There is no solving the mystery of ourselves without having first solved the mystery of (our) pain... which is why so few become self realized, let alone set free...

There is a proportionate and direct relationship between the degree of an inconsolable pain -- some form of disquiet that's pretty much our daily companion -- and misunderstanding the real purpose of this life we have been given.

We all want to be free of painful dramas in our life, yet refuse to see how we play a lead role in their daily appearance. Catching ourselves in a play of our own making...

There is what we are given to do by this world, whatever those responsibilities may be; and then there is our right -- in any moment we remember to do so -- to give ourselves to what we love...

Trying to assess, and then assign blame to the stress that exists between you and whatever you may be struggling with in life... is like trying to judge which side of the rope in a tug-of-war is to be blamed for the tension (in it).

We have no greater Friend in life than the small part of us that loves what is True. The more we work to honor this relationship, and recognize our responsibility to help strengthen it, the more confidently we’re able to call on it...

As long as our reactions are seen as choices, and the “voices” that support them as thoughts of our own, it doesn't matter what we call our life... any more than calling a circle a straight line changes the fact that all it does is go round and round.

In many ways, true blessings often come disguised as the worst moments; and yet, those who are patient enough to live in the presence of what seems to be a loss, or painful limitation of some kind, will soon see...

It is a distinct stage in the development of the aspirant when -- rather than being easily distracted by some imagined consolation for his pain, or by concluding who is to blame for it -- his first and real preference...

There is a very strange feature as concerns most human beings: we would rather feel anxious thinking about unwanted moments over which we have no power, than to practice placing our attention in the fact of that moment...

Any resistance to the revelation of some weakness within us, is the weakness; so that contrary to the way we now perceive these painful moments, the resistance we feel to any unwanted moment is not there to punish us...

If you ever really want to know whether or not you’re in a “right place” for yourself -- or for the well-being of those around you -- just go quiet; be as inwardly silent as you can for a moment or two, and the truth will be made clear to you.