Q: Hi John. The main question I wanted to ask concerns the fact that it felt true for me to take up the opportunities that were presented to me, even though when my friend offered me this opportunity my mind said, “No, I don’t want this. This is just a delay.” At the time I thought it was going to be a delay of three months or something, but the project just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it still feels true for me but there is always this little bit of doubt in the back of my mind that goes well, maybe it’s not true. I’m just wondering whether you could shed any light on that. Maybe I am still controlled by my ego.

John: What you think is true, what you honestly think is true you can trust very lightly. What you honestly know to the core is true, trust with everything. Instead of letting this project manage you, it is you letting the basis of what you know manage your mind and the project. Then the project takes on a life of its own instead of you only giving life to the project that you know. Then the project and your mind never get bigger than you. It’s all about mind management: your mind not being managed by something outside of you, such as the project, but your mind being managed by what you know; your mind being managed by something that has nothing to do with your mind, your mind being managed by something that is beneath your mind.

As soon as your mind takes on a life of its own, then you’re giving your power to your mind. Then your mind will give everything around you a life of its own. Then everything runs your mind and your mind is running you.

There is mind work, and there is a very fine line in doing mind work. It’s not doing any mind work in order to create a space of being, within, so it is not ever doing mind work so that you can be. It’s doing mind work so that your mind can be for what you know, keeping your own mind in line with what you know instead of letting your life be run by your mind.

There’s a mental discipline but it’s not using mental discipline in order to be. It’s using mental discipline to hold your mind in a space that enables your mind to serve what you know, so that it is what you know that runs your mind and not what you think.

Q: So, what you are saying there is when I can already be, then I have to be a little bit disciplined with my mind to stop it encroaching back on and regaining that territory which it has already lost.

John: Not letting your mind turn into something that it’s not, and it’s not doing that in order so that you can be. It is first being, without the use of your mind, and then from that place of being, letting that manage your mind. You are a steward of your mind. It is you guiding your mind so that your mind is in service to what you know, instead of you following your mind, letting your mind have all the power. When your mind has the power, then your mind runs you, and when your mind is running you it gives its power to those things that are taking place in your life. So then you end up being run not just by your mind but by your life.

Taking care of your mind from a place of being is like taking care of a fruit tree, being aware of what each branch is doing, being aware of the new branches that are coming in. With a fruit tree, with all the new branches that are coming in, it’s letting that new branch grow for a season, and at the end of the season every branch that is new, that is growing toward the middle of the tree, you prune. Every branch that is growing outwards you leave. If you just let a fruit tree grow in the way that it would grow, it would never bear as much fruit and it would be much more subject to disease. Your mind is the same. The fine line is that you cannot manage your mind in order to be.

Mind management is like keeping your house in order: taking out the garbage, keeping everything clean and organized and liveable so that the house that you live in is serving you, while you are serving what you know. Then even the house that you live in is then there for what you know; everything in your life lining up in your awareness with what you know. It’s keeping your house in order, keeping the project in order. Taking out all garbage everywhere in your life where it collects.

When your life is kept in reasonable order, then that is a display of your mind being kept in order. When your mind goes lax, that immediately shows up where you live, where you work. It shows up in your project, it shows up in all of your relationships. Then your whole life will display an unpruned, un-taken-care-of, unmanaged mind. It’s gentleness managing your mind – not in order for you to be, but so that your mind can serve what you’re serving, what you know.

The condition of your life displays the condition of your mind. Your life is your mind in form. The mind isn’t there for just anything to develop and grow into form; the mind is there so that what you know can grow into form. When your mind is governed by what you know, then your life is a display of what you know.

The mind is like a puppy. If you do not very gently take care of it and very gently train it, then you end up with an unmanageable dog. When you very gently take care of it and very gently train it – not in order for you to be but so that your mind can serve what you know, just as you are serving what you know – then your mind is like your most amazing friend. The more that you very gently take care of your mind and prune your mind, the more friendly your mind is.

When you let your mind develop and grow just any which way that it does, then your own mind becomes unmanageable, too big. Then you lose awareness of each part of your mind and then your mind runs you. When you are taking care of a fruit tree, then you are intimately aware of what is happening with each branch. Then there is love managing the tree, love guiding its growth. Such a tree, such a mind then is displaying what you’re being. Then your life displays what you’re being.

You are accountable first and foremost to simply be, and you can’t use mind management to be. From that place of being, the accountability continues and it moves outwards. Then you are accountable for your mind. Then you are accountable for how your mind displays itself in the form of your life, and all of it flows wonderfully only if it is all there for what you know; that everything lives from that place that you are primarily accountable for, and that is you being from the source that you came from.