(Excerpts from a lecture in Behind the Mask by Yogi Bhajan, September 12, 1983) This is the conflict: If I say I want to be a good man, actually I believe I am not a good man. Do you understand that? The basic fact on which we falter is that we believe that we are not perfect; we are not complete. We believe all that truthfully. We don’t believe that we are truthful people. We are trying to be truthful. We are trying to be this. This trying business is so much in us that the reality is totally covered, and non-reality is believed. Out of need you are honest or trying to be honest. But the fact is you were born honest, you were born perfect, complete. Then the question will arise—if somebody is born deformed, is that perfect? Yes, he is born perfectly deformed. Can surgery make amends? Yes, surgery can make amends for the perfect deformity and make it an imperfect deformity. You have to understand the positive sense of existence. That is the secret of life. You are not going to be honest; you are honest. You are not going to know how to speak the truth; you were born with the truth. Your makeup is not going to make you beautiful; you are born beautiful in the essence of your creativity and your presentation to yourself. I know sometimes you don’t like the way I speak to you, but I am tired of your momentary blindness. That is not a reality of life. The virtues that you have, you don’t believe you have. That is the conflict. You are beautiful. You don’t believe you are beautiful, but you do everything to make yourself believe you are beautiful. Can you believe you spend all that money and make a mess of yourself? We call it the mess factor. There is a factor in you that messes you up. The fact of that factor is that you are not a mess; you think you are a mess. This is our competitive nature. You want to excel. You want to be excellent. Actually the Excellent created you excellent. Then what do you want to be? Miserable? In the search of being excellent, you actually mess yourself up. There are many types of richness. Every person possesses richness, and whatever those riches are, you want to just expand and show off and have that projection. By virtue of that you become so miserable and so isolated from reality that you don’t enjoy it. There is something in you that wants to exploit others. To exploit others you want to be attractive, you want to be diplomatic, you want to be clever, you want to be a conman, you want to be this, you want to be all that which really you are not because basically you are a very, very honest being. Honesty and innocence are your faculty. Let’s get back to that innocence: Take your left hand, and put it on your heart. Point the index finger of the right hand, then close the thumb and other fingers into a fist. It is an evening star at an angle, not straight. It is just this foot-and-a-half difference that can make you feel a release. Just point it out, and feel at the heart. I mean you can see it yourself; it is a very practical demonstration. You can believe it or not. If you point it straight out, it will give you tension. If you point out like this, it will give you elevation. Close your eyes and breathe to hit the navel. Breathe in to hit the navel, and breathe out to hit the navel. Breathe through the navel, the third chakra. Don’t breathe with the lungs or diaphragm, just get underneath and breathe through the belly, the navel point. Your entire mechanism is going to change. You are going to find something totally different in you. Don’t breathe with the mouth. Don’t breathe with the lungs or with the diaphragm. Breathe with the navel point. I want you to experience something. Inhale deeply, and hold the breath, and stretch out tight. Just let the body go through the changes right now. Exhale. Inhale deeply. Exhale. Inhale deeply. Relax. Now sing from the heart center. In the third center you did the breathing. Come out of the heart center and sing. The mantra can be anything, any good thing in higher consciousness. May we all strive for peace, and in our happiness may we deal in the basic reality of who we are as created by the Creator. May our Self not put itself to the falsehood of time and space, and may we penetrate through time and space in peace with justice, with honor and with grace. Sat Nam. RISING STAR MEDITATION General Position: Sit cross-legged with a straight spine. With the left elbow relaxed by the side, place the left palm on the chest. Point the index finger of the right hand and close the thumb and other fingers into a fist. With the elbow straight, raise the right arm straight up in front of the body until it’s at an angle of 60 degrees. Move the hand 18 inches to the right and hold it there.Breath: Breathe in and out through the nose powerfully using the navel. Eyes: Close the eyes. Mantra: There is no mantra for this meditation. Length of time: Practice this meditation for 11 minutes. Locks or other conditions: The position of the right hand must be correct for release of energy otherwise it will cause tension.