May 13, 2025 • 20 mins
What if the wisdom you've been seeking has been within you all along? This profound exploration challenges us to distinguish between mere knowledge and true wisdom in our spiritual journeys. As someone who has studied metaphysical principles for over twenty years, I've witnessed countless seekers (myself included) accumulate spiritual concepts without fully embodying them.
The transformative power lies not in what we know intellectually, but in how we apply that knowledge in our lived experience. As Mary Baker Eddy brilliantly expressed, "Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great as a knowing fool, but to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom." This distinction reveals why many spiritual practitioners find themselves stuck – understanding principles intellectually while struggling to manifest them practically.
I share a pivotal moment from my time performing in West Side Story, where I faced my limitations as a dancer surrounded by professionals from American Ballet Theatre and Alvin Ailey. My breakthrough came when frustration pushed me beyond perceived limitations into a perfect execution that choreographer Jerome Robbins demanded remain my standard. This personal story illuminates how we often know more than we think we do, but remain trapped in self-doubt until we surrender to our deeper capabilities. The purpose of life isn't found in achievements or acquisitions but in knowing yourself – not the self defined by career, relationships, or talents, but your essential divine nature. This self-knowledge doesn't come through endless analysis but through surrender, moving beyond theoretical understanding into authentic expression.
Are you ready to know more than you think? Begin by quieting the incessant chatter of your analytical mind and connecting with the wisdom that transcends intellectual understanding. Your transformation awaits not as a distant journey, but as a surrender to what you already know at your core. Share this episode with someone who needs to be reminded of their innate wisdom and leave us a review if this message resonated with you!
You can reach Dr. James at https://www.jamesmellon.org/
Check out Dr. James Mellon's book, The 5 Questions, here on Amazon.
Learn more about Global Truth Center at https://www.globaltruthcenter.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. James Mellon (00:00):
First of all, the title of my talk today is
this you know more than youthink.
So the whole idea of why lookaround the corner when it's all
right here, if we're constantlylooking at what we don't have,
if we're constantly looking atwhat we want to happen as
opposed to what am I actuallydoing.
Where am I actually livingright now?
What's actually happening rightnow?
(00:22):
Friday night here at the soundbath, at our soul immersion with
Scott and Judd and Swan wasprobably the best one we've ever
done and the sound.
I was sitting up here and I wasjust like does it get better
than this and can I take thisout into the world?
(00:43):
And I did.
It has stayed with me.
It has just stayed with me whatwe all experienced here on
Friday night.
So, as we were preparing forthis talk today, questions came
up to me which I'm going to askyou.
Last night in Palm Springs, wehad a great service last night
in Palm Springs, very full, andthere was a minister who came up
(01:07):
to me and said I really lovethat.
You are a protege of Dr Walker,my teacher.
And he said because you havethe singing, you have the,
whatever, all the great thingshe said to me the humor, all of
that, and you're so deeply onprinciple.
And then I asked him who histeacher was, and his teacher was
(01:28):
Kennedy Schultz.
And Kennedy Schultz was inChicago, no Atlanta, thank you
in Atlanta.
And I said, well, look at us,we are the children of David
Walker and Kennedy Schultz.
That's who we are.
And I got it.
I was like I am really happywith who I am as a minister and
(01:48):
where this center is going.
So the question, the firstquestion I'm going to ask you
and I don't want you to answerit, if you can, this isn't a
question for you to answer.
This is a question for you tosit with, to just listen to what
(02:09):
may come up.
It's a very simple question.
It's are you happy?
And don't even yeah, I know youwant to say yes, I want to say
yes too, but I want you to justsit with it.
Are you happy?
Because the question that'sright under it for me is what is
it to be happy when you'reagreeing to that?
(02:32):
What are you agreeing to?
Yes, I'm happy, but what areyou agreeing to?
What is it to be happy?
What does it mean to be happy?
I know when something makes mehappy.
I know when someone makes mehappy, I know when some event
makes me happy.
I know when someone makes mehappy, I know when some event
makes me happy, but am I happyand what does that mean?
(02:55):
That's the first question.
The second question is this Areyou good with your past?
Are you good with your past?
Are you good with your past?
And again, don't answer it,although Karen's saying yes, try
not, it's hard, isn't it hardnot to answer it?
Yeah, I'm good with my past,move on, but it's that question.
(03:17):
No, but it's.
Are you good with your past?
