Judgment

Student Talks: 11/29/2024 - Every shocking revelation that we are given to see about ourselves is -- at its heart -- an unseen act of mercy; it is the herald of an order of forgiveness unimaginable to the human mind.

Topics covered:  The interior path does not necessarily change what you do with your life, but it will change the reason why you do it; "'Master, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said unto him, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'" -- New Testament; Every law that is made to resolve a conflict creates more conflict, which then requires the creation of more laws to replace the law that did not work.

Student Talks: 9/6/2024 - Key Lesson: As surely as planting a lemon seed will grow a tree full of lemons, so is the following true: any solution that begins with resisting (the pain of) some unwanted experience will not only prove itself fruitless, but always give birth to more of the same!

Topics covered:  Along with resistance to an unwanted moment comes the explanation about what the moment is all about; The first reaction to an unwanted moment does not have a name. It is a natural instant of something active acting upon something that is passive. The second reaction comes when the mind gives a name to the moment; There cannot be a perceived threat without something from the past naming and explaining what the moment means.

Topics covered:  Your experience of life comes down to what it is that you prize most in this life; There is something within you that wants to communicate with you about how to free you from yourself; We know how it feels to want to let go, but wanting to let go, and the ability to actually do it, seem to be miles and miles apart.

Topic: Throw Open the Shutters of the Sleeping Mind and Welcome the Light that Sets You Free (Classroom Talk 8/14/24)

Student Talks: 6/14/2024 - Key Lesson: Any form of unconscious identification IS limitation; this lower nature lives to judge the limitations of others, so that it never has to see the real source of its suffering... is hidden in just how limited -- tiny and tormented -- is the world it never stops making from itself.

Topics covered: What would you do with all of this pain if you didn't have someone to blame?; Isn't it amazing that the golden rule applies to everybody else but you?; Any relationship of yours can be as new as you are willing to assume responsibility for what takes place within you as part of that relationship; Who is it that suffers first when we persecute others in our minds? As we judge, so are we judged.

Student Talks: 5/31/2024 - Key Lesson: Forgiveness is not the blind acceptance of what is dark, sinful, or just plain evil; real forgiveness begins with seeing the need  to transcend our own negative reaction to whatever we summarily find as wanting in someone else. After all, whose limitation is it when the best we know how to do (with those who have hurt us) is to hate -- or otherwise resent them...

Topics covered: Life never stops setting the stage for your development; There is a certain blindness we have that keeps us separated from seeing the effect that we have on other people, otherwise we would approach that person or condition completely differently; There cannot be resistance to any given moment without a judge that has come into that moment with us; Love transforms negative reactions into rescuing realizations...

Topic: Stop Reliving Your Past and Realize Real Life (Classroom Talk 4/10/24)

Spiritually speaking, all relationships serve one purpose: self-knowledge. And self-knowledge, in turn, serves a single purpose: discovering the truth of oneself: an inner awakening that serves still a higher purpose: rebirth...the reconciliation, and fulfillment of all relationships.