What is it, then, that balances? What is that which allows this nature -- this divided nature, this nature that works in opposites -- what is it that would permit it the peace it seeks? What is it that creates balance in a human being?

There is no consumptive negative state in the consciousness without resistance being the "goo" it grows out of -- something black and dark pulling and pushing on you. And in the moment that dark state starts to swallow you, when you're starting to feel sorry for yourself, or you're trying to figure out what to do about something because you're asleep to yourself, all you know to do is to push back...

We must learn what it means to become unfixed from negative states, and we will when we realize that the sense of self we derive from them is worthless. It's not based on anything real, and it has no permanence because with time all states pass. We value negative states because of the strong sense of self we get from them. This may be very difficult for us to see, but a strong light...

There are parts of our psychic system that reject the shocks -- the lessons needed for our evolution because they imagine they're already flying above the world of troubles. It is this mistaken sense of self that stands between us and true self-transformation. Nothing that resists life can hope to learn from it. Until we can embrace the lessons that ride into our lives on the back of events...

How many of you are short fused? We'll say it in other words. How many of you have virtually no tolerance for anything outside of what you want? On a scale of 1 to 100 degrees, what is your acceptable range relative to meeting moments? Is it something like 2 to 98? Or is more like 78 to 79? That's about it, isn't it? This tiny little bandwidth, and if anything even threatens to...

Our True Self is not a person. It is a great spirit. And it is part of a ceaseless flow in which the idea of "good" and "bad" only exists because in that flow has been born a certain creature, given an imagination that has created a self in the name of itself. And there you have all of the problem. When you resist what life brings and don't accept it, all you're really doing is....

The moment I feel resistance, the moment I feel that contraction inside of me, I must understand that I am being introduced to myself. I've been brought to the bear, to touch the bear! That anger, that rage, that impatience appears in us. You and I know we have these states in us. We can dress up and appear pretty and appear like we're in control of ourselves, but every last human being...

Whenever we "collide" with life, parts of us we've never seen before are illuminated. It is the light of new and higher self-awareness that is our real friend in such unwanted moments.

There is one essential reason why there is so much constant heartache and war on this earth, and why conflict has continued as it has down through the ages. The answer may surprise you. We do not understand the nature of our own pain--our suffering. Billions of us live with almost no understanding of how much hurt lies hidden in our hearts and minds; in this case, ignorance is not bliss. In f...

More often than most of us care to tell, we run into unwanted moments that seem to challenge the very fabric of our being. Almost anything can be the proverbial straw that breaks us: a friend's betrayal, loss of health or a loved one, unexpected financial strain. Even a shattered dream can throw us into a dark nightmare. Certainly, no one gets out of his or her bed in the morning thinking, "To...

We grow through our relationships with life, which means that through them we are shown possibilities about ourselves we never knew existed.

A man is walking through his office when his boss walks by and gives him a blank look. The thought pops into the man's mind that his boss is criticizing him or doesn't like him. Now, as he starts to fear this idea -- a negative picture produced by his imagination -- his mind focuses its attention on this disturbing image. And the more he attends to this dark dream, the further into its labyrin...