Unwanted Moments

The truth that sets us free is not for hire; it does not so much "work" for us as it is our silent partner, producing the new life we long for. This means that first, we must be receptive to truth's instruction in the Now; only conscious awareness of our aching can lead us to what authentically answers it, ending it. But secondly, we must -- ourselves -- be true in the same moment to what we know is the truth of that moment.

There is a story greater than ours, unfolding in each present moment, inviting us to embrace it as our own. Here is a true story to illustrate this idea. Under Paris is one of the largest catacombs in the world -- a hundred square miles of underground passages. Lamps for guided tours light up a small portion, while most of the rest remains in the dark. Two men got it into their heads that they wanted to go into the unexplored region of the catacombs...

Most of us carry, buried in the depths of ourselves, untold amounts of unconscious woe. Regardless of our religion, skin color, social position, or cultural conditioning, psychological pain plays no favorites... and we all pay the price of the ensuing blame game.

Have you noticed yet that wherever you go, the thing that you don't want the most seems to know where you are? Seriously. It doesn't just know where you are. The Divine has created the conditions under which a reaction will be stirred and brought into your consciousness so that you can finally realize that running from it doesn't change the reality of it. Only bringing it into the light...

We must learn what it means to become unfixed from negative states, and we will when we realize that the sense of self we derive from them is worthless. It's not based on anything real, and it has no permanence because with time all states pass. We value negative states because of the strong sense of self we get from them. This may be very difficult for us to see, but a strong light...

There is a nature inside of us -- a product of this world physically and psychologically -- that does not want to change. In fact, it is hell-bent on having everything remain the same so that it can complain about the same things again and again. This unconscious nature is a product of our world physically and psychologically. It's almost like a wrapping -- much like a seed is encased...

When an unwanted moment comes along - there's a stress, a strain, somebody's definitely being negative -- aren't you positive that the reason you're in pain and resisting the condition is because of "what they are"? I'm telling you, that's not the case. They are revealing to you something in your consciousness that you don't know is there! And the only way it stays there, and hidden from you...

The next time that life comes knocking with what you "don't want," instead of allowing yourself to be dragged through the old round-around, make these three new choices, and watch how they dismiss the darkness knocking at your door: Your first choice (always!) is to come wide-awake to yourself. Remember: Your new aim is to not allow old, mechanical reactions..."

Question: How do you integrate and apply the principle that "I am bigger than this moment" when your mind is programmed otherwise? How do you practice stopping reacting? Answer: You don't practice stopping reacting, you see that you can't stop reacting.

Topics covered: Your work is meant to bring you to the point where instead of taking comfort in your own explanations for your suffering, you realize that that suffering belongs to a world within you that is always planning how to escape itself through thought: The only way a person changes is when they have finally seen through all of the ways in which their mind consults itself and comforts itself in an attempt to control their life.

Topics covered:  We are always trying to recapture a peace that we think we have lost. But the whole idea of restoring a peace that you have lost is an illusion; The mind that believes it has lost its peace imagines a peaceful time to come, which it never reaches; The negative reaction that other people bring up in you is YOUR limitation, not the limitation of the other person.