There isn't one thing, in every moment of our life, that isn't a mirror. Not one. Only we've never been taught that there is an invisible, eternal, incorruptible intelligence that is literally both that which we see and ourselves seeing it.
If we want new answers to old self-defeating questions such as "Why me?" -- we're going to have to use our mind in a new way. If we want new answers, real answers, we need new questions. First, we must realize that our stressful experiences are not caused by people or events. They are caused by our reactions to them. I know this is different than most of us feel, and yet, we can see that we have changed the people and even the events in our...
How many times in your life have you acted not just against yourself, but perhaps against others because your actions were uninformed, and you were moved prematurely into a conclusion? Too many times to count really. And most of these premature conclusions had some negative taint to them -- judging somebody, arriving at some insistence based on incomplete information.
Have you ever noticed that when you're under the cloud of some negative state, what you do to try to "make things better" actually makes the situation worse? Struggling to free yourself from your own negative reactions is a bit like throwing gasoline onto a fire, isn't it? Recognizing that you get trapped in this pattern of taking action that neither relieves nor rescues you from...
Can you can see that, "If I'm ever to have freedom, somehow or other I'm going to have to accept everything that's given to me"? It seems counterintuitive, so let me explain why it's true. There are two orders of transformation. They are not really separate; they are in a constant exchange, just like the river is in a constant exchange as water flows in and out at each point...
All through the ages the Wise Ones have spoken of an invisible kingdom--a timeless ground known as the Now--that will confer to those who realize it a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Any sorrow, resentment, or anxiety brought over and into the living now can only be an echo of some event now past.
When we are hurt badly, the higher lesson hidden in this trial is to recognize the time has come to let go of who and what we have been up until the moment of loss.
We all know what it is like to be held captive of the little things in life -- those petty concerns and small desires that steal their way into how we look at our lives and pit us against anyone or anything seen as trying to take away our anticipated desire. Here is a short list of these little troublemakers that often make big trouble for us whenever we mistake them for being our friends: 1.
When we turn on a faucet connected to a hose with a small nozzle at its other end, we know from experience that we have to keep the hose in hand, otherwise we will likely get soaked chasing down the runaway end. What happens is that the water pressure, as it passes through the nozzle, transforms our ordinarily tame garden hose into the equivalent of a tethered rocket. With this picture in min...
In the early 1900s, before the age of superhighways, supermarkets, and the giant food manufacturers, things were very different, better in many ways. Small family farmers used to truck or cart each season's harvest to a small centralized buyers' market that had been set up in their area. Some farmers, more isolated than others, had to travel great distances just to sell their crops. For these...
In order to let go of any painful past condition -- so there is never again a moment where regret or sorrow is pulling us down -- we must allow every movement, each unexpected event encountered, every thought and feeling -- no matter its character -- to have its own life. If we will attempt to view life from this new and higher understanding -- that everything...