Is having a silent mind essential to spiritual development, and what exactly is gained by practicing inner silence? True silence is not just the absence of noise; it is a kind of spiritual medium in which not only are we able to discern what is false, but through which what is true can increasingly reach us and teach us. It is very helpful to practice some form of being silent. As you devel...

In this answer to a viewer's question, "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about the difference between observing a particular psychological condition -- such as feeling a lack of energy -- and resisting the condition.

All of our life experiences have been trying to teach us a certain grand lesson: Liberation from our captive condition (whatever that may be in the moment) cannot come by further deliberating it. We can see the wisdom in doing nothing toward our own troubled thoughts and feelings when we realize that the only way not to be dragged under by these negative states is to stay...

In one respect, everything about one's spiritual life is so terribly simple. There is only one time and one way in which to be still, and that is to be still. So the first thing is to understand that we don't need to stop the world. What we need to do is understand that the world whirling around us is the world of our own reactions. It isn't until we can start to see some of this that it be...

Topics covered: awareness, aware, watchful, meditation, trouble, problem, judge, judgement, judgemental...

Everything we've tried to do to stop our mind, to be quiet, contradicts the wish we have because it is a form of resistance.

Classroom Talk: 6/27/2021 - Contemplation is sustained attention on a question the heart holds in its keeping, knowing, full well, that the mind -- of itself -- cannot answer. This form of sustained conscious inquiry is the ground of true meditation: it is creation aware of itself.

In this answer to a viewer's question, "Secret of Letting Go" author Guy Finley explains that real meditation involves being present to both the interior world as well as the exterior world at the same time. That presence is the center of all things.

Student Talks: 7/2/2021 - Key Lesson: Contemplation is sustained attention on a question the heart holds in its keeping, knowing, full well, that the mind -- of itself -- cannot answer. This form of sustained conscious inquiry is the ground of true meditation: it is creation aware of itself.

Meditation Talk: 10/25/2019 - Be here. Be still. Quietly remember the Divine presence that dwells within you... and you will know -- without taking thought -- the following truth that sets you free: Even as all around you everything changes, your True Self is unchanging. Fearlessness follows this discovery in much the same way as....

Meditation Talk: 11/22/2019 - Any moment we can remember to break out of habitual thought -- and simply know that we exist -- is the same as realizing a new and higher level of consciousness that thought will never know, let alone share in a measure of its perfect peace.

Topics covered: self-talk, thoughts, thought-life, chatter, machine-mind, meditation, stillness, quiet, inner peace...