The mind has a natural longing to explore itself and to understand its own possibilities. But this same mind will look at people that it sees at being better than itself, and it will say that there is no point to exploring any further since it will not be possible to match what others have achieved. The mind that decides that there is no point has succeeded only in hurting itself. As our mind...

When all you have is yourself, you have to be afraid. And yet if you really had possession of yourself, fear would not have any power over you. And if we're really honest with ourselves, we can see that presently we lose ourselves all of the time. We are always trying to hold in place who we think we are supposed to be. That is not freedom. Being yourself is not the same thing as straining to...

The principle longing we have as human beings is to be ourselves. But this essential longing is always interfered with by something. Here is the essence of the problem: you can never be yourself and protect yourself at the same time. Why? Personality has two principle functions: procurement, which is getting what I desire, and protection, which involves keeping things away from me that threat...

Living within you is the understanding that you are created for a single purpose. The single purpose is that you represent--as an individual--the possibility of perfection. Why is it that we love music the way that we do? You probably have never thought of it before, but it is because you are a living tempo. The heartbeat of the Universe is what gives you your heartbeat. The perfect harmony o...

There's an ancient truth tale about a young man who yearned to study with a renowned master of archery. It was widely spoken that this teacher had achieved perfection of mind. His skill with the longbow was reported as second to none. Admittance to this master's school presupposed a potential student was already advanced enough to strike the small center of a target from a great distance. But...

Each and every event in our life brings with it a kind of gift just for us, providing we know how to receive it. This priceless offer isn't about ways to empower ourselves through possessions or greater position in life; it is presented to us to help free us from the stress and worry born of the false belief that we need such riches to realize the timeless value of ourselves. What is this gif...

We are made to be self-correcting, so that each real correction effected in us elevates us above the dark and limiting influences we have been living under all our lives. Like moving from a hot desert to a cool mountain retreat, each discovery of what darkens our path in life moves us toward higher, happier ground. And though we may not yet understand how this works in us, each time we catch a...

Lesson 14: Once we understand how to use them... life's many unwanted twists and turns are no longer seen as being just isolated, disjointed experiences under whose yoke we are born to be burdened, but instead are realized as unique opportunities whose rewards are the lessons that can lead us, if we will follow, up to and through the successful education of our soul. Lesson 17: When...

Most people want very much to be strong, but they do not seem to be able to find the real strength they yearn for. Instead, they find qualities that pass themselves off as strength, but secretly leave them feeling weak. Here are some examples of false strength: * lashing out in anger when frustrated * demanding that we are right * blaming someone else for causing the problem * being loud and...

If we are to succeed at taking back authority over our lives, we must persist. After all, we have many years of wrong thinking and negative emotions to see through. As we become more familiar with the wrong powers that have been ruling our lives all along, we discover many disturbing things within. With these new discoveries, it may even feel sometimes as though we're getting worse, not better...

There can be no starting place in our lives any truer than what our own awareness of the present moment permits. This friendly fact tells us that our life direction, our actual destiny, is determined by the level of our awareness that attends the full range of each step we take. The next two examples prove this insight beyond the calling of any logic. No one consciously takes a step in haste...

We should never measure ourselves according to what we think our possibilities are -- as all such estimations are always limited conclusions reached by a self that secretly evaluates its own past in order to measure what may be its future; rather we ought to have faith in the "impossible," as the soul is created to transcend itself and all that went before and into its earthly birth! Just as...