Classroom Talk: 11/3/2002 - Freedom follows the discovery that whatever it is within us that compels us to achieve can never itself be made content by achievement.
Classroom Talk: 12/19/2003 - Just as the value of a precious stone is known by how well it reflects back the light that enters into it, so too is the worth of the human heart a reflection of the life it absorbs and transforms, and then gives back to others.
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Classroom Talk: 3/24/2024 - We are not being called to be more than we are, let alone to judge ourselves when we see we have missed the mark; rather, we are here to discover ALL that we have been given, and how - if we dare accept this unimaginable gift - we will see it multiplied a hundredfold.
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Classroom Talk: 7/19/2023 - Stillness is the first action of truth. Stillness has no momentum, which means it never runs into anything. On the other hand, since all movement has its beginning in stillness, anything that moves into it is found to have simply returned to its original source.
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Remastered Classic Talk: 05/04/16 - The Vine doesn't fear the passing of the branch; it was there before it. The Vine gives rise to the branch; it will be there long after the branch withers in winter winds, and falls away. The branch fears its own passing, knowing nothing of the Vine from out of which it has come... or that it will be born again come the light of spring. All is Vine for those who can see the branch for what it is.
Topics covered: We try to change exterior conditions in order to change our experience; There is nothing more practical than self-understanding. And there is nothing more empowering than self-knowledge; When we are afraid and anxious, who or what is it that is taking the action to change my experience? Fear and anxiety pretend to be guides; Letting go is about discovering the parts of us that promise power but ultimately make us powerless.
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Topics covered: We have been conditioned to believe that who we are is dependent upon conditions; Psychological fear is the belief that who we are can be threatened by exterior conditions; Fear needs to control the conditions that threaten the existence of that self-structure; You can't change conditions, but you can change your relationship to them. That's where fearlessness starts; Any fear that you feed is going to consume you in the end...
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Remastered Classic Talk: 9/02/15 - We are convinced that if there's anything lacking in us, then the answer must be to acquire it, as has always been our go-to solution when suffering over some discontent. But as long as our hope for contentment is remanded over to a search for something outside of ourselves, we will never see the fact that this discontent is inseparable from our present level of self, let alone come to understand that the only solution for it rests therein... In the last place we would think to search for it.
Topics covered: Presently we put our explanation of the moment over exploration of the moment. A reversal must take place. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first; The learning of real lessons is more important than anything else that takes place in our lives; An epiphany is the marriage between the exterior condition and the part of ourselves that is stirred by that condition; We are created to participate in the movement of life rather than trying to control it as we do now.
Only the mind emptied of its need to seek something outside of itself finds Everlasting Fulfillment.
Only the mind emptied of its painful need to seek something outside of itself finds lasting peace.