My wife and I have a cat and that cat won’t bark. I can yell at the cat and plead with the cat, but no matter what I do, the cat still won’t bark. That’s the truth. If I am at peace with this truth, I will see my situation clearly and can see what needs to be done. If I want to hear barking, I can get a dog.

If I am fighting the truth, the opposite happens. All my focus will be on the cat. I will be convinced that the cat is the problem, but the cat is not the problem. The cat is just the cat. The problem is my fighting the truth.

There are two realms of life. You can live in the light or the darkness. When you are in the light, the circumstances of life have no power. You are full of love and life works incredibly. When you are in the darkness, the circumstances of life have total power. You lose who you are and life becomes a struggle.

When you are in the darkness, the experience of love is irrelevant. Nothing matters except our circumstances. The focus is on making life be a certain way. We fight, resist, hang on and withdraw. This is the realm of fear, upset and suffering.

Someone recently asked me how I would define ego. It was an interesting question. Here is what I said:

The ego is a false sense of identity fueled by a childhood hurt. It starts as a biological need to protect ourselves from physical threats. Then we experience painful losses of love. This takes the ego to a whole new level.

As little children, we can’t help but create the belief that we are unlovable, not good enough, or some other form of feeling not okay. It’s never the truth, but in the eyes of a little child, it becomes our truth. We then spend the rest of our lives running from this suppressed emotion.

There is a huge difference between the reality of life and our reality. In the reality of life, what’s so is always what’s so. What happened is what happened and your life is exactly the way that it is. Everything can change tomorrow, but at any moment, what’s so is always what’s so. That’s the reality of life.

Then there is our reality. Our reality exists in our mind. It consists of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and opinions. In the reality of life, there are no thoughts or feelings. There is only the truth. Things just are and our feelings about it are totally irrelevant.

Here is a video that Ryan Peake and I just completed on how to create a great life. The combination of music, video clips, and speaking make it very moving. It is a beautiful reminder of who we are and the opportunity of life. Please watch it and share it. You will be very glad you did.