Self-Knowledge

In this life, we have one of two choices when it comes to painful events, past or present. We can either go on hating and fearing what we think life has done to us (or others), and let these negative reactions create our experience for us... or we can learn to use these same dark reactions to free ourselves from them. But just wanting to learn the truth isn't enough...

It's safe to say that most us wrestle with some kind of frustration on a daily basis. This kind of dissatisfaction can be with ourselves, over what we can or can't get done -- or with others, who may deny us our wish or otherwise disappoint our expectations. Accordingly, we can feel as though we are blocked, incapable, unable, not strong or wise enough to move ahead as we would.

In this question and answer session, Guy talks about how we must stop relying on intellectual concepts and instead start doing the actual work of seeing ourselves as we are.

One of the sad reasons why so few men and women persist in the inner work necessary for higher self-discovery is because we have all become -- to one degree or another -- either an unwitting captive of, or willing participant in, what can only be described as a descending scale in the meaning of life. More simply stated, over time our values have been subtly shifting away from...

In this answer to a webinar attendee's question, Guy explains that trying to prepare and rehearse what we are going to say or do in a moment is the same as living in fear of the moment. Instead what we need to do is make the intention to see everything that we can so that we can leave those moments as wiser, more awake human beings.

In this one-minute wisdom video clip, Guy Finley talks about how human beings can transcend their present nature through self-knowledge, and how that change of nature is the same as a change of destiny.

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...

If there could be only one idea -- a lamp whose light could show the aspirant of real life the way out of the prison of dark thoughts and punishing feelings -- it would surely be this: your true self doesn't win in life by overpowering problems but by revealing they never really existed as you once believed they did. Truths such as this can be difficult to accept. Tell some people...

Nobody begins self-study as an "A" student. In fact, real self-study begins with becoming aware of just how unaware we really are. Don't let this last thought throw you! It's wise to see where our wisdom was only an assumption. This allows real wisdom, real self-knowledge, to grow. And this explains why some of our most important first lessons come when we set an exercise...

We are always in school. Our lives are intended to be dedicated to self-study, which would mean that we are always present to ourselves. Being a student in the true school of life means that our studies are instantly applicable to our lives.

The real underlying limitation in our relationships is rooted in how we look at and think about others who are in our life.