Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Inspirational Quotes
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
Guy's Letters
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Guy's Blog
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
This Week's Topic
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
Short Talks
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Interviews & Radio Shows
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Student Reports
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
Sacred Music
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Livestream Classes
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Daily Meditation Emails
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Special Lessons
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Student Talks
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
eCourses
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Advanced Inner Life Talks
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Online Study Group
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
Study Group Recordings
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
Saturdays with Guy
Every Saturday Guy leads an open discussion. Local members share their discoveries, and Guy’s comments deepen everyone’s understanding.
Student Q&A with Guy
Guy regularly holds open Q&A sessions. Often members of our global community send in questions, or speak directly to Guy online.
Facebook Private Group
Access to all our private Facebook updates, student Facebook discussions, and our LIVE Saturday lunch roundtable discussions.
Discussion Forum
This member forum is where you can write in your observations and experiences, and receive feedback from fellow members. Read-only access for Free and Basic members. Full access for Premium & All Access members.
Articles
Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Inspirational Quotes
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
Guy's Letters
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Guy's Blog
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
This Week's Topic
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
Short Talks
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Interviews & Radio Shows
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Student Reports
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
Sacred Music
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Livestream Classes
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Daily Meditation Emails
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Special Lessons
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Student Talks
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
eCourses
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Advanced Inner Life Talks
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Online Study Group
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
Study Group Recordings
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
Saturdays with Guy
Every Saturday Guy leads an open discussion. Local members share their discoveries, and Guy’s comments deepen everyone’s understanding.
Student Q&A with Guy
Guy regularly holds open Q&A sessions. Often members of our global community send in questions, or speak directly to Guy online.
Facebook Private Group
Access to all our private Facebook updates, student Facebook discussions, and our LIVE Saturday lunch roundtable discussions.
Discussion Forum
This member forum is where you can write in your observations and experiences, and receive feedback from fellow members. Read-only access for Free and Basic members. Full access for Premium & All Access members.
Our eCourses focus on specific topics, building your understanding through a series of related talks. Most eCourses include MP3 audio and MP4 video formats you can play online.
Student Q&A with Guy on "Go Beyond Solving Painful Problems to a Life Free of Stress and Sorrow" (8/31/25)
Posted: Monday, September 1, 2025
Meeting: Sunday, August 31, 2025
Duration: 43min 52sec
Topics Covered
Within us already lives a nature that does not have to resolve problems because it is problem-free to begin with.
True teachings are intended to awaken a new kind of effort in us, and to expose the wrong kind of effort.
Doing is downstream from being, and sorrow is the inevitable result of living from a nature that is out of order, and not in harmony with the broader life.
Nothing keeps away the higher help that we need more than blaming others or blaming life for "our" weakness.
When we turn to our own thoughts and reactions to save ourselves -- as long as those thoughts and reactions rule us -- we have entered into a place that God cannot reach.
The mind's search for solutions begins when some condition in the real world meets an image that the mind is identified with.
We are without knowing it identified with a nature that struggles to protect itself against anything that threatens its identity.
Inwardly speaking, we are not created to resolve our own suffering. How do we know this? Because experience proves that our resolutions have not changed a thing. At best, we achieve a temporary freedom, until conditions change, as they will. What we call the resolution of our pain is merely a postponement of it.
The mind calls its resentment righteousness. It says that there is a good reason for the resentment because of the bad behavior of others.
What we have called "love" can't be real Love because we would not have to keep saying "I'm sorry" after our actions based upon our idea of love hurts others. When are we going to get tired of saying "I'm sorry"? -- because it doesn't change anything.
The mind's idea of the resolution of conflict is not enough. The mind's kind of conflict resolution only serves to postpone war, individually and collectively.
What if we understood that the thought that claims to be our rescue is actually the continuation of the conflict?
The punchline of the story about the group of people deserted on an island was that they were never going to save themselves, but they needed Help.
The true path to solving problems before they begin is not through resolution, but rather through reconciliation. "I am the vine, ye are the branches." The branches are reconciled through the will of the Vine.
Reconciliation restores the harmony that has been lost to the mind that struggles to resolve the pain that it doesn't understand. There is in fact a ceaseless reconciliation between Heaven and earth.
Reconciliation is the renewal of a relationship based on an understanding of the totality of oneself.
The Truth is always sweet. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies."
"If Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Translation: "Not my order of life, but rather my agreement with the higher order of life that reveals the wrong order."
Before you start down the endless, familiar path of trying to resolve your problems (not speaking practically), look within at what you are being shown is true, and then stay there, ask for help, but don't talk to yourself about what that help entails. Stay with the understanding of the need for help.
If you want to comment, you must have at least a Basic membership in our online Wisdom School.
Please Sign in or create an account now to join the discussion