And not to answer, but to justlet that sit there.
And then, of course, thequestion underneath it is what
is the past?
I mean, if you're saying you'regood with it, what is it?
Is it not just a series ofevents that have happened in
(03:37):
time and space, based on the wayyou have used your mind at that
time in your life?
Because anything that hashappened to you in your life has
happened because your mind wasin a certain place at that time.
That's how it works.
So, are you happy with yourpast?
(04:00):
My next question is this Are youexcited about the future?
I love you're all answeringthis.
You're like yes, I am.
Are you excited about thefuture?
Well, you know where I'm goingto go now, but what is the
future and how important is itin your life?
If you had nothing to lookforward to whatsoever, would you
(04:27):
still be good?
And this is just for you tothink about.
You know what are you excitedabout?
Your future?
And then when I ask what isyour future, it really is like
what is the future?
I mean, what really is thefuture other than that which you
are creating right now willshow up.
(04:48):
That's the future.
So you really have to stillback it up and go.
Am I excited about what I'mthinking right now?
Am I excited about the life I'mliving right now?
So my last question I'm going toask you oh no, it's not close
Are you a wise person?
(05:09):
Are you wise, robbie?
Are you a wise?
Did you say no?
Sit with the answer, robbie,yeah.
Are you a wise person?
Are you a wise person?
Okay, and then my question iswhat is wisdom?
(05:30):
What is wisdom?
I'm going to ask what is wisdom?
Tell me what wisdom is.
It's the overall absorption ofall the lessons you've ever
learned.
The overall absorption of allthe lessons you've ever learned
and because that's that's thathas this period at the end of it
.
Thank you for that answer,great um.
(05:55):
Do you know what most peoplesay wisdom is?
And and steven talked about ittoday in meditation most people.
People think wisdom isknowledge.
It's not.
Wisdom is not knowledge.
Knowledge is just knowledge.
And so my next question to youis are you a knowledgeable
person?
Again, sit with the question.
(06:20):
We tend to want to answer itvery fast.
Are we?
Are you a knowledgeable person?
And then, how important isknowledge in your life?
How important is knowledge inyour life?
I will tell you, and probably anumber of people Steve and
Diane, probably Other people whoare ministers in the room I
(06:42):
have studied science of mind forover 20 some odd years.
I have so much frickingknowledge in my head that
textbook Tiffany is not heretoday, she's at the casinos I
thought I'd tell you all that.
She asked to borrow one of myscience of mind books and she
(07:02):
picked up and she went.
It's falling apart.
I said it's 25 years old.
I read it, I actually used it.
I have about four of them.
All the bindings off the pagesare falling apart.
I have all that knowledge andevery time I read it, I feel
like I've never read it before.
Why is that?
Because knowledge keeps growing, knowledge keeps expanding and,
(07:23):
frankly, the only knowledgethat is important for you is the
knowledge of knowing that youknow nothing and you're willing
to know what's coming, what iscoming through you.
That's it.
I know nothing.
Now what can I know?
Everybody say that I knownothing.
Now what can I know?
Can I know?
(07:44):
Everybody say that I knownothing.
Now what can I know?
That's the knowledge right.
So I'm not disparaging all ofthe years of signs of my 100,
200, 300, 400, back to 100, 200,back to 100, 200, and all the
extra classes.
They're really important,they're great.
It's a lot of knowledge.
The bigger question is what areyou doing with it?
(08:10):
What are you doing with thatknowledge and are you getting
stuck in it?
Possibly Are you getting stuckwherever that knowledge put you.
So this is what Mary Baker, eddysaid, big Reddy said Wisdom is
the right use of knowledge.
To know is not to be wise.
(08:30):
Many men and women know a greatdeal and are all the greater
fools for it.
There is no fool so great as afool knowing, no fool so great a
fool as a knowing fool, but toknow how to use knowledge is to
have wisdom.
So how are you using theknowledge you have?
(08:53):
How are you living theknowledge you have?
I look around this room and Isee people who have studied this
science and been in thisteaching for so many years.
But we are literally justbeginning to understand why it
is ours to use, even thoughErnest Holmes said it in 1926,
(09:17):
before that there's a power forgood in the universe greater
than you are, and I would saygreater than you know you are,
and you can use it because youare it.
But we're just getting there.
I feel like we're just gettingthere to that point where we're
going.
Oh, my God, I can use thisstuff to really make a
difference in my life.
