I consider it a privilege to be able to drop in,

unscheduled, to talk to you.

Thank-you for making time for me.

I know you’re busy.

I’m going to say a few things about the challenges of life.

But first I want to congratulate the new Avatars.

You are acquiring a set of tools that you can “use if you choose”

to unlock your greatest potential.

“Use if you choose…”

Of course you could sit back and let temptation and circumstance

shape your life and your beliefs and your character.

It’s not what I’d advise, but plenty of people do it that way.

And, as always, if there’s something that I say that you don’t agree with,

just label it “another viewpoint”.

Since our life experiences evoke different choices,

it’s not surprising that the conclusions

that we draw are different, too.

My choice is to live deliberately.

I feel so strongly about that

that I wrote a book called “Living Deliberately”.

Maybe you’ve heard of it…

The Avatar tools won’t do you much good if you don’t choose to use them.

But if you start out using them deliberately,

and continue using them until they become a habit,

you will learn to live deliberately.

Circumstances might get you there, but it’s unlikely.

And temptations which start out hot soon cool off.

You want another word for temptation?

It’s an attractive desire that promises quick happiness.

I heard a story about twin brothers:

one was a ruined bum and a drunkard,

and the other was happy and successful.

And somebody asked the drunkard

how he came to be where he was, and his answer was,

“I’m where I am today because my father was a drunk.

And the successful brother was asked the same question

how did you come to be where you are?

You want to know his answer?

“I’m where I am today,” he said,

“because my father was a drunk.”

Same temptation, same circumstances

two different outcomes.

Temptation and circumstance only shape your life if you choose to let them.

And there will always be temptation and circumstances

that you have to live through,

but you don’t have to let them ruin your life.

Hard times, everyone has to deal with a few.

These are the challenges of life,

will you deliberately choose,

or will you let

temptation and circumstance make the choice for you?

Victor Frankel, who survived a Nazi Concentration Camp wrote:

Now, “because my father was a drunk”

which brother made a deliberate choice?

Which brother allowed temptation and circumstances to shape his life?

I’m a big promoter of deliberately practicing virtues.

And it’s not because I’m a great paragon or model of virtue,

but because I think that the struggle between

temptation and deliberately practicing virtues

is the real game that we came here to play.

I don’t mean to sound like a Preacher, but there it is all the same.

It’s the ageless battle between good and evil.

Maybe you just believe in good and don’t believe in evil.

Someone once told me that the motto of evil is “I don’t exist.”

But without the contrast of evil you wouldn’t have good.

Could you be good if you couldn’t be evil?

I mean, which side do you want to be on?

Not everybody chooses the side of good.

There are some people who measure their success

by the amount of suffering they inflict.

I give a lecture in Wizards called “Virtues”.

You ought to see me, I get really steamed up!

And the message is that virtues are not ‘shoulds’ or ‘shouldn’ts’,

but they’re wise advice on how to live a happy life.

Virtues are the nuts and bolts of a spiritual path.

Human virtue is the courage to act like a merciful god would act

a merciful god.

Do you act toward others like a merciful god would act?

That’s a tough question.

Virtues are also good strategies.

Some people have virtue mixed up with judgment or suffering,

or living a really dull boring life.

That’s a wrong view.

Virtues are time-tested strategies

for dealing with whatever the world throws at you

and coming out of it a merciful god, an Avatar.

You develop these virtues by working on yourself.

Jim Rohn, a renowned business philosopher who I admire,

That’s good advice.

I’ve got my own version of that philosophy:

if you work hard on developing virtues

you’ll not only be successful,

you’ll be happy when you get there.

Success is no protection against depression

virtuous actions are.

Virtues are like,

patience,

kindness,

forgiveness,

tolerance,

compassion,

responsibility.

I once made a list of virtuous actions,

and I had over a hundred on the list.

And it’s an easy list to make because

you have a built-in virtue meter

it’s called feeling good about yourself.

Any action that you take out of loving-kindness

will register on your virtue meter.

Your honest intention is what moves the meter.

You might refer to your virtue meter as a moral compass,

or intuition,

or guidance from the higher self.

Virtuous acts make us noble.

They connect us with a divine current,

that in our best, sanest moments

we would sacrifice anything to join.

Here’s something interesting that you probably already know.

How many ends to a stick?

How many directions to a path?

Always at least two, right?

For every virtue there is an opposite vice

and virtues nurture loving-kindness,

vices nurture selfish fears.

Like positive and negative, this is a two-pole universe.

