Whenever we find ourselves identified with some dark stream of thoughts and feelings, as opposed to being quietly aware of their downward-trending presence, we fall -- in that same moment -- into a world filled with unwanted negative states. The reason so much of what's going on within and around us seems "bad" is because that's all we can see. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, s...

We work very hard to correct conditions that are really no more than secondary outcomes, and not the real problem at all. We fight a daily war to protect ourselves against enemies that, in fact, never are responsible for the pain we feel. The unhappiness we feel is the bitter fruit of a lack of self-understanding. In our confusion we do many things that are self-harming. We do not deliberatel...

Learn what it means to let life shape you -- let God shape your life, your soul -- until you're in direct relationship with life.

If we're interested in spiritual things, we gradually realize that what we really need is to understand this nature that is never satisfied.

I'm sure we can all agree that no intelligent, conscious person would ever intentionally hurt themselves. No one would choose to ache. Yet the fact remains that all of us do hurt ourselves every day with bursts of anger or fits of depression or anxiety. Even at the simplest level, there can be no doubt: fear and worry take an immeasurable toll on our health and well-being. So, then, knowing in...

There may be no greater self-deception than the false notion that rushing through anything actually helps us in any way whatsoever.

Our attention connects us to life; it establishes our relationships with all that unfolds around and within us.

Trying to dominate our destructive thoughts and feelings, or seeking to liberate our "better" parts through some form of self-discipline, is secretly at the expense of our freedom, and not in its cause. Freedom from the ties that bind, victory over our own nature, is not a conquest in the usual sense. Try to see the following as deeply as possible: *anything that has to be kept in check must a...

The small handsome sign over the new shop in town was simple. Its hand-carved wood-block letters read: Rare Wine Shop. Hanging directly beneath it was a smaller, arrow-shaped sign, pointing directly to the always-open shop door. Brightly painted letters spelled out the invitation: Visitors Welcome! Taste the difference! And inside the shop the lights were always on, so that no one passing...

How can we begin the process of transcending our own limiting self-centered love to come into a fully conscious and impersonal one? One of the most shocking and necessary discoveries along the path is that what we love does not love us. We are filled all the time with powerful feelings and emotions that seem to lift or otherwise provide purpose and self-worth. It is not too much to say th...

The will to be free belongs to that special part of us able to remember that we are here on earth to grow beyond the limiting influences of our own unawakened nature; it knows we are not created to participate with anything that causes us to suffer unconsciously. Our task is to awaken ourselves to this Higher Will within us that won't be compromised. How is this done? We must remember -- now a...

The biggest problem facing us as individuals is that we have all been caught up in the race of looking for relief. Our time would be spent far more profitably looking for strength. When caught in a fierce storm, why scramble to find a cave at the foot of the mountain when the same energy can be used to climb? There is a choice. You can tremble within the cave, or live above the tempests th...