(09:38):
So here's my next question toyou what is the purpose of life,
lisa?
To find joy and gratitude ineach moment.
Okay, to find joy and gratitudein each moment.
How many of you are good withthat one?
Okay, good, karen.
To experience love and to givelove.
To experience love and to givelove.
(09:59):
How many of you are good withthat one Great Catherine.
To know God, to know love.
How many of you are good withthat one Great Catherine, to
know God.
How many are good with that one?
They don't like the word God,but we're getting better at that
.
It's good, craig.
Oh, the question again is whatdid you have for breakfast?
I was listening.
(10:20):
Give it to me one more time.
The question is exactly okay toexpress whatever is your
consciousness as fully aspossible.
What if I told you that thepurpose of life is for you to
(10:41):
know yourself?
You're close to know yourself.
You're close to know God.
You are God.
So the purpose of life is foryou to know yourself.
That's it, could you imagine.
That's the only thing you haveto be responsible for.
That's the only thing, stan,for you to know who Stan
(11:03):
Galperson is, who Stan Galpersonreally is.
Away from my career, away frommy marriage, away from my
children, away from my talents,away from my past, away from a
future I'm launching into, awayfrom all of it.
Who is Carol Hatchet?
And that's our purpose in life.
That is our purpose in all ofour lives.
(11:25):
So johann wolfgang von goethesaid this knowing is not enough,
we must apply.
Willing is not enough, we mustdo so.
It's not just.
The purpose of life is to knowyourself.
What are you going to do withit?
You know we walk around, you'resaying I am god.
I I got to tell you a lot of us, a lot of things.
(11:46):
I see don't look like God'sdoing good, he's having a great
time, financial problems,relationship problems, health
problems, weight problems, allsorts of things.
And yet we're saying I am God.
So apparently we're notapplying that.
I picked this picture becauserecently someone was talking to
(12:06):
me about you probably don't knowthat I did West Side Story, but
I'm going to say it anyway.
Somebody was talking to meabout West Side Story and it was
one of the dancers in West SideStory and he was reminding me
of this day.
At the Minskoff not at theMinskoff, it was in Florida, the
first theater.
(12:27):
We went to the theater Miamitheater.
The performing arts was wherewe did our first performance,
and when I was hired to playriff, I did not have the dancing
capacity that my fellow actorshad.
All of the Jets, all of theSharks were ABT big ballet
dancers, amazing, amazingdancers.
(12:47):
In fact, the guy playingBernardo was the lead dancer in
the Alvin Ailey Dance Company,and then there was me, who was
playing Riff, who was a reallygood dancer.
I had ballet training.
You know, I went to Joffrey soI could dance and I was good.
But I wasn't that and I wasextraordinarily undisciplined
(13:09):
really, which, really, because Iwas so arrogant I just assumed
no, sue, really, anthony, thatwas then.
This is now.
I was really arrogant because Ithought I dance great, I'm fine
, I don't need to get any better, and I really had that attitude
.
But then I get put into aposition.
So we were on stage and theywere fixing lights and Jerry
(13:31):
Robbins came up and asked us todo this thing that we do where
Riff makes his entrance, and itwas a step like that, and it's
this jeté from the side, and allthe jets would go touring and
then spread Eagle all the waythrough across the stage, and I
hadn't been able to do it verywell and I I I honestly think he
decided to do that that dayjust to piss me off.
(13:52):
Really, I think he did it justto say you're gonna ever figure
this out or not, because everytime we did it, I would be the
weakest one really, and and andwhen I out, all lights hit me
and then I would stop and thenthe jet song happens right after
that.
I was so angry that this washappening and I just got more
(14:13):
and more and more angry.
We know now what it's calledthe imposter syndrome.
I was suffering from thatreally badly and I somehow went
out onto that stage, hit a splitI think I went beyond a full
split and Jerome Robbins and allthe lights hit me and I stopped
and I remember just getting itall down.
(14:35):
I didn't have that high voicethen.
I was playing a masculine roleand I remember standing there
thinking, if I can do this, whyam I not doing this?
I just did it.
And I see Jerome Robbins comingrunning down the hall, down the
theater, and he comes up on thestage and he got right in my
(14:59):
face and he went.
I never want to see it lookanything less than that.
And I was just like okay, andit didn't.
And I took my place.
So this quote, knowing, is notenough.
