True Peace is not the abeyance of war any more than a temporary cease-fire on a battlefield makes it safe or desirable to be in the trenches. Peace is a quality of Spirit that the apprehending soul is permeated with when all of her parts are united by and joined together within God.

The more we believe, as we are inclined to do, that there exists something outside of us with the power to make us happy and whole, the more attached we become to these imposter ideas and those deceptive desires that weave into our hearts.

So much competes for one's attention today that we barely notice how the more we struggle to win what this world says we must have to be happy, the more we not only lose sight of ourselves, but of a simpler happiness that once was ours when we were less well-versed in our desires.

Classroom Talk: 1/1/2003 - Spiritually speaking, the cost of starting over is not what we pay to achieve some distant desire, but it is in our willingness to let go of -- to dare to live without -- any desire we may have whose promise of fulfillment drives us to search for it in yet another tomorrow.

Remastered Classic Talk: 12/28/16 - In this world we are seized by desires that affirm the illusion of the opposites wherein, from out of their appearance, is born a separate sense of self that feels it must possess what is desired, or "die". In the spiritual world there is a holy desire; but being seized by it leads to the abnegation of identification; because what holiness desires is atonement: the end of the false sense of self created by unconsciously identifying with any opposite.

 

 

The stress we feel over our possessions or in our relationships -- that sneaks in to steal our contentment -- is never because of the way in which these things (themselves) are made to turn, but it is the dark effect of how tightly we cling to the idea that our desires have the power to grant us peace.

Learning to reach out beyond ourselves -- to lay down the press of our own desires as a bridge so that another is afforded a way to move beyond a pain or problem otherwise impossible for him to cross over -- is how we come to know the Love that is the secret source of our own True Nature.

Topics covered: Spiritually speaking, if you are going to become a new human being, something old has to die; Every desire promises you freedom. But does the fulfillment of a desire ever really deliver the freedom it promised?; To die to oneself does not involve doing something with one's own will. "The Kingdom of Heaven cannot be taken by force."

Topics covered: Discussion of Guy's book, The Courage to Be Free; The integration of the heart and mind; The laws that govern growth; Desire only knows endless desire; Dying to the old self; Becoming the observer takes courage; All relationships are meant to reveal; Awareness unifies; The source of riches live within you; Serving something greater; Seeing the good when things look bad; Who I a...

Topics Covered: There cannot be fear without unconscious desire. When there is no fear, then there is no conflict. And when there is no conflict, there is no unconscious desire; Without really knowing that we do it, much of our lives is spent trying to protect what we imagine we have; The fear we feel cannot be separated from the substance that we lend to the objects...

Topics covered: Everything in life moves in two directions at once; Light is an order of our own being; Within us is something we call conscience; It's not our job to change ourselves; The journey to authentic self-realization is a threefold path; There is no such thing as compulsive pleasure; What it means to have a real inner life; Changing the world we experience; Sexual energy; Completing...

Topics covered: Every creature in creation has a relationship with what is directly below it and what is directly above it; Every creature at its center is brought into creation with an innate desire to seek out the initial cause of that desire; "The central urge in every atom, to return to its divine source and origin." -- Walt Whitman; There is no such thing as static spirituality...