ED: Hello. I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a Fireside Chat with bestselling inner life author, Guy Finley. During a number of our chats, we've talked about negative emotions, and I thought that this time we would hone in on a particular emotion that is a great problem to many people, if not everyone, and that is fear. Guy, there are many different types of fear, and people react in differe...

ED: Hello. I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a Fireside Chat with bestselling inner-life author, Guy Finley. Today I thought we would talk about happiness. We all spend probably 99.9% of our time and energy doing things that we think will make us happy. Yet, judging by the way most people walk around, and by the state of the world, we're not doing a very good job of it. Guy, where are we goi...

ED: Hello. I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a Fireside Chat with bestselling inner life author, Guy Finley. We're going to be discussing Guy's new book, Apprentice of the Heart. Guy, this book is remarkable, and it's a real departure from your previous books in which you presented principles that people could use to follow the inner journey. This book is very personal, almost like a journal...

Cammy (chat host): Hello everyone! It is so great to see you here tonight. We are excited to have with us as our guest speaker an amazing author and teacher, Guy Finley. Thank you, Guy, for being here with us this evening. GF: I'm delighted to share the evening with you and all of the friends online. Cammy: About a year ago, my friend Wendy shared an incredible book with me, "The Secret of L...

ED: Hello. I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a Fireside Chat with bestselling inner life author, Guy Finley. I thought that for this chat we would talk about one of those negative emotions that so many people seem to be subject to, and that is depression. But, before we get into that specifically, some people might wonder why we are always talking about negative things. It's important to do...

ED: Hello. I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a "Fireside Chat" with bestselling inner-life author, Guy Finley. Today I thought we would talk about a bad habit that many people have, including myself, and that is comparison. We compare ourselves to other people, we compare ourselves to an image we have of the way we should be, we compare an event with other events it's just endless. A great...

ED: Hello, I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a fireside chat with bestselling inner life author, Guy Finley. Today I want to talk about being new each moment. We live in such a marvelous universe... things are always moving and changing. Yet, for some reason, most human beings feel bored with their lives moment-to-moment. Why is that, Guy? GF: Because they live in a little world whose bound...

ED: Recently here at Life of Learning Foundation, Guy, you gave an inspiring talk about the benefits of self-knowledge, and I thought it would be nice for this chat if we went down the list of these benefits and talked about each of the items. GF: Let's start at the beginning. One of the oldest, truest axioms in all spiritual life is "know thyself." We don't know ourselves, Ellen. What we hav...

If all things are means, Then means are the end, Our pleasures and pains But a river's bend; So flow, flow on my soul, Let go . . . once again.

Our task . . . Is to prepare a Vessel to be filled, And not . . . To fill an imagined vessel with what we dream it has been prepared for. The former begins by the light of inner work, fueled by an awakening faith. The latter has its beginning in the darkness of spiritual sleep; its inertia sustained by the machinations of self-centered considerations. The New Vessel is built to ho...

GF: Hello and welcome everyone. Before we begin tonight, I would like to introduce into your minds a few special ideas that you will need should you wish to reclaim your Real Life. What is your "Real Life?" It is that True Life that is uncontaminated by fear, greed, hatreds, and the host of other negative states that punish most people on a daily basis. Last month we spoke of moving past pain...

GF: Welcome everyone. Let me open our meeting with some thoughts about what is required of us to free ourselves of all the dark and discouraging states that seem to follow us around as we work at trying to realize Real Life. We will discuss some of these truths now, and again at the close of our chat. Most of us are familiar with the idea from Christian scripture that "my Father's kingdom has...