We are created and each of us is intended to discover the truth of ourselves within ourselves; no authorities are needed. Our lives -- and all of our relationships as revealed in the present moment -- are the ground we must plow. These soils, rendered receptive through conscious humiliation, are seeded with our intention to be kind and true to one another, to give up our selfish ways, and to willingly embrace whatever life lessons we need to further...
Do you know people who, when things are going well for them, but things are going bad for you, will tell you: "Let go and let God"? Doesn't it drive you crazy? They got a check that day or they lost a few pounds, or it's a good hair day, or whatever it is, and they say, "Let go and let God." And of course, if they could see, you want to throttle them at that moment for their insensitivity...
All of us know what it's like to be dogged by parts of us that want to drag us down. Call it what you will: some compulsion or obsession seems to follow us into all our relationships, only to wreck them in one way or another. We struggle as best we can to free ourselves from these dark states but invariably find ourselves short of the mark.
Have you ever heard within you, not necessarily in words, something to the effect of "Oh no, not this again!"? Perhaps we're looking at the latest flame of our heart and we see a fire in his or her eyes, but it's not because they are looking at us. In that moment we no longer see the moment unfold as it is, but rather we stand there transfixed -- experiencing the moment as we are; and we are not really present!
Living from our present life-level, we are almost always nervous about what's going on around us. Why? Because we still live with the mistaken notion that who we are is somehow affected or determined by what happens to us. Events may happen to you, but you are not the event. Just as clouds are not the sky, you are not what moves through you. You are not who you think you are.
Look around you, wherever you may be and at any moment. Try to see through the roles of actors and actresses crossing this or that stage of life; look past their appearances and seeming differences and you'll find all share one thing in common: people do the things they do in order to try and provide themselves with a feeling of being complete. They sense that there is a...
We each have, and operate from, a false nature that is a jumble of our memories, conditioning, and temperamental qualities. It is this unsuspected false nature that meets the world each day, responding to and interpreting each and every one of life's fluctuations. It is very important for us to begin to understand that of themselves these ever-changing conditions in life are neutral, but the false...
Our experience of each moment -- for its pleasure or pain, peace or trouble -- is a direct reflection of what we are in relationship with in the present.
Question: I know it's a mistake looking to someone else for a sense of myself, but how can I keep from giving myself away? Answer: What good is any feeling we may have about ourselves, if it only lasts as long as others agree to it? Seeking and receiving approval from others is like sitting down hungry to an imaginary meal. You're invited to eat all you want, but no matter how much im...
Question: I don't know why sometimes I feel so much resentment toward the very people whose approval means the most to me. It just doesn't make sense. When these times come, not only am I unsure of why I am acting the way I am, but I don't even like myself. It doesn't add up! How can a person be in charge of his own life one minute, and in the next minute find it in someone else's hands? What'...
Like the invisible winds that move the branches on the trees, we live in a world of this unseen, but ceaseless, flood of thoughts and feelings.
As we learn how to take the higher ground inwardly and begin winning that life for which we are created, we are gradually empowered to prevail over any event and challenge that life presents.