The real adversary in our lives, that proverbial thorn in our side that leaves us aching and angry, and then sends us looking for someone to blame, is not what we have always believed. It is not something "out there." It's something "in here": an intimate enemy.

Imagine for a moment what your life might be like if you never again were to pick up a complaining thought or feeling. Think of how your days would flow without carrying the additional weight of those inner voices always telling you, "I'm too tired," or "This is too much for me!" The weight of the world would be replaced by a new sense of freedom. Fresh, new energies would flow. If this is t...

Barring those moments when we find ourselves in real physical danger, conditions, of themselves, have absolutely no authority over us. It's true. No event or circumstance has any power to make us feel one way or another. The only command any condition may have over us is that which we unconsciously surrender to it. And what we've given away, we can take back. Insight coupled with action is a...

Most of us hold the unquestioned belief that our hearts and minds are at peace before one of life's "waves" washes in to disturb us. But if we take away the prejudice of self-pleasing images -- and add the ease with which we are disturbed by unwanted moments -- we have good cause to suspect something entirely different about ourselves. Could a truer view of what takes place in such times of...

I sense a need in myself to step up the intensity of my spiritual work, but this "sensing" normally follows my realization that I am quite lazy and comfortable where I am. Is there a way to wake up to what I need to do next rather than to merely react in disgust at my own lack of direction? We cannot help but increase our inner efforts as it becomes clear to us that our spiritual sleep is dr...

Questions: Disillusionment about the spiritual teacher and path I've been studying; How to properly thank my father and deal with his imminent death; How do I balance sadness and faith; I'm having trouble dealing with a recent relationship breakup; Clarification about the meaning of the word 'evil' in scripture; What is the lower nature; Observing my changing 'I's'; How can I reconcile dark ac...

Starting life over is something we must do every second. We must not wait until we want to start over because at that point wanting to start life over is only our futile wish to avoid what has already happened. We are tied to whatever we avoid, so trying to start our life over because we want to get away from our sad-self -- or the sorry situations it has created -- is like leaping onto a sink...

GF: Welcome to our chat tonight. Before we get going I would like to look at a certain psychological condition common to all seekers of Truth -- a pervasive and often punishing inner state we must either learn to use or end up being abused by it. I am speaking about being discontent -- its true nature, its purpose in existence, and our almost daily relationship with its onset in us. It is no...

In order to let go of any painful past condition -- so there is never again a moment where regret or sorrow is pulling us down -- we must allow every movement, each unexpected event encountered, every thought and feeling -- no matter its character -- to have its own life. If we will attempt to view life from this new and higher understanding -- that everything...

GF: Welcome everyone. Tonight we discuss an essential spiritual force missing from our lives. When I'm done with these first comments, and those following the chat, we will have gathered ample evidence of the fact of this insight as well as ways to recover this crucial force we unknowingly give away. The power that we're missing is called patience. Real patience is not about waiting for one's...

The solution to all stress and tension is a mind that is made aware of itself as being the producer of that stress and tension. Stress and tension are products of an unaware, unawake mind wrestling with its own contents to free itself from struggle. Relief from that tension is not to struggle with more things or to become stronger than what stresses you, but to recognize the relationship between how you are involved in your own mind because of that...

GF: Welcome to our chat tonight. Before we begin, I want to give you some things to think upon that are vital to true self-victory. No one can hope to grow in Spirit who ignores the truths about to be told. We begin with a short story: Two men who have worked for the same company for years, and who share an office, are having a conversation over lunch. They are in the company cafeteria with o...