There’s love and kindness at one pole,

and fear and evil at the other pole.

And it appears to me

that the life-stream flows from the positive,

which is motivated by service to the universe, down to the negative

where it disappears into egocentric selfishness.

Did you know that there are no virtues connected solely with concern for self?

I mean, there are a few virtues that are connected with concern for family,

and a few connected with loyalty to a group,

but most are connected with love and kindness for strangers.

Wow, isn’t that interesting?

The life-stream washes around you, and you know what?

The virtues are always upstream.

And we talk about ascension,

rising higher, higher self, aspiring... all upstream.

I don’t know why it is that way…

Maybe we’re meant to turn in to the life-stream, and

maybe the challenge is swimming into the current.

I mean, succumbing to temptation doesn’t take much effort.

Practicing virtues, ooof...

at least at the beginning it takes a lot of effort.

Maybe you think this isn’t fair, that

living deliberately takes effort, that life is a challenge,

that the best rewards are upstream.

But even my tilapia seem to know this.

Virtue is helping someone, and wisdom is knowing who to help.

Helping a serial killer to commit more crimes is probably a lack of wisdom.

Or helping a sociopath to wreck

the work of good people is a lack of wisdom.

Setting the wisdom issue aside for a moment,

here’s the brutal bottom-line on virtues and vices:

an action done with harmful intent brings suffering into your life;

an action done with good intent brings happiness into your life.

It would be wisdom if we would print that on our money

so it kept reminding us

I mean, maybe that’s what “in God we trust” means. I don’t know…

I do believe that an action done with harmful intent

brings suffering into your life,

and that an action done with good intent

brings happiness into your life.

And a person can get into a state,

mostly through transgressions and bad intentions,

where they feel they deserve to suffer.

And this is where confession and forgiveness can turn a life around.

I was 24 by the time I discovered the value of virtue,

and by that time I was really out of practice.

Don’t wait that long.

I wasted a lot of life ‘going with the flow’.

Have you seen the “No Fear” t-shirts?

My t-shirt would have said “No Effort”.

I was drifting downstream in the current of

temptation and circumstance.

“Hey, man – be cool.

Oh, chill – don’t take sides.

Love the one you’re with.

Hey, if it feels good, do it.”

Do you know where that philosophy of life took me?

Downstream.

I was treading water;

I was heading for a divorce, I hated my work...

yeah, I was real cool, though.

One of the few people who would still be straight with me, my Dad,

gave me some advice.

“Son, if you’re going to get anywhere,

you need to take control of your life.”

What fabulous advice, fabulous advice;

I knew it was genius, you know. It was right.

Do you like good advice?

“Son, if you’re going to get anywhere,

you need to take control of your life.”

It took me 10 years to figure out how to take control of my life.

You see, I was working at it from within the mind

thinking, figuring...

which is like stirring a boiling pot of temptation

while you’re sitting in the middle of the pot.

That’s a lot of cooking.

Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

It took me 10 years to discover that

taking control of my life could only be done from source.

I’m not a fast learner.

Wasn’t it kind of God to finally take pity on me and let me discover Avatar?

Avatar is the quick-start instructions for taking control of your life.

Now you can be up and running in 9 days.

That’s fast.

You might not be able to improve the world a lot in 9 days,

but you can accomplish miracles in your own life.

And your life is where you start.

And when you start to get that squared away,

there’s the Masters Course.

Most of the people who know me know that I’m an amateur gardener.

And they also know that when I talk about the mind

I’ll probably start using the garden for an analogy.

What? If it was good enough for Buddha and Christ,

it’s good enough for me.

Ok, you know I could be more modern and creative and use an analogy like:

you go down to the local Mind Store

and you buy this fabulous mind that’s hungry for thoughts.

You bring your mind home in a big box,

and you body-modem it into the collective consciousness,

and as soon as you boot it up it will

multiply, amplify, and defend whatever it finds.

Hey, and don’t worry about saving the packing box

once this mind is out of the box it will never go back.

And your new mind doesn’t care what thoughts you put in it.

It will amplify, multiply, and defend anything you put in it.

That’s fantastic when you think about it.

Uh-huh… In fact,

...the more you think about it, the more amplified the idea becomes.

The mind will amplify, multiply, and defend anything you put

or allow... into it.

If you want to trash the mind up with dirty pictures,

or plans for revenge,

or grudges, or fantasies about being rich and famous,

it doesn’t care.

I mean, it will amplify, multiply, and defend a rumor

as quickly as it will the truth.

To a mind, one thought tastes pretty much like another thought.