Almost every kind of unhappy feeling is the result of mistaking the partial for the whole. What this means is that when we don't see the whole picture, we are likely to act in a way that is self-defeating. One example of this would be that terrible sinking feeling that comes with learning too late, after you've become upset, that things weren't the way you were so sure they had been. That, in...
In those times when we're busy dreaming up the next plan, the next love, the next thrill, aren't we really looking for a way to renew ourselves? Most of us experience "renewal" when some idea or a hope that we have gets fulfilled, filling us in turn with a sense of excitement; and then, in that feeling of being full of ourselves, comes a certain kind of pleasure that we take as being the same...
As long as we have been on this planet, wise teachers have shared great truths about the real cause of the pain in our lives. And all of them pointed in exactly the opposite direction from where we've always tended to look. The enemy is not what we think it is. The real adversary in our lives, that proverbial thorn in our side that leaves us aching and angry, and then sends us looking for some...
There is one power of a free mind you already possess which can not only build a ladder that reaches from one life level to the next, but this same power helps you climb that ladder so you may enter each successive realm. What is this secret strength at the source of self-elevation? You can learn. These three words -- I can learn -- are the most powerful three words in any language. Not...
We frequently feel ourselves to be under the power of things. We feel we are the victims of an unfair social system, economic upheavals, painful relationships -- even a lawn chair that won't unfold right. We fight these conditions, feeling ourselves to be under their "dark" influence. The fact is, however, these events do not exist as negative events except for our perception of them. The only...
To be a human being is to seek. There is a part in us that is incessantly seeking something. We are never not looking. When we start out in life, we have inside of us this longing, this seeking, and we look for something that will answer whatever it is that has come into us that says it needs something in order to complete itself. For example, I'm eighteen years old, and into my mind comes...
There is an endless hole in the heart of most of us; a pit that demands our faithful daily service and that causes us, in our compulsion to fill it, to be pitiless towards those who stand in the way of this endless ambition. Most of us will spend our lives as slaves to this psychic abyss, driven in one form or another to satisfy in ourselves what can only be satisfied by our continuing struggl...
ED: Hello, I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein. Welcome to a fireside chat with bestselling inner life author, Guy Finley. Today I want to talk about being new each moment. We live in such a marvelous universe... things are always moving and changing. Yet, for some reason, most human beings feel bored with their lives moment-to-moment. Why is that, Guy? GF: Because they live in a little world whose bound...
Our experience of each moment -- for its pleasure or pain, peace or trouble -- is a direct reflection of what we are in relationship with in the present.
GF: Welcome to our chat tonight. These are difficult times, at best. So before we begin I want to give you some new ideas to work with that are vital for any of us who would do our part to ensure peace on earth. There is one essential reason why there is war on this earth, and why this conflict continues as it has down through the ages. The answer may surprise you. We do not understand our ow...
No matter how old you are, where you live, what kind of education you have, or what you may or may not possess, this is your chance to learn how to choose the life you really want -- moment-to-moment, no matter the circumstances. Just imagine being able to choose a life where you: * Are never bored * Expertly handle any difficult situation * Always beat the...
Studying wise principles without putting them into practice is like learning how to read music but never owning an instrument through which to experience the sound of those notes you know.