The only thing "special" about trying to appear unique in the eyes of others is the special kind of suffering that must be endured whenever we pretend to be what we are not.
Access over 500+ Hrs of Basic Content for as low as $4.97/month!
Sign up today!Select Category
Browse from A-Z
Go Deeper!
Make self-realization part of your daily life – become an aspirant and join Life of Learning’s online community.
You'll gain access to:Click for Quick Inspiration!
Welcome to Life of Learning's Online Wisdom School
Access an In-Depth, Multi-Media Resource of Higher Wisdom, Online or On-the-Go!
Sign up today!You need an active subscription to enjoy more access.
Subscribe to unlock more content.
Access Over 500+ Hours of Premium Content Today! Try it Completely RISK FREE for 30 days!
Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
Every Saturday Guy leads an open discussion. Local members share their discoveries, and Guy’s comments deepen everyone’s understanding.
Guy regularly holds open Q&A sessions. Often members of our global community send in questions, or speak directly to Guy online.
Access to all our private Facebook updates, student Facebook discussions, and our LIVE Saturday lunch roundtable discussions.
This member forum is where you can write in your observations and experiences, and receive feedback from fellow members. Read-only access for Free and Basic members. Full access for Premium & All Access members.
Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
Every Saturday Guy leads an open discussion. Local members share their discoveries, and Guy’s comments deepen everyone’s understanding.
Guy regularly holds open Q&A sessions. Often members of our global community send in questions, or speak directly to Guy online.
Access to all our private Facebook updates, student Facebook discussions, and our LIVE Saturday lunch roundtable discussions.
This member forum is where you can write in your observations and experiences, and receive feedback from fellow members. Read-only access for Free and Basic members. Full access for Premium & All Access members.
You need a membership to access this content.
You need a membership to access this content.
You need a membership to access this content.
You need an membership to access this content.
Pick a Plan and Sign up Today!
Access 500+ hours of Basic Content for as low as $4.97/month!
Sign up today!You can find softcover and hardcover books in our store. Many of Guy’s works are also available as eBooks.
Shop BooksListen to Guy’s talks on CD or MP3. Some of his books are also available as audiobooks.
Shop AudioWatch Guy on DVD or MP4 as he presents talks on a wide array of topics related to your spiritual discovery.
Shop VideoOur eCourses focus on specific topics, building your understanding through a series of related talks. Most eCourses include MP3 audio and MP4 video formats you can play online.
Shop eCoursesThe only thing "special" about trying to appear unique in the eyes of others is the special kind of suffering that must be endured whenever we pretend to be what we are not.
Why do we accept so much unhappiness in our lives today? If you think this supposition is untrue, ask yourself why people spend so much time seeking ways to distract themselves with empty pleasures? Or why so many people push themselves along one spiritual path after another, blindly hoping that something will happen to mitigate their sense of emptiness? To understand such questions we must be willing to explore a few of the broader questions concerning what seems like an epidemic of human suffering. And please remember this spiritual axiom as we proceed: Anything in us that resists exploring the cause of a sorrow is itself part of the pain that prefers to stay unexposed.
Keeping these ideas in mind, consider this: is the kind of pain most people tolerate really necessary? And if, as many would presume, these various heartaches, fears, and frustrations are part and parcel of participating in life, can we be so sure that these same pains are an inescapable attribute of reality? Or are these dark moments unnecessary, just shadows of our misunderstanding about what is possible in life and what is not?
Now I realize that in today's highly spiritualized slick atmosphere, the suggestion that some things in life are impossible may not find favor. After all, according to the reasoning of many of today's so-called masters and gurus, nothing is impossible for those realized beings illuminated by the "light" of their exclusive teachings, sentiments easily swallowed by the weak and weary.
But there are things in this life that cannot be done. And, as we are about to discover, it is our repeated attempts to do these things that actually produce much, if not all, of our everyday unhappiness -- an unhappiness that we erroneously blame upon other people and circumstances in life. The brief explanation that follows reveals both the truth of this and why we need to see it.
We begin with the fact that each of us does have the power, in one way or another, to do as we wish when we wish it. The issue at hand isn't that we can't do what we wish, but that these actions cannot deliver the result intended by our original wish.
For instance, take a person who wants to win everyone's approval. He believes that it is possible to adjust his behavior so that whomever he meets will like him. This is his wish, and to make it come true, he changes his behavior with everyone he encounters, known to him or not. We can agree that it is possible for him to act out his hope of being loved by all he meets.
