When it comes to our wish to make real changes in ourselves, good intentions cost (us) nothing... and that's why the road to hell is paved with useless coins. On the other hand, making a conscious effort to change -- in the moment that calls for it -- comes with the cost of seeing ourselves as we really are. This awareness shows us not only the possibility of being released from our worry and fear...

I work consciously every day with many of your suggestions to overcome inner resistance. But I have a longstanding progressive illness that I don't know how to "crack." I have gone through major life changes and so have been exposed to a lot of stress but have worked to let go of them. However, the intense pain of my physical condition just seems to worsen... would you have any thoughts on this?...

There is an unseen source of daily suffering that is the constant companion of humanity. It is in one respect one of the great driving forces behind the darkness that encompasses this planet -- the unremitting wars, the violence, the greed, the fear, the desperation -- all the things we see in the world around us...

Just as birds fly through an empty sky -- filling it with motion and sound -- but are not themselves a part of the blue space through which they wing, so is the quiet mind full of a Life that has no fear of its own essential empty character.

Classroom Talk: 6/5/2019 - Only by coming to know -- intimately -- the Divine purpose of each moment in our life can we hope to play our part in the fulfillment of the purpose of Life itself... which is the only relationship in which dwells the perfectly fearless, unshakable peace of the Divine.

No condition, in and of itself, is ever the cause of psychological stress, fear, or regret; suffering of this kind is inherent in an unseen, unconscious level of "self" that resists changing conditions because it is incapable of changing with them.

No condition, in and of itself, is ever the cause of psychological stress, fear, or regret; suffering of this kind is inherent in an unseen, unconscious level of "self" that resists changing conditions because it is incapable of changing with them.

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.

No one wants to be touched by the hand of suffering, so millions spend billions trying to outrun its cold touch. And yet, these are the unwise for a very unseen reason: into every life must come some rain, for without it what else can a heart become other than a desert that never blooms?...

We cannot hide from what we fear to go through in life any more than a child who, hiding under his bed covers at night, can outrun the boogey man that reaches out for him in the dark of his own fearful imagination.

The only responses to life's challenges that any of us "ride" are those we think can carry us to safety. Leaping onto the back of the dark horse of a fearful reaction, according to our old habits, is like entering a runaway carriage being pulled along by wild thoughts and pounding feelings.

Those who turn and run away, who quit when life asks of them more than they seem to have in that hour, prove real only their fears -- and this is their sorrow. But let us press on past our doubts to make this glad discovery: the reason we mustn't give in is because persistence alone proves that Life never gives up on us; what we hope for is nothing compared to the hope that Real Life holds for us.