I knew I was good, I knew whatI had in me.
(15:20):
I didn't know I was God backthen.
We have to apply it, we have todo it.
We actually have to live thisteaching, live it out loud,
audaciously, fearlessly.
And I got to tell you, lifereally did change after that
moment, because I was no longer.
(15:41):
After that moment, because Iwas no longer less than that
part should be and I had a verygood run as riff in that show.
Aristotle said knowing yourselfis the beginning of all wisdom.
So the wisdom that you justtalked about is innate.
When it comes to knowingyourself, when you really figure
(16:04):
out who you are, everything ispossible.
And I know we say that a lot.
But today feels different forme.
Things have been changing overthe last couple of weeks.
For me, we're almost like thatjeté.
I feel like I've finally landedthe jump and I'm standing in it
(16:26):
saying I know who I am.
I know who I am and I know whatI want to do.
And what I really want to do isbe in the moment, be fully
present and be happy.
So Deepak Chopra said if youtruly know yourself, you will
begin the journey oftransformation.
(16:49):
But I want to say this it's notreally a journey, it's a
surrender.
We all talk about the journey,but it's a surrender.
Are you willing to surrenderwho you think you are?
Are you willing to surrendereven the things that you love
about yourself in order to findmaybe, something else you'll
love even more?
(17:09):
Are you willing to surrender tofinding out who you are.
You know, understanding you isjust surrendering to what you
already know.
So Carl Jung said you are whatyou do, not what you say you'll
(17:30):
do.
I could stand in the wingsforever and say I can do that
right, or I could go do it.
The wings do nothing for meexcept give me a very dark place
to feel inadequate.
But then you have to take thatmoment where you jump out and
all the spots hit you becauseyou are the star of your life
(17:50):
and you have the goods, and youknow that you have the goods.
So you can say you're going todo these things till the cows
come home.
But unless you're doing them,you're kind of just sitting
around with a lot of knowledgeand no wisdom.
This was for you, lisa.
I picked this picture.
Do you want to know who you are?
(18:13):
Don't ask.
Act Action will delineate anddefine you.
So the title of my talk todaywas you know more than you think
.
And here's the thing about thattitle you know more than you
(18:36):
think, except right now.
I think you think more than youknow.
Do you all get that what I'msaying?
We are spending so much timewith our minds thinking,
thinking, thinking, trying tomake sense, trying to make it
work, trying to make it be whatwe want it to be.
We use our critical thinking andI'm not saying we shouldn't,
(19:02):
but we use it too much and weuse too little of knowing there
is something inside of you andthat's what this month is all
about and understanding a youthat has yet to show its face, a
you that has really yet to stepup and say hit me with the
spotlights.
It's time, it is really timefor you to know more than you
(19:24):
think.
So let go of your thinking mindat times and settle into those
three keys I asked you about, toreally pay attention.
Why do I react this way?
Why do I feel this way?
Why does my body do this?
You want to be on top of yourbody.
You want to be on top of yourlife.
You want to be on top of yourlife.
(19:44):
You want to be on top of theuniverse, doing what is yours to
do.
You need to know more than youthink, namaste.
First of all, the title of my talk today is
this you know more than youthink.
So the whole idea of why lookaround the corner when it's all
right here, if we're constantlylooking at what we don't have,
if we're constantly looking atwhat we want to happen as
opposed to what am I actuallydoing.
Where am I actually livingright now?
What's actually happening rightnow?
(00:22):
Friday night here at the soundbath, at our soul immersion with
Scott and Judd and Swan wasprobably the best one we've ever
done and the sound.
I was sitting up here and I wasjust like does it get better
than this and can I take thisout into the world?
(00:43):
And I did.
It has stayed with me.
It has just stayed with me whatwe all experienced here on
Friday night.
So, as we were preparing forthis talk today, questions came
up to me which I'm going to askyou.
Last night in Palm Springs, wehad a great service last night
in Palm Springs, very full, andthere was a minister who came up
(01:07):
to me and said I really lovethat.
You are a protege of Dr Walker,my teacher.
And he said because you havethe singing, you have the,
whatever, all the great thingshe said to me the humor, all of
that, and you're so deeply onprinciple.
And then I asked him who histeacher was, and his teacher was
(01:28):
Kennedy Schultz.
And Kennedy Schultz was inChicago, no Atlanta, thank you
in Atlanta.
