Temptation

Whenever we find ourselves running after something -- anything -- to complete us, what is the real nature of this force within us that compels us in this way? We are pushed along in these pursuits by a very subtle, but solid sense of feeling as though we are somehow incomplete.

We don't know that we walk around with our mind literally looking at the world around us through our eyes full of darkness. And the darkness that our eyes are full of is imagination and the self that it generates. Unattended imagination relies on what it imagines in order to bring into existence a simultaneously imagined self. It is the most dangerous force in the world, because anything that...

Topics covered:  We seem to be at peace whenever we are getting what we want, but anything can interrupt that kind of peace; There is never a moment when you are not being given what you need, but you have to want to receive what you are being given; If you are thinking about how to face a moment outside of what is practical, you are lost.

Topics covered:  We keep reaching out into the world for what seems to be missing because we are not at peace with ourselves as we are; Whenever we are looking to distract ourselves, there is an unseen hope that we will find a lasting refuge of some kind. We are hoping to find some kind of relief from feelings of dissatisfaction; The nature that feels dissatisfied and incomplete will find ways to create dependency in others so that it can feel momentarily significant.

Topics covered:  We always find fault with what captures us instead of finding fault with what got captured. "The fox condemns the trap, not himself." -- William Blake; In the same instant that we identify with what we believe will make us whole, there is fear that we will lose it. Then we set out to protect what we have identified with; How can we be immersed in suffering and yet not know anything about it? We don't question our suffering; we question what we believe is the source of it.

Topics covered: To paraphrase the well-known koan: If a tree falls in the woods, and there's no one there wishing it didn't, does it create fear or suffering?; The very struggle to escape the captivity of the consciousness that you are born into is why you remain a captive of that consciousness; The task is not to save yourself. The task is to realize a relationship with a part of you that does not need to be...

Topics covered: What we have called our life up until now cannot possibly be the totality of our possibilities; The first person to feel any form of hatred or resentment is the one who holds it, protects it, and projects it; Unconscious choices are made in order to protect what that level of consciousness deems as being valuable; Truth is a pathless land and belongs to another order of being that is already in you...

Topics Covered: Being willing to see ourselves as we are is the practice of meditation; A relationship with the Divine doesn't require control or strength; None of us want to be without something to do; We must learn to see equally above and below, light and dark; You are free, the why is a lie; When you talk to yourself you are not the one talking and you are not the one who is...

Student Talks: 6/5/2020 - Key Lesson: Whenever we set out seeking any kind of power, be it social, financial, and including spiritual, we are under the power of that which has no power; and where, regardless of what it may seem we've obtained, we have become increasingly powerless.

Topics Covered: Our hope is not in things seen; Being the witness of useless suffering; Use the fear of the future to find the fearless heart; Accept the moment as it is given as an act of higher Will; We don't want to fix ourselves, we want to see ourselves; Dismissal of habitual reactions; Awareness of the play of creation; Replace the idea of "faster" with "more aware"...

Topics Covered: Re-experiencing, reliving a memory; Mind wanting to escape the sound of itself; Real love doesn't punish the one who loves; Love doesn't separate; Love doesn't suffer over what was; Agree to consciously suffer our own consciousness; Remain the witness of consciousness instead of trying to change it; Being in the crucible of the crisis; See that the promise of...