No one is free who thinks that he is; he is free alone who no longer has any need to think about himself at all.

The only way to be free of whatever it is that troubles you about someone else is to be free of that troubled nature within yourself.

Classroom Talk: 7/23/2023 - A true search for the beginning of things must, invariably, lead to the end of things; but the end of things is not the end of the awareness of them.

Guy Finley explains in this short talk how all of us must eventually leave behind the consolation of familiar spiritual ideas and begin to act on what we know is true by agreeing to see what real life wants to show us about ourselves.

Part I: Life itself has never weighed-in so heavily upon us as to hurt us; rather it is we who -- in ignorance of reality -- carelessly attribute weight to events that are essentially without substance, causing ourselves to suffer nothing less than the fervent magnitude of our own imagination. Part II: The degree to which we feel ourselves confined by any circumstance in life is directly...

When we think about any painful event, be it three minutes or thirty years old, we look at nothing more than a shadow of what once was -- something that is no more! The catch here is that these same thoughts -- these shadows of experiences gone by -- seem to have a life of their own, and in a way they do, for each carries with it a full complementary set of emotional baggage -- the still-smold...

Ultimately, all of our searching in life is for what we believe will release us from something that presently restricts us. If a man or woman is genuinely earnest, he or she will go down a countless number of different roads in order to find freedom. But you can't set out to find something without you being the one who is going to find it, which means that for each different pursuit, you assum...

Persistent painful problems in life are born out of one essential weakness: our inability to direct and keep our attention on what we choose to be in relationship with in the moment.

When it comes to seeing the truth of our lives, the late, great author Vernon Howard taught those who would listen that "The medicine is bitter, but it heals." If we would heal the hidden hurt in us then we must learn that the initial bitterness of self-truthfulness is the front runner of our ultimate spiritual betterment. Our work is to concede to the bright prescription of higher self-honest...

Following the path you speak of gives me only temporary freedom from pain. This is actually my fault because after getting freedom, I forget to continue meditation, which gives past pain some time to regain strength to attack me at other times. How do I get permanent freedom?...

There is nothing in the universe that can stop us from growing, except our habitual, mechanical nature.

Part 1: We are told that life is everlasting -- but see that nothing lasts! We are taught there is no death, and yet we see it everywhere around us! We dwell in the middle of an immense contradiction wherein one part of us feels the possibility of a life eternal, but that sees, and fears -- in the same moment -- only the inevitability of the opposite. Part 2: The Great and Timeless Teaching --...