Practical Spirituality - Mastering Free Will

e e e hey where are we going this weekend as opposed to where she would want to go she's like where are you taking me and then you throw her on your horse and ride off into the sunset and she's just like could never be more attracted to you as a husband meaning what doesn't she want to doesn't she have something to say about where you're going for the weekend trip well of course she would probably have something to say but it would ruin the trip for her she wouldn't have the same attraction she wouldn't have the same Romance of not knowing where everything's going because you you as a man keep creating an element of surprise and and it just makes her nuts like meaning excit nuts excited the whole time and that could we married 30 years and used this used this power as a man anyway but this is not our topic so I want all you guys and if you're listening you're a female choose to be your gender okay did you guys choose to come to Jerusalem yeah did you choose to be there today or did you just wake up here choose it right now all of us all of us and I and I I live here here like fulltime like choose it you live here fulltime choose it are you're not living here where you been living oh sorry but you live in Israel yeah choose it uh the outfit you're wearing today you chosen in a store from the looks of most of you you wore this when you slept last night but but um did uh I got anyway choose it choose it okay everyone close your eyes for a second get in your body and choose it feel your body you know just feel it whatever it is right now your weight musculature choose it open your eyes now let's just say you should be a little thinner a little stronger a little more flexible or a little more um uh what was the word I'm looking for forget but someone who doesn't trip is balanced whatever so it was another word but they you you need to grow as a as an organism if you're overweight or if you're not strong or if you're not flexible or if you're not coordinated you need to grow in that but you cannot grow in it if you don't first be where you're at you have to start with where you're at you have to start on the ground if you want to climb and there's a mistake people make is they want to grow so badly that they're thinking about the growth without actually being where you are be where you are first and then grow from there whatever choose it got it number one constant everyone say constant constant constant yeah is to be exactly where you are with exactly what you got so I for example am hungry I'm hungry I didn't eat uh last night I finished dinner and then didn't eat obviously after dinner I don't eat and then uh this morning I didn't eat and it's already 12:00 and what I'm doing right now is replacing food with water by just staving off my Hunger With Sips of water and and I'm not complaining at all about my status right now this is what is I choose it choose it um after this I will definitely go get something to eat um but you should know that our sages say that um if you don't eat till midday when you finally do eat it's like throwing a pebble into a can it's not going to do any mean you already messed up your day if you do it too early it's also I don't know when you're supposed to do it they're just saying that intermittent fasting past midday which in midday in the summer clock is uh close to 100 p.m. which is uh you should get something in your mouth eat a banana or have an apple or right suppos to supposed to eat within the first four hours okay preferably not really you don't want to do it before you pray yes exactly pray first um okay let's move on to number two number two is re-evaluation everyone say reevaluation reevaluation okay so now say constant reevaluation constant reevaluation um reevaluation is that the the the enemy to Free Will is momentum what happens is we get into momentum of past choices and we and we we don't make new decisions I mean think about it if I let's say for example me as a Jew who is doing my best to keep Torah let's say I interact you know I'll be on a flight soon I'll be interacting acting on that flight with let's say someone who doesn't keep Torah and we since we're on a flight for 14 hours so I have 14 hours to talk to this guy can imagine someone sitting next to you and talking to you for 14 hours I can't stay awake on flights as second the flight starts going I'm just like but but imagine I speak the guy for 14 hours and by the time we get to LA or wherever I would go the guy's like yeah you know I think you're right I think you're right this is Real Deal tour lifestyle way to go um you think he could change his change his lifestyle maybe would take more effort than that just agreeing to something yeah so so he may have philosophically reevaluated but he's got so much momentum in one lifestyle that that I would say within 3 days that it would be as if the conversation never happened because he'd go back you know he's going back to wherever he lives with his spouse or his parents or whomever he is and he'd be back in that situation and uh all of meaning every is a deeper topic but every lifestyle has a narrative that are its philosophical underpinnings every lifestyle has a narrative a story that's behind it that is the the underpinning of of the lifestyle you get that so for example I live a Torah lifestyle and the narrative I'm using is the Jews in Egypt who came out of slavery and they got to Mount Si and the Torah came to the Jewish people and and then ever since then there's this like Society of these Jews that keep these 613 Commandments and all the laws and and that's my lifestyle based on that narrative if you see a guy standing in front of a a refrigerator and all you see is the silhouette of a guy he's got both doors open and he's wearing his boxer shorts and it's two in the morning his Bell's hanging down and he's like getting ready to munch yeah two in the morning if you tapped him on the now is that functional or dysfunctional it's dysfunctional but if you tapped on the shoulder and said what the hell are you thinking what are you doing like all that food's going to rot when you go to sleep it's going to rot in your body it's like you might as well throw it in the garbage can because it's it's not going to digest