Self-evaluation begins with self-excavation, so that whether we live as angels or animals depends on whether we use our lives to discover the unknown peaceable heights within ourselves, or allow ourselves to be content with living in conflict.

Unlike the path of self reference whose end is finite and marked by darkening and ever diminishing returns, the path of self-abnegation is infinite...and the further along its way one travels, the more luminous and open-ended his or her life becomes.

Topic: How to Wake Up and Walk Out of Whatever Troubles You (1/5/22 Classroom Talk)

Topics covered: The intimate enemy is a consciousness that is asleep to itself but does not know it; As long as we have good reasons for why we suffer, we are never going to transcend painful patterns; Something in us believes that there are good reasons to suffer over things that we have no control over; Sufi story: "I lost my donkey, but at least I was not riding it at the time." We are not meant to be saddled by negative thoughts and feelings...

I have fallen into a state of despair and anger that I have never thought possible. I just found out that in my hometown, at the very elementary school that I went to, 30 students and teachers were shot and killed. Thank God Himself, my siblings and mother are OK. A lot of my friends' families are in an enormous and incomprehensible amount of pain right now. I have not felt this angry in a lon...

Topic: The Unimaginable Shelter of Higher Self-Understanding (10/27/21 Classroom Talk)

Topic: Your Part in Preparing a Place for the Divine (Remastered Classic Talk) (Classroom Talk 11/26/25)

Topic: Stop Agreeing to Be Made into Someone You Don't Want to Be (9/22/19 Classroom Talk)

Topics covered: The spiritual path is the path of negation, not affirmation. You must lose your life in order to gain it; Immortality is the gradual realization that you are already whole; We were raised to believe that our worth is based upon how others see us; We were raised to believe that there should never be any disturbances; When the observer and the observed are not separate for us, we are a participant in creation, rather than the observer...

Here is the real “secret” of starting over: No moment in this life of ours can be any newer than we are willing to be at the outset of its appearance.