Honesty

Topic: The First Great Law of Spiritual Development (Remastered Classic Talk) (Classroom Talk 12/31/25)

Student Talks: 9/20/2024 - Key Lesson: Hanging onto a handful of anxious, worried thoughts to protect you from what they point to as a fearful moment to come, is like wrapping your arms around the anchor of a sinking ship because there's nothing left on deck for you to cling to as it goes down!

Topics covered: People who are addicted to something lie to themselves, listening to something in themselves that justifies their behavior; "An unexamined life is not worth living." (Socrates) The act of true self-observation is constant self-examination. Little by little, you will want to spend more time in a properly contemplative state; Through self-examination we see what it is interiorly that is presently harming us, instead of unconsciously agreeing...

Classroom Talk: 7/3/2024 - Honesty heals; lies hurt. In these four words live all one needs to know and practice—that is, assuming one wishes to be whole, harmless, loving, and true.

Topic: Learn to Say "Yes" to Life and Liberate Yourself (Classroom Talk 2/14/22)

Classroom Talk: 2/9/2022 - Seen properly, only self-liberation is possible; this highest form of freedom begins with being completely honest in all of our relationships, but especially as concerns the one we have with ourselves.

Topic: Develop this Divine Quality and Free Yourself from Fear (7/14/21 Classroom Talk)

Classroom Talk: 7/14/2021 - Whoever lies... cries; and not just in that moment, but in every moment thereafter; as when, by fear, we feel compelled not just to defend some past self-compromising choice... but also because we continue to participate in an unconscious act that's not only set against our own best interests... but, ultimately, against the Good of all.

Topic: The 7 Elements of Enlightenment (5/12/21 Classroom Talk)

Classroom Talk: 5/12/2021 - Just as all the qualities of the ocean can be found in a single drop of its water, so do all the infinite expressions of consciousness -- high and low, light and dark -- dwell within our True Self: each and all… a drop of the Divine.

Topics Covered: At a certain point along the path, a person begins to see that they have been caught in a circle of reacting to conditions; All true spiritual teachings point out that we are not a single person; we are made up of a legion of temporary identities. A good portrayal of this condition is the classic Robert Louis Stevenson book, "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde"; It is impossible to find...

Student Talks: 8/7/2020 - Key Lesson: Here’s why no spiritual “secret” -- in and of itself -- has the power to transform, let alone raise our consciousness in any meaningful way: no self-knowledge, regardless how subtle, can serve its true purpose unless it is accompanied by the one element capable of actualizing it: consistent, persistent self-honesty.