The Self Has Only One Job: To Pretend It Is Real

— Money, health, failure, personality, feelings…. Random, random, random.

What if there are no connecting dots from experience A to result B? What if experience is new every second and has no prior cause or reason? Of course no one has to believe any of this. It's just a point of view and a "what if." No harm in trying it on. And it just may be worth playing with. Because believing we're in charge of what happens feels awful. And random, though granted, might be almost completely incomprehensible to humans, feels way better. Much lighter. Much more spacious. We might discover a whole different sense of self, if we play with peeling off faux responsibility and cause-effect from that self's aching back. We might discover that, just like there is no self, there are also no gods watching, judging, and meting out punishment. Perhaps nothing is out there lining up our failures, just waiting to give us the smackdown when we misbehave. It could even be that we've been free of the ties of good-girl and boy all along, and we just haven't noticed, so bent over have we been, carrying responsibility. "Random" just may be the key to the unanchored, free-floating self.

Valeria Teles interviews Judy Cohen — she is a coach, writer and speaker.

Judy Cohen has a background full of used-to-be's. She used to be a clinical psychologist, entrepreneur, certified facilitator and trainer of The Work of Byron Katie, and of Scott Kiloby's Living Inquiries, as well as various other ways of bettering herself via nonduality.

She also used to be a depressed, anxious, therapy-chasing, anti-depressant-taking, guilty, ashamed, suicidal despaired.

Naturally she yearned to feel better. So naturally she did a lot of seeking, trying to make that happen.

Along the way, several awakening experiences happened, though they were never Judy's goal. Contrary to popular myth, these awakenings didn't put an end to unwanted feelings or personality traits.

They did help Judy come to see though, that every experience- good, bad, happy or sad- is an awakening. She finally knew to give up seeking because there was nothing more to get. She'd had it all along.

Today Judy lives a much lighter life, working with worldwide clients via Zoom to find practical, doable ways to live and integrate nonduality through everyday struggles and situations, and to see that that wispy illusion of self which causes so much dissatisfaction is a whole bunch of nothing.

To learn more about Judy Cohen and her work, please visit: irreverentmind.com

— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.