Classroom Talk: 10/13/2024 - The first place to look any time you feel a sudden stab of pain is to see that not only is the sting of this moment a creation of your own hand, but also to see how - in that very same moment - you're being handed the reasons why you have no choice but to struggle with, and suffer over what amounts to a self-inflicted wound.

We are spiritually free when we no longer want anything to do with sitting in judgment of others, regardless of their perceived transgression.

Whatever form your resentments may take, they wreck only you... not the one you resent. So, here's a key thought to help you release this self-wrecking inner state: Holding onto some hurt or hatred -- over what someone may have done to you in the past - makes you that person's slave in the here and now. If you're tired of being a slave to a painful relationship out of your past, this study an...

The biggest problem facing us as individuals is that we have all been caught up in the race of looking for relief. Our time would be spent far more profitably looking for strength. When caught in a fierce storm, why scramble to find a cave at the foot of the mountain when the same energy can be used to climb? There is a choice. You can tremble within the cave, or live above the tempests th...

If you find yourself harboring resentment -- filled with angry thoughts or painful regrets -- having surrendered to the suffering induced by your own negative considerations... be warned: in the darkness of that nature is where affliction hides...

The strength of any painful resentment we feel toward others has nothing to do with any troubling character we may judge in them; rather [it is] born of an unseen weakness in us that believes others have the power to either give -- or take -- something from us that we need to be at peace with ourselves.

Topics covered:  "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." -- Ecclesiastes, Old Testament; Any sort of development requires a certain amount of voluntary suffering. The path of development requires that you meet limitations; We will go through great pains to make sure that we get what we want.

Before we express any dark feeling of disdain, we have first embodied and then identified with that painful state by which we now hold the perceived in contempt...and this unseen state of self-compromise is celebrated amongst the dark gods that laugh over our unconscious, but consensual demise.

Topics covered:  "We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started, And to know that place for the first time." -- T. S. Eliot; A paradox is understood when seemingly irreconcilable opposites are seen as complimentary; One question that we never ask ourselves: "If I do something that I regret, why does it seem like that action was the only choice in that moment?"

The inevitable outcome of all unconscious self-compromise -- within ourselves, but primarily in relationships with others -- is to reach a kind of critical mass of resentment that then spills itself out on others in words and deeds...

Classroom Talk: 11/21/2018 - The past sits in constant judgment of the Presence moment; first comparing, then imprisoning it to the inevitable corruption inherent in the constant replay of one's own memory: (this is) a completely unconscious nature... that not only already "knows" how things should be, but that summarily resists any challenges to its carefully crafted reality.