All of us know what it's like to be dogged by parts of us that want to drag us down. Call it what you will: some compulsion or obsession seems to follow us into all our relationships, only to wreck them in one way or another. We struggle as best we can to free ourselves from these dark states but invariably find ourselves short of the mark.
We've all had moments where, by a glimpse of conscience, we suddenly recognize, "I am being prodded; pushed to respond with a reaction in the same way I've always been... but I have experienced the outcome, the karma of expressing that negativity, and God help me, I know I cannot do it again!"
One of the most slippery parts of the upper path is the temptation to judge ourselves -- to loath ourselves for whatever "weakness" is exposed to us in the moment. The act of judging ourselves in times like these seems natural and even necessary if we hope to ever "outgrow" our own limitations as revealed. But this kind of self-laceration is a Trojan horse within whose dark recesses lies...
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...
What do we have to do to change the balance sheet of our lives so that for every measure of impatience and intolerance there may be at least an equivalent sum of compassion and consideration? With few exceptions, the usual focus of our attention and interactions with others is centered on our self and the fulfillment of its desires. The mindset of this lower consciousness...
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Guy Finley explains that success in your spiritual life follows the understanding that "in my weakness is thy strength made perfect."
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Topic: Transform Any Weakness into True Spiritual Strength (Classroom Talk 11/8/23)
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Topics covered: Each time a different sense of self comes to the forefront, that self cannot remember that it is reliving the same old experience of itself, all the while believing that they are new experiences; When there is no awareness, your identity is inseparable from the quality of the reaction that is going through you. Your sense of self is determined by any reaction that becomes your guide...
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Classroom Talk: 11/8/2023 - Much as a stalking tiger uses woodland shadows to hide its intention from its intended prey, so does (our) weakness hide behind the (momentary) strength of any negative reaction we become identified with... even as it consumes us.
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Student Talks: 10/20/2023 - Key Lesson: When the truth is seen... Words, ideas, ambitions, even lofty aspirations are recognized as blindfolds. Why wait to see?
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Topics covered: There are parts of us that do not want anything to do with the truth of things; Why is it that human beings have not known what to do with their suffering for all this time? Human beings are the captive of a suffering that they do not understand; Regardless of how conditions have changed as a result of our ability to change them with technology, etc., we are all still absolute captives of the suffering we don't understand...
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