Forgiveness / Blame

Student Talks: 11/28/2025 - The clearer we can see that negative states must have an excuse to exist within us, the sooner -- and more strongly -- will arise in us a refusal to grant them a place anywhere in our heart, mind, or soul.

Topics covered:  If we all wore t-shirts that described our inner lives, they would say "Out of Order: Proceed with Caution;" The great unspoken assumption behind all of our unrest is the certainty that what is happening should not be happening; Everyone and everything challenges the order that we have established. And anything or anyone that is out of order must be put back into order so that all will be well again, in a time to come.

Topic: The Start of the End of Human Sorrow (Remastered Classic Talk)(Classroom Talk 2/12/25)

It should be obvious, but it's not: we can't protect our heart and keep it open at the same time, any more than it's possible to be covered by a shadow, and feel the caress of a sunbeam touching our face.

Topics covered:  You can't know with your mind what is calling you to make the interior journey that saints and sages have spoken about; "Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there." -- Jalal al-Din Rumi -- "For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." -- New Testament -- These two passages are essentially saying the same thing; Part of the interior journey is to enter into another order of being that allows for the opposites to pass through its field of awareness, but is never defined by those opposites.

Student Talks: 11/29/2024 - Every shocking revelation that we are given to see about ourselves is -- at its heart -- an unseen act of mercy; it is the herald of an order of forgiveness unimaginable to the human mind.

Topics covered:  Seeing what is true is what then allows you to take a new action; You struggle because all you know to do is fight with what you don't want. This is what the world teaches;It doesn't matter how often you rearrange the stuff in your closet, nothing is new.

Topic: Throw Open the Shutters of the Sleeping Mind and Welcome the Light that Sets You Free (Classroom Talk 8/14/24)

Student Talks: 5/31/2024 - Key Lesson: Forgiveness is not the blind acceptance of what is dark, sinful, or just plain evil; real forgiveness begins with seeing the need  to transcend our own negative reaction to whatever we summarily find as wanting in someone else. After all, whose limitation is it when the best we know how to do (with those who have hurt us) is to hate -- or otherwise resent them...

Topics covered: Life never stops setting the stage for your development; There is a certain blindness we have that keeps us separated from seeing the effect that we have on other people, otherwise we would approach that person or condition completely differently; There cannot be resistance to any given moment without a judge that has come into that moment with us; Love transforms negative reactions into rescuing realizations...

Topic: This False Conclusion Ensures There Can Be No End to Our Conflict with Life (Classroom Talk 2/28/24)

Topics covered: Part of your spiritual work is to see that you do not know what your best interests really are; The conditions in life that seem to oppose us have actually appeared in order to help us realize our best interests; A negative reaction looks outside of itself in order figure out what condition or person should be blamed for its pain; The very act of blaming the condition you don't want strengthens the consciousness that created those conditions...