Because everything you gain in life will rot and fall apart, and all that will be left of you is what was in your heart.
My choosing to free people from concern got me to the top of a mountain. Look where I am — look what I get to do! Everywhere I go –
and I’m going to get emotional because when I tap into this, it really is extraordinary to me — I did something that made people present their best selves to me wherever I go. (applause) I am at the top of the mountain, and I was, and the only one I hadn’t freed was myself, and that’s when my search for identity deepened.
I wondered who I’d be without my fame.
Who would I be if I said things that people didn’t want to hear, or if I defied their expectations of me? What if I showed up to the party without my Mardi Gras mask and I refused to flash my breasts for a handful of beads? (laughter)
I’ll give you a moment to wipe that image out of your mind. (laughter)
But you guys are so ahead of the game. You already know who you are and that peace, that peace that we’re after, lies somewhere beyond personality, beyond the perception of others, beyond invention and disguise, even beyond effort itself. You can join the game, fight the wars, play with form all you want, but to find real peace, you have to let the armor go. Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form.
Risk being seen in all of your glory. (A sheet drops and reveals Jim’s painting. Applause.)
It’s not big enough! This painting is big for a reason. It's called “High Visibility.” (laughter) It’s about picking up the light and daring to be seen. Here’s the tricky part. Everyone is attracted to the light.
The party host up at the top, who thinks unconsciousness is bliss and is always offering to drink from the bottles that empty you;
Misery, below her, despises the light — can’t stand when you’re doing well — wishes you nothing but the worst;
The Queen of Diamonds under him needs a King to build her house of cards; And the Hollow One down bottom there, who will cling to your leg and say, “Please don’t leave me behind for I have abandoned myself.”
Even those who are closest to you and most in love with you; the people you love most in the world will find clarity confronting at times. This painting took me thousands of hours to complete and when I was finished — (applause) thank you — yes, thousands of hours. I’ll never get them back, I’ll never get them back (kidding) — I worked on this for so long, it was weeks and weeks, like a mad man alone on a scaffolding —
and when I was finished one of my friends said, “This would be a cool black light painting.” (laughter)
So I started over. (All the lights go off in the Dome and the painting is showered with black light.)
Whooooo!
Welcome to Burning Man! (applause) Some pretty crazy characters up there,
but better up there than in here. (points to head) Painting is one of the ways I free myself from concern, a way to stop the world through total mental, spiritual and physical involvement.
But even with that, comes a feeling of divine dissatisfaction. Because ultimately, we’re not the avatars we create. We’re not the pictures on the film stock.
We are the light that shines through. All else is just smoke and mirrors. Distracting, but not truly compelling.
I’ve often said that I wished people could realize all their dreams of wealth and fame so they could see that it’s not where you’re going to find your sense of completion. Like many of you, I was concerned about going out into the world and doing something bigger than myself, until someone smarter than myself made me realize that there is nothing bigger than myself! (laughter)
My soul is not contained within the limits of my body. My body is contained within the limitlessness of my soul —
one unified field of nothing dancing for no particular reason, except maybe to comfort and entertain itself. (applause) As that shift happens in you, you won’t be feeling the world, you’ll be felt by it — you will be embraced by it. Now, I’m always at the beginning. I have a reset button, and I ride that button constantly.
Once that button is functioning in your life, there’s no story that the mind could create that will be as compelling. Imagination is always manufacturing scenarios — both good and bad — and the ego tries to keep you trapped in the multiplex of the mind. Our eyes are not viewers, they are also projectors that are running a second story over the picture that we see in front of us all the time. Fear is writing that script, and the working title is, ‘I’ll never be enough.’
You're going to look at a person like me and say,
“How could we ever hope to reach those kinds of heights, Jim? How can we make a painting that’s too big for our home? How do you fly so high without a special breathing apparatus?” (laughter)
This is the voice of the ego. And if you listen to it, there will always be someone who seems to be doing better than you. No matter what you gain, ego will not let you rest. It will tell you that you cannot stop until you’ve left an indelible mark on the earth, until you’ve achieved immortality. How tricky is this ego that it would tempt us with the promise of something we already possess.
So I just want you to relax—you know, that’s my job—relax and dream up a good life! I had a substitute teacher from Ireland in the second grade that told my class during Morning Prayer that when she wants something, anything at all, she prays for it, and promises something in return, and she always gets what she wants. I’m sitting at the back of the classroom, thinking, "Wow. My family can’t afford a bike." So I went home and I prayed for one, and I promised I would recite the rosary every night in exchange. Broke it—broke that promise. (laughter)
But two weeks later, I got home from school to find a brand new mustang bike with a banana seat and easy rider handlebars!
Yeah, from fool to cool! My family informed me that I had won the bike in a raffle that a friend of mine had entered my name in, without my knowledge whatsoever.
So that type of thing has been happening to me ever since, and as far as I can tell, it’s just about letting the universe know what you want and working toward it while letting go of how it comes to pass. (applause)
Your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head, and when the door opens in real life, just walk through it. And don’t worry if you miss your cue because there's always doors opening. They keep opening.
And when I say, “life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.” I really don’t know if that’s true. I’m just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial so that I can deal with them in the most productive way. You’ll come up with your own style, that’s part of the fun!
Oh, and why not take a chance on faith as well? Take a chance on faith — not religion, but faith.
Not hope, but faith. I don’t believe in hope. Hope is a beggar. Hope walks through the fire, and faith leaps over it.
You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world, and after you walk through those doors today, you will only ever have two choices: love or fear. Choose love, and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.
Thank you so much. Jai Guru Dev. I’m so honored. Thank you.
I love you.