CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #183 Rabbi Guy Dvir - A Better You

I started like delving into the importance of awareness being aware aware of like your thoughts aware of yourself and getting out of compulsive thinking and then I totally rewrote the book and I added like chapters about how to connect to Consciousness as opposed to knowledge being connected to yourself through awareness it's really about knowing how you feel about yourself it doesn't depend on external things or even your thoughts it just depends on you being present all the [Music] time today's episode is sponsored by Boris M Tax planning and advisory schedule your free tax strategy session online and get started now call us at 212 430 6881 to learn more and welcome to kazak Tor talks uhak special program with special guests we have with us all the way from eres from Israel we have RAB how are you good barem it's good to be with you it's good to talk to you yes so we're gonna be discussing uh a better you uh but before we get to that exciting topic we get a little bit background about the rabbi and the great work you're involved with so my background is that when I was very young I was born in Israel my parents moved to Northern California actually north of the bridge Marine County uh I came from a family that was traditional but not religious by any means and we moved into an area that was completely not Jewish and I was like going into sixth grade and it was a big shock for me because I barely knew English and although we had some family there but we had no nothing Jewish no Jewish Community there um as the years passed you know I became you know like American I was a football player uh baseball player lacrosse player was veryy to sports um and then when I got to UCLA and I started like searching for deeper meaning in life and I became very um felt that American culture culture is very empty and I didn't know it at the time but I was feeling like that what there's like I was not identifying with anything in my previous life you know so in other words I got you know some brains I wanted something more meaningful anyways so Hashem Divine Providence sent this lady who had who was had an organization called J D Jewish awareness movement and UCLA campus and uh she ran Israel trips and I went on an Israel trip and you know studied at ASA Torah few weeks went on trips and then from then I decided to make a life-changing decision and not go to law school as I planned originally and dedicate myself to learning Torah barem and then um and then that's you know and that and after that barash I got married and I went into kiru went back to New York and was active in trying to uh to spread Judaism to a young generation who is lost and knows nothing about our beautiful Jewish Heritage just like I didn't know and today I'm back in Israel and I'm not not in Manhattan where I was previously working doing Outreach but it's a different uh it's it's also Outreach but more with people who are not as clueless I would say but are still in need of in strengthening their Jewish identity I want to thank the rabbi for being a guest scholar and residents in our K in our community not too long ago and was inspiring and we are uh very appreciative of that so so as mentioned the title is the better you which is the title of the rabbi's newest book and the question is Rabbi why did you name your book a better you and what's it all about well a better you is actually it's it started out as um talks that I gave to Young Professionals in Manhattan and that was like the base of the book um and um it was basically about you know um interpersonal relationships um and also how to uh cultivate your relationship with Hashem and and philosophical topics and then something happened to me at least that I think when I hit 40 I had a um I had a I had I had like a a whole new search to find really what you know what it was like a second chuva almost like it was like I was like saying searching again for what am I doing here and I got into something that was more like spiritual and like and realizing that basically what did it for me is that I was living in thoughts all the time I was always thinking and and I never realized that the thinking actually was very harmful to me because it took away from my being in instead of just like being and being conscious all the time I was I was like cluttered and thinking and and then I just started you know learning about just like being aware and being present as opposed to always thinking and identify ing myself with my thoughts whatever those thoughts were and so I started getting into that and then I started saying that in Judaism this thing about being conscious and having a high level of awareness is actually mentioned everywhere in all the books and it's just that nobody teaches it because um maybe they're not in tuned to to what the messages are in the different books about the the importance of presence and have mindfulness and um Consciousness and so I started like delving into you know the importance of awareness being aware aware of like your thoughts aware of yourself and not thinking and getting out of compulsive thinking and so I spent time like you know giving classes on this and and suddenly a publish called me and said hey you know we want to work with you do you have any books that you would like to like write and then I'm like you know what I could rewrite this book better you and add a lot more stuff because it's been 10 years ago since the original book came out and now I can add a lot of the stuff that I'm into right now which is like mindfulness and then I totally rewrote the book and I added like chapters about how to connect to your to Consciousness as opposed to knowledge and you know and connecting that conscious connecting basically con you know being connected to yourself through awareness and that's how this book a better you is is really about that it's really about knowing understanding that um it's not about you know your identity and how you feel about yourself it doesn't depend on external things um or even your thoughts it just depends on you being present all the time and when you find that presence and you're always present you'll have a peace of mind and you know and realizing that your thoughts is almost like could be your enemy if you don't if you're not aware of if you're not if you're controlled by your thoughts then you're not yourself and and you will suffer and you will feel pain and you won't even know it right so this book is all about giving you you know the awareness to know and that you are not your thoughts