Divided Mind

Topics covered: The intimate enemy is a consciousness that is asleep to itself but does not know it; As long as we have good reasons for why we suffer, we are never going to transcend painful patterns; Something in us believes that there are good reasons to suffer over things that we have no control over; Sufi story: "I lost my donkey, but at least I was not riding it at the time." We are not meant to be saddled by negative thoughts and feelings...

Remastered Classic Talk: 3/22/17 -

Part 1: Your possibilities in life for spiritual growth are as unlimited as is your willingness to consciously meet your limitations.

Part 2: Resisting the revelation of any one of your present limitations... is like resenting the ocean because you never learned how to swim!

Key Lesson: The whole idea of learning to live with "controlled stress" is like believing that not only are you in control of a war you didn't start, but that you're on the winning side.

The end of suffering is not found in the pursuit of freedom from suffering, but in realizing the divided nature of desire that imagines and identifies with a pain-free time or a place to come, only to imprison itself in a fear it may lose the heaven it has imagined.

The perfection of each moment is hidden within its necessity; after all, what is the true nature of any moment revealed in the stream of time other than the ceaseless reconciling of creation to the Divine will that never stops giving it birth. The divided mind, supported by an ever-shifting false sense of self, creates the moment in time that it doesn't want and then -- blind to its own creation -- imagines a time to come when it will be free...

Topics covered:  "Two words that often go before us in any painful moment are "I want.";  There is a direct relationship between your experience of the moment, and what it is that you are giving your attention to;  We are identified with the very condition that we are trying to escape, which creates the very experience that we don't want."

Student Talks: 04/25/2025 - The life and death of the Christ did not happen two-thousand years ago, any more than the rising and setting of the sun belongs to a particular place and time. Seen, or not, the life of Christ is always now…as is His sacrifice for the sake of the continuing perfection of the human Soul.

Topics covered:  The interior path does not necessarily change what you do with your life, but it will change the reason why you do it; "'Master, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said unto him, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'" -- New Testament; Every law that is made to resolve a conflict creates more conflict, which then requires the creation of more laws to replace the law that did not work.

Topics covered:  The true interior path is about ceaseless exploration, not about coming to conclusions. We get stressed every time we come to a conclusion. Exploration stops when we come to a conclusion; The advanced spiritual life is already here in every moment, not in what you imagine the spiritual life is supposed to be; Nothing can grow without humility, because for anything to grow it must be in a position of receiving, yielding to what is above. No humility, no transformation.