Discovering the Real You (Part 1) with David Green

David is the author of two books, A Book About You and Pictures of Your Soul. He is also a composer, musician, inventor, teacher, and speaker.

In this episode, David shared how God awakened him to lead him on the path towards 

David talks about his success as a musician from as early as 18 years old. Seeing the future of what he can become. 

Little did he know that his life would turn as the sudden realization awakened him that the path he wanted was not toward happiness.

David tells Dr. Brad about the time when he entered college. He experienced depression that led him to think things through and lie on the ground. This connects him to God, as he feels the earth God created. Thus, he desires to find his spiritual identity.

In the search for his spiritual identity, David decides to go to Israel, where Judaism is. He immersed himself there until he became a Rabbi himself.

David shared the story of his diagnosis of having a brain tumor that causes him to have seizures. This challenge made him learn and appreciate the beauty of life in the simplest form and use this learning to go forward with his life.

David Green’s story is an inspirational story of one who walks on the path with a childish dream but ultimately pursues life toward happiness with God.

Episode ___ of The Beyond Adversity Podcast is a must-listen for anyone who wants to find happiness. Those who want to live and enjoy the life God has given us.

“The Beyond Adversity Podcast with Dr. Brad Miller is published weekly with the mission of helping people “Grow Through What They Go Through” as they navigate adversity and discover their promised life of peace, prosperity, and purpose. 

https://www.realyouproject.com/

Transcript
Dr. Brad Miller:

Today, we have the author David Green with us.

Dr. Brad Miller:

He's the author of a couple of books, A book About You

Dr. Brad Miller:

and Pictures of your soul. He is also a very

Dr. Brad Miller:

accomplished musician and composer. And he is

Dr. Brad Miller:

an inventor, and he works in the world of

Dr. Brad Miller:

technology, a teacher, a speaker, he has

Dr. Brad Miller:

eight kids and 16 grandchildren. He lives in

Dr. Brad Miller:

Israel and has a lot of insights to offer us

Dr. Brad Miller:

about how to deal with matters of the soul.

Dr. Brad Miller:

His website is realyouproject.com. David Green,

Dr. Brad Miller:

welcome to Beyond the adversity. Welcome.

David Green:

Thanks very much. Appreciate having me.

Dr. Brad Miller:

It is awesome to have you here. David,

Dr. Brad Miller:

you do have a fascinating story to tell.

Dr. Brad Miller:

To share with our audience, you have a

Dr. Brad Miller:

varied interest in technology and music

Dr. Brad Miller:

and composition, your writing, in dealing

Dr. Brad Miller:

with matters of deep within us, you know,

Dr. Brad Miller:

depression and so on. Tell us your story a

Dr. Brad Miller:

little bit, I know you have a fascinating

Dr. Brad Miller:

story that kind of sets the stage for

Dr. Brad Miller:

what we're going to talk about here today.

Dr. Brad Miller:

So tell us a little bit about David Green.

David Green:

Certainly, I grew up in Toronto, Canada

David Green:

originally and I was a totally immersed

David Green:

in the music business at 16. I was a staff writer

David Green:

for a company called A&M Records. And

David Green:

I was so so immersed in it, that I was like

David Green:

running a million miles an hour towards

David Green:

success in music. And I in a sense, had

David Green:

lost touch with myself because I was so

David Green:

busy trying to be successful, that as a

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16 year old, you know, there's stages

David Green:

of life you have to go through and I was

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very, very disconnected because the music

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was all I really cared about. And by the

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time I was 18, I was recording an album

David Green:

in Los Angeles and an R&B album. And with

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a tremendously talented producer, arranger

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named Jean page and he was nominated

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for an Academy Award, I mean, sorry,

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Grammy Award for an album he had done.

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And he couldn't accept that because he was

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unavailable. So he asked this 18 year old

David Green:

David Green to go accept his award on his

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behalf. And as you can imagine, you know,

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I was so delighted, this was my way to break

David Green:

into the business they asked Who is that

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guy who's accepting Jean Page's award,

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you know, and the rub shoulders with all

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these people was trying to get through to

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and I was all excited about it. And he had a

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limousine pick me up and take me down

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the highway in Los Angeles to where

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the center was for the Grammys.

