Student Talks: 10/15/2021 - Key Lesson: Time is a wrinkle in the mind: and much as the silent reflection of a cloud-filled sky can't be seen upon the wind-tossed waters of a mountain lake, neither can the reflection of Heaven be seen in a mind churning with thought.

Guy Finley talks about how to discern the difference between thought that is practical and useful, versus thought that is unconscious and hurtful.

Topics covered:  Whenever are carried away by a fear, regret, worry, or any other negative state, we are being swept away by the past. We are swept away by the past because, presently, we live in its realm; Within the realm of the past are all of the imaginings of better a time to come; We see the present moment we are in through the shadow of the past. We see the present moment through the eyes of the past.

Student Talks: 10/18/2024 - Key Lesson: The first place to look any time you feel a sudden stab of pain is to see that not only is the sting of this moment a creation of your own hand, but also to see how -- in that very same moment -- you’re being handed the reasons why you have no choice but to struggle with, and suffer over what amounts to a self-inflicted wound.

Classroom Talk: 12/10/2004 - When, before our inner eyes, we always have someplace better to be, or that feeling we must make something more of ourselves, we miss seeing two great truths: First, all imagined destinations are dreams whose promised fulfillment fades the nearer we draw to them... and secondly, that where and who we are in each moment is a field of possibilities whose riches are not only immediate, but everlasting.

Topics covered:  The mind creates enemies through resistance to its own memories; You are not going to think yourself out of the experience of yourself. The thinking nature IS the experience that it wants to escape from; Most of us live within a repeating psychological pattern that includes the plans to escape from it. Eventually the human being becomes the pattern.

Classroom Talk: 9/25/2002 - Don't try to be free -- for this sets you against any movement of life that doesn't line up with your ideas about the nature of freedom. Better than trying to be free, learn instead to freely explore all of your moments. For instance, be free to wonder about your worries instead of feverishly working to resolve them according to your present ideas about a worry-free life...

Topics Covered: The level of consciousness that only knows how to think about what is wrong can only describe what is happening. It cannot change what is wrong, it can only add weight to it; Every outwardly-pointing action that we take to resolve what is wrong does nothing to change the consciousness that is responsible for what is wrong; The consciousness that blames the condition...

The mind that wants to know the truth of something, and that's willing to do the work required for such a discovery, will inevitably find that for which it is searching; our highest aspirations are reflections of unrealized possibilities. All scripture, from the east to the West, confirms this timeless truth: We need only ask, and it shall be given.

Topics covered:  We keep reaching out into the world for what seems to be missing because we are not at peace with ourselves as we are; Whenever we are looking to distract ourselves, there is an unseen hope that we will find a lasting refuge of some kind. We are hoping to find some kind of relief from feelings of dissatisfaction; The nature that feels dissatisfied and incomplete will find ways to create dependency in others so that it can feel momentarily significant.