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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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.
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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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Classroom Talk: 7/12/2023 - Only in our awareness of a weakness -- by our ability to sense the presence of any negative, or otherwise self-denigrating thought or feeling -- is found the strength we need to die to this lower level of self that, otherwise... lives to ensure that we accept its limitations as being our own.
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Classroom Talk: 8/10/2022 - For those who love truth no door is locked, no secret is kept; all that is needed to be free is given... freely; and Life asks but one thing of us in exchange for this Gift: the willingness to unwrap ourselves.
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Classroom Talk: 5/18/2022 - All attachments are secret heartaches disguised as lovers.
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Classroom Talk: 9/22/2021 - Part 1: The real reason for impatience with ourselves, or with any other... has nothing to do with what, or who is blamed for it: impatience -- along with its dark fraternal twin, frustration -- is born of unseen resistance to the sudden appearance of a limitation, including what is required of us to remain conscious (of it) until it's transformed.
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