Anxiety is the opposite of some imagined "comfort" just ahead. Rushing is the vain attempt to close the gap between these opposites that exist only in an imagined time to come. Impatience "validates" the level of self that's identified with its pressurized need to reach the "end" it has imagined. And, in the end, sorrow is the result of realizing -- in most cases, too late -- that one...

Part 1 What is the weight of any unwanted moment... other than our resistance to it? Which means the real reason it's so difficult to set this suffering down is because, to do so, demands that we must also lay down the strong sense of self that doesn't exist without what it resists. Part 2 The real, but unsuspected problem with one's inability to attend -- consciously -- to all that...

Part 1 We resist not what we see as being fearful, but rather what fear sees whenever we look at our life through its eyes. And the reason this fearful nature trembles, as it does, resisting its own dark vision, is so that it can feel unsuited to meet the very situation that it has imagined. Part 2 We are never overpowered by a negative reaction, regardless how strong it may s...

The effort to remain inwardly awake, the work to be grounded in the present moment, is not to put away some pain that may be troubling you. The act of being "in Presence" - the attention required to do so -- is to make possible the following revelation, including its self-liberating realization: the negative experience of any given moment is, in fact, *inseparable from the nature of the seer...

Best keep your eye on the interior life; let it be first and foremost. If the direction of outer life interferes with the awareness of the inner, follow the inner. Better they marry, but never allow what is outer to have precedence over the inner... and should this be so, if you're not yet able to do otherwise, then let this (state) be as a sorrow to you until, from out of it, comes the discip...

What good is the love of Truth without standing up for the freedom it promises to those whom love it? This means that we must attend to, embrace, and then enact what is Light, Right, and True, even in the midst of all that may seem wrong within or around us. Only by daring to bring this intention into the midst of any such dark moment are we given to see -- first hand -- how His unfailing stre...

Until we can see the pain in our lingering worries, doubts, or disappointments is inseparable from an unseen false belief that gives rise to them, our best solution to this suffering involves trying to imagine something new, or better in which to believe. This approach is a lot like being awakened by a scary sound in the dead of night, pulling the sheets over our head, and then plugging our ea...

Setting a true spiritual intention is the first step in developing the power of attention, the instrument of Will at all levels of creation. Seeing that you can't keep an interior intention is the only way to dispel the illusion that, as you are, you possess a will of your own. Realizing the truth of your actual situation stirs and strengthens the wish to develop a will of your own. Slowly you...

Authentic spiritual teachings are designed to do two things at once: first, to help us remember that our true nature -- Real "I" -- is an unconditional strength born of an unconditional love. But, the second part of this teaching -- equal in every way to the first, and why the vast majority of aspirants reject true interior teachings -- is as follows: we must also agree to see where some for...

We have but a single thing to do to satisfy the Soul and, in turn, fulfill her role in the Greater Plan of Creation. Our one True Task in Life is... to complete the moment as we are given to it. This is the first agreement; and in our obedience (to it) is found not only our freedom... but also the assurance of knowing that whatever sacrifice we must make to that greater end ensures all that...

Part 1 False certainty is a fool's certainty: it is based in the illusion that the more strongly we feel about any given moment -- in particular, the more negative we are over whatever may have transpired -- proves not only the truth of our unique perception... but also why we're so certain that whatever conclusion we reach goes well beyond the measure of any doubt. Part 2 The reas...

If someone can say something to you about yourself that causes you to crash and burn -- so that you never stop smoldering over what they have said -- it's only because you have yet to see the truth of yourself. Here's the fact that not only proves the above, but within it rests the only real solution to this kind of suffering: Any truth you realize about yourself cancels both the fear of that...