And I said, well, look at us,we are the children of David
Walker and Kennedy Schultz.
That's who we are.
And I got it.
I was like I am really happywith who I am as a minister and
(01:48):
where this center is going.
So the question, the firstquestion I'm going to ask you
and I don't want you to answerit, if you can, this isn't a
question for you to answer.
This is a question for you tosit with, to just listen to what
(02:09):
may come up.
It's a very simple question.
It's are you happy?
And don't even yeah, I know youwant to say yes, I want to say
yes too, but I want you to justsit with it.
Are you happy?
Because the question that'sright under it for me is what is
it to be happy when you'reagreeing to that?
(02:32):
What are you agreeing to?
Yes, I'm happy, but what areyou agreeing to?
What is it to be happy?
What does it mean to be happy?
I know when something makes mehappy.
I know when someone makes mehappy, I know when some event
makes me happy.
I know when someone makes mehappy, I know when some event
makes me happy, but am I happyand what does that mean?
(02:55):
That's the first question.
The second question is this Areyou good with your past?
Are you good with your past?
Are you good with your past?
And again, don't answer it,although Karen's saying yes, try
not, it's hard, isn't it hardnot to answer it?
Yeah, I'm good with my past,move on, but it's that question.
(03:17):
No, but it's.
Are you good with your past?
And not to answer, but to justlet that sit there.
And then, of course, thequestion underneath it is what
is the past?
I mean, if you're saying you'regood with it, what is it?
Is it not just a series ofevents that have happened in
(03:37):
time and space, based on the wayyou have used your mind at that
time in your life?
Because anything that hashappened to you in your life has
happened because your mind wasin a certain place at that time.
That's how it works.
So, are you happy with yourpast?
(04:00):
My next question is this Are youexcited about the future?
I love you're all answeringthis.
You're like yes, I am.
Are you excited about thefuture?
Well, you know where I'm goingto go now, but what is the
future and how important is itin your life?
If you had nothing to lookforward to whatsoever, would you
(04:27):
still be good?
And this is just for you tothink about.
You know what are you excitedabout?
Your future?
And then when I ask what isyour future, it really is like
what is the future?
I mean, what really is thefuture other than that which you
are creating right now willshow up.
(04:48):
That's the future.
So you really have to stillback it up and go.
Am I excited about what I'mthinking right now?
Am I excited about the life I'mliving right now?
So my last question I'm going toask you oh no, it's not close
Are you a wise person?
(05:09):
Are you wise, robbie?
Are you a wise?
Did you say no?
Sit with the answer, robbie,yeah.
Are you a wise person?
Are you a wise person?
Okay, and then my question iswhat is wisdom?
(05:30):
What is wisdom?
I'm going to ask what is wisdom?
Tell me what wisdom is.
It's the overall absorption ofall the lessons you've ever
learned.
The overall absorption of allthe lessons you've ever learned
and because that's that's thathas this period at the end of it
.
Thank you for that answer,great um.
(05:55):
Do you know what most peoplesay wisdom is?
And and steven talked about ittoday in meditation most people.
People think wisdom isknowledge.
It's not.
Wisdom is not knowledge.
Knowledge is just knowledge.
And so my next question to youis are you a knowledgeable
person?
Again, sit with the question.
(06:20):
We tend to want to answer itvery fast.
Are we?
Are you a knowledgeable person?
And then, how important isknowledge in your life?
How important is knowledge inyour life?
I will tell you, and probably anumber of people Steve and
Diane, probably Other people whoare ministers in the room I
(06:42):
have studied science of mind forover 20 some odd years.
I have so much frickingknowledge in my head that
textbook Tiffany is not heretoday, she's at the casinos I
thought I'd tell you all that.
She asked to borrow one of myscience of mind books and she
(07:02):
picked up and she went.
It's falling apart.
I said it's 25 years old.
I read it, I actually used it.
I have about four of them.
All the bindings off the pagesare falling apart.
I have all that knowledge andevery time I read it, I feel
like I've never read it before.
Why is that?
Because knowledge keeps growing, knowledge keeps expanding and,
(07:23):
frankly, the only knowledgethat is important for you is the
knowledge of knowing that youknow nothing and you're willing
to know what's coming, what iscoming through you.
That's it.
I know nothing.
Now what can I know?
Everybody say that I knownothing.
Now what can I know?
Can I know?
(07:44):
Everybody say that I knownothing.