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And about halfway down, I got this incredible

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fear, where I was afraid that I was going

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to go accept the award and make a mistake

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and say the wrong name or something really,

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really stupid like that. I was so scared that

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I would prefer that he lose to avoid the

David Green:

embarrassment then that he win, even

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though there were all the benefits of

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doing so. I think that was the first time

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I prayed to God. God, please make him lose.

David Green:

You know, before that I had no connection

David Green:

to religion to observance of any sort. And

David Green:

thank God he lost. But what happened was after that, I was

Dr. Brad Miller:

Literally thank God that he lost.

Unknown Speaker:

God heard my words and he lost. Yeah.

David Green:

So I went to this big event afterwards, for

David Green:

those who are nominated and other people's

David Green:

in the business. And I had come from a kind

David Green:

of snobby bat, a jazz background, which was,

David Green:

you know, where you can't sacrifice your

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artistic integrity at all for the sake of popular

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music. And yet, you know, there was one

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artists there, who was one of my favorite

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jazz artists who had a pop single that was

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so successful, I think he won a Grammy that

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year. And so this was to me, like, that was

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what I was running after, that was who I

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was, like, it was my God, that's who I was,

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you know, emulating, I just wanted to be him.

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And when I looked at him, I had this like

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vision that was like a total wake up experience

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where I saw a person that I was running

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after becoming, and he looked totally

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depressed to me. And Whoa, what a flash

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of reality I had. And suddenly I said to

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myself, you know, I think you better figure

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out what makes a person happy. And use

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your music as an expression of that happiness,

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rather than trying to be the musician

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and be completely disconnected from who

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you really are. And that made me turn

David Green:

around 180 degrees. And I decided, You

David Green:

know what, I've not been through being

David Green:

an 18 year old. I need to go do it. 18 year

David Green:

olds do and grow out of it, rather than just spring over it.

Dr. Brad Miller:

Foreshadowing of what could have

Dr. Brad Miller:

been I suppose that foreshadowing

Dr. Brad Miller:

what a projection, a pathway your

Dr. Brad Miller:

life could have gone on.

Unknown Speaker:

Yeah, exactly. And I never decided on that

David Green:

path, it was just too much of something

David Green:

that that sort of like, accumulated as a kid.

David Green:

And it was a kid's vision, and that's not

David Green:

what I wanted for my life. And so I decided

David Green:

to go to college and, you know, upgrade

David Green:

my orchestration, and, you know, music

David Green:

composition skills, and I saw everyone

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else they're running after that same

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childish vision and not realizing that it

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was dangerous for them. And I decided,

David Green:

you know, what, there's a lot of hypocrisy

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within my religious identity. And I wanted

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to resolve that because while I was on

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campus, I think I was very lonely and

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experienced some depression. I remember

David Green:

going out to the park near my house

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where I lived there, and just lying down

David Green:

in a ditch, and feeling myself being part

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of the ground, like the earth like immersed in.

David Green:

And it was like, I became like dust of

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the earth. Like, you know, the, in the Bible,

David Green:

it says the guide was created man from dust

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of the earth, and we returned to dust of the earth.

David Green:

So without knowing what I was doing, I

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felt this incredible connection to just being

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nothingness. And that made me feel so alive.

David Green:

And this started making me think more

David Green:

and more about my spiritual identity.

David Green:

And that was the opposite of the college

David Green:

campus party scene. And I decided, you know,

David Green:

what, as a Jewish person I wanted to go

David Green:

and believed in God and believe in the

David Green:

to where people really believed in Judaism,

David Green:

Bible. And I decided to go to Israel,

David Green:

because I figured that's where I could get

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answers to my questions. And I ended up

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going to what's called the Yeshiva, which is

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where we learned Talmudic law and Jewish

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philosophy, and were you trained to become

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a Rabbi. And I was with a bunch of guys

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that also came from a non religious background.

David Green:

And after a couple of months of arguing with

David Green:

the rabbis, so many of us became

David Green:

observant over that period of time

Dr. Brad Miller:

To be clear, you did not come from

Dr. Brad Miller:

an observant Jew background.

