A student wrote to me confused about an article I had written entitled: "How To Stop The World And Be Still." His words indicated that he initially felt relieved about not having to absolutely silence (his own) noisy mind because he had read that, "who and what we truly are is not the 'noise' we resist in ourselves." But then he went on to say that in fact he was quite certain that this noise...

As above so below: everything moves in, expresses itself, and grows in cycles. Think of the seasons: in the spring there is new movement, promise, and the advancement of the possibilities formerly at rest. In the summer is the fulfillment of these possibilities. Come the fall, natural forces subside; there is a reversal in the direction of energies. Enter the winter, and movement halts; everyt...

On this one point all saints, sages, and illumined beings agree: there is nothing as certain as silence, stillness, and solitude to introduce you to the divinity within. The first step in learning to be still isn’t really an action at all, meaning that it’s nothing like we might ordinarily think of doing when we want our world to stop spinning like a top.

The "hard" part of this practicing of presence in the now is that our habitual mind, the false self, wants to know itself through one thought or another.

Part 1 Unless we are working to ensure that our actions mirror the words we use -- about how we adore the Divine, and want to live in (its) Presence -- then we adorn ourselves with robes that only look good in the darkened corners of shuttered spaces, but that show themselves as rags only to fall apart the moment they are brought into the light of real life. Part 2 Intentional actio...

In this answer to a viewer's question during a live broadcast, "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about how everything in our lives becomes rightly organized -- including the pursuit of goals -- if we will remember to put first things first.

Too frequently we feel as though our lives are under the power of things outside of us and beyond our ability to deal with: prisoners in one way or another of an unfair social system, impossible work conditions, an unforgiving past, or a failed relationship. Even trying to assemble a build-it-yourself bookshelf that doesn't know it "goes together with ease" can lock us away in the "house of pain."

I love the truth but, truth be told, I struggle every day of my life to remember it in moments I really need to! Though I don't like the thought, lately I'm beginning to think that maybe my relationship with Truth/Light is more imagined than real, but I'm in the dark about this! Any comments? (From student correspondence)...

There is no one to blame for a negative feeling that you don't want that is, unless you think your waiter is responsible for the meal you don't like when you go out to eat.

Vernon Howard was a bit harsh in his assessments of people. He believed you shouldn't help others. I think we all need help because many of us are blind. Would you help anyone that came to you, even "undeserving" people? Aren't we all undeserving? Vernon spoke of "super-sickies." Are there such people?...

If negative states preexist, then is the same true for the positive ones? Did someone or something outside of us really cause it at all, or just provide the trigger for it to show itself? It makes me start to think that everything is really internal and that all outer conditions are inherently neutral. (Student correspondence)...

If all the people of our nation went out in the streets in a march for peace and then sat in silence, do you think it would have greater influence than the political wrangling and vitriol that gets little or no results, and seems to promote further violence? (From student correspondence)...