Weakness

Remastered Classic Talk: 7/29/15 - No one can be made stronger that doesn't first agree to meet one's own weakness. No one can become wiser without first agreeing to meet one's own ignorance. But the fact of a transcending strength and wisdom is only proven in the face of weakness and ignorance; which means running away from any painful limitation is the same as agreeing to live as its prisoner. Never forget this one last fact: left unattended, weakness and ignorance grow stronger by themselves.

Student Talks: 9/19/2025 - We are not only complacent in cultivating the imperfections inherent in our divided nature, but increasingly—individually and culturally—we glorify these very weaknesses that, by grace, are revealed for what they are: stumbling blocks to the soul’s development.

Topics covered:  Your experience of life comes down to what it is that you prize most in this life; There is something within you that wants to communicate with you about how to free you from yourself; We know how it feels to want to let go, but wanting to let go, and the ability to actually do it, seem to be miles and miles apart.

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)

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...

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?

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...

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...