Topic: The Wisdom to Walk Away from Self-Judgment (Classroom Talk 4/20/22)

Topics covered: Whatever remains concealed can never be healed. What remains concealed is the cause of the conflict we have with ourselves and others; Self-judgment guards the door to self-renewal, convincing us that protecting the old is preferable over the new; Revelation of similarity to your neighbor is what leads to compassion and the end of conflict...

Classroom Talk: 4/20/2022 - No one is free who has an ax to grind with any other person, let alone who grind themselves down with painful self-judgment believing, in vain, that self-punishment is somehow connected to self-perfection.

We have an innate need to rise above ourselves, to open ourselves to higher influences... for one thing, because we understand that without higher influences, we're left to our own flu-like influences from which we don't get well, and that we are sick from following our own prescriptions! Our present condition is imagining what we need to do in order to get above ourselves...

We each have ideas about who we are, how the events in our lives should go, and how other people should treat us. We believe that if everything goes according to our plan, we will be safe. By the same token, anything that threatens the fulfillment of the plan is seen as an enemy. What might some of these enemies be? Other people who don't give us the respect we deserve.

In this question and answer session, Guy explains that we are not meant to be the servant of a mind that believes conflict is the way to solve any problem. Seeing the part of us that finds a peculiar enjoyment in conflict is the beginning of separating ourselves from it.

Every one of us knows -- from somewhere deep in the heart of us -- we were not created to spend our lives contesting whatever dominates us in the moment. And yet, we can see how each unwanted state that washes over us is replaced by another state of some similar ilk. It's pretty clear: we're never truly in possession of ourselves, unless we believe that not wanting to be...

Student Talks: 9/18/2020 - Key Lesson: Spiritual freedom will never be realized by avoiding what disturbs us, but rather by the work of consciously illuminating what still dwells in the dark of us... that is (always) so quick to find someone, or something to blame for its pain.

Topics Covered: It is impossible to heal our pain and have someone or something to blame for it at the same time; Most people do not know what to do with their pain, and hardly anyone at all will seek out its true purpose; When we are in pain, there is usually no new understanding that comes as a result; there is only the certainty of why the pain is there and what should...

Classroom Talk: 9/13/2020 - Spiritual freedom will never be realized by avoiding what disturbs us, but rather by the work of consciously illuminating what still dwells in the dark of us... that is (always) so quick to find someone, or something to blame for its pain.

What causes disputes between human beings? What is this business of "what I believe" vs. "what you believe"? Can we see that you cannot separate what you believe in from what you want? When I say, "I believe in this," and "I believe that you should be like that," what I'm really saying is that I insist you be what I believe you should be, because if you don't, we have war...

The secret that ends your fear of people, of situations, is the possibility of discovering that these people are as afraid of you as you are of them. What do you think would happen if you knew that the person you're afraid of is as afraid of you as you are of him or her? How do you think that would change your reaction? That man makes the cruel comment, that woman makes the cutting remark...