When we talk about making changes in ourselves, it could be said that it's like climbing a mountain. Why is the mountain a metaphor for spiritual change? There's a certain kind of effort necessary for climbing, isn't there? Also, the mountain represents a higher view. Because as you ascend the mountain, not only does the atmosphere change in terms of becoming more rarified, but every step higher up the mountain produces...
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...
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...
The real underlying limitation in our relationships is rooted in how we look at and think about others who are in our life.
To remember yourself begins with realizing you have been asleep, taking part in a self-centered life instead of the God-centered one.
Real correction, at any level, always purifies the matter and so leaves it less confused and thus in a higher state.
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.
"Know thyself" is perhaps the oldest, wisest, deepest, and most succinct spiritual instruction ever given. In fact, it is our nature to know ourselves.
Consciousness of any unwanted condition in us must precede its correction, just as the rising sun dismisses any of our fears imagined hidden in the darkness of night.
As we learn how to take the higher ground inwardly and begin winning that life for which we are created, we are gradually empowered to prevail over any event and challenge that life presents.