But what is impossible for him to do -- regardless of how any particular encounter turns out -- is to free himself of his nagging insecurity by acting out what this fearful nature compels him to do. And since we also know that it is this same strained sense of himself -- of feeling inept or insufficient -- that drives him to seek its opposite, for example, trying to impress people to win their approval, then what is it at work in him? What is it that is actually interfacing with these people he wants to win over? It is his own undetected weakness, a fact hidden from him because of his identification with his pretend powers of self-command!
Now add to this last idea the fact that others can easily see this weakness at work within us. We may not be conscious of our own psychological shortcomings, but we can sure recognize them in others! And more, it is the nature of all such unconscious weakness to judge and then pounce upon anyone else displaying it. Put these facts together and it becomes obvious that not only is it impossible for this one person to fulfill his wish, but his attempt to do so is causing the very suffering he so resists.
Here is the heart of this lesson: No opposite can cancel itself. It is impossible. We can draw upon the following short metaphor to help us better understand this crucial spiritual truth.
Imagine a sad pencil that wants all the pens of the world to acknowledge the strength of its carbon center, but it can't win its way! So, it decides not to be a pencil any more. And while one end of this pained pencil concocts ways to change itself into something that is no longer a lead-filled wooden stick, in the end -- by the very need it has to dream such dreams to escape itself -- it remains pained for remaining a "mere" pencil.
The more we learn about the unnecessary suffering these unseen opposites create in us through our unconscious relationship with them, the freer we become from unconscious drives to attempt the impossible. For example, it is impossible to bring an end to emotional suffering by imagining a new joy. Can you see from our study why this is true?
The self that is moved to do this kind of imagining does not understand that some unseen force of sorrow or distress fuels its dream engine. As a consequence, the more it works to imagine some hoped-for happiness, the more identified it becomes with the opposite of what is driving this dream of brighter times to come.
Our lives are meant to be bright, noble, and ever ascending. This promise of our true potential is made good in us by fulfilling our possibilities and not through the interminable struggle of trying to prove what is impossible. Most of our sorrows are the stressful offspring of trying to be something we have no real need to be; they are born of attempting to do what cannot -- and need not -- be done.
Whenever we are goaded into attempting the "impossible," we not only suffer defeat, but we also strengthen the self that would have us believe it's possible to put a fire out with gasoline. Second, as we awaken to see these false workings in our mind, we also see there is only one possible solution to end the suffering they cause: we must stop listening to and obeying their foolish advice. In other words, as soon as we see that the healing we hope for begins with releasing our unseen relationship with the parts of ourselves that are responsible for our self-hurting, the sooner our heartaches end.
Comments (0)
<p>This is one of those special books that come around only once in a lifetime. Each page of this spiritual classic sparkles with self-empowering insights, encouraging ideas, and the all-but-forgotten Higher Principles that throw open the doors to the riches of your True Self. Just as bridges must be built between cultures and countries, so too must bridges be built to span the distance between...</p>
Starting at $9.99
<p>Every sincere seeker experiences dark times on the Path. Loneliness, hopelessness, false certainty, discouragement -- when we're in the grip of these dark states the Light often seems far away. <strong>Don't despair!</strong> Once you learn the special technique described inside this power-packed eBooklet, you will find new energy and understanding to expose these unwelcome visitors and banish them for...</p>
Starting at $1.25
A series of talks on a unique form of meditation and its variations. Students who attended this 6-part series said it revolutionized their daily practice by jump-starting their enthusiasm for meditation and deepening their experience within it. If your meditative practice has grown stale, or if it has never been what you hoped it would be, then this is the perfect program for you.
Starting at $24.95
The Golden Ratio... a single "magic" number that perfectly describes almost everything in nature: the proportions of your face, the structure of diamonds, the arrangement of petals in a flower, the orbit of planets, the design of bee hives... the existence of a Golden Ratio that is found in literally every corner of the universe is scientific proof of a mysterious and wonderful...
Starting at $3.99
In Guy Finley's enlightening audio program, The Power to Remove the Pain From Any Part of Your Past, the essence of your true nature and how to release it from the "stain" of misunderstanding is revealed. Discover the wonderful sense of certainty born of realizing that not only do true Higher Powers want you to succeed in life but -- that with your permission...
Starting at $3.99
Sit face-to-face with Guy Finley as he imparts the wisdom of the ages. That's how you'll feel when you watch the remarkable DVD album, Wisdom's Path to the Happiness Within. Just pop a DVD into your computer or DVD player, sit back, and be transported into a living-room like atmosphere. You'll see Guy speaking right to you as he tells you the stories that...
Starting at $24.95
Realize the Bright, Noble, and Ever-Ascending Life
Posted by Guy Finley in 459 Galice Road, Merlin, OR 97532 on , and updated on .
Get Guy Finley’s Bestselling eBook for FREE!
Freedom from the Ties that Bind
Simply by Joining Our Newsletter List!