Pretense

Classroom Talk: 8/15/2021 - Part 1: A rose doesn't "try" to be beautiful; it never struggles to win one's attention, or to prove its value. Any part of us -- pressing on us to try and make a favorable impression -- of any kind, upon anyone for any reason -- is a form of useless suffering born of trying to escape the fear of being seen as "no one."

Classroom Talk: 10/2/2019 What is the instant denial of any moment in life... other than an unconscious agreement to live under the dark thumb of some unseen, conflicted part of us that refuses to see itself as it is in reality.

Classroom Talk: 7/31/2019 The futility of ambition hides behind the pain of false pride... save for those inevitable, inescapable moments of seeing how we have labored for a "treasure chest" to come that was empty, barren in the same moment of its imagined conception.

Classroom Talk: 4/24/2019 The more we resist -- and suffer over -- any moment that proves we don't possess the strength we imagine ourselves as having -- the further removed we are from recognizing the real healing lesson these moments bring with them: the realization that the source of this suffering -- over our alleged "weakness"...

Topics Covered: Getting carried away by thought; "I" has a feeling to it that is instantly familiar; Consciously saying "I love you" requires presence; The world has become cheapened; Until you have your own attention, your life is not your own; Wrestling with the angel; Love doesn't hate, have an enemy, have a past, measure, compare, inflate, or self-stimulate; Throwing a toothpick in front o...