sitting in your stomach all night and you know because digestion sleeps doesn't work while you're asleep you can imagine how exhausted you'd wake up if your digestion was busy digesting while you're sleeping you wouldn't sleep you'd be busy digesting so go the food just rots just rots it doesn't properly digest you know where it goes It goes in the toilet in the end but anyway probably gets stored you know a lot of these people probably are storing the food for a few days and there's many people who have a two three day cycle from mouth to toilet that's probably the late eaters and they probably have weight issues too so anyway um I promise you this lifestyle that I just described which was dysfunctional comes with a narrative if you asked them what the hell you're doing he'd answer you he'd say to you well you know I can't sleep if I don't eat and that's one story it says who you know or or I'm very nervous right now I'm having a lot of anxiety what does that have to do with eating um or he'd tell you that um he' tell you that he's um he's very hungry CU he had dinner at 7:00 p.m. he was done by 7:30 and now it's 2:00 in the morning okay which which would be ideal to have completely digest your food before sleep would be perfect that would be the best sleep of the week if you had fully digested your food most people go to bed still with something left to digest because if you had protein for dinner that's good four or five hours of digestion and if you ate that at 9 o00 you're still digesting when you go to sleep that's the thing with sh this I would have to starting my forget shabas shabas is that the way you deal with chabas is caffeine in the morning so meaning you're going to feel drugged when you wake up and you just drink drink a little caffeine or a lot of caffeine next so re-evaluation is you have to be able to reevaluate your life you have to be able to turn your life around on a dime you might be looking at me like you know what you should be asking right now Ellie you should say Rabbi if martians landed while you were teaching this class and we come outside the class and we're talking to real martians and they're fully in control of our planet like they're showing us that like you know you guys thought you're in control of the planet like we're running absolutely every detail of this planet we're running your lives everything and and we're like yeah what about Mount Si and they're like they show us how they created the mount sin thing so they would just be the angels of a sun doing no no they're coming to tell us that this whole thing was created we're all inside some kind of laboratory pet Tre dish a large one but but like there's there's what they're basically saying there's no God there was no sin none of this like we created this so your question would be to me is do I go home and pretend this never happened and just go back to my cidic family in Jerusalem or is it like Hell's Bells you know let's party so so the answer is and we learned this from Rashi is that hell's Bell let's party which Rashi when the Torah talks about krus Rashi says that you should never say that pig is disgusting to you actually last week's par he said don't ever say pig is yucky you should say I would love to eat pig I just it's just the the Torah PR it's because if you say it's yucky then you lose your reward for not eating if you're eating kosher you lose your reward if you say it anyway you wouldn't have wanted it meaning rashi's telling us you're supposed to yes want it but the Torah says no so you don't do it um and since we're discussing this I think in general that anything you don't everything you want that you shouldn't do you're wanting it shouldn't be the reason you do it you understand meaning the Tor is telling us you should want pork should want bacon the reason you don't do it is because God says and so so the same thing would be true you should want sexual licentiousness immorality IM sexual immorality Rashi that's what he's saying you should want to do that but the Torah says don't do that and and so I'm using this poetically as a banav as a foundation principle that the only reason you're doing your Torah lifestyle is because you believe that it's true that God is existing and Torah is Torah that's why you do it if you find out this Marans created this place stop doing it stop keeping Torah but is until you meet those martians for sure you know we got enough evidence to know that there's a God we got enough evidence to know that the Torah isn't some kind of uh religion Judaism is not a religion it's not some wishful thinking religious group we are the direct descendants of people who witnessed everything it says in that book is aous what do you mean meaning maybe we're also programmed unconsciously if we're unconsciously um I believe that it is a collective subconsciousness the the thing and I don't believe it's because of just being generational because of all the generations that have kept Torah but I I'm not sure I understand what the qu if you're asking a specific question or just fattening up the topic not [Music] easy the tips would be not to reevaluate that that's your inner Instinct and stay true to it the um you can't always trust it meaning if your in Instinct went against your conscious Instinct meaning stuff you actually know to be fact actual and your inner instincts going against the facts drop the inner Instinct you're just you're just one confused individual you know I meet people like this I meet people who like they know here that they're supposed to be doing X Y and Z but their heart their Instinct their inner unconscious instinct tells them to do that and they should not do that in that case the head should rule the heart but if your heart's aligned with the head then lead by the heart why because you want to be as embodied as possible and the heart's embodied the head's not embodied the head's up here it's disembodied so people who you know I think there's an important distinction because in the Jewish world they're always talking about leading with letting your head rule your heart but that only ex you only have your head rule your heart if your heart's incontable it's meaning if your heart's leading you astray which is what it says actually by the CIS it says um so you don't stray after