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.
Guy's Letters
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Guy's Blog
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
This Week's Topic
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
Short Talks
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Interviews & Radio Shows
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Student Reports
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
Sacred Music
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Livestream Classes
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Daily Meditation Emails
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Special Lessons
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Student Talks
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
eCourses
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Advanced Inner Life Talks
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Online Study Group
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
Study Group Recordings
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
Saturdays with Guy
Every Saturday Guy leads an open discussion. Local members share their discoveries, and Guy’s comments deepen everyone’s understanding.
Student Q&A with Guy
Guy regularly holds open Q&A sessions. Often members of our global community send in questions, or speak directly to Guy online.
Facebook Private Group
Access to all our private Facebook updates, student Facebook discussions, and our LIVE Saturday lunch roundtable discussions.
Discussion Forum
This member forum is where you can write in your observations and experiences, and receive feedback from fellow members. Read-only access for Free and Basic members. Full access for Premium & All Access members.
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.
Guy's Letters
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Guy's Blog
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
This Week's Topic
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
Short Talks
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Interviews & Radio Shows
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Student Reports
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
Sacred Music
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Livestream Classes
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Daily Meditation Emails
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Special Lessons
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Student Talks
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
eCourses
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Advanced Inner Life Talks
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Online Study Group
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
Study Group Recordings
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
Saturdays with Guy
Every Saturday Guy leads an open discussion. Local members share their discoveries, and Guy’s comments deepen everyone’s understanding.
Student Q&A with Guy
Guy regularly holds open Q&A sessions. Often members of our global community send in questions, or speak directly to Guy online.
Facebook Private Group
Access to all our private Facebook updates, student Facebook discussions, and our LIVE Saturday lunch roundtable discussions.
Discussion Forum
This member forum is where you can write in your observations and experiences, and receive feedback from fellow members. Read-only access for Free and Basic members. Full access for Premium & All Access members.
Our eCourses focus on specific topics, building your understanding through a series of related talks. Most eCourses include MP3 audio and MP4 video formats you can play online.
Student Q&A with Guy on "How to Detect and Drop Useless Thoughts" (9/18/22)
Posted: Monday, September 19, 2022
Meeting: Sunday, September 18, 2022
Duration: 45min 56sec
Topics Covered
Anything that you can imagine cannot be new, because imagination uses the content of the past in order to create its images.
Thinking is useless to help you create the life of security that thought pursues in imagination. Thought can't deliver you to an unshakable security.
The spiritual solution to your problems is to become properly sick and tired of yourself.
The 'I' that reacts to the event was not there before the event that brings it forward.
Experience must be our teacher, not thought. Experience is awareness of all that is happening within consciousness in the midst of any condition.
Reactions point to what has stirred the reaction, directing our attention outside of ourselves, away from the content of the reaction itself.
Thinking about the disturbance is the disturbance. The orignal awareness of what is happening is not negative.
It is impossible to outgrow reactions. You cannot grow without them. The issue is the way in which those reactions are used, being aware of them or not.
Thought tries to rescue you from its own negative interpretation of what is happening in the moment. The first reaction to any condition is not the threat that thought believes it to be.
If you are identified with a reaction, then you can no longer see it. At that point your attention is on what the reaction is pointing to.
We are a living reaction, and we are the revelation of that reaction at the same time. We have been given the capacity to be aware of the reaction.
You must dare to be the answer you seek. Consciously suffer those thoughts telling you to seek elsewhere for what you already are.
Nothing can grow without struggle. Everything we meet along the way is necessary for genuine spiritual growth.
Trying to force any human being to be other than what they are is an act of violence.
The "first reaction" is always impersonal. The subsequent thoughts that follow make the moment personal and fashion it into something that must be manipulated in order to achieve a desirable outcome.
Do not try to stop being identified. That itself is identification. Instead see the pain in identification. That awareness provides the understanding that leads to proper response.
If you want to comment, you must have at least a Basic membership in our online Wisdom School.
Please Sign in or create an account now to join the discussion