Classroom Talk: 1/28/2024 - Because we are literally defined by our desires, we are confined to an unseen house of pain that, in turn, has transformed our fertile planet into a prison filled with frustrated inmates... none of whom can figure out why they're unable to escape the consequences of their (own) choices.

Classroom Talk: 4/11/2021 - All unconscious negative reactions -- with others, events, or with ourselves -- deflect this one crucial revelation: as long as we meet life with any compulsive demand or unseen craving, we can't help but be painfully remanded into the hands of one self-punishing reaction after another. Anger, fear, and frustration are...

After listening to what you teach, I get the sense that longing, desire, and imagining takes one out of the present moment and Presence. Is this correct? If I choose to bring a mate and prosperity into my life, it is out of a longing and desire. I hear other human growth potential leaders say it is necessary to first visualize all this taking place. Please clarify for me. (From student corresp...

If we're interested in spiritual things, we gradually realize that what we really need is to understand this nature that is never satisfied.

The cost of starting over spiritually is not what I pay to achieve some distant desire, but it is in my willingness to let go of -- to dare to live without -- any desire I may have whose promise of fulfillment drives me to search for it in yet another tomorrow.

Surely we've known certain "perfect" moments in our lives. But who hasn't been in the middle of a dream vacation, without a care in the world, when--kaboom! In spite of the abundance around us, we're suddenly negative, deeply distressed simply because something or someone fails to please us according to our expectations! Or how about those moments when--regardless of how many of our friends...

Classroom Talk: 3/29/2023 - Into every desire is baked its expiration date. To SEE this as true is the beginning of liberation.

Student Talks: 8/21/2020 - Key Lesson: Part 1: The divided mind -- driven as it is by unconscious desires -- is very similar to a dog that has learned to throw its own stick. It cannot come to a rest until it has exhausted itself, and even then it can’t let go of what it feels compelled to chase. Part 2: The cost of starting over spiritually...

Since no desire can complete itself -- by itself -- through anything it imagines -- its only recourse is to imagine 'more of' whatever failed to satisfy it the first time around. This unseen cycle is the mainspring of addiction; and, among other unseen self-compromising states, unconscious desire also drives that dark engine called 'greed' -- as it keeps trying to fill a bucket with no bottom...

Student Talks: 3/18/2022 - Key Lesson: Part 1: By wanting are all things not wanted... thus created; much as joy and sorrow, bound as one... are related. Part 2: If you build it, they will come; if you leave it empty... it will be filled.

GF: Welcome everyone. Before we begin tonight I would like to help shed some light on a subtle but significant idea concerning what I call the "circle of self." We will examine the secret mechanism in us that drives us through certain unconscious life cycles where, in moments of crisis, we think we are making wise choices, only to realize we have chosen against ourselves once again. To begin,...

Student Talks: 4/16/2021 - Key Lesson: All unconscious negative reactions -- with others, events, or with ourselves -- deflect this one crucial revelation: as long as we meet life with any compulsive demand or unseen craving, we can't help but be painfully remanded into the hands of one self-punishing reaction after another...