Our "normal" way of dealing with pain is to ignore it until we can't any longer -- at which point this mounting pressure drives us to ask ourselves those familiar "What can be done about this?" questions -- our perception being that coming upon the correct answer to the cause of our concern will eliminate the ache being felt. And any time we don't know the immediate answer to some pressing question...

Before you can step out of the rush and into your own life, you must first see that while anxious, hurried feelings often lend a temporary sense of self-importance, these same racing emotions actually rob you of the power you need to be self-commanding. A brief investigation will confirm this finding. Self-command begins with being able to choose your own direction in life. And whether you're...

Classroom Talk: 3/8/2023 - Only in a world turned upside-down could someone actually believe that his daily dose of stress, anxiety, and despair somehow proves he is as special as he imagines himself to be.

Classroom Talk: 1/20/2019 - Featured Study Group Topic for the Week of January 28, 2019. While it's impossible to be free of "my" psychological body, including the elements inherent in the ceaseless appearance of its conditioned reactions, I am free to change my relationship to that body and -- in so doing...

It never occurs to us to question our standing belief that the right order of things in unwanted moments is either to long for what we imagine is missing from our life -- and therefore the reason for our pain -- or, to protect ourselves from what we imagine may be threatening our security. But, the real order of things is an Undivided Wholeness that wants for nothing.

Only what is 'guilty' resists or otherwise fears having its character accused of some shortcoming, and actively denies whatever it feels has judged it unjustly; but what is innocent cannot feel condemned. It fears no judgment anymore than a sunrise fears the grip of the darkness it has come to release.

We're not meant to see life through our thinking. We don't need to think about what is. In fact, why do I need to tell myself what just happened? Wasn't I there? Are you jumpy? The minute that a shadow approaches, we can't see what it is, but we think something is coming based in fear, and we dive for cover! What would it be like to never have to wonder or worry about whether or not...

Truth wants you to know that it is never in your best interest to unconsciously suffer, no matter how inwardly convincing it may feel to you that you will be betraying yourself or someone else if you don't. The only way that any suffering feeling can prove to you that you need it is to hypnotize you with a flood of itself. Step back from yourself. Learn instead to listen to the quiet stream of...

If you watch animals in the wild, one thing is obvious: The nature of an animal and its natural experience of life are indivisibly related. For example, deer attract biting flies. In the high heat of summer you won't see one without the other, and I have seen deer driven nearly crazy by these pests. They have no choice but to suffer this seasonal torment. An animal's nature attracts to it the...

The more clearly we can see that it's impossible to reach a place of rest by rushing to get there, the sooner we'll arrive at the true solutions that allow us to relax, slow down, and realize the relaxed pace of an inwardly liberated life.

Topics Covered: Feeling like you are always in trouble; Worrying that someone is mad at you; Tells that we are lying to ourselves; The body manifesting a reaction going on inwardly; Awareness of anxiety through what the body is doing; Inner dialog and mental movies; Holding your breath...

Topics Covered: The comfort of certainty is the conflict with the moment; False certainty and conflict are one thing; You can't serve two masters, you'll love one and despise the other; Stay awake, watchful, a witness to what "Real I" in you must go through; Everything the mind formulates as the next freedom is the next prison; Give up the idea of "perfect"...