This is a transcript excerpt of a YouTube talk by Kyle Cease (published on Vishen Lakhiani's channel) arguing for the power of sitting still/meditation. Cease emphasizes non-interference with natural growth (metaphors: caterpillar, healing body, apple tree), describes inner critical thoughts as a separate ‘roommate’ (nicknamed 'Gary'), and uses Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison as an anecdote about stillness leading to transformation. He claims sitting still expands alignment, reduces unnecessary activity, and enables authentic creativity and presence.
Questions this video answers
27 years.
Chapters
Sometimes I just sit. This is a really weird process. I just sit and I just sit. And you realize everything ever that just sits with their eyes closed and doesn't do anything to distract themselves for a while has to evolve. Has to. Every single thing ever that's just sat still for a while evolved and became, holy crap, powerful. This is not. I don't believe in motivation. Where you're going to make it happen. You're going to make it happen. You don't need to go against the grain and make something happen that just makes your ego happy. You're really helium balloons that are just trying to go up. And you keep interrupting it. You keep interrupting it. If you just sit and chill. What I do is I sit because everything that's sat. Think of a caterpillar. What does it have to do to become a butterfly? Nothing. It has to stop screwing with it. Every time we have an emotional issue, we keep screwing with it. We're like, I have this thing, you guys. I'm so worried it's gonna be hot. That'd be like. If you cut your arm as bleeding and you go, I'm just wishing it would heal. Why won't it heal, dude? The body gets how to do it. Just hold still, let it undo it. You're like, I know, but I have to. You don't understand. I have a thing all day just opening it up more, just like it's gotta be. You have to just let it heal. Right? A caterpillar has to do nothing. And whatever created the trees and your hair growing and everything, you just sit back and it'll take care of it. Because you'll discover that you are in a lie. You are in a lie with your mind. Nelson Mandela just did nothing but sit in prison for 27 years and became the president. You have to do nothing. He was doing a lot of stuff. Probably that was amazing. But when he finally had to sit still, still, he became the president. That's weird to realize. Oh, that's really humbling to the ego. Really. If you could just shut up. I got this. I got this all the way. I got you taken care of. And what I do is, I'll sit and I'll have my eyes closed and a thought will come up like, how long am I doing this? Sometimes I'll go four or five hours. And people go, oh, I wish I could do that. I wish I could go four or five hours. But I have so many things I have to do. Do you know how much time I save by doing this? How many millions of things I suddenly realize I don't have to take on because my alignment keeps growing. And then I just do what I want. You notice that the greatest in the world aren't doing a lot of marketing techniques. I have a feeling for me and a theory I have. Just be so good that they can't take their eyes off you. Just be so good. Because when you're a kid, you just played and you weren't checking your results, you weren't checking how many people liked it. Because now in this creativity, you're stopping and you're practicing halting it and looking at what you've got. And when you practice being in what you got, you can't keep creating. So when you do that, you're in lack immediately. So you put yourself back in lack. You tell the world, I'm in lack, I'm in fear. And then you start creating from that bad place again. You are so unlimited and you don't need anything. It is so big to me that you get that, in fact, you need to undo your stuff from every single thing that you feel is in alignment with you. And it's very easy to do. Just go, this is in alignment. Or maybe it's here to get you to grow. And you go, what am I supposed to learn from this? Every time I have a problem, this is something Michael Beckwith taught me. You just say what is trying to emerge here. That is huge. So when I close my eyes, I'll have a thought and my thought will show up. And I have these thoughts all the time. Sometimes my thoughts are like a. You know, people go, you know, Kyle, do you have that, like, do you ever have in your head? All the time. But the thing is, when the thoughts show up about sabotaging thoughts, I just love it. It's like a bad roommate. It just goes, what if they don't like you? And I go, oh, that's just Gary. Gary's awesome. It's not you every time. What if they don't like me? What if she wants to break up? What if I'm stupid? What if I'm fat? What if I crap on the desk during the CH interview? And it's up to you if you want to go. Good point, Gary. I don't know. Because we're crazy people. This is what we do all day. We're just like, oh, you're totally fine. And you're just giving yourself an ulcer all day because you're listening to Gary. We're sitting on our bed thinking about yesterday. Like, oh, think of A sports fan. That is so weird that there are people in stadium. I love sports. But there's people in stadiums that are just like, go, go, go. Think of if the sports weren't there. How crazy that when you're just a guy going, come on. Oh, dude. Just attacking the crap out of your body all day because of an imagination. This is crazy. This is a crazy world. We don't have to be that way. So when I sit, I'll have a thought, show up, and it'll be like, how long are we going to do this? An hour. I can't sit for an hour. Isn't that crazy? We can't sit. That's not hard. You're sitting, you're like, oh, God, I'm gonna sit for an hour. But when it shows up and says, how am I gonna do this? Who's talking? It's a thought. It's not you, it's Gary. So you just sit with it and you don't fight it. You don't go, whoa, I know, an hour. I can't. You're right, Gary. You feel resistance and you leave. And you just did this. You just got to hear. Because most people really sometimes will start meditating for like a minute and they'll get to right here. I have to be crazy. I have to worry. I have to go on Facebook and figure out what Justin Bieber did wrong today and hate him. And then I have to. That's crazy. So we go like a minute in we go and get that. You get half hour in, you keep going. You get into a place that's just who you actually are. The flow based space, the apple tree. You're just unlimited. You're here to play. So when I sit, the first thought will come up, goes, what if we do it wrong? You know, how long do we do this? And you're just like nothing. You just sit there and hear it and it's like. But you just be a space for it. Get that? That's just a cloud. And you're the sky. You're the sky. So when that cloud shows up, you just allow it. Most people think they are the cloud.
