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Language: en
in your book the war of art you talk
about resistance with the capital order
as the invisible force in this universe
of ours that finds a way to prevent you
from starting or doing the work where do
you think resistant comes from why is
there force in our mind that's
constantly trying to jeopardize our
efforts with laziness excuses and so on
that's another great question I mean in
in Jewish mysticism in Kabbalistic
thinking it's called a yetzer Hara right
and it's it's a force that if this up
here is your soul of neshama trying to
talk to you us down here the ants are
her eyes this negative force in the
middle so I'm not the only one that ever
thought about this but and I don't know
if anybody really knows the answer but
here's my answer I think that there are
two places where we as human beings can
seat our identity one is the ego a
conscious ego and the other is the
greater self and the self in the in the
Union sense the self in the Union sense
includes the unconscious and butts up
against what Jung called the divine
ground which what I would call the muse
the goddess or whatever and I think and
the ego is just this little dot inside
this bigger self and the ego has a
completely different view of of life as
from the self the ego believes I'm going
to give you a long answer here like no
perfect the ego believes that death is
real the ego believes that time and
space are real the ego believes that
each one of us is separate from the
other
I'm separate from you I could punch you
in the face and it wouldn't hurt me it
would only hurt you and in the egos
world the dominant emotion is fear
because we were all made of flesh we can
all die we can all be hurt we can all be
ruined bumpity-bump
so we were protecting ourselves and even
our desire to create
as we were talking about before comes
out of that fear of death myself on the
other hand the greater self that butts
up against the divine ground believes
that death is not real that time and
space are not real that the gods travel
swiftest thought and the ego also
believes that I mean the self believes
that there's no difference between you
and me that were all one if I hurt you I
hurt myself karma right and in the world
of the self of the greater self the
dominant emotion is love not fear now so
I think that let me I'll go farther back
here try a long way to answer your
question when Jesus died on the cross or
when the 300 Spartans willingly
sacrificed their lives at Thermopylae
they were acting according to the rules
of the self death is not real no
difference between you and me time and
space are not real predominant emotion
is love so in my opinion we as conscious
human vessels have are in a struggle
between these two things the ego and the
self to me resistance is the voice of
the ego saying and it's a fearful voice
because if when we identify with the
self we move our consciousness over to
the self as as artists or scientists
opening ourselves up to the cosmic
dimension to the to the other forces the
ego is tremendously threatened by that
because if we're if we're in that space
that headspace we don't need the ego
anymore so I think resistance is the
voice of the ego trying to keep control
of us you there in a way I'll give you a
bad example Trump is the ego that's
probably a very good example right you
know it's a zero-sum world for him yes
and for anybody that's in that and the
opposite of that would be somebody like
Martin Luther King or Gandhi and that's
of course why they all wind up getting
assassinated because that voice that ego
is hanging on to itself and feels so
threatened yeah by I could talk more
about this if you wanna know for sure
that that's that's fascinating is just
it's interesting why the fear is
attached the ego I really like this
dichotomy of ego and the self and that
struggle
it's just ego has a you know the the
self obsession of it why why fear such a
predominant thing like why his
resistance trying to undermine
everything the it's very year it's out
of fear let's think about the whole
thing in terms of stories in a story the
villain is always resistance is always
the ego the hero is is always of course
always not everything but you know what
I mean pretty much it represents kind of
the self if you think about the alien on
the spaceship that's like the ultimate
kind of villain it keeps changing form
right first it goes on the guy's face
then it pops out of his chest but it
always just has that one monomaniacal
thing to destroy you know and just like
the ego just like resistance and maybe
alien is a bad example because Sigourney
Weaver has to sort of fight on the same
terms as as the alien but maybe a better
example might be something like
Casablanca where in the end the pumphrey
Bogart character has to acting operating
out of the self has to give up his his
selfish dream of going off with Ingrid
Bergman Nilsa lund the love of his life
and instead you know puts around the
plane to Lisbon
while he goes off to fight the Nazis and
you know in the desert
I don't know if that's clear but it but
in almost every story the villain is the
ego is resistance is fear is that
zero-sum thing and in almost every story
the hero is someone that is willing to
make a sacrifice to help others it's
letting go of that fear is what leads
the productivity into success yeah
