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.

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...

Guy Finley explains that success in your spiritual life follows the understanding that "in my weakness is thy strength made perfect."

Topic: Realize Perfect Strength by Never Forgetting these Two Fear-Busting Facts (Classroom Talk 4/17/24)

Topics covered: When does the world change? When you change the way you see the world; The blessed ones through the ages have tried to convey the idea that you need new eyes to see what is in front of you all the time but that you don’t currently see. And the reason you don’t see is because the impressions that are intended to produce a real change are deflected by all kinds of buffers — beliefs, conditions, longings.

Classroom Talk: 4/17/2024 - Part 1: Fear of any weakness is a part of the weakness feared. Part 2: The more we try to forget our weaknesses, the stronger they become.

Topic: Transform Any Weakness into True Spiritual Strength (Classroom Talk 11/8/23)

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.

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?

Student Talks: 9/15/2023 - Key Lesson: We remain convinced that if we feel like something is missing in our life, then the answer must be to acquire it; this has always been our go-to solution when suffering over some discontent. But as long as our hope for contentment is remanded over to a search for something outside of ourselves, we will never see the fact that this discontent is inseparable from our present level of self...

Student Talks: 9/8/2023 - Key Lesson: Creating, and then identifying with its own negative reactions is one of the ways the "false self" works to hide the truth of its essential nothingness... from itself.