There is an unseen source of daily suffering that is the constant companion of humanity. It is in one respect one of the great driving forces behind the darkness that encompasses this planet -- the unremitting wars, the violence, the greed, the fear, the desperation -- all the things we see in the world around us...

Whenever we find ourselves identified with some dark stream of thoughts and feelings, as opposed to being quietly aware of their downward-trending presence, we fall -- in that same moment -- into a world filled with unwanted negative states. The reason so much of what's going on within and around us seems "bad" is because that's all we can see. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, s...

Who among us hasn't found themselves conjuring up some imagined pleasure when faced with the pain of some contradiction in life that seems greater than our ability to deal with? If we're honest, we can see that most of our time is spent identifying the so-called cause of our discontented conditions, and the rest of our time is taken up trying to change our unwanted situations into what we ima...

In the competitive and complex worlds of business and science, imagination is critical to the processes of creativity. It serves a valuable and practical purpose. New developments are created by imagining better ways to improve old technologies. Important developments come in increments. Progress moves ahead one step at a time. But in our inner life, we don't want a continuation of *what has...

Classroom Talk: 1/3/2024 - Higher self-awareness is a sacrificial fire; both a flame and its light, it alone is capable of illuminating, and then consuming the shadows cast forth from the world of dreams within which, alone, they dwell; the light of this awareness is a fire that does not burn.

Classroom Talk: 8/9/2023 - Real life never stops starting over; but, before we can step foot in this timeless new kingdom -- and know any portion of its unencumbered freedom -- we must agree to step out of the world of dreams, and leave behind us their endless illusion of a "better time" to come.

Classroom Talk: 5/3/2023 - There is no thought, no memory from the past that of itself can cause us pain; the only reason we suffer for their appearance is because we don't want to relive the unwanted experience they remind us of... not to mention how -- for our resistance to that same recollection -- we become its unwitting captive.

Classroom Talk: 5/11/2022 - The only thing 1,000 failed attempts to start life over proves is that we're setting out from the same old place... mistaking it for the only place there is for us to make a new beginning. This is why we must have true self-knowledge because the journey to a new life begins within us or... not at all.

Classroom Talk: 5/19/2019 - Being able to realize, and then release one's resistance to any unwanted moment does more than just help change the "dark tide" of that event; it reveals that within us already dwell the untroubled "waters" of a celestial harbor: the timeless shelter of an eternal Self that becomes the same as our own...