Sometimes the greatest truths are laid right before our eyes, in the simplest of things, and yet we just can't see them. Take for instance our own hands: what a miracle they are. If we consider for even a moment all they are capable of doing, it's evident that a great wisdom sits hidden behind their incomparable design. But, with this thought in mind, permit me to add one other to help us see...
Any time we feign anything, we do so out of fear that without that "persona" to protect us--to make that impression we want--we won't get what we want. This whole way of thinking is secret self-sabotage. Your consideration of the two special insights that follow will start you down the path to a whole new kind of self-command.
The only way we can be released from any painful sense of false responsibility is to see that it is based in a false belief.
It's well known that storm-tossed waves often expose new treasures along the shoreline; there is unexpected wealth to be collected by those who know the secret value of rough seas. And yet, even though most of us have little tolerance for anything that "rocks our boat," the truth of the matter is self-evident: *Unwanted moments introduce us to parts of ourselves that would otherwise never get...
Until we realize that continually identifying with our own conflicting desires about how to win peace of mind is like using a cannon blast to light a candle, we will only remain at war within ourselves -- all the while blaming the world around us for its insensitive inability to grant us that imagined peace we so desperately seek! Let's illuminate, by example, a few of these conflicting desir...
Unconscious desire is the root of corruption. What I desire, what you desire -- whatever it may be -- we can find a way, as surely as the sun will rise, to justify what we want. And because we can justify what we want, it means, at any given point in time, the end will justify the means. "I need this because I was treated like this when I was growing up;" "I need this because I'm not as attractive as someone else;" "I have to have this because I'm getting older"...
We're often led to act against ourselves by an undetected weakness that goes before us -- trying to pass itself off to others -- as a strength. In effect, we pretend to be something we're not -- a commonly accepted behavior these days. But any time we feign anything, we do so out of fear that without that "persona" to protect us -- to make that impression we want -- we won't get what we want.
I have recently been confronted with a truth that I have been trying to deny for some time about the religious leaders that I have long trusted. They do not bring life, but rather they mislead and rob us of our intended life by diluting the truth and spin doctoring their power. Do I leave the church? Do I confront what is wrong? Or do I just remain silent? When going to church I have seen all...
Which would you rather do? Be identified with all the things in life that come and go... so that this lower sense of self compels you to cry and worry and fight to keep everything in place? Or, would you rather be free of that lower nature that lives to cling... so that you're increasingly able to just let what "comes and goes" do just that... come and go with no further muss and fuss? We've...
Our fears and worries, our ambitions make something of us, don't they? The fact is, everything makes something of us because there's something in us that makes of it what is does, which is the real meaning of the old expression: a tempest in a teapot.
Are failures in life inevitable? Does the Higher Power, once attained, see to it that we only succeed? Try to understand the difference between living from something within yourself, whose nature is contentment itself, and living from those parts of yourself that are forever seeking contentment. For the man or woman who persists with the wish for Truth/God to be first in life, there reall...