When you find a source of truth--and when you begin to discover the truth of yourself--you will see many things about your character that you would most likely rather not see. The action of Truth reveals and strips away layers upon layers of false beliefs and pretense that a person mistakenly takes to be his or her true self, and even the most sincere aspirants will resist the action of truth...

As above, so below: every creature struggles with the moments leading up to, and then in its moment of birth. So too must we who seek a conscious rebirth agree to enter into this fight.

Part 1: Awakening to the presence of some weak, or otherwise painful character at large within us marks the beginning of the end of its command over us. Part 2: The longer one is able to observe oneself -- all parts of oneself, unadorned -- the less interest one has in being identified with any of these (separate) parts while, at the same time, the more willingly does one commit to do the inne...

In this short talk, best-selling "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about the spiritual need to become aware of the deceptive parts of us that claim to protect us from harm, but in reality do nothing but put us in harm's way.

Classroom Talk: 11/17/2002 - If we could only see that any self that sits in judgment over us is not the perfected nature that it passes itself off as being, but is secretly an imperfection in us that only appears true to us due to the unexamined contrast it creates in us by its accusations, then we would at last strip off the mask of our accuser and be free to realize the truth of ourselves without self-destructive conflict.

The divided mind has but one love, and that is to divide life in two; nothing is sweeter to this unconscious level of self than creating the sensation of feeling apart from all that it sees. In this way it always has something to do, because it never stops reaching for what it imagines it needs to make itself feel whole.

Classroom Talk: 8/2/2002 - We must learn to look out at life with more than just our eyes. We must find out what it means to see with our heart, and to look at all of life's events through an awakened mind not blinded by selfish and self-limiting desires. As we learn what it means to see life with all of us doing the looking, we will also make the Great Discovery that Life has been trying to show us all along: just how Good, how whole and compassionate...

Because what is dark, spiritually speaking, can never behold itself...it can only imagine itself. This is its torment; it is, also, strangely enough, the fuel that drives this lower nature through one or the other of its twin, but futile tasks: trying to hide from itself -- by running after some imagined pleasure -- or -- by running away from the pain that appears each time real life challenge...

The hardest part of the journey along the upward path is the gradual realization that one's work to awaken is, at best, imperfect. Along the ascending path each footfall serves to echo an unwanted reminder of one's imperfect actions, imperfect thoughts, imperfect emotions, imperfect devotion, imperfect attention, so forth on and so on. However, seeing the truth of oneself in this light is but...

If we were to see someone trying to warm himself on a winter's night by snuggling up to a color photo of a fireplace, we would easily recognize this person as being deluded. We know that the glossy paper image which he clings to for life-sustaining heat is powerless to do anything but mock his obviously oblivious mind. But this unfortunate man can't see the futility of his own misguided acti...

Classroom Talk: 10/1/2003 - Part 1: No one sets out to find ways to comfort himself without having first consented to making his own discontented nature King or Queen for the duration of that search. Part 2: Our spiritual sleep is upon a bed of thorns lightly covered by fragrant petals.

A flower in the process of blooming doesn’t go looking for what it needs to fulfill the purpose of its existence; the very presence of its exposed petals and delicate fragrance attracts all it requires to complete itself...