Talk Takeaways
When I am caught up in some conflict in my life, I unconsciously turn to the nature responsible for that conflict to end it, but it can't do it.
"The way the wise man became wise is that he stopped answering his own questions." -Vernon Howard
The answer I come up with to address a problem may temporarily resolve it or give me a way to navigate around it, but I keep coming back to the same problems, which means the consciousness that created them never changed.
Every question you get an answer to points to something outside of you as responsible for why you feel the way you do. You need to see that the mind that has posed the question is the same mind that has produced the problem.
Your consciousness and its attachments to the images it has of what life is supposed to be like is the source of the pain, and you are complicit with it.
You are never without an excuse for why you are the way you are, and why you feel the way you do.
A plan for the future is an excuse for the pain in the present moment.
What am I relying on when I have excuses for my pain? I'm relying on a nature that has decided the source of the pain is outside of myself.
Our excuses keep us complicit with an unconscious nature that not only wants to remain asleep, but that for our unseen relationship with it, we are agreeing to not be awakened to the fact of that nature within ourselves.
If I didn't make excuses for my negativity, I would find myself on the path to self-reliance.
The last thing that I want to do is suffer myself consciously. Excuses are the continuation of a nature responsible for unconscious suffering.
Our excuses are not only useless, but they ensure we never transcend the parts of us responsible for their continuation.
When you see what is starting your unconscious negativity, the action is in the awareness. The action is in the light that reveals it, because that light doesn't separate you from the nature, it shows you that that nature and you have something in common.
Within you is a divine nature, a higher order of awareness that never needs to make an excuse. That light doesn't just see the truth of the moment but it transforms everything brought into it.
When you see there is no choice left but to die to the excuse-making nature, you can now set a new intention.
Exercise: NME - No More Excuses! You can't bring an end to the excuse-making nature, but you can bring yourself into the light of the moment and stay in the crucible. When you catch yourself about to make an excuse and you swallow the bitterness of that nature instead of letting it convince you that it's giving you a sweet answer to your suffering, you will change in that moment and become a different human being.
Key Lesson 
