Suffering

Classroom Talk: 2/17/2021 - In the end, the only thing we can truly be in charge of… is ourself. And yet, as paradoxical it seems, the cost of true self-command is the same as the conscious surrender of self.

Topic: Transform Any Bitter Struggle with Life Into a Beautiful Lesson in Self-Liberation (11/18/20 Classroom Talk)

Topics Covered: Instead of setting us free, anything that we identify with as being the source of freedom turns out to be a prison; We resist moments because of the perceived threat of losing something, of somehow being made less by the moment; The mind that resists the moment will produce an image of what needs to be done to get through the moment unharmed...

Classroom Talk: 11/18/2020 - Identifying with resistance to any moment the mind points to as a painful problem of some kind... is the only real problem there is in that moment. To see the fact of this -- which is the purpose of all true spiritual teachings -- is the end of looking for any kind of power to protect, or otherwise restore some paradise...

Topics Covered: "Made in the image of God" means that we human beings are the embodiment of all the forces that create and give life to all that exists. These forces are blind, and they have authority over us when we are unaware of their activity; Real beauty is not just in the beautiful object that is seen by the physical eyes, but in the realization that the observer is the observed...

Topic: How to Stop Hurting and Start Healing: The End of Useless Suffering (5/10/20 Classroom Talk)

Topic: How to Stop Hurting and Start Healing: The End of Useless Suffering (5/10/20 Classroom Talk)

Classroom Talk: 5/10/2020 - Part 1: Everyone we know is wounded in one way or another; we hurt too, which means all of us suffer. Someone has to be the first to start the healing, otherwise the hurt is endless. Be the end of the pain, even if no one else even wants to try. The angels will applaud. Part 2: Rough edges attract grinding wheels.

Topics Covered: Being misdirected from the path; You are on this planet to understand the nature of suffering; The purpose of conscious suffering; We are the ground of all that exists; Mistaking a reaction for the only reality there is; Life is a journey in letting go; Everything you see is a part of your own consciousness; Stepping into the unknown; The Divine has already given you everything.

Topic: How to Recognize and Release Yourself from the Circle of Self-Induced Suffering (4/5/20 Classroom Talk)

Topic: How to Recognize and Release Yourself from the Circle of Self-Induced Suffering (4/5/20 Classroom Talk)

Classroom Talk: 4/5/2020 - Psychologically speaking, the pain & bane of our life is not just mistaking today's troubling event as proof of tomorrow's pain, but actually ensuring that it will be... by unconsciously resisting what is nothing more than a dark image generated by (our own) negative imagination.