Mechanical Nature

Student Talks: 05/01/2026 - Just as the light of a candle can’t be moved by the shadows it casts, so is there within us a Light that can reveal and observe a reaction without being identified with it, let alone be moved by its shape or character.

Topics covered:  You can't be at peace with the moment itself until you are at peace with yourself; It is inevitable that everything in nature is always being acted upon and being completed through that action. Why is that not true of us when it comes to a relationship with the Divine? What is interfering with this "Divine inevitability"?; What is it within us that sets boundaries? We end up as prisoners locked within the very boundaries that have been set, and then fear anything that threatens to trespass. We become walking "No Trespassing" signs.

Student Talks: 05/16/2025 - The only thing good about any negative reaction is the revelation of how useless is that (level of) suffering to change anything about our present nature, let alone the condition it convinces us to blame for its pain.

Classroom Talk: 8/14/2024 - There is only one requirement if our wish is to "boldly go where no one has gone before"...and that is to realize that not only are we the explorer, but the new frontier is either found within us, or not at all.

Topic: Freedom from the Painful Voices in Your Head (Classroom Talk 6/7/23)

Classroom Talk: 6/7/2023 - Here's the real reason why talking to ourselves about whatever is considered to be the cause of that "conversation" in our head is so exhausting: it's very hard work to make something (so big) out of what really amounts to nothing.

Topic: The Spiritual Facts You Need to Free Yourself from Painful Thoughts (10/13/21 Classroom Talk)

Topics Covered: The illusion that we live under is that we are free to learn. The reason it is an illusion is because no one is free to learn until they see with clarity their true relationship with life; There is no learning with thought. Learning has to do with illumination. Without illumination there is no education of the soul, and without education of the soul there is no transcending...

Classroom Talk: 10/13/2021 - Only consistent, persistent inner-work can lead us to the threshold of the "Truth that sets us free." And yet, the following is equally true: the unassailable liberation we seek will continue to elude us until every effort to know the truth of ourselves -- by thinking about ourselves -- has proven useless.

Student Talks: 1/15/2021 - Key Lesson: Hoping to end the fear that accompanies us in so many of the unwanted moments in our life without first realizing the unconscious "machinery" that creates it is worse than useless; it's like blaming the path we're on for the pain we feel while walking it... when the truth is there's a stone in our shoe!

Topics Covered: All judgment is born out of fear. There is no judgment until someone is first afraid of something; Fear is the source of hatred and conflict between human beings; There is no form of self-destruction without there being fear behind it; As long as we remain spiritually asleep we are a machine that is complicit in the harm being done to the world...