False Self

In this podcast, Guy Finley talks about how painful tension persists because we are relying on something outside of ourselves to tell us who we are.

In this short talk, Guy Finley talks about why human beings are so addicted to stress and tension, and why it is so important for us to understand that something within us actually enjoys being anxious.

It is never the people we are around that cause us negative reactions. These reactions arise out of what we secretly want from people.

Human beings suffer from a kind of spiritual amnesia produced by having assumed a false identity without knowing it. How is that possible? This temporary false self feels real. There's no mistake about that! It is animated and driven along by the flood of reactions we have as we run around seeking fulfillment. But the fact that this lower nature is driven doesn't mean it is alive. A bulldoze...

Everyone wonders whether or not there is one Great Secret for truly successful living. There is. And it is not a secret. It has been quietly, steadily telling itself right in front of us all along. We just couldn't hear it over the clatter and chatter of our own secret demands. Listen quietly for a moment. Everything can change right now. Learning to hear this Supreme Secret is no more difficu...

The experience of what we are in the moment is always the product of comparison. Presently, what "I am" is always measured against something else, so that my identity begins divided. But our true nature is not something that our minds can think about, and cannot therefore be the product of any comparison. The great lesson that life is always teaching individuals is to let go of being who or w...

A big part of our inner work in all of our relationships involves remembering this key idea: whenever we are not present and properly attentive to ourselves, we may be sure the false self is busy attending to something we'll be paying for in the days ahead. Disconcerting, yes; but there's no denying it: there are unconscious parts of us that feel good about getting us to do wrong! Whenever we...

Each day we hear a knock on our psychological door, and when we open it a pushy person enters and begins to bark out orders: "Worry about this." "Remember and regret that." "Work harder!" Is it little wonder we experience only the most fleeting feelings of love, kindness or relaxation? We are all the time being pushed along by something that calls itself an authority, and without ever questi...

A spiritual risk is any action we will take based upon our willingness to challenge our own certainty that our present state of consciousness represents the full measure of life's possibility. Here is one simple example: Maybe we feel as though no one understands our situation or that no one is being sensitive to the pressure we're under. During these times most of us feel the strong need to c...

As life pours itself out in the stream of passing time, and we run into challenges seemingly greater than our ability to answer -- each of these encounters "asks" this question of us: "Are you willing to change (who you have been) in order to realize a higher possibility of yourself?" And though moments like these trouble us because of their uncertainty, here's why we should be very grateful...

We can either spend our lives fearful of any unwanted event that comes along to challenge our sense of self -- or we can use that same situation to help set ourselves free. Presently we see whatever troubles us through the eyes of a false nature that believes protecting itself from what it fears is the same as being fearless. The only way this idea makes sense is if we think that avoiding a pr...

Most people are interested in the topic of reincarnation because they hope that there is a chance that they can get away from themselves. We hope there's a chance that we can come back into something better than they left. But it does not work that way. Resistance creates the illusion what is resisted is not a part of our lives. Whatever we don't want is carried over, again and again. Resista...