Classroom Talk: 6/1/2022 - Trying to assess, and then assign blame to the stress that exists between you and whatever you may be struggling with in life... is like trying to judge which side of the rope in a tug-of-war is to be blamed for the tension (in it).

We do not see what we fear; rather we feel what we think we see that frightens us. Until we see the actual face of our fear we will never know why we can't hope to escape it by running from it.

All negative emotions, but especially anger, are the offspring of one dark state...a frustrated desire that would rather set fire to the object, person, or condition seen as being at fault, than turn around and see itself for what it is in reality: the unseen source of its own suffering.

Student Talks: 4/19/2019 - Key Lesson: Trying to assign blame to the stress between you and the one with whom you are in a struggle... is like trying to judge which side of the rope in a tug-of-war is to be blamed for the tension (in it).

To consider this lesson more deeply, here is a telling story about how dark states find their way into us and then look for someone else to justify their existence: One day, a little angel who wanted to be a big angel was spending some time with a more seasoned angel. They were invisibly walking down a busy city street, and the older angel said to the apprentice angel: "Would you like to hear...

The only kind of "thanks" you can expect from others who see that you've decided to serve something higher than your own self-centered interests -- including bringing an end to your previous support of their inflated self images -- is their accusation that you have somehow wronged them...and that you owe them an explanation for the pain they feel due to blaming you for having become untrue. I...

Waiting for a peaceful life to come as a result of what others do is like hoping that you can quench your thirst by watching someone else drink water. Real peace is not an agreement between others; it is a personal act of sacrificing the self that believes others are responsible for the conflict it experiences.

Classroom Talk: 4/1/2020 - What power has any painful moment over us save for having become unconsciously identified with our own negative reaction to it. Seen properly, this means the event we blame for our suffering is like looking in a mirror... and blaming the reflection for whatever we don’t want to see in it!

In this answer to a viewer's question, "letting go" author Guy Finley explains that a feeling of frustration with another person is the downstream effect of carrying around an image of ourselves as being perfect. Never blame another human being for how you feel. The condition that you blame for the painful feeling of impatience is not outside of you.

It is never what we see – the event, person, or seeming problem -- that causes us to feel so negative, but rather it's that we don't see the low level of the seer the sleeping "self" that is ultimately responsible for ruining all of our moments.

Topics Covered: If you are against something you cannot change; The opposites are secretly complimentary; You can't win freedom, you can only be free; You can't judge without resistance; Avoidance is the continuation of the consciousness that resists; We are not our thoughts and feelings; No one is free who worships an image or an icon; All understanding is in scale...