
Why You Are Always Being Tempted - And What the Universe Wants You to Know, Part 1
The Gary Zukav DeepcastShow Notes
Your emotions are messages from your soul. Learn How to Tune In and Listen Here: www.seatofthesoul.com/emotionalawarenesscourse
In this DeepCast, Gary Zukav reveals what he considers the single most fundamental element of spiritual growth and self‑transformation - temptation. Far from the Western view of temptation as an external evil force, Gary reframes it as a gracious dynamic in the universe - a purposeful invitation to choose between love and fear. Drawing on the lives of the Buddha and Jesus, he shows that every human being meets the same essential crossroads that the great spiritual masters met.
Gary challenges the idea that temptation originates outside of us. He reveals it instead as the activity of the frightened parts of the personality - a kind of dress rehearsal for a negative karmic event that places the full power of choice in your hands.
The answer lies in the twin pillars of authentic power: emotional awareness and responsible choice. When you recognize the physical sensations and thoughts of a frightened part of your personality, temptation shifts from a trap into a teacher.
What You’ll Discover in This Episode:
(01:04) — Gary names the core dynamic - temptation - and contrasts the Western, externalized view with the perspective of the new consciousness, in which temptation does not originate outside of you, but within the frightened parts of your personality.
(05:52) — Gary draws on the lives of the Buddha and Jesus to show that the great spiritual masters met the same temptations that you meet - with nothing to guide them toward one choice or another except their own awareness.
(11:59) — Gary introduces temptation as a dress rehearsal for a negative karmic event - the moment just before choice becomes action and energy becomes matter. When you act on temptation, you create karma. When you choose otherwise, the soul moves freely.
(17:44) — Gary outlines the two pillars of authentic power - emotional awareness and responsible choice - and explains that recognizing the sensations and thoughts of a frightened part of your personality is the first step toward choosing differently.
(23:37) — Gary closes Part 1 with a reminder that moment by moment, life brings you to a choice between love and fear. The choice is not what you intend. The choice is the action you take.
Embrace the Soul Step Challenge
Take out your notebook and think of a moment when you felt the pull of a temptation. Ask yourself: what frightened part of my personality was at work? What did it feel like in your body - in your chest, your throat, your solar plexus? Then ask the deeper question: were you choosing from love or from fear? Write down what you notice, without judgment. Temptation is not your enemy - it is the universe's gracious invitation to know yourself more fully and choose, consciously, who you truly are.
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Every day brings a choice between two ways of living: one rooted in gratitude and contentment, the other in anger and despair. In this Soul Snack, Gary Zukav explains what comes after emotional awareness, once a painful or pleasing sensation has been noticed near an energy processing center like the throat, chest, or solar plexus.
In this Deepcast episode, Gary Zukav takes on one of humanity's oldest fears: the idea that evil is a force loose in the world, something separate from us that can attack, tempt, or possess us. He traces this belief back through Christianity and Buddhism, both built on the story of a young man (Jesus, Siddhartha) who faced temptation on his path to a higher state of being. In the old consciousness, that temptation gets treated as an outside enemy, an independently existing evil that only an institution like the church can help you defeat. Gary argues this framing has always been a trap, one that keeps people dependent and afraid instead of powerful.