Classroom Talk: 11/13/2002 - The continuing unconscious comparison of who we think ourselves to be, in contrast with who we imagine we ought to be, is the unseen movement of misery seeking new company without ever leaving the house of itself.

Truth is always new, ceaselessly original; and to realize its innocence, to share its inexhaustible spontaneity, you, too, must be original. What is original can be copied, but no copy is ever original. Life can be copied, but nothing copied really lives. This is why the imitative life is inseparable from the suffering inherent in it. The mind can be deceived -- made to feel that the picture...

The mind asleep to itself doesn't realize it creates the stress and strain it can't stop trying to rescue itself from; and that the more it struggles to think of a way out of its self-induced conflict, the greater grows its struggle.

There do come to us in our lives, for any one of innumerable possible reasons, certain conditions that challenge the very fabric of our being. Certainly, none of us would think to ourselves, "I wish upon myself these difficult circumstances," and yet the truth is it is through and because of these same unwanted moments that we are granted the opportunity to meet parts of ourselves...

The spiritually awakened life is not something that one achieves -- the true higher life comes to us naturally and reveals and expresses itself in anyone who realizes that this living light within us is always present.

You can be self-enlightened instead of self-frightened. You have a choice. This discovery that you can always choose in favor of yourself is real excitement. You do not have to accept your present life-level. Life-level is what determines whether you sail through this life or sink in it. At present, it may seem to you as if there are times when you don't have much choice in your own life. I want you to know that this is a lie...

Classroom Talk: 3/2/2005 - Negative thoughts do not belong to you; they are the trash of disappointed gods who -- being powerless to create a sustainable universe in their own image -- can think of nothing better to do than to hate their own imaginings.

The real source of resentment toward others is not due to some power we may think they have and hold over us; rather, it arises from a secret weakness within us that keeps us believing that someone else holds the key to our well being.

In nature, hurricanes occur when walls of thunderstorms are driven up the center, producing a vortex -- an "eye" -- where, while everything else is total turmoil in and around it, there is complete silence and stillness in the center.

Have you ever gotten angry at a knot? Maybe you couldn't get your shoelace undone, or clear that fishing line. A knot in a thin gold or silver neck chain can be especially difficult. When you fight with a knot you feel frustration. Now, if you think about it logically, clearly the knot has no intelligence of its own with which to thwart your intentions or make you feel angry. Yet when you figh...