ED: Recently here at Life of Learning Foundation, Guy, you gave an inspiring talk about the benefits of self-knowledge, and I thought it would be nice for this chat if we went down the list of these benefits and talked about each of the items. GF: Let's start at the beginning. One of the oldest, truest axioms in all spiritual life is "know thyself." We don't know ourselves, Ellen. What we hav...

Topics covered: All good things come to those for whom the good is all things; Conditions outside of you are not who you are; Events and conditions serve to reveal your consciousness and help you outgrow a level of yourself; We are asked to let go, not to run; The light is meant to show us our darkness; Resistance drives repetition, as it cannot learn; The root of our life is in something Divi...

Blaming conflict-filled feelings on any condition or person outside yourself is like getting angry at your shoes for being laced too tight. So here's an effective inner life step designed to help you grow and to develop greater spiritual strength: No matter what happens, never blame anyone -- or anything -- for the way you feel. Rising above the blame game is the same as learning how to be in...

Part I: Pass something before a mirror and it responds by revealing the object passing before it. Pass an energetic quality, positive or negative, through a human being and he responds to reveal that force by becoming it. Part II: We see things that frighten us because we are afraid. We encounter moments of doubt because we are without faith. We embrace resentments because we are held by e...

We are created not to know ourselves by what we think about, but to know ourselves within God's ever-present, perfectly changing life. The challenge for us is that we are habituated to thinking about ourselves and deriving a sensation of ourselves based upon the images that we consider. What happens to us when we feel the blows in life? In those moments where Life is actually trying to bring...

The more any one of your own thoughts or feelings tries to hurry, or otherwise push you along, the more you should work inwardly to slow down and to meet, directly, that part of yourself that promises you peace 'just ahead'... as long as you agree to endure its pain first.

Guy Finley explains that when we lend our attention to considering any worry, blame, regret, or resentment, we have unknowingly agreed to be commanded by that negative state.

Whenever painful events happen, they tend to fall on only one of two sides of a person. The first side is the denial side. When turning this way, refusal rules. Regret, self-pity, and endless explanations generally follow. Or, the unwanted moment falls on the angry side, where the turning is to burning. Resentment rages. Hatred and feelings of betrayal mushroom into....

Topics covered: If you were present in your life, you would never have questions about it; Is there any value in revisiting failed past relationships; Relationship Magic also applies to your relationship with thoughts and feelings about the past; The past doesn't repeat itself, it's you that repeats; When thought examines thought, nothing changes; Are fantasies okay; Feeling stuck caring for s...

As we all know, there are trying times when states of discouragement literally dog us -- following us around as if they're waiting for us to fall down, never to rise again. On these days, our own lackluster emotions are hounded by thoughts barking at us that nothing is right with our lives. Sound familiar? On these same days, even our smallest wish to part ways with these painful states gets p...

Any human being who has to hold himself together is someone who is ready to fall apart. Trying to hold yourself together is a terrible way to go through life. Our task is to prove this to ourselves. The fears of falling apart can never be quieted by adding more pieces to your self, such as success or the hopes of success. With this approach to life you wear out faster, because you now have eve...

Brooding, resenting, regretting...all are forms of unconscious suffering, and serve to strengthen the false notion that the negative state is a product of the condition, instead of a reflection of one's consciousness. To suffer consciously is to act in a whole new way where one chooses to be consciously passive to states that are (actively) blaming or judging; instead of being the instrument...