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...

Our task . . . Is to prepare a Vessel to be filled, And not . . . To fill an imagined vessel with what we dream it has been prepared for. The former begins by the light of inner work, fueled by an awakening faith. The latter has its beginning in the darkness of spiritual sleep; its inertia sustained by the machinations of self-centered considerations. The New Vessel is built to ho...

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...

But How ... In that moment of Sweetness When you're relieved of all debt, Can you turn right 'round in yourself And in an instant forget ... How hard ... And unbearably heavy It has been just to be you, And yet still be so demanding Others must pay you your due?...

Not through consideration, but in good Conscience, and not by evidence of the senses, but within solitude and silence should we weigh those matters concerning the care of our soul. For unconscious conspiracy rules the masses and its thought forms, though easily apprehended and comforting in nature, betray and blind the Spirit that unaware takes these views as Her own.