Now what can I know?
That's the knowledge right.
So I'm not disparaging all ofthe years of signs of my 100,
200, 300, 400, back to 100, 200,back to 100, 200, and all the
extra classes.
They're really important,they're great.
It's a lot of knowledge.
The bigger question is what areyou doing with it?
(08:10):
What are you doing with thatknowledge and are you getting
stuck in it?
Possibly Are you getting stuckwherever that knowledge put you.
So this is what Mary Baker, eddysaid, big Reddy said Wisdom is
the right use of knowledge.
To know is not to be wise.
(08:30):
Many men and women know a greatdeal and are all the greater
fools for it.
There is no fool so great as afool knowing, no fool so great a
fool as a knowing fool, but toknow how to use knowledge is to
have wisdom.
So how are you using theknowledge you have?
(08:53):
How are you living theknowledge you have?
I look around this room and Isee people who have studied this
science and been in thisteaching for so many years.
But we are literally justbeginning to understand why it
is ours to use, even thoughErnest Holmes said it in 1926,
(09:17):
before that there's a power forgood in the universe greater
than you are, and I would saygreater than you know you are,
and you can use it because youare it.
But we're just getting there.
I feel like we're just gettingthere to that point where we're
going.
Oh, my God, I can use thisstuff to really make a
difference in my life.
(09:38):
So here's my next question toyou what is the purpose of life,
lisa?
To find joy and gratitude ineach moment.
Okay, to find joy and gratitudein each moment.
How many of you are good withthat one?
Okay, good, karen.
To experience love and to givelove.
To experience love and to givelove.
(09:59):
How many of you are good withthat one Great Catherine.
To know God, to know love.
How many of you are good withthat one Great Catherine, to
know God.
How many are good with that one?
They don't like the word God,but we're getting better at that
.
It's good, craig.
Oh, the question again is whatdid you have for breakfast?
I was listening.
(10:20):
Give it to me one more time.
The question is exactly okay toexpress whatever is your
consciousness as fully aspossible.
What if I told you that thepurpose of life is for you to
(10:41):
know yourself?
You're close to know yourself.
You're close to know God.
You are God.
So the purpose of life is foryou to know yourself.
That's it, could you imagine.
That's the only thing you haveto be responsible for.
That's the only thing, stan,for you to know who Stan
(11:03):
Galperson is, who Stan Galpersonreally is.
Away from my career, away frommy marriage, away from my
children, away from my talents,away from my past, away from a
future I'm launching into, awayfrom all of it.
Who is Carol Hatchet?
And that's our purpose in life.
That is our purpose in all ofour lives.
(11:25):
So johann wolfgang von goethesaid this knowing is not enough,
we must apply.
Willing is not enough, we mustdo so.
It's not just.
The purpose of life is to knowyourself.
What are you going to do withit?
You know we walk around, you'resaying I am god.
I I got to tell you a lot of us, a lot of things.
(11:46):
I see don't look like God'sdoing good, he's having a great
time, financial problems,relationship problems, health
problems, weight problems, allsorts of things.
And yet we're saying I am God.
So apparently we're notapplying that.
I picked this picture becauserecently someone was talking to
(12:06):
me about you probably don't knowthat I did West Side Story, but
I'm going to say it anyway.
Somebody was talking to meabout West Side Story and it was
one of the dancers in West SideStory and he was reminding me
of this day.
At the Minskoff not at theMinskoff, it was in Florida, the
first theater.
(12:27):
We went to the theater Miamitheater.
The performing arts was wherewe did our first performance,
and when I was hired to playriff, I did not have the dancing
capacity that my fellow actorshad.
All of the Jets, all of theSharks were ABT big ballet
dancers, amazing, amazingdancers.
(12:47):
In fact, the guy playingBernardo was the lead dancer in
the Alvin Ailey Dance Company,and then there was me, who was
playing Riff, who was a reallygood dancer.
I had ballet training.
You know, I went to Joffrey soI could dance and I was good.
But I wasn't that and I wasextraordinarily undisciplined
(13:09):
really, which, really, because Iwas so arrogant I just assumed
no, sue, really, anthony, thatwas then.
This is now.
I was really arrogant because Ithought I dance great, I'm fine
, I don't need to get any better, and I really had that attitude
.
But then I get put into aposition.
