Who can say that the price of winning spiritual freedom is too great to pay, especially when the cost of any alternative -- regardless of the pretty name we give to this compromised estate of ourselves -- ensures that our short time on this world will be spent as a slave to its essentially empty promises.

Classroom Talk: 12/22/2002 - Fear is what happens to us whenever we forget that the One who created us fears nothing. True courage is remembering this Truth and then daring to act upon it in the face of a fear. There is no other cause of fear, and no other true solution. Awareness of this Truth awakens in us the action that sets us free.

Classroom Talk: 8/7/2002 - Part 1: No animal hides in shame for being itself. No tree bends to the opinion of others. No wind avoids the granite face before it; only human beings cultivate ways in which to cower before one another, and all for the sake of winning nothing other than a fleeting feeling that for their cunning they have either stayed the tide of something unwanted or have momentarily won the object of their desire.

Only when we leap into what the moment asks of us – being as true as we can do, without concern for outcome -- do we discover this liberating truth: The fears we have -- of somehow being inadequate to the task that lies ahead -- are as imagined as the "self" that gives rise to those same fears.

No moment can be any more valuable to us than our awareness of the possibilities unfolding within it, which means that real success in life doesn't so much depend upon what life hands us to work with, but rather into whose hands we place whatever has come our way.

Real...am I. Only when Thou art with me. Real...I am, Lives in remembrance of Thee.

Real life can no more act to pull us down than does the rising sun burden the spring flowers that wait to bathe in its nourishing light.

Genuine spiritual happiness and strength dawns within us once we realize that passing dark clouds are as powerless to dim the sun in the sky, as is morning dew to diminish the color of new spring flowers.

Unlike the comparison bound intellect, that rarely accepts a task without first weighing its chances to succeed, Love measures nothing; she sees only possibility and rarely faints in the face of "factuality" because Love, unlike the intellect, smiles upon imperfection.

The only way to know for sure whether Life is inherently good or not is to never again let some pressure-filled fear convince us that without its guidance something bad will surely befall us. The truth is that once we see there is nothing good about fear, bad things stop happening to us.

Questions: Disillusionment about the spiritual teacher and path I've been studying; How to properly thank my father and deal with his imminent death; How do I balance sadness and faith; I'm having trouble dealing with a recent relationship breakup; Clarification about the meaning of the word 'evil' in scripture; What is the lower nature; Observing my changing 'I's'; How can I reconcile dark ac...

Topics covered: It is very unnatural to have an unexamined life; It feels to most of us as if life is always asking, "What are you gonna do? How are you gonna handle that? What's next? What about this and what about that?"; Tension seems to demand that you respond to it; So much of our time is spent trying to sort out why we feel the way we do; The mind is always disturbed because it never stops comparing...