Talk Takeaways

We live in a world that is the size of our understanding.

As we are now, unconscious reactions tell us what to understand and believe about the moment, as well as what to do about it.

There can be no painful reaction without there being something that is fixed in our consciousness.

The mind that analyzes and describes a reaction is not separate from the consciousness that is having the reaction.

Either we can be part of a ceaselessly reconciling set of forces that are part of creation, or we can resist those forces and be in pain as a result.

We live in a constant grand illusion that there is such a thing as permanence in this life.

The part of us that is identified with a possession lives in constant fear that what we think we possess will be taken away.

Everything you do to keep an image of yourself in place is a source of pain, not a source of security.

Part of the attraction to something that is beautiful is its impermanence.

The self that is identified with what it calls its possessions suffers any time that life challenges that identification.

The task is to see attachments, not to practice being unattached according to an image of what it supposedly means to be an unattached person.

A fixed "me" needs a fixed "you" in order to maintain its temporary existence.

The real world is aware of what is unreal. The awareness of an unreal life is the dawning of a real life.

The awareness of what is impermanent belongs to what is permanently present.

Authentic wisdom is a relationship with the Divine. Wisdom is not the attempt to be a wise person based on an idea. Wisdom is connected to awareness, not thought.

Life is always bringing something new to you to show you something new about you.

Identification is the only limitation, creating the illusion that the object of identification can be permanent.

The awareness of what is false is the liberation from what is false.