Self-observation is the key to a higher order of awareness; it is how we learn to become inwardly vigilant to our own thoughts and feelings, even as they pass through us. When we can observe ourselves in this new way, our higher nature naturally prevails over any troubling thoughts or feelings that want to drag us down into their lower world...
What happens when we see things about ourselves that we don't want to see? In order to avoid looking at itself, the mind will seize on the anger, impatience, grief, loneliness, or anxiety it has seen... and it will try to explain it. It will take the initial darkness, the negative energy, and because it seems to be so bad, the mind will make something out of it that it can deal with...
Have you ever noticed that when you're under the cloud of some negative state, what you do to try to "make things better" actually makes the situation worse? Struggling to free yourself from your own negative reactions is a bit like throwing gasoline onto a fire, isn't it? Recognizing that you get trapped in this pattern of taking action that neither relieves nor rescues you from...
Do we not try to escape the stress we have by further imagining ways to relieve ourselves from the circumstances held responsible for it? And the more we do to create for ourselves an enclave in which we will no longer be confronted with the trouble, the more we isolate ourselves, and the greater the problem becomes because we increasingly resist anything not part of what we've..."
There's a reason why we all love stories about ancient maps, sunken ships, and buried treasure. It's because these tales reflect a deep sensing we all have: that a hidden treasure actually dwells within us -- and if we could just find the way to discover it, our lives would shine every day with life's greatest wealth: the golden qualities of true confidence, unbounded energy, unfailing wisdom...
Think for a moment what your life would be like if you lived in a world where reality and your happiness were one and the same -- where everything that happened in your life was always just what you wanted. Imagine it! No event, no condition could do anything but contribute to your well-being. Every day, everyone and everything would work in your favor. And since your contentment in this new...