that's like the first I guess I would say the most powerful message in the beginning of the book is to bring you to Consciousness and you know and you know and and not identify yourself with anything else but your presence your very simple presence which we all have we're all here right but we're not here we're like here but many of us are not here we're like we are with our thoughts and our thoughts are not here they're somewhere else they're either in the present uh the past or the future but they're not in the present and that's like for me this was a root Awakening it's a I didn't realize that this is like a cause of Untold misery like to to always like not be present so that's really like the the the book is really about bringing that to the Forefront um and showing how in Jewish works this is the faculty that's called dat the DAT is not knowledge it's not knowing things it's being aware once you have a high level of awareness you can connect to Hashem if if you're not aware you cannot be connected to Hashem even if you know a lot of things because you're simply not connected to the omnipresent God is present in presence he's not in your you know he's not in a thought he's in presence he's like here and now so that's really the um you know in short that's really what the book is trying to bring to the Forefront added level of Dot Consciousness amazing really really amazing and and this sounds great but you know one listening to this could ask uh so how does one implement this to their daily life so it's all good you know it sounds good but uh right so the so the first step is to first step is to know first of all always be aware of what's going on in your in your mind like what thoughts are going through your head and not arguing with your thoughts and not having a dialogue with yourself whether your thoughts are right or not right but just basically being like feeling wait why for example many times we feel negative about ourselves or about our situations and we're not aware where this negativity is coming from so it's a very simple exercise that I would do anytime I have a feeling I would just stop and and try to be present and see where this emotion is coming from you know and and it's always connected to some type of thought right so you know a way to um a way to implement this is just basically in in our everyday life whenever we feel something you know stop don't think but just try to be aware what is going in your head and then you'll discover that usually it's all traced to some type of thought and and I think many people you know suffer from negativity negative feelings whether it's sadness whether it's um you know a lack of um self-worth and um all of it comes from the same place so no matter what negativity you're suffering from from right it's always going to be traced to some to your thoughts to how you perceive yourself or whatever or the thoughts that are in your head right 100% so that's why we're very big fans of so no so I'm so I'm against that I'm not for I'm for no no thought meaning you there's there's a level there's a level Beyond there's a level Beyond thought the level Beyond thought is called presence that's the ultimate to not have any thoughts in your head like to treat thoughts like you treat your arm when you need to raise your arm you raise it when you don't it's resting thought is a tool don't always think when you need to think like oh what do I need to do think you're done don't think think just be you know it's like Shabbat on Shabbat we don't do things we try to connect and just be the same thing you could live Shabbat in the weekday just work on beingness as opposed to doing and thinking all the time know when to put down your thoughts when you don't need to think very very very interesting uh I hear I here so so so let me ask a question talking about potential how does one realize recognize reach uh one's potential in the rabbi's opinion it's a great question it's a great follow-up question because really what I learned is that we're always running we always want everybody wants to like realize their potential and we always think that it's about doing it's like achieving things it's like do am I achieving am I doing outdoing others and am I like like reaching high goals and I realized that no you need to be yourself and how how do you allow yourself to be yourself just by being so if you connect to presence your potential will just naturally come out whatever Hashem gave you is going to come out and whatever you need to do in this world whether it's to service people whether it's to make people laugh or whether it's to help people or whether it's to share your knowledge with people whatever Hashem gave you is going to come out you don't need to you don't need to chase it it's already in you just allow it to happen you don't need to like you know stress over like oh am I realizing my potential is this what I because we're always like trying to chase this dream of like being better and doing more and we never do enough and we're never good enough when it's really not about doing more it's just about being who you are but once you connect to presence only then you can actually allow your true Your Inner Essence to shine that's what I you know that's the realization that so I don't I don't you don't feel jealous you don't compare yourself to others which is something we all do we compare ourselves oh is he he's better than me oh no I'm better than him you know it's like this constant uh comparing uh are we like you know is our life good so if you just know how to be you'll realize your potential W okay a better you very very powerful words by RAB G we have aak Torah talks which is a final message for our broad audience the final message I would say is that that um we need to we need to understand that every one of us Hashem gave us what we need and we have it already we don't need to look for it we don't need to we don't we don't need to get it from the outside because it's already in us so if we just allow ourselves to be ourselves you know we will discover the true treasure that Hashem gave each one of us that we need in you know in this life time amazing amazing Torah talk we had with we want to thank you for your time thank you for the opportunity you do for the books and we want to remind everyone every single Tuesday night 8:30 p.m. kazak Tor talks with special guests uh we want to thank all of our various different platforms F in kazak tour talks special thank you to our friends at touring time special thanks to daily giving.org a dollar day goes a very far away and complete Redemption [Music]