There is an unseen source of daily suffering that is the constant companion of humanity. It is in one respect one of the great driving forces behind the darkness that encompasses this planet -- the unremitting wars, the violence, the greed, the fear, the desperation -- all the things we see in the world around us...

To believe that we’re only as worthwhile as others agree to see us burdens us with feeling that winning the good opinion of others is somehow our responsibility. Such a mistaken mindset leaves us the perennial victim of our relationships, and never the victor in them. The only way we can be released from any painful sense of false responsibility is to see that it is based in a false belief...

Either we live in the freedom that we know is real -- choosing to embody it in the moment, regardless of the cost -- or we wave a flag called "liberty tomorrow" and suffer the indignity of serving what has already betrayed us.

As we realize that there is no way that painful concern can positively affect any outcome, we drop that concern, and bit by bit, we begin to hear what real life has been trying to tell us all along.

One reason why negative states sneak in so easily to steal our peace is that we have been conditioned to believe in their right to punish us.

Without using interfering tactics, how can we help others to come awake to themselves? I know someone who drives me crazy, and I want to help him by sharing the truths I am learning. One of the most difficult aspects of our work is learning to bear the unpleasant manifestations of people around us. But this can also help us grow quickly. If by interfering tactics you mean, "make someone s...

Many times the very thing we want from others is the very thing that we ourselves either lack at the moment or otherwise somehow are withholding from them.

Classroom Talk: 1/24/2024 - There is a big difference between making a mistake, and thinking of oneself as being a mistake; any compulsive wish to be seen as perfect in the eyes of the world is a punishment that can never be a part of true peace and contentment.

Classroom Talk: 3/23/2022 - The spiritual body that alone can transform the pressure of unconscious opposing forces -- that learns to use them for the continued realization of its own innate perfection -- is further developed each time we struggle, as needed, to remember that nothing in this world (or the next) has the right to turn our own attention against us.

Classroom Talk: 1/12/2022 - Falling into fear or doubt when caught in the gravity of a painful moment does not prove the world has suddenly turned upside-down. This kind of suffering appears, as it does, for one reason, and one reason only: to help us see that what's upside-down is our priorities. To realize this as true is the first -- and pre-requisite -- step for anyone wishing to turn...

Classroom Talk: 7/21/2019 - Part 1: Many are those who love, but only because they are loved, and so their love is not true. But those who love, in spite of being spurned... their love alone is true. Part 2: Don't do what hurts another, but not for the sake of being someone who doesn't do what he believes his "goodness" forbids...