Selfishness / Self-Love

All of us know what it's like to be dogged by parts of us that want to drag us down. Call it what you will: some compulsion or obsession seems to follow us into all our relationships, only to wreck them in one way or another. We struggle as best we can to free ourselves from these dark states but invariably find ourselves short of the mark.

Imagine for a moment you're driving home from work, or wherever, and that you've just come from having a pretty rough day. As you drive along, your eyes see the road before you, but your mind is in the past. It's very busy re-running all of the day's unpleasant events.

Topics covered:  "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." -- Ecclesiastes, Old Testament; Any sort of development requires a certain amount of voluntary suffering. The path of development requires that you meet limitations; We will go through great pains to make sure that we get what we want. But there is another kind of pain that we don't usually want: seeing the truth of our present nature.

Topics covered:  Most of us don't know anything at all about our obsessions. When a person is obsessed with something, he or she sees it as natural and necessary; Life is intended to be simple. Everything that is perceived as being difficult is, in reality, simple for the level of understanding that sees from a higher perspective; The Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is not out there in the world of thought and its temporary creations.

Key Lesson: We cannot see what we will not look at... but it is not "us" who refuses to look.

Student Talks: 03/06/2026 - The fortunate soul who, seeing with only one eye -- even it, barely half-open -- is, in fact, a virtual king in any realm where all of its citizens are blind.

Topics covered:  We give more attention and care to the practical affairs of life than we give to our inner life. Nothing is more serious or more important than attending to your interior life; The punchline of the story about the twins who would inherit their Father's Kingdom was: "Freedom without service is an illusion. The great, sacred law is that whenever you are asked to place the needs of the kingdom above your own, you must do so regardless of the personal cost."

Remastered Classic Talk: 10/05/16 - The spiritual search for the "old nature" set against you... isn't a "snipe hunt." The source of human misery is not a myth; so that if you've yet to see the beast of self-centeredness, if you don't recognize this creature for what it is -- and where -- it lurks within you... then at least learn to look for its tracks. That way, you might one day trace them back to its dark lair, where lie all the bleached bones of your life past. Don't be dismayed by this prescription, rather hear its timeless promise: your wish and willingness to enter into this place marks its death, not yours.

Topic: Start Seeing and Being Part of a New Creation (Remastered Classic Talk)(Classroom Talk 5/21/25)

Topics covered:  If you don't participate in life, there is no reason to be here; For you presently, so-called "positive" is figuring out how you can escape from the "negative"; You sink into the very negative state that you are trying to reconcile in thought.

Topic: Learn to Give Yourself to Life by Letting Life Give You Life (Remastered Classic Talk)(Classroom Talk 4/23/25)

Topic: The First Step to Realizing True Self-Command (Remastered Classic Talk)(Classroom Talk 4/9/25)