Nobody begins self-study as an "A" student. In fact, real self-study begins with becoming aware of just how unaware we really are. Don't let this last thought throw you! It's wise to see where our wisdom was only an assumption. This allows real wisdom, real self-knowledge, to grow. And this explains why some of our most important first lessons come when we set an exercise...

We must learn to struggle with our "self" all the time, because without awareness of the way we meet our life, of what meets life for us when we are just "gliding" along... then, in truth, what is it that meets life? The answer is... no one... just a host of habitual thoughts, feelings, prejudicial ideas, beliefs, and mechanical reactions. If we are not aware of ourselves -- right now, and in all..."

To be able to see any life event -- good or bad -- as a vehicle to help transport us from our present level of understanding to a higher one requires that we develop a new relationship with unwanted events in our lives.

Beginning this very moment, intentionally separate yourself from any rushing inner condition by voluntarily stepping out of it. Here's how...

Have you ever wondered why our best intentions and the ability to accomplish them seem to live in two different universes? We intend not to do something mean-spirited or otherwise self-defeating. Yet that is often just what we do. Then we ask, "What happened... how could we?" Yet, for all of our questioning, this mystery remains unsolved. See if the following insight doesn't shed much-needed...

The first step in harmonious relationships is simple: We need only realize the spiritual truth that we cannot meet someone whom we are not like in some way, even if we don't actively express what we don't like seeing in him or her. The deception is that we're sure we're unlike everyone except for those who match the images we have of ourselves. And so it goes that we live from -- see our lives...

We must no longer allow ourselves to identify with any negative state, regardless of why that state tells us we must embrace its painful presence. That is to say, we must become as ruthless in detecting and rejecting these dark thoughts and feelings as they have been ruthless in wrecking our lives. Here is why this instruction is such a spiritual imperative if we wish to know the light life.

The feeling that everything is right with your life comes in direct proportion to you being for everything that is right in life. When you begin to be for God, for Truth -- before you're for yourself -- the Truth of God's Life will begin to be there before you. This Supreme Nature will start to live inside of you and do something that you've never been able to do for yourself. Which is wh...

The gradual realization that you need never again try to find yourself in your thoughts about yourself is like one day happily realizing that hitting yourself over the head was the cause and not the cure for your daily headaches. To your grateful amazement, you discover that the inner-pounding you so wished would go away finally came to a stop when you stopped pounding. This startling realiz...

The next time (and every time) you catch some negative thought or feeling that says, "I am anxious," "I am scared," "I am mad," or "I am in so much pain" -- the first thing to do is to come wide awake to yourself. By taking the following inner action, you can deliberately snap yourself out of that dark dream that is trying to weave itself into your identity...

Here is a new and true beginning you can start with today that will put you in the right place for leaving an old self-defeating choice behind you for good: Any time someone criticizes or corrects you, dare to go against your habitual urge to defend yourself. Instead of reacting with heated resistance to something you don't want to hear about yourself, just listen to what's being said.

Everywhere we look, people are concerned with essentially one thing: getting what they want, when they want it, and as fast as possible. The fires that fuel their appetite for this envisioned success create so much smoke that they lose sight of the fact that all they reap for their insistent sowing are the cold ashes of regret raked out of broken relationships. If we are ever to realize the i...