Pain

Student Talks: 05/22/2026 - Learn what it means to give all you have to whatever it is that you may be doing in the moment, for only the cost of "taking pains" to complete that action can complete you.

Topics covered:  Most of us don't know anything at all about our obsessions. When a person is obsessed with something, he or she sees it as natural and necessary; Life is intended to be simple. Everything that is perceived as being difficult is, in reality, simple for the level of understanding that sees from a higher perspective; The Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is not out there in the world of thought and its temporary creations.

Topic: Jump Off the Pain Train (Remastered Classic Talk) (Classroom Talk 4/1/26)

Remastered Classic Talk: 3/29/17 - The pain of any dark, unwanted moment - of any suffering that makes your life feel pointless - is best reconciled by this revelation, along with its implied action: Yours is the right to exchange any form of feeling powerless for the realization that nothing about it - neither its pain, nor its sense of despair belongs to who you really are.

Topics covered:  Everyone thinks that their life is already in God's hands. But who's hands are we in when we are angry or fearful or anxious? Who's hands are we in when the only thing we are filled with are thoughts about ourselves; "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will (what is Good) is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not; For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Topics covered:  A key does not do any good if it stays in your pocket and if you don't put in the lock and turn it. Likewise, if you don't prove true spiritual ideas for yourself, then the ideas can become worse than useless; What is the one thing that never comes to your mind when you find yourself in a negative state?... That you could actually be interested in what you have no interest in. Our interest is usually in what we have to do in order to escape from the negativity; We are not rightly interested in our suffering. We are wrongly interested in what to do about it. What would happen if we could actually be interested in what we usually have no interest in?

Student Talks: 03/06/2026 - The fortunate soul who, seeing with only one eye -- even it, barely half-open -- is, in fact, a virtual king in any realm where all of its citizens are blind.

Student Talks: 02/20/2026 - It is impossible to imagine a better time to come without making more real a sense of self that is forever trying to escape the time within which it is trapped.

Student Talks: 02/13/2026 - Looking to any reaction to resolve, or otherwise reconcile a negative reaction is like chasing a shadow to find the light.

Student Talks: 01/23/2026 - Most of us live an accidental life...where our actual condition is constantly covered up by the convenience of being able to regret whatever we look back on as the source of our pain. But let’s be clear. Our list of painful regrets is not due to a cruel world, bad timing, or unfortunate events that got the better of us; no, the fault lies elsewhere, much closer to home: not only are we blind to the legion of unconscious parts at large in the dark of us, but we are yet to see the other half of this same truth: these same parts never stop working to ensure that we never stop wrestling with the regrets they keep resurrecting within us. To what end, this painful plot? That we never become conscious of the relationship between a life we regret, and our identification with a lower level of consciousness that ensures its continuation.

Topic: A Two Minute Exercise to Help You Attain Lasting Self Command (Remastered Classic Talk) (Classroom Talk 1/7/25)

Topics covered: Independence is innocence. When a person is truly independent, he or she is rooted in an incorruptible nature that seeks nothing outside of itself; An act of true kindness can't be disturbed. An act of true kindness does not place any demands upon the recipient of that kindness. Kindness does not look for confirmation or validationk; The nature that is not aware of itself depends on conditions and people outside of itself to confirm its sense of self.