do you think there's a a that's probably
the answer is either obvious or
impossible but do you think there's an
evolutionary advantage to resistance
like what would life look like without
resistance that sort of yet another
great question I think I also believe
that resistance like death gives a
meaning to life right if we didn't have
it it's gonna be you know what would we
be we'd be in the Garden of Eden picking
fruit and just happy and stupid you know
and I do think that that myth of the
Garden of Eden is really about this kind
of thing you know where where Adam and
Eve decide to sort of take matters into
their own hands and and acquire
knowledge that until then God had said
I'm the only one that's got that
knowledge and of course once they
acquired that knowledge they're cast out
into the world you and I live in now
where they do have to deal with that
fear and they do have to deal with all
that stuff the human condition and the
human condition and the meaning and the
purpose comes from the resistance being
there and the struggle to overcome it
the overcome it right that's and also
the other aspect of it is that it's not
real at all it's not even like it's an
actual force it's all here
right so the the sort of in a way is
sort of a surrender to it you know
you know like turning on the light in a
dark thing it's like it's gone but not
quite because it's not quite because it
comes back again tomorrow morning
exactly so you have to keep changing
light bulbs every day so what's been uh
maybe recently but in general maybe you
know life what's been the most
relentless or one of the more relentless
sources of resistance to you personally
I mean it's always the same it's about
writing for me and an evolving within my
own body of work you know it never goes
away it never gets any less you have
particular excuses particular
justifications that come out no it's
always the same well I would say it's
always it's saying but it's really not
because resistance is so protein you
know it keeps changing form and as you
as you move to hopefully a higher level
resistance gets a little more nuanced a
little more subtle trying to fake you
out but I think you learn that it's
always there and you're always gonna
have to face it so I mean you're but
your battle is sitting down and writing
to some number Awards to a blank page
yeah give a process there with his
battle you have a number of hours you
put in honestly yeah I'm definitely a a
believer that even though this battle is
fought on the highest sort of spiritual
level that the way you fight it is on
the most mundane I'm sure it's like
martial arts must be the same way I mean
I go to the gym first thing in the
morning and I sort of am rehearsing
myself faced you know the gym is called
resistance training right you're working
against resistance right yeah and I
don't want to go I don't want to get out
of bed I hate that you know so but I'm
sort of fortifying myself to to be ready
for the day and you know like I said
over knock wood over years I've learned
to sort of get into the right kind of
mindset and it's not as hard for me as
it used to be the real resistance I
think for me and I think this is true
for anybody is the question of sort of
what's the next idea what's the next
book what's the next project that you're
going to work on and when I when I ask
that question I'm sorry I'm asking it of
the muse I'm kind of saying what do you
want me or I'm asking up my unconscious
if we're looking at Bruce Springsteen's
albums it's kind of well what's the next
album you know now he's on Broadway that
was a great idea
right um where'd that come from you know
but and then for him what's what's after
that you know because that that body of
work is already alive it already exists
inside us canonical woman's biological
clock and we have to serve it and we
have to otherwise it'll give us cancer
you know I don't mean to say that if
anybody has cancer that they're not yeah
but you know what I mean it'll it'll do
it'll take its revenge on us so the next
resistance to me is sort of a big aspect
of it is what's next you know when I
finish the book I'm working on now I'm
not sure what I'm gonna do next
and I see at the same time you have a
kind of you have a sense that there is a
Bruce Springsteen single line of albums
so like it's it's already known
somewhere in the universe what you're
going to do next is the sense you have
in it in a sense yes I don't know if
it's like predetermined you know but
it's but there's something like that
yeah I'd like to believe that there's uh
was this kind of like quantum mechanics
I guess once once you observe it maybe
once you talk to the muse it's it's it's
one thing for sure it was always going
to be that one thing but really in
reality it's a distribution it could be
any number of things yeah I think so
there's an alternate reality alternate
realities yeah they're not that far
apart
I mean Bruce Springsteen is not going to
write
you know a Joni Mitchell song you know
no matter how hard he tried when I'm
brought I mean he still did that which
is not a Bruce Springsteen thing to do
so I think I think your being in
retrospect I think it is nice teen
things you know it's a next sort of
evolution form why not take his music to
there you know in retrospect it all
makes sense I think yeah because he if
you pull it off especially
you