Core Work

 Neither fear or desire will lead to a deep meaningful life.

Michale A. Singer

Most of us know that to be true in our core. Yet, we spend our lives serving these fears and desires, don't we? We do whatever we can to avoid fear-causing situations and we go on a mission of getting what we want from life.

Why?

Michael. A. Singer, in the below podcast, tells us we do this because we are "weak" inside at the core.  

Through his discussion, I  think of a "weak core" and how the body just falls out of alignment when the core is not strong.  We then need to use other muscle groups to work harder to compensate...and we end up with more pain, discomfort and  'self-inflicted' injury when we operate with a weak core. 

I see it this way: 

The "core" doesn't go away...it is always there and always strong...we just lose our awareness of it, we lose our mind/body connection to it because we are focusing away from it. The core never gets weak. We do, however, when we move away from it and start depending on those "external" and "superficial" muscles to hold us up. Most of us are "out of alignment"...disconnected somehow from our core so we end up living with the avoidance of fear and the seeking of wanted things as our compensentory strengthening. We are therefore seeking something to make us feel safer and more fulfilled. We go on an outward search for things we think will make us feel better (desires) and avoid or push away the things that make us feel worse (fear). We are not tall, strong, and flexible  like we are designed to be when we do this. We cannot move forward in the way we are menat to. We are rigid and at the same time our "life muscles" weak...We are at great risk of falling down and losing our ability to move forward. 

Singer tells us:

There is not a single thing that you will ever desire that will keep you satisfied for long

Fear and desire are very shallow...they are products of the psyche 

Do not motivate your life to the lowest part of your being

The solution to fear is not to satisfy it...

Fear and desire come from the same root.

You can not build your house on a foundation of fear and desire [and expect it to withstand teh forces of Life].

Devote yourself to getting beyond fear and desire. Make it your life work!

Getting beyond fear and shame has been my life work for a very long time. I even wrote a book about that ten years ago. (I am thinking of revamping it and offering access to it here, at some point...it does no good to anyone sitting in obscurity on my hard drive. :)) . Anyway, I have added the "getting beyond desire and attachment" to my life mission in later years once I too realized that nothing "out there" was going to keep this ego satisfied for long. 

So how does one get beyond fear and desire crazy lady?

Simple...you practice doing  core work.  You begin my remembering that you have a core and what that core does...it is the guiding force for posture and movement forward.  You make a committment to the practice required to reconnect to it so you get stronger. Then you become aware of what you are doing now by depending on superficial and external muscles.  You notice the suffering...the unquenched need for stability that using these superficial muscles  provide.  You notice the pain and the ill effects.  You see how "unskillful" it is. Next, you trace this discomfort and unmanaged dissatisfaction back to the root: fear and desire. Without supressing or repressing,  you take your attention off of  serving that and put it on the core. You observe the core. Then you work on getting the felt sensation of that core. You "feel" it. You experience how strong and all powerful it is....You begin to operate from there. Eventually, you realize you are stronger from the core than you could ever be serving fear and desire.

Hmm! 

All is well!

Michael A. Singer/ Seats of Contemplation ( June, 2025) Motivation-Replacing Fear and Desire with Love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36v_f4niGjA