One of the greatest gifts that a man or woman can be given in this world (and only if they ask properly) is to understand that everything that happens to them - no matter what -- is for their greater good. It makes no difference what it is -- call it the worst thing in the world -- and most of us have had the experience of recognizing there were times when if we could have thrown away that moment full of fear, anger, resentment, we would have thrown it away.
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Classroom Talk: 12/11/2022 - Part 1: There is no solving the mystery of ourselves without having first solved the mystery of (our) pain... which is why so few become self realized, let alone set free. Part 2: The higher purpose of suffering is to ground us in the Existence and Presence of an altogether higher order of (our own) being... where neither passing time, nor its pain holds a claim on us.
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Topics covered: We always find fault with what captures us instead of finding fault with what got captured. "The fox condemns the trap, not himself." -- William Blake; In the same instant that we identify with what we believe will make us whole, there is fear that we will lose it. Then we set out to protect what we have identified with; How can we be immersed in suffering and yet not know anything about it? We don't question our suffering; we question what we believe is the source of it.
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Topics Covered: Other than practical or creative thought, we don't need to think; The more you think, the more you sink; When we're identified with anything, we're asleep; Don't try to win, don't try to be strong, just watch and see; We suffer because we have forgotten; The worst that can happen if you go into a moment that you fear is that you'll learn something about yourself...
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Insight Timer Talk: 11/18/23 - Just as we wouldn't try to pry open a rosebud, interfering with the natural process by which it comes to display its yet-revealed beauty, so must we learn to give every impression planted in the soul the time it needs to grow, develop, and reveal its latent power to free us from whatever we fear.
We all know that unwanted moments seem to wait for us "right around the corner," making fear and worry our constant companions as we walk through this life. But while certain "shocks" are inevitable, being made a prisoner of some negative reaction to these moments is not!
Topics covered: Everything you need to know is shown to you each moment you are in, and it can’t be separated from the consciousness that is revealing it; We are on this planet because we have business to do in both this world and the higher world; Before it's possible for a human being to be themselves, they're going to have to discover what they actually are...
Topics covered: Until your attention is free, you are a captive of every condition that your attention falls on. To free your own attention means to possess your own attention; "You never enjoy the world aright till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars, and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you." -- Thomas Traherne (1637 – 1674)
There are some patterns that are a necessary part of greater cycles; they are timeless, true, and required for reconciling Life. Consider, for instance, the four seasons...
Topics covered: One particularly pervasive lie in our culture is that we believe that we are only as valuable as other people see us as being; Until what is concealed in us is revealed, it can never be healed; "This above all: to thine ownself be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." -- William Shakespeare
Topics covered: The consciousness that is the present state of humanity keeps trying, in vain, to create a kingdom of heaven for itself; When we take the thought to be the thing, then we have belief in the thought; People who act cruelly are themselves acting from an inner cause that they know nothing about; The more you want something or someone, the more that thing or person will resist you...