Unknown Speaker:

Jewish not at all, I lived a very, very

David Green:

secular lifestyle. You know, I worship

David Green:

that artist, you know, not God, I was like.

David Green:

So while I was there, I lived overlooking the

David Green:

Western Wall, where the temple used to

David Green:

stand that was like, my, that was just my

David Green:

front window was like, overlooking that.

David Green:

So I was just very inspired also, emotionally

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from there. And over time, I began to

David Green:

become more observant. And over the years,

David Green:

then I became a rabbi. And then I spent

David Green:

many, many years like over 25 years teaching

David Green:

beginners. And one of the things that I found

David Green:

was that, because there are so many laws to

David Green:

follow in Jewish observance, it seemed like

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everybody was the same to me, like, why is

David Green:

everybody doing the same thing. And, as the

David Green:

more I learned, the more I discovered that

David Green:

God wants the opposite from you, God

David Green:

doesn't want you to be like everyone else, just

David Green:

like we have different fingerprints. So to, we

David Green:

all have a different soul. And each soul is

David Green:

made up to be different and has a different

David Green:

purpose in this world. And I found more and

David Green:

more I studied, the more there was an emphasis

David Green:

on that as being an obligation, as an obligation

David Green:

to discover who you are, what you're here in

David Green:

this world to achieve. And what's going to

David Green:

make you happier is doing God's will,

David Green:

which is what you were here to do.

David Green:

So it's not a matter of fighting against

David Green:

what God wants from you. It's fun fact

David Green:

immersing yourself in surrendering yourself

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to what the skills are and what gives you

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true pleasure on a spiritual level. And so

David Green:

that's where I became a counsellor so

David Green:

many students coming through, I started a girl

David Green:

school here for many years. And I counselled

David Green:

so many girls who are suffering from depression,

David Green:

some from a lack of identity, not knowing what

David Green:

they're here to do relationship issues, all kinds

David Green:

of struggles that I was, thank god able to

David Green:

help them with. And I think, you know,

David Green:

many of the ideas that I learned over those

David Green:

years, I think, apply to a lot of the types of

David Green:

issues that you're addressing as well.

Dr. Brad Miller:

It's interesting that you really, through your

Dr. Brad Miller:

own introspection through your own literally,

Dr. Brad Miller:

earth earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust moment,

Dr. Brad Miller:

you are able to kind of as a word kind of go

Dr. Brad Miller:

from death to life kind of a thing in your own

Dr. Brad Miller:

search for your own soulful purpose in that

Dr. Brad Miller:

was able to be helpful to people that you

Dr. Brad Miller:

became a rabbi you became a teacher,

Dr. Brad Miller:

have you already word musician but through

Dr. Brad Miller:

all your music and through your teaching,

Dr. Brad Miller:

you've had a lot of influence on other people.

Dr. Brad Miller:

You've had some rather unique experiences

Dr. Brad Miller:

but transformative experiences in your own

Dr. Brad Miller:

life and be able to translate to other folks that

Dr. Brad Miller:

must be fulfilling but Challenging at the same time.

David Green:

Yeah, and I never tried to portray myself as

David Green:

being any higher than I really am. I myself

David Green:

have gone through some, I've been to hell

David Green:

and back with the struggling with my own

David Green:

depression, I have chemical depression, I once

David Green:

had a seizure, so I have to be on medication

David Green:

to prevent from, I found they found a tumor

David Green:

in my brain, which was, which is thank

David Green:

God benign. But for months, I was walking

David Green:

around wondering how many days I had left to

David Green:

live. And that was the most eye opening

David Green:

experience. Because when I was feeling such

David Green:

a fear of dying, so suddenly, all these big save

David Green:

the world type of things that I was running after,

David Green:

didn't matter to me at all, what mattered to

David Green:

me were my wife and my kids, and the fact that

David Green:

I had a chance to breathe every moment of my life.

David Green:

That was what was valuable to me. And I tried to

David Green:

carry that with me into my future. Because

David Green:

just because they found that it was a benign

David Green:

tumor doesn't mean all those things that I

David Green:

came to realize aren't true. Those are very true,

David Green:

and very much a part of my life. And I tried

David Green:

to keep that awareness as I moved through

David Green:

the positive experiences as well.

