Remastered Classic Talk: 04/13/16 - No worldly acclaim or possession can ever make us feel whole, let alone free us from that irreconcilable fear that comes with feeling ourselves as apart from others, and from life itself. Only by consistent, persistent interior work to remain awake and watchful can we place ourselves in a conscious relationship with higher, eternal influences... under whose authority are we released, at once, from the illusion of isolation and the dreadful sense of desperation that comes with it.

 

 

Topics covered: The mind seeks in time what can only be given in the present moment, which is a relationship with the Divine that is already being given to you; Tension is the gap between what you imagine you need and how long it takes to get there; You will never find peace in a time to come. It doesn't exist there. The idea of a "time to come" is the very disturbance in which you live because you believe in things that you don't understand...

When I put out seed for the birds, It is myself... that I feed. When I hurt any other, It is I... who bleed. When I see someone in pain, It is myself... in need. And when I forgive those who hurt me, It is I... who is freed.

One sure way to tell if you're negative about something that's happened to you... is when you can't stop thinking about it, reliving some idea that simply won't stop. Any thought about an event past that you can't stop running through your mind... is in a race of its own; it sprints forward trying to cross some imagined finish line where it imagines it will finally rest for having finally outr...

It already is all that has been created . . . And It is what witnesses its Self being revealed in time,Which means . . . It already is all that will ever be revealed. It is the self it sees. It is the seer of that self. It is whatever that self will see. It is outside of the time in which it reveals itself, So that nothing in time can frighten, or...

Here is the obvious, but rarely acknowledged reason why we must dig in and do the difficult inner work needed for real self-transformation: if we don't change, we gradually come to wholly embody the very weaknesses whose destructive nature we wish weren't (living) within us. The courage to see the truth of this inevitable outcome gives us the reason, the will and the courage we need to succe...

Part 1 On any battlefield, a good general always wants command of the higher ground because he knows it leads to victory. In (our) spiritual battles, being one with the higher ground is the victory. Part 2 The following holds true in all worlds, exterior and interior: the greater the clarity of what one needs to do to succeed with what's been envisioned, the more likely is that su...

Whether his fear is for the loss of some imagined estate, or for his longing to gain the respect of others, here is why no one can hope to ever possess that which he fears losing: As long as one's heart and mind is ruled over by any desire, such a person does not rule himself . . . And how can someone who doesn't even possess himself ever hope to own anything else?...

Part I: With consistent, persistent inner work, the need to imagine life is eventually replaced by a new and Higher Nature that needs no opposite to know itself. This nature is awareness awakened to itself. Part II: Once the ideal becomes an image it becomes an idol, and even the best intended worshippers of such self-fashioned idols always become the victim of the gods they have create...

An awakened person is not reborn any more than an acorn awakened from its slumber by the touch of sunlight is the form it may yet become. The one who is reborn, who is resurrected, as much resembles his or her former nature as does the great oak resemble the acorn that died to give it life. These are the true stages that lead to Eternal Life.

Part I: In life, learn to keep your intention, and your attention, on what is -- and what can be -- instead of upon what is not or can't be. Do this and watch how new doors appear before you that open into the arms of the Awakened Life. Part II: Rushing to reach the time when you can relax is like running out into the rain to keep yourself from getting wet!...

I am aware of the need, value of, and willingness to say to a negative disturbance: "You do not have my consent." I know that withdrawing my consent from being conflicted can dramatically shift my experience of the moment... but it also does not necessarily resolve the source of disturbance I have unknowingly created. How do I discern when additional options might be more appropriate or fruitful?...