have made the biggest mistake, but there was never any withhold of love. you know i remember being arrested from my parents yeah i remember being arrested and uh my father came to see me kind of smiled you know just loved you anyway just loved me anyway my mom was there i was like i'm waiting for you know whatever not that they didn't discipline or all that that they're supposed to do but there was never any withhold of love so i come from a baseline of love which i think is very fortunate many people don't come from that There was abuse.

1:01:49There was neglect or whatever. I didn't have that. So I have a strong baseline of love. And I have a strong baseline of inclusivity because my mother was very involved in the civil rights movement. So a lot of the meetings were at my house. Wow. So we had Mexicans, blacks, straight, gay, Jewish people. Everybody was in my house all the time talking about the next thing we were going to do. We were going to pick at this store. We were going to do this or that. So I didn't really have a, I didn't come to a lot of places where I am now through some kind of revelation. It was just part of my gut training.

1:02:25So I remember being in junior high school and people were attacking this guy. He was gay. And I was like, what are you guys doing? So what? What's the guy doing with you? Are you afraid of him? But that was just in my household. So it wasn't, you know, so I think I just, the baseline of love of my parents, my grandparents, you know, was just part of the deal. I was always, I was probably more shocked when I went out into the world and can see brothers and sisters who don't talk to each other. You know what I mean? It's like, you haven't talked to your brother in eight years? What happened? You know what I mean?

1:02:55Right. That was like. Didn't make sense, yeah. No, like my daughter and my son are like, I don't know how many years apart they are, like nine years apart. They're like best friends. You know what I mean? It's like they just love each other. And I'm always shocked. Not anymore. But it's like, you don't talk to your brother. You don't have to agree with him. Just love me. Don't talk about that subject.

1:03:20Lewis Howes:Don't want something else. Yeah, so I think the parental vibration, I'm very, and the more I'm on the planet, the more I appreciate it. Yeah.

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1:05:33Lewis Howes:The Range Rover event is on now. Explore enhanced offers at RangeRover.com. I want to ask a few more questions. This has been really inspiring. I appreciate you opening up. Thank you. When someone is in a relationship that isn't working, an intimate relationship that isn't working, or there's some tension for a few months and there just seems to be a lot of conflict. and when someone is looking to start dating someone, start to get together. Both instances. You're talking two different people here. Are you talking, say? Let's just say two scenarios. Two scenarios, okay. You're in a relationship.

1:06:11Lewis Howes:You've been together for a while, but now there's a few months of conflict or there's a period of time that's conflicting and you're not sure whether or not you should stay in that relationship. Okay, that's one scenario. One scenario. And the second scenario is two people meet and they're about to start dating. What should be the questions that you should ask each other when you just meet to see if it's a good fit to come together and be partners? And what should the questions be you've already been together for a while, but there's some conflict and you're not sure about the future? Right. So in the one scenario when people are just meeting, there has to be an understanding of what the intention is.

1:06:51is the intention to be in relationship or is the intention just a booty call is it just we just want to have fun we don't want you know so there's so depending on what paradigm a person is living in we have different kind of questions yeah so if you're interested in a relationship let's say you're interested in the relation in a relationship then the question is first of all what is we have to define relationship you know a relationship is what we call a joint participation in the good of life. It's a participation in something larger. I like that. That's good. So when we understand that, I'm not trying to get my good from you.

1:07:26I'm not trying to get my love from you. And you're not trying to get it from me. We're bringing it to the table. It's like this. Two fish are swimming in the ocean. And one fish says to the other fish, baby, if you give me what I want, I'll give you all the water you can have. So they're swimming in water. Right. So we're swimming in love. Wow. So I can't give it to you. But I can participate in it, and I can bring that to the table. My loving can bring that to the table. So that means when people come together, they're actually coming together to grow and perfecting their loving. Wow. It's a much more mature state of being.

1:08:08When we're younger, we actually think, that person can make me happy. That person can't make you happy. You have to bring happy. That means you have to work on yourself and you bring happy to the relationship. You bring peace. You bring love. You bring forgiveness. You bring compassion. You know, so when people are first coming together, we have to see, are we at the same level in terms of wanting to grow together? Yeah. Okay? And then we're happy. We support each other. I'm going to support. I'm going to love to the best of my ability. So it's the same question. If a relationship is in breakdown, then are we still growing?