Dr. Brad Miller:

David, it seemed like you had a lot of things

Dr. Brad Miller:

going on, you had a story here about how

Dr. Brad Miller:

things formed in your life. And then you had

Dr. Brad Miller:

some issues with a seizure and some other

Dr. Brad Miller:

things in your life. Let's, let's talk about that.

David Green:

Yeah, so I went through a number of ups

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and downs in my life. But the first one that

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I had, where I learned a very powerful lesson,

David Green:

and I'd like to show that coming through the

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other downs that I had as well. There's actually

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a principle that if you'd like, if you go into

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the darkest place in the world, and you light

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a candle, then you could light up the

David Green:

whole room. But if you hold the candle next

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to the sun, you can't see it, it's nullified from

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so much light that you can't notice it. And

David Green:

so there's certain things I've learned through

David Green:

various challenges that I've been through.

David Green:

But using my spiritual awareness has

David Green:

helped me a lot. And the first first real

David Green:

down I had was, I had a seizure. And the

David Green:

doctors told me that I had a brain tumor.

David Green:

And I was, I was in shock. And I was wondering,

David Green:

like, you know, what am I going to do now

David Green:

I had been on a path of trying to save the

David Green:

world, you know, and bring, bring people

David Green:

around to understand spirituality more and I

David Green:

was just just very, very determined to achieve

David Green:

all kinds of things. But I didn't know how

David Green:

long I had to live. And I went through a time

David Green:

where suddenly things that that I overlooked,

David Green:

such as the beauty of my kids, my marriage

David Green:

of this the opportunity to breathe, everything

David Green:

suddenly meant so much more to me.

David Green:

In terms of those things that were in front

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of me, where I wasn't running elsewhere

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anymore, I learned to appreciate the beauty

David Green:

of life in its simplest form. And thank God,

David Green:

it turned out that the the tumor was benign.

David Green:

And I was able to go forward in my life

David Green:

with a commitment to never forgetting

David Green:

what I learned from that scary time in my life.

Dr. Brad Miller:

Your perspective, it sounds like David,

Dr. Brad Miller:

in the sense of you had this big, great big

Dr. Brad Miller:

vision. And that's a good thing, you have a

Dr. Brad Miller:

big vision. And yet you had to be kind of

Dr. Brad Miller:

brought into the context of your real life,

Dr. Brad Miller:

circumstances that you're in, you can't

Dr. Brad Miller:

get to the Big Vision unless you deal

Dr. Brad Miller:

with your present circumstances. It sounds

Dr. Brad Miller:

like and that's the matter.

David Green:

And similar to is a pattern that I that

David Green:

you saw my story about Hollywood, I was running

David Green:

too fast somewhere. And I had a realization

David Green:

that I was disconnected from myself. And so

David Green:

too, even though the vision that I had

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was for more productive purposes, it didn't

David Green:

mean that I was able to let go of the most basic

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fundamental principles of awareness and

David Green:

value of life. And so I in a way I made the

David Green:

same mistake, but just running after things

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that were I did spend the time evaluating,

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but still, there's a tendency to make every

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day count in a productive way. But that

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doesn't mean you're aware of the value of life

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and the beauty of life. And so being being

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sort of shocked into that awareness was

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something I said, you know, what I want to

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try to hold on to that and as I became

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more and more observant. I pray three

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times a day. And every time I pray, it's a

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matter of readjusting and recognizing each

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prayer we say 18 prayers, blessings three times

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a day. And each one blessings is an appreciation

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of another basic fundamental gift that

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we have in life, knowledge, you know, having

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the ability to do repentance, having the

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recognizing that God is one, all these basic

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ideas that are part of the way we're supposed

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to look at the world all the time. If we don't

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review them and sort of meditate on them,

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then the likelihood of carrying them forward

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is very difficult. So started utilizing my

David Green:

observance more as a way to, to preserve

David Green:

those things that are truly most valuable to me.

