Every time we accept a negative state we compromise ourselves and increase the level of conflict for ourselves and everyone we meet.

Why is it that peace of mind is so hard for us to stay in, to keep as our own? Why is being calm in the middle of a storm virtually the last thing that most of us are able to do? What is the source of real composure? And how do we work to develop it within ourselves? This is why we must have new self-knowledge as follows.

Topics covered:  How many times in your life has one of your plans come to fruition just as you envisioned, and yet you still find yourself feeling empty on the other side?; All of us carry around a need that we don't understand, but despite the many times we have named that need, we have never been able to answer it; We think that if we only had enough knowledge, then there would be no more suffering.

Topics covered: Light is always acting on matter to change it into a different form. The Will of Heaven is never not acting upon the will of the earth; We are made in the image of that which made the world. We are a microcosm of the macrocosmic life; We are meant to use the world as the mirror that it is, in which there is an awareness of Creator and creation, without needing to think about it...

Featured Study Group Topic for the Week of July 4, 2016. What is True is quiet; it is at peace with itself, whatever it silently reveals. What is untrue has no such peace; it is unable to be silent. What is True has no need to think about, let alone talk to itself about any lie it may see. What is untrue can't stop talking to itself in order to cover up what it doesn't want to see, ceaselessly...

Topics covered: Everything derived in the world is meant to polarize individuals; Within you is something that wants to get things over with as quickly as possible; You live from a consciousness that thinks it isn't enough to be a human being; We want to live from a level of being that doesn't depend on things in passing time in order to live; Opposites are not antithetical to one another, the...

Topics covered: Our sensory mind, with its divisive nature that only knows cause and effect, thinks that energies come at it, but they actually come from within you; There are certain true powerful questions that only appear in the heart and mind when the individual agrees to consciously suffer these energies; What am I actually asking for when I make the prayer 'Have mercy on my soul'; If you...

The real adversary in our lives, that proverbial thorn in our side that leaves us aching and angry, and then sends us looking for someone to blame, is not what we have always believed. It is not something "out there." It's something "in here": an intimate enemy.

There is a certain longing inherent in us to belong to something greater than ourselves. That longing that has a natural foundation is stolen very quickly, in fact it never has a chance to get off the ground. What happens? Remember grammar school? Remember how you began to notice that there were certain groups of people that maybe you wanted to belong to but they didn't want you to belong to t...

When you think of a single beautiful flower in springtime -- while it may stand with petals and leaves that look a certain way -- you'll never find a single flower the same as any other flower. Can you understand that the life of that flower is not the life alone that you see coming out of the ground? That flower belongs to a much greater life than the individual expression that you say is beautiful.

Classroom Talk: 9/26/2003 - Here is a tough spiritual lesson, but one that must be learned before we free ourselves from the circle of false friends: There was once a sheep who kept crying out, "Why do the wolves chase me, bite at my heels, and want to hurt me so?" The Shepherd smiled and replied: "Why do you like to wander through the woods where they live, and what makes you think that when another creature shows you its teeth that it's smiling at you?"

A lot of people say they feel God's love in their heart, but I just seem to feel a shut-off heart. I have noticed this strong energy that rises up in me, talks to me, and seems to guide me, but it won't let me let go of the past. I just hold onto past failures and think of ways to fix them. I try to make changes to take care of myself and my body, but this old baggage (loaded with guilt and...