The first step in harmonious relationships is simple: We need only realize the spiritual truth that we cannot meet someone whom we are not like in some way, even if we don't actively express what we don't like seeing in him or her. The deception is that we're sure we're unlike everyone except for those who match the images we have of ourselves. And so it goes that we live from -- see our lives...

ED: Hi. I'm Dr. Ellen Dickstein, and I'm here with bestselling inner-life author, Guy Finley. Guy, today I'd like to discuss a topic that you talk about quite often, which is the liberation of consciousness. Implied in the idea that consciousness must be liberated is the idea that we must be held captive by something. So, let's begin there: What is it that holds our consciousness captive? GF:...

The more we intend to uncover the parts of us complicit in creating self-defeating patterns such as addictive behaviors and codependent relationships -- and how we're always dragged down by this unconscious proclivity -- the more liberating discoveries we will make. It's a law: Ask to see the truth (of yourself) -- then do what you must to be granted that revelation...

To succeed spiritually, to discover the new man or woman waiting within us, requires going beyond being the thought-based, self-conceived creatures we are at present.

Surely we've known certain "perfect" moments in our lives. But who hasn't been in the middle of a dream vacation, without a care in the world, when--kaboom! In spite of the abundance around us, we're suddenly negative, deeply distressed simply because something or someone fails to please us according to our expectations! Or how about those moments when--regardless of how many of our friends...

The visitation of every dark thought or feeling -- every despairing condition that washes over us unaware -- transforms our life into its own.

When we are hurt badly, the higher lesson hidden in this trial is to recognize the time has come to let go of who and what we have been up until the moment of loss.

Whatever it is that we wish to let go of must be something from which we wish to be free. This may be unpleasant or troubling relationships, a problem-filled past or fearful future, any form of addiction, recent painful events -- or any of those disturbing thoughts and feelings about these same troubling things that we no longer want in our lives. The truth is that troubles like these come wi...

Making mistakes in life is one of its inevitabilities, as it's impossible to transcend any individual limitation without first agreeing to meet it. Such encounters are the path we must walk if our wish is to fulfill whatever may be our Divinely dispensed possibilities. However, the more awake we can be, the more mindful of the whole of ourselves we are before we start moving toward any aim in...

Can you help shed some light on why we are here in this life? In conversations with others, I find myself insisting on being "right." Why should I care so much that my ideas about life are understood by everyone? Could you give some insight into loneliness and how to abolish it? Without reverting to their lower level, how do you get people to stop making their hurtful, cut-down remarks? How do...

There is a simple, self-evident truth, a certain kind of insight that is the ground of self-realization. It is actually the ground of a person's gradual entrance into a new level of being. Using a simple analogy, the more still the waters are in a lake, the truer the reflections from that body of water. If the surface is rippled, you see nothing. If it's just barely rippling, you see just some of what is being reflected from above.

We love to be shown qualities within us that are positive. But love often shows us what is un-loving within us, much as the light of the sun creates shadows. To understand this is to realize that even in the darkest moment of some unwanted revelation, we are never without love; it is always there, even if -- as clouds sometimes hide the sun...