Honesty

The Divine knows we are ready to see the true solution to our suffering only when - and as - we realize we must no longer make excuses for any moment when, and where we miss the mark.

Whenever painful events happen, they tend to fall on only one of two sides of a person. The first side is the denial side. When turning this way, refusal rules. Regret, self-pity, and endless explanations generally follow. Or, the unwanted moment falls on the angry side, where the turning is to burning. Resentment rages. Hatred and feelings of betrayal mushroom into....

We can't have a true need without there existing that which is intended to fulfill it. But we have to allow the need to be there, wait, and watch the part of us that attempts to resolve the need with its own will. Then we discover that the resolution to any question we might have is within the question itself.

Topics covered:  We are the way we are because of what we turn to in unwanted moments. As long as you spend your life not wanting, you will have the life you don't want; You do not know how to be yourself. All that you have are the derivative images that have been picked up through the years about what it means to be a successful human being; Our sense of self is based on a fight with life, trying to make it to conform to the images we have about who we are.

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...

Topics covered: Healing begins with self-honesty. No honesty, no healing; The acronym "INASTY" stands for "Instantaneous Negative Assumption Syndrome Tormenting You"; Negative assumptions are closely connection to painful self-protection; When the mind registers a disturbance, it names the disturbance so that it can know what to do about it; Life is disturbance...

Topics Covered: Analyzing our thoughts cannot do one thing to change the nature of the consciousness that those thoughts are coming out of; Every time that you take part in a lie, your soul cries; We have almost no awareness of how deep runs this level of consciousness that lies to protect itself from what it imagines has happened to it that threatens its identity; There can't be a lie without...

Topics Covered: Peace is not something that comes later. Peace is not something that we create. Peace already exists in the middle of a storm; We are intended to be living instruments of peace and kindness; Enlightenment is not a static condition; If you do not see the whole, then you are not a whole human being; Everyday is spent doing what you love, whether it is spent...

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.

Topics Covered: Trying to change yourself; Wishing that I wasn't that; Attention is taken by the reaction; Not my will but Thy will be done; Sit in the light of awareness of my powerlessness; Of myself I can do nothing; It isn't "your" consciousness, it is our consciousness; Thy will is to see and reveal my will; Who you really are doesn't need a future; Joy is discovering that...

Student Talks: 3/27/2020 - Key Lesson: We must abandon all solutions about what to do with our suffering that don’t change anything... but themselves.