In this short talk, Guy Finley talks about how we are intended to actively use the gifts we are given so that we can begin to enter into an authentic relationship with the Divine.

Our task, if we want to be free human beings -- if we want a life in which we no longer carry around with us "what he did," "what she didn't do," "what never worked out" -- begins with discovering that there can be no real freedom for us until we understand the nature of the tyranny of the past that still lives within us. One of the main areas of this unchallenged dictatorship that still holds...

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.

Trying to resolve the pain within us by holding others accountable for it is like looking out at a field we have planted on our own property and wishing, every day, something other than what grows there would take hold and flower. If we wish to have true harmonious relationships with others, then it is we who must change. We must assume responsibility...

When those familiar feelings wash over us that we have somehow failed at something, or that we are sure to face defeat should we endeavor to claim some personal higher ground, we can do much better than allow ourselves to be carried away by these dark waves. We can call upon the following five light-filled truths to realize new self-victory. Study these friendly facts until they tell you why t...

Whenever we find ourselves in some "unwanted" part of ourselves, perhaps reliving an old heartache or caught in the throes of some irrepressible anger, old fear, or unyielding worry, part of this unwanted moment includes our certainty that we're trapped in this condition. And compounding our confusion over feeling ourselves captive in this way are all of the attending negative inner voices. Th...

There is a hidden part of you that knows, without thinking about it, how to always be perfectly relaxed, carefree, and in command. This higher intellectual and emotional intelligence is to your present thoughts and feelings as is the mighty oak to its own spreading branches. Once you come into contact with its perfect strength and power, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. Great mas...

The real reason people remain captives of unwanted circumstances in their lives is because they've yet to realize this great spiritual secret: Resistance is negative attraction. In other words: the longer we dwell on what we don't want in life, the larger grows that dark dwelling place in which we find ourselves living. ~~~ You need not answer to any disturbance within you. Any form of res...

Have you ever thrown your hands in the air and asked yourself "What in the world is going on with me? How come my best intentions and the ability to accomplish them seem to live in two different universes?" We intend not to run off like a mad human being, spending money ill-afforded. We intend not to do something mean-spirited or otherwise self-defeating. Yet that is often just what we do...

The purpose of true spiritual study is to begin a very slow and steady process by which the human mind that is willing to be educated is brought into the presence of new understanding. This new understanding is not something that you can give to yourself, but it must start with certain ideas that are intended to come between you and your present suffering. Presently our suffering feeds on itse...

Do you think for a moment that God is ever disappointed with the moment that He has made? Your personal unhappiness is because you are disappointed with yourself. In reality, who you really are is not apart -- not separate from -- the moment that God has made. The moment and you are the same thing. Whenever you can catch anything in you that feels disappointment or discouragement, drop it ins...

When events do not go according to our expectations, we often light ourselves on fire with anger, blaming life for not having fulfilled our expectations. Then the mind will say, "That's it. I have figured it out. I will live the rest of my life without any expectations." But this one-sided mind does not see that thought as being an expectation in itself. Setting the expectation to have no fut...