Awareness

If we were to see someone trying to warm himself on a winter's night by snuggling up to a color photo of a fireplace, we would easily recognize this person as being deluded. We know that the glossy paper image which he clings to for life-sustaining heat is powerless to do anything but mock his obviously oblivious mind. But this unfortunate man can't see the futility of his own misguided acti...

I really have a difficult time dealing with negative states. Do you have any suggestions for what I can do to escape these dark feelings that overtake me so often? One of the hardest things to understand about the spiritual path and the struggles along the Way is that the inner battle we fear losing has already been won for us . . . if we will choose the right side of the engagement. Our...

I am taking the biggest "risk" of my life and am about to leave a longstanding job for a new home business opportunity. Although I have basically kept my old job out of fear, there is quite a bit of fear in leaving the known and "safety" for the unknown. Any tips on how to make this new adjustment in life and to quell the uncertainty? I want to be brave in scary situations, but when I am frigh...

I sense a need in myself to step up the intensity of my spiritual work, but this "sensing" normally follows my realization that I am quite lazy and comfortable where I am. Is there a way to wake up to what I need to do next rather than to merely react in disgust at my own lack of direction? We cannot help but increase our inner efforts as it becomes clear to us that our spiritual sleep is dr...

The biggest problem facing us as individuals is that we have all been caught up in the race of looking for relief. Our time would be spent far more profitably looking for strength. When caught in a fierce storm, why scramble to find a cave at the foot of the mountain when the same energy can be used to climb? There is a choice. You can tremble within the cave, or live above the tempests th...

If you know the content of your own heart ... If you can be consciously aware of this condition ... Then you not only know the secret contents Of the heart of everyone else you meet, But you also know that there is no difference Between you and all of these "others" In the realization of this undivided life You are given the Grace of knowing That God is one ... And that each one...

Anticipation is a special kind of awareness where one is united with the spirit of what comes prior to its arrival...

Gradually I'm beginning to realize that my pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain are the opposites of a single thought. How do I back up and see the whole thing in its entirety, so as to be free from this unconscious duality? The understanding of the operation of the opposites is not an intellectual act. Using reason to try to escape the opposites, to negate them, is just the begi...

You wish, and then rush, to free yourself from your sorrows, but refuse to change the beliefs causing them...which is like jumping off the Ferris wheel onto the merry-go-round in the hopes of bringing an end to your dizziness. Any attempt to protect yourself from emptiness only creates the illusion of it...along with an imaginary self that believes it can somehow outrun this unwanted nothing.

Topics covered: Letting go has nothing to do with our exterior circumstances. What we have to let go of is anything that lends us an identity; There is no such thing as a healthy attachment. When there is a challenge to the attachment, then there is fear; With awareness of the pain of an attachment comes liberation from it; Letting go begins with awareness of how much it hurts to be attached. Awareness reveals the need to let go...