What happens when we see things about ourselves that we don't want to see? In order to avoid looking at itself, the mind will seize on the anger, impatience, grief, loneliness, or anxiety it has seen... and it will try to explain it. It will take the initial darkness, the negative energy, and because it seems to be so bad, the mind will make something out of it that it can deal with...
You are not your own reactions, anymore than the burst of a flashing skyrocket is the night sky it temporarily illuminates.
Whatever we try to go around in ourselves guarantees it will come around again, which is why the things we fear in life and about ourselves always tend to reappear...
Studying wise principles without putting them into practice is like learning how to read music but never owning an instrument through which to experience the sound of those notes you know.
Within each of us dwells a certain lower level of "self" whose chief feature is to ensure that no one ever doubts its perfection.
One of the sad reasons why so few men and women persist in the inner work necessary for higher self-discovery is because we have all become -- to one degree or another -- either an unwitting captive of, or willing participant in, what can only be described as a descending scale in the meaning of life. More simply stated, over time our values have been subtly shifting away from the love of *th...
Although self-study may include reading certain inner life books or listening to lectures on self-transformation, these materials, as encouraging and informative as they may be, are really only preparational tools; they have their place. After all, if you were going to climb a mountain, you would want expert advice on the proper equipment to use, and you would want instruction from others who...
Our willingness to teach for the purpose of learning is every bit as important as is our willingness to learn what we must in order to grow.
On one hand, each of us professes to be concerned with growing and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong, which is a paralyzing contradiction.
One sure measure of spiritual growth is found in our developing awareness that each and every present moment of our lives is a special kind of spiritual looking glass.
The wish itself -- to be a higher person -- comes to you from a higher place and is received in its inner equivalent within you.
Spiritual knowledge by itself is not enough. If we want to be truly successful human beings, then we are going to have to find some way to connect our spiritual lessons with every moment of our daily lives. We want the events that transpire around us to touch the whole of something that we were already working on within ourselves prior to meeting the event. It is only when we start taking our...