What many of us have yet to understand is that dark, negative reactions to unwanted events do nothing to cure them. In fact, these painful impulses have just the opposite effect. They actually "cement" things -- fixing both themselves and the false sense of self through which they then are empowered to run their unhappy course.

Topics covered: The purpose of spiritual studies is not to create a new identity. The purpose is to change. But why is it so hard to change? Part of the problem is that we don't know what real change is; Real change is always due to a revelation, a shock that shows us a part of ourselves that doesn't want to change. Shocks reveal everything that is not real change but claims to be...

Topics covered: What we long for lives within us, but we are disconnected from it. We are disconnected because there is a will of our own that distracts us away from that connection; The unconscious nature immerses itself in conditions that provide it with a strong sense of self; The unconscious nature utterly rejects the impression that the observer and the observed are one...

Topics Covered: Desire presently knows more about us than we know about it. Until that changes we will be the instrument of desire; We presently use thought to restore balance when it seems as if we have been thrown off balance. Laws are created by imbalanced people in an attempt to restore balance according to their idea of it; Nothing that is truly balanced can become imbalanced...

Topics Covered: Allow the pain to reveal what we can no longer profit from and must give up; You are supposed to be overwhelmed; What is Divine never shows us more than we are capable of seeing; Our task is to see what we are given to see; Dare to be present enough to explore the consciousness that doesn't want the pain; The most exciting discovery in the world...