Identity

Here's a challenging idea: those who don't know their true identity do not know that they don't know who they are. It's a kind of spiritual amnesia produced by having assumed a false identity without knowing it. How is that possible?

When you think of a single beautiful flower in springtime -- while it may stand with petals and leaves that look a certain way -- you'll never find a single flower the same as any other flower. Can you understand that the life of that flower is not the life alone that you see coming out of the ground? That flower belongs to a much greater life than the individual expression that you say is beautiful.

Before we can experience the truth of a higher state of consciousness, before we can stand on the ground of ourselves that is the secret stuff of Reality, we are asked to quietly be who and what we are in the Now.

Seldom do we know a greater need for making a fresh start than in those mind-numbing moments when we find ourselves feeling thrown for a loss. These feelings of loss often leave an unconscious, invisible residue of fear which tends to taint every area of our lives with distasteful timidity, born of the neurotic suspicion that in some way, life is conspiring to take something away from us.

In this video, we'll explore the concept that the only conflict we ever truly face is the one within us. It's not the world or the people around us, but the outdated ideas, beliefs, and identities that we cling to that keep us trapped in circles of frustration. When we recognize this, life can no longer be a battle. It becomes a journey of self-discovery and transformation.

Life does not come at us from the outside in, even though that is the way we've always seen it. Once we understand this, we'll see the mistake we've been making all along about the true meaning of strength. Currently, we have a list of things we want to overcome: our past; our failure to acquire what we believe we need; a pressing world that has it in for us. We've identified these...

When you look at a flower in springtime, standing there with its beautiful petals and leaves, can you understand that flower is not the life alone that you see coming out of the ground? That flower belongs to a much greater life than the individual expression that you behold and say, "Isn't that beautiful?" You could never experience the radiance of the flower or utter those words if it...

Topics covered: Suffering happens when something in life challenges a pattern that you don't even know you're a part of; Attention is connection; The sleeping mind is a breeding ground for self-defeat; New action is determined by the new light of a new intelligence...

Classroom Talk: 03/29/2026 - By itself, no thought has the power to trouble us; its authority over us is equal to the extent we are deceived into identifying with its particular, temporary character.

Topics covered:  The last thing that we want are recurring shocks. There is a part of us that does not want to be disturbed, a part of us that avoids disturbances at all costs; The negativity that we blame on the condition was there before the condition came along to stir the negativity to the surface; Something in us believes that we have a right to be negative because we would not be negative were it not for the condition or the person that is disturbing us.

Classroom Talk: 5/1/2022 - Part 1: Until we can see that unconscious identification sits at the root of all useless suffering nothing real can change for us -- let alone within us -- save for what we're moved to imagine -- and then identify with -- as the next new solution to our pain. Part 2: False "I" is a disease. Real I is the healing. Awakening is the prescription. Now you know the...