To flatten your fears once and for all, you must forget about the idea of domination and start thinking about self-illumination -- the miracle that happens within us whenever we dare place the wish to understand what is frightening us before our certainty that there is no other choice but to feel afraid.

Topics Covered:The awakening of conscience is the beginning of the return journey to our original spiritual home; "If I am not for myself, then who will be? If I am just for myself, then what am I? If not now, then when?" -- Hillel the Elder; We presently live from a divided level of consciousness that believes it is impossible to be for ourselves AND for others at the same time...

Whenever we picture ourselves, there is one image that rarely, if ever, enters into our mental movie: that of being someone who is ready to fall apart. But truthfully, few of us see ourselves in any self-comprising light at all. We feel safe within the dimly lit theatre of our own circle-of-self-pictures and we return to it often -- especially when the harsh light of reality starts to break th...

In moments of challenge, the tendency is to immediately resist the situation because of the pain it seems to bring with it. But, the truth of the moment is very different from this habitual perception and mechanical reaction to it. No moment, in and of itself, is the cause of our pain. What punishes us is what we want (from it), and not what it seems to deny us. Which comes first? The dark s...

Classroom Talk: 12/4/2002 - Life only feels like a never-ending struggle to us because we continue meeting it head on with our ever-present insistence that it give us what we want when we want it. In this way most of the good gifts of life are missed because not only are we always looking in the wrong direction, but we are sure we know what to look for!

We are spiritually free when we no longer want anything to do with sitting in judgment of others, regardless of their perceived transgression.

Growing into the worlds above us - realizing the higher realms of consciousness within us -- requires that we outgrow the worlds beneath us. This is the great model, the matrix of reality, as it is reflected from above to below. There are no exceptions to or exemptions from its rule or purpose. Any appearance to the contrary is just that, and whenever we break this rule ...

Doesn't this make perfect sense? If we need to be rescued from something, then whatever is rescuing us can't be part of what it rescues us from. Said in a different way, you don't jump on a tiger's back to escape a lion. A terrified rabbit running from a fox only thinks he finds safety when a coyote offers him shelter. This shows us that any desperate attempt to escape a trouble usually leads...

I recently went through two life changes -- my cat died and my boyfriend broke up with me in the space of a few days. I had experienced major depression prior to this, but when these unfortunate events happened, I suffered so greatly that it transcended into a spiritual awakening. Reading your books and listening to your podcasts has shifted my entire perspective of my self/suffering, and over...

Who among us hasn't found themselves conjuring up some imagined pleasure when faced with the pain of some contradiction in life that seems greater than our ability to deal with? If we're honest, we can see that most of our time is spent identifying the so-called cause of our discontented conditions, and the rest of our time is taken up trying to change our unwanted situations into what we ima...

There is one essential reason why there is so much constant heartache and war on this earth, and why conflict has continued as it has down through the ages. The answer may surprise you...

The next time (and every time) you catch some negative thought or feeling that says, "I am anxious," "I am scared," "I am mad," or "I am in so much pain" -- the first thing to do is to come wide awake to yourself. By taking the following inner action, you can deliberately snap yourself out of that dark dream that is trying to weave itself into your identity. Rather than allowing yourself to...