your heart after which you stray you understand your heart will cause you to stray but what if your heart is totally aligned with truth then follow your heart if your heart now is conflicting with truth follow your head you got that so yeah it gives you a pretty good way to navigate but a shame to be a guy whose head and heart are in the same place but he's just a talking head he's just stuck in his head totally unembodied you know like an academic or a scholar you know no one likes Scholars what happens they're they're not embodied what that what happens definitely the head cuz once you're saying it true what does it mean to say something's true saying something's true means it's got to be provable it's got to stand up to to a rebuttal it's got to stand up to other testimony you understand like once you're using the truth world word now it's got to be able to uh withstand argument right if you don't want to use the truth word then follow then you can go with your heart but once you are trying to figure out which one's true what my head says or what my heart says now it's got to stand up to it's got to be able to stand up to argument and obviously let's say this guy who knows X Y andz is true but he keeps going over to do uh you know ABC which is off wrong thing to do so because his heart tells him to do it so if that guy would actually talk to me if he would say Rabbi I'm really like interested in ABC here but my head says it's wrong so I would say well tell me why would you what what about ABC s seems true to your heart and I and I'll give you another thing is I bet you I bet you his heart's his heart's right it's right about the wrong thing in and um for example it might be a timing issue you know what you should go do that with a b and c but you should do it once you're married and you're not ready yet you're not quite ready yet so you're absolutely right follow your heart but not yet give it some time so that'd be like one example is that your heart's absolutely right because chances are your instincts are good most people Your Instinct that first instinct that first intuition is usually the right one the problem is is is it you know does it stand up to the head to the head's test if the head tests it and it turns out to be no it's really wrong so then it it you're not in the time and place for that instinct to be able to be expressed right now and so you got to put it off um but but all of this is good news though why because if you're not quite ready to do what your heart says if you're not there yet for whatever reason now you'll get there because now you see the goal so now you got to get to work to get there okay constant reevaluation means you have to be able to flip your lifestyle on a dime which is extremely humbling but to be able to flip your lifestyle in a DI okay third one is Battleground okay everyone say Battleground so constant re-evaluation Battleground together constant re-evaluation Battleground okay and what's the Battleground Battleground is the battle between and it's exactly what we're discussing so we can go very quick on this one it's the battle between the body and the Soul you're in a constant battle ble between your body and your soul so your body wants to do this and your soul wants to do that in other words my body has certain desires and my soul wants to do what's right okay so we basically covered that but what would happen if you you know right now we're in the middle of a war so there's all these Battlegrounds going on in uh for example in Gaza what if you wound up in a Battleground but no one told you it was a Battleground like you you you you forgot to look up during the when you were passing all the signs that you're entering a Battleground what's going to happen to you if you're in a Battleground and you didn't know you're in a Battleground okay don't answer you're gonna die you don't know you're on a Battleground you're gonna die because you're not properly you're not properly shielded you're not prop you're not taking all the precautions that you Tak in a Battleground you're just walking into a Battleground you're going to get shot probably by both sides at the same time just for being an idiot so anyway um life is a Battleground at every given moment you can I mean I don't want anyone to go OCD on me but in any given moment you can up your choices meaning to better choices life is a Battleground but let's just keep it real simple life is a Battleground between the soul and the body just on a simple level Life's a Battleground between the soul in the body so let's just take a burrito for example so the body would like the burrito the soul probably doesn't care that much about burritos but the the body does and the body the the the soul says maybe we should wash you know like bre bread meal maybe we should wash on the burrito but the body says it's a thin wrap I do I really want to wash on a burrito I mean how much of this meal is the bread part do I want to wash and say the blessings and do the whole thing for a burrito comes along the bread companies and they say you know people are going to have a real issue with these wraps because they're not going to want to wash to use them so people aren't going to eat our wraps so what do they do they add fruit juice to the dough to make the wrap a little sweet because if the wrap's a little sweet just a little like barely perceptibly sweet but they make the wrap a little sweet now the wrap is um no longer has the bread name on it you don't have to wash for it you don't have to make the bread blessing for it and you don't have to make the quite long blessing after it okay does that all sound like solar body body body yeah we're going to actually change tortillas so people don't have to make long prayers over their burritos that's that's body the soul the soul says I don't want that version I want the actual regular tortilla and I'd like to wash for it and then I'd like to concentrate on the blessing after that's the soul okay constant Battleground Soul sorry constant re-evaluation Battleground let's say it together constant re-evaluation Battleground and then the next one is the soul number four is soul choose Soul choose Soul it'll never let you down choose soul I mean when you're in a point of like a real split where it's