Only as we run out of ways to explain our pain to ourselves do we come to realize the true source of that suffering; a revelation that includes the shocking fact that whatever keeps giving us the reasons for this pain... is inseparable from its unwanted, yet unabated continuation.

The purpose of a compass is not to tell you who or what you are; it's created to give you trusted guidance, so you don't lose your way. So it is with any revelation about yourself; its (Divine) light is to help you see all that you may yet be, and certainly not to judge you over what you are not.

Here's why the negative sense of self is blind: it doesn't want to see the smallest thing that challenges whatever it's become identified with; and yet (it is) unable to look at anything else...Which means it is not just a prisoner of what it resists, but (is its) unconscious keeper, as well.

Hoping that a memory from "days gone-by" can show you the way out of any unwanted moment -- and into a safer time to come -- is like finding yourself lost in a dark canyon, and following the echo of your own plaintive voice -- mistaking it to belong to someone who's come to rescue you.

Even if your best efforts - the work to be awake, and attentive to your inner life - feels as if it's failed to produce any real result... nevertheless, persist: one day a Light that is in exact proportion to your labor will flood the soul, filling it with New Life.

Topics covered: There is no moment that does not have meaning. Every moment has meaning. The pain that we have experienced in most moments has been due to not understanding the meaning of the moment; We cannot be in psychological pain without resistance, which points to something outside of you as being responsible for the pain. The pain cannot be separated from the resistance...

We cannot excuse our way into peace of mind. It is impossible to excuse our way into having peace. If we let an excuse, or a justification, or an explanation become our guide in the moment we do something unkind, then we will never enter into this new level of being where the strength that we seek, and long to participate in, awaits us.

Topics covered:  The divided consciousness asks a question about its pain, and then immediately answers its own question; When the mind asks a question, you think you have to answer it; It is possible by the grace of God to come to the end of every last question you have. The question creates the illusion of a self that is stuck.

How I love to wander through fields of light, stopping here and there to see, and to stand in silent awe...

Question: I often overtalk in conversations and am working hard at engaging in give-and-take conversations where I say a few things and then stop and wait so the other person can give a few of their thoughts. To do otherwise can lead to excited talking non-stop, which sounds selfish. What can one do to remedy overtalking?

Topics covered:  The world we live in is both a laboratory and a gymnasium, in which we are intended to experiment and exercise in order to discover why we are here; The world cannot give you what you are really looking for. You eventually realize that you have to look someplace else; There is no such tomorrow that will ever free you from what you believe holds you captive.

Topics covered:  Your experience of life comes down to what it is that you prize most in this life; There is something within you that wants to communicate with you about how to free you from yourself; We know how it feels to want to let go, but wanting to let go, and the ability to actually do it, seem to be miles and miles apart.