By and large, most of us hold an unseen, but utterly false belief: the more we feel the need to talk to ourselves about something, the more important it is we do so. But what are we so busy talking to ourselves about in these moments of stress... if not what we must do in order to escape the painful experience of our own stressful reaction?  

Self-realization is the same as the conscious negation of any form of identification; (it is) inseparable from a higher awareness that reveals what no so-called "spiritual thinking" can see, let alone understand as true: no matter how pleasurable or painful, elevated or excruciating may be any conditional, temporary  sense of self... it is not who you are.

When we rest in patience, life never fails to reveal the silent wholeness of its celestial design. But without it, we are condemned to a fruitless labor: defending not only the painful illusion that our imagined life is meant to continue uninterrupted, but also that everyone and everything in it exists solely to ensure that nothing disturbs -- let alone challenges -- what we've imagined life to be.

It's a great mistake to believe that negative imagination needs our involvement to trap us in fearful, conflicted, or otherwise angry states of self. The truth is just the opposite: our most familiar -- and often dominant -- sense of 'I' is shaped by the recurrence of these negative states; where our unconscious identification with this dark inner machinery is, in fact, the real source of our sense of captivity.

While it's impossible to be entirely free of a psychological body -- including the elements inherent in the constant appearance of its deeply conditioned reactions -- we are free to change our relationship to that body and -- in so doing -- start working to liberate ourselves from being unconsciously identified with what amounts to negative thoughts and feelings of the self-created kind.

The perfection of each moment is hidden within its necessity; after all, what is the true nature of any moment revealed in the stream of time other than the ceaseless reconciling of creation to the Divine will that never stops giving it birth. The divided mind, supported by an ever-shifting false sense of self, creates the moment in time that it doesn't want and then -- blind to its own creation -- imagines a time to come when it will be free...

Doing the right thing, in the right way, begins with seeing the right order of things. All of life's lessons point us toward this simple, celestial truth. Through the pain of missteps and mistakes, we are gradually awakened to discover what has always been right before our eyes: whenever things are out of order within us, our choices and actions must follow -- and sorrow is the inevitable result.

The real cause of any fear, anxiety, or dark emotion isn't because of some unwanted condition that appears before our eyes -- it hides behind them. These dark, seemingly animated shadows are temporary creations; they are cast by a false light of some imagined, brighter time to come that -- even as we identify with it -- causes us to fear it may not come to pass.

The possibility of realizing our highest Good is hidden in every unwanted moment of life where -- if we wish to realize the grace that awaits us there -- we are asked for what amounts to an act of Divine obedience: and that is to yield ourselves to whatever we're given to see as true (about us)... without resisting the nature of what we're being shown, let alone to ask the question "why?"

If we ever hope to know the nature of true spiritual peace, we must do the best we can to meet each moment -- as fully as possible -- from the whole of ourselves, and then witness the results... in silence. And, whether or not we hit the mark -- still strive to be patient and kind to others, as well as with ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less; keep it simple. So that, unlikely as it may seem - in this way we are awakened to a great paradox...

Our new and highest possibilities can only be found at a point in time when, and where our efforts to transcend our present set of possibilities have been expired. Here’s why: It’s what we do when we come to the end of all that we know how to do that determines whether or not we realize a new order of understanding that waits for us just on the other side of the known.

Classroom Talk: 6/30/2002 - Part 1: It is not silence that quiets the mind being tormented by its own runaway fragmented thinking, it is the love of silence that both heralds the coming of Peace and that stills the soul whom it wraps in its Perfect Wholeness. Part 2: When you reach out a hand toward a mirror before you, the hand in that mirror may be seen reaching out for you. So it is with the hand of God. Reach for His Life...