like the body wants this and the Soul wants that choose the soul just go with the soul whenever you're in that that moment go Soul okay and that's easy enough for us well if you're in doubt ask somebody but get married and ask your wife she'll tell you okay constant reevaluation Battleground Soul um I'll mention one thing Ellie one thing about the soul is that if you always soul and you ignore your body your body's going to come back with a vengeance so when I say go with the soul it doesn't mean forget your body doesn't mean quit the gym doesn't mean you know don't eat your favorite foods anymore doesn't mean become a monk doesn't mean start fasting all the time Soul just means that when your body's in conflict and going to hurt your ultimate purpose here which is spiritual you're here for a spiritual purpose so if your body is going to hurt your actual purpose here that then you go with soul is that clear so you're in a battle between body and soul but it doesn't mean that you shoot the body just go live in a cave somewhere it's listen to the body unless the body's conflicting with the soul when they're in Conflict go with the soul clear okay let's say those constant re evaluation Battleground Soul ready constant re-evaluation Battleground soul and the last one is the super cabalistic one and that is God number five is God and and that is that and it has a lot to do with constant and this is the super deep one and that is that to constantly choose to see God in all things think about it there is there anything outside God can God create something he's not actually whoa whoa who he's that powerful that he can that was a pregnant pause hard to see God in some um yeah what's where is it hard to see God how about in terrible events terrible events yeah when I say God is in all things I mean he's in this cup he's in this water he's in this microphone and he's also in events nothing's outside God nothing all God everything's within God can if God can create something that he's not so then he's no longer infinite because he ends and whatever he created begins so if he's truly infinite it means means he's not just outside the finite he's also inside the finite which is a cool word of infinite in finite he's in the finite as well we have different names of this in Hebrew it's called elus versus there elus is how God fills creation and then there's the yud and the and the V the four-letter name is how God is beyond creation so we have Beyond creation God that's the tortilla and then the elus is how he fills the he's the rice and beans he's surrounding and filling creation but that's the last level of mastering Free Will is to be walking down the streets of Jerusalem like this do it right now like look around this room seriously do it like diffuse your focus it's called diffuse Focus do you know what that means like like right now if you stare at this microphone everyone stare at the microphone so now it's it's acute or you know direct focusing of the eyes now move your eyes to a diffuse Focus where you're not looking at anything in particular you see it all you're not looking at anything and now look around the room a bit like that and you'll see that you'll feel a kind of a strange feeling and now recognize that feeling is God meaning that this is all made of God ultimately yeah it's a trip right and now see yourself walking down the street of Jerusalem and you're just kind of like you see people like that sometimes okay now come back totally to focus come back totally to focus focus on me if you want because I'm talking but I don't care what you look at focus on it and but go back to that it's all God while maintaining total composure as a focused person like you're in a business meeting but you're like recognize this is all God running this meeting so if the meeting starting to go s go south and it's not going to work and we're not going to close a deal that's God saving you if you're closing the deal that's God blessing you blessing the deal where like it's all God so you can do the diffuse Focus where it's just like it's all God and you're walking around the old city like but now you can do the focus but keep your mind it's all God and that's walking that's called Walking meditation in eastern Traditions but in Judaism it's being the in the Free Will of using your choice that you can constantly choose life in any given aspect which was the first level of Free Will constant but you can use it for the fifth level that everything's really made of God and that you can constantly relate to that let's do all you had a question yeah you are sensing it you were in it cool cool yeah concerts are one of the best examples of of death because when you die you'll be in the vibrations of what's making this place this place is all a digital simulation it's made of but there's a there's these worlds where the the infinite light's being filtered out into the vibrations that we experience here when you die you go into that vibration so what happens when you go to a concert you go either into an indoor concert ideally but sometimes it's outdoor but obviously indoor is the best because you're in a box you're in a world that's got vibration and everyone in the room moves to the vibration well you just had your first death experience of what it's like yeah I was once at a at a concert and this comes up next to me and he's like he says you like this and I'm like yes and he's like well wait till you wait till you get upstairs so um let's go over all five um well let's say that all five four times just so you have the class memorized okay so it's going to be again I'll repeat it quickly constant reevaluation Battleground Soul God okay let's go four times constant re-evaluation Battleground Soul God constant re-evaluation Battleground Soul God two more constant re-evaluation Battleground Soul God constant re-evaluation Battleground Soul God okay please subscribe and uh hit the hit the uh Bell so you get these announcements and looking forward to more practical spirituality and and if you'd like it to do some kind of sponsor [ __ ] you can be in touch and uh I'm findable on uh on um uh Rabbi yomtov uh sorry yomtov Glazer at gmail you can find me there if you'd like something mentioned on my classes or your company or whatever Shalom everybody