So we were on stage and theywere fixing lights and Jerry
(13:31):
Robbins came up and asked us todo this thing that we do where
Riff makes his entrance, and itwas a step like that, and it's
this jeté from the side, and allthe jets would go touring and
then spread Eagle all the waythrough across the stage, and I
hadn't been able to do it verywell and I I I honestly think he
decided to do that that dayjust to piss me off.
(13:52):
Really, I think he did it justto say you're gonna ever figure
this out or not, because everytime we did it, I would be the
weakest one really, and and andwhen I out, all lights hit me
and then I would stop and thenthe jet song happens right after
that.
I was so angry that this washappening and I just got more
(14:13):
and more and more angry.
We know now what it's calledthe imposter syndrome.
I was suffering from thatreally badly and I somehow went
out onto that stage, hit a splitI think I went beyond a full
split and Jerome Robbins and allthe lights hit me and I stopped
and I remember just getting itall down.
(14:35):
I didn't have that high voicethen.
I was playing a masculine roleand I remember standing there
thinking, if I can do this, whyam I not doing this?
I just did it.
And I see Jerome Robbins comingrunning down the hall, down the
theater, and he comes up on thestage and he got right in my
(14:59):
face and he went.
I never want to see it lookanything less than that.
And I was just like okay, andit didn't.
And I took my place.
So this quote, knowing, is notenough.
I knew I was good, I knew whatI had in me.
(15:20):
I didn't know I was God backthen.
We have to apply it, we have todo it.
We actually have to live thisteaching, live it out loud,
audaciously, fearlessly.
And I got to tell you, lifereally did change after that
moment, because I was no longer.
(15:41):
After that moment, because Iwas no longer less than that
part should be and I had a verygood run as riff in that show.
Aristotle said knowing yourselfis the beginning of all wisdom.
So the wisdom that you justtalked about is innate.
When it comes to knowingyourself, when you really figure
(16:04):
out who you are, everything ispossible.
And I know we say that a lot.
But today feels different forme.
Things have been changing overthe last couple of weeks.
For me, we're almost like thatjeté.
I feel like I've finally landedthe jump and I'm standing in it
(16:26):
saying I know who I am.
I know who I am and I know whatI want to do.
And what I really want to do isbe in the moment, be fully
present and be happy.
So Deepak Chopra said if youtruly know yourself, you will
begin the journey oftransformation.
(16:49):
But I want to say this it's notreally a journey, it's a
surrender.
We all talk about the journey,but it's a surrender.
Are you willing to surrenderwho you think you are?
Are you willing to surrendereven the things that you love
about yourself in order to findmaybe, something else you'll
love even more?
(17:09):
Are you willing to surrender tofinding out who you are.
You know, understanding you isjust surrendering to what you
already know.
So Carl Jung said you are whatyou do, not what you say you'll
(17:30):
do.
I could stand in the wingsforever and say I can do that
right, or I could go do it.
The wings do nothing for meexcept give me a very dark place
to feel inadequate.
But then you have to take thatmoment where you jump out and
all the spots hit you becauseyou are the star of your life
(17:50):
and you have the goods, and youknow that you have the goods.
So you can say you're going todo these things till the cows
come home.
But unless you're doing them,you're kind of just sitting
around with a lot of knowledgeand no wisdom.
This was for you, lisa.
I picked this picture.
Do you want to know who you are?
(18:13):
Don't ask.
Act Action will delineate anddefine you.
So the title of my talk todaywas you know more than you think
.
And here's the thing about thattitle you know more than you
(18:36):
think, except right now.
I think you think more than youknow.
Do you all get that what I'msaying?
We are spending so much timewith our minds thinking,
thinking, thinking, trying tomake sense, trying to make it
work, trying to make it be whatwe want it to be.
We use our critical thinking andI'm not saying we shouldn't,
(19:02):
but we use it too much and weuse too little of knowing there
is something inside of you andthat's what this month is all
about and understanding a youthat has yet to show its face, a
you that has really yet to stepup and say hit me with the
spotlights.
It's time, it is really timefor you to know more than you
(19:24):
think.
So let go of your thinking mindat times and settle into those
three keys I asked you about, toreally pay attention.
Why do I react this way?
Why do I feel this way?
Why does my body do this?
You want to be on top of yourbody.
You want to be on top of yourlife.
You want to be on top of yourlife.
(19:44):
You want to be on top of theuniverse, doing what is yours to
do.
You need to know more than youthink, namaste.
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