1:08:46or has the growth stopped? Is there a chance to keep the growth going? Are we interested in each other? Are we interested in each other's growth? Has the path diverged? This person is really more interested in this. This person is more interested in that. Is the growth stop? You know, if the growth has stopped and we've gleaned the lessons, then we have to look at that. Now, the Western culture of America, America is like a very young country. It's a couple hundred years old. When you look at indigenous cultures, some of the Native American cultures, some of the other cultures thousands of years old, they have renewal.

1:09:20For instance, in certain Native American cultures, every seven years you renew. Relationship. Yeah, you see, do we have more Jews here? Or do we not? Now, if you don't have Jews, there's no fault. There's no like, you culprit here, you don't love me anymore, you didn't do this, whatever. It's like, you know what? We've learned this, this, this, and this. We're both better people. oh, let's go another seven. Or, it's time to go our separate ways in this form. In African culture, there's a space where the people, maybe this is over. And they'll come to the community, and then they gather with the elders, and the elders will do divination and say, you guys are finished.

1:10:07Wow. You guys have done your job. You can stay together if you want, but you don't have to. Or they'll say, no, no, no, no, no. You still got a little work to do in this area. You know what I mean? So in the Western culture.

1:10:19Lewis Howes:So there's no, like, blame or guilt or shaming or wrongdoing. That's in Western culture. That's in Western culture. We're young. We're babies. People think 200 years. Yeah. There's been cultures on the planet thousands of years, you know what I mean, that have a deeper insight into the unfolding of the soul, not just getting your house, two kids, and, you know, retiring and dying. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's an unfoldment of the soul. This is powerful. We'll have to have you come back on and do a whole thing on relationships sometime in the future. I'm curious, at the end of this year, let's say it's New Year's Eve this year.

1:10:52Lewis Howes:Yeah. What was the thing that would make you the most proud of who you've been, become, or created in this life? Well, I'm always inviting a greater insight into reality, a greater understanding of the awakening process and who I am. So I always want to keep that going. In terms of my personal movement, it's always forefront. I want to be more myself at the end of the year. When I look back at this guy sitting talking to you today, I don't want this guy to be sitting here. I want another version to be sitting here. When I look at my community, I want Agape community to be more stable. We're in a permanent temporary place.

1:11:38It means we can be there as long as we want. But I want to be closer to actually building our legacy building and our legacy community where people come from all over the world and celebrate the divine together. I want to be closer financially where that is concerned. Sure, sure. You know, in terms of a goal. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. I want my book to be out, too. Okay, cool, yeah.

1:12:00Lewis Howes:Well, you have three books right now that you brought here. I think I've written seven, but those are three. These are the three that are here. Yeah, three are here. You've got seven books, machine. One's called Life Visioning, a transformative process for activating your unique gifts and highest potential. Make sure you guys check this one out. I'm going to read this one today. The answer is you. This is going to be a good one. I'm excited because it's shorter. That's why I read that one. And then Spiritual Liberation. So if you guys want to feel free, make sure to get this book as well. We'll have it all linked up on the show notes.

1:12:28Lewis Howes:This is a question, one of the final questions that I ask everyone at the end. It's called The Three Truths. So you've written seven books. You're going to have an eighth one this year. I'm sure you'll have 50 books. But imagine it's your last day on earth. Many years from now, you can go as long as you want. Yes. But at some point, you've got to go. Right. Hypothetically, right? And your physical body, anyways. And you've written everything you want to write. You've said everything you want to say. You've met everyone. You've been knighted 50 times. You've got a copy. You've got a huge theater.

1:12:59Lewis Howes:That's a forever legacy. You've done it all. You've seen your grandkids grow. Everything has happened. complete life right but for whatever reason you got to take everything with you when you leave i got to take it you got to take your information your work your books your words your videos all the content you put out in the world it's got to go with you okay so no one has access to it anymore but you get to leave people with three final truths these would be the three truths or the lessons that you've lived through your whole life and this is this was all people had to to remember in a written form, what would you say are those three truths for you?

1:13:38Lewis Howes:One, fall in love with who you are, with what has been created. You didn't create yourself. There's a presence that created you out of itself, so you have to fall in love with that presence. Two, you have to cultivate that potential that's within you. You don't want wasted potential. If you have potential, you have to cultivate it. You don't want to leave and realize, you know what? I should have cultivated that. I left it on the table. I left it on the table. I didn't go for it. I didn't even try, you see. And three, you want to live with not how much you got, but how much did you give away before you left how much did you give away i think that's the game that we're being asked to play on the planet right now not how much we can get but before we leave how much can we give away now if we fall in love with ourselves activate potential and give us away as much as possible we'll be in bliss because bliss is the function of the activation of potential wow those are great truths i love those imagine everyone in the world is putting on headphones right now and everyone can understand english for a minute or they hear it in their own language exactly hear their own language and you get to share one message with the world where people put their phones away they're not watching tv they put on the headphones they flip on a switch mic comes on what is the message you would share in under 60 seconds for the world and what we're living through right now, what we're going through in this time and age, what would be a message you would say?

