In this answer to a viewer's question, "self-realization" author Guy Finley explains that we are not our memories, and that we can connect ourselves to a higher life that never disappears, even when our memories may.

Unwanted life lessons repeat themselves again and again. Why? Because we keep talking to ourselves about them. Whether they happened two minutes -- or even 25 years ago -- we talk to ourselves about things we regret or feel guilty over. In fact, the mind almost never stops talking. Something triggers a thought that is the left over, undigested energy of an event that was meant...

Following is a small excerpt from a "fireside chat" between Guy Finley and Dr. Ellen Dickstein as they explored the topic of The Power to Release Regrets and Get Over Guilt. Guy: We don't "learn" the way that we think we learn... which is by reliving things. No one learns anything by reliving a situation. Ellen: This reminds me of something you said that I found very interesting...

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

Topics covered: When does the world change? When you change the way you see the world; The blessed ones through the ages have tried to convey the idea that you need new eyes to see what is in front of you all the time but that you don’t currently see. And the reason you don’t see is because the impressions that are intended to produce a real change are deflected by all kinds of buffers — beliefs, conditions, longings.

Classroom Talk: 4/10/2024 - It's impossible to see, let alone walk the indefinable path of the presence moment until we realize we've been deceived into looking at virtually every moment of life through the 'I's of the past.

Topic: Take a Vacation from Yourself and Leave Your Troubles Behind You (Classroom Talk 1/31/24)

Topics covered: Without clarity there can be no self-command; The real "evil" is the thought that I have to complete myself, because it separates you from discovering you are being given everything you need, moment to moment, to be a complete being; I don't have any trouble without a desire. All troubles and painful situations are born from hidden desires; What is behind every last troubling moment? The experience of myself...

Classroom Talk: 1/31/2024 - The awareness of the whole of ourselves is the cancellation of time... for in this undivided state of consciousness no memory is needed to produce a sense of self; instead, we gaze upon ourselves as we are: already a complete Being.

Student Talks: 12/1/2023 - Key Lesson: Since it is impossible to be unhappy over what you don't have without first having been subjected to some form of unseen painful comparison, this means the true source of one's unhappiness isn't because of some passing condition, but rather is a creation of an unconscious nature -- punishing itself -- each time it negatively reacts to some imagined happiness lost.

Topics covered: Spiritual ideas are intended to introduce you to another world within you that cannot be threatened by any outside condition; Spiritual principles do not exist in order to save you. They exist for you to see how futile it is to try to save yourself as you currently are; There cannot be a negative reaction without unseen resistance. And there is no unseen resistance without identification.