Letting Go

Topics covered:  Spiritually speaking, the very action of looking for something often separates you from what you are looking for; We live in a world that exceeds our understanding of it; If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Can there be a sound without an ear to hear it? And can there be hearing without the awareness of it? Hearing does not exist apart from relationship. Everything is a relationship.

Topics covered:  What we see outside of ourselves as separate objects are connected and never not touching one another. Everything that exists affects everything else; All of creation is in constant labor, because there is never not something being born. Spiritually speaking, we don't generally understand the suffering that is inherent in the labor of birth; Pain is a mistaken love for something small that promises to love you back if you give yourself to it.

Topics covered:  The thinker can't escape its own thought. It is impossible. And yet we spend most of our lives trying to do just that; Two people arguing with each other each believe that they know what reality is. But there cannot be two different realities. There is only one reality; There are I's that are trained in the art of combat, and there are I's that are trained in the art of compromise. Each I is seamlessly handed off to another I. "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."

Topics covered: Attempting to save yourself is the same as imagining about a better time to come; There is no such self that goes by your name that can do the good, which you then punish yourself for not being able to do; You never sincerely ask the question "Why am I afraid?" Instead, you are given answers as to what the source of the fear is outside of yourself.

The reasons we give ourselves for our pain are not the cause of it.

Topics covered:  The last thing that human beings want to give up is their suffering; The root of every ongoing, painful psychological struggle is the attempt to avoid suffering; None of the chronic psychological pains that we experience in our lives exist without the corresponding things outside of ourselves that we blame them on.

Topics covered:  Demands, and the sense of self that come with them, are blind because they mistake the part for the whole, incapable of seeing the bigger picture; Parables and teaching stories are able to communicate truths to us in ways that other means of communication cannot; In the story of the King looking for a new Governor for the Kingdom of Agape, most of the candidates were self-serving motives and full of demands, seeking more power and authority. The one who was selected said, "How can I be useful to you? How can I best serve what it is that you Will for the Kingdom?"

Student Talks: 10/25/2024 - Key Lesson: United we see, and are free; divided we struggle...and fall.

Topics covered:  There is no urgency in a natural creature. There is no rush in nature. Every movement in nature is in perfect harmony. Human beings are always in a state of urgency; No creature in nature is concerned about what it means to be productive. Nature's creatures are already productive because they are already a participant in the whole movement of creation; "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?" -- New Testament

If we can't give the whole of our attention to someone -- or, for that matter, to any moment -- then we can't listen. If we can't listen, we can't possibly hear the whole story. And if we can't hear the whole story, then how can we ever hope to understand, let alone realize our actual role in it.

Topics covered:  The divided consciousness asks a question about its pain, and then immediately answers its own question; When the mind asks a question, you think you have to answer it; It is possible by the grace of God to come to the end of every last question you have. The question creates the illusion of a self that is stuck.

Topic: An Advanced Lesson in Letting Go of Any Past Painful Moment (Classroom Talk 8/21/24)