There is no right wrong emotion; there is no true false feeling; there is no positive negative state: End of story. To begin seeing this spiritual truth is the first step in walking away from -- and then dying to -- a lower level of self; the part of us that doesn't care what it feels... only that it has some kind of emotion with which it can be identified.

Only those who dare to be still, who come willingly -- as often as possible -- to a complete interior stop, will ever see the following truth; (it is) the foundation of a mind that lives in a world without fear or conflict: no moving part of your persona -- no single thought, no wave of emotion -- nothing that derives a sense of identity from either one of these familiar, but involuntary, move...

No worldly acclaim or possession can ever make us feel whole, let alone free us from that irreconcilable fear that comes with feeling ourselves as apart from others, and from life itself. Only by consistent, persistent interior work to remain awake and watchful can we place ourselves in a conscious relationship with higher, eternal influences... under whose authority are we released, at once,...

Part 1 If the "grass is always greener on the other side of the hill"... Then it must be that neither side of that hill has the power to grant you the peace and prosperity that draws you to it... over and over again! Part 2 Ask not for possessions, or the powers they seem to grant, but rather ask for Wisdom; for powers and possessions come and go, but Wisdom... is forever.

It is a big mistake to believe that the operation of imagination requires you to be present in order for it to produce either the illusion of a pleasure or pain to come, along with some temporary corresponding sense of self; in fact, quite the opposite is true. Almost our entire present sense of "I" is thus created and -- as the offspring of a lower level of being -- is largely responsible f...

The next time you're about to jump all over someone you love for having made a misstep, try to recall where you've fallen down in the same way. Consciously choosing to recollect your similarity (with that person's character) not only disarms the parts of you about to pounce on it, but this level of self-remembering also dispels the illusion of difference between the two of you, replacing i...

There is only one-way to change who, and what we have been: we must set a conscious intention to observe ourselves... as we are, under any and all circumstances. This means that moment-to-moment, we choose, consciously, to see what's unfolding within us through the "eyes" of a higher part of us that knows -- even as it enters the fray -- that our freedom begins with ending our identification w...

If you have an enemy of any kind, if you shelter recurring resentful thoughts or feelings - however wise your well-considered reason may be - so that you surrender yourself to the embrace of a suffering induced by your own negative considerations...be warned: in this nature is where hatred hides; it abides there, awaiting the incoming tide of some unwanted interaction with life so that it can...

Don't bring these daily thoughts and transitory emotions, the concerns of this world into your Temple; they have no place within its walls. Turn over their tables; chase out these soulless brokers. But who can see them? Today there is no sense of the sacred -- no active awareness of any distinction between levels of being; and so all of these matters mix indiscriminately . . . at the immeasu...

There is a River wild that runs deep through the heart; whose timeless waters quiet the mind that watches it flow...where ancient memories swirl, stirred back to life by their sweet murmuring. Be wise and listen. Seek first the source of this sound. And when you reach the sandy banks of its distant shore, do not hesitate: step off and into the current that is your home.

The Kingdom of Heaven -- the True Self for which we seek -- dwells within us, and above us at the same time. To sense this as true, even in the smallest way, is an invitation and an instruction, all at once. For not only must we know "where" these Divine forces meet and marry within us, but that we must also develop the attention we need to be able to stand "there"...in the midst of their eter...

The path is ours to choose: we can meet life understanding that the Divine within us -- our True Self -- is greater than any unwanted change, whether it may unfold around, or within us; or, we can walk through life dreaming, darkly, that these changes have the power to take from us something for whose loss we are made less. The first path leads to a life free of fear; the latter to a ceaseless...