Self-Deception

Can we agree that our fearful conclusions about our life experiences are born of an incomplete perception? That when I see something wholly, there is a different quality to the event than when I look at something and it formulates for me my sense of identity? And then the next thing I know, I feel isolated. And when I'm isolated, strangely enough, I'm still overwhelmed with fear!

Do you want to know what tears the heart apart? What dries up the mind and kills the soul? It is the lies that remain inside of human beings because we have been duped into protecting something that secretly punishes us. And we mistake the idea of being protected for the same as being whole and complete when, of course, we can't be protected without a fear being protected by that lying nature.

The realization that there are parts of us that are against us can hit us with a jolt. But when we see that these wrong parts have actually created the pains that they then falsely promise to free us of, we eagerly seek -- and find -- the real Friend who will bring all pains to an end.

We must learn to recognize, realize, and release those moments in which we find ourselves struggling with what has "unmade" us. Here's how one recognizes the moment in which this unmaking has taken place: if you're getting negative, life has come, and it's unmade (you). It's taken away that precious image we have of ourselves where we've imitated someone or something...

Let's say you saw somebody walking up to your front door and they had this big brick of gold. How many wish that was true? Here's a big brick of gold: "Ah! A reward! Now I can go buy that thing. I can do what I always wanted to do!" But as the person got closer, you could see that the brick of gold had a chip on the side and that it was actually lead underneath. How many of you would still say...