Guy's Letters

Question: I have been through hell, and what's kept me going is the inner knowing I have that there is another way of being. It's been challenging in the last few years to discuss this with others who judge that I am attracting and/or creating the pain and trauma. I sat with that belief for a long time, hoping to find my way through by seeing where I was "mis-creating." What I found was that...

Question: I am a full-time elementary school teacher and I find the workload and daily demands of the classroom nearly unbearable. I got into teaching because I have a passion for literacy and wanted to help children learn to read, however with the demands of my current position, I only spend maybe 30 minutes a day doing the "dream" aspects of my job. I feel strongly about my passion...

Question: I understand that the purpose of this moment is not to feel certain or to feel better about "myself." I know that my work is to see this lower nature in me, to watch it fall down, and to consciously suffer that. I want to work to be a sincere student, to deliberately set aside more time for prayer and attention exercises, yet I continue to feel used by a nature that acts...

Question: Many men seem to have a fear of intimacy and difficulty connecting with their depth of feeling. Women seem to miss intimacy in their partnerships with men. I wonder if there is this kind of difference in men and women's spiritual yearning? I bet you could create a special seminar for men on how to connect more deeply with their feelings.

Question: Is it possible that some of us just cannot learn in a single lifetime? The mind says enough is enough. Having done all I can and failed, there is only a fleeting flicker of light at the end of this tunnel. I accept that only Divinity can provide in this moment, but I'm tired and wait in silence to hear. Knowing I need help, I continue to ask. Will this be enough?

Question: There is a feeling of being stuck in all the lies that spin within this consciousness and I am humbled at seeing where I have been living, and the lie that I have been above that. I don't feel judgement in seeing these facts but am a bit horrified.

Question: How can somebody put an end to the seeking? All the questions about life and death seem to bring new questions and more anxiety, and no resolution. I do not want to follow any spiritual recipe or practice but want to live and just be without fearing the unknown answers to all these increasing questions.

Question: I have attempted to practice non-resistance. Sometimes in doing this, the waves that pass through a given moment can be quite intense. Often I am among people or circumstances that make it difficult to "allow." This level of practice, in my (Buddhist) tradition, is usually undertaken by forest monks or people who've left lay life and live in a situation dedicated to this alone...

Question: How can I help in the plight of black people? It appears to me that police have a state-sanctioned pass to kill them. I have listened to your podcasts for two years and have transformed my life. I love your message of living a fearless life, including: "If you give up before you light up, you've lost everything." I can intuit there is a solution because here I am, but I cannot visualize it.

Question: When we fall, is it in the very moment we are falling -- or right after that falling experience -- that we must see the real reason why we did fall instead of blaming the entire environment as the reason we temporarily fell?

Question: I have suffered from anxiety for years, experiencing many "irrational" fears that have become obsessions. Sometimes it seems that I am going crazy, and I even think of killing myself.

Question: I understand your message that everything I go through reflects something about me. But when someone betrays or steals from me, don't I have to react to the behavior and set boundaries? And to enlarge the question, what about wars and other acts of violence against innocent people? I am distressed to hear about the next assassination, even when I am not affected...