Featured Study Group Topic for the Week of August 31, 2015. Attention touches whatever level of being into which it reaches; sustained attention connects these levels and, if maintained, allows for an exchange of energy between them. Consistent connectivity gradually grows into a form of systemic symmetry, permitting the once separated levels to start becoming integrated with one another.

Topics Covered: Being willing to see ourselves as we are is the practice of meditation; A relationship with the Divine doesn't require control or strength; None of us want to be without something to do; We must learn to see equally above and below, light and dark; You are free, the why is a lie; When you talk to yourself you are not the one talking and you are not the one who is...

Topics covered: Is a thought a living thing; When a spouse is negative, is it okay to point it out to them; I find that when I have an insight my mind can't stop thinking about it; After listening to your talk Refuse to Excuse I'm torn about my work situation; What do I do when a negative state starts to set in; Why do people who have become a master of something typically have problems in the...

Topics covered: Our suffering is solved the moment we find where it is that, without knowing it, we have been living from a nature that isn't just complicit with its continuity, but that can't live without it; What you give your attention to cannot be separated from the sense of self derived from it. Anything that captures your attention becomes your experience and your sense of self...

The fifth step to making yourself fearless is faith. Real faith is born in a human being when he or she has the direct experience that they live in a world that is established for them to succeed in realizing that within them dwells an Intelligence beyond fear.When a person takes the first four steps - attention, awareness, self-knowledge, and persistence - and brings them together...

We cannot hope to enter into that Life larger than our own as long as we continue to look at our own life through a set of limited ideas that preclude that possibility.

What do we typically give our attention to in any given moment? Whether we are busy working on a practical task or waiting expectantly for something to happen, our attention is usually lost in a stream of thoughts about the past or about what may take place in the future. For those of us who are tired of finding ourselves the servant of any errant thought, we must learn what it means to wait i...

The reason he's able to be present, quietly aware of and attentive to the movement of his own thoughts and feelings, is because he's not trying to go somewhere, get something, or become someone "special." He is without tension because he sees that identifying with whatever the flavor of desire may be in the moment is the same as allowing fear to pull him apart.

Part 1 Get disgusted with unseen visitors whispering to you from some dark corner of your heart and mind; dismiss anything within you that doesn't want to come in to the light of higher awareness. Part 2 Your will is your own, but only when -- and as -- you are aware of, and attentive to all that is unfolding within and around you in the moment.

Topics Covered: Pain names what it blames so that it can keep us in its prison; Fools believe, wise men and women explore; In my weakness is Thy strength made perfect; Staying in the moment for a heartbeat longer; Stop talking to yourself; Analyzing the pain is a part of the pain; You can't identify with thoughts and feelings, and learn about them at the same time...

Topics Covered: Our hope is not in things seen; Being the witness of useless suffering; Use the fear of the future to find the fearless heart; Accept the moment as it is given as an act of higher Will; We don't want to fix ourselves, we want to see ourselves; Dismissal of habitual reactions; Awareness of the play of creation; Replace the idea of "faster" with "more aware"...

Topics covered: Our suffering is solved the moment we find where it is that, without knowing it, we have been living from a nature that isn't just complicit with its continuity, but that can't live without it; What you give your attention to cannot be separated from the sense of self derived from it. Anything that captures your attention becomes your experience and your sense of self...