Dr. Brad Miller:

You've mentioned being observant, you've

Dr. Brad Miller:

mentioned prayer, you mentioned these

Dr. Brad Miller:

other things that you've been doing, it sounds

Dr. Brad Miller:

like you, when you went through some of

Dr. Brad Miller:

these experiences when you went through

Dr. Brad Miller:

your brain tumors. And when you went

Dr. Brad Miller:

through your physical health in your kind

Dr. Brad Miller:

of your depressed moments, that

Dr. Brad Miller:

you took some pretty significant action here,

Dr. Brad Miller:

you know, you went on to become a rabbi

Dr. Brad Miller:

after becoming a non-observant Jew for a

Dr. Brad Miller:

while tell us more about some of the pivotal

Dr. Brad Miller:

action actions that you took, which were

Dr. Brad Miller:

pivotal to you that can be maybe transferable

Dr. Brad Miller:

to other people, some actions that you took?

David Green:

Well, I think that one important principle is

David Green:

that when you're in a very dark place, that

David Green:

doesn't mean you're on holiday from real life.

David Green:

That dark place is something that, although

David Green:

it may sound strange, but you can actually embrace it.

David Green:

And take advantage of it as a way to heighten

David Green:

your awareness of what truly matters. And my

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book called Pictures of Your Soul actually has

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a section that talks about two paths, to lift

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yourself from a dark place up to a brighter

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place spiritually. And one way is the means

David Green:

of contemplation where if you're in a very

David Green:

dark place, and you start to contemplate

David Green:

on just your breathing, and your awareness

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of your body, your awareness of your soul, and just the fact that you are alive, and, and what a miracle a human being is,

David Green:

and what a miracle, a blue, blade of grass is

David Green:

just that just taking note of the most basic

David Green:

creations that have an incredible designs to them.

David Green:

There is deductive reasoning there to

David Green:

say that there's a God who created all this,

David Green:

because there's no way this could have been

David Green:

an evolutionary process, once you see the

David Green:

genius of the creation of the world, including

David Green:

the creation of you as a human being. And

David Green:

that will bring about a higher spiritual

David Green:

awareness. And if you have a higher spiritual

David Green:

awareness, that begins a path towards recovery.

David Green:

And the other other path towards that recovery is,

David Green:

is recognizing that we don't have five senses,

David Green:

we have six senses, the sixth sense, the sense

David Green:

of the soul that is aware already of what God

David Green:

wants from you and what you're here to achieve.

David Green:

And what path to move forward with.

David Green:

The problem is that that sixth sense gets

David Green:

covered up by distraction. The world we live in

David Green:

today is so noisy with our phones which take

David Green:

us away from the people in front of us, we've

David Green:

taken away it'll take us away from ourselves,

David Green:

if we could turn off our phones and, and

David Green:

stop listening to all these images of who

David Green:

we're supposed to be based on what celebrities

David Green:

are projecting as being a happy way of life.

David Green:

If we would turn off during that volume

David Green:

down and listen to what the soul is saying.

David Green:

Then we have the we have ability to actually

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hear what God is telling us through our soul

David Green:

which already knows, deep down aside, what is

David Green:

the right thing for us. There was a time when,

David Green:

when about 1000 years ago when even

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though we read about the prophets in the

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Bible, there were 1000s of prophets and the

David Green:

role of those prophets were to come to you

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and tell you that you are here in this world

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to achieve this and this particular task,

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and this is your personality. Well, that's been

David Green:

amazing pathway to happiness. If I knew

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that it was a prophet is telling me God's words

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of how to discover who I really am. But today

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we don't have those as prophets, but what

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the prophets did is a look inside you and

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see the message that's there. That means

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that there's a goldmine. And inside every

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one of us that knows what we really should

David Green:

be doing in this world. It knows who we are,

David Green:

what we are, how incredible this world is,

David Green:

how incredible God is. All that is something

David Green:

that's already embedded within us. And

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what do is we need to learn when learning

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need to learn how to dig for gold, where we

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know gold is there to be found. And, and that

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means if I know there's a goldmine inside of me,

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that knows that there is a beautiful life

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here that my soul is on fire, that I should

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dig down and see where people unfortunately

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develop their self-esteem on a subjective level.

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We should be able to have self-esteem by just

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knowing that God gave us this divine soul

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that is so precious and so beautiful. And it's

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just a matter of taking the time to dig down,

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move away from the distraction

David Green:

and hear that inner voice.