Imagination

There is an extraordinary paradox in the spiritual life that any sincere aspirant must encounter. The paradox is that anyone who is a sincere seeker wants Real Life, Truth, but the very act of wanting it is produced by having imagined what Real Life is, and then we attempt to imitate what the mind has imagined for ourselves. The conundrum is that you can't want what can only be given to you,...

Unconscious conflicts, in dialogue form, play themselves out in our mind by painfully reenacting various scenes from our past; moments gone by in which we either know, or sense, we were compromised by our own weakness. If these inner dialogues were left to themselves as they popped into our mind, they'd be as powerless to disturb us as an echo is to change its own sound. Where we get into tr...

If we were to see someone trying to warm himself on a winter's night by snuggling up to a color photo of a fireplace, we would easily recognize this person as being deluded. We know that the glossy paper image which he clings to for life-sustaining heat is powerless to do anything but mock his obviously oblivious mind. But this unfortunate man can't see the futility of his own misguided acti...

Catch every thought that wants to make you the star of the moment. See that talking to yourself about "What does this mean and how am I going to get through it" is actually self-importance having its way with you. Reach for another relationship with life in which you don't have to think incessantly and painfully about how each and every moment affects you and your imaginary reputation.

Topics covered: When does the world change? When you change the way you see the world; The blessed ones through the ages have tried to convey the idea that you need new eyes to see what is in front of you all the time but that you don’t currently see. And the reason you don’t see is because the impressions that are intended to produce a real change are deflected by all kinds of buffers — beliefs, conditions, longings.

Topics covered: The only way it is possible to want to avoid any moment is that we are asleep to the possibilities in that same moment; Our powers that we imagine we possess abandon us whenever we need them the most; The mind's endless juggling is about trying to find a way to get past disturbances to the place of peace it has imagined in a time to come; The endless struggle is about trying to gain the powers necessary to restore peace and security...

Topics covered: Our lives are currently predicated on dealing what is unreal, the pursuit for answers to suffering that is blamed on outside conditions that seem to be responsible for the suffering but in reality are not; Every image that comes into your mind to lend you a sense of security also comes with a second force built into it that will prove it is unreal; A false sense of self, a false identity...

Topics covered: We live in a sea of sensations, which makes the dream we are in seem real; Each worried thought and feeling comes with a temptation to find consolation through what those thoughts and feelings suggest; The seeming motive for anticipating a moment to come is to get through that moment without something bad happening; The only way that you can look beyond the...

Topics covered: When you have heard the truth, you are forever in debt to it. What has been seen cannot be unseen; Heavy spirits, worried and anxious people, or ambitious people who refuse to see themselves cannot find freedom; Why would you give your attention to something that gives you an experience that you don't want?; Most of what you experience is produced by your...