Sense Of Self

There is no "self" without relationship. In reality, the observer and the observed do not exist apart from one another. However, in the absence of higher awareness, the lower level of self believes that it is separate from what it sees as being outside of itself. This is the source of suffering. The gift of being able to see that the observer is the observed is the reconciliation and the end...

Topics covered:  The endless stream of thought produces a ceaseless sense of self, each one as temporary as the thought. The sense of self disappears as soon as the wave that created that sense of self disappears; "The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man. " -- William Blake; There is a higher order of being that is unchanging, even as everything within it changes.

Topics covered: When does the world change? When you change the way you see the world; The blessed ones through the ages have tried to convey the idea that you need new eyes to see what is in front of you all the time but that you don’t currently see. And the reason you don’t see is because the impressions that are intended to produce a real change are deflected by all kinds of buffers — beliefs, conditions, longings.

Topics covered: Spend less time trying to prove yourself, and more time BEING yourself. But "being yourself" is not what the world conditions all of us to believe; Connect the experiences that you don't want with the consciousness that creates those same experiences; Fear lies beneath the compulsion to be seen as someone important; What is important is to understand the importance of life. And what is most definitely NOT important is to...

Topics covered: The mind believes that it possess what it imagines. However, to be in imagination is to be separate from what you are thinking about; Humanity is spiritually asleep, and the purpose of a true spiritual school is to show men and women that very fact; The fox blames the trap. The real nature of the trap is the nature of the fox that is identified with what it wants.

Topics covered: What is the point of an experience if it carries us right back to where we started?; What is the point of experience if not to learn and grow inwardly through the experience?; You cannot separate how you experience any given moment from the corresponding sense of yourself in that same moment; We are presently always giving ourselves a familiar sense of ourselves moment to moment...

Classroom Talk: 1/21/2005 - How strange it is that we resent carrying on our backs the pointed opinion of others, when it is we who give this barbed thought its power to trouble us. Think not? Then let us ask: what possible suffering can there be in what another thinks of me, unless I am holding the same thought as he?

Classroom Talk: 7/16/2004 - Seeking the approval of others -- in the hope of measuring the worth of ourselves -- makes as much sense as looking for our reflection in a falling drop of rain, with the main difference being this: A raindrop actually lasts longer than does that fleeting sense of self we win for having sold our soul for another empty smile.