I am holding a self-image of wanting to see myself as lovable. I also fight against the painful self-image of being unlovable. Both of these images seem so fundamental to my experience. Any comments? How can we maintain after an epiphany or mountain top experience? Nothing seems to fade faster than inspiration in the face of the mundane. Is there really the ability to heal oneself from majo...

The mind that wants to know the truth of something, and that's willing to do the work required for such a discovery, will inevitably find that for which it is searching.

Can we see how, in one form or another, everything in creation longs to touch and to be touched? Flowers and trees stretch their leaves and limbs up to the sun, just as it reaches down to touch them. After all, to what end the timeless nature of such radiance, if not to grant life to whatever forms it temporarily animates?

Can you help shed some light on why we are here in this life? In conversations with others, I find myself insisting on being "right." Why should I care so much that my ideas about life are understood by everyone? Could you give some insight into loneliness and how to abolish it? Without reverting to their lower level, how do you get people to stop making their hurtful, cut-down remarks? How do...

Real life is not by the numbers; it is impossible to "know" and grow at the same time. Yes, one can have a formula for a prescription drug, or a recipe for a good green salad; but there is no system of thought that can stand up to the ever-shifting changes of real life, let alone meet those same changes fearlessly. The self that knows itself through thought can never develop beyond the content of itself, any more than a math equation can suddenly outgrow...

There is one essential reason why there is so much constant heartache and war on this earth, and why conflict has continued as it has down through the ages. The answer may surprise you. We do not understand the nature of our own pain--our suffering. Billions of us live with almost no understanding of how much hurt lies hidden in our hearts and minds; in this case, ignorance is not bliss. In f...

Without using interfering tactics, how can we help others to come awake to themselves? I know someone who drives me crazy, and I want to help him by sharing the truths I am learning. One of the most difficult aspects of our work is learning to bear the unpleasant manifestations of people around us. But this can also help us grow quickly. If by interfering tactics you mean, "make someone s...

The more I think I know about true spirituality, the more I become easily aggravated by the behavior of others, especially when I hear someone make an obviously false (spiritually) statement, or I observe inconsistent behavior. I sense that part of my anger is seeing the inconsistency and false behavior in myself. What is the right way for me to handle these moments?...

How do we normally develop a new skill? For example, how do we learn to high jump? We listen to instruction, and perhaps we watch someone else; but for the most part, we learn by doing; by trying it ourselves. Generally, with our first attempts we end up crashing into rather than clearing the bar, and when we do, there's no denying it. We can see, and feel, that we've come up short. Our coll...

Real life is not by the numbers – it is impossible to "know" and grow at the same time. Yes, one can have a formula for a prescription drug, or a recipe for a good green salad – but there is no system of thought that can stand up to the ever-shifting changes of real life, let alone meet those same changes fearlessly. The self that knows itself through thought can never develop beyond the content...

We are a peculiar race of beings. On one hand, each of us professes to be concerned with growing and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong. This is a paralyzing contradiction...

For those who aspire to know the immortal Self, the dark night of the soul is a required time of "unknowing."...