Selfishness / Self-Love

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.

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.

Classroom Talk: 3/10/2021 - There is an inevitable suffering inherent in any world governed by self-interest, and then there is a suffering born of dying to that level of consciousness that bears only bitter fruit. To become (as) One we must die to being two… where only by making that passage do we realize that (the) two have not been lost...