1:15:30I would let people know that there's a paradigm that's dying right now. Whenever a paradigm is dying, it makes a lot of noise. So right now, we have the paradigm of greed and hate, separation, supremacy of all kinds of levels really loud, which means it's at its deathbed. And there's a paradigm that's emerging. The emerging paradigm is a paradigm of unity and oneness, of which now our quantum scientists are now echoing what the mystics have been teaching for thousands of years, that we're all one, that the separation is only in our mind. It doesn't really exist. So I would say stay strong. Don't give in to fear.

1:16:15Don't give in to worry. Worry is mentally and emotionally rehearsing what you don't want to happen, you see. So stay out of worry and fear and realize that we're passing through a phase of a dying of the old and a birthing of the new. Stay true to the vision of unity. Have conversations about it. Let that be your conversation. And watch as you look back at this type of history. and the things that we were so afraid of would be in museums. People, you'll have kids in museums saying, Mommy, did people really hate each other because they were in different religions? Mom, the grandma, you mean people didn't like each other because their skin colors were different?

1:16:57Mom, did that really happen? And grandmama would say, yeah, many years ago, that was the ignorance we were living in, but not anymore, babe.

1:17:07Lewis Howes:Wow, yeah, that's powerful. I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Michael, because this is just like, for me, this is so awakening for me. Everything you've been sharing has been resonating deeply with me. And the fact that you've been living your life in such a level of high service for the last 30 plus years is a great example of what's possible for all of us. We don't have to go start spiritual centers the way you have, but we can do things to live in service every single day with our families, our friends, and the people, the strangers around us. Absolutely. And so I acknowledge you for showing up the way you did today, for your constant level of service.

1:17:46Lewis Howes:Everyone I talk to who knows you just says how giving of a human being you are. And for showing me what's possible when all the good that comes your way, you don't have to wear a mask and think you're that much better. No, yes. And so I appreciate and acknowledge you for constantly showing up in service and humility and gratitude. It's a great blessing to be with you right now. Thank you. Appreciate it. Check out these books, Spiritual Liberation as well. The Answer is You, Life Visioning. And Life Visioning, this is the book that Oprah, she picked out of her 30 years of being on TV. She picked 15 books, as she said, were the best 15 books to help an individual solve a problem, and Life Visioning made that 15 cut.

1:18:29Lewis Howes:Oh, maybe I'll read this one today then. This is great. I appreciate it. Life Visioning, very cool. Final question, and you're on social media. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Facebook, Instagram, Michael B. Beckwith. Michael B. Beckwith. Twitter, the whole deal. Okay, perfect. And they can go to agapelive.com to actually live stream my services. They can actually see me live. Anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world. Most of the congregations around the world. Agape Live. I mean, they have a few thousand every Sunday. But most of the people are in Canada, Australia, New York, and they're all around the world.

1:19:01Lewis Howes:Right. So go to agapelive.com. You can watch it live on Sundays. Right. If you're in L.A. or if you're visiting L.A. People can show up to Agape. If they go to agape.com, is that where it's at? Yeah, they can find it. It's at the Saban Theater. Okay, perfect. Right there on Wilshire and La Cienega. And when you go and you meet Michael, make sure you heard him on the show. Yeah, tell him to come up and say, I heard him on the show. Let him know. Final question for you, Michael, is what's your definition of greatness? Definition of greatness is constantly being superior to your former self. so you're never in competition with someone else you're only competing with your former self so that tomorrow next year two years from now you're actually releasing more life energy than you were two years ago or a year ago so it's a so you're really becoming more you on a regular basis my friend i hope you're enjoying this episode right now because we are on a mission to impact a hundred million lives every single week and every follow here on this podcast helps us reach more people.

1:20:06Lewis Howes:Make sure to hit the follow at the top of this show's page right now. It's the single biggest thing that you can do to support the show and the impact of us reaching you every single time we have new episodes. I appreciate you and I can't wait to see you in the next episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

1:20:46Lewis Howes:Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I wanna remind you, if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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