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Articles
Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Inspirational Quotes
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
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Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
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Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
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Student Q&A with Guy on "How to Rise Above Any Pain That's Dragging You Down" (9/16/20)
Posted: Thursday, September 17, 2020
Meeting: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Duration: 29min 1sec
Topics Covered
Thought by itself cannot see the whole of anything
When we believe that we know why we are in pain, then there is blame. And the consciousness that blames is convinced that the reason for the pain is somewhere outside of itself
The blaming consciousness believes that it is separate from what disturbs it
The mind that blames has a future in which it will be free from the cause of its pain
We are as human beings caught in a machine that never resolves pain, but that always seeks to escape from its own content. We could call this machine the "gears of fear"
Every hope to become fearless by avoiding any disturbance only creates an imagined self that perpetuates the source of fear and pain over and over again
The gears of fear ceaselessly try to reestablish a ceaselessly impermanent sense of self
Genuine self-knowledge always shows that old knowledge doesn't work
Only something that is above the machine can begin to help us understand the relationships that cause the various states -- love, joy, beauty, fear, pain -- that are experienced by our consciousness
Fear promises freedom, but the freedom it promises is only a link in fear's chain
Does the pain of fear exist without unconscious insistence that we must have what we think we need in order to be who we are? No, fear is always a threat to a sense of self that believes it might lose something of value. And so that consciousness must protect what whatever is threatened
Real intelligence cannot be insulted or threatened
The more things we seem to resolve in imagination, in thought, the more things we have to resolve later on
The consciousness that is afraid revisits and re-examines it's own content in its attempt to escape whatever disturbs it. That consciousness believes it can change the experience of itself by revisiting itself. It can't change the experience of itself; it IS the experience of itself
The thought that delivers a promise to get rid of your pain is the thing that is delivering the pain
The 'I' that seems to want to bring its fear to an end is secretly a part of the machine that guarantees the continuation of the fear. If we can see that -- by the light of awareness -- then there is a separation from the machine. And in the separation is the liberation. This is why we need to "see," not "do"
Blaming is the avoidance of truth. Blame is the avoidance of our awareness of pain
Thought cannot know anything about the relationships -- the machinery -- that bring about its appearance
We don't have to try to surrender when awareness shows us that there is no other choice; then surrender is simply the right and natural thing to do
There is no practicality in negativity
Everybody has a challenging day because something within us thinks it knows what a good day is. A good day is one in which there is a new discovery of what is ruining our days
We are not here to be confirmed by any outside condition. We can enjoy conditions, but we were never meant to be a captive of them
Everything about our lives has brought us to exactly this point, which is intended to be revealed as it is
It is never too late to begin spiritual work because every authentic revelation is timeless
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