Student Talks: 4/22/2022 - Key Lesson: There is a very strange feature as concerns most human beings: we would rather feel anxious thinking about unwanted moments over which we have no power, than to practice placing our attention in the fact of that moment... where no thought is needed to build a bridge between ourselves, and a timeless peace whose Presence all of us seek.
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...
Topics covered: When does the world change? When you change the way you see the world; The blessed ones through the ages have tried to convey the idea that you need new eyes to see what is in front of you all the time but that you don’t currently see. And the reason you don’t see is because the impressions that are intended to produce a real change are deflected by all kinds of buffers — beliefs, conditions, longings.
Student Talks: 4/7/2023 - Key Lesson: There is no reward for love, let alone for being "loving." Either love ITSELF is the reward, or it is not.
Topics covered: Letting go is an inside job; No one can "set you off" unless you have unseen expectations; We are already guarded when we meet people; Blaming others is a sign of a broken heart; When it comes to love and relationships, we are and always will be in training; Before any part of our heart can be healed, it must be revealed as broken; Giving your partner room to change...
Student Talks: 9/4/2020 - Key Lesson: Part 1: There can be no silence, no real peace in our heart and mind without full acceptance of each moment... And there could be no such acceptance of the moment without accepting what the moment reveals to us -- about us -- in that same moment. Part 2: Self-acceptance is self-realization...
Student Talks: 12/4/2020 - Key Lesson: Part 1: There are as many desire-driven dead-end roads promising to deliver us from our fears as there are fearful thoughts looking for a way to escape the consequences of the unconscious choices they helped to create. Part 2: As long as desire remains unaware of itself... it can only chase its own...
I feel like I'm stuck! I need some kind of new motivation for doing things that I just don't feel like doing, even though I know I need to do them. Where do I look? I find myself constantly justifying putting off what really needs to be done. Parts of me convince me that I'm entitled to procrastinate, yet the end result is always that I suffer over the inevitable consequences! Oftentimes I kno...
Student Talks: 4/2/2021 - Key Lesson: If it feels like the same unwanted moments keep coming around... think again: reality never repeats itself; creation is always new. To know why life seems to repeat itself -- and painfully so -- we need look no farther than to see how instantly identified we become with our (own) recurring negative reactions.
In today's modern world, success and stress seem to be constant companions. Success in business means "workaholism." Success in love means constant sacrifice and "working on the relationship." Success in school, or art, or music, or sports means ever increasing pressure to perform. Success in our society is just plain crazy... but success is not supposed to be like that. Success is suppose...